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| Thread: *** NEW MAP, "Mystic Vale," at Laelth's HOMMaps *** | |
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Laelth
Famous Hero
Laelth rhymes with stealth.
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posted February 08, 2003 10:44 PM |
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Edited By: Laelth on 8 Feb 2003
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*** MYSTIC VALE ***
I'm pleased to offer my newest HOMM4 map, "Mystic Vale," for download at Laelth's HOMMaps. This map has been approved by the ToH Maps Council, and is also available on the ToH maps page. Here's the description, notes, and spoilers:
Description: Beyond the mountains lies a secluded valley guarded by mystical creatures. Beyond that is the land of your enemy. You know you must pass through the "Mystic Vale" in order to defeat your foe. The challenge is figuring out how to get in.
Notes: This is a relatively fast, and relatively rich, closed map designed specifically for tournament play. Each player's secondary town is a center of magical knowledge, and most of the shrines on the map are linked to that town as are several of the map's numerous altars. The locations of various mines are randomized, as are the entry-ways into the Mystic Vale. Of the four potential paths from each player's home territory into the Vale, only one will be open. It should be impossible to "see" which pass is open, and, in each case, the pass-guards must be fought before the player can truly "tell" which is open. These features are designed to make the map resistant to set patterns of play.
Spoilers:
1. For 30 gems the Beachcomber will sell you a pair of "Sandwalker Sandals."
2. On each side of the map there is a minor artifact guarded by a lvl. 3 creature stack which can be acquired by a hero using the "hit and run" strategy.
3. The Faerie Dragons in the northeast and southwest corners of the map guard a "Sack of Gold" and a "Ring of Speed."
4. One set of Faerie Dragons in the Vale guards the "Leprechaun's Ring." The other set guards the "Medal of Honor."
5. "Halberd of the Swiftwatch," "Sword of Swiftness," "Ring of Greater Negation," "Robe of the Guardian," and "Boots of Travel" have been disabled, as have several other artifacts that are not appropriate for this map.
6. I tried, as always, to make this map as balanced as possible, and both "sides" of the map have access to the same treasures and structures, with one exception. The purple player has access to an abandoned stone mine while the teal player has access to an abandoned saw mill. Otherwise, the two sides of the map are as equal and as
balanced as I could make them.
In testing, this map has proven to be both fun and balanced. Hope you enjoy it.
-Laelth
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Alan P. Taylor, Attorney at Law, LLC
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valkyrica
Supreme Hero
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posted February 09, 2003 01:16 AM |
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looks like a nice map, but i think you should exclude another artifact : ring of permanency, it's worse then all the others put together, believe me !
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I'm Guybrush Threepwood, mighty pirate
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japjer
Adventuring Hero
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posted February 09, 2003 01:32 AM |
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insatiable
Supreme Hero
Ultimate N00bidity
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posted February 10, 2003 03:55 PM |
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ring stays
it can only decide win in maps that produce super-heroes(e.g superheroes,genesis) OR weak creatures(almost all maps?)
Valkyrica ,you played 60+ games,you re damn legionnaire,stop being so out of time on your remarks
RING rules months now
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Laelth
Famous Hero
Laelth rhymes with stealth.
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posted February 10, 2003 05:27 PM |
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Edited By: Laelth on 10 Feb 2003
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Indeed, the "Ring of Permanency" is particularly valuable to an order player ... can't dispel all those illusions. I plan to disable it in my next, upcoming map. But if you think about it, "Mystic Vale" really favors might since it's designed to be a two-town and two-alignment-combo strategy map where the secondary town is _supposed_ to be the "center of magic" (with both libraries and a lvl. 3 mage guild already built). If you draw (or coose) might as your primary town, your secondary town will (unless it's might-aligned too) give you a bunch of linked shrines and a mostly-constructed mage guild from which to draw magical power. A strong hero group (up to 2 barbies and one mage) can be fully assembled and taking mines by day 2 if your primary town is might. Drawing order as a secondary town, then, would make for a very powerful combo. Drawing (or choosing) order as a primary town is somewhat disadvantageous, because order has no early access to combat heroes and because the map encourages players to develop mages out of the secondary town and not the primary town. This, I think, balances the order advantage a little, at least. Does this make sense?
Either way, thanks for the comments! They're always welcome.
-Laelth
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Alan P. Taylor, Attorney at Law, LLC
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magus_rex
Hired Hero
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posted February 10, 2003 05:41 PM |
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Laelth,
I think it is a great map. I look forward to playing some toh games on it. I like the idea of a two towm maps for those who like to play random or need to because of clans, you can still have a good chance of building an army and heroes that suites your needs, and tactics.
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japjer
Adventuring Hero
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posted February 10, 2003 10:18 PM |
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well actually order isn't that good with the ring of permanency, it's best for barb town. with the ring equiped illusions can still be cancelled. so also life and nature (because of their blessings) have alot of advantage from it. a magic resistant barb with cancellation, the ring, and lots of immortality potions make him extremely strong, especcially against order with a now useless mage and weak creatures (and don't say you're gonna choose naga's).
