Dragon's Fate Thread (Ver 1.5 at CH)

[jeff]

I can't finish map 6. I couldn't form any alliance and all I could do was to conquer all the preserves and did the golden dragon quest. What should I do do have an alliance with the other guys? I took and return heaven and academies several times but this wasn't enough to convince the other guys. Please, I need help.

Thanks

I am sorry you are having so much trouble, the line of 4 quest huts 3 with colored victory flags inside the walls of the starting city detail what needs be done. As long as the flags are still there the quest can be done. As you violate an agreement or act in a way that prevents a quest's completion the flags come down. So if there is at least one set of flags still there go to the quest hut and receive your mission tasking.

To anyone unsure what to do, be sure you check the victory conditions in the scenario information it changes as your goals change, so if it is not descriptive enough, then I need to know that. I'll probably want to email you or send you a PM to know at exactly what point in the map you are.

[taspool]

Finished this campaign recently and I would rate it (last revised version) as one of the most enjoyable maps played in 15 years of HoMM gaming. Very involving RPG elements and good story. A couple of bugs persist that I noticed (item duplication) but credit to Jeff for responding to problems quickly as they arose. Highly recommended!
Greg

[jeff]

Finished this campaign recently and I would rate it (last revised version) as one of the most enjoyable maps played in 15 years of HoMM gaming. Very involving RPG elements and good story. A couple of bugs persist that I noticed (item duplication) but credit to Jeff for responding to problems quickly as they arose. Highly recommended!
Greg

I sent you an email, I am glad you enjoyed it. It was a good distraction for the three years it took me to make it. Now there were several periods of a couple of months which the project sat untouched. Any future release hopefully will not take near that long.

The duplication of some items may have been caused by some of the rapid patching I did. I did make a effort to stamp out as much of it as I could. Unfortunately a few of the uncotnroled artifacts did slip by, such as the Golden Plate Mail, I thought any warrior would hold onto that until something better came along and on one run through Nathaniel and Lamentia had two each. Some build up did occur with the AI heroes, and though I put take item scripts on them to attempt to prevent that (scripts used by GhostWriter I might add), it worked most of the time, but for some reason not all of the time. If you remember which artifacts, on which map and I can fix those.

I am going to release a version 2.0 sometime during the summer fixing these and some other minor issues people have identified. I have not decided if I am going to add more to the dark side path or concentrate on the next release.

I have about 25% of the text I need to start the scripting the next release, but I want to see the H-V editor (need to play H-V too, haven't loaded it yet). I also need to play an Equilibris map as I probably will use that for the next release, now if the E-Team will release Equilibris 3.6 early this summer I be able to start. For now though I'll just keep developing the script.

[Mystic Dragon]

I'm stuck in I think the 3rd map - I'm trying to locate Mezizto. I can't get into the tunnel with the skull over it - it's blocked with rocks. Any help would be appreciated.

[HodgePodge]

I'm stuck in I think the 3rd map - I'm trying to locate Mezizto. I can't get into the tunnel with the skull over it - it's blocked with rocks. Any help would be appreciated.

It's been quite awhile since I finished this map, but I think after you find the three Dragon Masters, the tunnel will become unblocked. Otherwise, I would PM Jeff, he has all the answers.

[jeff]

I'm stuck in I think the 3rd map - I'm trying to locate Mezizto. I can't get into the tunnel with the skull over it - it's blocked with rocks. Any help would be appreciated.

It's been quite awhile since I finished this map, but I think after you find the three Dragon Masters, the tunnel will become unblocked. Otherwise, I would PM Jeff, he has all the answers.

Sorry for the delay, it maybe summer break but I have been away at training and my new computer has just arrived and it is taking some time setting it up. Who knows I may even get Heroes V loaded and finally see if I like it or not. Now to the question

First since you have mentioned Mezizto and the skull tunnel, then you mean map 4, and to clear that path to that tunnel entrance you need to have released Hastner and have him in the army that approaches the tunnel. If you approached the tunnel without him you should have gotten a message hinting at that fact. So free Hastner then take him to the entrance and all will be revealed. Well maybe not everything.

[Mystic Dragon]

Thanks Jeff. I'd forgotten about Hastner. I was too slow getting to the tunnel were he was imprisoned the first time, and someone else had already released him. I restarted the map and was able to complete it.

[patrickmh]

Finished your campaign a few weeks ago. Really appreciate your efforts. I played on expert, and on this setting it was very challenging--to the point that I was amazed I finished some levels. What I really appreciate is that most maps allow you to go where you will--your engagement with any particular map cannot but be different from others'. (you ask how people chose to finish the campaign; but if I were in your shoes i'd be interested in knowing how they navigated their way through your maps.) I'll e-mail you some other comments at some point. Won't comment further here cause spoiler and spoiler is coming to mind. Anyway, I had an enormously fun time playing your campaign. I'll be on the look out for subsequent efforts.

