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Hello everyone!
I registered to share my thoughts and express my gratitude to the author for creating an excellent map.
**samatron**, thank you, keep up the good work! I will gladly look for your other maps.
Now, some feedback:
1) The map is interesting because of its well-thought-out gradual development and the discovery of new locations, encounters with enemy heroes, and so on. I played through it at my usual 100% completion level and it took a long time (500+ in-game days). However, I'm not that skilled in terms of the intricacies of upgrading specific heroes and their magic (this refers to the comments about "thousands of liches" and "cloaks") - I tend to play in a "brute force" style, upgrading my chosen hero and gathering strong troops to defeat other players through sheer power. I started with Fafnir, and Andrian joined him later as a freed ally. Later, she fell in a difficult battle against Nagash. Although the army was considerable and the upgrades were also good (90/90), it didn't save her from 1200 spectral dragons, vampires, and liches. I didn't change the course of history and continued without her. Then, I gathered Fafnir's army and defeated the vile necromancer. Gradually, I approached the end: I found almost all the obelisks, learned the location, and opened the chest. I found a land with several different Castles and a passage from there, successfully reinforced the army, and moved on. There were only a few things left: Valeska's Castle appeared, and to pass through, I had to conquer the rust dragons. I moved on and found Mazaru, whom I defeated without much difficulty and claimed the Grail! As an alternative, I might try playing from the other end sometime - returning after the dragons and defeating Valeska.
2) There was a certain issue with the number of monsters, for example, a line of 9999+ azure dragons in a garrison, but I read about it here and the issue was resolved. Other seemingly difficult gameplay issues, such as legions of phoenixes and burial ground spirits on the paths and near tents, gradually disappeared as the hero and army developed - diamond golems, hell barons, naga queens, chaos hydras, and thunderbirds were very helpful in battle: I started clustering in a corner around the latter and cloning them, defending against the arrogant birds with their unpleasant fire shield with golems and other units, and in the end, no more than 1/3 of the troops were lost, and I gradually replenished them thanks to several "legion statues."
3) During the playthrough, I found a small flaw (critical only in the early and mid-game stages before the "Dimension Door") - an inaccessible island with azure dragons and a university near the "Towers" lands. There is no way to land on it. I think that if this is a bug, it may have already been fixed. If this is intentional, I don't even know why, because after serious battles and further exploration, this island is no longer needed - the hero is already upgraded in every way.
4) Overall, the map is well-made - there are plenty of resources, upgrade locations, and artifacts, so you can significantly upgrade 3-4 heroes using the "City Portal."
5) I was pleased that there were no unreasonable and aggressive enemies at the beginning (unlike some other maps) - here, the hero gradually finds them and eliminates them, everything is manageable.
6) At a certain stage, closer to the end, a glitch occurred with the money. This happened at around 85 million and almost immediately after greedy gnomes stole all the resources except gold. Then, the money simply went into the negative, and the numbers of units in the Castles were also distorted. I didn't notice it right away and had to go back several saves. I came up with a solution: I exchanged a lot of gold for resources, and also many millions went to the remaining blue and pink heroes. Later, I simply maintained the gold balance so that it did not exceed 50-60 million, and there were no more glitches until the end of the game.
If I remember anything else, I will write.
In conclusion: I got a lot of enjoyment from all the searches for the lost city. Thank you again!