Posts from - A mapmaker's philosophy.

I've created a thread where I will begin posting articles on mapmaking. As a preface, here is one article that is very relevant ahead of the map contest. I highly recommend reading it to anyone who wants to participate!!!

To be continued...

Further details will follow

THE CARTOGRAPHER'S PHILOSOPHY (from Alexa Soldiera's newsletters)

This article is a practical guide to mapping terrain ;) Seriously, these are nothing more than practical tips which, while obvious after detailed explanation, are for some reason rarely applied by the cartographic brotherhood when creating their "Heroic" masterpieces. Once again, about the obvious (though perhaps debatable for some) or the basic rules of creating maps for HMM3. So, if you have finally decided to create your own map for Heroes of Might and Magic, there is only one way—this way!

FIRST AND FOREMOST, AS WILD AS IT MAY SOUND, I WANT TO CRY OUT—DON'T DO IT! THERE IS ENOUGH JUNK ON THE WEB! DON'T MULTIPLY IT: IF YOU CANNOT OUTDO THE FOLKS FROM NEW WORLD COMPUTING IN THE FIELD OF MAPMAKING—DON'T TRY. THERE IS NOTHING MORE DISAPPOINTING THAN DOWNLOADING A MAP FROM THE INTERNET ONLY TO FIND THAT YOU SIMPLY CANNOT PLAY IT. HOW MANY EXCELLENT CUSTOM MAPS CAN I PERSONALLY NAME? TWO. HOW MANY "PLAYABLE" ONES? WELL, MAYBE A DOZEN. AND THAT'S ALL! SITES WITH MORE THAN FIVE HUNDRED MAPS FOR DOWNLOAD ARE NOTHING MORE THAN SITES THAT COLLECT AND DISTRIBUTE JUNK. Electronic nonsense that only a mental masochist or a complete maniacal fan of Heroes of Might and Magic could play—a group to which I, to my shame bordering on pride, cannot count myself. A map must contain intrigue; it must please the eye. Every step of your hero should reveal a wonderful world that YOU created for the player. Can you create your own world in which a player would be interested in living for several hours or days?
I repeat—don't do it, because:

Because to make a good XL format map, you will need about three weeks. No, not three hours, not three days (in which, if some companies' advertisements are to be believed, one can learn the entire English language), but three weeks. Will you sit for THREE WEEKS at the computer, cranking out a map? After all, by working sloppily, you could fit it into those same three days—no, even hours! Can you resist the temptation?

A green desert, not a single tree or pond. Painted grass with brown patches and somewhere there, in the distance, stands a lonely mine guarded by equally lonely paladins. A psychedelic picture—what nightmare did this terrain come from, what are the warriors doing near a mine that appeared out of nowhere? And that is how about two-thirds of all maps look. Is it interesting to play them? Not for me. And all because the author of such a "masterpiece" simply covered an area of the map in green, stuck some castles in, added mines, and poked a couple of mountain ranges and trees for variety. "Look at me—I drew a map!"

And why is this? Instead of a desire to CREATE, the author's pride took over. A thirst to equal the Creator in something. For example, creating one's own world. A thirst for fame—look, a gamer downloads the map—and there my name is imprinted. To create an arena of conflict between the forces of Good and Evil, Humans and Elves with such motivation—well, many have tried!—is practically impossible. No, the approach must be different—to prove! To prove to yourself, to all fans of Heroes, to the entire internet community, that you truly CAN do something better than everyone else. To create a masterpiece that will please the eye of the most demanding aesthete and flatter the ego of the most experienced strategist. Yes, in the end, a masterpiece might not result. But it will still be a real WORLD in which one can live, fight, and return to again and again.

So, how do you actually draw a map? We've dealt with time and motivation. The first thing a map designer must clearly envision is... its size. I couldn't find a way to change the size after the creative process had already begun, so it's better to think twice. I can only give the following advice—if you fundamentally do not play maps smaller than L, then drawing such maps would be pointless. And vice versa. "Better lose a day and arrive an hour sooner," meaning, it's better to spend an extra week but then play your own map until the Second Coming.

Next is the concept. Think through the concept. Come up with something. Spend at least one day thinking about what your map will be about. "Wall against wall" is not a concept. Divide the map into two levels, put a teleport in the center—that's a concept: surface dwellers fight underground dwellers, and they can only reach them through the central lands, which are the key to victory. It's nothing extraordinary, but it already resembles a concept.

