Four ancient Elemental Lords have crashed into the world and taken over the underground. Threatening to destroy all life, they have to be stopped. Who will succeed, and what will they do once they seize the power of the lords?
Author: Jacob (Denmark), 06-03-2025 15:10 Great map - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 This is a very good map. One of the few where inferno feels very good.
I really liked that the path to winning wasn't linear. I managed to finish on 1-4-4 on the second attempt.
Thanks for making the map
Author: Hanzass (Kuopio, Finland), 11-12-2024 16:08 Like Ad Nauseam - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 This map was great. Had a lot of fun playing as a necro. It was not difficult, but I enjoyed every bit of it.
Finished 441 - just as soon as I managed to find my way to the white tent. Thank you for this experience.
Author: Boennen (Copenhagen, Denmark), 22-08-2024 18:12 Like Really good map! - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 Great map. Loved the complex nature of the main mission as well as the time limit!
It is however hard to make the AI agressive enough in my opninion - Make them do quests or get boosts in other ways. Anyway good job!
Author: Kristijan (Croatia), 16-06-2024 18:22 Like reply - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 Hello, you did a great job with map i liked it alot,you put alot of effort not just in game progress but also in decorations, thanks for epic map, hope u can make more but with dungeon, its my fav.and this map is one of best i played so fav. thanks again
Author: Derakusa (Estonia), 23-03-2024 12:55 Good map - Thank you - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 Played Necro and ended on month 5 week 3 day 1. If I had gotten the horn earlier, would have been faster.
Collected an unbeatable skeleton stack with 6 heroes and went for the "World's End". Did not really care too much of challenging The Necro and the Demon boss so I kind of avoided them and some others in the pink towns.
I had a lot of fun with gaining strenght at start, then going after other AI-s and finally battling out with the water and air bosses. Interestingly to this map breserk, blind, slow and haste are banned so clone and teleport were both way overpowered spells to have in the arsenal.
Anyways a very fun map with a lot of twists and turns, a little dissapointed about the final fight though, but other than that no other critisism to you. Good job and thanks.
Author: gnollking, 11-03-2024 18:53 Update 1.2.1 - Emergency patch! - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1 The previous version had a massive error, which I profusely apologize for. I had forgot to run a script to generate the guards for certain new boxes, which meant you could get the rewards without any fight. This is now fixed, with a couple more balance changes included. Sorry to everyone who downloaded 1.2!
[!] Forgot to run a script to generate guards in some boxes. Now fixed.
[*] Fixed the quantity of a guard in front of the Jailer that was set too low.
[*] Reordered the Jailer rewards. (Rust Dragons as the first reward was a bit too much.)
Author: wasilix, 09-03-2024 23:46 Like Nice map - Ad Nauseam 1.2 Hi there!
Finally got to play this map, and I had 11 hours of great experience. Love the layout and overall design of the map. There is also some good humour sprinkled in that made me grin a few times.
Loved the original idea of having this map as a race to finish, not a slugfest. In theory this attitude could make any FFA map actually challenging. The fact that there is an actual quest to finish the map definitely helps and spares the player of hunting every last AI hero. Also TP and DD are readily accessible, as well as wings, which helps a lot with finishing up the map.
The bosses are pretty cool, and I loved that at least 2 had creature specialty making 1 of their stacks pretty tough to deal with.
I wish I got to play version 1.1 with lower time limit, but I hope I didn't miss out on anything.
Played as Orange, finished in 2.5 months.
Recorded the playthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7NK6tmWec&list=PL02MwI3vxw6mpgGzF2OicE5BXti5jSjQU
Thanks for the map! Recommend playing to anyone. Shouldn't be too difficult to finish in 5 months. Most definitely doable under 2 months, or even maybe someone can finish in under a month, who knows. People show some crazy things when it gets to speedrunning. 2.5 months is definitely nowhere near a limit.
gnollking writes:
11-03-2024 18:59
Thanks! - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1
Wow. This is the kind of comment that makes me feel like all the time spent on the map was worth it. Thanks for all the feedback. Posting a full playthrough is honestly something I never expected to see, but am immensely grateful for.
