Posts from Uninvited guests.

yes, none of the heroes appear after fleeing to the tavern.

New players don't start with a powerful hero.

I'm just stubborn – check out this battle . I could have also put 4 units in each stack to use the resurrection rune, but there's a problem with gems.
By the way, if I build a Blazing Cavern, will the Witch Coven destroy it? Or does it only target Capitols and Castles?

also, all heroes who, due to their specialization, cast a spell at the beginning of the battle, give 1 turn to the enemy hero, as their ability is considered a turn.

By the way, if I build a Blazing Cavern, will the Witches' Sabbath destroy it? Or does it only target the Capitol and the Castle?

Only monetary and defensive structures

Added 31 minutes ago

Also, all heroes who, thanks to their specialization, cast a spell at the beginning of the battle, give 1 turn to the enemy hero, as their ability is considered a turn.

not 1, but approximately 0.5 relative to the enemy hero (after all, he doesn't go immediately). Moreover, a Warlock, Wizard, or Necromancer can minimize this gap with the help of skillful spellcasting, for example. A Knight will only fall back by 50%, i.e., approximately to position 0.5 on the ATB (if I'm not mistaken), if he has the "Righteous Fury" ability, which can be obtained during the first level-up. This concerns the disadvantage of specializations.

Regarding the advantages:
- High Elf, in addition to dealing damage to enemy stacks at the start of the battle, stuns them (if you don't unlearn the Air Elemental Lord from the mentor), which almost guarantees that the main stacks will go faster than the enemies at the beginning.
- A huge initiative advantage is gained by the Knight when casting mass haste for 40-80%. Wizards with mini-artifacts for initiative are left in the dust.
- Warlock, in addition to setting enemy archers on fire, also removes 50% of their defense and that of large creatures (if the Fire Elemental Lord is learned), which Furies and Riders will gladly take advantage of.
- Wizard can get an extra stack that is guaranteed to go first with a developed summoning skill. The hero himself also moves faster.
- Orc can counter even Wingard with his ability.
- For the Necromancer, a usually useless stack can become one of the leading ones.
- If the Demon slows down all enemy creatures at the start, casts Berserk or Dominate, the enemy will definitely be in trouble.
- And the already tough Gnome will become almost invulnerable to ranged attacks (especially good when defending the Castle).

So, IMHO, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, and the initial ATB setback is rather a small limiter that prevents the heroes from becoming super overpowered.

However, the fact that heroes cannot be returned to the tavern is bad news. Perhaps this cannot be overcome.

This isn't the first map featuring heroes with unconventional specializations, and I've never seen them available for recruitment in taverns. The Warlock's "Immolate" ability is frustrating because it only targets units on the edge of the map. When the enemy has a lot of single-cell units (not archers), they are usually positioned on the second row. And if the enemy employs a specific tactic, even their tougher units are moved forward. Also, at the beginning of the game, when he casts only one wall, it's often placed not on the units, but between them. It would be helpful to somehow tie the wall casting to the enemy's troops.

This isn't the first map with heroes who have unusual specializations, and I've never seen them be recruitable in taverns. The Warlock's Immolation ability is annoying because it only affects units on the edge of the map. But when the enemy has a lot of single-unit creatures that aren't archers, they are almost always on the second line. And if the enemy is using tactics, then their tough units are also positioned in the front.

First of all, this specialization is aimed against archers. The Companion always stands on the edge. The Human player might be able to move the archers away from the edge, but then they risk exposing them to Furies or other infantry.

If the opponent has taken the Tactics skill, why shouldn't the Warlock take it too? ;) This ability isn't something exotic for him.

Also, at the beginning of the game, when he only casts one wall, it is often placed not on the units, but between them. It would be nice to somehow tie the wall cast to the enemy's troops.

The solution is simple: level up quickly. Then it will definitely work :D

Added after 9 minutes

This isn't the first map with heroes who have unusual specializations, and I've never seen them be recruitable in taverns.

In theory, you can force the hero to return to the tavern. But then he will return there in any case - both after fleeing and after death.

Hmm, wouldn't it be possible to add a condition – if a hero flees, their development and skills remain, but if they die, their stats revert to those of level 1? In that case, even if they are hired again, they wouldn't be of much use.

Hmm, wouldn't it be possible to add a condition – if a hero escapes, their development and skills remain, but if they die, their stats revert to those of level 1? In that case, even if they are hired again, they won't be of much use.

That's a good idea; now we just need to figure out how to determine with scripts whether a hero escaped or not...

The idea is good; it would be great to find a way to determine whether a hero has fled using scripts.

