Posts from Sacred Tree

I completed this scenario on Hero difficulty.

Walkthrough

I started playing as Kaspar; his tent can heal 15 times per battle, so the start is easy . When Kaspar learned the portal to the town, he went forward with one squad of higher vampires, while Adrian with the rest of the army remained in the town. He went to the enemy Necromancer, killed Lailu without losses, lost 18 vampires against Degmund (he blocked resurrection) and received the second undead town. Kaspar trained Adrian, and after that, I actively played with both heroes. We are fighting against elves and orcs, but all heroes are killed by one squad under vampirism (sometimes I also put out a couple of squads). However, there was one battle where I had to fight with the entire army: Adrian against Elias. Elias's troops have high initiative and deal a lot of damage. Unfortunately, Adrian didn't have any slow or phantom at that moment (both tomes were with Kaspar). I killed everyone except the ents, subdued them, and blocked them in the corner with summoned squads of ghosts. I raised everyone as much as possible; there was still enough mana to win without losses. When the orcs refused to form an alliance, I sent Orson to finish them off. And Kaspar and Adrian captured three elven towns by the end of the fourth month. After that, the adventure part of the scenario began; I fought against neutrals and completed quests. Adrian defeated Gottfried without losses with three squads (vampires, heralds, dragons). Against Kmolag, I also put out skeletons to shoot at the abomination in the center of the field; I also won without losses. Kaspar fought against Keleborn with the entire army. Keleborn has vengeance, so he didn't deal damage with his troops. I subdued the dragons and tried to kill the spirit guardian as quickly as possible. When only the ents remained, I resurrected everyone for a very long time (after the victory, I realized that I could have played differently and it would have been faster) and eventually won without losses. The final battles (Jirayga-Yashar-Daeron) were easily won with one squad without losses (Kaspar has dragons, Adrian has vampires). The scenario was completed in 204 days.

General impressions
In terms of plot development, quality, and the number of videos... this is the best map I've ever played!!! Some videos surprised me with the effects used; I didn't know that such things were possible in Heroes. There are also a huge number of interesting scripts and quests, and new creatures have been added. At the same time, I didn't find a single bug! It's incredible how much work it took to create all these videos, write, and test the scripts! The scenario is excellent; I really liked it. In my opinion, it should be considered as a work of art, not just as a map for a turn-based strategy.

The Mage's Riddle
I saw in the comments that others had problems with it, but I was able to solve it; the quest is completely correct. I sent the author a personal message about how I came to the solution. I liked the riddle, although I solved it quite quickly .

About the difficulty
I read the comment from H_E_R_O_y and decided to respond. Yes, the scenario is enjoyable to play, without the risk of losing, as I usually call it. But this is one of the possible approaches to balance, which is quite normal. I had an interesting idea: what if we add the ability to adjust the difficulty during the game? Here's how I see it: a hardcore player comes to Kmolag (for example) and thinks, "it's boring; Master has stronger demons." After that, he enters something like @Challenge("kmolag", 2), and Kmolag's army doubles! It will be possible to compete to see who can win the battle without losses on which month and with which army multiplier.

And instead of my standard phrase, this time I want to say...
Thank you very much for the excellent scenario!

I completed this scenario on Hero difficulty.

Walkthrough

General impressions
In terms of plot development, quality, and the number of cutscenes... this is the best map I've ever played!!! Some of the cutscenes surprised me with the effects used; I didn't know it was possible to do that in Heroes. There are also a huge number of interesting scripts and quests, and new creatures have been added. And yet, I didn't find a single bug! It's incredible how much work it must have taken to create all these cutscenes, write, and test the scripts! The scenario is excellent; I really enjoyed it. In my opinion, it should be considered a work of art, not just a map for a turn-based strategy game.

The Mage's Riddle
I saw in the comments that others had problems with it, but I was able to solve it. The quest is completely correct; I sent the author a private message explaining how I came to the solution. I liked the riddle, although I solved it quite quickly  

Difficulty
I read H_E_R_O_y's comment and decided to respond. Yes, the scenario is enjoyable to play, without the risk of losing, as I usually call it. But this is one of the possible approaches to balance, which is perfectly normal. I had an interesting idea: what if we added the ability to adjust the difficulty during the game? Here's how I see it: a hardcore player comes to Kmolag (for example) and thinks, "it's boring; MasteR has stronger demons." After that, they enter something like @Challenge("kmolag", 2), and Kmolag's army doubles! We could compete to see who can win a battle without losses on which month and with which army multiplier.

And instead of my standard phrase, this time I want to say...
Thank you very much for the excellent scenario!

I reached the point of the battle with Degmund, attacking with Adrian and a fundamentally small army on the 4th week, it seems. The battle is simple, but there was a lot of randomness that wasn't on my side, as the 15th-level Degmund blocked almost every one of my 23rd-level Adrian's spells

I liked the map; it's been a long time since I just sat down and enjoyed playing. But the quest isn't fully written; it says what is needed to increase the number of spiders after the Necromancer's amulet, and in the window for the zombies, it just says Necromancer's amulet.

There are still some spelling mistakes. It’s especially amusing that you, of all people, finally managed to spot them.

I completed the scenario with the Titan hero. Unfortunately, I couldn't solve the puzzle and still don't understand how to activate the towers in the underground. But overall, the scenario is well-made and very engaging, despite a couple of minor issues. Thank you, author.

I completed the scenario in 147 days (Titan hero). It's clear that a lot of effort was put into the map, but it evokes very mixed feelings. It was interesting to play for the first two months, and then it turned into aimless wandering and mindless combat with no hint of strategy (except for tactical battles), combined with reading insane, rambling texts. Kaspar's special ability is useless; I had to change it to logistics. The new creatures didn't impress me; I wonder why waste time and effort on them. And the four final battles in a row are a complete mess; an exchange of troops between heroes is necessary. In general, the map is made in the "best" traditions of fan-made content, where in the finale, you encounter a powerful enemy as if from another game. To be honest, I defeated the last boss with difficulty and not on the first try, and I don't want to replay the map. Nevertheless, thank you to the author for the great work.

Here's the answer for the talented author. The game should bring pleasure, not frustration (like those four final battles). Good maps are enjoyable to replay, but unfortunately, yours isn't.

No, there are no double standards, although this feeling is certainly subjective. In the map "Two Sisters," the strategy remains almost unchanged until the end of the game. In your map, the strategy only exists up to a certain point. The question is, "where are we going?" (a principle that was often declared in Heroes 5). With respect for your serious work, which I apparently don't fully understand.