Posts from [HMM IV OFF TOURNAMENT] The fourth stage of the John Van Canigem tournament

I really bypassed the evil guy with dragons near the portal by using the hero's tomb.
The trick there is that you can pick up the tomb with a unit if you use the spacebar, and then the enemy won't attack the unit. This unit, as it were, separates the monsters from you, making it possible to slip through to the portal.

I understood how it's done when I watched, but I immediately started trying to do it myself, and nothing worked. I couldn't even get closer than 3 steps to the tomb; my unit always attacked the army.

I had to defeat the small groups of dragons guarding the keymasters' tents with minotaurs, using their ability to block any non-magical attack without taking damage themselves. It's tedious, but when there's no other way, it's quite possible.

And how long did it take to kill the last group, which is standing behind the crossing?:smile42:

There might be some issues with the tomb, but if you place it in the same location as in my walkthrough, it shouldn't be difficult to approach and pick it up. Also, remember to use the spacebar to select the tomb. :)
Regarding the time it takes to defeat a unit at the ferry, I'll say this: the total size of the walkthrough files was over two gigabytes, and I've long had the habit of packing the walkthrough files into a single archive due to the constant lack of free space on my hard drive. At the same time, I first extract the hero files from the standard archives created by the game, as the compression ratio there is negligible. Also, to increase the compression level, the files are automatically assigned uniform attributes, so in the final archive, all files have the same dates, but for easy navigation, I have long developed a system for classifying their names so as not to get confused. So, right now, it's impossible to accurately see how long a particular battle took, but as far as I remember, I played the entire fifth day during the period from the second to the third of June, and the first four days took up all the remaining time of the tournament, as it is in them that there are several tedious battles, without which it is impossible to achieve the same result as mine. By the way, if you want, you can also bypass the dragon unit at the ferry using the tomb, so this group of dragons essentially doesn't matter for the walkthrough.
This entire tournament is very conducive to using tomb-related strategies, which the well-known HW player IronAxe was a master of. It's a pity that he didn't participate in the tournament; otherwise, we might have seen an even better result than mine, because theoretically, it is possible to finish the game on the fourth day. And everyone knows Axe's iron determination in matters of completing "official" tournaments. In general, it's a pity that he didn't play, and honestly, it's a pity that not many people played this time. :eek: Personally, I really enjoyed the tournament; the map was chosen by the organizers with care and gave me a lot of pleasure during the playthrough. I think the other players also found it interesting to play. :)

Dear participants of this tournament!
I have a suggestion. :p
Naturally, our monsters who complete offline games in such astonishing timeframes deserve all sorts of praise and honors, and are undoubtedly benchmarks for the development of our skills in offline games. Well done!!! :smile54:
But I, for example, played an offline game for the first time, and being a fan of online games, naturally played this map like an online game. And the only thing that distinguished this walkthrough from a regular duel with a real "live" opponent for me was that I reloaded the game from the current turn about five times when I was completely wiped out :). Furthermore, I completed this game in one sitting within an hour, because I submitted my application 3 days before the tournament deadline. I am sure I am not the only one in this tournament who thinks about H4 from the perspective of real-time gaming, so I suggest all participants describe their strategy for completing this map, even if briefly. I am sure this will be very interesting and useful to everyone interested in improving their skills in this amazing game. Thank you all in advance. :smile50:

Added after 44 minutes
For those who are interested, here is a brief description of my walkthrough.
In the first week, I leveled up my fighter to GM; during the second week, I leveled up the priest and the runner. By the way, I wasn't able to level the runner above expert throughout the entire game. Instead, I got an additional Life mage. I took the second Castle at the end of the second week. In the third week, I acquired another druid and approached the red tent. Naturally, I didn't buy any monsters during all this time and used them only as resource gatherers. In the end, I only took the red tent at the beginning of the second month, leveling up heroes on the way to it.
In the seventh week, I broke through to the next tent, first wiping out 21, then 38 BDs. In the eighth week, I slaughter all the sea monsters in the lake for hero experience. Wearing the Armor of Regeneration, I take down 72 dragons across the crossing. By that point, I have 7 heroes in my army; the fighter is a Fire Guardian level 21. The most critical artifacts that allowed me to stand my ground in the battle with the dragons were the Sentry's Halberd and the Armor of Regeneration, and naturally the support of 6 heroes . Naturally, all the other heroes were killed, but they couldn't take down the fighter once. Approaching the Pathfinder and 302 dragons, I realized that without GM Life and the book, I wouldn't take them. So I took the fighter and Nevon, who was given at the start of the game, and ran to level up his missing 3 levels. First, I took 11 angels and 5 heroes to assist the fighter and wiped out the Pathfinder. The battle went like this:
On the very first turn, the "Pathfinder" casts Armageddon. As a result, immortality is removed from all my heroes except the Fighter. Nevon casts Sleigh. The Fighter, together with the angels, rushes toward the "Pathfinder." The Order mage with Dispel enters the battlefield to come into the "Pathfinder's" line of sight. To push through the dragons, one hero exits the sleigh. He dies immediately, of course. But now there is a hole in the wall. Mefala and the angels go into wait. The mage dispels the "Pathfinder," and the angels and fighter take him down. Everyone rejoices and, while celebrating, flees the battlefield lol.
Exactly 300 dragons remained to be wiped out. We gathered and attacked. Hit & run. The heroes attacked 7 times. All 7 times the battle followed the same scenario.
On the first turn, Mefala goes into wait. Nevon moves second and casts Global Happiness. Then the other heroes cast everything they have on Mefala (Giant Strength, Luck, Stone Skin, Heavenly Armor). The dragons remove immortality from those standing in front. Mefala, with the Sentry's Halberd, hits the nearest unit for two turns in a row. Nevon casts Sanctuary. Everyone skips a turn, and the fighter goes into wait. Everyone except Nevon exits the sleigh, and the dragons are distracted by them. The fighter hits two more times. He is taken down, and Nevon flees.
1st attack – 31 BD. 2nd attack – 43 BD. 3rd attack – 29 BD. 4th attack - 29 BD. 5th attack - 37 BD. 6th attack - 52 BD. 7th attack – 79 BD. That's how two weeks went. )))
411 - On Monday was the final 7th battle, and the fighter, with monuments, dives into the portal and captures the castle, which has no large army.
412 - Heroes approach the second castle.
413 – They capture the second city and run to find the opponent.
414 - I attack an army:
General 17
10 bone dragons
150 skeletons
4 poison creatures
1 ballista
After wiping it out,
415 – I attack another army:
10 bone dragons
23 tigers
13 cerberi
110 skeletons
36 ghosts
422 imps
15 poison creatures.
There is nothing long to describe. With the Armor of Regeneration, other heroes are not needed. They stay in the sleigh. Mefala wipes everyone out alone.
Save – Mefala is hit in melee by 15 creatures and the game ends.
Army at the end of the game:
Mefala Fire Guardian 26 lvl - fighter 5555 (chaos 4331)
Gatran – Paladin 15 lvl – life 2203 (combat 5010, nature 2100)
Nevon priest 13 lvl – life 5501 (tactics 1000)
Korita prophet 13 lvl – scouting 2300 (life 3223)
Izabo monk 10 lvl – order 3222 (life 2100)
Tonwen druid 10 lvl – nature 4430
Brook druid 9 lvl – nature 4330
That was the game.

I really look forward to your descriptions.
:smile01:

Thank you to our highly respected Luzhik for organizing the tournament! And also, thank you to my clanmates who are trying their best; it's not going very well yet, but they are still trying.

Cool, what do you think? The saves look good. I defeated a squad with 300 dragons (I had to struggle quite a bit to kill the leader of the nobility first), using an over-leveled hero with 150 resurrection potions... although I only needed about a hundred. It's ridiculous, anyway.

