Posts from Walkthroughs for custom maps.

... Ghashra cannot be killed because she is not in the game; she is in prison behind the castle of the last main lord of the swamp creatures.
It seems that Ghashra is indeed in prison, and she is the only one – it’s “Bron,” but the image of the hero is “Lacuss,” and the prison is disguised as a hydra pond...

:smile52: :smile52: :smile52:
It reminded me of the situation when you build a rocket based on blueprints, but it turns out to be a steam locomotive if you don’t use the technical instructions from the designers.

Happy holidays to everyone!
It's been a while since anyone posted any walkthroughs here, so I'll post one, but at the same time, I'll allow myself to give some tips for map makers.

1. Savage grin.
The map was taken from our forum.
I want to say right away that the map is very simple; there is nothing complicated about it. The author states that you must defeat the main enemy, Lucifer, within 666 days—this timeframe is simply gigantic and it's impossible not to make it, moreover, enemies are killed one by one, and we will have a wonderful opportunity to get snipers, wizards, and some types of dragonlings.

I started on maximum difficulty as Rampart with the hero Kyrr. At first, we already have a good army, but we need to capture the Rampart, which is guarded by an azure dragon and 2 wizards. To do this more optimally and better, I recommend not attacking the city immediately, but giving the same magic and earth books to the passage guard, freeing a hero with troops from prison, combining everything into one army, attacking the city with the main force, and sending the freed hero on reconnaissance.
All battles with the 7 gold dragons at the beginning are completed quickly and without losses, so it's very fast to reclaim all mines and resources, fully build up your own city and another native Rampart that we reach via portal, and then the blue (Castle) was easily and calmly defeated; you could have chosen to play as them too.
I'll talk more about a bug on this map.
Since no single battle forced me to strain, everything was broken through quickly and easily, moreover, practically without losses, it's best to talk about the bug and the dishonest AI gameplay.
The brown computer plays as wizards. In the end, several of its heroes used the fly spell without actually having it. Maybe they learned it somewhere, but I strongly doubt this, because after that I checked the map in the editor—globally, fly is not forbidden, but it has been removed from all cities and wizard guilds, meaning it's impossible to learn fly anywhere; after victory over brown, I confirmed he had no angel wings.
What happened was this: after I built up all castles and bought the strongest possible army from Ramparts and Castles, my 3rd Rampart—where you can't place a Stronghold—was captured by some brown hero using fly. When I went to reclaim the city with my entire horde, the main brown hero, Fafnir, attacked me via town portal and was crushed; I received valuable artifacts from him, including shackles and an admiral's hat (the computer had taken it from me earlier), as I played very slowly, using only one hero—Kyrr.
The walkthrough of the map is very linear, empty, and boring....
The map is declared XL, but in reality, there is no saturation or fullness of artifacts, troops, quests, and everything else.
Moreover, there are neutral cities on the map—Necropolises—that cannot be captured, but their shroud is terribly annoying as they hide significant parts of the map. I had to keep a hero at every observatory for convenience; otherwise, playing because of these "smokestacks" is very uncomfortable. Yes, this is an author's quirk: placing smokestacks to cover things that don't need covering (land view plus observatories—the smokestacks are pointless).
Then there's another useless bit—the first quest (give the passage guard magic books of earth and water); I completely failed to see the point of it. Well, we give them; still, not a single spell is used in battle during the 1st week.... What's the point of giving books and setting a quest? My opinion: just put it there for the sake of having something.
Map: if you look at the map drawing—yes, the drawing looks beautiful, like a toothy maw—but if you play on such a map, you immediately realize its absurdity: running for several days along a long and empty road with small branches containing one or two objects.
And what's more depressing is that only blue and red contact each other, and after that, it's a one-sided game.
By the way, I upgraded archers to snipers and wizards only before attacking orange; until then, everything was easily killed by archangels, gold dragons, champions, unicorns, elves, and archers.
Tips for map makers:
look at this map so you don't do such nonsense with useless quests or one-sided gameplay—there is no interest, no difficulty....
don't chase a beautiful map image; the actual gameplay on the map, its fullness, and detail are more important.
And 666 days is an obvious overkill; moreover, I checked in the editor, it turns out that on the 666th day, the last orange one is given 4k phoenixes....
The map can be completed significantly faster than even 12 months; I'm sure it can easily be finished in less than 6 months.
Walkthrough result: 230 days Score 480.
At the same time, for almost a month I really did nothing, and I ran everywhere with 1 hero; also, not all of blue's and brown's heroes were killed (there are sanctuaries on the map where these pests sometimes crawl into, and it was too lazy to finish them off on water), plus there are neutral cities that cannot be captured. This means a maximum score cannot be achieved.
And I attach a screenshot of the final battle with the main enemy.

