Posts from Raven's Despair

Yeah, IMHO, Master's maps were somehow easier to complete...
The quest to provide reinforcements to Tilsek has been completed. After that, Gabriel arrives with a huge army, and Victor emerges from a portal (it was mentioned in the previous post that the portal would close after completing the quest). Gabriel goes first, duplicates 357 griffins, and then things get really bad. She doesn't want to fight in the Castle. IMHO, the map can only be completed a) with luck (in both my Castles, I didn't have any Screaming or Horde of Rage) and b) with a very high player skill level. As already noted, the difficulty level doesn't matter - I played on Recruit just to avoid worrying about resources at the beginning.
As always in such cases, the question arises: why did the author put in the effort, bother with scripts, and come up with a plot? How can you find time, for example, to complete the quest with the mage if you constantly have to jump back to the Castle and defend yourself?
I think I won't try to complete the scenario in this version - it's clear that I need to grind again (worrying about every first battle), get the necessary spells in the Castles, count every move - knowing in advance what needs to be done, etc. In order to eventually overwhelm Clara with brute force, skipping half of the plot and quests.

The reinforcement quest has two stages, and after each stage, you need to wait a certain number of days while, let's say, Tilsek deals with everything.
And please don't torture yourself; it seems that this map is not for you.
I'm now just thinking about blocking the portal to the city for enemy cities, at least

Thank you for the map! I enjoy challenging gameplay and playing as Orcs, and the author has incorporated both of these elements into the map. I completed it on "hero" difficulty in 155 days. Some suggestions: 1) It would be great to make "War Cry" and "Frightful Howl" skills available for only one type of castle (Orcs) – these skills are essential for completing the map, as they allow the hero to effectively use creatures with these skills. It would be an excellent option to make them a reward for completing a quest. 2) The quests for building upgrades in the port castle have little significance, as there are no problems with transporting troops to the second castle and upgrading them there. I suggest removing the upgrade option in the second castle as well. I completed the map without completing the other quests. Perhaps, to make completing these quests more meaningful and rewarding, the final antagonists should be made stronger. I look forward to new maps from the author in a similar style.

