Author: Shek, 19-02-2023 23:22 Mapmaker - Crystal Pyre Open Jennifer's Body in the editor. What are you guys talking about. Erase the 1000 mobs in the lower corner (underground). I blended hundreds of "Holy Ground" type objects together. Using the special green grass doesn't make your map any better, all it does is affect morale and spells. You can see my maps progress in their appearance and skill and instead of welcoming a new mapmaker to your community you are fucking alienating me and discouraging me from wanting to make maps at all. I'm on the verge of saying fuck this community and going to do something artistic for other people. I'm happy you're better, you have more practice in this ancient editor. Congratulations.
Author: RXD, 19-02-2023 23:14 hm - Crystal Pyre well eh
i had to check your map, to make sure, that gnollkings feedback was not wrong or unjust
and im sorry he is 100% right
with all due respect, your map looks uninspiring, boring, very generic
idk what people in general have against making prettier maps, or drawing the base landmasses by themselves. The hardest thing to do is the gameplay in the end, so good design can be done more easily.
for comparison: i put a screen of a conflux town of a map im working on, why not make it more unique? yours can also look like that and your map too!
Okay, so you are wrong. I will demonstrate that with the map I'm currently working on. I have looked at the beauty that random map generators make and am imitating it. You think the tens of thousands of objects placed on Crystal Pyre were randomly generated? You will see in this next map that is 2 layers (which a random map generator can not do) that the beauty persists on both layers. You don't know what you are talking about and you are wrong. I'm becoming defensive because it takes days to hand place thousands of things. Don't play my maps if you think a fucking computer made them. Open the map in the editor and look at how specific and exact the locations and distances are. Also, open your editor and generate a random map. You are confusing my ability to blend tile sets with a random generator. Provide your proof and I will give you 3,000 examples of how the map is not random.
Author: gnollking, 19-02-2023 22:28 Feedback - Crystal Pyre > "Thanks for feedback. I receive very little on my maps ..."
I don't want to sound rude, but this is most likely because many of your maps look like they were made with the random map generator (and they are). I really love the idea you had for Lost in the Depths, but to get more attraction for your maps you need to ditch the random generator and start designing the areas by yourself.
Author: Shek, 18-02-2023 22:27 Mapmaker - Crystal Pyre Wow thanks for so much there. I like your tip on building excess heroes to block in a town, I've used it before on Warmongers to buy myself a day. I'm sure I will be citing this information in the future, much appreciated. My goal is mostly to figure out what people enjoy playing and make mostly that.
Author: RXD, 18-02-2023 21:52 hm - Crystal Pyre If someone asked me what I learnt about the AI behaviour after like thousands of hours into this game is the following (cant be 100% about all points):
1. they try to get as much resources as they can (mines and map)
2. they try to kill every wandering monster they can
3. they try to visit every education building with every hero
4. they try to revisit every windmill, etc building every week
5. they dont always like to concentrate their army on one hero, like 70% on main, rest on others
6. main heroes dont mind going on adventures for months, even if their army strength gets outdated by them, they try to return home from time to time
7. they commit to sieges they can loose (like you have 7 stacks of 1 skeleton each defending castle vs an army strength of 2 tavern heroes they attack and loose xD)
8. they dont necessarily attack you, if your army strength is worse, it depends on your stack sizes and primary stats
9. on endgame scenarios if they have max. dd and tp, they almost always end defending the town you could reach, calculations from like oasis/stables etc you can use not included
10. on endgame scenarios if they think they can kill you, they will always go for you (or your main hero), if you are in reach
11. when you defend town against a much greater AI hero, you can buy out tavern heroes to put them near the path of your town, so the AI attacks them (most of the time) and they loose their turn, its a good distraction
12. they generally wont open pandora boxes with bad outcomes (-resources etc)
13. If they are sailing, they mostly try to explore most of the valuables on the sea before commiting to landing
14. they can be baited to you by using secondary heroes next to your main so they come closer for your main to finish them of
15. they equip most artefacts as they come, only re equipping if its obviously better in stats
16. they use 2 way portals a bit more than necessary as well as whirlpools (not that much than 2 way portals)
17. they always see you as a worse enemy than the other AI enemies (my perception)
18. if they are in your area, they dont always directly follow the road to get all your towns, they keep riding around for other stuff
19. if they tried to take one of your towns, they will return to that town, and not switch their objective, unless they are forced to (like a strong defending garrison)
In summary for me its mostly a question about what map type its gonna be:
1. Free for all: Battle Royale
Dont restrict AI area and push so massively so you have to do unfair tactics to win:
(digging up beaches for restricted access, your heroes can block them from waterwalking across, luring them to the sea and preventing them from landing anywhere
guerilla fighting tactics like beserk/spells - flee - repeat,
flagging mines away so they will reflag, taking their other towns/heroes/creature buildings etc.
The Adventure Type
2. Letting the AI start in a closed, maybe smaller area so they can only have few paths to come to you, or only you can enter to the AI area
Finally, the AI is pretty dumb. Only if they have a troop advantage of like 1/200 and/or you dont have all spells (and mana ofc) youre gonna have a hard time as an experienced player
I hope that helps you.
