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| Thread: I am a Cartographer |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 09, 2024 02:08 AM |
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Edited by Juas at 01:32, 11 Dec 2024.
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I am a Cartographer
Hello fellow HoMM's world lovers
If there is something that got me hooked to this game for this long, since I played the demo when I was a kid, it is the World Editor.
It amazes me how much diverse content you can create for your little medieval fantasy world, so much landscapes and ways to docour it, to give it the feeling, the sound and the smell you dream it to be. I don't know, this game gets me too deep. I believe HoMM 3's world is the best of all fantasy genre. It has the diversity, the mistery, the charm, the mystic, so much good stuff in it in general.
Well, to this point, I have spent a ton of hours on it, making a bunch of maps.
The last one I made was at the beginning of 2024, and it is 90% finnished.
I will share some screenshots of this map, wich is called "Land in Sight!". A bit inspired by the mixture of the caribbean pirates during the american colonization, I made 3 factions: the pirates wich go to plunder the island after colonizing a smaller island, the beasty islanders (Fortress) who already control part of it and wish to exploit it for themselves believing it's their right, and the Castle faction (inspired by the spanish, portuguese and english conquerors) who are just arriving in their ships with their armies on board.
It took me several hours of work to do the whole map, and that that I am already a fast worker. Because I take care for every detail on it, from corner to corner.
Right now I am working in my biggest project yet, and I guess the last one.
It is a Giant map (252x252), with more experience and new skills gained to make it even better and more special.
It will be a huge adventure, for 7 factions wich explore a new continent full of secrets and great beauty, misterious ways and unknown places.. the objective is to kill Drakka, the most powerful Hero, the Lord of the Dragons, or Dragon Master as some say.
But...
There is a choice at the end..
If you ever get to find him.. standing by the shore, calmly watching at that pandora box floating near the rocks, down the moon light. He is waiting for you.. Will you go in the ship and open the box? or would you better end it all before you lose it all, and fight Drakka with bravery.
...
That map, wich I already gave it like 7 or 8 hours, is still probably at 15% work done. It is huge, it has me hooked because the ideas are flowing.
But I would like to play with some of you at the "Land in Sight!" map before, or at least share it for you to play alone, I would like that also.
So if you are interested I can finnish it.
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FdgK
Known Hero
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posted December 09, 2024 07:34 AM |
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I think you map looks absolutely beautiful and you should finish it, especially if you are so close to completion.
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Barbuta
Adventuring Hero
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posted December 09, 2024 03:48 PM |
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Juas said:
Hello fellow HoMM's world lovers
If there is something that got me hooked to this game for this long, since I played the demo when I was a kid, it is the World Editor.
It amazes me how much diverse content you can create for your little medieval fantasy world, so much landscapes and ways to docour it, to give it the feeling, the sound and the smell you dream it to be. I don't know, this game gets me too deep. I believe HoMM 3's world is the best of all fantasy genre. It has the diversity, the mistery, the charm, the mystic, so much good stuff in it in general.
Well, to this point, I have spent a ton of hours on it, making a bunch of maps.
The last one I made was at the beginning of 2024, and it is 90% finnished.
I will share some screenshots of this map, wich is called "Land in Sight!". A bit inspired by the mixture of the caribbean pirates during the american colonization, I made 3 factions: the pirates wich go to plunder the island after colonizing a smaller island, the beasty islanders (Fortress) who already control part of it and wish to exploit it for themselves believing it's their right, and the Castle faction (inspired by the spanish and english conquerors) who are just arriving in their shios with their armies on board.
It took me several hours of work to do the whole map, and that that I am already a fast worker. Because I take care for every detail on it, from corner to corner.
Right now I am working in my biggest project yet, and I guess the last one.
It is a Giant map (252x252), with more experience and new skills gained to make it even better and more special.
It will be a huge adventure, for 7 factions wich explore a new continent full of secrets and great beauty, misterious ways and unknown places.. the objective is to kill Drakka, the most powerful Hero, the Lord of the Dragons, or Dragon Master as some say.
But...
There is a choice at the end..
