Posts from The Price of Love Auto-translated

Right, your other map—I downloaded it but haven't played it yet. I deleted DarkShades from the Maps folder and everything is working as it should

UPDATE!

v3.0 (01/13/2025)
— Zoltan, guarding the pyramid, has been weakened.
— The script for the battle with the Daedra has been reworked, and her army has been increased.
— The green player is now considered an ally of the blue player, which should theoretically solve the problem with his behavior (in the menu, they are still in different teams, but on the map, this is not the case).
— The reward for the skull quest has been increased.
— The description of cherubs has been changed.

THE PREVIOUS LINK

I'm interested in this scenario, but I'm concerned about this:

Difficulty: high

Question for the experts: Is "The Price of Love" considered easier or more difficult than the "Two Sisters" scenario by Heroist?
For now, I've only watched the introductory video, and I can say that it's beautifully made. And the plot is interesting.

I think it's simpler. At the very least, the main challenge lies in defeating two active AI opponents, as they are quite powerful. But otherwise, everything is relatively straightforward.

I think it's simpler. At the very least, the main challenge lies in defeating two active AI opponents, as they are powerful. But otherwise, everything is relatively easy.

Thank you for your answer! When I have time, I will definitely play it. First as a Warrior, then as a Hero.

Thank you! All my maps support different difficulty levels through simple mathematical formulas. However, some aspects, such as neutral creatures, are not affected by the difficulty setting.

I recently finished playing your scenario (and by the time of this review, I've also completed Dark Prophecies) and I was satisfied. I would like to express some criticism and give ratings for certain aspects of the project that I always pay attention to. I'll start with the plot. To be honest, it's not amazing, but it's quite decent. It's roughly on par with the original game. However, while playing, I often had questions about the heroes from the original. For example, Godric's attack at the very beginning. He supposedly died 200 years ago, but here he is, in perfect health. When the name Arantir (the Living One!) appeared in the dialogues, I was a little disappointed. Yes, the next scenario will explain Arantir's appearance in the plot, but there is indeed a small problem with the appearance of characters from the original. Another minor problem is the speed of the dialogue lines. In this scenario, they are the fastest, and it was rarely possible to read them to the end. This is something that should be fixed. But some of the plot's problems are compensated for by the different endings. I definitely didn't expect that. And I was pleasantly surprised (even though I got the bad ending :D). Therefore, I'll give the scenario's plot a 5 out of 10. The second important aspect that I never overlook is the map design. At first, everything was pretty good; the territory of the dwarves was well done. But when I entered the territory of the humans, I was a little taken aback. The landscape there seemed uneven (in places) and crooked. It felt a bit rushed, especially with the slopes. Sometimes, the landscape tiles are placed in a completely inappropriate way (for example, the greenery at the edge of the map is very noticeable). But overall, it's relatively acceptable. I'll give the landscape a 6 out of 10. Now let's move on to the good stuff – the gameplay. And no, I'm not talking about how the heroes play, but about how the author created quests to entertain the players. I'll say right away – I played with great enjoyment. The quests are really not bad. And the coolest thing the author did was the choice of priorities. For example, players are given the choice to clear the city of undead corruption or leave it for those who are interested. And indeed, after completing the first main quest, the player is given a new hero, and even a necromancer with runes (my eyes immediately became worth 5 rubles :D). I really like these kinds of decisions. I give the author a separate shout-out for that. But! Unfortunately, there are also some drawbacks. Specifically, I want to talk about two quests that I couldn't complete. One was to find Silanna's cloak, and the other was to find Markel's skull. I couldn't find the cloak anywhere (I don't know, it's possible that it was hidden somewhere in the bushes, but I didn't see it), and I couldn't even give the skull. Like... Here's your skull, take it. Okay. And he doesn't take it. I clicked on that hut, but I couldn't succeed, and I gave up. Maybe I had to give the skull to Lorik, I didn't check, but there was no warning about that anywhere. So I can't even say if it's a bug or not. I hope the author will respond. Overall, I was satisfied with the quests; they were very cool. I'll give them a solid 7 out of 10 (I would have given them a higher rating if it weren't for the author's next scenarios. Those are several levels above "Payment for Love"). And finally, the last aspect is the difficulty. But here, I won't give a rating. The thing is, before your scenario, I was playing multiplayer maps against the AI. And I was bored on the Veteran difficulty. The hero on Veteran doesn't differ much from the hero on lower difficulties, except for the starting resources, so you only get a thrill from the game for two or three battles with the AI heroes. And then he will just run away from you on the map and avoid a fight. But even with all this, I still consider myself a noob. Although this didn't stop me from setting the difficulty to Veteran in your scenario. And everything would have been fine, the hero levels up, the army grows, 70% of the dwarves' territory is cleared, and I'm planning to take the second dwarves' city. And then a green hero flies in and pins me in a corner. And I can't get out of there. And I haven't even taken magic from the guild yet. And what should I do? In short, I wasted about three hours. There were no saves, and I couldn't fight back. I gave up and decided to play on Recruit the next day. It's too early for me to play on Veteran. It became much easier. I only lost once, and that was in the final battle. But on the second try, I managed to defeat Kirdan easily. I think the Recruit difficulty is quite good. Maybe in the future, I will still complete your scenario on Veteran. A huge thank you to the author for this project; it was engaging and interesting to play. I'll leave reviews for the next two scenarios from this series later, because they are no less cool and engaging! (But "The Necromancer's Path" really gave me a hard time, GG)

Oh, that Godric... there's a purely technical reason: I made the cutscene first, and then the gameplay for the initial stage. And in the process, I lost the ability to edit that cutscene. I only found out about this a few years later. So, I simply couldn't rename Godric in the cutscene and add a few seconds to the dialogue. If you look at the biography of this Godric, you'll find that it's not the same Godric; he doesn't resurrect in the plot.

