Posts from The Reserve

Name: The Reserve Map name: The Reserve Two-level map: yes Number of players: 8 Size: Extra Large Difficulty level: Very Hard Map author: Kird Map description: In the protected land, in the most beautiful valley of joy and despair, the laws of nature, time, and space were suddenly violated. Hordes of bloodthirsty idiots invaded these once peaceful lands. One of these bloodthirsty idiots is you. You like these lands because here, without crises or worries, the population grows rapidly, as do your respected armies. However, they say that this lovely reserve will not last long under such injustice – after all, you and all seven of your opponents came to these lands from different worlds, different hells and heavens, from different corners of time and the universe. Just a little more, and the world will tear itself apart with contradictions! And to conquer everyone while keeping yourself and the Preserve safe, you need to find the magical city of Sky and bring the Figure of the Golden Legionnaire there. Parts of this statue are scattered somewhere, but where? Of course, it's unknown.




From the author:
Attention!
1. I recommend playing at maximum difficulty - really.
2. The map was created for global battles. Testing has shown that yes, they exist; however, the computer is still weak. You can expect rapid growth in every conquered city.
3. There are few cities, few teleports, almost no cheating movement options – so you can expect long tactical and strange journeys.)
4. The most overpowered races here are undead because, with an incredible number of enemies (and sometimes weak ones), skeletons become simply overwhelming. Elementals, of course, but not because of birds anymore, as these birds get lost against the general background, but because of the ability to obtain all spells early on. Although, how early is debatable – after all, I hid the obelisks). By the way, elves turn out to be even more overpowered than elementals – due to treasure chests... well, if you receive an additional twenty thousand from each city every five days, you understand.
And demons with a city teleport, since the author pursued the desire to limit teleports with even greater futility than before. Although this is not critical.
5. Please read all messages – events, quests, even rumors – the author wrote them for a reason). They are short, some are funny, and some will really help you.
6. In the game, you have the opportunity to collect endless legions of rogues or even monks for free... but imagine that it won't help you; it might even hinder you.
7. Starting positions for players are at a decent distance, which will allow you to develop calmly and think things through.
8. Almost all heroes from the campaigns are present in the game; you can find each one in some kind of prison. Also, some standard heroes were exiled to prisons for certain reasons, so several castles are significantly reduced because of this.
9. WHAT I am unhappy about, what I doubt: it’s colorful, there’s a lot crammed in, as if it’s disharmonious; maybe some objects should be removed, replacing them with terrain? That’s one thing. Maybe cheating events should be used to strengthen the computer. That’s two. Maybe neutral monsters should be strengthened - that’s three.

Judging by the description and minimap, this map is exactly to my taste! :) I'll download it and definitely try to play it!

One of those bloodthirsty idiots is you.

:D

So far, I've only found one bug: a tower in the dungeon, between the blue and purple areas, guarding the exit to the upper level, but it doesn't actually guard anything, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal. Please report any other errors or shortcomings; I want to create a perfect map :)

Added 4 minutes later
And I'm afraid to imagine what kind of army you'll have here by the end of the game, considering how big it was at the end of Asatama.

Updated "Preserve". The list of changes is approximately as follows: * Fixed some bugs, such as the one mentioned above - with the towers. * Continued "landscape refinement," which can be done endlessly. * Strengthened the defense of the city "Sky Sky." Various guard adjustments throughout the preserve - too many to list, and it's not necessary. * Added an event-based increase in money - because there were too many monsters in the reserves. * Slightly improved living conditions for green, purple, and cyan players - as they had the most difficulty in several tests. In particular - more roads. * More fun and incomprehensible messages! * Added cartographers and a couple of other interesting locations.

I'm currently playing "Preserve". Yes, it's exactly the kind of map I like: strategic, XL+U, and with "more of everything". :) I had a really hard time tearing myself away from the game, like Münchhausen pulling himself out by his hair!:D For now, I have a couple of comments: 1. It would be better to always set the neutral monsters to be strictly hostile: given the power of the armies due to the increased event growth, they will soon want to join instead of fighting. So, 8 red dragons and 500 royal medusas joined me. 2. The guard for the main Cartographer (who reveals all the land except for the underground landscape) consists of 4000 creatures of level 2 (in my case, these turned out to be thieves). I think it should be significantly strengthened: let it be monsters of level 6-7, and preferably some dragons that cannot simply be slowed down, blinded, or something else. Because, for example, in another place, the Captain's Hat is guarded by ~50 archdevils: that's much more serious, although I killed them without any losses!:)

1. It seems like some are hostile, and some are not, depending on the situation. 500 Medusa Queens is certainly impressive, but in my opinion, it's not decisive, especially if someone else can gather as many. But we need to consider it. If everyone is set to be extremely hostile, then diplomacy loses its meaning. Well, and 8 red dragons – that's a minor thing.
2. I thought that the cartographer wasn't that valuable, especially since by the time you reach him, almost the entire map is probably already revealed. And if you reach him early, 4000 thieves is a normal obstacle. Well, as a compromise, maybe some elementals – fire or earth...

0. It's annoying, of course, that even from a tomb, you can get some super-sword, but I don't want to ban half of the artifacts, otherwise, you'll only find wagons with wood in the utopias. And I don't want to give up on tombs, skeletons, and chests. I don't know how to solve this problem.