Pay attention to design! Immediately! The map must be STUNNINGLY beautiful. Remember—firewood comes from the forest, minerals are mined in the mountains. Mummies do not live in prairies, etc. There should be several independent paths to the same location, which you need to guard with monsters (this way the player can choose whom to kill first and whom to leave for later, when they've powered up a bit). In general, your motto should be "less empty space," even if you've decided to design a desert. There must be roads on the map. Think about it—a castle stands there. There will always be heavy traffic to and from it. This means that if roads aren't built, they'll be trampled into existence. So around a castle (and even a town!) there simply must be roads. Roads should lead to mines, although not every single mine necessarily needs to be connected by road. But for wood/stone, roads simply must exist! By the way, regarding this primary resource—it should be near the castle and easily accessible. Remember, normal city planners build cities in areas rich in construction resources. Crystals, gems, mercury—these are not resources of primary importance, and therefore can be located in hard-to-reach places on rugged terrain without any roads. In turn, it would be good to connect a couple of mines and a settlement, say, of some monsters with a road. This will bring realism to your map and save the hero action points in the future.

Be attentive! Attentiveness, meticulousness, and most importantly, attention to detail are nothing other than the key to a high-quality map. Put a mine—mark this fact on a piece of paper. There is nothing more annoying than later wondering where to stick a crystal cavern forgotten during the drawing of the map. All buildings must be reachable. All locations must be reachable—shipyards should produce ships (and with this, I tell you, there's often a snag!) and so on. Do not draw a mountain range using only one type of mountain—it's too obvious. Do not place green forests on lava—this is a fantasy world, sure, but not to that extent! However, dead trees and fungi of the underworld with lava shining through them look simply wonderful. In general, buildings and terrain elements of different types can be easily (but wisely!) combined. So do not try to save time on experiments. After all, no one is rushing you.

Don't get carried away. Don't get carried away by anything—not plots, nor the number of players, nor cartographic gigantomania. Who said there must be exactly two levels? And in general, who said the area of the dungeon must be the same as the area of the surface world? Why not build caverns with treasures and mines and other pleasant additions? When NWC announced they would include underground levels in their product, I was only glad—I thought that in the game you could go underground and capture caves and dungeons. I couldn't even imagine that a person would go so far in their desire to "cover the whole planet in asphalt."

The world must be knowable. Or in plain terms—if you've removed Dimension Door from magic guilds, warn the gamer at the start of the game. Spending all strength and resources on building up guilds only to discover the cartographer's evil intent does not help lift the gamer's spirit. By the way, regarding spells and schools of magic—if you are going to get rid of spells from various schools, consider the necessity of removing artifacts from the game: books of magic schools (containing ALL spells of each school), the Wizard's Hat (containing ALL fifth-level spells), and be careful with Magic Scrolls and pyramids (well, you understand me here—fourth-to-fifth level spells practically for free). The same applies to design—do not strive for the laurels of Salvador Dalí. The more "traditional" the fantasy world you create is, the better.

Drew a map—tested it. Wrote all glitches and bugs on a piece of paper, redid individual locations, fixed bugs—tested again. And so until FULL self-satisfaction. If you want, arrange public testing with friends or internet acquaintances. But never send a map to cartography sites until it is completely polished for both gameplay errors and simple bugs. Bugs kill gameplay!

If one tries to systematize the philosophy of the cartographer, three postulates can be highlighted:

The gamer is not at fault for anything.
Consequently, there is no need to punish them for anything. You have no right—to punish or torment a miserable gamer whose only fault was deciding to play the map you drew. This means no ambushes of a hundred black dragons in the early stages of the game, castles in swamps on roadless terrain, and other "treats." Want to set up an ambush—please do! But make sure the player can easily crush their tormentors. Hint or tell the gamer directly that an ambush awaits them further on. The player should derive pleasure from the game.

The gamer must have the opportunity to create their own hero.
Yes, this postulate is often forgotten. The player must be able to choose their hero initially. Everyone has their preferences—do not impose anything on anyone. You must give the hero the ability to take necessary skills in universities and Witch Huts—this again is not a freebie, but an RPG necessity. If a person wants Earth Magic—no problem. The main thing is that they enjoy playing. Conversely, if you are creating a scenario (i.e., several maps glued together, united by a common plot), then creating the hero for the player is practically mandatory. But again, here too it is necessary to give the player the opportunity to develop the hero as they find convenient. However, giving the hero some skills is quite acceptable.

