BlueHeavenHero
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Good day, Author. I played on this wonderful map, but I didn't complete it (more on that below). I'll start from the beginning - I played on Recruit difficulty because, by forum standards, I can't play Heroes at all, and I know that custom maps almost always have extremely high difficulty. But that's not what this story is about. The map started with a battle, which I don't really like as a concept, but okay, that's how it was designed! I won without any particular problems and began my journey. I immediately picked up useless skills in the witch's hut, hoping that there would be a mentor somewhere on the map. As a result, Hafaad got leadership (which messed up my build), and Dominic got machine mastery. Since there were no better options, and -10 morale and a very small number of undead made using Hafaad completely pointless, he went to chill in the forest while the brave priest Dominic did all the work. At first, it was difficult; there were no troops, and I didn't know where to get decent units, but then I found wandering knights, then the so-called "Zone with bonuses," and things started to improve. Let me digress: I don't remember if it's the same everywhere, but that house with skeletons and ghosts at the beginning doesn't allow you to hire troops from it except by using a caravan to the city. I think this is because it's based on the skeleton spawner (like in Minecraft), where troops must join for free, and the appearance of ghosts in it breaks its ecosystem. If you're a perfectionist and want everything to be ideal, it's easier to base it on the ghost spawner and add skeletons to it; I think then there might not be such a problem. But this is just a theory, and it doesn't really interfere with the gameplay. So, Dominic took Castelcross, and then green knights attacked me. It was tough, especially Andreas with his ballista and incredible luck, but Dominic, pumped up in light magic, with leadership and machine mastery, destroyed them all (in the name of Erathia, of course). Then there was a long clearing of the map and defeating neutrals. By that time, Hafaad had leveled up a bit and got dark magic, but that damn leadership still messed up the build. When I took the first city of the green knights, I decided to convert it to a Necropolis. However, as soon as I did, all of Hafaad's experience and skills were reset to 0. He got level 1 and even lost necromancy (!!!). And considering that I had a hard time getting him dark magic and summoning (because he's a knight class), I had to reload and destroy the city instead of converting it. After that, I took Mythgard, and while Dominic was finishing off the green knights, Hafaad leveled up and cleared the map. Later, Dominic took a back seat and began guarding the exit from Holyflame, so that pesky heroes wouldn't run around the map and capture my mines. Hafaad gathered a decent army and went to complete the main quest. He helped the druid, the mentor, repaired the bridge, and freed Shagarath. After that, he defeated the demons, which was quite easy because the army that was in the castle, even with the summoned creatures, was weak. However, I couldn't even imagine what horror would happen next. And next was the dwarf and the Library. I started with the dwarf. I spent about half an hour on the battle, I was extremely surprised by his stats and level, considering that players can't level up above 30, and I calmly lost the battle. I decided to go to the Library first, but there was also a very annoying guardian, and he even had Sandro's cloak, which severely harassed me with his control and berserk abilities. After two reloads, I realized that he was too strong, and, sacrificing most of my army, I developed a strategy - I caught the berserk with my Death Messengers, controlled his units, and killed them one by one with my berserk messengers, because only under berserk did they have enough damage to at least damage his troops. After that, there were several more months of accumulating troops (and yes, I forgot to say that I obviously destroyed the mage first; the battle was normal, and the mage, although annoying with divine vengeance, doesn't become overpowered). After accumulating troops, collecting the dragon set, and raising my magic skill to 50+, Hafaad was finally able to defeat the terrible dwarf. I stood in a box under strong defense and slowly destroyed his units with an unholy spell, blocking the archers with a wall of swords. In principle, after I realized the correct strategy, the battle was not particularly difficult, but very long, due to the buffs that the dwarf gets at the beginning. Happy, I gathered even more troops (it was already the 14th month(!!!)) and I went to unlock the portal to Lightwood, because I didn't have any other way. I defeated all the defenders of this path, the ghostly knight (although the dialogue window about his appearance and the teleport effect appeared twice), and then... I couldn't attack him. It seems that the object is disabled through SetObjectEnabled True. I could only capture Holyflame because the enemy hero hired by the enemy was standing at the gates. And, although I can go into the city menu or buy troops with a caravan, I can't enter the city in any way. I think this wasn't planned initially. Obviously, the Tears of Ash in Mythgard weren't there yet. And so, at this point, I realized that I was stuck. I had looted the entire visible map, every corner, but I couldn't find the swamp where the Tear and the Amulet of Necromancy should be. I reviewed the entire map a dozen times, looking for paths, teleports, anything that could help, but no. As I understand it, I had to capture Lightwood (because all the other enemies on the map were defeated), but I couldn't do it. At this point, my journey ended, without reaching its end.
Oh, and I was also able to buy Dugal level 15 in the tavern at some point. I don't know if that was planned or not, because besides him, there wasn't a single other hero there, but he gladly took my money and became a courier, carrying fresh green knights from the fort on the hill to Dominic.
To summarize. The map turned out to be very cool. A separate respect for the artistic component, the terrain, and the design. The lighting is perfectly matched for these gloomy swamps, taiga, and bogs. Overall, it looks very much in the Nival style, as if I'm playing a campaign scenario. It reminded me of the scenario about Ornella from "Lords of the North." The scripts and quests are also excellent. An interesting side quest, a whole bunch of tasks that give useful bonuses and prevent you from getting bored. The only thing I couldn't do was earn the trust of the soldiers (apparently, they are very principled in choosing commanders, or maybe something was wrong with my face). The various objects on the map are very well done. You look closely at each building and tent, read what it is, so as not to miss anything important. On the dwellings, there are these cool little models of the creatures that are born there (especially the two swordsmen who are fencing behind the fence looked cool). The soundtrack also deserves praise. True, the music that you added played rarely, but every time I enjoyed the level of atmosphere. And finally, I'll mention the creatures. It's great that you changed many of them. It's a pity that there wasn't my favorite red alt-grade of humans, but the greens are also good (and yes, I understand that they fit the plot). It was exciting to read about the abilities of each familiar creature and find something new. For example, seraphs have become a truly formidable force, and bone archers with double shot have finally become a really useful unit. Overall, a very interesting and high-quality map, with a whole bunch of new and unusual things. Although some moments (like the dwarf) seriously spoiled my nerves (and keyboard), the number of positive emotions from the map still outweighs these sad moments. I wish you success in your further work on the map and inspiration in new endeavors!
