Mapmaster 2011 — Mapmaking Contests

Wistrit

14 years ago

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I replayed the opening again with Haghesh – he entered the battle on the third day with his first hero (Haghesh’s troops: 85 centaurs, 15 orcs, 25 goblins, 1 druid; after the battle – 70 centaurs, 3 orcs, 1 druid – the core was preserved. During the battle, the AI attacked the orcs and goblins twice with a ring spell, and once with a spell on the centaurs). The second AI hero arrived in my case in the middle of the second week, but he was virtually unkillable. I distracted him with secondary heroes, Haghesh took the gold mines, the crown with +6 knowledge, and quietly waited for the main city to develop (I wasn’t lucky with the combat spells this time – there was no terrifying roar, and it helps a lot). I took the city with the Tear of Ash when the computer moved troops out of it, after which the AI completely ignored this city. As a result, at the end of the second week, the gold income was 13,000 per day. I didn’t continue playing. The main idea is not to let the AI capture the orcish Castle, distracting the initially unkillable AI heroes with expendable heroes running around the map. After building up an army, you can combine it with the elf army from the city with the Tear of Ash, buying artifacts (there’s a shop nearby, and you have plenty of money), and ideally getting the terrifying roar and horde fury spells, and then you can safely enter into battle, but it’s better to do it through the city’s defenses.

In other words, wait 2 days first, build up your orcs, distract the heroes of the second AI (and it’s not a given that he will be distracted, because why would he?), capture some random city with the Tear of Ash, hold the defense there, occasionally going out to defeat some nearby neutral units, wait, wait, wait, and accumulate resources. No, thank you. The same Gantritor sets a task and a time limit, and provides everything needed to complete that task, but here I have to wait and guess whether he will attack or not.

Heleg

14 years ago

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Map: The mystery of the ancient marshes. I played as Ossira. I tried to complete it with Elves. I scared one hero, and he ran away through a portal. But two days later, a green hero arrived – a Knight of level 5, who already had angels and riders, not to mention archers and peasants. Plus, a hundred Hellhounds. I had no chance. I'll try to complete it with Haghesh. Has anyone tried to complete it with Dark Elves?

Ment

14 years ago

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I completed "Superweapon." Thanks to the neutral units joining me, my army quickly reached almost 100 units (then I retrained them into Crystal Archers), around 300 Ancient Ents, and a similar number of Master Archers, plus various minor Gnomish units. I also had a few Titans (a few means around 30). I defeated Timahkan without any problems; the Chaos Dragons wiped out his troops before the battle even began. But I still lost the Chaos Dragons: he dealt over forty damage to them per turn with Divine Retribution. I even managed to get a Thunderclap unit as a veteran, so the map wasn't that long.
I really enjoyed the map and will play the next one.

Heleg

14 years ago

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The map is called "The mystery of the ancient marshes," and I'm stuck on it. The AI is only playing as the green player; where is the blue player? **Jjoker**, what difficulty level were you playing on?

In reply to Wistrit

antonag07

14 years ago

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WisTrit

I don't know how to evaluate it, I'll try to describe my impression of the maps.
Although Gantritor was removed from the contest, I will still express my opinion about it, and I will also compare the next map with it. I didn't know that the guys had been making maps for a long time, and this was my first game on it, so it was new to me.

Thank you for the kind words! It's a pity that the map was removed from the contest (I only found out about it today, after returning from a business trip), because in my opinion it did not contradict the conditions of the contest (since before that it did not participate in any contests or tournaments); it's a little disappointing not for myself, but for the German colleague who tried hard for the fans and made a good single-player map...

In reply to antonag07

Dyrman

14 years ago

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antonag07

Thank you for the kind words! It’s a pity, of course, that the map was removed from the competition (I only found out about this today, after returning from a business trip), because in my opinion, it did not contradict the terms of the competition (since, before this, it had not participated in any competitions or tournaments); it’s a little disappointing, not for myself, but for the German colleague who tried hard for the fans and made a pretty good single-player map...