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insatiable
Supreme Hero
Ultimate N00bidity
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posted February 18, 2003 11:32 AM |
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japjer's right
might heroes are favored in 'mystic vale'
i enjoy idea of non-linked 2nd town,but unfortunaltely it makes a crappy army combo-which gives might heroes big head
..and,combining that with lots exp,attack rubins and 2 vet guilds..
..is it so hard making a map that doesnt point to some direction?
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psychobabble
Known Hero
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posted February 18, 2003 12:42 PM |
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Quote:
..is it so hard making a map that doesnt point to some direction?
That's an awfully good question. I think such a map would have few hero powerups and three (more creatures) linked towns (to prevent might/magic combos as pointed out above).
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H4TCG Review
H4 Map Reviews
Successful trades w/Teuta and doc
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Laelth
Famous Hero
Laelth rhymes with stealth.
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posted February 18, 2003 06:36 PM |
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Edited By: Laelth on 18 Feb 2003
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Honestly, I think it's impossible to make a map that doesn't favor one alignment or the other in some way. Of course, to my knowledge, most MP players prefer to play random towns, anyway, so the town bias of a given map is just another random element of the game. H4 Clans, of course, where some clans are guaranteed a certain town, is an exception to that rule, but, all-in-all, I look at a map's alignment bias as just another random element that doesn't affect the "balance" of the map in any way.
And, to be up-front about this, I believe in having a somewhat high degree of randomness in games between smart people. Of course, I say this to protect my inflated ego, but hear me out. In a fairly randomized game, if you win, you're going to believe that you won because you're brilliant, clearly, and you out-played your opponent. If you lose, you are free to believe that it was because your opponent got lucky! LOL. It's this kind of attitude that keeps friends coming back for more when you beat them. Randomness in games makes for less ego-bruising.
I have a game going with a similarly-ranked Squire on "Mystic Vale," and I'm already feeling unlucky. I had to try all four portals before I found the one into the middle in this game. That set me back by about a week and allowed him to gain more levels and build more creatures before I could invade his territory. In addition, he drew a chaos/nature combo (a good one), and I drew nature/death (which stinks--my army's morale is terrible). As you might expect, in our first battle, I got whipped on the field--even though my heroes were 2 or three levels higher than his, and that's clearly not entirely luck. He is a better battlefield strategist than I, but there's enough randomness involved in "Mystic Vale" that I won't feel too bad about it if I end up losing.
Is that such a bad thing?
-Laelth
PS: What bothers me is that I was trying to make a faster map, and "Mystic Vale" turns out to be quite slow, in fact. Be advised: play it on "advanced" and you're in for an 10-12 hour game (or more).
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zud
Promising
Famous Hero
box worshipper
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posted February 18, 2003 09:48 PM |
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mystic vale
I tried it last night, was glad i played it on intermediate instead of advanced.
my only complaint was lack of resources. I do like a map to have either one of each mine or the major mine needed for a town at least.
the only mine being a gem mine near town with the chaos alignment makes building dragons very tough. very resource poor with no lord until i can take tavern makes alternate resource production difficult also.
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Winner or Whiner?
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Blue_Camel
Famous Hero
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posted February 19, 2003 02:35 AM |
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various ways to make a map fast are obvious:
- castles close together and/or weak guards
- lots of loose resources and/or mines easy to get very early
- lots of powerups to make strong heroes (although not always true)
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Laelth
Famous Hero
Laelth rhymes with stealth.
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posted February 19, 2003 02:48 AM |
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Hey, Zud, I'm glad you tried it. It does have a feel rich then feel poor element to it. One of the other things I was trying to do with the map is to make it un-hexmappable. I find it no fun (nor do I have the inclination) to script in advance where my army's going to be and what I'm going to fight every turn. I don't think HOMM ought to be a formula game. "Mystic Vale" prevents formula play in several ways. First, for those who prefer playing just one alignment, MV basically forces a two-alignment combo strategy, and you can't control what combo you'll get. Second, there is one or more of each kind of mine on each side of the map, but their locations are highly randomized, so you can't map out when you'll take your mines. Third, and finally, it's impossible to tell which portal is open into the middle, so you have to try them, one at a time--again, no way to script exactly where you'll go in nor when.
I admit I could make it faster if I made it richer, but if I droped a lot of resources around the map, well, then nobody'd need to take the mines, and that would defeat the purpose of their randomization. See my dilemma?
Anyway, thanks for giving it a try, and thanks for the feedback. It's always appreciated.
-Laelth
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Blue_Camel
Famous Hero
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posted February 20, 2003 01:43 AM |
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hey, i know this is offtopic but i didnt really wantt to make a new thread about it - what does everyoe think of my map iopoiu? Good/decent/sux? good looking but bad playing or good playing but bad looking? Or bad looking and bad playing?
at least i would like a little feedback on it - really the only thing anyone has said to me about it was psycho's review of it on CH, but that was the Gathering Storm version, and not the reg h4 version (which plays quite differently i think).
p.s. - also does anyone ever play it for toh at all?
p.p.s. - and yeah, like ive said before, i think this is your best map so far, laelth
EDIT: initiate operation bootstraps
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