Posts from The Hero's Path Auto-translated

The Temptresses seem too powerful to me – they can take control of your main units and cause an apocalypse in your rear. Although, maybe that's for the best. :)
By the way, I can simply add the Traveler's Boots to the shops for sale, possibly with a slightly reduced drop chance – then, if you regularly check the shops, you can get them even in the early stages.

I wanted to ask, is "Empathy" somehow prohibited on the map?
Many times in Hotabych, before flying to the demon's mountain, I forgot the "Leadership" components in various combinations and had to research them again, naturally keeping "Diplomacy", because it is a mandatory requirement for "Empathy". But the game persistently suggests "Treasury" and "Recruit", and sometimes instead of "Treasury", it offers "Aura of Swiftness" as a derivative of "Recruit", but "Empathy", as a derivative of "Diplomacy", never appears. :eek:
If "Empathy" is indeed prohibited, that's a pity, because in the final battle, it could have been used to really mess with the super boss. :rolleyes:

P.S. Regarding Black Orc, why kill her? :confused: She just sits in her Dungeon with a bunch of dwarves, and let her sit. She doesn't get involved in fights, she gives dragons at a reasonable price, which is very helpful at the beginning of the game, and defeating her at that moment is not possible. And wasting time in the final stages of the game to return to her cave and kill her just to dig out a couple of roots from under her throne and get 150 experience points - IMHO - is not worthwhile.
By the way, her treasure is also guarded, in my opinion, unnecessarily - in the early stages of the game (when the guarded treasures are attractive enough), it makes no sense to go there because you'll get beaten, and in the later stages, it also makes no sense because there is nothing that could interest a high-level player.

P.S.S. Regarding the "Boots of Travel", yes, it's a great artifact, it's a pity that it can't be obtained right away

Is "Empathy" prohibited on the map?

Unfortunately, skills cannot be prohibited. A Warlock needs "Guardian of Secrets" from education to use Empathy; perhaps the problem lies there?

P.S. Regarding Blackthorn, why kill her?

There are several options:
1) As a matter of principle, as a negative character.
2) If you want to take an alternative path to the dragon quest and earn about 30,000 more gold, albeit a bit later.
3) In pursuit of dragon artifacts, if you know that some of them are scattered among the enemy heroes.

There are several options here:
1) As a matter of principle, as a negative character.
2) If you want to take an alternative path through the dragon quest and earn about 30,000 more gold, albeit a bit later.
3) In pursuit of dragon artifacts, if you know that some of them are scattered among the enemy heroes.

Surprisingly, she didn't seem like a negative character to me – she's a quite decent woman (certainly no worse than the elven mayor who orders her assassination, or the bandit who robs the elven city). She cares about her people and doesn't really act arrogant. As for earning 30,000 more gold, but later, as they say, "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."
And regarding the dragon artifacts – collecting them all over the map is also a waste of time, which means a worse final result.

Good people don't keep dragons and unicorns locked up in dungeons :)
I increased the guard strength in this dungeon so that there would be a reason to try the bribery route instead of just slaughtering everyone. Maybe I overdid it, and it could be slightly reduced.

Perhaps it would make sense to allow the Black Orc to pursue the hero within its Dungeon after any aggressive action against its subjects? Especially since the situation is complicated by the fact that without aggression against the lava dragons guarding the monolith, you won't gain access to the Tear of Ashi.

Added 1 minute ago
And in general, playing as a Warlock is definitely more fun ;)

You can try it, but perhaps with the nearest subordinates, so she doesn't have to run through the entire cave. But this could be an unpleasant surprise for the player who barely managed to defeat a regular group of dwarves at the beginning, and immediately after that, a hero several times stronger comes charging at them like an armored train.

But playing as a Warlock is definitely more fun.

the dark side of the force :)

a quite decent woman (definitely not worse than the elven mayor who orders her; or the bandit who robs the elven city).

This is the essence of the moral choice. You can hand the bandit over to the mayor, and you can punish the mayor by helping with the theft. There are options for any kind of role-playing.

But this could be an unpleasant surprise for a player who initially barely managed to defeat a regular group of dwarves, and immediately after that, a hero several times stronger charges at them like an armored train.

