Posts from The Price of Love

Two new changes have been added to the previous version: — The knowledge and spell power gain of Ter-Gelat has been reduced. — The locations of the seer's huts in the player's zone have been swapped: now the quest with the mummies is located very close and is not even guarded. I still decided to slightly weaken the necromancer. He still has a lot of spell power, but he will have less mana. I took into account the problem with rebuilding the city and the mummies, so now you can take the quest shortly after starting the game, and the seer for removing the curse is located further away, near the border with the Imperials.

I really enjoyed this scenario! AstralLein, thank you very much for your work on it

“A Price for Love” has great replay value. I played through it 4 times with breaks: the first time on “Warrior”, twice on “Veteran”, and completed it on “Hero”. Each playthrough was unique.

“Hero”

For example, on “Hero,” I unexpectedly used Ingvar, who had been released from prison, to launch a swift attack and quickly capture the nearest Imperial city, although usually Jessica is the one who rushes into the lands of the dwarves with her crazy red growth.

I think I played version v2.0. The one where there’s a hint about getting a good ending for the map and no well near the capital. It definitely wasn't boring

I also want to note the excellent design and detail of the map. The map seems to be [M] in size, but the magnificent landscape and abundance of diverse objects and events (ambushes) create the impression of at least Large. I explored the area with interest, especially during my first playthrough. But even later, I encountered surprises.

External dwelling

I only found the priest with the quest in the forest near the Light outpost on the third try

Yes, side quests! That’s my weakness, and original “Heroes” games don’t often spoil us with them. The author pleasantly surprised me by taking the time to add a large number of interesting additional tasks, although sometimes they are not very elaborate. I was also pleased with the variety (and usefulness) of the rewards.

Rewards

For the quest for Markel's Skull, I actually chose different rewards depending on my playstyle.

The main storyline is also good. The author’s vision of the lore is fully revealed, the political and economic background is well thought out, and the course of the war is carefully and thoroughly described – and all this isn’t just thrown at the reader; it makes the premise believable and helps immerse you in the unfolding events. The lore even uses elements from "Dark Messiah of Might & Magic" and the sixth installment, which is quite rare. The text has order, appropriate humor, and appropriate pathos. In general, AstralLein created an intriguing future for Ashan after the victory over Biara.

Progressing through the main plot is accompanied by brilliantly staged cutscenes. There are many cutscenes that further reveal the world, as well as the main and secondary characters. I felt like the scenario rewarded me for each difficult victory. Just like when I was a kid!

I discovered unknown pleasures by finding a good literary biography of the new characters in the “Biography” section, instead of something like “Undefined”

In my opinion, the balance is well-maintained. The difficulty is really high for the average player, but everything is still achievable, including on “Hero”. I didn't encounter any impossible combinations of spells in the early cities or within the game itself, where you have to break down walls with your forehead and random luck.

Kolger and Lorik

At the same time, it seems to me that the number of viable builds is quite limited. Here are the most successful ones for the two main heroes, IMO. Abilities are varied.

Once again, I take off my hat to AstralLein! I watched all the endings, and the correct one clearly refers us to Arantir. So next up is "The Path of the Necromancer."

Thank you for such a flattering review!