Heroes of Might and Magic is a tactical-strategic game.
I saw one map here—"if you have reached this place, read the story located in the archive provided with this map in Chapter 3." HMM3 is a strategy. Plot—yes, role-playing elements—yes, quests—yes, but none of them should prevent the player from playing and, I would even say, thinking strategically. Remember—the more unnecessary information you cram into the game, the more likely it is that the player will ignore everything and decide not to read anything at all. And that won't end well. However, in my memory there was one exception—but as you understand, this only confirms the rule.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you all the best, luck, patience, and perseverance in mapmaking. After all, a good map is a great rarity. I am sure that you have the opportunity to increase their number.

Copyright © deniska rules!, 2002. All rights reserved. http://heroes.net.ru/heroes3/philosophy00ru.shtml

Added after 2 minutes
HMM MAP CONSTRUCTION KIT

1. Introduction.
- Why use the MCK?
- Collaborative design methods
- Map pipeline
2. Map elements: their necessity and purpose
- Strategic game schemes
- Tactical techniques (high technologies)
- Characteristic features of the map
3. Map innovations
- ("Features"),
- Plots
- Concepts

Introduction
If you approach the process of creating a map seriously, it is necessary to "plan" the future map well. The flaw in most maps lies in their "non-strategic nature," meaning an insufficiently thought-out construction of the future game. Planning a map means establishing the main points characteristic of playing on it at the very initial stage of its creation. These points will be considered in detail in the second part.
Furthermore, if a map is created as a result of collaborative work, it is most effective to interact with other creators by dividing functions. In this case, each designer will have their own task and, at the same time, each person's task will stem from the general requirements placed on the map during the design phase.
And finally, when using the Constructor, it is quite easy to predict what impact different map elements will have on each other once they are in a single system—a finished model. When moving from one stage to another, "step-by-step testing" of the map is possible, as well as the creation of different modifications of the map based on one scheme.

Map Elements
On a well-thought-out map, basic map elements are not placed randomly, but with a specific purpose. Their first purpose is to serve as starting points for composing the "strategic course" of the game, which will be all the more interesting the more skillfully its connection to the map is established through map elements.

Possible strategic paths
- "Rush" strategy
- "Development" strategy
- "Economic Rush"
- "Magic Rush"
- "Army Rush"
- "Hero Rush"
- "two-handed" play
Each of the listed paths is implemented in different ways on a finished map. How interesting their implementation will be depends on the quality of the map's construction.
The second "utility" of map elements lies in the opportunities they present for applying various tactical techniques. After a strategic line of play on the map has been chosen, the constructor should create conditions for its realization through interesting "tricks" discovered during the accumulation of experience by HMM players.
Such techniques are a kind of "high technology," and their application should be encouraged in advance by the map developer.

Common "High Technologies"
A) "Outdated HIGH-TECH"
- passing troops along a chain
- "dropping" slow troops at the end of a turn
- hiring an additional hero to do the "dirty work" for the main one
- using "mobile links" (shooters + crawlers – shooters + flyers)
B) "New HIGH-TECH"
- "teleportation" via same-side buyout
- hiring a "native" unit to join monsters
- renting "local" units to speed up movement across the terrain (ferry technology)
- espionage and deception technologies
- troop formation technologies before a quick combat
- "tactical combat" technologies
The set of map elements in the map editor is nothing other than a toolkit for implementing the aforementioned and other techniques embedded into the game on the map by its designer.

Furthermore, map elements may be necessary to create the "image" of the map, emphasizing its individuality and forming its characteristic features. An example could be the advantage of one race over others, or the balance between them. A mage or warrior, friendly or combat magic, logistics or diplomacy, teleportation or summoning a boat, etc., may "rule" on the map. Such and other features are embedded by the map designer during the design phase.

Map Innovations

And lastly: a good idea is to create a map that presents some innovations or "features." These could be various events affecting game development, new techniques, combinations of buildings, and so on. "Features" allow for the implementation of the game's plot, bringing the designer's visions to life, and their ideas of what was missing in the game on other maps.

