Posts from Sacred Tree

Name: "Sacred Tree"
Map name: "Sacred Tree"
Map type: scenario
Size: 176x176 (large)
Dungeon: yes
Number of players: 7 (1 x 2 x 1 x 1 x 1 x 1)
Main heroes: Kaspar, Adrian
Map version: 1.1.0
Required: game version 3.1
Map author: IchGViji
Idea by: IchGViji
Forbidden spells: astral rift
Description:
During his time in Ashan, the mage Kaspar witnessed a series of fateful events and personally knew many prominent figures who forever changed the course of this world's history. He was acquainted with and once traveled alongside such distinguished Necromancers as Anastasia and Svetlana of House Griffin. Having become a follower of the Spider Goddess cult, he witnessed the rise of House Eterna, the civil war in the Seven Cities and the exile of the Necromancers, the subsequent War of the Broken Scepter, the fall of the Falcon dynasty, and other key episodes in Ashan's history. But in this whirlwind of a constantly changing world order, one thing remained steadfast: Kaspar's desire to uncover all the secrets hidden within Ashi's creation, as well as his loyal service to the Dragon of Order.
Decades pass; King Alex IV now rules the Empire of Griffin. In his modest estate in Erish, Kaspar continues to conduct new experiments and fathom the mysteries of the universe. It might have continued this way if one day a guest had not appeared before Kaspar, offering the scholar lich one risky but promising idea.

From the map author: The events of the map take place a few years before the start of the Fifth Eclipse war, also known as the Gray Alliance war. This scenario is a prequel to the "Dead Man's Hill" scenario, in which Agrail sets out for a mysterious relic held by Necromancers. In "Sacred Tree," the player is given a chance to view history from the side of the Necromancers—to find out how they began their search for this artifact, why they needed it, and what difficulties they encountered along the way.
The scenario is loosely divided into three acts, which differ slightly in gameplay style. The map also features additional quests and hidden events. However, not all of them are easily accessible; to unlock some, the player must be curious. But by completing these quests, they will be generously rewarded.
At a certain point, the player will be presented with a choice that will later affect how their Walkthrough may end—I advise making all decisions carefully and thoughtfully.

Acknowledgements: Andrei_21, Grigory Kovalev for help with scripts and the editor, advice, as well as testing early beta versions of the map; Zhenya Smirnov for testing a late beta version of the map; the NHF team, Frozensoull, Hannik, AkadTheFox, aseguine for the models and icons used; fktifzobr@mail.ru for animation fixes and generally for his work, thanks to which I better understood how game files are structured; }{0TT@6bI4, Jack_of_shadows for manuals on scripts and the map editor.

Installation: Follow the link provided below and follow the instructions in the readme.txt file. The installation process differs from the standard one, so please read the contents of this file carefully. Due to its size, the scenario cannot be uploaded to the forum, so it is hosted on Google Drive. Third-party soundtracks from Might & Magic Heroes VI, The Witcher, The Witcher 2, and The Witcher 3 are also used; I express my separate gratitude to the authors of these musical compositions.

Important: Mods are used in the map, so it must be installed on a clean version of the game. For correct operation, remove all other maps during this Walkthrough. It is also recommended to create a new profile for the duration of the playthrough.
Due to the large number of scripts, they need time to load, which may cause the map to lag initially. At the start, wait about half a minute to a minute: the scripts should be loaded by then.

Download link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m9Y_952qbObPe7AjXgD2qBqWi-q6GyiU/view


Versions
v.1.0.0 (19.08.2025)
- release version of the map
v.1.0.1 (24.08.2025)
- added an additional hero for the orc
- at a certain point in the game, the green elf begins to receive additional growth
- increased Yashar's stats
- changed the functionality of the fountain near the dungeon entrance
- increased Celeborn's army and expanded his combat script
- increased 3 final armies
- added a file with a brief explanation of the mage's riddle (hints only, no answer provided)
- several other small changes to the map
v.1.1.0 (31.08.2025)
- number of projectiles from Kaspar's tent reduced to 5
- books of Darkness and Summoning are now guarded by composite armies
- all enemy heroes receive a small bonus to experience and stats after a certain amount of time
- strengthened orc and elf garrisons
- reduced the timing for the appearance of the reserve orc hero
- buffed Degmund - increased his army and stats
- slightly reduced the timing for increasing the green elf's growth
- now the orange elf sends three heroes instead of two, the timing for these heroes' appearance is reduced, and their armies are slightly increased
- slightly changed Kmolag's army composition
- slightly increased 3 final armies
- several other small changes to the map

Feedback and reasonable criticism are welcome.
And remember - Ash turns everything to profit!
Enjoy the game!