So, I finally beat map 3. I cried and suffered, but the experience from the previous two maps suggested that there should be a way out. When I lost faith, I would open Nicksan's stream; without looking at the build or anything else, I would just fast-forward through the battle, see that it was actually possible, and try again. My first defeat came from Godrick; the infantry got stuck and killed Yarl. But that was just carelessness; who knew he had 15 attack, 15, for crying out loud! We played more carefully and won. A pretty good start, light/summoning, I even thought about going to the center, but I didn't know that capturing the left town would aggro a nice hero from the humans, so I quickly captured it (more towns, more warriors!), but in reality, more towns meant more problems. Restart. We clear everything, ignoring the town; undead attack. I think, "easy opponent, the vampires aren't leveled up, the dragons either, SALABON, COME HERE." He casts Berserk = exit to Windows. I realized that you can't fight in the castle; with his mana and Berserk, a prolonged battle is in his favor + I was having flashbacks from Giovanni, I was afraid to exchange armies, I thought he would come in half a day with a pack of x3 units. I cried, I suffered, restart. I cleared everything with one Yarl, I remembered all the skills I acquired in the Railag scenario (RUN, FURY, RUN). The undead attacked, killing, killing, killing. Our scientists developed a tactic: "the galaxy." I aggroed the undead with my twins towards the left castle, and I ran with my hero and captured his castle, after which I chased him back and forth for two or three weeks (hoping he would disappear after a week without a castle, but not really, I already understood that you're a pain in the ass). Then I just beat him with brute force; he doesn't even cast Berserk because I destroy packs in the first few turns, and he naively resurrects them. We gather an army, we gather, a hundred Erls! It's time to give that nice guy a taste of his own medicine; we capture the left castle, we run at him, we meet 450 horses, we cry, we load, we get upset. I won't lie here; I looked at the stream again. There, the guy just ran past her, and she didn't catch him, moving only 4 squares on the map instead of 30 (WHY IS THAT? Streamer favoritism, obviously...). I naively tried the same trick and got my ass kicked. I turned to our scientists again; according to old blueprints, I aggroed the nice guy towards the central castle, and I slipped through from the left, capturing 2 human castles, while the woman captured my farthest castle (why she didn't like her starting castle is a mystery). I ran to the last boss, because I didn't find an army anywhere, I thought it would be big. I met 2 heroes from the Alliance; with medium difficulty, he just passed by! "What a fool!" I thought, but he knew the truth...

*At the psychologist's office*

-The numbers 40, 45, 40, 40 can't mean death.

-Numbers: Can.

What are the stats of the final boss; it's just crazy, I fought him 15 times, and nothing helped (my hero was level 25, and I didn't collect all the artifacts from the map, I just ran). The option of gathering an army for another 456789 weeks depressed me; I thought I would watch a YouTube walkthrough and calm down. I started it two hours later. Our gnomes found the most ancient and great rune, which contained the wisdom of the ages. "Level up Subdue, you idiot, and it's an easy win." And the puzzle came together. I have a Necromancer, level 28, right near the spell shop, where Subdue and Berserk are sold. I did that dirty trick again. The Necromancer's path #2. I beat the woman in defense, then Vittorio, then I cleared the whole map because blue is AFK, I gathered 300 Erls, 100 dragons, legions of bears, I took Subdue, and I went to kill the king; the battle was long, with his armor, but not difficult. How you tired me out, author, these days, it's just awful. Nicksan was cursing and whining on the stream, and I understand him; it's just a bunch of absurdity that, after overcoming it, seems like a shell. You're a good guy, but I'm sending you to the bathhouse, 8/10 because I don't like gnomes; these guys don't have normal archers; how are they supposed to live? Anyway, Subdue solved the problem again; without it, I probably wouldn't have even passed it, spending half an hour picking off horses behind walls, that's just awful. But with Subdue, 4-5 resurrections from summoning, and the guys have 1-11 HP. By the way, I've never seen anyone abuse resurrection on enemies to reduce their HP; am I a genius, or is it just stupidity? Or am I just not watching enough...

Hmm. It seems you don't have much experience playing as Dwarves. For some reason, many of my acquaintances don't like this race. This map can be completed without Darkness and similar things because Dwarves are, let's say, an incredibly powerful faction, even though they aren't very good with archers... moreover, it's usually completed this way, but just in case, there's Lorik with the Necromancer class, so Darkness, as a true problem-solver, is always ready to help, and there's nothing shameful about that. As for the last boss, I've always found him very easy. I don't even really consider him a boss: the real bosses of the map are Jessica and Ter-Gelat, whom you need to defeat an average of once each, unlike in Path and Grimoire, where the enemies are virtually immortal. Yes, they have stats of 40... but he's just a Light creature, and without runes, because it's a Human army. Runes can compensate for anything in this world. You can even defeat Jessica in an open field during your first encounter, although this will require Dwarven skill plus some kind of decent army. So, don't underestimate Dwarves just because they aren't very strong in ranged combat. Dwarves are one with strength; it flows through them. Thanks for the Walkthrough! By the way, the fourth map is being prepared for release. Not very soon... but relatively soon.