It contradicted the concept of the competition, which stated that the map’s authors should not be known. Besides, if we consider that the maps haven’t been played in particularly important events, then you could submit hundreds of them here. But the fact is that the map was posted directly on this forum, with the authors listed, and then submitted to the competition. No offense, but I think Ment would at least partially agree. I played two maps. I liked the one with the tank. I won’t go into detail, because some aspects didn’t appeal to me more as a map creator than as a player, so it’s purely subjective. I hope votes are accepted from here? And if not, I can duplicate them by email. But I haven’t played the other one yet, so I’m asking in advance. P.S. antonag07’s map would have been a great addition to the competition. They turn out to be more classic, which I like more.

Ment

14 years ago

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antonag07, I apologize (and I also acknowledge that I was at fault for not checking this point immediately, and as a result, I didn't give you the opportunity to submit a different map). However, the contest itself implied that the map would be created within specific timeframes set by the contest. But since there were issues with this, at the very least, the map should not have been published before (for the reason that Dyrman interpreted).
Votes are accepted here, but I would like them to be highlighted in bold or in some eye-catching color.
I tried "Two Brothers." The map is quite ambiguous: on the one hand, there are many interesting features, such as a donation pillar, animated characters, and altars of light/darkness, as well as gameplay with an ally and a beautifully drawn map.
On the other hand, the balance is unclear, there are no mines within at least two days' travel from the city, and then they are suddenly clustered together. If the game is played with an ally, there is a high probability that all the stone will end up with one of them, who will have to send half of their ore income to their friend for the rest of their days so that the friend doesn't go bankrupt. It's not entirely clear why such a headache is needed. I didn't even find a sawmill... Creature dwellings are scattered randomly across the map, so again, there is a high probability that your ally will have a lot of your dwellings (or you will have to make detours across the map, capturing your own dwellings, but in my opinion, this will take too long). Then it turns out that the ally will have to buy your growth, give you gold, and contribute to the donation pillar. And so every week... It's inconvenient. Although, I admit that to form a final opinion, it would be helpful to play this map with someone.

In reply to Ment

Heleg

14 years ago

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I vote for the tank

Ment

14 years ago

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The mystery of the ancient marshes: the map is certainly challenging. Perhaps to start properly, you need to hire two weak heroes; it would be good if one of them had a specialty for creatures, with Chaos skills, and with imps in their army. Ideally, they would have all of that at once. And for the main hero, I chose Railag. Specifically, Railag. As I understand it, the author unlocked him along with the other heroes from the campaigns (or maybe I have some mods?). As a result, the red player manages to defeat Giovanni, but the blue player, Biara, is shamefully driven away: it's just a little too far, and the heroes don't reach him. But I've only just started, and I'll play more. I already know for sure that if you set the blue player to computer control, the chances are slim. Either play it yourself or with someone else.
In general, the trend of maps featuring allies vs. computer is quite interesting in my opinion.
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Also, there are few votes. Is it a joke that 43 people downloaded the file from the Winner's link? + 15 from the forums. And only two people voted, it seems.

In reply to Ment

Wistrit

14 years ago

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Well, if it matters, I'm voting for Two brothers.

JonnyP

14 years ago

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I vote for the 'super weapon', although I expected more from the map, but I think it turned out pretty cool – dwarves, mages, and a TANK (and where exactly did the developers want to put it – it's from the future, after all?)

Ment

14 years ago

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The voting will close in exactly one week.

Победитель

14 years ago

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What are the preliminary results of the voting? Something tells me that there might not be any more votes :rolleyes:. And regarding the nominations "From Ment'a" and "From Ser9K", will you vote as regular users?

Ment

14 years ago

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For now, it looks like the tank is winning. But I would wait with the votes: as I said, a lot of people have downloaded the maps.
I won't speak for Sergey, but I was going to vote, only among the last ones.