If you ever get to find him.. standing by the shore, calmly watching at that pandora box floating near the rocks, down the moon light. He is waiting for you.. Will you go in the ship and open the box? or would you better end it all before you lose it all, and fight Drakka with bravery.
...
That map, wich I already gave it like 7 or 8 hours, is still probably at 15% work done. It is huge, it has me hooked because the ideas are flowing.
But I would like to play with some of you at the "Land in Sight!" map before, or at least share it for you to play alone, I would like that also.
So if you are interested I can finnish it.
Map look amazing! Keep up the great work and finish it!
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 10, 2024 02:25 PM |
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Thank you, guys
Then I will fisnnish it!
I have to polish the lore and do the quests.
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FdgK
Known Hero
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posted December 10, 2024 02:34 PM |
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Let us know when it's ready and where to download it. Good luck with the last touches.
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted December 10, 2024 05:49 PM |
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Beautiful. Yeah, there is a certain quality that H3 has that just draws you in. Happy to see people making maps still.
____________
H5 is still alive and kicking, join us in the Duel Map discord server!
Map also hosted on Moddb
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 10, 2024 08:24 PM |
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Edited by Juas at 20:30, 10 Dec 2024.
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Meanwhile, I can give you a different type of map, that I did in 2018. It was kind of popular in the spanish community back then.
I am Argentinian.
Well, this one is thought as a competitive map for 4 players.
About the ballance, I tested myself back then. So no guarantees on that yet, maybe experienced competitive players can guide me to polish it.
Destacable points:
- The size is Medium and you choose faction.
- The map is exactly mirrored by 4.
- It has FFA or 2vs2 versions.
- It has several paths to follow: You can go straight for the snow path directly to the opponents garrison while collecting resources, or stop by the middle shipyard to take a chance in the oceans and their portals and protected areas. Maybe you prefer going to the desert in the center, to get lucky with the random mines, and search for loot and experience. You can also try the subterranean, go underground to the middle island, full of gold mines, or don't stop and keep going to the other extreme, and surprise your enemy with a back attack. Or.. you can go the hard way and enter the swamps.. there is good stuff there, but you know the swamps are slow and mortuary..
The map is supposed to be practical, not beautiful.
Download:
drive.google.com/file/d/1XjG7VbBJ2fORCADs2vXAjhDAXVkV_MOR/view
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markmasters
Famous Hero
Dragon of justice
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posted December 11, 2024 08:39 AM |
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I do agree, making maps is half the fun.
your second map made me think of this one, you might wanna try it out too:
https://www.maps4heroes.com/forum/opinions.php?map_id=1227&game=3
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 11, 2024 10:22 AM |
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"Castle Dracula"... I see, interesting name.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 11, 2024 10:56 AM |
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What makes it even more interesting to me is when I play it, and to see what the Bots do.
That makes the game feel alive to me, to know there are a lot of other Heroes on their own adventures out there, that whatever any of them do, impacts on the world for everyone.
But there is something that gives me the most curiosity:
For example, last night I continued working on "Land In Sight!", and had time to play it for an hour. With Cove, so I had access to the Thieve's Guild. And it drives me very curious to know how the bots acquire some creatures.. at some point Tazar had 3 Azure Dragons, and I don't have a clue on how he got them.
By the way, I hadn't had a most epic battle in decades.. First I got the Angel Wings from a Shipwreck Survivor, and after a while of slaying a part of the island with them (I had Eovacius, tremendous magic Hero), since I also had a decent economy. Well, I saw Tazar down there, he had just got a new town, and was resting there, while I flew down to fight him. My turn ended while I was behind some mountains in the back of his new town (Conflux), and I was like "I'm gonna f++k you up Tazar!", BUT... it results he had the Book of Wind, he teleports right next to me, and it's him who starts the fight! So as I said, it was epic, I'll put a pic I took with my cellphone. I was loosing badly, and we reach near the end and I had some Pirates and Crew Mates left, he had the azure dragons still. Of course I was "GG" in my mind, but miracously, the Crew Mates could lastly kill 1 Azure Dragon and then I won thanks to the pirate's sharopshoot skill who slained the last 2 with one attack (I just realized at that moment how good of a skill that is, pirates are awesome)..