The comment about speedruns is true, would be awesome to see how fast the best players can beat the map and what routes they come up with. With all the custom heroes in the game, I did have an idea for a speedrun competition, where the winner would get their own hero in an update to the map (logistics or speed specialty of course :P), but I'm not sure if enough people are interested. Anyone that reads this, please comment if that's something you'd like to see!
And if you actually want to try the harder 1.1 version, I uploaded all the previous versions to my github (link below). Judging by your excellent playthrough, I don't think you missed much, but it was a shame how I forgot some of those box guards, sorry about that. With your style, I think you could beat 1.1 pretty easily, even though it's a lot harder than 1.2. Anyways, here's the direct link to the 1.1 EXPERT version for those interested
wasilix writes:
11-03-2024 19:42
- - Ad Nauseam 1.2.1
The pleasure is mine, really. I forgot to mention the boxes, I'm glad that you picked up on it.
One of the things that I also forgot to mention which I also liked a lot is that you disabled OP spells. These spells can make any map boring as hell, and I'm happy they weren't available until the end. Maybe it's also worth disabling clone to make AA-clone thing impossible for a castle player.
I think everyone should play more maps like yours in regards to spell access because it helps learning many more combat tricks other than relying on slow and blind for everything.
PS: in regards to the speedrun, I personally would probably pass on it. I'm not a speedrunner, probably just a closest casual thing, and mainly playing fast just to have some fun, not to break records - bear no illusions here :) However, I would love to watch a speedrun of your map, for sure.
Author: event66 (Екатеринбург), 27-02-2024 16:07 Like неплохо - Ad Nauseam 1.2 Прошел версию 1.2.
На пятом месяце пришлось воспользоваться редактором карт, чтобы понять, куда идти и где взять клинок армагедона, чтобы успеть вовремя.
В целом карта не сложная. Играл за оружейника. Финальный замок захватил на автобое.
Автору лайк, спасибо за карту.
Оценка 6/10.
Author: gnollking, 24-02-2024 12:30 Update 1.2 - Ad Nauseam 1.2 The (hopefully final) version 1.2.
The Elemental Lords have started their invasion, this time for real. The tight time limit for 1.1 was a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the feedback received for version 1.0. In 1.2, there's no longer a normal and an expert version, but one definitive scenario with 5 months of time. There is now a new, more organic push for the players to chase the victory condition, in the form of powerful Generals of the Elemental Lords. Late game, they will start to appear and roam the land, bringing chaos to the world with their powerful spells and great armies.
In addition, endgame powerstacks of some new creatures are now possible. These include Green/Gold Dragons, Red/Black Dragons, Sandworms (properly now) and Storm Elementals. Azure, Crystal and Rust dragons are also easier to get into the ~50 range, making them as plentiful as Faerie Dragons were before. AI opponents are given Scrolls of Summon Boat at the start. This allows some of them to get into the waters easier, but also gives another reason for players to attack the AI for a little reward. Overall the map is a little bit easier, but more varied with these new options on the table. Hope you enjoy!
Full(ish) changelog:
[+] Added 4 minibosses that eventually start roaming the world.
[*] Buffed Elemental Lord armies (balanced for longer games).
[+] Added boxes of Green Dragons, Red Dragons and Storm Elementals.
[*] Adjusted the contents of various other boxes.
[*] Adjusted the rewards of various Seer's Huts (notably, from the Jailer).
[*] Adjusted the armies of a few prison heroes.
[*] Adjusted the timing of various events.
[+] Peasant dwellings are flagged from day 1.
[+] AI opponents start with a Scroll of Summon Boat.
[+] Enchanters for Inferno tell about the Fire Elemental gates.
[+] Inferno AI gets Fire Elementals to pass the gates.
event66 (Екатеринбург) writes:
24-02-2024 17:10
не запускается карта - Ad Nauseam 1.2
Скачиваю карту версии 1.2
Она не появляется в списке доступных карт для игры.
(У меня HotA версия 1.6.1)
gnollking writes:
24-02-2024 17:15
Version - Ad Nauseam 1.2
The map is for HotA 1.7.0.
Author: MattHu (Hungary), 27-01-2024 18:40 one of my favourite! - Ad Nauseam 1.1 I read how you didn't mean to make the map for single player gaming, however I really enjoyed everything about this map.