Congratulations on the release! It was a long journey.

Downloaded it, will play it in the evening, and will post my impressions later. Playing as Necromancer. Awesome.

Congratulations on the release! It was a long journey.

Thank you! Indeed, it was a long journey – I can’t believe it actually happened.)

Added 1 minute ago

Downloaded it, will play it tonight, and will give feedback later. Playing as Necromancer. Awesome.

Thank you, and good luck with the playthrough!

Great news! I'm glad you finished working on the scenario! I played "Hill of the Dead" and enjoyed it. I will also play this scenario. I have already installed it according to the instructions and checked that it runs normally.

I've completed about 75% of the land area. Well, it's a great map! But there are some questions. Especially regarding the second hero. I'll write about it later. It's like playing a game and reading a story at the same time, with so many scenes and descriptions. It's really great. I haven't experienced something like this in a long time.

I've completed about 75 percent of the land area. Well, it's a great map! But there are some questions. Especially regarding the second hero. I'll write about it later. And it's like playing and reading a story at the same time, with so many scenes and descriptions. It's really great. I haven't experienced anything like this in a long time.

I'm glad the map is enjoyable for you. If the question is whether to level up the second hero or not, I'll say this: you need to level him up. If Kaspar is your main hero, it would be good to level up Adriana to at least level 30, while visiting all the upgrade locations. He will be useful in the final. And in general, when the second act begins, it will be more convenient to use two main heroes to clear the dungeon and complete quests.

I'm glad the map is enjoyable for you. As for whether to level up the second hero or not, I'll say this: you should level him up. If Kaspar is your main hero, it would be good to level up Adrian to at least level 30, while visiting all the places where you can increase stats. He will still be useful in the final. And in general, when the second act begins, it will be more convenient to clear the dungeon and complete quests with two main heroes.

The question here is that in the early stages of the game, he gets in the way of Kaspar, and when visiting the spider lair, the script only works for Kaspar, which is why I almost missed the spiders. And when you go to the elves, yes, he is needed; you can approach from two sides.

Added after 6 hours 10 minutes
Here's another wish. There are 8 death elementals. That's not enough. Give me 30 so I can enjoy them. Otherwise, I quickly lost them...

I completed the map on Veteran difficulty, and I can say that it's a very beautiful and detailed map. As for the cutscenes, it feels like watching a series – it's really cool, and you can see that the author put a lot of effort into the map. This is especially noticeable compared to the Agrael map, which was just good, but this one has many quests and quite interesting challenges. However, for me, the difficulty in the beginning is a problem; everything is cleared easily through the Plague Tent on Kaspar (even too easily). Unfortunately, I found that the ending was a bit tedious; the enemy is hit with Dispel and can't do anything. Perhaps it would be good to increase their resistances, and the map also has full Dark Magic available, which creates an imbalance due to the Vampire, Blind, and Berserk spells. I didn't understand the puzzle with the mage, so I just ignored it. However, I still liked the ending because of its unusual nature – the fact that Andrius suddenly betrays Kaspar. I haven't found the key (orange) yet; I've searched the entire map. Another interesting thing is that there are no time limits, which is also a plus. As for bugs, I didn't find any script errors (which surprised me for a first version). Thank you for the wonderful mission!

Added 6 hours 10 minutes ago
Here's another suggestion. 8 Death Elementals. It's not enough. Give 30 so I can enjoy them. Otherwise, I lose them quickly...

