Posts from The Hero's Path

What exactly makes you dislike the Elves? You can easily create a traditional Dark Elf warrior with Furies/Lizards/Witches.

Jack is a human (a hero from the human race, which is inherently good), therefore, under his command, the Darklings (an inherently evil race) will have lower morale than under the command of, say, Railag or Letus.
And in the early stages, he has to be trained in the traditions of a human hero - the starting units are too specific and require certain skills - primarily physical attributes: attack and morale. If there was a Dark Elf at hand with his Rangers, he would start by learning Darkness or Chaos, as well as magic and witchcraft. Letus, for example, can clear out quite decent garrisons without losses in the early stages of development using only Plague, while Rangers can only hide.
And by the time you get to Furies, Lizards, and Witches, you have to go through several powerful garrisons with only Archers and Paladins, and then, as they say, "don't change horses midstream."

Added after 3 hours 0 minutes
P.S. If there was a bandit basement in the starting city of humans, where you could initially recruit alternative units such as Rangers, Furies, Riders, and Witches (even at the expense of the ability to recruit these units elsewhere). Then you could think about a complete change of orientation :rolleyes:
And you could put a boss in charge of this bandit den (a kind of alternative mayor, a gangster like the one who asks you to deliver a package, who could have his own quests)

I will consider the possibility of adding more creature shops. As for new quests, I don't plan to add any for now, judging by player feedback and the current number of quests, which is already more than enough; some are even left uncompleted or unfinished.

I don't plan to add new quests for now, judging by player feedback and the current number of quests, there are already too many, and some remain uncompleted or unfinished.

In my opinion, quests are very useful in the early stages of development when there is a catastrophic shortage of money for development and buying new creatures, but later, especially after you've passed the mountains, they really become irrelevant - it's just a waste of time (both in-game and real time). It's still worth fighting for some serious artifacts, but there's already enough money.

I hope that less experienced players will face a financial deficit for a longer period. After all, completing quests is the foundation of any role-playing game.

I played through it for the first time as a Knight. I decided to replay it as a Hero, aiming for a flawless victory (no losses at all). It took me about 18 months. The most difficult battle was breaking through the swarm of jumping demons on the road to the Elven city – they kept trying to jump towards the archers, and there was nothing to revive them with at that moment, and retreating was not an option – gold resources were depleted. After that, it became easier. Attached is the final battle with the demon lord and the army at the end of the game. The hero's skills are: Morale (Empathy), Darkness, Light (Storm Wind), Sorcery (Wisdom, Fluctuating Mana), Logistics (Keen Mind). P.S. IMHO, the alchemy bonuses need to be toned down somehow – perhaps by introducing a usage limit. Otherwise, a hyper-super-puper lord of the underworld becomes no more frightening than a milk pig under such circumstances – not to mention ordinary neutral creatures.

In my opinion, the alchemy bonuses need to be toned down somehow – perhaps by introducing a limit on their use.

I had similar thoughts when testing, but I didn't get around to implementing it at the time. Something like reducing the effectiveness of potions consumed in quick succession – each subsequent potion provides less and less benefit. And the same applies to rune magic.

The most difficult battle is breaking through the swarm of jumping demons on the road to the elven city.

Have you tried alternative routes? There seem to be skeletons near the Great Tree, and if you defeat them, or the executioners a little earlier, you can bypass the Thieves' Guild from the south and reach Winded.

There are skeletons near the Great Tree; if you defeat them, or the Executioners.

Unfortunately, it's impossible. The goal was to complete the entire map with the hero without any losses. The skeletons will shoot at my archers at least once before the paladins reach them, and the Executioners are fast – it's impossible to block them without losses. Below is the hero's stats and final equipment. I was too lazy to do some of the quests again.
P.S. I gave Alex the Armor of the Forgotten Hero, but it still doesn't fit him! He's gotten quite chubby on carrots. :D

A commendable playthrough. Is it your hobby to complete maps without any losses?

I gave Alex the armor of a forgotten hero, but it's still too tight for him!

He's a simple hero; whether it's a relic or a rusty breastplate, anything will do for him.