The difficulty is significant, the terrain and objectives are plentiful, progress is slow and feels well-earned, and the seer quests are always worthwile.
I really do hope to see you make many more maps in the future!!!
gnollking writes:
27-01-2024 19:12
Thanks - Ad Nauseam 1.1
Thank you for the kind words! Glad to hear you enjoyed it and that there was some challenge. The time limit was the first idea I had for making the map work better for single-player, and I really like how it worked out. Made my playtesting more fun as well, and hotseat matches more focused!
Author: K (NZ), 27-01-2024 14:12 !!! - Ad Nauseam 1.1 Superb map, thanks GK. I hope you keep uploading maps here, I know you have some more.
I finally finished expert on my 4th attempt using Castle. My feedback is I think there should be eyes of magi on the black and white keymasters, as I had to check the map editor to find my way there in time. The jailer rewards could use a buff also perhaps.
Really good gameplay and extremely well decorated map.
gnollking writes:
27-01-2024 19:01
Thanks - Ad Nauseam 1.1
Thank you! This is exactly what I wanted, glad to hear you enjoyed it and congrats on the win!
The witch huts actually *do* show the black and white tents, they're just right on the edge of two of the revealed areas. The jailer rewards are something I've already buffed for the next update, nice to see we had the same idea.
I do have some older maps (can find them in my thread at Heroes Community), but they'll require some touch-ups before I'm comfortable releasing them here. Will see. I am making some slow progress on an "Element Land" style giant map, but it's a long ways away from anything shareable. Thanks again!
Author: uac, 24-01-2024 14:41 Great map - Ad Nauseam 1.1 I (bad player) won the 1.1 normal version as orange on 415, expert version would be doable easily with better play. Inferno seems very strong vs AI, Mammon starter hero, demon farm from day 1, can get 900+ cerberi, resurrection + scholar prison hero, quest is simple. Needed HotA to beat the boss though, didn't have slow and his melee stacks were too strong for me.
The only AI I've seen get strongly out on the map is Necro, there's a risk they will contest the temple of the sea area in the middle. The others barely make progress and orange AI usually traps itself in its zone. Maybe adding summon boat to some AI boosts would help.
I have no idea how you're supposed to do some of the alt main quests in the time limit, like defeating all the elemental lords, without crazy luck.
Author: ogogo (Lithuania), 23-01-2024 21:06 ruined? - Ad Nauseam 1.1 I won the first version in 5.2.4 (red Castle)
accidentally found DD, TP, Resurrection, captured the main castle, didn't even reveal a large part of the map.
In version 1.1, the time limit is 4.4.7.
In version 1.1 Expert - 3.4.7
(Necropolis) I played Expert until 2.3.3 and only then saw there was a time limit...no chance...
I think - 1.1 is not playable.
But thanks for the 1.0.
gnollking writes:
24-01-2024 12:10
Timer - Ad Nauseam 1.1
2.3.3 is just over halfway point in time! I bet you could have given it a go, especially as Necro is the easiest faction. Thanks for the feedback!
Author: gnollking, 21-01-2024 10:54 Update 1.1 - Ad Nauseam 1.1 Version 1.1 is now released!
After hearing a lot of great feedback, I realized that most people play the game very differently to myself. The map was designed from the start with multiplayer in mind, with each color trying to beat the special victory condition as fast as possible. Slow playthroughs in single-player where you go around defeating the other colors was never even tested. The map is understandably very easy if you grind it out for more than ~3-4 months. So, the real challenge of the map that all playtests were played with does not actually exist, which is completely my fault.
That is no longer the case. Introduced in the update, there is now a *real* time limit. This brings an actual challenge into single-player runs as well. You will not have time to wander around wasting days. You *will* need a plan, and you will need to go for it fast. There are myriad ways to accomplish the main quest, and I hope to hear what route people take to beat this new (hopefully challenging) version!
(Included with the download are two difficulties, in the easier one you have an extra month of time.)
Full changelog:
[+] Introduced time limit.
[+] Added events to tie the time limit into the story.
[*] Adjusted some quest timers to fit the limit.
[-] Removed Necropolis starting Black Knights.
[-] Removed all army boxes from Necropolis's area.
