Posts from Duel map: "Summon Ship".

Title: Summon Ship
Size: 108x108 (L)
Version: SoD
Language: Russian
Number of players: 4 players/computer (2 humans and 2 computers)
Description: You, one of four rulers, have decided to find a way to destroy your neighbors.
Author: Max-Moro
Development time: 3 months
Status: v1.1 (08.09.2013)



This is a large duel map designed for long online matches. It is completely symmetrical. There are 2 computer players that do not attack each other and cannot enter the starting zones of the human players. The human players will have to fight the computer players first, and then fight each other to achieve complete victory.

The map was created back in 2004. Now, in 2013, I remembered it and decided to make it publicly available. With the advent of streaming, I wanted to see at least one game on it played by pro players. Although, it may not be very suitable for this in its current form. In any case, if you are tired of too much randomness, it is worth remembering the past and trying to play on this fixed map.

The map will be refined and improved based on the feedback received, if possible.

Download

The map is tough... I'm definitely not a pro, but rather a mediocre Heroes 3 fan =)
It's well-made, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm still just playing and exploring the map. I'm playing offline, 1 vs. 3 AI opponents on 130% difficulty. I haven't finished it yet; it's definitely designed for a long, drawn-out game...
However, the game is so long that some of the monsters on the map become too numerous, making it almost impossible or too costly to get past them...
It's really difficult for one player to play on this map; it's much more interesting and easier for two players (especially if they agree not to attack each other until the AI opponents are defeated).

Added 15 hours 41 minutes ago
I'll try to express my opinion about some of the "problems" on the map:
- Random monsters, levels 4-6, guarding the passages to neutral castles and the teleports to the Dungeon. They're too strong, especially considering that you can only reach them in months 2-4, when there will be even more of them. If you manage to break through such a horde, the losses will be great, and you'll have to wait until you can gather a decent army again...
- The AI alliance in the Dungeon is tricky. It's not easy to reach them quickly; they develop peacefully underground, and then they emerge, and they emerge as super-powerful, with a large army. Moreover, the AI player controlling the blue faction is far behind and loses to the Dungeon AI in every way...
- Also, a few words about the "green" and "brown" factions: I don't know how, but they defeat legions, thousands, and hordes of random creatures, breaking through and capturing random cities quite easily and with almost no losses. They somehow gain levels incredibly quickly...
I don't know how, but by the time my heroes or the blue AI's heroes (with normal development) meet them, these super-strong heroes have primary skills above 50 each, and an army where the number of level 7 creatures exceeds 50, and there are 2-3 such heroes....
- As for the blue faction, I assume it's designed for a human player, but I tried an offline game and chose the AI. I gave it Necropolis and Conflux, tried all the castle options, but it still can't develop to the level of the "green" and "brown" factions...
- The fact that these super-strong AI won't reach the starting territory of the player is very, very good...
- The only thing you can do on this map is break into the Dungeon, take the artifact, get the ability to summon a ship, sail across, and destroy the blue or red faction, respectively...
- A huge plus is that the AI can't and won't reach the starting territory of the red and blue factions, which effectively means that defeat is impossible. Moreover, in all the games I've played on this map, as the red faction and as the blue faction, the AI player has never managed to defeat the "brown" and "green" factions....
Currently, there are two saves that are extremely unsuccessful, after a series of difficult battles with the AI and monsters....
Results of the game on the boat, 130%: red, playing as Fortress, it's already the 12th month, all the cities on the map, except for the starting one, are occupied by the green and brown factions. The blue faction hasn't gone far from me; it's also sitting behind its walls and keeping quiet... I think I'll restart the game because there are no longer any conditions for the green and brown factions to win. The maximum I could do was capture two cities in the Dungeon from the brown faction, capture 5 neutral cities, and develop several heroes, but in the end, by the 12th month, everything except the starting city was lost....
The second game as the blue faction: I played as Necropolis, got the Cursed Armor, but it was still in vain, and these two AI factions are 1.5-2 times stronger in terms of hero skills and several times stronger in terms of troops (there was one Inferno hero here with an 81-level Devil and hundreds of others, with attack and defense of 50)....
These are all my observations and thoughts. I think that the "green" and "brown" factions should be weakened somehow (but if they fight each other, that's also bad, because in the end, there will be one very strong enemy)...
The AI playing as the blue faction didn't surprise me in any way; it played as the AI usually does....
Either I'm such a noob and can't do anything, or something has really been messed up with the monsters and these Dungeon AI

no need to change anything, everything is fine
victory in the 11th month, played as the Fortress
the map is very long, and towards the end, the labyrinths and teleporters become tedious.

yes, sorry, I understand now, I figured it out, the map is excellent, it's exactly what I needed, the main thing is not to delay the invasion of the Dungeon too much...
I won on a boat with stats 12-1-5...