Awesome, what do you think? The saves look good... I managed to defeat a squad with 300 dragons (it took a while to kill the leader of the nobility), using one over-leveled hero and 150 resurrection potions... although I only needed about a hundred... it's ridiculous.

:smile54: But it's 1.5 times faster :)

Dear tournament participants, I would like to thank everyone for participating in the tournament and congratulate you all on its completion, and especially congratulate the winner, ZveroBoy, on his excellent walkthrough and victory! :smile49:

I posted the results a few days ago, but in another thread... Sorry, I got busy (there are also things and problems in real life...) and forgot to post here.
So, you can view the official results here!

Thank you again to everyone for participating! And as a reminder, from now on, all offline tournaments will be held on Equilibris!!!!

from now on all offline tournaments will be held on Equilibris!!!![/B]

...it's a pity.

Equilibris, in comparison with WoW, has both advantages and disadvantages. And both are insignificant. But the fact of switching from WoW to Equilibris is a serious disadvantage in itself, as it will reduce the number of players.
New players, who have just dropped by HWorld, will not be happy with the need to download and install something else. They are usually lazy, and this can be understood - a person came in by chance to see how people play, and he might have wanted to play himself, but it turns out that they are playing something else...
Old players, those who are already well-versed in Heroes 4, will experience unnecessary stress - they will have to additionally check each planned path - what if it doesn't work in Equilibris?
And, thinking about it, both a beginner and an experienced player would go to play Equilibris on the League. The contingent there is quite convincing. It's a pity that, due to Equilibris and other traditions, they are switching to a slightly different game.

Regarding the "advantages and disadvantages" I mentioned, I can continue the conversation if you want. Just without arguments in the style of "cool!" or "sucks!".

And one more thing. Equilibris has one feature. This feature can be seen as positive or negative. I didn't like it, and I made an effort to cancel the meaning of this feature - the inequality of players in obtaining information.
In short, Equilibris subtly spies on the player "for the benefit of third parties". :) Extra data is written to the save file, namely - the number of saves and loads made by the player since the start, as well as the date and time of creation of this save. That is, if you simply change the creation time of the file (save), a person with a certain program can easily see this.
As far as I understand, few people knew about this feature, and I haven't heard any stories about it. Until one idiot boasted that he had such a program and even tried to attack a player who is friendly to me.
This additional data is written to the save in encrypted form, and a simple viewing of the file will not give anything. I remember spending a month figuring out the mask of this encoding. I think I figured it out.
But now I'm posting a program that reads this data. So that all players are on equal terms, even if "something terrible happens" and HW switches to Equilibris.
*I sent it to several people in May 2007, if it was useful, I recommend updating it from here. The new version is more convenient, I've added unGZip.

Equi Mal-Mala spies on the player "on behalf of third parties." Unnecessary data is written into the save file, namely the number of saves and loads made by the player since the start, as well as the date and time the save file was created. In other words, if you simply change the creation time of the file (save), someone with a specific program can easily see this.

I don't quite understand the purpose of this program: does it add to each save file how many times you've loaded from a certain point in the game or from a save with that name? And what will it show if you load 100 times, rename it, and load another 100 times? And most importantly, I don't understand what benefits it gives to players.

I don't quite understand the purpose of this program: does it add to each save file a record of how many times you've loaded from a certain point in the game or from a save file with that name? And what will it show if you load 100 times, rename the file, and load another 100 times? And most importantly, I don't understand what bonuses it gives to players.

I agree!
I don't understand the point of a program that records all this either. This program is called HMM4 Equilibris Tournament Edition. :D

My program only reads the data.
Anyway, thanks. I guess I didn't express myself clearly enough, so I've clarified. :)

If you load 100 times from one save file without exiting Heroes, then save to a new file, load another 100 times from the new save file, and save again, it will show that there were 200 saves and 2 loads. Plus whatever was there before you started all this. But, I repeat, it writes - Equi, and it does it secretly and in an encrypted way. My program only reads this data. Just like those penguins, where "the stupid one hides timidly"... :)

I agree!
I don't understand the point of a program that records all of this. This program is called HMM4 Equilibris Tournament Edition. :D

You don't understand a lot of things.
By the way, we strongly request that the new release also record the use of cheats and the checksum of the save file.
It's also unclear why?