DESIGNER'S ALGORITHM

The first stage in designing a map is the analysis of requirements, as with any engineering task. The result of the requirements analysis should be a table of source data for the design. Filling out the source data table completes the stage of analysis and strategic planning of the map.
The second stage is the tactical planning stage. It is primarily concerned with selecting the necessary map elements and creating geographical sketches of the map.
The third stage is building the map's terrain by placing map elements in the required "geographical nodes." At this stage, the map acquires a visible appearance.
The fourth stage is calculating distances, adjusting speeds, calculating resources, and the geographical finishing of the map. This process involves "step-by-step testing" of the map.
The fifth stage is global testing of the map.

"Oh yes, my audacious little one!" Copyright Lich Azalin
It's like drawing a regular map. You just want to say "I don't believe it!" Especially when the continent is rectangular (in the shape of a sheet) or the rivers flow from the seas (are there desalination plants or something?).
And do elementals live in the forest?

I am against "over-polishing" maps. It's already too much. Nitpicking about roads/rivers, etc., is not a big deal, and usually, no one pays attention to it. But I am against "airport maps." I've seen such "masterpieces." By the way, there are also "Atlantis maps." Imagine a map of size L, completely covered with water. On it, there are a handful of microscopic islands on which castles and mines are located. A nightmare! I try to create beautiful maps for my campaigns. But I dislike maps larger than M. It takes too long to create beauty on large maps. And if I know that it will turn out ugly, I don't make it!

I'm against "over-polishing" the map. It's already too much. Nitpicking about roads/rivers, etc., is not a critical issue, and usually, no one pays attention to it. But I'm against "airport maps." I've seen such "masterpieces." By the way, there are also "Atlantis maps."

Imagine a map of size L, completely covered in water. On it, a handful of microscopic islands with castles and mines on them. A nightmare!

I try to create beautiful maps for my campaigns :) But I dislike maps larger than M. It takes too long to create beauty on large maps. And if I know it will turn out ugly, I don't make it!

I understand everything. But if this is a map for an offline tournament, then it must be carefully calculated and thoroughly tested!
Recommendations are given to prevent such a nightmare from happening!!!
And as for the beauty, if we're talking about a screenshot, I don't like it.
The most important thing for me is the map's balance for online play and the idea for offline play.

I enjoy rewriting remakes of maps! For example, I rewrote the "Half-Dead" campaign from Heroes of Might and Magic IV for Heroes of Might and Magic III, and some other story-driven maps! Of course, I had to emulate the scripts... :D

Thank you! Lots of sensible and useful information...

I agree with the author on everything except for the statement that die-hard Heroes of Might and Magic fans are getting tired of the established traditions. I would personally like to see more original, unusual, and strange maps. And of course, it's terrible when a map contains bugs. There are indeed many unplayable maps on the internet. But I would say that out of 100 maps, approximately 40 have serious errors, 15 are the most interesting, and unfortunately, there are very few maps completely without errors, even among those created by professional developers. To be honest, there are some truly brilliant maps created by players. Standard maps tend to adhere to formalities and are therefore only interesting at the beginning. The author, of course, only mentioned some of the most common bugs, but unfortunately, there are many more... And for some reason, I think that this text will mainly be read by those who already create excellent maps, while those who have filled the internet with garbage will continue to pollute the atmosphere of the World Wide Web. By the way, there are exceptions to the rules. Once, I created a small map in two versions in just 15 minutes, and it was quite worthy of being played. But the author is still right. It's better to spend a month, or even more, working on a map. I sometimes create maps in several stages, with double-checking. Good luck to all map creators! P.S. I am collecting original maps for my collection.

P.S. I'm collecting custom maps for my collection.

If you play WoG, I can offer you a couple of my maps... Although there are no WoG-specific features, I just created them in the WoG editor solely for the beautiful monsters :) Otherwise, it's essentially a pure SoD map. It only needs to be run under WoG; no further "Wogification" is required.

http://homm3world.narod.ru/distr/Maps.rar

The map "Alone In The Dark" was created for a multiplayer tournament – it's balanced for two and four players. But you can also play against the AI.

I used to play Wog, but now I only play the original three versions. Still, I hope your maps will find a worthy place in my collection. Thank you.