Started playing, overall it's okay, I would like to see something like a progress bar (how many creatures have been destroyed out of how many, how many camps have been completed out of how many). I don't know how it's possible to clear everything in a month, besides, the archers are in the pit - it's impossible to just get to them to attack, I passed by, killed the adepts behind the shamans, but I couldn't get to them. Half of the map is near the sea, and near the Castle it's blocked by darkness. I cleared all the champions near the capital, completed the quest for the warmongers and shamans. I got "Frightful Roar" in the capital, which is good, in the third guild there's the same "Battle Cry", I reloaded, didn't spend resources - there's a shortage of gray, there are no mines. Here's a screenshot at the beginning of the second month: https://c2n.me/45ztvho He also has a catapult and "March": https://c2n.me/45zuzdb, well, I don't know if I'll be able to win: https://c2n.me/45zuBof + "Flag of Unity" + 10% HP. It doesn't seem realistic. Well, here's an attempt: https://c2n.me/45zuOHB, it worked on the 5th try: http://c2n.me/45zvAal And how is it even possible to sail anywhere if knights come every week? Well, it's like this - the knight Gabriel came for the second time. With artifacts for speed (at least 20%), tactics, attack, leadership (in general, with the first turn of champions/angels), and also with "Subjugation", which, fortunately, is successfully countered by the "Armor of the Forgotten Hero". https://c2n.me/45zFcae If a griffin jumps or an archer shoots, as well as an angel/champion attack - that's it (with expert defense and evasion). There's no "Wrath of the Horde", there's "Frightful Roar", which is good (without it, it's a disaster). If I engage in battle in the open field, I will of course win, but the losses will be huge, and the upkeep of the army costs so much that it's insane. And the task says - don't lose the capital and don't lose the border garrison, the strength of which is just ridiculous - Victor already tried to attack it, but he almost didn't make it. I also have to meet him in the open field. My artifacts: clover, ring of 10 initiative, cursed ring from the graveyard, "Sword of Equilibrium" (starting bonus), orc club, "Armor of the Forgotten Hero", cloak of 1 defense. The merchant didn't have anything useful (the only valuable thing was the "Amulet of Skill", but there was no money and there was no time to wait), and I stupidly gave a cool artifact for 1 damage to the centaurs (I'm going to take the downgraded troops from the settlement to the capital by caravan anyway, despite the fact that the knights built geese and cyclops for me). There was also a useless "Phoenix Cloak" in the Tower of Elements, which I had to refuse in order to reload and catch up with Bertrand, who was heading for the defenseless garrison. How can I even go anywhere else? And is there really a condition not to lose the border garrison, because even now I'm barely holding off against strong opponents, I don't have money despite having 2 gold mines, and an open battle is very bad. But the danger indicates a low threat. That is, he won't attack the Castle himself. He bought artifacts and flew through the portal to the city - the artifacts are permanent, they cannot be taken away. He will definitely become stronger, where else? I can't leave the Argal Castle - they will destroy it. I can't sail anywhere. If I can lose the garrison, it's a draw or a defeat by surrender. If I can't lose the garrison, then the game is lost, the garrison will fall or the city will fall when the hero doesn't have time to get there. And if I give troops to Tilshek, will I be able to win? Can I at least somehow close the portal, so that the hero can still somehow sail? (I read, okay, I'll give him troops). No, this is complete nonsense. I gave reinforcements. I defeated Bertrand and some other Benedict from the portal. Gabriel remained. He went and destroyed my garrison without losses. I defeated him in hand-to-hand combat and killed 3 champions, great. And defeat. No, but why put strong opponents and unprotected objects in the conditions of defeat? This is all nonsense, Misha, it's not right, it would be better to remove that garrison from the defeat conditions. Let him take the capital or kill the hero, that's one thing, but guarding some crap in 3-4 turns on expert difficulty? When the enemy moves no worse and is clearly under "Swiftness"? And after defeating him, will he come again with the same army against the remnants of mine? Here are the latest screenshots: army: https://c2n.me/45zIOZX map: https://c2n.me/45zIPQf skills: https://c2n.me/45zIRZ0 artifacts: https://c2n.me/45zITxb The difficulty is hero, my heroes haven't defeated them yet. Gabriel is a harmless hero of level 28 with "Subjugation", "Expert Attack", "Expert Defense", "Resilience", "Evasion", "Battle Fury" and "Expert Leadership", with stats of 32-14-10-23, morale 7, luck 8, who flies from my settlement to the garrison in one and a half turns, commanding an army of 29 angels, 69 champions, 101 monks, 417 griffins, 411 archers, 432 red infantry, at least a "Ring of Speed" and a "Ring of Swiftness": https://c2n.me/45zJj93 Final battle: https://c2n.me/45zJtBP I must say that my hero defeated 2 heroes (Bertrand and Benedict) without losses. I reloaded. I removed 7 shamans from the garrison. Instead of the garrison, the enemy took an empty city, then a goblin dwelling, a mercury mine - the garrison is still alive, he doesn't touch it. Let's hang out a little more... He runs faster than me, he closed himself in my Castle - the champions and angels won't reach him in one attack from under the Castle, I can risk attacking my settlement... And then, 1 turn before the week, I didn't have time - the week of light... Well, I'll risk missing 7 days or attack like this... A mega-long battle to attack the Castle - it worked. I couldn't resurrect many warmongers with a tent after the angel's attack, but otherwise - it worked. Now I need to quickly run to the exit to catch Bertrand, who is already sailing. Fortunately, the fountain near the city gave +3 luck: https://c2n.me/45zLtBg An interesting moment... When he attacked my garrison, he had a smaller army - he couldn't summon reinforcements because he would summon them from the orc city. Okay, never mind, I'm tired of playing this) the portal is closed, the main enemy is defeated, the others too, I bought artifacts from the merchant: https://c2n.me/45zM0Ws, now I need to find a way to sail to the blue - but not today

Vasik, calm down: the main enemy hasn't been destroyed; you still have a chance to encounter them again, with an even larger army. The same goes for Bertrand and others. IMO, these heroes respawn along with their army, and the army seems to grow.
Yes, and the main enemy's name is Clara...