You don't understand much.

Our Undergrounder is quite dense, and I am too, by the way. Please explain what unfair actions you intend to catch with such a counter. Perhaps battles with mandatory reloads to block. And what else? You poison the top-tier creature, reload the save 10 times, and then Ares the battle. And whatever you plan to track with the counter, it only works against people who are not tech-savvy. And I will take a program that controls the mouse and set it to reload the save all night, thus accumulating any number of loads, and then Ares the battle. If a knowledgeable person wants to cheat, they will do it. And why complicate things?
Even if there is a cheat counter, it still needs to be made to work correctly, because who cares how many times the map was opened in the draft version. Perhaps it will be useful for online play, but even then, I'm not sure.

My friends, I just don't understand why you are so afraid of switching to Equilibris. What's so complicated about it? Equilibris doesn't change the game's gameplay; it just balances it, adds new spells, makes some things a little more complex, and simplifies others, but that's what achieving balance is all about. Is that really so difficult? Heroes IV doesn't become a different game; it's still the same Heroes, just better balanced, but still the same! There were the original Heroes... then the add-ons "The Coming of the Storm" and "Warlords" appeared, bringing something new, and you all started playing Warlords. So why didn't the transition to Warlords from the original scare you, but the transition to a higher-quality Equilibris does? After all, essentially, it's the same thing! Only, unlike Warlords, Equilibris is a fan-made add-on; if 3DO had released it, would you still be so resistant, or what? But 3DO is no more, and we won't see any official add-ons anymore. You say that new players will immediately get scared and run away. I don't quite agree with that. Again, I'll repeat, personally, a year ago, I started playing online for the first time, and immediately in a tournament, and immediately on an Equilibris that was unfamiliar to me. I was given a link to the changes, I read them, and didn't find anything difficult or scary. And what's more, I won that game, and even more, I reached 2nd place! And that's despite the fact that I was playing for the first time, both online and on Equilibris. And online is still different. You can't save and reload if something goes wrong. Maybe you should just try playing before you have such a negative attitude towards switching to Equilibris! There's still plenty of time before the start of the 9th Warlords Cup to study this Equilibris, which you find so scary. And also, about Warlords... if someone wants to organize a tournament on Warlords, I will gladly help. And speaking of players... there was talk that newcomers would be scared of Equilibris. But I know that many, let's say, veterans, don't play only because the tournaments are not held on Equilibris. I'm also thinking about them! And agree that it's always easier and better to switch to something new and better than to return to something old and poorly balanced. I can provide, let's say, statistics. Almost everyone who started playing on Equilibris no longer wants to return to Warlords. Even if you look at this 4th Warlords Cup, we only gathered 7 players. I know several people who didn't play just because the tournament was held on Warlords, and a few more, and some, even though they played, emphasized that it would be better if the tournament was on Equilibris. This is something to think about. Sincerely, Luchik!

What a dense Undergrounder, and I am, too, by the way. Please explain what unfair actions you intend to catch with such a counter?

Undergrounder's lack of understanding relates to slightly different things. And it doesn't really concern you.
Actually, I'm not going to catch anything with the save counter, except for the most obvious things.
And it has only been useful a few times.
And I no longer understand the nerves about the existence of a program that reads the number of reloads.
Who does it give any advantage to?
There are some things that can only be useful to tournament organizers.
Can they be bypassed? Yes, they can. Everything can be.
"What one person creates, another can always break" ©

And I'll take a program that controls the mouse and set it to reload the save all night, thus accumulating any number of reloads, and then I'll restart the battle.

You're clever.
By the way, I'm happy for your two tournament wins. Congratulations.

I suggest we move all further discussions to a new topic: [DISCUSSION] Switching to Equilibris.

Thank you all for participating!

Topic closed!

Sincerely, Luchik!