2. Clash of titans.
I know for sure that this map and its problem with killing 4k ghost dragons at the end have already been discussed somewhere on the forum.
I would like to talk about this map in more detail now, considering it specifically as an anti-example and an anti-map to emulate.
The map is well-known and popular, but terribly unbalanced, crooked, and—excuse my expression—"hardcore/grindy".
The author of this map decided that the player should have minimum space for movement, while the map should be stuffed with everything to the brim...
1st. Cruel and terrible imbalance.
I completed it as swamp, but also played other colors.
So, starting as green is very fast, easy, and simple; we first have room for maneuver, the ability to immediately join 100 centaurs and go fight, reclaim resources, etc.
As red, it's a bit worse, but better and more spirited than others.
Worst of all is orange.
There, to exit the city, you must fight 50 level-3 creatures that can spawn as anything (grand elves, royal griffins); to break through them adequately at 200%, you'll have to skip a turn or two, buying troops for attack...
And in principle, not everyone is equal in starting conditions, so as green and red, you can reach victory much faster due to better start conditions.
2nd. Meaningless quests.
There are such idiotic quests:
- bring a thousand beavers... we only have 4 external dwellings of beavers, receiving +10 to sp for the quest... isn't that absurd... specifically collecting beavers to get + stats when stats on the map swell and grow extremely fast due to the huge amount of everything....
There is simply no point in listing anything further...
3rd. Huge number of troops.
Unfortunately, many authors still don't understand that a large number of troops doesn't add difficulty or make the walkthrough more interesting; it only adds time costs and nothing more.
The whole map is just swelling and bursting from an excess of hundreds and thousands of neutrals in one or multiple stacks....
And there's no point, as we also get and collect crowds of troops....
In the end, everything is blown to pieces without losses.
For example, a quest: 5 thousand nomads, 5 thousand nomads, and 1 thousand mummies; this horde is killed using magic (including berserk, blindness, slow, etc.) with much smaller forces and quite confidently, and in reward they give 1000 snipers (1k SNIPERS CARL!!!)
And after that, everything becomes as easy as can be with them; you just clear everything...
4th. Interest in completing or re-completing.
This is related to difficulty, plot, detail, variability, and so on.
But there's little interest in completing this creation.
Running around with thousands of snipers, wizards, hydras, wyverns, etc., isn't particularly interesting; everything falls easily, quickly, and without losses....
This map can be viewed as a failed and negative example of map building.
5th. Artifacts.
Everything you want and in any quantity: angel alliance: at least 2, the rest are collected just as easily. Everything will simply burst from an excess of artifacts.
But the question is, what for and why?
It seems to me that troops and artifacts appear in abundance because map makers look at standard maps where often not even 100 level-5 or 6 creatures are collected, let alone level 7, and many artifacts are missing; they want to play around with this, so they create such maps where there is an overabundance of all this.
Dragon utopias, just lying artifacts, those obtained in pandoras, in prisons together with heroes, etc.
Again, there's no point in this.
7th. Hero leveling.
Here you can actually get a hero to level 99 and even more, give all stats 99 and then have them reset (a known and still unpatched bug where if a hero gets 99 stats, these stats can be increased further and will soon reset, starting the same process over).
What's the point of this?
What idea did the author have for such a possibility?
To try and see how Kyrr runs at level 75 with expert logistics, expert pathfinding, boosted on a phoenix with all artifacts for +logistics and +speed ???
Or how Tazar's and Mephala's troops at level 58 cannot be broken through???
There is no point in insane hero leveling. Everything should be balanced and justified.
8th. Strategic and tactical components.
There should be room and space for maneuvers, various paths and walkthrough options; besides variability, there should also be some variety of quests, battles with AI, neutrals, and objects.
Here they just crammed in everything possible; beautifully crammed, with a sense and knowledge of the matter, but in the end, it turned out to be something else, not a good map.
9th. Choice of starting heroes.
I generally don't like it when others choose who I play (quest-RPG character with plot not counted, that's justified there, but in strategic maps, the player should always have a choice).
Here, not only is no choice given, but heroes are also assigned so that everyone is not on equal terms at the very beginning.
Green gets Mephala, which is very good since the defense bonus is a great plus and very useful, and the hero is one of the best for Rampart.
But what does red get for Castle—Katerina, a specialist in swordsmen, who isn't exactly a striking stack for Castle...
Others also receive quite debatable heroes; it seems good, but someone else might prefer something different; it's a matter of taste and it's better, of course, to give the person a choice.
10th. You shouldn't lock enemies in completely; it's better to make them a quest passage guard for thousands of resources that are given by an event in the required month, then there will be interest, or think of something more original, but completely locking away the enemy's main hero is sad and boring.
The main enemy, even if locked tight at his own "respawn", can be given 10 thousand azure dragons; it won't change the situation... He will be defeated either way.