This week, the map will be updated, taking into account all or almost all critical comments, with adjustments based on my vision.

I liked the map. (So far, I've only captured both Human Castles.) Considering that this is almost the author's first work, one shouldn't be too critical. Nevertheless, there are things that could be improved. -The starting battle. A save before the attack is needed; I agree with most people on this. It would be good to give the player some time to look around, instead of rushing to the Castle. Remove the stack of un-upgraded Orcs from the army. (I don't like the upgrades given for Centaurs and Orcs, but that's up to the author). An empty stack is more important than this uselessness. If there's a desire to give them away, it can be done after the battle somewhere. -Make the text boxes larger. The text is voluminous, the characters are talkative, and it's uncomfortable to read. -Add a counter for the "reds," showing how many units have been destroyed/how many remain. The time given to destroy them seemed very tight. (I couldn't do it). -The upgrade quest in the Castle is unclear. As others have written, you can upgrade in a neighboring Castle. If the upgrades appeared automatically upon completing the quest, it would save money/resources. But the quest for the Centaurs is completely off. Why does the altar require specifically Shamans (and not their upgraded version)? It creates unnecessary running around, and since there are only two heroes, it's a pointless strain. -Allow hiring additional heroes. Many things are related to "fetch" elements, and it's not very interesting to run two main heroes around like that. -There are many quests (I didn't complete any of them). Most of the quests are "detached" from the map. You can mostly only take them, but there's either no point or no way to complete them. -There are many microscopic islands, on which something stands alone. For a Barbarian, getting "Pillage" is not a problem, but it's still unclear why you would visit such objects. Considering that there's no way to summon a ship, landing on an island that's only one path wide is also not ideal. -Having to repeatedly defeat the same hero, especially with a depleted army, is a bit tedious

Good afternoon. I liked the map – its atmosphere, its plot... It's clear that the author put a lot of effort into it. Thank you. There's really nothing to complain about, as others have said, but the message videos don't fit... Especially if they are large. You have to guess.
I disagree that building is required at the beginning... I managed to get the 10% life bonus, a medium-sized building, and also endurance (another 10% to life). As a result, the cyclops had 252 life and so on. With machines, a cannon, and the first battle turned out to be quite manageable. The problem was with the second-to-last battle with the elf. I rushed to him right after the castle, and he destroyed the rest of the army. As a result, I replayed, got reinforcements, switched to pure rage (the elf attacks first – Wing's ability), and a 500 rage buffer saved me from the rapid attacks. Thank you for the map.

Added 1 hour 8 minutes ago
Ah, yes... Also, regarding the quest for upgrades... It's difficult to complete (I couldn't kill all the units + angels on the island in a month), the reward is insignificant, and in essence, it's useless. You can upgrade in the capital. But if no buildings were built at all, and completing quests unlocked building construction along with upgrades + part of the troops joined (for example, you kill a manticore – it unlocks the construction of goblins and its upgrade + 100-150 goblins join as compensation for the lack of a building). The +1 defense bonus could have been better.