Thanks for reading and uploading, map was interesting to play!
Author: Shek, 18-02-2023 20:37 Mapmaker - Crystal Pyre Thanks for feedback. I receive very little on my maps and people who have played them would be able to tell because I'm trying to fine-tune the beauty, map type and objectives. Controlling computer behavior and actions is so hard to understand that I'm on the verge on just setting events to control them. I test these maps myself, I spend days placing each piece, then days watching computers play the map and then I play it about 5 times. I try to find a medium but the computers can just be so unpredictable and and dumb. You say they never came through, I have had Red show up on Month 2 Week 3. lol. It's just hard. You get a different behavior and outcome every time. I can't make heads or tails of the AI's behavior.
Author: Ja Rite (United States), 18-02-2023 16:38 Great Map - Crystal Pyre That was a fun map!
I tried to go as fast as I could, wasn't sure when they'd break through but they never did.
None of my home towns had TP/DD/Fly, I thought they might be banned until I got the center towns with all those spells (Conflux+Grail).
After getting DD from center rest of map wasn't too hard.
Might want to buff the computers slightly or lower the guard for them to break in earlier.
RXD writes:
20-02-2023 01:24
s**t here we go again - Crystal Pyre
ehm :(
im sorry bro, i cant be more respectful than this
Gnollking just pointed some obvious flaw out, and you started your answer with telling him instantly: You are wrong.
Now, I stated my point and your answer was similiar, more vulgar even.
Your map still looks very generic.
You wanted feedback.
You just dont want to see the other side.
Hopefully mild criticism won't plague you in real life either. If this is enough discouragement to make you stop, then maybe don`t try it even.
thanks for uploading nonetheless and good luck :)
gnollking writes:
20-02-2023 03:01
Feedback - Crystal Pyre
My intention was not to be rude at all, just pointing out the most important thing there is to grab the attention of players on this site, is the minimap. You cannot say "no you are wrong" when someone points out the terrain is obviously based on a randomly generated map. The map itself is alright, with some time learning the game I have no doubt you'll produce some great maps!
wasilix writes:
20-02-2023 11:34
Both sides have some truth - Crystal Pyre
Hi there! First, I must say that I haven't played your maps.
@RXD, I disagree with you on what a map should look like. The screenshot to me looks like a complete opposite of beauty (sorry) - a bunch of objects and ground textures thrown one on top of the other without much structure behind it. For me personally, this is exactly what I don't like in maps. Maybe you shouldn't be critical to others when it comes to lack of texture overuse and it's not prudent to be judging others based on your taste and little constructivity beyond that. Also I don't agree with you that making a map beautiful is easier than balancing it. While balancing obviously is a difficult part, making a map pleasing to an eye is definitely hard and to some even harder than to others. I tried myself in map making about 20 years ago, and I know just how hard it is to do and I appreciate every such map. And I'm sorry, no, I don't think that throwing a bunch of objects into the same tiles make it beautiful by itself. The difficult part is to do it... beautifully :)
I don't mean to sound harsh, as I said I tried long ago and I gave up.
@Shek I checked this map in the editor only shortly, and indeed seems handcrafted or at least it's a significantly modified generated map. I don't have anything against the latter per se. The map seems to have some curious ideas in regards to progression. Whether it was done with help of autogeneration tools or not doesn't matter to me. The final result does.
That said, I agree with @gnollking's point. What he meant I believe is that the minimap "sells" the best. He probably reflected his own map selection process, and it happens to be very similar to mine. The minimap of Crystal Pyre resembles Jebus Cross template, which is why the first thought is that it's autogenerated. In itself it's not a big deal, but there are quite many lazily made maps based on autogenerated source. Call it a stereotype, I guess people just don't have high expectations for maps that look autogenerated (even if they aren't). You can imagine that not many people will download a map just to check if it was in fact autogenerated or not. Some maps look handcrafted and only god and authors know how much time was invested in making them look such (I have no idea), and these to attract me personally more. That said, it's rather rare to find a map that is both beautiful and finely tuned in difficulty.
Valeri Kaludov writes:
20-02-2023 15:31
It doesn't matter! - Crystal Pyre
Every mapmaker has his own style.Some put gameplay over everything else while others prefer to put more time in designing the world and making it ''beautifull''.There is noting wrong with either approach.Different maps for different people.
I personaly put most of my effords into the design and seek similar maps for inspiration.My first map took me about three years to make.Now I am about 8 months in my second one.I am realy happy with how they turn out but time is also a huge factor.Spend as much of it as you want on your maps!Make them as detailed as you want,put in the hardest battles you can think of...just remember to have fun while doing it!
Shek writes:
23-02-2023 22:34
Mapmaker - Crystal Pyre
ya i quit halfway through my next map. thanks for you guys coming in here with positivity. call me fragile or whatever but i wouldn't put down people attempting to create free content for me to enjoy. especially with the hours i was putting in. off to playing overwatch and d2r. wish you all the best.
Subscribe to our Telegram Channel "maps4heroes.com" to be the first to receive NEW Maps and News for Heroes of Might & Magic 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2! 
Likes