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Galaad
Hero of Order
Li mort as morz, li vif as vis
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posted December 11, 2024 11:25 AM |
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Juas said:
That map, wich I already gave it like 7 or 8 hours, is still probably at 15% work done. It is huge, it has me hooked because the ideas are flowing.
But I would like to play with some of you at the "Land in Sight!" map before, or at least share it for you to play alone, I would like that also.
So if you are interested I can finnish it.
Yes please! This map looks incredible 
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 11, 2024 11:44 AM |
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Edited by Juas at 12:14, 11 Dec 2024.
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Well, luckily I had the time and passion to continue the map.
I can give you now the v0.9, for you to play, and with your feedback I can achieve v1.0
I would have liked to make all the monsters and artifacts manually, as I am doing with the new Giant map. But it couldn't be done, so I kept with my first idea of randomizing most encounters... nowadays I understand that doing everything handcrafted ends up with a better adventure map, wich is different from a competitive map wich needs all the randoms.
As a hint i tell you I wrote all the seer huts quest dialogs, remember there is 3 texts: ask the quest, while the quest, end the quest.
Another thing, as I did put a good effort on those texts, the main ones that show at the start of the day, are going to be better written for v1.0
Download:
drive.google.com/file/d/1rxykiawA_-Y5mak2RGevoJoxO6Zfio7s/view?usp=sharing
NOTE: If you see a generic text, let me know please
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 11, 2024 12:30 PM |
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Edited by Juas at 16:20, 11 Dec 2024.
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This is mostly what I got on the Giant map.
And all 37 heroes completely handcrafted.
These are the teams that compete on "The Big Hunt" (the name of the map, for the moment):
By the way. The two hero names in purple are to remember those are created based on two girls I know.
And these are the advances on the map:
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FdgK
Known Hero
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posted December 12, 2024 10:14 AM |
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I downloaded your map and man does it look nice. Just as expected from the screenshots you sent.
I’m eager to play through it. Hopefully I can find the time during the Christmas holidays.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 12, 2024 10:47 AM |
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That would be great!
I believe the map, for "Adventurer" type of players, as ourselves, may take like... 2/3hs?
The good thing, that has me happy and makes me keep going with the new project, is that "Land In Sight!" is very fun to play, and the 3 factions are a completely different experience.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 12, 2024 09:59 PM |
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I'm still going with the Giant map..
It is called "Dragon Master"
This are the main areas I've done so far. They are not finnished.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 13, 2024 02:56 AM |
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Edited by Juas at 03:11, 13 Dec 2024.
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I took the work...
I fully did a little chunk (2% of the Map), to see what it looks like
Hope you stay with my on this campaign
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted December 13, 2024 07:18 PM |
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I will, I'm finding genius this idea of showing your progress while drawing the map. I hope you don't mind if I steal it.
You finish zone by zone while keeping the rest of the map empty? I usually go for the general layout first and only after pay attention to the detail.
P.S. Sorry, I see that some parts aren't done yet and they look as I would expect.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted December 13, 2024 08:29 PM |
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Edited by Juas at 21:38, 13 Dec 2024.
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bloodsucker said:
I will, I'm finding genius this idea of showing your progress while drawing the map. I hope you don't mind if I steal it.
You finish zone by zone while keeping the rest of the map empty? I usually go for the general layout first and only after pay attention to the detail.
I don't mind if you steal it, but tell me for what, I'm curious.. you mean the "Land In Sight!" map? or the screenshots?
The first thing to do is laying down the ground, always.
After that i smoothed the edges and gave them a better form, then put all the connections to the underground, and did the tunnels.
After that is mostly done, I like starting with the mountains, to give the form of the land, and then the trees, to unfold the paths.
The basics I use are those.
After that, it would be a complex explanation and would be boring..
I just use my Artist Eye
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bloodsucker
Legendary Hero
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posted December 13, 2024 09:51 PM |
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I mean engaging the entire community in the progress of the map.
If I do it, I will find less excuses to post pone it...
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