Posts from The hero returns.

Oh, a new map ;) I'll try playing it.

Added 22 minutes later
Something's wrong, it won't download... It complains about an unexpected end of the archive. It's probably due to my internet connection...

Well, I gave it a try... Knowing the author, I immediately started on recruit difficulty... I captured the Dungeon Castle, started developing the Dungeon and freeing allies - and suddenly, Winraell appears with a decent-sized army... I thought that at least the 2 months promised in one of the videos would be peaceful...
What I liked:
A new, interesting map with beautiful cutscenes - in the current situation where there's almost nothing to play, it's a great gift.
What I didn't like:
1) I don't like leveling up multiple heroes at once. Previous maps pleased me (in my opinion!) precisely because the hero was a lone wolf.
2) Honestly, the hassle with learning spells didn't appeal to me. The main hero spends time traveling to the library, and the others can only be taught through the second hero, etc....
Okay, I'll look for a save file that allows me to predict the elf's appearance - the portal to the castle, as I understand it, will appear, but not soon...
By the way, a suggestion: maybe put a scroll with a portal somewhere along the way to the Dungeon Castle - guarded, of course?

To be honest, I didn't plan on adding a portal to the castle, but I might. It's very important for me to know what the difficulty level of the map is and whether it's passable. I tried to make it challenging, but not too difficult. There are many tactical variations; maybe one of them will help.

Added 1 minute ago
Yes, and you don't have to go to the library every time, but rather from time to time. The runes won't disappear.

Okay, I'm playing, I'll write more details later, for now, here are some ideas and comments:

1) Maybe infinite turns in the library? Using the method of "as long as the hero is in the region"?

2) After Raillag was freed, he teleported to the right place, but underground. It would be better to change the floor from 1 to 0 ;)

Added 1 hour 43 minutes ago
Okay, here are a few more comments:

3) When approaching the Necromancer outpost, they ask for resources even before the cutscene plays. I captured the outpost, and only then did I realize why I had to do it.
4) If you pick up two runes with two heroes, Sigrif will get stuck in the library, because the script remembers his last coordinates, and they are already in the hall ;)
5) I didn't understand if there was any help with the Necromancer's ultimate weapon; it seems that the army in the garrison remained as it was.
6) Why is there such a long quest with the Sphinx? I didn't wait to see what would happen, even though I captured the mines.
7) Why is there a Prophet's hut near Mount Tieru? It doesn't work, "there is no one there"...

In general, I completed the map as a Warrior. I played with all the heroes equally, so I leveled them all up to about level 30. Sigrif to level 33.
At the start, I immediately found a Dungeon, quickly finished with the Orange player, who didn't even have time to defend his city. I ran around the map with Tralsai, exploring.
I built a city, hired a hero there, who then finished off the Orange player. That hero went to the southern exit of the Dungeon, Sigrif accidentally freed a hero from prison in the east, and he went to the eastern exit, and the freed heroine went to the northern exit (I don't remember anymore, or after Sigrif).
In general, the Elves clearly didn't expect such an attack from three sides. There was almost no army in the cities, and the heroes were lost somewhere in the forests. I captured two cities, and then it was just a normal exploration of the map, searching for keys and runes. I found Raillag, who then carried resources to the Necromancer's Castle, which I got with Tralsai, who was nearby.
There were no particular difficulties. At the end, I found a third city, also a weak one, and the hired hero bought the city's army and killed the elves hiding in the forests near the factories, as a rule.
Then, I had to waste time returning to the Dungeon -- I missed one of the keys. However, Tralsai stood near the Prophet, received quests, and Sigrif was already running around the treasuries, etc., Raillag was collecting resources for the Necromancer's weapon, and I sent the hired hero to the Necropolis so that he could immediately give the resources there.
At this pace, I simultaneously completed these two quests, but a Human appeared. He, the scoundrel, took two castles from me while I was busy crushing him with Sigrif. It turned out well, because I also sent the hired hero to the castle for the army, then gave it to Sigrif, and he went to conquer the capital.
I broke through both outposts without problems, because I got the Ring of Dominion ;) The stats were ~= 100, only the defense was a little lower, 70. Faelan behaved extremely inadequately, sometimes he sat in the castle, and then attacked me. The battle was extremely difficult, and I finally defeated him on the fifth try, losing three-quarters of my army -- I'm not good at playing as Elves.
Thank you for the map, this time it turned out to be more dynamic ;)

4) Thanks, I didn't know about the portal back. What's the idea behind it? The first video glitched a bit at the beginning, or rather, it was lagging, then it worked normally. The only thing is, I had a dangerous mod installed that replaced green objects with flames, so it was all on fire, and then it seemed to work normally ;)

4) Thanks, I didn't know about the portal back.

What's the idea behind it?

The first video glitched a bit at the beginning, or rather, it lagged, then it was fine. The only thing is, I had a dangerous mod installed that replaced green objects with flames, so it was all on fire, and then it seemed to work normally ;)

My video was running at 1 Hz :mad: So much crowd - it's unnecessary.
This is, of course, just my humble opinion. :)