| - The Mysterious Island - Custom map for HotA |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · NEXT» |
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted June 16, 2025 04:11 PM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 13:07, 25 Aug 2025.
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- The Mysterious Island - Custom map for HotA
Hello everyone!
After 5 years of work, I'm proud to finally share my completed project:
The Mysterious Island – a custom scenario map for Heroes of Might and Magic III: Horn of the Abyss.
This is a carefully crafted adventure, available in two distinct versions:
Solo version: designed for full exploration and challenging progression until the very end.
2v2v2 Co-op version: perfect for streaming or multiplayer fun with friends!
Map Info:
Size: Giant
Difficulty: Expert
Players: 8
Playable by humans: 6
Victory & Defeat conditions: Standard
Highlights:
Fully tested by a group of expert players to ensure balance and a satisfying difficulty curve.
Improved endgame pacing based on feedback from previous versions.
Extensive content across all phases of the game: early, mid, and late.
Custom-designed experience for both competitive and narrative-minded players.
Download the latest version:
https://www.maps4heroes.com/heroes3/maps.php?keywords=Papyjama
Screenshots:
More screenshoots here :
https://imgur.com/gallery/mysterious-island-custom-map-heroes-3-horn-of-abyss-light-background-SVfiM9A
Feedback
If you try it, I’d be thrilled to hear your feedback, ideas, or even see recordings of your playthroughs.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the journey!
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted July 20, 2025 09:20 PM |
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Edited by Juas at 03:33, 21 Jul 2025.
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Hello Papyjama, everything good?
I got interested by the good presentation, I just downloaded the map. I'll tell you my experience when I play it!
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UPDATE:
Well, I think I gave it like 3 hours or so. And I write it now because I am so glad I played it bro. It is the best map I have played, so you earned my respect, it is so damn interesting to explore. I've started with Orange. I'm glad I got to the satanic ceremony first so I could get the +1crystal Hero, that can harvest the weekly mines, and also the ones the the enemy clears, and you can hide him behind the barrier... braa, the depth of the details is amazing. The triple town portal also think works great.
I'm gonna leave the game here for today. I got to date M:3/W:3/D:6.
If you have time check my work here:
http://heroescommunity.com/viewthread.php3?TID=48162
Great luck, will come by when I continue the game.  
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted July 21, 2025 12:04 PM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 12:05, 21 Jul 2025.
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Hey Juas!
Sorry for the late reply — I didn’t get any notifications, so you did well to email me directly!
Thanks a lot for your feedback, it really means a lot!
I'm super happy to hear you enjoyed the map that much! You made a great move going for the +1 crystal hero early 
There are quite a few hidden details throughout the map, so I'm curious to see how deep you’ll go with the exploration 
And yeah, the triple Town Portal can really change things once you get the hang of it. Feel free to share more thoughts as you go — always great to hear how different players approach it.
I also checked out your post about your map — creating a G-sized one really is a titanic task!
I saw all the work you put into those spreadsheets to compare the different heroes — that’s amazing!
As for mine, it took me five years, and it's still not finished. I'm currently working on the next major (and probably final, before Bulwark) update.
I honestly have no idea how many hours I've spent on it... definitely well over a thousand.
If I had to give one piece of advice to anyone creating their first map: start with an M or L size 
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted July 21, 2025 05:38 PM |
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Papyjama said:
I'm super happy to hear you enjoyed the map that much! You made a great move going for the +1 crystal hero early
Yeah I am well surprised how much I enjoyed it. Well, it is that it notices the amount of work and love put into it, so it naturally makes me want to explore it with enthusiasm. It is made in a way that you go unblocking paths, in a very hooky way (addictive), because once I open a new door, I want to know what's in the next one so I keep playing a bit more and a bit more... I HAD TO KNOW what was that vampire mistery.. so I ended up there. Quite a road so far, and I see it's only the beginning.
Papyjama said:
I also checked out your post about your map — creating a G-sized one really is a titanic task!
I saw all the work you put into those spreadsheets to compare the different heroes — that’s amazing!
Papyjama said:
I honestly have no idea how many hours I've spent on it... definitely well over a thousand.
Yeah, I don't remember how much I had on that map, I think around 100hs, I stopped recording that thread at around half work. And I still had a LOT to do. As I erased the work, I will make it all over again some day with the new updates.