The map design is even better here. It was worse before.

I checked the skull: it works correctly. Are you sure you have version 3.1 of the game? The dialogue box with reward choices appears if you give the skull. Silanna's cloak is located under the protection of the druids, before the bridge.

Well, this is the first map. But I still like it: there's something charming and heartfelt about it.

Thank you for the walkthrough!

Well, the presence of Godric isn't critical; it just detracts from the immersion. It doesn't affect the gameplay in any way. Regarding the game version, yes, it's 3.1. Many people report that frequent bugs occur due to modifications or custom scenarios. I only have xReplaycer installed (it replaces the models of the vanilla heroes with new ones). I don't think that's the problem. Perhaps you could try removing the custom scenarios; there aren't that many. Also, there was no window with a reward selection. And no similar problems have been found in your other scenarios. Therefore, it's hard to say what the root of this issue is.

Added 4 minutes later
It's clear that the map isn't new. Especially when compared to Dark Horizons, which surpasses not only your previous works but also virtually all the original campaigns of the fifth installment. The quality is top-notch, without exaggeration. Nevertheless, "The Price of Love" is a very worthy piece of work. It's exactly what I was looking for, despite the high entry barrier :D

Well, the presence of Godric isn't critical; it just detracts from the immersion. It doesn't affect the gameplay in any way.

Regarding the game version - yes, 3.1. Many users report that frequent bugs occur due to modifications or custom scenarios. I only have xReplaycer installed (vanilla hero models are replaced with new ones). I don't think that's the problem. Perhaps try removing custom scenarios; there aren't that many. Besides, there was no window with reward selection. And no similar problems were found in your other scenarios. Therefore, it's hard to say what the root of this issue is.

The problem isn't with mods or other maps. There are many repacks on the internet that appear to be version 3.1, and the authors swear that nothing has been cut, but in reality, something has been removed (some libraries are missing, and possibly something else). As a result, the script fails with an error when functions specific to version 3.1 are called. This is a fairly common problem.

Thank you for the kind words. The Master is right: one build is not like another. I had a case where, in Shades of Darkness, a player couldn't acquire spells from temples in the Dungeon. The talent box was the same... and it seemed to be originally from version 3.1.

That guy has the same repack as I do, apparently. He also found that some spells and structures, as well as high-level creatures, didn't work (specifically, the labyrinth with the chasing Faceless One) :D

By the way, I don’t think I figured out the root of the problem back then.

As promised, I played through the map twice: as a Warrior and as a Hero. Regarding the difficulty: as a Warrior, there was only one difficult battle (against Jessica); as a Hero, I can't adequately assess it, as things turned out rather strangely, as described below.

Walkthrough

As a Warrior, the walkthrough went like this: I played focusing on fire arrows, and also took light and defense skills. Ter-Gelat came to me on his own; he has Berserk, so I only deployed dragons and used Holy Word to destroy his army (I killed the wolves with ballistae), losing 2 dragons. Then, I captured the Eastern Rampart, and Jessica appeared with a high threat level. For some reason, she refused to attack Kolger in the Castle, so I had to fight in the field. It was an interesting battle, but I only won on the second try thanks to runes and Vengeance. Then, I went on the offensive, easily captured two cities, and killed Vittorio. After that, I ran around the map, preparing for the battle with Kirdan: I gathered a dwarven set, obtained the hammer, and instead of machines, I chose darkness (I learned the spells from Lorik, who bought them in the library); I also fought Tashlak. I defeated Kirdan on the first try.

As a Hero, I took the same skills as the Warrior (fortunately, I got everything I wanted), and this time, Resurrection was available in the guild, but I bought Holy Word in the library. But from the moment Ter-Gelat appeared on my territory, something went wrong. He chased after my secondary hero, killed him, and then... captured the Eastern Rampart! During this time, I took the Fallen Belged from him and assembled such an army that he started running away from me. Eventually, the battle took place; the tactics were the same as with the Warrior, losing 3 dragons. Then, I took the Eastern Rampart from the green player and decided to move forward immediately. After capturing the first city, I saw Jessica with a large army, but she again didn't attack the Castle and ran towards my territory. I decided to continue the offensive. Jessica reached the Eastern Rampart and... just stopped, not moving any further. I avoided a confrontation with Vittorio (high threat level); he ran to Jessica, gave her his army, but she still remained standing. I defeated the other blue heroes and repeated my actions to prepare for the battle with Kirdan (this time, I didn't bother with Zoltan and Tashlak). In the end, I decided to kill Jessica after all, without any losses, with one unit of Jarls. I defeated Kirdan very easily: knowing that he has Vengeance, I tried not to attack him with my troops, but to inflict the main damage through Berserk and Subdue.

Overall impression: the scenario is interesting; I definitely enjoyed playing as a Warrior; the Hero is more memorable for the strange behavior of the AI. It's really an absurd situation, difficult to predict, and it's not your fault as the author. It reminded me of "Two Sisters, Rolf killed the Necromancer." Why do such stories happen to me?
The map's strengths for me:
1) The plot is detailed, and the cutscenes are well-made. I watched an interesting film about "love."
2) The map is memorable for its unusual ideas: the battle with Tashlak, the dwelling of wolves, new artifacts, the necromancer hero with runes, the dwarven Castle where you can hire undead (but both times I transformed it into a normal Castle).
Results in terms of the number of days: Warrior - 117, Hero - 156. Considering that the battle with Kirdan is quite easy with the right tactics, it can definitely be done much faster. I took the picture from the Hero walkthrough.
Thank you very much for the map!

Thank you for the walkthrough and the detailed description. To be honest, I'm seeing this kind of scenario unfold in a Heroes game for the first time. What's going on in the AI's mind...