An interesting point—I've noticed many times that people didn't make maps themselves, but only slightly touched up random ones. This is completely useless (for the person making the map). It's better to spend more time doing it yourself—your skills will improve. And another small question—on own maps, I've never encountered any proper glitches, or have I just been lucky?
(I've lost 319 Campaigns in total and very, very many maps)—always until the end; no matter how stupid and ugly the map was or what form of verbal diarrhea the author suffered from, I always play to the limit—simply out of respect for the author's work, even if it is negative (I remember myself—my first map—all cities fenced in by forest, 9999 nagas at the exit and three computer Castles somewhere in a field).
I spend at least a month on each map; it's a pity I can't upload them—not on this PC.:smile32:

As for the maps, I think mixing dirt with snow would be an interesting option. Let me explain with an example. In any case, it looks beautiful.

A few tips on installing scripts.
A script with a post-event.
This type of script was quite common in Heroes IV, where a message would appear after a battle (i.e., the script would continue). But how do you make it work in Heroes III so that after defeating a monster, a message like "You are being attacked" appears, and the battle continues? The monster guards the adjacent cells, so when a hero attacks the monster, the event placed directly in front of the beast will not be activated. After the battle, the hero will end up on the cell with the event and activate it. Why is this needed? Of course, to add variety to the game. Imagine, there is an Azure Dragon in front of you. Let's say there are three free cells separating you. In the second cell (from the dragon), we place an event with text stating that the dragon will only join the hero's army if the hero can defeat it. We attack the dragon. The event that was placed directly in front of the dragon will contain text stating that the dragon agrees and will join the army, and in the "give creatures" field, we select one Azure Dragon. Thus, before the battle, the event will be inactive, and after the victory, you will have your dragon at your disposal. This trick can also be used under the condition of defeating a specific monster, when before the end of the scenario, a message like "The monster that terrorized the area has died at your hands" appears, or you can create another battle with its minions.
And here are a few more nuances:
1) The script with the attack should be placed where it is logically expected, for example, on enemy territory or in front of a mine; again, you need to hint that an attack is expected.
2) It is not worth creating events where the player is attacked by legions of level 7 creatures, again, unless there is a logical reason and a small hint.
3) A pit does not block the player's path, so you can place an event with a small reward on it, for example, in the form of gold.
4) If the desired artifact is in an invisible event, then you must definitely indicate the location of the search.
I brought all this up because I have encountered similar maps more than once. You walk along, not bothering anyone, and suddenly "You are being attacked by 1000 demons!" Or, I played a map a long time ago where you had to find an artifact, but I could only find it after looking at the map through the editor.

I sometimes create maps just for fun, depending on my mood and inspiration (I've been working on this one for three weeks now), and I try to take everything mentioned above into account... :)
When I finish it, I'll definitely post it... (in about two months)
P.S.
By the way, I agree that a map needs to be tested several times! Once is not enough. :(

Here's an example (excerpt) of the kind of maps I like - I made this one yesterday. :)

Respect to the thread author for the promotion.
Indeed, it's incredibly annoying to eagerly download maps from the internet, launch them in the game, and then see either a description consisting of 10 words, 8 of which are swear words – which immediately kills the desire to play; or, everything seems well-written and intriguing, but after launching, you can count all the objects on the map with the fingers of one hand. There are few good maps. A couple of maps from the recent competition for the best map for HoMM 3 The Shadow of Death were impressive – the participants did a great job.
Excellent projects take a very long time. I think that's how it should be because the author should constantly add something new to the map, based on any new developments in their life. Hmm, maybe I'm exaggerating...
It's generally difficult with maps containing ERM scripts – if you create an excellent non-linear storyline, similar to the standard campaign in HoMM 3.5 about Njal, it will take at least a month to complete, and that's if the storyline is already ready!
I'm working on a Might and Magic game in the style of the aforementioned campaign. To be honest, I completed half of it in 4 months. Then I didn't like it, and now I'm redoing it. Maybe I'll finish it by the end of university.

It's better to spend some time playing alone – it will improve your skills.

Absolutely true!

No matter how stupid and ugly the map is, and no matter how much the author rambles, I always play it to the end – simply out of respect for the author's work, even if it's negative.

But I can't agree with that! Respect for the author's work decreases when the map is stupid and ugly! In my opinion, the author should respect the player, so that the player doesn't waste days only to find out that the author "slipped up" and forgot to place the necessary artifact/spell on the map, didn't ensure access to the necessary map object, simply didn't care about the clumsiness of his speech, errors, and typos in every word, etc.