The map has been updated. It has been uploaded with the v1.1 designation.
List of changes:
- Added a save point before the first battle.
- Each sub-quest for the Zogsok masters has its own quest window, and the additional quest for clearing the area has a counter for cleared units.
- To avoid randomness in the taverns, "Word of the Leader" and "Battle Cry" are prohibited on the map. Both of these spells are available to Gotay from the start, and Argat can obtain them by completing the first two additional quests or by leveling up the "Military Knowledge" perk.
- The first additional quest for reinforcements requires more units. However, closing the portal after completing the second phase of the quest will happen faster.
- Human heroes can no longer obtain the "Portal to Town" spell, as this led to rather curious situations on the map. As a result, they also cannot additionally learn 5th-level spells if they are not pre-defined or obtained by purchasing/finding a scroll.
- The enemy heroes emerging from the portal have been slightly strengthened, except for the very first appearance. The interval between their appearances has also been increased by three days.
- The starting garrisons of the Order cities have been reduced by half, and the only outpost on the map has been slightly weakened.
- The additional stats given to Victor, if Gotay levels up his education at the start, have been slightly reduced.
- The enemy armies in the final battle have been significantly increased.
- Baalgh is much weaker while "hiding" in the cave. If he is not defeated before he comes out on his own, the "Goose Mischief" quest will fail, but the quest for the masters can still be completed.

Those who have downloaded version 1.1, please download it again. I found a mistake at the end that caused an imbalance with the enemy army. Also, I further reduced the initial garrisons of both cities to make the game less drawn-out.

I finished playing an old-style map and completed it in 85 days. The final part is just as "chaotic" as the beginning and the middle. The map has already been updated, so I'll leave space for those who want to write about the new version. Thank you for your work.

Walkthrough of the "Raven's Despair" scenario (hero difficulty): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEwTekTcUPc

As feedback, I would simply punch the face of the overly complicated, pretentious author for this creation. Just like that, simply and directly, with the most understandable message. Sorry for the honesty. I'm glad for those who like it; I also have my own quirks and don't judge anyone.

Well, it was quite a challenge to complete this new and wonderful creation, but before I give my rating for the map, I have several questions for the author: 1) Grigoriy, are you really the author of this map? Why am I asking – not so long ago, I played your scenario **"Counterstrike"**. /topic/12820/ So, the new map differs greatly in all parameters: plot, design, scripts, atmosphere, etc. 2) If you are the author, what inspired you to create the map **"Raven's Despair"?** **So, what did I like about the map?** 1) **Difficulty**, I love complex, hard-to-complete maps! This one reminded me of the Master’s scenario **"Uninvited Guests"** /topic/12098/ Sometimes, however, it seemed that everything on this map is designed to make the player's life worse. 2) **Time limit.** One of the tasks must be completed within a short period - **1 month**. This makes the game dynamic and forces you to think through every step. And here I remembered the scenarios by such an author as **RedHeavenHero**. /topic/at/687705/ /topic/at/695396/ 3) **Scripts, cutscenes, storyline, dialogues.** Yes, all this is here, and it is done very well. 4) **Design.** Very beautiful and thoughtful, and everything is done in such a way that you feel like you are in the land of orcs! 5) **Unpredictability.** As you progress, you will encounter many **unexpected** surprises. These unexpected events will evoke vivid emotions in you, possibly not always positive ones.

2) If you are the author, what inspired you to create the map "Raven's Despair"?

The desire to show and see the real threat that humans pose to the orcs. Throughout the original orc campaign, we were constantly told and shown in the videos that humans are a threat to the orcs, and how they easily enslaved them. However, in terms of gameplay, I didn't see or feel anything like that. Instead, the orcish horde swept across the lands of humans throughout the campaign, like the Tatar-Mongol invasion. There were no problems for the orcs from the humans. I decided to try to show the threat to the orcs through my scenario.

Very often, text windows don't load completely. As I understand it, to solve the problem, you need to download a mod from Xazardous, but I can't find it on the website myself. Maybe someone can help and provide a link to his mod? Or is there another way to solve the problem with the dialog boxes? The ending simply doesn't fit, even if you scroll to the end.

Added 4 minutes later
Oh, and while I remember. The reinforcements for Tilsec clearly differ from what is requested in the dialog box. For example, it asks for 15 cyclops, 22 wyverns, 50 executioners, and 50 babes, but it takes 13 cyclops, 20 wyverns, and 40 of each of the other units.