Regarding the initial stack of Dark Elementals, in that case, the unicorn squad would also have to be increased, because a stack of 30 elementals is a considerable force in the early stages of the map. But on the map, there is an opportunity to unlock their dwellings and thus gather a decent number of Dark Elementals. To do this, in the second act, in the caves with mushrooms, you need to show curiosity 🙂

Added 22 minutes ago

I completed the map on Veteran difficulty; I can say that the map is very beautiful and detailed. Regarding the cutscenes, it's as if I'm watching a series; it's very cool to see that the author put a lot of effort into the map, especially noticeable compared to the Agrael map, which was just good, but here there are many quests and quite interesting battles. However, for me, the problem is the difficulty at the beginning; everything is cleared through the Plague Tent on Kaspar without any problems (even easily). Unfortunately, it seemed to me that the end was a bit tedious, i.e., a dispel is thrown at the enemy, and he can't do anything. Perhaps it would be good to increase the resistances, and the map also has access to full Dark magic, which creates an imbalance due to the Vampire, Blind, and Berserk spells. I didn't understand the puzzle with the mage, so I just ignored it. I still liked the ending because of its unusualness; Andrius suddenly betrays Kaspar. I also haven't found the key (orange); I searched the entire map. Another interesting thing is that there are no time limits, which is also a plus. In general, I didn't find any script errors (which surprised me for the first version). Thank you for the wonderful mission!

furka, thank you for the feedback; I'm very glad that you liked the map)
Regarding increasing the resistances of enemies, the Elves and Gottfried have quite high resistances (all have magic resistance, some have resistance artifacts + combat unicorns). I assume that you found the hidden Staff of Sar-Iss, so the resistances didn't cause you any problems. Of course, if the enemy's initiative is average or low, darkness decides a lot, but if it is higher, the enemy will have time to thin out the Necromancer's ranks significantly; Eleas will confirm this 😄 And not all battles will be helped by darkness - the same set elements are guarded by undead, and Sandro's cloak is banned on the map. The player receives the orange key if they fully explore the library of the Order of the White Lily, and an optional boss awaits them behind the orange guard.
And yes, I'm glad to hear that no bugs were found) Compared to the Hill of the Dead, the map has indeed made a big step forward in the number of scripts, and debugging all of this was quite a task 😅
Thank you again for completing the map and for your feedback

Hello! I'm playing as the Knight. I went through the Necropolis on the right, heading towards the fountain with doubled mana. However, the Elves caught my hero without any troops, so I had to revert to a previous (distant) save. Then, I tried a different tactic: I figured that as long as the Voidwalker on the right was alive, Adrian could defeat the other heroes. So, I sent Kaspar against the Orcs, captured their town, and then used Adrian to defend. After clearing the map with Kaspar, I brought Adrian to the Voidwalker, but he was gone (the game asked: "Are you ready to fight?", but there was no battle, and no figures were present). The only thing I did beforehand was try to approach with a hero from the tavern twice. As a result, the Necropolis town was taken without a fight, the purple creatures are spawning there, but the mission wasn't completed, and the troops guarding the border haven't disappeared. I don't have any mods installed, and I cleared everything before starting the game. Thanks for the map, it's great!

Hello! I'm playing as a Barbarian. I went through the Necropolis on the right to the fountain with doubled mana. My hero was caught by elves without any troops, so I had to revert to a previous (distant) save. But when I tried a different tactic: I calculated that as long as the Voidwalker on the right is alive, and other heroes can defeat him with Adrian, I sent Kaspar against the Orcs, then captured the Elven town with him. Adrian held the defense. But when I cleared the map with Kaspar, I brought Adrian to the Voidwalker, and he was gone (I was asked in the form: Are you ready to fight? but there was no battle, and no figures either). The only thing is that I tried to approach with a hero from the tavern twice beforehand. As a result, the Necropolis town was taken without a fight, the purple creatures spawn there, the mission is not completed, and the troops on the border guard did not disappear. I don't have any mods, and I cleaned everything before the game. Thank you for the map, it's great!

Hello! This is strange; I've never had any problems with Degmund before... Could you please send me the save file?

The map is beautiful; it’s worth playing through again.

Before Adrian's attack.

When I try to open the map with the editor, it crashes for some reason... I wanted to plan my walkthrough in advance. But I still want to thank the author for the great work! Let's see what awaits me there...
UPD: I solved the problem.