Basically, I started with an overpowered Necropolis faction with 200% bonuses. As you can see from the screenshot, on day 312, I encountered an opponent. The next day, I went to the metro and recruited a cartographer. The opponents' armies were weak. After a week, I captured both brown castles and stopped playing because it became too easy. Oh yeah, I also collected the Amulet of the Dead or something like that, and then even strong units like 600+ Crusaders were easily defeated without any losses, and about 85-90% of them were resurrected as skeletons.

Judging by your feedback, it's an interesting map. Perhaps I'll play it next. Random castles create the opportunity to use various strategies that lead to victory. A long and difficult game isn't a bad thing; it provides an opportunity to improve your skills in some areas.

Is the third month a long and difficult game? :D

Lider1, of course not, I meant reports like these:

victory on month 11

won on a ship on 12-1-5

Usually, I complete "medium" XL maps with a Dungeon in about 6 months; if it's a "piece of cake," it takes 4 months, and if there's a lot of "meat" and powerful enemies, it takes 9-12 months. The game can also be prolonged if I want to capture all the neutral castles and find the Grail – then I have to tediously search the outskirts for "hidden" obelisks or teleporters.

Thank you for the feedback!

Basically, I started with an overpowered Necromancer with 200%...

Naturally, like any large and lengthy map, this one also suffers from all the typical balance issues inherent in SoD and is probably more suitable for WT or for tournament rules using XL templates.

But I am against map creators strictly banning Necromancy, the Red Sphere, marine artifacts, certain heroes, etc., in the map parameters. This is still a matter of the game version and specific tournament rules and agreements: some people want to and play SoD according to well-thought-out rules, while others want to and play WT; it's a matter of taste.

I will say right away that the map is not suitable for rules that allow Necromancy to be upgraded as the last skill. You will be safe for a long time and get a level 20 hero when there are still many neutral creatures on the map. Honestly, I don't know how to balance Necromancy here without completely removing it.

the map is very long, towards the end, due to the labyrinths and teleports, it becomes tedious

Yes, I agree. If the goal is to capture all the castles, it turns into a nightmare. Moreover, the computer player is often quite strong, and splitting the army becomes dangerous.
I would like the victory to be awarded by capturing the opponent's starting castle, either red or blue, but, unfortunately, this is not possible in the SoD map editor.

- regarding blue, as I understand it, it is designed for the blue player to also be a human, but I set up an offline game and chose the computer, gave it Necromancer and Conflux, tried all the castle options, but it still cannot develop to the level of "green" and "brown"...

Yes, the surface players should be controlled by humans, not AI. You can probably play a hotseat game with your girlfriend and edit the map parameters, allowing her to play as brown or green. :D It is really easier to develop there than on the surface.

Max-Moro, overall, great job, it's an excellent map. Do you have any other maps? If so, why don't you make them available for everyone?

I confirm: the map is very good! :smile20: I've played through about half of it now (just reached the first enemy at the top). I'll write a detailed review when I finish.
I agree with bolotnik that if you have more maps, feel free to post them! ;)

...do you have any other maps, and if so, why don't you make them available to the public?

Unfortunately, this is all I had.
I made this map back in the late years of school. And at that age, it's very important for continuing the creative process to have someone support and positively evaluate the results of your work. (just like in this thread :o )

But since I didn't upload it correctly back then, I just sent it to the HeroesPortal portal (http://www.heroesportal.net/maps.php?user=3154), so I didn't get much feedback. And I completely forgot about it. I only remembered it now, when I stumbled upon interesting streams about Heroes of Might and Magic III.