Added after 56 seconds
I wonder, what flag do you play with, and what do you think about the starting conditions?

Kird, I'm playing as Red for the Conflux. At the start, I chose the difficulty level as you specified – expert (160%), all castles and heroes are random, and everyone gets monetary bonuses.
And still, the Cartographer is an important objective, and it’s better to strengthen its defenses! I reached it when I had only explored my own lands and part of the adjacent areas, so it helped me a lot! Yes, I already have expert land and air scouting, but it’s still much better!
The problem of powerful artifacts is solved, in my opinion, by setting appropriate defenses, say, at the warrior tombs (I am convinced that their lack of protection in the game, as well as that of dungeons, is a major oversight). It’s not worth banning powerful artifacts – it’s better to ensure that each opponent’s territory has approximately the same number of them as the others.

I finished the map; I agree with Marmot about the hostility of the creatures. My strongest hero was a diplomacy expert, which helped a lot in the early stages, if not deciding the outcome of the game. I was lucky to quickly find the Hat of the Orator. The powerful defense, thanks to the cloud of joined creatures, was easily overcome, and in general, the AI simply didn't have time to develop. P.S. I liked the map.

искатель78, congratulations! And what are your results in numbers: days, points? I'm still going through it; there are still many "white" (black:)) spots in the Dungeon. Now, I've already been the strongest opponent for quite a few days, chasing away enemies, but I still need to visit almost all the tents, obelisks, get the hands and head of the Legion, and finally, get to Sky-Sky... Кирд, why is the City Portal forbidden?! Of course, "I'll win anyway," :) but it will take much more time! In my opinion, this is an overreach! I think it's enough to ban Flight and Dimension Door. Here's another observation: the unicorns at the Red Tent are positioned in such a way that they don't protect the tent itself - I visited the Fire Pillar, then the tent, then killed the unicorns and took the artifact they were guarding - in my case, it turned out to be the Sandals of Saint. It would be good to move something there so that you can't get to the tent without a fight. Another observation, or rather, a suggestion: I freed 3 or 4 heroes from prisons, and, in my opinion, the skills given to them by you are not very good: I strive (in particular, on this map) to give most of the heroes who can fight Wisdom and the basic schools of magic: earth, water, fire, and if a hero only has 2 free skill slots and no Wisdom, that's not very good, even if he's level 9 and has 10000 experience! And I also hoped that the heroine in the prison with the question mark would be especially valuable and strong, and I was surprised to see that she is no better than a couple of others, freed earlier. But she is so far away, and there is such a garrison... although this is most likely guarding the black tent.

I will take your suggestions and comments into account. Regarding the heroine with the question mark, her value lies elsewhere – in her name and biography; it’s a kind of joke. As for the city portal, you can learn any spell there. If you conquer the key city before obtaining the statuette, you might randomly get Flight and Portal, or you might not. The map contains all the books, the wizard's hat, scrolls, and even angel wings. But you'll have to complete quests. I agree, perhaps I should make this issue more obvious, more solvable, but I won't allow it in the guilds; it would ruin the concept.

Marmot, the result shows below-average days and points: 115 days, 260 points, but I never chase days or points; I'm interested in the game itself, the mystery of the game. I never look in the editor, I don't restart, and I don't dig for heroes. In general, playing for speed isn't for me.

Added 9 minutes later
Although, who am I telling this to, since you have the same views?

искатель78, exactly! It’s great to have like-minded people!:)
To be honest, I’ve already spent a lot of time: it’s been 5 months and 1 week now. I wasted a lot of time running back and forth because of the lack of a Town Portal. I spent about 10 days chasing the strongest enemy of that period, and when I caught up, it turned out that defeating him with not too many losses wasn’t that easy: I don’t have Resurrection, and besides, my army is from the Conflux. After several unsatisfactory attempts, I finally managed to achieve an acceptable result. Now, finally, the main hero will go to storm the white tent, then the garrison, behind which lies the coveted Book of Air Magic! And after that, the pace will accelerate sharply, and the finale won’t be so drawn out; however, I also want to find the Grail (if it hasn’t already been dug up by AI enemies;)).

I think it would be good to add hints, at least in the form of rumors, about where to find super artifacts and spells, because the "Book of Air" isn't the only one. Even knowing all the tricks, I could finish it in 65 days, and that was just to accumulate troops, get the magic hat, and visit two tents.

Kird, hints will definitely be very helpful! And I was thinking: should I take the Book of Air, considering the garrison on the way to it is anti-magic, or should I take a Scroll of Dimensional Door instead? Because I don't want to suffer big losses!

Well, I finally finished the walkthrough on 6-4-1. I didn't dig up the Grail, and I didn't collect the Legion Statue because I didn't have the Head. I checked in the editor, and there is a Statue on the map, but I can't reach it because the guardian requires a hero of level 45, and all my heroes are weaker. :( Then, using "Prospector," I found out that the Head is actually located separately in one place, but not in plain sight; it's with a group of monsters. I would have had to spend another 4 days getting there, but by then, the enemies had mostly disappeared, and victory came sooner: when the last surviving enemy hero attacked my city.
But I did everything else I could: I captured all the cities, including Sky-Sky, and I got the Scroll of Dimensional Door and the Tome of Air Magic; and even though the scroll was on cursed land, and there was an antimagic garrison on the way to the Tome of Air, I suffered only minor losses.