Now for some walkthrough tips, if you still don't mind spending time on this creation.

1. How to kill 4k ghost drags.

The simplest thing. Use 100k grand skeletons or thousands of grand liches (if you want to collect a PKN, I kept it in disassembled form)!!!! the easiest option.
Free Galtran from prison, then send him with troops and artifacts to mow down skeletons, killing all these legions; he will slice through simple skeletons, which will later be upgraded in the mound at the fort into skeleton warriors. You can easily collect nearly 100k.
There is a pandora with 54k imps—you can raise more than a thousand skeletons there, etc.
Plus Galtran will level up so that his skeletons hit like level 4-6 and will wipe out these 4k drags and Haart without blinking.
And the legions guarding Inferno and Necropolis—also kill them with a necromancer with expert necromancy and artifacts for +necromancy.

Second option—hit-and-run.

Fly can be obtained on the map, so there's no point in opening the last tower and releasing Haart; just fly over the tower, enter a sanctuary, stay overnight, capture Necropolises the next day, and run back to the sanctuary.
Then exit with heroes via TP and start hit-and-run with Armageddon, Fireball, or you can even use Titan's Thunder to strike without spending mana (we will have plenty of money and resources by that point).

Third option.

In a fair fight. The hardest, but quite possible to do.
Gather all your thousands of most powerful stacks and attack; it's hard, but an option.
As an option, when he has only 1 stack of dragons left under slow, use berserk and hit with Titan's Thunder so as to spend mana on renewing the slow, while moving your flyers away from him in a triangular route (the main thing is not to use the wait button; I don't know why, but after waiting, berserk somehow disappears, mass dispel is used, and dragons crash into the flyers).

Fourth hardcore option.
Let Haart run around and kindly leave him a boat.
Wait for his stats to reset or when his 4k dragons move from his 99-99 stats to the city or other heroes.

In the end, having all cities, the whole map, and clouds of troops, there are zero problems dealing with Haart.

2. Whirlpools.
I'm not discovering America for anyone here: you give a single level-1 unit to the whirlpool and fly through without losses to your main troops.
A single unit is separated, and during the whirlpool teleport, only that one is lost. Thus, you can very quickly move straight to the AI and kill them.

3. Against the ally.
So this pest doesn't get in the way, it's better to lock him up.
Start a hero in his city and leave them there; ideally, if the ally's hero is in the garrison rather than on the map, then no one will bother you and you can definitely capture everything calmly yourself.

4. Rush.
Free your heroes as quickly as possible and knock computers out of the game as fast as possible. Then clean up the map when no one bothers you.
It's also desirable to get a town portal faster; for this, it's enough to quickly beat red, blue, and green—there will definitely be a town portal somewhere there.

5. Diplomacy.
When no one bothers us anymore, we have a bunch of cities and their number is only growing, money and resources are plenty, then start digging for diplomats in the tavern (one is enough).
Then calmly level him up (there are many trees for levels and libraries for stats), and further join the native troops we need with his help; for example, as swamp, there's a place with hundreds of monarch wyverns and own-units, where you can practically join almost all of them with diplomats—the main thing is to give him troops several times stronger and more numerous than these monarch wyv, and don't forget to add the wyv themselves.
Of course, not everyone joins, but many neutrals can be joined this way.

6. Pandoras.
Most are fought quite calmly using magic and troops, but you still need to hit them all; however, it's better to save before taking each pandora.
Pandoras really have valuable and useful things for the walkthrough. But again, the balance of pandora guards and their rewards, as well as the timeliness of obtaining all this, is not regulated by the map author at all.

7. Playing with 6 heroes.
Keep all good heroes in garrisons; level some up, then others. We always have 8 heroes available in the window on the map, but we only play with 6.
2 heroes stay in the ally's cities either until the end when we attack Haart, or when we've gone back and cleared the whole map to zero and the ally can no longer get anything there. They keep him so there is no competition or interference.

Result:

My game glitched when I decided to boost Galtran and placed 80+ thousand grand skeletons and everything else except azure dragons in a city...
Almost all skeletons disappeared, and further on, due to the excess of troops, there are various freezes and instabilities on the map.

Overall, the map isn't cleared quickly, but you can manage and complete it in about 8-9 months; maybe it's even possible to finish it faster.

Now, I would like to talk about two good and worthwhile maps. Both maps are purely strategic, with an idea and its successful implementation. Preserve This map can easily be compared to Fatum and other purely strategic maps; in fact, all other maps should be compared to it. Here are the pros of the map: - We have the opportunity to choose any town and any hero, and then develop them to our liking. - There is no control magic; it is available through several artifacts on the map, but they are not that easy to obtain, and not immediately. - Truly useful and interesting quests with worthwhile rewards. - Before each Pandora, they inform you about its guard. - The idea of the map and an alternative way to win. - A sufficient number of resources and objects on the map, but not in excess. - Troops and gold are regularly given as an event, so it is quite easy to attack on several fronts at once, and it is also easier to defend with these reinforcements. - Complete freedom of movement. - The difficulty is not high and mainly lies in the fact that we do not have control for a long time, especially the town portal, so it sometimes becomes problematic to hold cities. Of course, the map also suffers from the fact that in the end, legions gather in stacks, but overall, it turned out to be a worthy, well-balanced, and well-thought-out map, which you should definitely play, and other map makers should definitely take a look at how to make a simple, good map. The second map is less successful - Inferno. The most important thing is that you should not play as the brown faction (Inferno), because there are no heroes at the start, which is 200% unacceptable - skipping turns without having a hero at all. It would be more logical to remove this color for the human player, leaving it only for the AI, and still give some kind of hero... At the start, everyone has two towns, one empty village, which it doesn't make much sense to rebuild for a long time. Otherwise, the map turned out to be quite good. I also recommend taking a look and playing on this map. Since the maps are good and purely strategic, there can be many different walkthroughs and development paths, and the speed of completing these maps will also vary. Next, there will be a separate message in the traditional format - a description of a walkthrough of an interesting and intricate map - Dunkler Horizont... The problem is that now I have a problem: on the maximum difficulty, my Moandar and Tant, with a bunch of undead troops, do not go into the trap with the one-way portal, and without this, it is very difficult to kill them.... As I understand the author of the map, the simplest thing is to prevent the enemy from visiting the green tent of the keymaster and lure everyone into the one-way portal so that they are no longer a threat there, because in a fair fight, victory over the undead will be Pyrrhic, and there will not be enough strength left for the remaining enemies....

Thank you very much for the reviews. They are useful not only for completing the game but also for mapmaking. They allow you to better balance the forces on your own maps and make them more interesting during gameplay. Are there any plans for reviews of WoG maps in the future?

Thank you very much for the reviews. They are useful not only for a Walkthrough, but also for Mapmaking. They allow one to better balance the power dynamics on their own maps and make them more interesting during a Walkthrough.