Having finished playing this map, I want to provide detailed feedback, as it deserves it. Overall, the map is quite good, but there are a few points to note. So, let's go through everything in order. Strengths of the map: - a large number of resources, artifacts, monsters, and locations to visit; - the enemy's "home" zone is inaccessible to us; the player can develop peacefully in the early stages, and even later, in case of danger, their heroes can always find shelter there; - AI enemies that become very strong after some time (Green and Brown), and battles with them can be challenging and interesting. Weaknesses, comments, suggestions: - City Portal is forbidden. Usually, on large maps, authors disable Flight, Dimension Door, and Angel Wings so that a player who acquires them doesn't win too easily and quickly (they don't have to fight guards, search for and visit tents, complete guardian quests, etc.). This is perfectly reasonable. As for the City Portal, its absence on large maps inevitably leads to prolonging the game, often significantly (by 2-3 times!): everyone who has played on such maps knows how long it takes to travel from one end of the map to the other; if a strong hero is alone and most combat tasks have to be solved only by him, such journeys will be repeated! Therefore, it turns out that it takes 10-12 months to complete the map. Moreover, in the finale, the player will simply spend a long and tedious time chasing enemy "roaches" that are running away from him, because they can no longer offer serious resistance and only strive to survive. This drawback is exacerbated by the following... - Shackles of War are forbidden. This means that if you fail to kill an enemy hero, and he escapes from the battlefield, you will have to fight him again. (Yes, I understand that both of these restrictions are set by the author intentionally so that the AI player, who has developed too strongly, does not make the victory of the human player unattainable if he is not playing well enough). - Neutral towns in the northeast and southwest zones are located too close to each other. This is bad in combination with the following circumstance: - the entrances to one-way monoliths leading from enemy towns (which are also neutral at first) are located very close to them, and the exits are located near neutral towns on the surface. As a result, the enemy hero jumps out of the city, jumps into the teleport, and captures a town on the surface in one day! And in combination with the absence of the City Portal, this leads to the fact that the player's main hero is forced to constantly rush diagonally, suppressing enemy roaches! - perhaps it only happened in my specific case, but Brown becomes too strong compared to the other players because the most powerful artifacts are located on his territory: Helmet of Divine Enlightenment, Sword of Justice, and Necklace of Divine Grace (Sandals of Saint are also there, but the named 3 were already with Brown's main hero when I defeated him). Such an imbalance is undesirable. Therefore, to make the map even better, it is desirable to: - place the neutral towns further apart from each other; - move the entrances and exits of one-way monoliths away from the towns; - place the artifacts so that the players' opportunities are more balanced. Also, it might be nice to make it so that Green and Brown can not only enter each other's lands through the dungeon and fight each other (provided that their capabilities are balanced), but also pass through the center diagonally on the surface (from southwest to northeast). This can be done with border gates and tents. My playthrough After thinking about what difficulty level would be best to play on, I decided to choose "High" (130%) for the first time. And, as I later became convinced, this was the right choice (I will explain why below). I chose random towns and gold for everyone as a bonus. The distribution turned out like this: Red (me) - Castle, Blue - Rampart, Brown - Castle, Green - Tower. Since the town does not have a Fort at the start, it is not worth playing on a difficulty level higher than "High": this will prolong the early stage and lead to a significant lag of the human player behind the AI opponents, who do not experience (at difficulties of 160%-200%) a lack of resources. Having assessed the prospects of the starting heroes, I decided to hire Grindan with Wisdom, Earth Magic, +350 gold per day, after seeing him in the tavern. And a little later, I decided that he would become the main hero - and I was not mistaken, as it became clear later! His Earth Magic soon leveled up to expert, which allowed him to defeat guards in the early stages with Slow and arrows with almost no losses. By the way, a rare case: I was lucky again with the secondary skills - they all turned out to be valuable, including all 4 schools of magic! True, as with all mages, at first, only Strength and Knowledge grew, and Attack and Defense remained at zero, but soon magic became one of the most important roles. After some time, having explored about half of my starting area, I saw something valuable: in different places were the components of the Well of Magic - this is a necessary thing for a mage hero! Before I assembled the Well, I had to return to the city, spending several days on the road, just to replenish my mana. With a portable Well, archangels, the Clone spell, and expert water magic, I could destroy very serious groups of monsters without taking losses and pick up the "goodies" guarded by them. And a little later, after looting the Pyramid, I learned Summon Elementals of Water. When Grindan became strong enough and had a large mana reserve, he could already fight neutrals with almost no army, using the forces of summoned elementals. And only for battles with enemies was an army necessary. Taking advantage of this, I transferred almost all the troops to Sorcha and started "leveling" her. This was a wise move: on this map, one hero cannot handle all the tasks at the same time. The enemies appeared on the surface at the very beginning of the 4th month, and Green and Brown appeared almost simultaneously! Giving all the troops to Grindan, I started to defend myself. I will not describe everything in detail. All combat tasks were performed by Grindan and Sorcha, the other heroes were only "supporting". Having descended into the dungeon, I almost immediately stumbled upon a Cartographer, who opened the entire underground world for me; of course, this saved me from long wanderings (although View Air and Earth also clearly showed where to go, but it was much more convenient). One unclear thing that I discovered during the playthrough: Blue for some reason did not want to explore and "clear" his zone: viewing the earth showed that he had only captured a mine and a sawmill, and the information in the tavern showed that his primary skills had barely increased compared to the starting ones. It would be good to figure this out - why is he so timid? (Having reached his lair, I made sure that there were no mega-monsters on the way that would prevent him from walking around). So, victory came on the 6th month, 2nd week, 5th day (152 days, 282 points). For a 2-level L-map, this is a quite adequate completion time (remember, with "high" difficulty).

I don't know who found it difficult here. I always choose Necropolis when I hear "difficult map" :D I'm also looking at Rimpel :D, but he played more for speed, and I play for enjoyment.
On map 313, there are 90 Lord Vampires, 4350 skeletons, and 4 angels. Who can stand against that? This was on the respawn point on the lower left. I collected skeletons with one hero on auto-battle. I don't even feel like finishing it. It's too easy.

They need to fix Necromancer somehow ;)

Honestly, I don't know how to balance Necromancy without completely removing it.

So, think about it :D

Does anyone have "Duel" maps (starting hero, money, resources, built castle, bought units according to their preference, played a battle against an opponent)? And we play, for example, until 3 wins.
Something like this, but a normal one:
http://yadi.sk/d/Z1o4Z9NY8shHG