Patrick McEvoy-Halston

[jeff]

Thank you for your comments. Though this was my first effort, I took a lot of time reading players’ comments on other campaigns as to things that they hated and things they liked and, so I made an effort to allow players to finish most map quests in any order they choose. Main reasons are obvious, minimizes linearity, but it also minimized the amount of time needed to finish a map by cutting down the run here then return and now run there and return. After the initial maptesting I opened most quests so any player owned hero could accomplish them. I was mostly curious about the end game choice as there are 4 or 5 depending on difficulty level and choices made on the eight map, and I wanted to know if they played out correctly, even though they tested correctly. As I mentioned I never fully developed the alternate darker path through the earlier maps as I just ran out of time. It probably would have taken another 6+ months to do that. However, the campaign I am designing right now will have multiple paths for all maps after the first one.

Format for that campaign is still undecided, but I am leaning toward the Equilibris mod pending the H-V editor release and capabilities.

[slimoli]

Jeff

Thank you very much for days and hours of pure pleasure. This campaign was the best I have played and I think you created a masterpiece.

Sergio

[Akul]

My congratulations to you for making the campaign
Strange that I never saw you in the guild. You don't even have a Jeff Tread.

[jeff]

My congratulations to you for making the campaign
Strange that I never saw you in the guild. You don't even have a Jeff Tread.

I was more active in the guild on the old forum at the Roundtable. I helped put together the buglist. I have tried to help when I could with questions there, but normally deferred to the more experienced. I am glad you enjoyed the campaign. I just the DF thread would be better here.

[andjel]

map 2

All enemies gone, map explored. Pink ally controls 2 towns. Old guard wants its sack of gold and I do not have it. Without it my quest is put on hold though at least I know a lot about my history.
Anybody wants to exchange 2 bags of gold for one sack of gold?

One sad half elf...


Oh yeah, did I tell you that it is very engaging great campaign you made for us. Thank you Jeff!

[wimfrits]

Did you visit the southwest-most allied town?

[andjel]

Just visited all 7 towns to be sure. South and West Grove, Northern Glen, Madronos and Dry Gulch under my control and Garlock and East Gorge under my pink palls control. No gold sack nor any message for me.

Thanks.

[jeff]

Just visited all 7 towns to be sure. South and West Grove, Northern Glen, Madronos and Dry Gulch under my control and Garlock and East Gorge under my pink palls control. No gold sack nor any message for me.

Thanks.

After you have visited the guards in the southwest, you need to visit East Gorge where the guards should then allow access to the city, then you recieve the gold sack.

[andjel]

Arrgghh, but I had pleasant chat with old guard which hides the golden totem behind his gates, and visited frequently East Gorge since then. Even waited for 2 days to get part of the family story and sextant.

Feeling dumber by minute ...

[jeff]

Arrgghh, but I had pleasant chat with old guard which hides the golden totem behind his gates, and visited frequently East Gorge since then. Even waited for 2 days to get part of the family story and sextant.

Feeling dumber by minute ...

Then you need to check all of your inventories, once you talk to those guards asking you for the Sack of Gold, the next time you go to East Gorge you get a conversation with Laine (its a placed event that occurs whether Laine is actually in the castle or not.) During that conversation you get the Sack of Gold.

The only way the script might have been broken is the Remove Script command is in the script with the second days conversation about Talon's Past, so if somehow you did both of those conversations before talking to the old guard, then it was broken.

There are several events that needed to be done before those. Which means you covered a good deal of the map and underground before traveling the relatively short distance to that gate. If that happened then you will need to restart the map.

You can do a quick check after a restart. Using the NWCHermes cheat for movement, and the NWCARES cheat to defeat any creature stacks in the way, take an army to the Southwest Quest Gate get the conversation and then go to East Gorge (can be a different army if you wish) and see if you get the Sack of Gold (you should) then the script is not corrupted in your file. The test should take you only about 5-10 minutes. Then you can restart the map and know that it will work.

It's no comfort to you of course, but I will rescript that to prevent that script being removed.

[andjel]

I did almost everything else prior visiting East G., all those fights, sufferings and sweat for naught....
Lets turn the clock back and start all over.

It was wierd that I got message in front of East G. "you approach the gate and see the captain on the other side..." after I had been there several times already.
Started again, went there first and got my sack.

Thank you.

[Daisy]

Hallo all!

I think I have missed something in the 7th map. I have released Ramona from prison and need to kill the high commander, how and where is he? Is he standing at Barmina? I can´t get into that city - how do I do this?

Help please!!!