New Unique Campaign Underway

[Muszka]

Huh... Sorry for being late, but running a bar has a big withdraw... it don't lets one to chose his own free time. Mine it came now, and even though I'm a bit dizzy I feel I can concentrate on the subject.
So:
As you noticed Bytebandit asked me for being his partner. I accepted his offer but somewhat halfway. For two reasons mainly. One is that I wouldn't like to take any credits from him for this great idea. The other is that English isn't my native language. As a result I'll make only minor modifications with maps after he did the main part.
I've done it so with the H1 map, which I'll send to anyone who wishes to test it. I tested it myself, and there are two main shipyards that do work, one for the bigger lake, and one for the smaller. I made a lot of testing with shipyards, and I can say that I did the best I could, since H1 editor is quite limited, but the shipyards now do work.
I also did a testing on the H2 map, and thus far only found some minor results what were already corrected by ByteBandit.

By the way thanks for the patch UHO, and for the info about H1 hex editing.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I'm also glad you found that the Shipyards near the water do work on Map 1. It must be the randomness of the game itself or something.

You misunderstood me. What I meant is that to MAKE them work on your map (at least the one city I saw with a shipyard, near middle of the map), it needs to have water in FRONT of it. The shipyard is equally as buggy for me with a boat appearing on the grass. You need change your map by adding some water in front. There is no randomness about it, that's how the map format was designed. Muszka also seems to have found that himself now.

I received your email with the no CD exe , thanks. I will see what I can do about modifying them with my mods. Since my H1 and H2 mods are made on the with-CD exe, I guess they can be unpopular to people who took the habit of playing without a CD. *shrugs*

Muszka: Thanks, my ultimate goal is to have a H2 balance mod that EVERYBODY can agree upon (similar to H4 Equilibris) so that we may one day play multiplayer again, because there is no way in hell I'll ever play multiplayer H2 again with the insane dragon/titan growth of 3 per week!

[Muszka]

I think that for the shipyard to work, the town must have water tiles on his left, next to the entrance. Two tiles, and in the front and nowhere else. As I said I'll send the final H1 map to ByteBandit in the next couple of hours, if someone has question/request about it, I can send it to him/her.

[ByteBandit]

Thanks Muszka for partnering up with this campaign. And would you like the No CD HoMM1 Map Editor? I can send it right away if you want it.

The help from Muszka will be the fine tuning of the maps I paint, and the storyline I will be trying to put together for all the Series to mesh together, and be enjoyable to play for both experienced and first time players. And, as much as he knows, I never take credit for my work alone. All testers are mentioned, and all who support any project I tackle. In other words, I don't have an ego when it comes to mapmaking. All I want to be remembered for, was that a map I helped design was fun to play. Be it easy or hard. And to do that, it takes a great ensemble of people to accompllish it. So, credit is given where credit is due. Bottom line.

Enough of my babble and rambling.

It's good to have just the 2 towns on Map 1 produce boats. If any other testers can see how map 1 could be fixed any better, we woulld like to hear it. HoMM2 Map testers. How is the map playing for you? The third map is completed, more or less, above ground. Putting the pieces together in the Underworld. And, the story for Map 3 is now completed.
Muszka has seen the text for the 3rd map. What do you think of the tie in of the story from HoMM2 to HoMM3?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I didn't play it more than a few minutes, but I did looked at it in the editor, at least 30 minutes, if that counts

When I played it, I was so bad that I had lost all archers within the first few days and I had almost lost my army by the time I conquered the first Knight town.

Comments:
- I think I read an event somewhere mentioning Yog. Where is Yog?
- Barrow Downs??? Please don't ruin your map by placing a Barrow Downs on it
- All the Sphynxes I clicked on are empty

* spoilers *
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

- Is Roland really older than Archibald? I always assumed the opposite.
- I loved the inclusion of Catherine and Gelu. It's wacky to see them in a H2 map. Couldn't have picked better portraits

Anyway, can't wait to see your H3 map.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

H2 map again
- Why did you use Vatawna's portrait for Gem instead of, well, Gem?

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Nevermind, I finally found Yog -

And you used PRECISELY the portrait that I would have used for him
(not that there was much choice for blue-skinned heroes)

[ByteBandit]

Hmmmm.....I could put the original Gem portrait in, but Vatawna's portrait was the closet one for the H3 portrait of her. But, I could write something in the story about her change. Not a problem. Still time to correct it for the H3 map, so, yeah, I will put in her original portrait for the H2 map. All testers should go ahead and put in her original H2 portrait if you like. I'm already thinking of her appearance change to map 3 as I type this.
You found YoG! He, he. Agree. Best portraits for the Heroes used. The age difference with Roland being younger than Archibald is okay in this sense. with the latter being used as he is used would explain why.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

Okay, got the newest one.

