New Map: Ashes and Sands

Angelspit · Unread postby **Angelspit** » 17 Oct 2006, 15:35

<a href="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/images ... .jpg"><img src="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/images ... nds_sm.jpg" align=right vspace=10 hspace=10></a>This morning I found in my inbox a playtested Heroes V map with a detailed readme and a series of screenshots I could use. As a token of my gratitude to the friendly mapmaker who made my job so easy, I hurried to publish the map immediately. So here is <a href="/https://www.celestialheavens.com/downlo ... "><b>Ashes and Sands</b></a>, by Zilonite and Signe, a couple in real life.

<i>"Two striders, trying to catch their own luck amidst the anarchy of civil war between Wizards and Necromancers, overheard a strange story of a rich wizard, Isher the Eightfinger, who tried to conjure a phoenix to help defend his castle against incoming hordes of undead. Yet the spell went wrong and instead of one phoenix a whole tide of those fiery creatures entered the world, destroying all and everything on the path of their wings. As it is rumored that abandoned treasures of the wizard are still there, both striders decided to take a look on those places, which since those happenings acquired the name of the Land of Ashes and Sands. Albeit some other rumors say that those magnificent creatures of fire are still there, too..."</i>

The map is suitable for competitive play as the mapmakers tried to achieve balance between different town types, yet it isn't a mirror-map. It can be completed fairly quickly, as the big battle can occur between week 4 and week 7. Give it a shot, and remember to rate the map once you have played it.

If you would like to take a look at the original page visit this link:
https://www.celestialheavens.com/1161099358

alavris · Unread postby **alavris** » 17 Oct 2006, 17:05

I've already viewed the map in the editor... I must say that landscape is very original and interesting. Mapmaker did very good job.

Although, I haven't tested gameplay yet... but it's promising scenario

.

Aspiriins · Unread postby **Aspiriins** » 17 Oct 2006, 21:38

Zilonite and Signe? sounds familiar

evilp · Unread postby **evilp** » 18 Oct 2006, 01:35

..........

PWL screen image is too big...

DTX3 is enough

midnight · Unread postby **midnight** » 18 Oct 2006, 04:12

i know zilonite, he is a good map maker, and pretty good player (back in the H3 days)

Caradoc · Unread postby **Caradoc** » 18 Oct 2006, 06:49

I suppose when the download says 'large', it means 'very big.' I wish Nival had not changed the terminology.

Zilonite · Unread postby **Zilonite** » 18 Oct 2006, 08:29

2 alavris: glad to hear it

Hope you will enjoy gameplay as well

2 aspiriins: Sarauj, Latvija ;-)

2 evilp: guess, you are right and i should make the size of PWL smaller. Albeit the aim was to get really good quality here and whether file size is 3 MB or 5MB, guess, does not matter much

2 Midnight: ahoi, buddy :-) Thx for kind words, still remember our strugling with those RMG templates :-) Hope to see you back, at least, when the RMG will be out. Rychen promised to return to HOMM by that time and I sincerely hope that you will do, too

2 Caradoc: well, this thing sux indeed. Some sites use the terminology of the map editor and some - the ingame terminlogy, so it is easy to get confused here. This map is 136x136 ("normal" in map editor and "big" in game)

Metathron · Unread postby **Metathron** » 18 Oct 2006, 17:05

I am currently playing the map and enjoying it!

I've been wondering though...The map itself is over 5 megabytes in size, that's almost 5 times the size of the biggest map I currently have in my Maps folder (Dragon Hill). What gives?

Sir_Toejam · Unread postby **Sir_Toejam** » 19 Oct 2006, 14:20

Just finished it.

the phoenixes (LOTS) indeed guard some mighty treasure.

rare resource mines are well guarded and far away from your hometown. However, there are enough loose resources lying about that with good planning, you can build most of what you want in the first few weeks.

most of the best stuff is underground, so go there as soon as you have a decent sized army (say sometime in the second week).

overall a well laid-out and well balanced map.

I thought the treasures the phoenixes were guarding might have been a little over the top (heck it took me a full week just to nab all of it!)

the map is well named, so academy plays well here, simply because of the lack of movement penalty in all the sand areas.

gold is the hardest thing to obtain early on (gets easier once you have a decent enough army to really begin exploring).

I would like to see just a bit of a storyline added in game; some pop-up text boxes or whatnot, just to add some interest.

Metathron · Unread postby **Metathron** » 19 Oct 2006, 16:29

I finished the map as well, and liked it a lot. I played as necromancer, and got to experience the true power of the undead army firsthand: skeleton archers, and vampires to an even greater degree. I engaged the phoenixes with just the two stacks (large though they were) and managed to emerge victorious without a single loss.

Great map, recommended!

Zilonite · Unread postby **Zilonite** » 19 Oct 2006, 21:48

Thx for kind words, folks - glad that it was same fun to play it as to make it :-)

Regarding size - map itself is rather small, most part of the fail is PWL picture and thumbnail images (the ones you see when create game). Gain is really high quality picture to stimulate imagination before gaming ;-)

atma6 · Unread postby **atma6** » 21 Oct 2006, 04:06

My only gripe is that I was able to barely explore the top of the map what with the AI playing rush through the eastern pass.

Metathron · Unread postby **Metathron** » 21 Oct 2006, 10:50

@Zilonite

Thanks for elaborating. However, I think I'd rather have a smaller, 'normal' file size. It's not so much the screenshots of the map that draw me to play it, if I enjoy the first ten minutes or so of it, I'm going to continue. And imagine eventually filling up 100+ maps in your folder - if all of them were this huge, you'd have 5 GB+ of just maps, and I think this is a little much.

@atma6

I didn't manage to explore the top of the map either. I guess if you divided your forces a bit you could venture there with your main hero, and guard the eastern passes with your secondary.

ShadeOfSandro · Unread postby **ShadeOfSandro** » 21 Oct 2006, 18:43

My map is only showing it as being 5 mb, so 100 maps would only be 1/2 of a gig, not that bad when you think about it. It would take 1000 maps at this size to be 5 gigs

Sir_Toejam · Unread postby **Sir_Toejam** » 21 Oct 2006, 19:37

actually, it's not the file size on the harddrive that I would be thinking about; it's the folks with modems who don't want to spend the extra time downloading a 5mb file.

not having a modem, I'm not complaining, but I'm sure some would.

just a thought.

Metathron · Unread postby **Metathron** » 21 Oct 2006, 20:00

ShadeOfSandro wrote:My map is only showing it as being 5 mb, so 100 maps would only be 1/2 of a gig, not that bad when you think about it. It would take 1000 maps at this size to be 5 gigs

My mistake.

And yes, what Sir_Toejam said might be the real concern here.

Zilonite · Unread postby **Zilonite** » 23 Oct 2006, 13:35

Agreed regarding modem problem. If i will make more maps, the file size will get reduced.

ShadeOfSandro · Unread postby **ShadeOfSandro** » 23 Oct 2006, 23:13

IF? OMG, you better make more maps, I have absolutely loved playing this one, it has rekindled that heroes spark that started to fade after the campaigns.

Zilonite · Unread postby **Zilonite** » 24 Oct 2006, 05:13

ShadeOfSandro wrote:IF? OMG, you better make more maps, I have absolutely loved playing this one, it has rekindled that heroes spark that started to fade after the campaigns.

WOW, thx for good words

The Heroes Round Table