Author: ogogo (Lithuania, Vilnius), 24-01-2025 00:28 where? - Riders of Darkness how to start this game?
wasilix writes:
24-01-2025 21:43
- - Riders of Darkness
There is a grave to the left. It looks like you've been there and took the spirit of oppression next to it. Dig out the grave and you'll have the key.
Author: Nebel 74 (Cz), 21-01-2025 16:14 Map Upgrade ver. 1.1 - Riders of Darkness In the map, minor adjustments were made.
Running the map in HoTA 1.7.2 should be friendlier for the game.
Thanks to wasilix for tweaking the map.
Author: wasilix, 18-01-2025 12:24 Like Finish the playthrough - Riders of Darkness Hey!
Finally finished the map! I didn't record the the portion after defeating Daremyth and before Aenain. It was mostly running around with Gunnar taking all A/D boosts on the map he didn't yet take, and all the rest gathering meat and making more demons and selling whatever I didn't need. Because money was so short I actually intended to sell pit lords in the end (poor things), but messed up a few turns (overall the part omitted from the playthrough was a mess) and ended up moving out without some army I could have had and a few days later too.
As a result finished on 6-1-3, a bit past 5 months (was aiming for 5-4-7 finish initially). Loved the map all the way through, a bit disappointed that I was unable to kill the final boss without waiting to boost my army, but that's my problem.
Wouldn't qualify it as difficult by any means, even if played at fast pace - enemy armies don't scale with time, so the slower you go the easier the map, but even at fast pace you can get things done with some creativity. The map very nicely plays out for a speedrun-style playthrough with many water places all over the map and several heroes allowing some degree of multitasking.
A couple of notable opponents to me were Tazar and Sandro.
Tazar fight was a bit annoying because of his resistance and innate sturdiness. His army is pretty big at that stage, and mine was very small, so I had to resort to all sorts of RNG fishing, even left some demons before the fight to replicate the RNG from a previous successful test attempt. Perhaps, I could have a bit easier time if I started demon farming earlier, but the money was very tight at that stage. Other fights at this stage are much easier in comparison.
My favorite fight was Sandro. Turned out that it can be solved (with a single RNG check 1-2 minutes in) with a relatively small army. Great stuff there. Enjoyed this fight throughout.
The final boss fight will be published soon. The way it went, I think I could've come there at least a few days earlier if I wasn't sloppy in the end with my movement. Demons carried the day there for sure. Also thanks to the AI giving me 2 free turns to open on it :D
Highly recommend this map to everyone, but suggest as a speedrun for stronger players because it would otherwise become too easy. The map is very creative and has many interesting ideas. Another top-tier map from Nebel. Thanks a lot for making it!
Author: wasilix, 31-12-2024 12:12 Like Coronius skills - Riders of Darkness Hi Nebel!
One more potential issue: Coronius hero doesn't have secondary skills set. With all the skills disabled on the map he turns up predictably weak, with only fire magic for example, i.e., without potential for mass dispel/cure, slow or haste rendering him pretty weak despite his otherwise fairly high primary skills.
Probably wouldn't hurt to tune his skills :)
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
31-12-2024 20:07
-- - Riders of Darkness
Yes I see :) I'm marked! Thanks
Author: trancient, 30-12-2024 18:48 Like Tormina - Riders of Darkness Hi there tnx for the great map but i cant reach the Tormina castle love to get some help pls
wasilix writes:
30-12-2024 21:35
- - Riders of Darkness
I think castle names are random on this map, so it’s more useful to tell its coordinates or whereabouts
trancient writes:
30-12-2024 22:57
Nevermind - Riders of Darkness
tnx mate i figured it out just a moment ago
Author: wasilix, 29-12-2024 15:20 Like Teal heroes can be Robinson Crusoe'd - Riders of Darkness Hi there!
@Nebel, just wanted to let you know that it's possible to neutralize all 3 on uninhabited islands by scuttling their boats and progress from there without fighting them. If it's not intended maybe give them summon boat spell.
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
29-12-2024 21:22
-- - Riders of Darkness
Yes, this was not intended and I did not realize that it could be misused:) I will make a correction, but I will leave it and you can replay it in its entirety if you discover or think of something necessary (interesting) that would advance the game.
Otherwise, I watch your videos carefully. Perfect and precise work, I'm curious about your time :)
wasilix writes:
29-12-2024 21:41
- - Riders of Darkness
Thanks, not exactly perfect so far, but very good for my level for sure :) I didn't use the mentioned idea, just happened to wonder if they have summon boat at one point to prevent me from doing it :)
Author: wasilix, 22-12-2024 14:55 Like - - Riders of Darkness Hi Sulim, and thanks for the comment! I appreciate that it would be much more interesting this way. Perhaps in the future I can do that. I'll keep it in mind for sure, sometimes I feel like I can say something interesting about this or that. Unfortunately I can't reliably record audio in my current setup. Hopefully it'll change at some point :)
Author: Sulim81 (Poland), 22-12-2024 11:51 Coment - Riders of Darkness I would love to hear some comment on youtube, not just pure playthrough.
wasilix writes:
02-01-2025 12:27
Feedback - Riders of Darkness
Hey Sulim!
Hope you are doing well and had a wonderful New Year celebration! I've just published 1 more part (with 1 more queued up for Jan 4) where I used some speeding up of things according to your feedback. Curious to know if I went over or under your expectations. The speed increases are so far 300% (for trivial fights) and 500% (for prolonged phases and/or resurrect+blind phases). I wonder if it makes sense to experiment increasing the rates a bit to make it possible to slow them down exactly to 1x on YT (like, 400% and 1000%). Wonder what you think about even speeding up of some shorter fights. Perhaps you only meant the annoyingly long fights like 1 automaton + 1 harpy against lots of dwarfs and alike - I would certainly speed this one up 1000% without a hesitation (at least after demonstrating the pattern on a normal speed).
What do you think?
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
02-01-2025 14:14
Video - Riders of Darkness
Hello Wasilix,
I hope you are doing well in new year too.
I think it is good direction. Generally I would use one rule only, all neutral fights speed up at least 5x and all fights against heroes - normal speed.
wasilix writes:
03-01-2025 09:59
- - Riders of Darkness
Thanks for the feedback, Sulim :) I'm not sure why you seem to object against speeding up blind+resurrect phase. It takes a decent chunk of many non-neutral fights and I think it's not really useful to anyone. At the same time (it's obviously subjective, so it's up for a debate) I feel that some neutral fights are actually more difficult (at least when rushing the map, but same applies to enemy heroes to an extent), especially if the strategy requires you to play them without spending much mana to save up for an upcoming fight.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Even if I disagree with you on some points, I will still consider what you said and see if I can apply it maybe in part. And thanks for initially popping in with initial feedback. It's very helpful to understand what viewers want to see!
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
05-01-2025 00:30
Video - Riders of Darkness
I have just watched part 8, your idea looks better (speed up even some parts of vs heroes fights). My intention was just to make preparation before uploading easier - less editing.
I think it's a good idea and it certainly hasn't lost its authenticity!
wasilix writes:
02-01-2025 12:44
Feedback - Riders of Darkness
Hey Nebel!
Hope you are doing well and had a wonderful New Year celebration! One more part is up and I'm also curious to know your opinion about the parts I chose to speed up. There is another part queued up with similar approach. Curious to know if this makes fights less clear for a viewer in your opinion.
I'm not yet sure when the part after next one will be ready. Right now I'm stuck on Tazar, but didn't yet try all of my options because of lack of time, so maybe I'll still find a way to deal with him. He's so far the most difficult enemy to beat for sure.
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
02-01-2025 21:54
-- - Riders of Darkness
Hi wasilix, I wish you all the best for the New Year and that everything goes well for you.
I looked at YT, I think it's good. As for changing the speed during fights, I didn't mind the same speed when playing fights, especially when fighting with AI, definitely don't increase the speed with neutrals, it's something to consider. I think that as a standard viewer, I would be most bothered by replaying fights with neutrals x times. One replay would be enough here.
On the contrary, with strong AI opponents, repeated (unsuccessful) fights are very desirable.
For 1. everyone likes to see that you can't do it and you got kicked :) and for 2. it is very instructive to see a change in your tactics so that you are successful.
Well, Tazar is one of the easier opponents, I think you'll encounter even stronger ones.
Looking forward to your next video thanks.
Author: wasilix, 21-12-2024 00:40 Like First impressions - Riders of Darkness Hi there!
@Nebel
So far I love the map :) In many ways. As usual, Nebel, you've done an outstanding job. Many interesting ideas as always. I didn't get too far yet, but played the 1st couple of months about half a dozen times already.
This time I decided (after already starting the playthrough and recording) to actually try a bit harder with path plotting and overall logistics. This map seems to be pretty nicely put to be played with tempo because of some choice often present. And not too much choice for my tiny brain to process :D
Granted, I only reached the barb by now and had to replay many parts several times to improve here and there. Will see how it will unfold but I'm having wonderful time so far :)
For one more change I decided to make my recordings shorter in addition to making this playthough less spontaeneus (i.e., recording often after I figure out the pathing and fight tactics). It will save some time for viewers at the expense of some degree of authenticity, but hopefully will be more interesting and less time consuming. At least to me as a viewer this sort of a gameplay is more interesting.
Here I will be posting playthrough videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL02MwI3vxw6n6cfYmeELdjtJLdh6wx4q2
Part 3 is where some path planning starts being involved, and I'm pretty happy with some of my ideas there trying to make things work. Obviously, there is still some room for improvement in terms of speed, but considering my own level I'm pretty happy with the result :)
wasilix writes:
24-12-2024 07:06
update / correction - Riders of Darkness
@Nebel
I'm glad you like it, but the ones you saw so far were as authentic as it can get :) Part 3 starts using some portions pre-played and planned, but not to a large extent yet. And majority of fights in this part are still not planned out.
Maybe I was going a bit faster than anticipated and thus some fights started getting pretty tough in later parts (4 and 5) where I decided that I need to be doing them in 1 try on-record preferably (having solved them before) otherwise every other fight becomes a slug fiesta.
Hope you enjoy!
PS: I don't know if this change is of much use though. The videos still seem a bit too long and some cooler parts are often lost somewhere in the middle. Not sure how I could help that though. Sulim raised an interesting point about the commentary, which I will consider.
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
24-12-2024 18:02
Progres - Riders of Darkness
@wasilix
Of course, I also like the repeated attempts, it is very instructive for me as a mapmaker. I liked how you got the boots, I was hesitant to make the event easier because I never passed it on the first try, but I can see that it can be fought if you know how :)
You didn't take the important spells ... well, that's very interesting, I'm very curious about your next step, I definitely wouldn't be able to do it :)
wasilix writes:
24-12-2024 20:31
- - Riders of Darkness
Well, stay tuned for the answer then :) I think you won't be disappointed :)
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
25-12-2024 00:52
Youtube - Riders of Darkness
Hello,
I could add some ideas, if you are interested, from customer POV. Why I watch your playthrough? Because I want to see your order of doing things - exploring map(is this map/scenario interesting/challenging and I can try it myself), where to find hidden events, artifacts, what army compostion and what tactic for specific fights - mainly not against neutrals, you use. Currently most of your movie is fight, sometimes repeatable, which is just boring for me. Personally I would prefer to see exploring world mainly and as for the fights - just starting tactic with your comment/explanation and then whole fight could be speed up 5x or even 10x - need to be tested. At the end I get interesting content mainly- exploring map and solving puzzles. Watching for 10 minutes how you move phoenix from top to bottom to be attacked by one stack only, multiplied by number of fights, is not interesting for me. I always skip it, what causes two problems: I need to be sitting in front of monitor all the time and secondly - It happens to me, that I move forward to much and can miss some interesting map exploring part. Please treat it as constructive criticism/"helping hand" not hating, as I watch your playthroughs regularly anyway.
wasilix writes:
25-12-2024 07:21
- - Riders of Darkness
Thanks for the feedback, Sulim! It all sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I tried some editing in the distant past, and it didn’t work very well. Ended up spending a lot of time for very little result in terms useful editing. I’m abysmally bad at it. Trying to remove or speed up repeated parts was complicated and full of unwanted side effects. I’ll revise it again though, I might be just a bit less abysmally bad at it now. Thank you for sharing your thoughts :)
Author: Orthodox (Lyon), 11-12-2024 21:59 Like Great map by Nebel - Riders of Darkness Yet again very interesting map by Nebel, challenging, but not to the extreme. The hardest puzzle for me was to find a way to the purple, I literally spent an hour trying different approaches until I found these Azuri dragons and remembered, that you used the same tactics in the Dune map! ))
First arrived to the last town at the last day of the 10th month, but couldn't beat the hero. Bought 600 behemoths and finished him on month 11, week 1, day 3. I wasn't particularly slow, and I didn't rush.
I avoided the battle with Edric, as I didn't allow the purple to free him.
Thanks again Nebel, your maps are masterpieces!
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
12-12-2024 16:51
Bravo! - Riders of Darkness
Hi Orthodox, thank you for your kind words and of course the thumbs up!
Yes it's Dune :), I like this sequence so I put it here too. I tried to make it identical to it, so that it would be a hint (that is, for those who played Dune).
Glad you liked the map Cheers!
Author: wasilix, 11-12-2024 05:33 Like Eagle eye - Riders of Darkness Eagle eye on Wynone seems to be very strong. Is it intended or it was meant as just a throwaway skill slot? You can learn a few very good spells including blind using it early on.
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
11-12-2024 15:52
:) - Riders of Darkness
Seems to be intended as in the nearby you can get also all eagle eye artifacts and immediately after you have two heroes fights where you can learn slow, cure and blind. This is how I read it.
wasilix writes:
11-12-2024 16:02
- - Riders of Darkness
Thanks, Sulim :) Yeah, I interpreted it the same way because of artifacts, but still figured better if I ask :) just because blind and rez so early seem a bit too good to be true, and also just in case so that it doesn’t get patched out right after I record the playthrough :)
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
11-12-2024 19:10
-- - Riders of Darkness
Hello gentlemen, yes of course it is as you say. I think it would be very difficult to conquer another castle without these spells. But I haven't tried it :)
Author: Sasha, 09-12-2024 07:47 Like Map Complete - Riders of Darkness I got 15K demons at the end of month 12 but was not able to beat the final boss. I had to wait another 2 weeks to buy 2K cows and cyclops which made fight easier. Really great map. Thanks!
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
10-12-2024 01:28
Bravo! - Riders of Darkness
Bravo Sasha, I see you also used the Demons farming tactic. I'll have to try that too :)
I'm glad you liked the map and thanks for the thumbs up.
Author: Юрий (Россия), 08-12-2024 09:10 Like нужны подсказки на начальном этапе - Riders of Darkness Карта хороша. Но нужны подсказки на начальном этапе. Сложно понять куда двигаться герою Мариус. Чтобы не попасть в лапы сильным противникам.
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
08-12-2024 22:44
:) - Riders of Darkness
Привет, спасибо за лайк, я не давал подсказок на этой карте, но вы определенно все поняли правильно. По крайней мере я упомянул феникса :)
Author: Nebel 74 (Cz), 06-12-2024 00:49 :) - Riders of Darkness I don't know this saying, but it sounds better than ours :) I'll probably practice it sometime too :)
Well, farming a demon was meant to get a way to the castle. I then used Gunnar as the main hero. And I used standard units in battles. I didn't buy or make demons anymore. But of course, it sounds logical to use the specialization of one hero to advance. I think it's all fine, this map simply provides various possibilities to win.
wasilix writes:
10-12-2024 10:20
- - Riders of Darkness
Hi Nebel!
Happy to see another map from you ^_^
Sadly, I don't have much time lately to play it, but I started it and had a lot of fun optimizing first couple of months, and dare I say did it fairly well so far. The map is up to the highest standard in quality to far :)
Just a note on demons, it's not necessarily that hero specialization is of much use. It's pretty useful, but it's just a nice addition. It's because the demon farming is just utterly powerful if you have enough meat to fuel it. Judging from the comments there is plenty of meat :)
Thanks for another map :) I'm excited again, hopefully will get some more time soon :)
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
10-12-2024 18:04
:) - Riders of Darkness
Hi Vasiliy, nice to hear from you again :)
I hope you write me what you think about it when you finish playing. I think that the map is not too hard, that is, according to how the players who wrote it went through it practically without help. Or everyone here is already good, maybe I have to toughen up :)
It's quite funny with the Demons, I started farming there for Marius, but it never occurred to me that someone would try to play with only this tactic :), (as I already wrote here). And above all, it seems to be a successful way to traverse the map. I'll have to try that too. And the time is also interesting, I guess Sulim did it in 10 months, I played it classically 3 times and my best time was 11.5 months. I'm guessing that players of your format can handle it around 8 months. Have fun and post when you're done.
Author: Sulim81 (Poland), 05-12-2024 22:25 Hmm - Riders of Darkness Actually, I was not at work. Some people say: if fun interrupts with your work, than just quit work :) . I am really suprised you did not think of playing with deamons, while giving one of main hero with deamon speciality :) . Day before your map was released, I had just finished playing Tale of Scott Brothers map with deamons farming, as in Wasilix's youtube playthrough, so maybe this is why I was so fixed on this style.