A worthy walkthrough for a worthy map:smile20: I also enjoy playing maps with a hero who suffers minimal losses – I often replay key battles to achieve the best possible result. In general, I prefer playing with a single hero, without a bunch of supporting units, so maps like this are perfect for me. Here, there's unlimited time, no active enemies, and some nice bonuses in the form of runes of light and alchemy – the map allows you to minimize losses to zero if you survive the initial period (as well as the lumberjacking for catapults).
As for Alex, I thought the quest was poorly executed, and he complained that the armor was too tight, so I gave him the armor of a forgotten hero; luckily, I had a second one.

I'm at a loss as to where the second set of armor could be found. Alex's reward depends on the set of artifacts given (just in case you didn't notice), but not on the armor itself.

The demon lord took it. The armor is also part of the "set of issued artifacts." I rewarded him with 40 units of each herb.
Triangulation 120, 25; 47, 27; 85, 89. for 50k.

Rewarded with 40 units of each herb.

This means he liked it, and won't give any more.

Decided to replay the game from the beginning, using the licensed version of Heroes. All the bugs disappeared. To be honest, before this map, my favorite was "Journey." Now, it's "Path of the Hero." Huge respect to the author! It's a pity that there won't be a sequel... Since the map will be updated, I'll post my suggestions and inaccuracies that I encountered while playing the GAME: 1. The old shipwreck near the Asylum in Archilde cannot be picked up (but maybe that's intentional). 2. At least for me, the exits from the Blackrock, Necromancer, and Devil caves don't work. All the others work normally. 3. The "Summon Ship" spell – if you don't buy it from the Elf in time and use her for the Mage Guild, you won't find it anywhere else => it's impossible to complete the Khan's quest "Incident on the River." I tried to buy a ship at the shipyard on the other side of the bridge, sailed around, sailed around – the elementals still didn't appear... 4. I agree with the suggestion that something needs to be done with the potions. There are many of them in the shops, the prices are low, and the effect is amazing. There is no incentive to develop alchemy. I think that the prices in the shops should be 10 times higher, while reducing the strength of the potions. 5. Again, my opinion is that a dialogue should be added when attacking Captain Bonivur, about what a scoundrel he is, etc. And finally, here are my achievements, which show that it is quite possible to complete the game in a year (approximately 50 days of this game), if you first buy logistics and then replace it with leadership from the mentor (the drop rate is very high).

_CB_, and I also respect you for your feedback.

The exits from the Black Mire caves, the Necromancer's, and the Devil's lairs don't work.

The exits there are script-based, and the game behaves a bit strangely because of this – when hovering over the exit, instead of the usual cursor, some other cursor appears, but if you don't pay attention to this and double-click it as usual, it should work.

Something needs to be done about the potions. There are many of them in the shops, the prices are very low, and they are very powerful.

For some reason, it seemed to me that a few thousand for a potion for one battle is even a lot. Okay, we'll increase the prices. And, since playing without losses has become a tradition, I have an idea to increase the number of enemy creatures for Veteran/Hero to 150%/200% instead of the current 125%/150%. Or, in your opinion, will this change little, and it is better to move in the direction of increasing the cost of creatures and the like? P.S. I apologize that I am only promising an update; I was so busy with the map that I wanted to take a couple of months off from it after the release.

In my opinion, potions shouldn't be sold at all, regardless of the price, because in the later stages of the game, the amount of money doesn't matter – you can earn as much as you want from bank interest, races, and battles. Potions should be given as rewards for completing quests and tasks in hunter guilds (and those found on corpses), so that their quantity is limited and it wouldn't be tempting to use them in every battle, but only when absolutely necessary.
The same applies to potion ingredients (or penalize potion crafting with a loss of in-game time).
Then quests will remain relevant throughout the entire game.
By the way, it would also be good to introduce a penalty for using "Hour of Power" and "Hour of Resistance," similar to the penalty for "Hour of Swiftness."
And the selling prices for resources should also be increased, while the buying prices should be lowered, and the exchange rates for resources should be made stricter.

P.S. By the way, having a free shipyard in an elven city makes the quest to restore the shipyard in the imperial city completely irrelevant.