By the way, I've never seen anyone abuse the resurrection spell on enemies to reduce their HP. Am I a genius, or is it just stupid? Or maybe I just haven't watched enough gameplay...

I did that))) I raised enemy soldiers as my subordinates.
But I didn't do it with resurrection; I used the "raise" spell. Resurrection reduces HP by 10%, while "raise" increases it by 20%.

Payment For Love is not a literal translation of "Плата за любовь"... this expression has a fixed meaning of "payment/compensation for a service (of a sexual nature)", and a more elevated phrasing would be something like - Price of Love (also acceptable in the form Pay for the Love, but again, the context is ambiguous) or a karmic interpretation - Retribution for Love or Bill for the Love...

So many years have passed that it’s easier for me to say that it was all part of the plan. Such a subtle meaning! Kirdan was consumed by lust for the angel and paid the price for it.

I can't seem to defeat Qirdan. How can I defeat him? My hero is level 32, I've killed everyone except Qirdan, and I'm recruiting troops from 3 castles and buildings.

You killed everyone in a rather strange way, considering Kirdan is gathering an army from three castles. The idea is that you capture the territories of the blue player and then fight Kirdan, who has a substantial army that grows over time. But by that point, you should control all the cities on the map. Of course, you can "wake him up" at an unfavorable moment, and he'll run around the map... but that means you should have been more careful when approaching the final boss.

I've captured all the castles. I just can't seem to deal with 46 avatars, each of which has 15,000 hit points. They simply wipe out all my troops. I can't just sit behind the castle walls – with the very first volley, the catapult breaks through the castle gates and walls, and the avatars rush through the breach, and the slaughter begins. I can handle other troops without any problems.

What kind of avatars are these...? There are no avatars on my map; there should be angels with slightly higher stats than regular units. And the avatar was clearly created by someone else and for a different map. I'll repeat it for the 1087th time: "Plata" should be the only map of its kind in your "maps" folder. Also, there shouldn't be any campaign mods in their respective folders, or any mods at all. To be precise, you can install all of that, but then you might encounter unexpected avatars or other fantastical creatures. Recommendation: use a clean version of the game. This applies to any map with mod elements.

Understood. Thank you for the response. I will reinstall the game and install it on a clean version.

What kind of avatars are you talking about... there are no avatars on my map; there should be angels with slightly higher stats than usual. And the avatar was clearly created by someone else and on a different map. I'll repeat for the 1087th time: "Plata" should be the only map of its kind in your "maps" folder. Also, there should be no campaign mods in their respective folders, and no mods at all. To be more precise, you can install all of this, but then you might encounter unexpected avatars or other fantastic creatures. Recommendation: use a clean version of the game. This applies to any map with mod elements.

After 4 days of suffering, I desperately decided to read the forum - and lo and behold, there shouldn't be any avatars))). I started playing on Veteran difficulty (I don't know how to play as Dwarves), until I was endlessly crushed by a green player with his overpowered, faceless creatures (instead of Undead and Liches) - I had never seen such characters in my life; I thought it was the author's idea and just moved on. Then, after capturing the Eastern Outpost and gathering troops, I finally managed to defeat the green hero, but then Jessica immediately came after me))). I tried replaying several times, but without success. I started with a Warrior and it worked; everything went smoothly until it came time to rebuild the upper castle. I couldn't break through the 70 Obsidian Giants (like Erls, but with 200 HP and 50 damage), which guard the Wolf Outposts. There's no chance there. After capturing all the castles and reaching Kirdan, I couldn't capture a single Wolf Outpost; there were 100 of these giants, and by the time I reached the Legion, they had grown even stronger. I thought it was all the author's idea.

I don't have any mods; the game was purchased on GOG, and I only downloaded a couple of maps before this, and I didn't see such creatures there. I liked the map; it took a few attempts and several saves after the first couple of ambushes

Judging by the unit selection... it seems like the Shades of Darkness tried their hand at it, this is my other map. And I didn't realize it just from the avatars. Shades of Darkness, Necromancer's Path, and The Price of Loyalty are not compatible with each other. Place them in separate areas relative to each other).