Are there any plans for WoG map reviews in the future?

thank you very much for the feedback

WoG definitely no, HoTa might be, but it's unlikely; for now, only all parts of the 3rd one

Added after 12 hours 48 minutes
I GIVE UP!!!!
Overwhelmed, crushed, and completely defeated without a chance by the map
Dunkler Horizont

Previously Marmot already wrote about the great and mighty impassability of this map
I decided to try and complete this map; first I played on 160%, where after prolonged suffering I managed to win because I was able to get Archangels, Mage Guild-4 before active actions with the AI began, and I could obtain expert earth quite quickly....

But on 200% they just tear everything to shreds and it's completely unclear how to act....
and another interesting point: on 160%, the enemy hero Tant immediately ran into my one-way portal with his entire huge starting army and stayed there, but on 200% he runs home, and it is no longer possible to remove him from the game... and then very quickly he begins his raid....

I played several times, tried different approaches, but the result and outcome are always the same - from day 241 to 311 hell begins and the Walkthrough ends....

During this time I manage to knock out the Barbarians and swamp dwellers (purple and brown), enter battle with the pink one, who usually comes to the brown one himself, breaking through the garrison...
but then the Necromancers fly in, with such troops that it is physically impossible to defeat them all and still continue the Walkthrough

And now I'll try to describe the Walkthrough, the author's idea for the map (or rather as I managed to understand it), the difficulties, and so on...

Start.
Hard and very tense.
Even though we are given troops immediately, and we already have 2 heroes on the map from day 1, it's still hard to start; most battles consist of spreading crowds with single units and blocking shooters, but all this is done WITHOUT slowing, i.e., often through the sacrifice of those very single units. That is, only a few battles can be conducted without losses.
Hero Casmir, who must not be lost under any circumstances, since he will be the one opening most things (passage guards require only him). He is located right in the middle of enemy land
- a huge starting zone for Necropolis (the main and most terrifying enemies). With a small army, which will later be slightly replenished and will be more than enough to return home.
As for the second hero, we choose them in the standard way.
I tried different options, but the start as Turis seems most profitable to me, as Tactics is most useful for blocking shooters before the battle begins, and then strengthening horses is also good, but this is because I usually level up not the main provided hero, but the one we choose...
if the plan is to level up the author's provided hero with the Prayer specialty, but without Water Magic skill (and it doesn't come to him quickly), then you can take any other hero, though Valeska or Caitlin are preferable... but then there is a risk that losses in battles will be higher (a mage doesn't handle attack and defense stats as well, and it's not certain Tactics will arrive)...
and the starting bonus in resources here would be appropriate, as being completely without resources is worse than being without gold...
We quickly deal with neutral creatures on the map, but not all of them, only those we can handle, and there are quite a few of them; it's likely that you, like me, will have to replay some battles with neutrals sometimes to keep losses to a minimum.
We also have another neutral Castle at our respawn, but there is no point in capturing it immediately, as there will be significant losses, and there won't be resources for its construction anyway.
And all other neutral cities are guarded even more securely, so you'll have to play with one city.
Moreover, at the home respawn we only have two mines: one wood, one ore; the rest must be obtained in battles.

Walkthrough.

The map consists of zones, the passages between which are guarded extremely securely, 5-7 lvl units in huge quantities.
And to the Necropolis, every passage is guarded by 100 Rust Dragons.
There is also an option via the shipyard and then either through killing legions of water elementals (which is possible, but very, very long with a caravan of endless arrows), or through the whirlpool.

Since shipyards are heavily guarded, and we simply lack the strength to fight the Necromancer, there is no point in thinking about sailing to him. Also, the Walkthrough has a logical sequence.
First we go to the purple one - Stronghold (Barbarian). There we get a club and shield for +5 attack and defense by defeating Crag Hack. He is defeated quite easily, but with losses (the main thing is not to lose horses, angels, and minimum shooter losses); everything else as it goes, but preferably do not lose troops, as we have very few on the map.
Then further through the passage guard we come out to the brown one - Fortress
(swamp creatures).
And from this moment the most interesting part begins, as the pink one - Conflux, usually breaks through the garrison himself and starts crushing either the brown one or us; it's a total mess when our invasion of the brown one happens simultaneously with the pink one's invasion, but usually the pink one beat me to the attack on the brown one, so the struggle with the pink one begins immediately, who is many times stronger than the previous ones...