I don't think this will be critical, because the first time it's much easier to pay the thief and go into the Blackrock's chambers through the "back door" - through a cave, the entrance to which is guarded by stone golems. By the way, the same thief, revealing the secret passage, can warn the player not to touch the princess's attendants if he doesn't want to incur her wrath :smile36:.

Well, if you're such a brave warrior that you immediately charge through the main entrance :cool:, then, as they say: "You can't have your cake and eat it too."
Yes, and the same thief can warn about the unpleasant consequences of eliminating the outpost guarding the main entrance ;)

There are options for any playstyle.

;)

may warn the player that they should not touch the princess's companions in any case if they don't want to incur her wrath.

When receiving the quest, if you ask the mayor if it is possible to resolve the matter peacefully, he hints at it, saying that it is unlikely the princess will talk to you if you break into the cave, smashing gnomes left and right.

Well, I finally found the time to finish the mission for the Bad Guy. It took exactly 9 months (252 days) to complete the game. The only difficulties were in the very first stage, when you land in the Imperial city, completely bare, without any spells, and with an army that is absolutely unsuitable for combat. I even had to resort to the help of Imperial troops in the early stages, because the spearmen are more useful for defense than minotaurs, and they are cheaper. After I managed to break through to the Elven city, the problems ended, and the bullying of the monsters began, because the army now had furies, the clumsy brutes turned into cunning hunters, and the dark riders into agile ones. The archers, gifted by the liberated knight out of pity, were not used as "cannon fodder" and were also transformed into ranged attackers, and as a result, they eventually developed as a combat unit. In addition, I bought more forest archers in the Elven city. As a result, in addition to the mobile infantry, the army also had a decent ranged component, and to prevent the smaller archers from feeling down, I developed leadership. But most importantly, I gained the ability to buy dark magic spells; and combined with the unique characteristics of the dark elves (hunters, furies, and riders), these skills allowed me to defeat strong garrisons with minimal use of troops (fei.sav, enter_CHZ.sav, mumie.sav, gnom.sav, koshmar.sav, VULf.sav, element.sav, sachklopi.sav). And besides, I gained access to the sea, where I could acquire free resources and teach the Elven archer a lesson without risking losing him (by the way, I noticed that even battles in which he did not personally participate count, which, in my opinion, is not entirely correct). After that, everything went smoothly – I destroyed almost all the monsters on the map (this even accelerated the game, because I knew the "path of war"), but in order to save time, I didn't bother with the quests to restore the shipyard, the traveling monk (I abandoned him with the elves), guarding the pastures, searching for water elementals, building the triangle, dispersing the clouds, and finding a rare breed of trees – it was much easier and faster (in game time) to fight in the arena, especially since the opponents (whether they were squires or heroes) were again incredibly stupid gnom-na_arene.sav; I fought there until I ran out of mana. As a result, I had plenty of money (even though I bought all the creatures used as combat units, spent money in the alchemy shops buying all the available potions, formulas, and ingredients, but still ended up with almost 100,000). I received exactly that amount from the Khan for the Grail; I could have given the Grail to the elves, they would have paid more, but I didn't want to waste time. I also didn't visit the last tree, although I set aside the wood for it, and then I decided that it didn't matter whether it was level 34 or 35 – it's all the same, and I teleported directly to Hotabych's swamp (I retrained logistics to chaos), and from there I landed on the mountain. I only used alchemy to extend my turn, except for the battle with the final boss big_boss.sav (where the big boss looked frankly pathetic – the game was one-sided, because he couldn't even move once), as well as the battle with the captain, who treacherously attacked me near the entrance to the city with the gambling den and arena; there, too, I had to increase my initiative with alchemy so that the battle would be without losses. The most difficult battle was at the entrance to the Stronghold citadel.sav – I decided not to use alchemy at all and to win with magic and luck. I'm even a little sad that it's all over :( Once again, I express my admiration to the author of the map for his titanic work! I am attaching the final statistics and the battles that I liked.

I'd like to see how you'd handle it if that silicon idiot wasn't just standing there on the wall of swords ;)
And thanks for the feedback. The balance on the map remains relatively simple, but I don't think I can do much more about it now - I'm not a hardcore player myself, so let's say the main feature of the map is its role-playing aspect, rather than its difficulty.