There is a function called GetSavedCombatResult, which returns the result of the battle.

There is a function called GetSavedCombatResult, which returns the result of the battle.

I can't find anywhere what part of the combat script it should be called from and what it returns.

The function only works on the map, not in battle.

Added 5 minutes later
Returns: 1 - upon victory or defeat 2 - upon fleeing 3 - upon surrendering. The last two values should be verified against the scripting manual or that Excel table. The only argument is the combat index. You can find the index of the last completed battle using the GetLastSavedCombatIndex() function.

This time, by the time the AI first attacked, was the difference not so significant?

Actually, the number of units in the army isn't that important for Necropolis. What matters is what kind of army it is—made up of living or undead creatures. If there were no Necropolis enemies on the map and if they didn't come at the head of the attacking column, there would be almost no difference between 1.0.2 and 2.0.0 for this Castle. It just so happens that the main enemy here for the Necropolis is its own kind. In the version I finished, the computer helped me out a bit. A demon took out a suitable Necromancer. And Lyuska took out the demon with a single stack of vampires (in the field); the rest of the army wasn't needed. If that hadn't happened, the ratio of the Necromancer's army to my hero would have been close to critical. An attempt to fight (in the Castle) without vampires failed, and with vampires, they were targeted first, and the army lost its combat effectiveness. The demon could still be held off in the Castle, and then (the next day) a Warlock came and finished it off.
I started a new 2.0.1 game; the main character left Dexter. The development on neutral creatures turned out well, but when it came to fighting the AI heroes, the difference between Lucretia and Dexter became noticeable. Neither the speed nor the initiative of the zombies comes close to that of vampires, not to mention special skills (blindness/retaliation, flying over obstacles). Dexter lost to the demon outright in the field. He couldn't handle the Necromancer even in the Castle. It was Nadir. The attacker had more mana and troops, and his special abilities were more useful.
I can confirm the report that you can't buy non-standard heroes in the tavern after they run away. So, the promised buyout within 3 days doesn't work.

Added 7 minutes later

By the way, if I build a Blazing Cavern, will the Witch Coven destroy it? Or does it only target the Capitol and the Castle?

Money-making buildings and parts of the Castle will be destroyed. Creature dwellings were not destroyed in my game. If there is no Castle, the Stronghold will be destroyed. I wonder if the magical bindings in the Dwarven Castle will be affected

The dark elf visited about 3-4 times during the early game, but then stopped. I was even happy about it – he stopped bothering me with his magic. The map playthrough took a while. I defeated the demons, dwarves, and necromancers. Now I'm heading towards the dark elf. He's standing near his castle in a narrow passage, and a caravan is blocking his path – it looks like he's been standing there for several months. I check his troops – five hundred red dragons, five hundred black dragons, one and a half thousand witches, etc. I was stunned, so I ran back to my castle – and there, after destroying the catapult, I simply positioned my troops so that his dragons couldn't fly over the walls. And the gnome specialist helped – I managed to withstand the attacks.
I'm not sure about the "screp" – the first attack of the "shabash" was painful, but after that, I had enough money to rebuild.

I have uploaded the final version of the map.

Main changes:

1) New heroes who have fled the battlefield now return to the tavern (after death, they also return to the tavern (due to script limitations), but lose all experience and artifacts).
2) The location of some objects has been changed.
3) Some specializations have been adjusted.
4) Other minor changes in the script and design.

The following is a spoiler

For hardcore fans, I will reveal one secret of the map: how to control the difficulty using the console. Two main parameters affect the difficulty: cf and week. Initially, both are equal to 1. The higher the values of these parameters, the stronger the AI. For example, with cf = 1 and week = 1, an AI hero (on "hero" difficulty) receives 600 experience points each day; with cf = 2 and week = 6, it will receive 2800 experience points per day. Week increases by 1 each week. cf increases under certain conditions. By increasing these parameters in the console, you can make the game more difficult and interesting. It is easy to set the value of the parameter. To do this, simply enter a line like @week = 7 in the console and press enter.

Enjoy the game.;)

I tried playing version 2.0.0 as a human hero, but it was unsuccessful. Either at the end of the 2nd week (as in version 1.0.2) or at the beginning of the 3rd week, a guest of level 19 arrives with a two-week selection (I had a demon with 8 devils, 14 cave demons, etc.), and it's impossible to resist him. Where is the announced slowdown in AI development, 2-3 days, but with more powerful units? When playing as a human hero, due to the lack of money and resources, you don't have time to prepare the necessary number of monks to defend yourself (which is possible on the veteran difficulty). I'm curious, has anyone played as a human hero, and if so, how is it possible?