- The event in front of Catherine's prison has no colors allowed to trigger it

- Barrow Downs will make this map easy if you manage to get ghosts early, and can potentially make a computer player dangerous

[Muszka]

Hmmm...
I think you'll solve the portrait problem, so I won't get in this debate, but I already have a good riddle for the Sphinx, and I think would be best if I add some guardians. Phoenixes for example, and the reward would be the Battle Garb. Now there are only guardians. Since Battle Garb is the most powerful artifact and can balance the Barrow Mounds of the AI. Also I agree with ByteBandit, that he placed it on the map, thus we'll have everything on the map. And Human player can't get them so quickly since it's on Sandro's territory.
As for the story shifting ByteBandit, I think you solved the problem better than anyone could. At least thus far

[ByteBandit]

- The event in front of Catherine's prison has no colors allowed to trigger it

- Barrow Downs will make this map easy if you manage to get ghosts early, and can potentially make a computer player dangerous

Okay. The event will be corrected and you could give it a "Blue" checkmark for now if you like.

I think you'll solve the portrait problem, so I won't get in this debate, but I already have a good riddle for the Sphinx, and I think would be best if I add some guardians. Phoenixes for example, and the reward would be the Battle Garb. Now there are only guardians. Since Battle Garb is the most powerful artifact and can balance the Barrow Mounds of the AI. Also I agree with ByteBandit, that he placed it on the map, thus we'll have everything on the map. And Human player can't get them so quickly since it's on Sandro's territory.
As for the story shifting ByteBandit, I think you solved the problem better than anyone could. At least thus far.

Go ahead and put in what riddles you like in the Sphinxs', Muszka. And if Battle Gear will balance the Barrows and the map as a whole, all the better. And Muszka saw what was being done here. I have included everything from the H2 Map Editor, down to the blades of grass, on the map.
And thanks for thinking the crossing storylines blend together. This concerned me more than anything.

[Muszka]

Thanks for the credit ByteBandit.

[ByteBandit]

Anytime. You've been sent an advanced copy of the connecting text from Map 3 to Map 4. Let us know what you think. The story goes on a wild ride in Map 4. And so will the map play.
On another note, how has Map 2 (H2) been playing for everybody whose been playing it? Corrections, Additions, Removals, The Best, The Worst?........... (Cant' believe I asked if it's the worst.)

[darknessfood]

Haven't got the second one yet...

[Muszka]

I just read the connecting text. It gets better with every step. It even made me curious, if you want to introduce that "feature" or you just mention it. It would be freakin' great to see it.
For the 2nd map, I'll send you my changed version to you in the next couple of minutes.
I've added riddles to the sphinxes, and some more....

[Muszka]

I have a very urgent question! Can anyone disable in any way the Dimension Door Spell in H2? I am thinking of hex-editing the exe, but if anyone knows of any other way, it is most welcome. UndeadHalfOrc can you do that, with hex-editing?
I am playing the second map on impossible and AI keeps invading from all sides. My problem isn't the fact that I cannot handle it with power, or speed. But it messes up the Keymasters' gate system, and as such it destroys some part of the maps concept.

@Darknessfood
I've heard that you received a copy of the map earlier today. If didn't let me know, I'll send you the freshet copy, with Sphinxes and such, and also corrections made by ByteBandit afterward.

[ByteBandit]

Yeah, there was nothing I could do to eliminate the Dimension Door dilemna in the second map. If it could be worked around with UHOs' Mod, that would be great!
And I'm glad you are happy on how the story is progressing, Muszka. I know there was a lot of concentration on the "Good" characters up to this point, but now you'll be getting more feel of the Evil ones. As you can see, it takes time to develop this particular storyline and all the Characters involved. I have a picture in my head how the connecting text from Map 4 to Map 5 will go, but as you can see, the story changes from my original idea, constantly.

[Akul]

the story changes from my original idea, constantly.

I think every storymaker suffers from that problem. We all like to change the story in middle of it, heh.

[UndeadHalfOrc]

I wish I could help you with spells. You'd have better luck asking BAD23ro, he claims to have found a way to successfully edit spells. I tried putting 0 to every field for Magic Arrow, but it still appears in guilds.

What I have found... (useless so far)

F13C0
22 bytes per spell
0-8: name
9: spell level
10: ???
11: ???
12:


As to Dimension Door, the only way I know to prevent it is to jack up Mage Guild level 5 costs to 999 gems, 999 sulfur, 999 crystals, 999 mercury, 99999 gold, etc. But we don't want to disable EVERY level 5 spells, don't we? And besides, a cpu might cheat and get the required resources anyway.

[ByteBandit]

How true, how true you are Akul.
I added a character on Map 3, towards the end of the map, who I never planned on adding, and he is somewhat important. I could've avoided it I suppose, but he definitely makes the story more interesting than before in Map 4. Yeah, change is good!

At UHO:
Well, no, we don't have to eliminate all level 5 spells. We just have to work with it. And DD does'nt really impede on the game play all that much, I think.