A nice and detailed singleplayer map with a lot of original scripts, a non-linear storyline, a bunch of complex guests (some of them have more than one solution), several possible endings and many other things you would never expect to encounter in a HOMM game :)
Author: newborn (Middle Europe), 27-05-2008 18:02 @Franzy So, are You working on another map? I'm eager to play it:)
PS about mercenaries - yes, You are right there are enough, but some, like sylvan archers, you can only get once and limited number (and im not the kind of person who pitties mercenaries, when I loose them, so i ran out of them pretty fast:), reason- at the end of game they wouldnt make any difference vs 10k stacks of peasants). It would be cool to have more shooters avaible as merc' OR (again) add a possibility/quest for additional 3 or 4 (BERSERKERS!!;P) tier dwarven soldiers building in castle, even at the cost of increasing strenght of monsters on map, or loosing reinforcements later in the game (the reinforcement event itself is pretty cool, but heres an idea, after certain amount of time, and obtaining 1-2 parts of armour, Your brother would ask you if you would like to keep recieving troops from him, or would he send builders to expand the castle by 1 tier building :)? It wouldnt make game too easy, if u consider that this event would happen late in game when monsters are pretty tough(even on normal diff), and fighting them with 1-2 tier soldiers isnt such a grand idea:D (150 phoenixes in sunken temple)
Author: h, 24-05-2008 17:54 Fine map Quite interesting map. Certainly very enjoyable. Deserves 10 for the idea.
Only the puzzle thing - is probably a bit too complex - getting all the data for the switches and saving it somewhere is in itself quite time-consuming, not to mention the calculations needed to solve the puzzle.
Unless there were some hints placed somewhere that i missed.
Author: Marianne (Finland), 22-05-2008 20:11 Thank you Franzy Played the map again on hard and (not surprisingly)it made much more sense this time around ;) Very good map indeed!
Author: Franzy (Moscow), 21-05-2008 23:45 2Marianne I examined your save and determined the error. You played on easy and that caused the problems (I didn't playtest on easy, only on hard and hero, and that's why I missed the bug). You see, many armies in the game are constructed depending on difficulty; so it seems on easy there can be *zero* or even *negative* numbers of creatures. That caused errors in scripts. I will correct them in the future version.
Thank you very much, you helped me greatly by reporting the problems. I'll be sure to mention you in the credits :)
Author: Franzy (Moscow), 21-05-2008 14:09 2Marianne Please send me a save file - I want to see the problems for myself (mailto: franzy@hotbox.ru). For now they seem pretty strange, like the scripts won't work at all.
For now I can think of a few problems that can cause these unusual bugs:
1) You used a cheat (this can effectively ruin the map script)
2) You use a mod that changes certain elements of game mechanics (be aware, that the mod can be built into another map)
3) You game data is simply corrupted (reinstall can help, though you will have to start the map over).
Still, please send me the save file.
Author: Marianne (Finland), 20-05-2008 19:31 great difficulties I don't know if my version of the map is just plain broken, but I am _so_ stuck right now. I have no more monsters to kill, at least none that i can reach. There are the titans and dragons to the south, but can't attack without reason and I can't get underground using the stairs for they are blocked. One dude won't accept my skull of markal, which I've tried to bring him a dozen times, seems I am always "working on it". I try to defend the sawmill but elves never appear, I just lose whatever movement I have left. Puzzle is just plain impossible, any tips or tricks on that? What else.. oh yes, the red keytent? Where the heck is that? And the castle, nothings happening there. I've left the troops there by the second week, with full numbers. Seems even the friggin dwarwes can't "fix" it. Are these bugs or am I just playing this wrong? Help me, cos I truly am out of ideas here.
Author: Balsha (Belgrade, Serbia), 20-05-2008 07:19 Awesome map Just wanted to post a comment here about great job you have done on this map. RPG experience in heroes, did not think that it is possible :)
You did a great job in balancing it btw, only one pack of phoenixes i could not kill, everything else was possible.
I had my fair share of 2x 2k treants. I wonder if you made their positioning to be close, so we can use frenzy on them to root them together? Or i was just lucky :)
Anyway, big gratz and thanks for all the hard work you have done on this map, so we other players can enjoy it.
Author: Franzy (Moscow), 19-05-2008 18:51 Thanks Thank you for your opinion. I'm glad you've enjoyed it. However most things you ask are either can not be implemented (more skills) or will ruin the balance (more mercs). There is more than enough mercenary troops to win. Growth rate depends on difficulty, can not be changed by mapmaker. And plague week IS necessary for balance issues. You don't want the game to be too easy, right? Since you've made it with small army, why to make it easier and less fun?!
P.S. Rune is underground, near the gold mine.
P.S.S. Soon there will be new version. Play it evil or neutral for different experience.
P.S.S.S. Actually, there are 4 different endings - depending on the way you resolve certain quests and your alignment.
Author: newborn (Middle Europe), 19-05-2008 14:14 it has to be a 10! wow-map, i really enjoyed it, the plot, scripts and all is even better than original campaign, heavy-quest-number, many new features (POSSIBLE SPOILER! becoming a champion of light gave my army huge benefits, lightmagicwise) here are some remarks: its a shame i cant get higher lvl dwarf units (ofcourse not all, maybe 1 or 2? ie berserkers or priests... right now its 1-2 tier units)- playing this scenario was so much fun that i took my time exploring it, so much time that eventually neutral monsters were almost crazy-strong (after 11 months i had to fight 3thousand ancient treants with my small army:D ps i won) I'd love to see more berserkers to hire somehow (tough quest for special town upgrades?) another thing is mercenaries- their number is too small for such long game, maybe you could make them re-appear every week/change creature icon into a dwelling (there are dwellings that generate troops every week but not too interesting (and not too many-2 pallies every week never made a difference with my 1,5k harpooners). didnt finnish phoenix quest(where the heck is that rune?:D), and make it possible to obtain more runes(i had no luck on resurrection rune)-it is a runemage anyway?:) and if possible disable plague week, it killed all dwellings population:( good job on peasant huts, and (few) mines, at the end i had nearly 2milion gold:D (then again i mostly used dwarf units, and the quest for lost sailor (i couldnt say no to poor woman) isnt rewarding for champion of light, loosing 1-3 stats of each and being already saint gave me 10%initiative ring (ok i already had 20% and 2hp or sar issus). Graveyard rox, attacked every time by undead, cool animation! if its possible lower rate at which monsters grow (i think its % now, could it be set to +# ? or lower the % mob growth over time; at the end of game almost every stack turned to legion, but then again i did it in 11 months, and mobs im talking about arent necessary for finnishing game, those are flagged, good job on them:) ). this map has rewards that benefit greatly even high lvl heroes (again the 'champion of light crowning gifts, or pilgrimage quest ps i wonder what do evil folks get?) many ways to finnish each quest some i had to pass, for they were pure evil:D and some quests make you choose between good and evil. another compliment: it says 'medium map' but gives tons of time to play it and not get bored. i dont know if its possible to do in game mechanics, but since its all about 1 hero, could he get more skills? i had to chose between light/dark magic (resurrect vs vampirism spell which are possible to get) enlightment (oom!). and reinforcements-could their number increase just lil bit more (ie hero lvl dependant)? ok im done here:) make more maps like this one its totally different in a good way from others. good luck and thanks