Usually this trio can be overcome. Roughly by the end of the 2nd or middle of the 3rd month we knock out 3 weak AI from the game.
And it seems everything is finally improving: cities have appeared, mines, resources; we can calmly build everything we need, BUT not so fast...
The author apparently calculated everything so that around this time the same-colored (grey) one comes to us - Necropolis, he is the main adversary...
Moreover, he pops out of one-way portals in various places with such troops that even with a full buyout of all troops from all cities, you cannot defeat the Necromancers....

And so every time, every attempt at a Walkthrough is cut short by a fierce and powerful invasion of Necromancers. Therefore I give up, as I cannot manage to reach the red one (who for some reason usually slows down with breaking guards and garrisons) attacking pink lands, not to mention the Necromancer and so on, specifically on 200% difficulty, when construction is delayed, as is buying troops and hiring heroes.

On 160% it's quite realistic to build a portal; moreover, all necessary troops can be bought out, and most importantly on 160% the Necromancer arrives significantly later (for me not before the 5th month), when I am already practically ready to attack him.
On 200% an invasion in the 3rd month becomes fatal. And the game ends :smile21:

A bit about the author's idea and the map itself.

After some such same torments, a thought occurred to me: what if the author intended for us to move forward without returning? Necromancers jump into one-way portals, but usually don't decide to break through 100 Rust Dragons, nor will he hurry via the shipyard through the whirlpool... And after that we need to fly faster to the next lands of our enemies.
There is only one victory on this map - defeat the enemy hero.
Slow, Blindness - a number of other important spells are forbidden by the author, but some can only be learned in shrines. But in shrines we will be given shield, slow, blindness.
Two skills are forbidden - Navigation and Literacy.
A logical prohibition for relearning spells. But not all heroes with starting Literacy skill were banned, so relearning spells between heroes will still be possible.
The insane Necromancer respawn and small respawns of others add to the difficulty.
The problem is that guards are placed in huge numbers, and the Necromancers are given artifacts for +Necromancy immediately, plus there are quite a few Necropolis cities, so they will be necromancing at least 70-80%...
So we're left waiting for thousands of liches or hundreds of thousands of skeletons.

In the end, it turned out to be a very difficult map, and its passability is still under a very big question.
And after so many games it starts to seem to me that winning on 160% was more of a lucky accident than a logical occurrence.

Objects and artifacts.

Thanks to the author for the conservatories. On 200% they are the only source of angels (you can build a portal, of course), but I often sin by smelting resources into gold to buy troops.
As for everything else, it's just an absolute minimum. Only the most necessary and that's it. In the beginning we have only a few artifacts, and later their number won't increase much.

And another point. As soon as someone from the Necromancer reaches level 30 (most likely this will be Tant from the start with 20k experience), he can visit the green tent at his respawn and come straight to our home. And if one of his side heroes got caught in a trap with a one-way portal and green gates, they can get out.

If anyone managed to complete the map or somehow got record-breakingly far, tell the world how you did it.
There is no problem killing thousands of creatures in a stack; there is a problem with the timeliness of this.

And for those interested, I'm adding two links to Yandex Disk. Both are the same - my daily saves up to the middle of the second month. Later I forgot to check the box, and after 324 there's no point in playing anymore; the Necromancers came and took everything they could.....

1. https://yadi.sk/d/1qxlSsIknDt8s

2. https://docviewer.yandex.ru/?url=ya-disk%3A%2F%2F%2Fdisk%2FDunkler%20.zip&name=Dunkler%20.zip&c=569c35bacd5c

And now we wait again for map Walkthroughs from Marmot, because after this map I am in a daze.

I liked the map very much; yes there is difficulty and originality even with neutrals, artifacts are scarce and you have to fight for them, but either my level of play is so sad that it doesn't allow me to complete this map, or the author overdid the balance in this version of the map.

Previously I only had such a stop and inability to complete a map with "First Blood 2.4", but that was widely discussed, and there at least it was clear that the map could be completed, that one needed to think and a solution existed; you could see tips and screenshots, saves and descriptions of actions. And in the end, the map was completed.

But here it's completely unclear what to do if several heroes with several hundreds, if not thousands of Necropolis units in stacks jump out in two places with a difference of a few days.