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted July 23, 2025 09:47 AM |
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Juas said:
Yeah I am well surprised how much I enjoyed it. Well, it is that it notices the amount of work and love put into it, so it naturally makes me want to explore it with enthusiasm. It is made in a way that you go unblocking paths, in a very hooky way (addictive), because once I open a new door, I want to know what's in the next one so I keep playing a bit more and a bit more... I HAD TO KNOW what was that vampire mistery.. so I ended up there. Quite a road so far, and I see it's only the beginning.
Yes, you're absolutely right — it's only the beginning!
And yeah, it seems like I ended up creating something quite addictive 
I'm really glad you're enjoying it and that the effort and love put into it come through. That feeling of “just one more step, one more door” is exactly what I was hoping to create. Can't wait to see how far you'll go!
Juas said:
Yeah, I don't remember how much I had on that map, I think around 100hs, I stopped recording that thread at around half work. And I still had a LOT to do. As I erased the work, I will make it all over again some day with the new updates.
Wow, 100 hours already — that’s impressive! 
It’s a shame you lost the previous work, but I totally get the motivation to start fresh, especially with the new updates. Sometimes doing it all over again brings a new perspective too.
Maybe this could also be a good opportunity to try a slightly smaller size than Giant — especially if there’s not much water. It’s really tricky to keep players engaged all the way through on such massive maps. A more compact version might make the pacing even better!
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Mushroom
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 24, 2025 12:52 AM |
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Activating the Airship
Hi there. Great map! I'm enjoying it so far.
But I do have a question. Once you get Captain Nemo, how do you get him to activate the Airship? I brought him as close to it as possible but nothing happens. Thanks!
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted July 25, 2025 09:30 AM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 09:38, 25 Jul 2025.
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Activating the Airship
Hi Mushroom!
Thanks! I'm glad you like my map
 SPOILER BELOW
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.
.
The clue to find how to get there appears when you step on the event here:
If you already triggered this event and forgot the message, here it is:
Captain Nemo says:
"I managed to repair the hot air balloon used by Cyrus Smith and his companions.
And I even took the opportunity to build an aircraft workshop to make more of them!"
I sealed off the entrance to keep pirates from getting their hands on it...
Send me to open it if you want to fly.
I'm the only one who can unlock the passage.
The entrance is located on a small swampy island, at the south of the Cove town "Cape Claw."
--
Author's note : the airship is optional; it is not requierd to continue the adventure.
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Mushroom
Tavern Dweller
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posted July 25, 2025 10:37 PM |
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Activating the Airship
That worked! Thank you!
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted July 26, 2025 02:06 AM |
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Dude, you have an open behind the garrison that I assume you don't want it to be.
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted July 28, 2025 09:31 AM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 09:31, 28 Jul 2025.
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Backdoor is intentional
Yes yes, it's intentional — every territory has a backdoor so you can sneak in and attack the secondary town
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted August 08, 2025 03:04 PM |
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New Update 1.3 !
I am pleased to announce the release of the new version 1.3 of my map!
Here is a preview image and the detailed changelog below:
Major changes:
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- Level 6 and 7 creature dwellings in your territory now belong to you from day 1! This will boost your weekly army growth. Enemy strength (Red and Pink) has been adjusted accordingly.
- Following several comments about the sea feeling a bit "empty", 7 new archipelagos have been added – one for each faction (6 total), plus one for "The Iron Bank" (see below). Each island provides help for Part III of the adventure (after you get the red key), Including a special quest for "Magic" heroes.
- The Dwarven Treasury that used to be accessible to the Purple player has been relocated for balance reasons. It’s now in a new town called "The Iron Bank", which is locked behind specific conditions...
- Orange can now choose Inferno (or Dungeon). The first Red castle has been adjusted to maintain balance. Inferno has also been improved to make it a bit more viable.
- A new "special" village has been added for the Red player...
- New heroes to rescue: 2 specialists in tier-6 creatures need to be saved early in the game.
(Sorry Green Cove — no more day-1 Tark rush, everyone’s on equal footing now!)
While waiting for the arrival of the Bulwark, the blue (Tower) player will have a Genie specialist hero to rescue, in addition to the Naga one.
- Added a "logbook" / "journal" at the end of each month that summarizes all the information received during the current and previous months. This logbook does not provide any new information; it is just a memory aid. It also does not include information about side quests, which can sometimes be very useful.
Minor changes:
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- Enjoy treasure hunts? A new riddle-based quest will lead you to the pirate treasure! Yaaaarrr!!
- A surprise for speedrunners who finish the map very fast ;-)
- The blue player can now exchange 30 Gremlins for 30 Master Gremlins at the start, to balance with most factions that begin with at least one ranged unit (except Necro, which compensates losses with Necromancy).
