Posts from Water and Fire

Version 3.1
This is a story about a waterfall and a volcano. According to legend, these are two gods possessing immense power capable of subjugating everything. Six tribes settled in this land, longing to obtain the power of the gods. But this is merely a legend—though who knows, perhaps it truly is true.
Map Type: Multiplayer
Number of players 6
Dungeon: No

I played as a Human hero against Warlocks and completed the map in 8 weeks. It's a good map, lively and colorful. Respect to the author.

I have a few comments about the map: First, there's an unusable dolmen near the Castle. This raises a question for the map author: what if there are guard posts at the lumber mill and the mine, or even worse, at both, and you're playing as Demons? How would you handle that situation, especially with a difficult hero? Secondly, the crystals have level 3 creatures, while the other locations have level 4. Also, the fourth location (grass) has one more relic-level artifact, which also disrupts the balance. Furthermore, considering that one location is guarded by 200 peasants and 50 wolves, which can be cleared out in the first week, and the fourth player has an extra dwelling with peasants, which the Necromancer can easily convert into skeletons, creating even more units. Finally, "Monster Any" is a very debatable type of random monster in Multiplayer, as one player might get peasants, while another gets Titans, creating a huge imbalance. I would suggest improving the map, adding more objects. I'll play the map later and give you more feedback. For now, I just quickly reviewed it in the editor and noted some minor inaccuracies.

I have a few comments about the map:

Firstly, there's an unusable dolmen near the Castle. And here I have a question for the map author. What if there are guard towers at the lumber mill and the mine, or even worse, at both, and you're playing as Demons? How will you handle this situation? Especially considering it's a difficult hero.

Secondly, there are level 3 creatures at the crystals, while the other locations have level 4 creatures. Also, the 4th location (grass) has one more artifact of the Relic category, which also disrupts the balance. Furthermore, considering that one is guarded by 200 peasants and 50 wolves, which can be cleared out in the first week. Also, the 4th player has an extra dwelling with peasants, which the Necromancer will successfully convert into skeletons, resulting in even more units.

Also, "Monster Any" is a very controversial type of random monster in Multiplayer, as one player might get peasants, while another gets Titans, creating a huge imbalance.

I would suggest improving the map, adding more objects.

I'll play the map later and give you more feedback. Right now, I just quickly went through it in the editor and wrote down some minor inaccuracies that I noticed.

The map is a bit rough because it's one of my first maps. I still don't have much experience with the editor

I played the map using two different factions. The map is rather "gray." In terms of landscape, it doesn't deviate much from GSC maps, and it's further complicated by various "oversights." The guard is positioned to the side of the Temple of Touch (117.1), making it impossible to visit the Dolmen of Knowledge (175.15). There might be other issues as well. For maps of this type, it would be helpful to include information about which factions the flags are intended for. I used dwarves for the red flag, and they were struggling – the mammoths were running around, exhausted. The placement of mines and other resources is very uneven for different flags. For the red flag, for example, the objects are sparsely placed in the desert, while for the orange flag, in the taiga, they are densely packed along the road. As a result, the red flag managed to capture only one mine in a week and could barely build, while the orange flag captured three mines in the same period and received two additional dwellings – after a month, the difference between them was already enormous. I didn't like the idea of awarding "tears" for defeating the guard at the passage. This puts "rush" factions at an unfair advantage.

There are bugs. The map wasn't memorable.