Hmm, why does Rambo1969 have different troops for the final boss? Or are they chosen randomly?
At the very beginning, 4 paladins clear out all the troops, right up to the unicorns on the way to the elves. I had to buy 75 archers to deal with the unicorns and jumping demons. I immediately sent the dark troops to the garrison so they wouldn't get in the way.
I was saving gold in the bank, thinking I'd make a million in principal and earn interest – I was dreaming. When I reached a million, I received a message saying I had bankrupted the bank.
Catch me, skeleton! .

Hmm, why does Rambo1969 have different troops for the final boss? Or are they chosen randomly?

I've played this map three times, and each time the troops of Kabeleh were different – the demons were always the same: archdevils, cave lords, demonesses, and cerberi, but the other units changed each time.

At the very beginning, 4 paladins clear out all the troops, up to the unicorns on the way to the elves. I had to buy 75 archers to deal with the unicorns and jumping demons.

That's understandable, but to buy 4 paladins, you need 16,000 gold. Even if you sell all your resources and a random artifact (if it was chosen as a bonus), you can get at most 9,000 gold, which means you need time to accumulate the rest, and it's a pity to waste it. Also, taking money instead of experience from chests is, in my opinion, an unaffordable luxury, especially at the beginning of the game.
And most importantly, why buy expensive, powerful units if you don't plan to develop them into a full-fledged combat unit? Therefore, it's easier to buy a few spearmen and use them as a disposable tool.
Although, of course, all this is just my musings, and everyone is free to stick to their own opinion.

At the beginning of the game, you get around 4-5 thousand. The mayor's task is to make the peasants work. You give them 3,000 "motivators." You go to the mayor, and he gives you 15,000 for completing the task. That's the desired 16,000. The whole task is completed without leaving the borders of Archild. Right after the outpost, I immediately disbanded all my dark elf troops.
Once I had about fifty furies, I cleared the rest of the map using only one unit of furies, gradually increasing their number to 200. The exception was the last battle against the ents. I was surprised because if the enemy had consisted of undead, I wouldn't have stood a chance due to their vampirism.
At the beginning, I only took money from the chests because I was leveling up skills from the Archild's educational center, which allowed me to reach the level for full skill upgrades faster. Plus, I didn't worry about getting a useless skill from the great and terrible random number generator.
When I arrived in Winded, I found out what kind of trees grew nearby and told the mayor of Archild. He gave me a good amount of gold – either 30,000 or 50,000, I don't remember. From Winded, I sailed the sea, collected chests, and especially ships – about 5,000 per ship. So, I had plenty of money.

I didn't motivate the peasants; I punished them because they shouldn't be spoiled. (Although, motivating them would probably have been more beneficial). At the beginning of the game, I bought as many Assassins as I could with all my money, eliminating Djinns and other minor creatures without losses. I used Unicorns to sacrifice Mintaro as cannon fodder (they're useless later anyway). Then, with the 5,000 gold earned from the Wheel, I bought Archers and Armored Archers. Next, I dealt with the jumpers (or, alternatively, with the Chieftains or Skeletons), resulting in the planned loss of Archers and Armored Archers, and the unplanned loss of some Assassins. After that, the path is clear, and... welcome to the Elven city. There, I made some changes to my army, as described above. Then, I sailed back to Archyld with the annoying Elf (with all the staged battles, including the encounter with the Elemental Demon, acquiring the "Beacon" spell from him, and sending him away). From Archyld, I freed the knight, rescued the remaining peasants from the dungeon and tavern. I returned to the mayor of Archyld, received money for the peasants, and recruited a Monk from the town tavern (and had a conversation with the knight). Back to the Elves, I encountered a Thief along the way. At the Elves' city, I returned the Elf to his home and delivered the Monk to the city. Then, I robbed the city, talked to the mayor of the robbed city, and... hello, Blackrock with its dragons. I didn't bother with the trees; I didn't want to sit around and watch the Elves and Dryad get married. As for the Undead and Cabal, while waiting for his Excellency to deign to receive you, you can see what troops he summons, and if the situation is unfavorable, you can return home for another army.