Posts from Hive Leader Auto-translated

I completed the new "hard" version of the map in 104 days. Thank you for the map, especially for the Stronghold faction. However, if possible and the map is still planned for further development, it needs to be made three times more difficult, as after the second week of the first month, the gameplay becomes extremely easy. The AI builds its cities slowly and is not aggressive enough to prevent accumulating troops. In the capital (the last Orcish city), a large number of troops were left unsold. I didn't touch the green quest at all. What is its purpose in the main quest? The purpose of having Haven buildings is unclear, unless it's purely aesthetic. If it's for selling, there's clearly enough money. And there are too many resources on the map. Overall, I would like a truly challenging experience, where battles need to be replayed 5 times, rather than the frequent auto-battles.

Rambo1969: Yes, you are absolutely right, most of the errors you encountered are related to an outdated version of the map. It's nothing. Especially, a bug with the undead outpost was fixed, and everyone is actively using it now =) =) =)
Regarding attacking the Necromancer's Castle, well, you can certainly get creative. First, make the Necromancers your allies, then, a second before attacking Nicholas, make them enemies again, and after his death, make them allies again. Although, their city doesn't really play a significant role. (It immediately reminds me of the last mission in Warlords of the Horde with 900 Cyclops)

As for the boredom and true hardcore difficulty, I'll honestly think about it. In the first version, each city had an outpost, but the AI would gather one army and crush any player. Then, I left normal troops only in the first three cities and the final one - the eighth. Again, it's very difficult to control the AI that has 7!!! cities and infinite resources. As an option, I can simply create a script to add armies to the remaining cities under AI control, but not all at once, but every n number of days, and even n*number of days, then the difficulty will be approximately the same throughout the game.

jjjoker777: The green quest was specifically made as a secondary one. I might add some meaning to it, or I might not.
As for the Haven lands, everything was done intentionally, just consider it as a landscape. After all, they are at war now...

Thank you all for your feedback. Regarding the ideas with the green faction, this can be postponed to version 1.1.0, and as for the difficulty, I will try to think about it. (Since I am a very bad player, unfortunately, I cannot test the difficulty on myself)

You can keep improving the map until you retire))) there's always room for improvement. It would be nice to release a sequel))) and create a mod with at least 2 maps, because there's no point in playing through it again. Question for the author: So, what about the sequel?

I liked that in the beginning, you could escape from the enemy by running away, and they wouldn't chase you into your castle. When I realized that the enemy would eventually gather a larger army, I went to the Necropolis and summoned Nicholas. He evened out the odds))) I didn't find any artifacts, but I managed to take out the outpost. As for Nicholas, it's good that he can be killed, but you can also leave him alive. I sneaked past the blue player and headed north, while the blue player kept chasing the Necropolis player. Eventually, his time came. It's good when a map can be completed in several ways; otherwise, if you can't find G. Brother, you're doomed. It would be nice to have at least two alternative paths to consider. And more features like arenas would be great!

I believe the most sensible approach, if further development of the hard version is planned, would be to implement AI enhancements that scale with time. In other words, a player who tends to amass a large army should face an even greater challenge, making it extremely difficult to overcome in the later stages. Thus, time should be a factor working against the human player. The human player has the advantage of strategic development and combat tactics, while the AI has the advantage of army strength. And finally, give the AI access to second and third-level spells, so that there is at least some parity in the tactical aspect.

Muslimanen - a continuation will be made, but things don't happen that quickly. I made this map in about 2-3 weeks =)

INTACTO - I'm glad that this method also worked. Theoretically, I assumed that someone would use it =)

jjjoker777 - on hard difficulty, you can't amass an army anyway. Although, your option sounds good. I think we'll do it that way.
Regarding the spells - there are a lot of them, I don't know why the companion hero doesn't learn them. When I went to him, he had all the towers built, I don't know why he doesn't use them.

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By the way, I also completed it normally. I decided to level up a ballista from the very beginning, since I found the Ring of War Machines. In the end, the ballista could eliminate 1k level 1 creatures per attack series.
I even took a screenshot for memory (I even managed to break through the Haven's gate in its original form).