- A 9th yellow two-way portal was added near the end of the game, to allow players to reach the Red hero (released at the end of month 13) even if they finish the map earlier. This prevents having to wait 7 days doing nothing after capturing all towns.
- An optional secret passage has been added in the Red zone, only usable by a specific bonus hero (not saying more).
- Faction behaviors are now fixed instead of random: 2 Builders, 2 Explorers, 2 Warriors. Pink (pirate) was already set to "Warrior". Red was changed from "Builder" to "Warrior" (more aggressive now).
- The Skeleton Transformer was too strong late-game by turning all level 1 and 2 creatures into skeletons, making the final boss too easy. As compensation, Necro players can still convert specific units into skeletons/vampires/liches through repetable quests.
- The green sea portal has a new purpose, helping to move around the island more quickly (with a prerequisite). Its former usage has been replaced by an underground river.
- In the Bloodbath zone: Blue and Teal starting positions have been swapped to better match the general direction of the main island’s faction zones – kind of like a compass. Thanks to Picso for the idea
- The 6 red dragons guarding access to the mysterious character under the island have been replaced with 6 different dragon types to diversify the quests.
- Replaced or removed 2 “unique” items (a quest giver - replaced / market of time - removed) on the map that were not available in the editor (originally copied from another map), with the aim of possibly submitting the map to the HotA team one day.
- Text corrections, including removal of spaces before punctuation marks like ! and ?
- Updated high score board with the latest records – thanks for sharing your adventures and results on Maps4Heroes!
- Due to all the changes, the score table for version 1.2 will be separated from the new one (1.3).
- New Easter eggs!
I hope you will have a great adventure
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted August 16, 2025 12:50 AM |
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Hello Papyjama, thank you, I downloaded and look forward to playing it some day
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted August 25, 2025 01:04 PM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 22:48, 27 Aug 2025.
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Juas said:
Hello Papyjama, thank you, I downloaded and look forward to playing it some day
With pleasure Juas!
I’ve worked on minor updates since then, so make sure you’re now running version 1.3.g or later:
Changelog 1.3.e - 14 aug. 2025
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- Fixed a bug that prevented one of the red player’s heroes from progressing.
- The orange player now has Satyrs (like the purple and green players) in defensive garrisons and for their dragon-slaying quest, improving overall balance and ensuring better compatibility with the Pumpkin Patch version.
- Quest guards in front of the Dragon Utopias now display proper custom text instead of the default message.
- Added signs and an in-game message encouraging players to sell minor artifacts that are not part of a set. These will never be required for quests, but keeping them can lead to a dangerously full inventory.
- AI players now gain the same extra movement bonus as human players in the Bloodbath area, but without the associated movement penalty.
- Added teleporters to quickly return to the center of the Bloodbath area after visiting each resource location.
Changelog 1.3.f - 25 aug. 2025
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- Balanced access to the Cape of Velocity across all 6 playable factions. The cape can no longer appear randomly elsewhere.
- The garrison of the neutral town Port Balloon is now more heavily defended.
- Added a shortcut to Orange’s base for the repeatable Butcher quest.
- Added an optional late-game shortcut allowing quick retaking of the two Pirate Castles in case the AI captures them.
- Adjusted the repeatable quest at Teal’s base: it now converts Sprites into Skeletons instead of Pixies into Skeletons (since players cannot downgrade Sprites back into Pixies once upgraded).
- The spell "Force Field" is less accessible on Queen & King difficulty, though it can still be obtained around the same stage of progression.
- Added 4 extra Legion parts (all except the Head) to ensure players can fully assemble the Statue of the Legion.
- A brand-new surprise awaits at the very end of the game—designed for players who wish to replay the map, making subsequent runs more comfortable.
- Added reminder messages at each enemy keymaster: unlocking them grants (1) a reward back at home, (2) a very fast travel route via the Mansions, and (3) progression towards the main objective.
- One of the hero rescue quest messages now appears 1 month earlier.
- Co-op version only: slight buff to all AIs, and a moderate buff to Red player.
- Updated the scoreboard.
Changelog v1.3.g - 27 aug. 2025
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- The pirates have revised some of their schemes… A little surprise awaits those who followed the streamers in previous versions (mwahaha, evil laugh).
- Added several return portals to make traveling easier.
- All 12 heroes specializing in Rank 6 creatures now receive: +1 evolved Rank 6 unit and -2 non-evolved Rank 6 units.