I used to experience such a standstill and inability to complete a map only with the "First Blood 2.4" map.

It's strange that this map can cause a standstill for anyone other than beginners. Even the recently updated version of the map.

Added 24 minutes ago

However, fire magic is unavailable on the highest difficulty level.

I'm a bit confused. I seem to have downloaded version 2.0 several times. And now, in one of them, fire magic is given in the witch's hut, and in the other, in the scholar's guild. Which of these versions is the current one?

P.S.
There is an opinion that the restriction on the availability of fire magic after the second day can be bypassed. The day counter on the map (as well as many other counters in the game) is represented by a 16-bit number. Therefore, after the 32767th day, the counter goes "negative," after which events, for example, those tied to specific "dates," stop working - until the 65536th day (which is also the 1st). I think that this will also work with quests that depend on deadlines, although it needs to be checked, of course.

Added 1 hour 1 minute ago
Question to Rince

Is a continuation of the Paragon map planned? Honestly, after completing it, I was sorry to part with the map's heroes. Therefore, I would really like to see a continuation of this map (provided that the quality of the new map is comparable to the quality of Paragon, of course). Perhaps, if work on a continuation is planned, it would make sense to combine the current map and the proposed new one into a single Campaign. For example, Mograine and/or other key heroes could be transferred from this map to the new one, preserving their skills.

I understand that such work requires enormous effort and time. Therefore, it probably makes sense to consider developing new versions based on crowdfunding. Many of those who highly appreciated the Paragon map would probably be happy to finance, as much as possible, the creation of a continuation of this map.

It's strange that this map can cause confusion for anyone other than beginners. Even the recently updated version of the map.

First Blood 2.4 was released sometime in the year 2000, so what recently updated version are we talking about?

Not so long ago, in 2015, the author released a new version of "First Blood," but unfortunately, I don't remember where I saw his post.

http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=first+blood
Here is the updated version of First Blood 2.5, although I don't understand what could have been added or fixed.

http://heroesportal.net/maps.php?search=first+blood
Here is the updated version of First Blood 2.5, although I don't understand what could have been added or fixed.

There is some "Lady Ksenia Sobchak" (although her nickname is written in English), who supposedly completed 2.4 in 24 or 25 days or something like that....
And there were also some skilled players who completed the map incredibly quickly (I don't even understand how it's possible to complete it that fast, but people are doing amazing things).

And as I understand it, the author has also added something else, which is hard to even imagine, because I barely managed to survive on this map, reading and watching tips, let alone complete it adequately and quickly at 200%......

There is a certain "Lady Ksenia Sobchak" (although her nickname is written in English), who supposedly completed the game in 24 or 25 days...

...and there is also a save file attached to the post for those who doubt it.
I once took a tournament map that I liked, completed it in about 60 days, read about fast completion algorithms (7-8 days, all different) - and completed it in my own way, in 10 days, and then waited another 7 days for the last AI hero, which I couldn't reach, to die. After that, I stopped trying to optimize for fast completion. There are too many interesting maps that I would like to play, instead of optimizing just one.

I think I'm getting confused. I must have downloaded version 2.0 several times. And now, in one of them, fire magic is given in the witch's hut, and in the other, in the scholar's library. Which of these versions is the correct one?

P.S.
There is an opinion that the restriction on the availability of fire magic after the second day can be bypassed.

The version with the scholar is the correct one. It's probably possible to bypass it, if you really want to. The question is, how does each player want to play.

Is a continuation of the Paragon map planned?

With a probability of 97.5%, the answer is no. First, I simply have less time now than I did 4-5 years ago. Second, I don't have any super ideas on the level of those implemented in Paragon. Third, I'm just not very interested in it. I started working on an "indirect" continuation - set many centuries later, in another world, but in the same universe. It was planned to bring back several old characters, and the main character was supposed to be Eranikus, for Inferno. But it didn't work out. Money might somehow stimulate my interest, but paying for a map for a 17-year-old game...

Thanks to bolotnik for the information about the Dunkler Horizont map. I haven't seen anything as brutal, final, and merciless in terms of difficulty. Although, I have the feeling that I played a different version (I downloaded it from http://www.kartenarchiv.de/download.php?id=783 - there are two maps in the archive, and they seem to differ only in the number of player teams; the info says it's version 02). I couldn't conquer a single color in 3 months! I'm playing on 200%, of course. If I manage to win, I'll definitely write about it. The map is simply tearing my brain apart with its impenetrability.

