Posts from Heart of the Volcano

MasteR, thank you for the map! It made a couple of cold Moscow summer evenings more enjoyable) The path to the "heart" is beautiful, no doubt about it) But the "heart" itself didn't impress me. To be honest, I expected something more interesting and new from the author. That's what kept my interest in the game. I think, dear MasteR, you should think about this)

The artifact was decent in the first version. The map itself seems a bit too large, in my opinion. I started playing, disabled autosave, went to get the artifact, captured two cities, and then I kind of lost interest, and the game crashed, so I didn't feel like replaying. Also, it would probably be better to define the factions right away so that the terrain locations correspond to them.

Could you provide more details? What difficulty level was the game played on? How many opponents were there? Was it against AI or a human player? Is there an AI mod installed?

I played as Humans with the Warrior class. I got lucky with the heroes. My starting hero was Gordrik, and Frida with "Vengeance" joined him right away. The following week, Isabel joined.
My opponents were Elves (blue), Humans (yellow), and two Orcish towns.
I was playing against the AI. Regarding mods, which one are you referring to?
Overall, the map is interesting, and there are plenty of places to explore, but due to its size, it takes a long time to load and crashes.
Once you capture artifacts and two towns, the interest fades, especially since the neutrals become extremely strong by that time.
By the way, the two Orcs didn't fight each other for some reason?

I played as a human hero against the Dungeon faction (considering them a serious opponent) and completed the map in 17 weeks. To be honest, my impressions weren't the best: it's too straightforward (I'm not talking about the landscape), so because of the map's size, it gets a bit tedious. By the way, I never made it to the Dungeon. In my opinion, adding significantly more useful objects (skills, money, etc.) and artifacts and chests with experience (which is very important at the beginning of the game) would liven up and diversify the map.

During a period when the summer slumber is in full swing, the appearance of a new map is a pleasant surprise. For this alone, the author deserves the warmest words of gratitude. However, I won't praise too much. To a large extent, the map did not live up to my expectations. But, let's go through everything in order. An undeniable advantage of the map is that, despite its size, it runs very smoothly: the AI doesn't lag during its turn, there are practically no crashes, and saves load correctly. I liked the non-trivial landscape – it's beautiful. But the routes for movement on the map are poorly designed (I agree with Antik). The huge Dungeon is completely non-functional. You can only go there out of curiosity. This map, to a large extent, seemed to me like an expanded version of "Old Friends." Strategically, whoever reaches the center first wins. This greatly limits the choice of starting heroes. Another point: mines are scattered over a very large area, with serious protection. In this situation, a number of castles turn out to be in an extremely unfavorable position (no wonder most of those who wrote comments played as Humans). I played a couple of times with the Human castle, and even without capturing a couple of mines, I won without any problems. And when I decided to play as Dwarves on the same map, it was utter misery. I also didn't like the fact that the dolmens of knowledge, which at least somehow ease the start, turned out to be scattered at a great distance from the castle. Some are in an area where the hero already arrives with a high level and 1000 experience points – this is not significant help. The protection of the dolmens is excessive. Just like the protection of the "hotabych" – hundreds of Arcat/Lava dragons. If your hero is capable of breaking through them without serious losses, retraining him will only spoil him. In my opinion, the map lacks mills and other small things to provide random freebies.

I played the updated version of the map. For the most part, the changes have improved it. The space is used much better. Now, by the end of the game, about 3/4 of the map area is revealed. The added chests, mill, and other small details have enlivened the starting area. The game time has increased by 1.5-2 months. The hero's usefulness rating has changed. (I played with the human castle again). In the previous version of the map, Dugald seemed preferable, but in the updated version, Rutger is in a league of his own. Now, for the downsides. The map has become significantly more prone to glitches. This isn't a major problem yet, but the trend is not good. The map still favors certain races (humans, orcs, undead, elves). In my opinion, everything has become too drawn out, although many will find this arrangement to be good. For a long time, no opponents are visible, then you manage to find them, but again, there's a problem: with Rutger, all the computer heroes refused to fight. They ran away on the first turn. The AI doesn't develop well. It is reluctant to capture the outer dwellings and prefers not to touch most of the resource guards on its territory. As a result, even my secondary heroes were stronger than the AI heroes. I didn't like the underground river. It's already long, and now there's also sailing - embarking/disembarking. For this reason, I didn't want to visit the central island at all - the action takes place away from it. And killing a couple of hundred lava dragons is much more troublesome than fighting any of the AI heroes. (And this island is the core of the map's concept). I think there is potential for editing here. Thank you to the author for the map.

I can create a version where 1 player faces 4 in an alliance.

In my opinion, this map has great potential as a "single-player" map. It's too large for "multiplayer." The presence of a super artifact and a very beautiful landscape aren't that important in "multiplayer"; it's more about the balance of power. And to create a good "single-player" map, it's missing just a little: leave one castle for the player to choose, and give the rest to the computer with an easier start, perhaps giving it heroes with some initial skills for development.