Posts from Draconians war

Title: Draconian Wars
Map name: Draconians war
Two-level map: yes
Number of players: 6
Size: large (L)
Difficulty level: normal
Map author: Zoan
Map description: Six of the most powerful rulers of creatures decided to hold a competition. Only the strongest will survive. To demonstrate their superiority, each of them will start a war with a small village and a minimum number of troops. As great warriors, each of them had the right to build a powerful artifact in their city.

Mini-map image: provided as a link for those who don't want to see the map in advance
http://joxi.ru/uMtaUxjKTJB3DloG4zA

P.S. from the author: I don't know what number this map is in my collection, but I'm proud of it. I won't say that it's perfect (and that I'm unaware of any flaws), but I think playing it will still be enjoyable.
The highlight of my idea is that the castles initially have no structures, except for the Holy Grail. And something else =)
There are no events, timers, or predictors on the map.
Of the flaws, I know for sure that the orange player's computer, for some reason, doesn't want to move the hero, although the conditions are the same for everyone. If anyone figures out what the problem is, please let me know.
Otherwise, I didn't notice any errors during testing.
And also, there are 2 files in the archive - with allies and without.
I will be glad to hear opinions, wishes, advice, and indications of errors.

P.P.S. from the author: The landscape on the islands of the human, undead, orc, and dungeon castles has been changed. I fixed the error with the blue border guard.

It’s great that our ranks have been joined by a girl, and what’s more, a creator of her own maps! :)
I’ve just downloaded and quickly reviewed your map.
Here are my initial thoughts:
- It looks quite good: the graphics are neat, there are plenty of monsters, ;) there are also artifacts and places to visit.
From a balance perspective, I’m concerned that the terrain doesn’t suit some of the factions:
Pink - Necropolis - on an underground landscape (its native terrain is dirt);
Turquoise - Castle - on snow (its native terrain is grass);
Purple - Stronghold - on sand (its native terrain is stone);
Orange - Dungeon - on lava (its native terrain is underground).
I’m not saying this is bad, but it would be preferable to maintain consistency between the factions and their native terrains. Otherwise, some players will move faster across the map, and others will move slower, which will affect their development rates.
Also, players start with no troops other than those of their hero, and there are monsters everywhere. In this situation, the AI often “hesitates” to venture out :D and stays in its castle, even after accumulating a lot of money and troops! It would be better if there was some unguarded “easy pickings” :) (resources) near the city.
Having only one city per player and the absence of external dwellings slows down development, although this is partially compensated for by the Grail.
The blue border guard in cell 59,52 is positioned in such a way that it can be bypassed diagonally – it would be good to move it to the left.
Is the orange player the red one? :)
In any case, it’s great that you’re making your own maps! Keep it up, and then the new maps will be even better!

Marmot, thank you very much for both the greeting and the explanations :) :)
Regarding the lands for creatures, you are right, I didn't pay enough attention, and to be honest, I didn't even know about the slowdown when not on your own land (nevertheless, I will fix it)). Red player, yes - orange. I just like to call him that.))

And also, what do you mean by "dirt"? In my editor, I only have this: earth, sand, grass, snow, swamp, stones, Dungeon, stones, water, and rocks. Or did you mean earth by "dirt"?

I will move the Blue Guardian, thank you.))

Next, regarding the absence of troops, I did it this way on purpose. Having the Grail not only increases the number of creatures but also increases gold. This means that in the early stages, you don't need to worry about it. I myself replayed this map several times for some colors and recruited the first troops by buying heroes from the tavern. Initial hero monsters + hero monsters from the tavern = at least defeated monsters at the ore and wood mines. As for further development (and I managed to get around the island with this army), you can either wait until next week and buy more heroes, or engage in trade and exchange the gold given by the Grail, which is not very necessary at the moment, for resources that are in high demand. + now there is a choice, so to speak) because on the map there are only Dragon dwellings (rusty, crystal, azure, magic) and they are placed in such a way that the resource necessary for their purchase was also a priority for the Castle.
The only problem I see with this is: I made it so that the two islands have the same dragons, but only 2 pairs were available. Why? Because if you make a pair of Dragon Stones, there will be a Tower, and it has a cheat ability - to see the entire map at once; if you make a pair of Mercury, you put Elementals, and all spells are unlocked immediately. So I had to put 1 Castle with a priority on Mercury and 1 on Dragon Stones.
(And I didn't want to put Imps). In short, I tried to balance it

In the castle properties, you can not only build structures but also prohibit them. You can make the construction of a watchtower impossible by unchecking the "enable" box.

What do you mean by "dirt"? In my editor, I only see this: earth, sand, grass, snow, swamp, stones, Dungeon, stones, water, and tales. Or did you mean earth by "dirt"?

Yes, I just never paid attention to how it's written in the SoD version's editor menu, but in the standalone SoD/WoG editor, it's written as "dirt": see the screenshots.
Regarding Conflux, I agree with you: the doubled Phoenix growth with the Grail makes this city even more unbalanced. However, even with the Grail, you can prohibit individual spells in the city's properties – then the Guild of Mages will give all the spells, except for those you directly prohibit.

In the properties of castles, you can not only build structures but also prohibit them. You can make building a Watchtower impossible by unchecking the "enable" box.

lifemaker, we're not talking about the Watchtower here, but about the fact that the Grail in the Tower reveals the entire map to the city's owner (I hope you've heard about this before? ;)).

Marmot, luckily, I understood that, so I corrected everything correctly. Regarding spells in the Conflux, the issue isn't that some spells are forbidden, but rather that a hero only needs to max out their Wisdom, learn the basic schools of magic (which can be learned even in a town), and acquire the corresponding skill – and that's it; a "cheated" hero with all the spells is ready. This is what I didn't want, because all other heroes should gradually acquire their spellbooks.

lifemaker, you see, I wanted each castle to maximize its potential, but in the Tower and Conflux, they become overpowered.

I played the map created by Zoan. How do you envision the gameplay at the start? Should we exchange gold for resources at the market, or should we strengthen our heroes in the tavern and advance through battles? If it's the first option, it's not very fun to spend days doing nothing. If it's the second option, why does it become so easy later on? I played until I defeated the strongest opponents, saw that the rivals were far behind, and then stopped. I don't like finishing games that I've already won. I apologize if there's some hidden twist at the end that I missed. From what I've seen, everything works. I have no complaints about the presence of bugs. However, the start raises many questions, although maybe I just didn't notice something.

Starting as Haven didn't present any particular problems; it developed quickly, and all opponents were lagging behind; the Elven Castle didn't develop at all. I managed to explore the entire sea, and the opponents didn't have time to gather anything. I bought various dragons – azure and rusty ones. This was my second attempt to play on this map.
The first time, I tried playing as the Elven Castle, which was more challenging. The Human Castle was also well-developed, and the others were doing well too, but I still won.

Ser07700, I didn't quite understand what you meant by "seeds"). In that situation, I just bought heroes from the tavern and went to fight monsters.
I'm not a very good player, so it's not easy for me to win. *But you wrote it in such a way that now I think you completed it in no time.*

alextet, sometimes this happens with the AI for some reason. In my case, the Sylvan faction developed successfully when I was playing. But the Dungeon faction just stood still. So, I don't know what to do about it.