I don't entirely agree with the
4th rule.
If you want to tell a story from the Heroes universe, please feel free to use an established and well-known world map and play on a separate section of it. But firstly, when you already know the map by heart, it can be frankly boring, and secondly, if you look at it more broadly:
using the tools available in Heroes, you can show a different world and events in it. And, if you try, the result can be very good! Apart from the story campaigns, I have only seen
one map that is directly dedicated to the world of Heroes and that I really liked: "The Shadow of Cape Tuan" (Capetuan.h3m).
To prevent maps created by a random generator from being passed off as original: be aware that
random maps are actually PSEUDO-random, as they are created based on templates, of which there are only a few initially!
(More details: http://heroes.ag.ru/h3/rmg/) Therefore, you will inevitably be exposed! And is it worth being embarrassed?
To avoid plagiarism (passing off other people's maps as your own), creators of collections should not chase quantity, but
introduce a strict rule: a map without a name and the author's email address is not accepted! I would like to know the names of those whose maps I liked, but they did not sign them! :( Also, be sure to include a description in a standard format (see somewhere here). And each newly submitted map should be compared with existing ones to check for plagiarism or repetition.
I agree with Alicia that
a beginner cartographer should first make maps "for themselves": play them themselves, let friends try them out, but
only upload them to the Internet when the errors have been corrected, the plot has been developed, the objects have been carefully placed, the landscape has been tidied up, and most importantly: when at least some players (not counting the author!) were actually interested in playing it!
Another
radical measure against cluttering the Internet with thousands of poor-quality maps: it is necessary to introduce a kind of
pre-moderation of published maps. Do not upload them immediately, but let at least a few people test them, and if the map is at least "satisfactory", then provide it for everyone to try. And also introduce
map rating on the forum by registered players: this will help to weed out obvious "failures".
As for the
Market of Time. I read (
http://heroes.ag.ru/h3/h3_places/) that it was originally introduced in Heroes 3, but not used (see the map "Winter of the Titan": it exists, but does nothing!). Meanwhile,
this is perhaps one of those objects that was sorely lacking before WoG, in order to get rid of stupid and unnecessary skills imposed on the hero when leveling up!
And
myths of Ancient Greece are also used in the map "Myths and Legends".
:smile08:
