MAPDB – H4 WoW: Archmages (Sent for testing by Kuron)

[Kuron]

Map Name: Archmages
Author: Kuron
E-mail Address: kuron.at.post.cz

Map Type: Singleplayer
Map Size: Extra large with Underground
Players: 1-6 Humans, no Allies
Game Version: HoMM4 WoW 3.0.0.2
Language: English

Special Win: none
Special Loss: none



Description: It is said that when the god of heaven and the goddess of hell had a thing together, a new god was born. His name was Pran, the god of magic.
In the legends he was walking between mortals to share his knowledge, but at some point, he left. His descendants then led wars for centuries and almost annihilated their divine lineage.
The period of wars finally ended when Smot, the hero of nature, conquered the armies of others and forced them to create a wholly new nation.
But all of that is a long past now. The peace lasted for too long and the young leaders are not willing to keep it...


Notes:
Hi!

This is my first and probably the last map, so please, bear with me. :)

I'm looking for someone else to test it and correct my English before officially posting it here. Personally, I have separately tested all quests for all players and finish Blue player (Order) route on highest difficulty, so the map should be fully playable in every other way.

In this map you play as pure archmage, an option that is almost never played. At the beginning it seems you have started quite buffed, but believe me, you will need it.

The map is scripted to keep the computer players inside certain domains, while human players can roam in the "playground" to level up their heroes. Computer players are scripted to level up automatically to keep up with average level of human players.

Quite innovative element of this map is an option to play as pure barbarian archmage, which is usually impossible. (I had to hack the editor to allow that option. The game handles it totaly fine, though.)

If you have any question, please ask me.

Thank you. :)



Download version 0.9 here.

[Steven Aus]

I got an error that the file does not exist or it has been removed for copy right infringe- ment when I tried to download it just then.

[Pol]

Fixed, I noticed that I have map downloaded.

[Steven Aus]

Since this WoW map starts with text saying you have access to all the spells and this is the way it is customized in the map, I opened it in the Equilibris editor and added all the Equilibris spells to all the L1 Archmages (who start with all five spell schools) so you can use this version if you want to play it using Equilibris. Any map saved in the regular WoW editor doesn't have Equilibris spells turned on by default, so in this version you have access to all the extra spells of Equilibris v3.51 when you get the required magic level (which is the way H4 works with hero starting spells customized in the editor). The only other change I made was correcting the spelling of Mantises, presuming that is the correct way to spell Mantis plural. ;-)

[Steven Aus]

When starting a map or campaign saved in the regular WoW editor in the Equilibris version of the game, the extra Equilibris spells are allowed to appear randomly in mage guilds, spell shrines, spell scrolls and parchments, but heroes customized with starting spells in the WoW editor don't have the Equilibris spells when starting the map in Equilibris. So I added the Equilibris spells so you have them automatically when you gain the required level of magic, because the starting text shows that it is intended that the Archmages have access to all spells.

[Kuron]

Thanks... I guess?

It's been here for so long that I totally missed your reaction, sorry.

As I see it, the map is complete, and only my English need to polish, so I'm gonna create the final version soon or later. I don't have Equilibris though, so it'll be without those bonus spells again.

But what about the map itself? Does anybody even play it?

[Steven Aus]

I've started it up as each of the players and had a look at the map. I'll start a playthrough tomorrow.

TO MODS: Is there a spoiler tag on this forum? I've tried the most obvious syntax but it didn't work.

[Pol]

There's no spoiler tag now, and there will be after update. Also for video embedding.

However, you can write it in the same font in which is forum background. Only trouble is, there's no transparent color.

Select the text below:
Kinda example.
Kinda example.

Code: Select all

[color=#F3EEEC]Kinda example.[/color]
[color=#F2E8E1]Kinda example.[/color]

[Steven Aus]

Not sure how much game playing I'm going to be doing. Mapmaking wasn't my thing but I'm going to be getting into some creative writing. I have already done some articles before, but I never really saw my imagination as a strength until now.

[Steven Aus]

I started as the Life player on maximum difficulty and the army guarding the portal which is the only way out of there was just way too big for the troops at the start, and would be growing quicker than my army as well. I was playing Equilibris but I don't think that would change how relative army strength for a given random stack would be.

So I'm now playing on the easiest difficulty, and it's really fun to get all the new spells of the new level whenever the Archmage advances a primary magic skill.

[Karmakeld]

Equilibris mod doesn't change the relative strenght (amount of creatures in a stack). Only few stats were changed for certain creatures. However they did ensure that you'll always face 3 stacks instead of 1 but that's not neccesarily increasing difficulty.
Hardest difficulty however increases size of neutral armies by x3 compared to normal setting. Growth rate I believe remains the same, but be mistaken.

[Steven Aus]

The growth rate remaining the same would still result in quicker growth because the stacks are much larger, and AFAIK neutral stacks grow by a percentage (rather than a fixed amount) each Day 1.

[Karmakeld]

The growth rate remaining the same would still result in quicker growth because the stacks are much larger, and AFAIK neutral stacks grow by a percentage (rather than a fixed amount) each Day 1.

Just tested it, and indeed they seem to grow by a percentage, as larger stacks in most cases grow faster than smaller ones, did a test where a randomly set amount of 26 angels grew slightly faster than 150 angels with a 2 vs 1 increase, but for the lower levels they seem to grow at a similar percentage rate = 50 pikemen grow 5 times faster than 10. Higher level creatures grow at a slower pace than lower level, still all creatures seem to be somewhat individually fixed (according to PEON value), or likely some max increase is set. Also growth appears during the week, not only on day 1.

[Kuron]

About that obstacle in front of the first portal... My friend has pointed it out too, claiming it's way too much difficult to overcome even on the average difficulty. But I still believe that getting stuck at the begining makes the map reasonably hard and basically forces you to fully develop your base and create a tactic that actually works.

I finished the map on the highest difficulty again last month, this time as a Red player (Might). Red player has a bit different beginning, but I was still able to finish it quite easily with almost no unit loss during the whole gameplay.

However, if Equilibris increases size of neutral armies by three, it may be even harder to overcome it at the beginning. But still, if you buy only units you're gonna use and wait enough to stack it, it's not that hard, really.

As Blue player (Order), I've played with:
Archmage (Life Magic + Death Magic + Order Magic + Chaos Magic + Nature Magic)
Archmage (Combat + Life Magic + Order Magic + Chaos Magic + Nature Magic)
Field Marshal (Tactics + Combat + Scouting + Nobility + Life Magic)
Evil sorceress
Genie
Mage (Only for few first fights, then -EMPTY-)
Titan (Only for few first fights, then -EMPTY-)

As Red player (Might), I've played with:
Archmage (Life Magic + Death Magic + Order Magic + Chaos Magic + Nature Magic)
Archmage (Combat + Life Magic + Order Magic + Chaos Magic + Nature Magic)
Field Marshal (Tactics + Combat + Scouting + Nobility + Order Magic)
Cyclops
Frenzied gnasher (Only for few first fights, then -EMPTY-)
Behemoth (Only for few first fights, then -EMPTY-)
Nomad (Only for few first fights, then -EMPTY-)

Notice that except heroes, I've only need Cyclops for more than 90% of gameplay. I really didn't expect that on the beginning.

[Karmakeld]

However, if Equilibris increases size of neutral armies by three, it may be even harder to overcome it at the beginning. But still, if you buy only units you're gonna use and wait enough to stack it, it's not that hard, really

Equilibris doesn't increase size of neutral armies by three. It split neutral armies into stacks of 3 instead of 1 in combat. Choosing the Champion difficulty is what increase the army size by 3.