[-] Lord Haart starts with Vampire's Cloak instead of Dead Man's Boots.
[*] Changed the contents and guards of some Pandora's Boxes.
[*] Changed some pre-built buildings in neutral towns.
[*] Changed friendly creatures to instead always join for money.
[*] Made Black Tent also reachable with DD.
[*] Fixed a misplaced AI Boost event.
wasilix writes:
24-01-2024 11:12
Nice idea - Ad Nauseam 1.1
Hey! That's a pretty nice idea for difficulty. There are so many maps that get too easy if player goes slowly, and I think that it's a pretty nice way to "fix" it. I hope to give it a few tries when I get some time!
gnollking writes:
24-01-2024 12:02
Timer - Ad Nauseam 1.1
Thanks! I agree, and so far the difficulty in the EXPERT version feels perfect for myself. I know the map inside out, but I don't win every run. And I don't want to win every run, I want it to be an actual challenge. I don't recommend people try the expert version before they've won the normal one, you really need to know the map to beat it in the given time. I hope the tight timer adds some replay value and gives people a sense of pride when they do win, it certainly does for me!
Author: RXD, 19-01-2024 20:13 good difficulty - Ad Nauseam i enjoyed it, good difficulty, nice design, nice landscape, good story
good work
thank you
Author: raa (Korea), 19-01-2024 06:16 Fun map - Ad Nauseam Loved the details of hero(with cool descriptions and concept). One error i found from this map- white tent was accessible with dd without opening all gates. I think that should be fixed. Some of hero starts with op artifacts-(especially lord heart with dead man's boots).
Author: Ja Rite (United States), 18-01-2024 18:18 Like Fun Map! - Ad Nauseam Loved the map, played as castle.
A bit on the easy side, had a hero with necromancy and the cloak of the undead king was available early.
Basically had one hero with 100 AA's and clone and another hero with 10k + power liches... and none of the enemies were close to that powerful.
The only difficulty was figuring out how to get to the enemies.
Thanks for the map!
Author: Corwin (Czech Republic), 18-01-2024 12:51 Like map is very good - Ad Nauseam I played as my favorite faction, Stronghold and it was very fun! Not too challenging though and computers never got TP.
I never felt threatened. As soon as I got TP and Horn of the Abyss the game was essentially over.
I think you can beat the map even without beating a single AI which I kinda like. Not gonna try though.The game is most definitely worth replaying as different factions as everyone has its own identity and idea behind.
Author: Corwin (Czech Republic), 18-01-2024 00:47 Like map is very good - Ad Nauseam I played as my favorite faction, Stronghold and it was very fun! Not too challenging though and computers never got TP.
I never felt threatened. As soon as I got TP and Horn of the Abyss the game was essentially over.
I think you can beat the map even without beating a single AI which I kinda like. Not gonna try though.The game is most definitely worth replaying as different factions as everyone has its own identity and idea behind.
Author: koget, 16-01-2024 15:57 Great work and some feedback - Ad Nauseam Thanks to the author for putting all the work into this map. I think the graphics are amazing, also some interesting ideas around the map.
Now for the feedback. I played 200% and picked necro as I was curious how author tried to balance it, especially seeing that OP heroes like Thant are available. It may be that other factions do not have that problem, but with necro, the game lost meaning very fast. By 121 I had 1000+ skeletons (+other valuable troops like many liches and black knights). By 131 I had 2000+ skeletons, most of useful relicts (+3, +4, +5 all), stats over 20 all, air/earth books etc. I realized the map is not a challenge anymore, I had 3 armies just clearing everything and accumulating resources. By 141 I had 3500 skeletons and there was no challenge nor interest in continuing, the only thing I could do is get more resources and more army. I nwctheone and realized I was maybe a week away from getting to the final boss - whom stats were set even higher. Meaning I only could walk around and clean the map without any challenge.
I suggest the author to rebalance necro (especially animate dead, but also the numbers of skeletons overall). I suggest to lower to power level of all early bonuses, the game just snowballs way to fast. I also suggest to remove super strong artifacts from taver heroes, things like +5 knowledge helms or +1 speed rings are super OP. Another thing was that after 2 weeks I was already at 3-4x some of the artifacts, hence consider lowering the amount of artifacts too.