Thank you, bolotnik, for the information about the Dunkler Horizont map. I haven't seen anything as brutal, final, and merciless in terms of difficulty. Although, I have a feeling that I played a different version (I downloaded it from http://www.kartenarchiv.de/download.php?id=783 - there are two maps in the archive, and the maps seem to differ only in the number of player teams; the info says that this is version 02). I couldn't win with any color in 3 months! I'm playing at 200%, of course. If I manage to win, I will definitely write about it. The map is simply tearing my brain apart with its impenetrability.

and first of all, we should thank Marmot, who even translated the texts and events in the game from German to Russian.

yes, that's right, Dunkler Horizont V02
it's better to play the simple version 02
if you launch version -02 with the "Pact of Evil" expansion, the computers will be in an alliance, and it will be a little more difficult to defeat them, and they will also start coming earlier, because they won't waste time on unnecessary scouting and battles between themselves
well, the Barbarians are definitely defeated with minimal losses; you can either manage to defeat the болотных or finish them off in the 3rd month

in general, the only problem is that the Necropolis comes too early...

study the map carefully in the editor, build a plan of action, and move forward (maybe my saves will help you somehow)
if you manage to complete it, write how you did it, because I think that when version 02 was released, the author overdid something with the timing of the Necropolis' arrival

and first of all, we need to thank Marmot, who even translated the texts and events in the game from German to Russian.
yes, that's right Dunkler Horizont V02
it's better to play the simple version 02
if you launch version -02 Pact of Evil, then the computers will be allied and it will be a little more difficult to defeat them

Sorry for not writing anything for a long time: I took a break from the game for 2 months. I have almost finished a review of the map "The Fall of Atlantis", which I completed, and I also want to tell you about the excellent RPG map "The 5th element episode 1 (SoD)", which I got stuck on and put it aside, and also about another RPG map "Dragon Lord", which I haven't finished yet, but victory should be mine.
Regarding the map Dunkler Horizont. I was afraid that you would scold me for suggesting this "tough nut" to you! Although it is possible that now pros will come and say that it is easy. ;)
I will repeat the main aspects: the map is in German, from the kartenarchiv.de website, where Germans share maps made for themselves, and it is one of the best rated there. I was attracted by the detailed design, the abundance of monsters, and the large amount of text.
The first obstacle was the text itself (and there is a lot of it), which, due to the lack of knowledge of German, was translated using Google Translate, and I translated it about halfway. Everything that is important to read at the beginning of the game has been translated. See the files "Translation of plot events" and "Translation of events on the map".
The texts of quests and events on the map, at least in the translated part, do not contain any fundamentally important information.
So, I still don't understand the author's intention, that is, how to defeat the enemies: any secret paths or means. There are constantly not enough resources, so the troops, which are rapidly growing in the Castle due to events, cannot be bought. The player is too weak. And when enemies come and start pressing from three sides, there is nowhere to go. I got into a boat and sailed north, hoping to capture the 3rd Castle, but the monsters on the way and the guards are very strong, and I had to abandon this idea.
I read the comments on the map on that site with a translator, but I didn't find out anything important, except that some people were able to complete it, but how - I have no idea. Maybe, if you set the average or even low difficulty, you can still get strong enough to face the enemies.
Ah, I just reread the translation of the comments: well, yes, the first player who managed to complete it used the well-known "tool against which there is no defense": he hired a necromancer, gathered the King of the Undead's Cloak, "bred" a bunch of liches and defeated everyone! If the map can only be completed this way, then it is disappointing: in my opinion, there should be a more normal way to succeed.
I also dug up another German map, "Der Ansturm der Untoten Horde II", which seems to be on the same site, and it looks very attractive, but due to the failure to complete "Dunkler Horizont", I am very afraid that I will not be able to complete it either, especially since, according to the description, there are many quests, and one of them (it seems, optional) has a strict time limit. There is also a lot of text there, and it would be a pity to waste time translating it, not knowing if it will be in vain.