I finished the game. I played two versions – the first was a classic one without skeletons, completing all the quests (114 days), and the second was a direct assault, not wasting time searching for the leader's artifacts and destroying the human outpost with a large army (102 days, then 98 days). I think that if I hadn't focused on capturing the lands of the yellow humanoids, I could have reduced the time by another 5-10 days, but the time is lost – there are no saves before taking the third outpost, and starting over "is a pain" – at least for now. I really enjoyed the game. HUGE thanks to the author, I'm looking forward to the continuation of this and new maps. The only thing I would like to suggest is to add teleporters (for example, from the rubble to the mountain brother's chapel) so that you don't have to run around aimlessly from one end of the map to the other. You could put strong guards on these teleporters. P.S. I don't remember who, but someone on the site wrote that in Heroes 5, the orcs were made weak – I can't agree with this statement. The orcs are a very powerful and ambiguous race; they just have very unique abilities, and this map is a clear proof of that.

yes, things are going well with the skeletons =). It's like shooting people from a machine gun =)
but there won't be any more of that. I'll have to complete all the quests, although it doesn't really take much time.
As for the long walks, this is done to give the computer a chance to focus on building up its capital, because when it has many cities, it doesn't spend all its efforts on just one. And while you're wandering through the dungeon, the AI will at least prepare a little for the battle.

Thank you for the reviews and video files.

Added 2 hours 9 minutes ago
I'm working on version 1.1.0.
I've added something interesting, and I'll try to release it soon.

I'm also editing the hard version of the map.

Thank you very much for the interesting map! I really liked it. I look forward to the continuation.

Thank you for your feedback!

.........As for the long walks, it's done to give the AI a chance to focus on developing its capital city, because when it has many cities, it doesn't spend all its efforts on just one. And while you're wandering through the dungeon, the AI will at least have some time to prepare for the battle.

That's why you need to put a REALLY STRONG guard on the teleporters - either try to win (losing some of your troops) and teleport, or walk: D

Thanks again for the game. I rarely replay maps, but this one really caught my attention. I played the Hard version with this hero. It was significantly more interesting. For hardcore players, it might be a bit too easy, though. Let me explain: I'm not a hardcore player (I like to explore every corner, and I also enjoy wandering around with a nicely "grand" army). I finished it in 84 days, completed all the quests, visited everywhere (except for the unnecessary dungeon branch), and even captured the yellow structures – just for the sake of it. The only truly difficult part was at the beginning. Theoretically, if I hadn't played so cautiously, I could have finished it a week or two earlier. It's good that they removed the skeletons – it made me think about how to win on the arena without any losses. I also noticed what is probably a bug with the cutscenes: when the terrain is visible, it displays cubes of random resources and artifacts, as if in the editor – this noticeably spoils the atmosphere. Although, maybe there's no other way to do it – I don't know. I also thought that the AI doesn't use summons except at low levels, but it turned out that it doesn't use them at all, even on the Hero difficulty (I have save files of battles if needed) – that's strange.
I'll be waiting for the sequel. Thank you.

That's why you need to put a REALLY STRONG guard on the teleporters - either try to defeat it (losing some of your troops) and teleport, or walk. :D

Okay, then I'll add a two-sided structure there.

I also noticed a possible bug with the cutscenes.

Yes, I've noticed that too. I'll put a rock there. It's also in the cutscene of the battle with Nicholas, but it turned out to be a mess, and I need to make it look good with the main cutscenes.

the computer doesn't use call-to-arms spells.

And here, I don't know what to do. Actually, it sometimes uses the rage buff on units. Once, it even seemed to scare them. Why it doesn't do it, I honestly don't know. There are plenty of call-to-arms spells in the cities, and it will definitely have a couple in its spellbook.


As for the continuation, I don't have that much time right now. I will release version 1.1.0 on this map (there was only one small problem), and then I will start working on the second map. I have almost the entire design ready for it, and all the "features" are written down in a notebook.

Thank you for the kind feedback.

Regarding teleports: the defense should be absolutely impenetrable during the capture of Kur-Straik, because if there are skilled players like Lawkillers (though it's hard to imagine them without Darkness), they will immediately appear near the capital and well-developed cities, which are very poorly guarded. By the way, can the quest to find the mountain brother be activated without capturing 7 cities?

I made the teleport one-way =). This way, the computer can visit you if it wants. However, it will hardly be able to quickly capture a teleport guarded by Haven's elite troops.

Yes, the quest is activated simply by "looking at the wreckage."