I still think it can be a great map, just needs some rebalancing. I haven't tried with other castles hence cannot say what is the experience there.
gnollking writes:
16-01-2024 16:56
Necro - Ad Nauseam
Thanks for the feedback! I was quite hesitant to include Necro at all, but kept it in from the start to have an "easy" faction to play with, since many players find that sort of gameplay fun. In truth, you can't really balance the faction in big maps like this. Including it was just a choice I made and stuck with. I do believe that the other colors provide much more of a challenge, so they should feel a lot more fun to play for people that want a tougher time. I'll have a look at Necro again to see if there's something to do, but believe me it's hard :P. Reducing the early game tempo for the faction is a great idea. Once you play the map with multiple people though, it's not easy to stay alive when the other players know how strong you can snowball and rush for your head :P.
The way I personally play these big maps is in hotseat, so I try to make each starting color super equal. I never clear the whole map, so playstyles like that were not really tested. The thing we like to do is to see how fast we can beat the map if there's a special victory condition, so the factions are balanced in a way that each of them should take about the same time when optimizing to win before the other players. There's always this "race" to see who will beat the victory condition the fastest (or stop the other players). So far in various tests, Necropolis (obviously), Fortress and Tower seem to be a bit above the rest in power. After the latest tests, these factions were nerfed before releasing the map on the site, and I will continue to monitor other people's feedback on who to buff and who to nerf. I predict I'll need to post a 1.1 version after enough people play the map and give their opinions.
Regarding the heroes you can buy in the tavern; it is true that the artifacts some heroes start with can be crazy strong, but that was also a conscious choice. Each hero being customized and unique is a major thing I wanted to do (and spent ungodly hours on), and some of them can be a lot stronger than others. I want people to be able to start with a random hero and have a good time with any one of them. Hunting the tavern for good artifacts to snatch before other players is something I want to keep in, but it is indeed pretty strong for single-player. If I get more feedback about the artifacts, I'll tone some of them down for sure.
Thank you again, this type of feedback is exactly what I love to hear! Now give me the same for other factions! :P
Olexandr (Germany) writes:
16-01-2024 23:53
Agree to overpowered necro - Ad Nauseam
I've also played as a necro - I am a slow player, not as fast as the initial commentator, but ye, at some point necro is unbeatable or another alternative to it is at least 2 Horns on the map.
P.S.
1 - rebalanced heroes OK,
2 - shuffled portraits - IMHO not OK
3 - TP under 411 quest - not OK - is too short for Comp players - I was the only with TP (no comp has reached it).
4. boring pandora boxes - not OK
Olexandr (Germany) writes:
16-01-2024 23:54
overall map/world design is great - Ad Nauseam
not to forget - word to play/explore is OK
Author: Bladzioch, 15-01-2024 04:53 Ad Nauseam - Ad Nauseam absolutely phenomenal, and a beautiful map. Thank you to the author for your dedication in creating such a detailed and beautiful map.
Author: Kir (Russia), 14-01-2024 19:43 spells - Ad Nauseam Why were the Slow and Haste spells removed?
gnollking writes:
14-01-2024 22:16
Spells - Ad Nauseam
Because getting them very early makes most maps trivially easy, and I like to have some challenges to get them. Pretty much all of the game-warping spells are banned from normal sources, but you can get every spell in the game from somewhere in the map.
Author: Kir (Russia), 14-01-2024 17:50 spells - Ad Nauseam Why were the Slow and Haste spells removed?
Author: gnollking, 14-01-2024 10:50 Enjoy! - Ad Nauseam A map many years in the making, finally ready for release following the latest 1.7.0 HotA patch. This map has everything I personally love about the game; huge world to explore, powerful armies to amass, tough opponents to beat, and a major quest to beat the special victory condition, with multiple strategies to go for in pursuit of the win. And the most important part, great fun in hotseat!
Inspired by great maps like Element Land, Purgatory and crapcore.
If you give it a try, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making and playtesting it!
Would love to hear any and all feedback, thanks for checking it out.
wasilix writes:
14-01-2024 18:19
- - Ad Nauseam
Hey, thanks for sharing! Would love to play it when I get a chance :)
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