Author: Nebel 74 (Cz), 05-12-2024 20:12 Bravo! - Riders of Darkness Hi Sulim, I hope you were at work :) we say work first and then fun :)
I knew the map would be playable in different ways when I first played it, but playing it on Demons surprised me. I hadn't thought of that :) It's a very interesting idea. I played it 3 times and the fastest time I completed it was 11 months, so great work and for a first time.
I'm glad you liked the map. Cheers!
Author: Sulim81 (Poland), 05-12-2024 13:43 Finished - Riders of Darkness Done. Final fight was quite easy with more than 11 000 deamons :). The best fight was against Sandro, reminded me best chinese style maps with epic castle siege battles. Loved the idea with scout hero who could not gain experience and level up, took me some time to figure it out - connect dotes. Also rush for fire magic book and town portal spell was fascinating. I played whole game with Archdevils and deamons, except last two fights, where I exchanged devils for angels - not sure if it was necessary. Top map, as always from Nebel74. It was worth to spend two days in front of monitor. Thank you Nebel for making my life more fun. I finished in late month 10, maybe I will try again to make it faster.
Юрий (Россия) writes:
07-12-2024 16:48
Карта хорошая, но не могу пройти на остров, последний город.Как прой - Riders of Darkness
Карта хорошая, но не могу пройти на остров, последний город. Путь преграждает затопленный корабль.
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
07-12-2024 16:58
Grall - Riders of Darkness
You need to build grall in Fortress town to reveal whole map and then just waterwalk.
Юрий (Россия) writes:
08-12-2024 08:57
Последний бой? - Riders of Darkness
Последняя битва, как пройти? У противника плащ отречения. Есть варианты?
Sulim81 (Poland) writes:
08-12-2024 21:09
:( - Riders of Darkness
I can not help you with this, I was farming deamons and had more than 11 000 of them,so it was just brute force. Maybe Nebel can share his tactic for final battle.
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
08-12-2024 22:47
:) - Riders of Darkness
How do you write brute force :). Behe, bull and other tanks you can find. You can sacrifice some heroes.
Author: Andrey (Russia), 04-12-2024 11:41 застрял - Riders of Darkness где взять языки пламени красного дракона )
Orthodox writes:
07-12-2024 09:29
Языки - Riders of Darkness
Если в самом начале, то в левом верхнем углу, рядом с духом уныния есть могила. Ее нужно раскопать как грааль, меч там.
Author: Sulim81 (Poland), 03-12-2024 22:20 Happy, happy,happy .... - Riders of Darkness New map from Nebel74 released: "Boss I need holiday tomorrow". So far it looks great,I got only to red tent till now. Love deamon farming idea. Underground in swamp looks similar to Paragon map, so memories coming back :) .
Author: . (Russia), 03-12-2024 15:33 Крутейшая карта - Riders of Darkness Очень классная карта, я нуб, поэтому завершил за 16 месяцев, используя разные хитрости типа копания ям для противника на корабле
Nebel 74 (Cz) writes:
03-12-2024 16:17
Браво! - Riders of Darkness
Браво!
Author: mirson66 (Poland), 03-12-2024 02:31 crap - Riders of Darkness Not playable
Sasha (Canada) writes:
03-12-2024 05:20
Playable - Riders of Darkness
I would not say that since this mapmaker makes great maps.
Orthodox writes:
03-12-2024 09:45
Playable for me - Riders of Darkness
I'm at the end of the first month and so far not a single problem, enjoying it a lot.
Author: G, 02-12-2024 13:39 l - Riders of Darkness The water walk spell for the computer player got me unpleasantly surprised
I guess I don't have enough skill to beat such an enemy
Author: Nebel 74 (Cz), 01-12-2024 18:04 Without help - Riders of Darkness Hello to all Heroes fans.
I left this map without any help. Proceed at a brisk pace and take advantage of what the game has to offer. Enjoy.
Author: Sasha, 01-12-2024 06:06 Like Hm - Riders of Darkness Have no clue how to get the first town
K (NZ) writes:
02-12-2024 07:08
Spoilers - Riders of Darkness
There's a pandora's box hidden in the smoke behind the scholar
Sasha writes:
03-12-2024 00:35
Pandora's box - Riders of Darkness
Pandora's box just gives you 75 mana if I am not mistaken
wasilix writes:
03-12-2024 06:36
- - Riders of Darkness
All there work needs to be done by Gunnar. He can reach the town by day 6, but there are a couple hidden passages (1 in his starting area and 1 just outside the gates). Check them out. Also there is a grave next a spirit of oppression, you need to dig it out.
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