- Removed Rank 6 monsters from the docks of the underground rivers.
- Fixed minor text errors.
- Corrected troop type in one of the Orange garrisons.
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted August 29, 2025 10:54 AM |
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10,000 Downloads, Thank you!
I’m honestly blown away — since its release, my custom map The Mysterious Island has now been downloaded over 10,000 times on Maps4Heroes! I can’t thank you all enough for your support.
When I first started working on this map, I never expected that so many Heroes of Might and Magic III fans would take the time to explore it. Reading your feedback and seeing your messages has been really amazing <3.
It’s been especially exciting to see a few streams of the map — watching other players discover the secrets and challenges I built in has been incredible. It makes all the work feel worthwhile.
I’m very grateful to the community for embracing my project, and I hope the map continues to give many hours of fun and adventure to everyone who plays it!
PS: I’ve also put together a small infographic with some fun stats and anecdotes about the map:
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted September 02, 2025 12:06 PM |
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Edited by Papyjama at 12:07, 02 Sep 2025.
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New small minor update:
Changelog v1.3.h - September 2, 2025
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- The hero "Fafner" is now "Lexiav", the first streamer to play the Tower faction. Reminder: each first streamer or YouTuber to play an unplayed faction gets a custom hero on the map.
Current list:
- "Picso" (Jeremy) – Cove
- "Moucheron" (Moandor) – Necro
- "John Cutt" (Kyrre) – Rampart
- "Winnymaru" (Floribert) – Factory
- "Lexiav" (Fafner) – Tower
Remaining factions not yet streamed/YouTubed:
- Dungeon
- Inferno
- Castle
- Fortress
- Stronghold
(+2 someday: Bulwark and Conflux, release date unknown).
- Increased troop and gold generation in Easy / Pawn difficulty (weekly, in starting castle).
- Small week 3 boost for AIs on King difficulty only (a few units and some gold).
- Fixed a shortcut for Blue to help AI navigation (no impact for human players).
- Slight nerf to starting troop counts for heroes specialized in Tier 6 units in certain factions.
- Secondary skills of Tier 6–specialized heroes are no longer maxed out when released from prisons.
- Fixed minor events that were being assigned to humans instead of AI.
- New anti-pirate "filter" added in the Northern Sea.
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Juas
Adventuring Hero
Dragón Rojo
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posted September 04, 2025 09:55 PM |
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Congrats, keep it up
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LordCameron
Famous Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
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posted September 05, 2025 06:54 PM |
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Papyjama said:
New small minor update:
- The hero "Fafner" is now "Lexiav", the first streamer to play the Tower faction. Reminder: each first streamer or YouTuber to play an unplayed faction gets a custom hero on the map.
That's playing dirty that is I have a huge backlog of videos but I might have to move yours to the front.
____________
What are Homm Songs based on?
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Papyjama
Tavern Dweller
Mapmaker "Mysterious Island"
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posted September 08, 2025 09:26 AM |
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Juas said:
Congrats, keep it up
Thanks a lot Juas! I really appreciate it
LordCameron said:
That's playing dirty that is I have a huge backlog of videos but I might have to move yours to the front.
Hi LordCameron!
It would be great if you could edit and upload your game on YouTube!
Which faction did you play?
We can also chat directly on Discord if you want, here is my contact: francois.papyjama
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kesnarii
Hired Hero
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posted September 08, 2025 12:34 PM |
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@Moderators:
I think Papyjama does deserve a star for this map here!
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LordCameron
Famous Hero
Veteran of the Succession Wars
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posted September 08, 2025 09:05 PM |
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Papyjama said:
Hi LordCameron!
It would be great if you could edit and upload your game on YouTube!
Which faction did you play?
We can also chat directly on Discord if you want, here is my contact: francois.papyjama
It's the next map I was planning to play after beating "New Day Tomorrow" and a map of the Earth. (Playing both at once). But I have about 6 or 8 other maps already recorded before even those ones.
But I'm thinking I might just finish New Day Tomorrow, and then once my Peaceful End series wraps up publish this one instead.
I was originally going to make your map the first Huge map I played (Before you posted on HC actually), but I wanted to play as Straker and I don't believe he was an option so I switched to the map of the Earth. Problem was, Straker still sucks even after the massive buff, and he can't get First Aid, so I'm not sure about the playthrough at this point.
This might be the excuse I need to make your map the first Huge I complete again!
I'll let you know what I choose when I start!
____________
What are Homm Songs based on?
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