Other Features

: Posted 04 January 2005; by Charles Watkins

Behind the Curtain: Saving NWC
by Charles Watkins

This week, I’d like to take a break from mapmaking to say a few words about the future of the Heroes franchise. Sure, there has been a lot of talk (see the Heroes V Forum) about what we’d like to see in Heroes V and plenty of speculation on the status of New World Computing. However, there has been little discussion about the continued viability of Heroes as a product, and this is where I would like to weigh in.

I believe that the Heroes franchise is in severe danger of extinction, not so much due to flaws in the game but due to unimaginative marketing. When I say ‘marketing’ many people will think I’m just talking about the matter of advertising and publicizing a product–these are the parts that customers usually see–but there is far more to it. Marketing involves understanding customers and what they care about. It involves pricing, packaging, and distribution strategies. And above all, it involves figuring out what to sell and how to make money. I think 3DO and (to a lesser extent) NWC have failed in all three of these areas. And I think the future of Heroes depends on NWC joining with a company that appreciates the game and really understands how to market it.

Many of you know me as a gamer, but in ‘real life’ until I retired last year--young, I say--I was in software marketing for the better part of 30 years. My experience is mainly with operating systems, not games, but as a gamer I’ve had an abiding interest in that segment of the industry and have been monitoring its evolution through reporters like Angelspit at Celestial Heavens. I’ve also been at 3DO stockholder for many years. So though I am not a veteran of the games business, nor do I have any inside information about NWC, I do have some insight into the situation. There have been times when I thought I might someday move over to that side of the industry, but my impression is that most games companies are pretty screwed up.

This is not a short discussion, so it’s broken into two parts:

Part 1: Taking Stock – Can The Heroes Franchise Be Saved?
Before looking at ways to return Heroes to its former glory, we have to face the difficult question of whether it deserves to live. Put another way, is there enough value in the franchise to make it worthwhile to implement the changes needed for it to survive? And what kind of a product plan would be needed to return Heroes to profitability?

Part 2: Making Money – What I Would Do
For Heroes to succeed in today’s market, it must find new customers and this calls for changes to the game itself, not just an ad campaign. I think the key here is widening its appeal by incorporating the best features of Might and Magic. At the same time, the Heroes franchise needs to embrace the new realities of the PC games market and look beyond retail sales for sources of profits. This requires a Commercial Website, which I will outline.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Staff

The Art of Map Making

Heroes of Might and Magic V

The Basics of Heroes V Scripting, by Pitsu

A pdf file that describes the structure of script file. Teaches how to make functions and threads, what type of variables are there and how to trigger functions properly. A separate part is only about syntax. Finally, it includes also a few tips for debugging

Heroes of Might and Magic IV

The Basics of Scripting, by Thelonious

With this list you should be able to figure out how to script what you want. If you want to do it right the first time, and thus save testing time; always clearly write down what you want done, and then what step have to be taken to get it done.

On the Aesthetics of the Adventure Map, by Vladimir Kuzmanov

The purpose of this topic is to share my experience and get some feedback from other authors and players alike. It is said a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ve included some examples. The screenshots were taken from my favorite scenarios and campaigns, although I do understand I may have missed some gems. Feel free to list your own favorites.
One will find a number of great posts dealing with gameplay, but few threads deal with the looks of the adventure map. Hardcore players, especially veterans who prefer online multiplayer, might say that you should stick to random maps. This missive will mostly discuss single player and RPG maps, where the settings are as important as the balance or the story.

Behind the Curtain: Mapmaker as Entertainer, by Charles Watkins

Essentially, the mapmaker is an entertainer. No matter what type of map it is - pictorial, battle, puzzle, RPG, or whatever - it will be judged by players according to whether they had a good time playing it. The different types may be enjoyed in different ways. A picture map may offer stunning graphics. A battle map may provide a venue for a fair fight. A puzzle map may present challenging problems. An RPG map may be populated with memorable characters. But from the players’ point of view, it comes down to a brief departure from the cares of the day to a world inhabited by Heroes of Might and Magic.

The Methodology of Heroes IV Mapmaking, by Ururam Tururam

The Heroes IV editor has got really a lot of features. Most of them are not used by an average mapmaker. I strongly advise you to explore the editor, trying (on your test map) every new functionality you encounter. What happens if...? What this option in scripts is for? What properties this location has got etc. This chapter is not a complete manual of the editor. It is only intended to spot the most interesting features.

The Map Editor Bug List, compiled by Jeff_G

While the map editor does not contain a lot of bugs, some of them can be particularly annoying. The Bug List is an extensive list of all editor-related problems, including some solutions and workarounds.

The Cartographer's Tower, by Lord Evenshade

"First, learning to use the Map Editor for Heroes of Might and Magic IV is essential. Full of new and unusual wonders, the Heroes IV Editor may at first be a challenging medium to overcome. Secondly, I will share some of my techniques for creating maps with ambience, intrigue, and in some cases beauty. Making a map that sets the stage for mighty events can be more difficult and sometimes more enjoyable than creating the layout for the story itself."

Improving HoMM4 AI, by MistWeaver

"I am not saying that it will make Heroes 4 adventure AI good or at least "acceptable", I am afraid that it is impossible without the source code. However, it will definitely make AI better. Also, I don’t want just to tell "what to do", I want to show you why it works, and actually, the way how I came across this."

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Map making, that painstaking process, by Jennifer Bullard

"Create a concept. Come up with a story line, a few ideas as to what you want and don't want on the map. Lay terrain in an interesting way, trying to use color and shape concepts to make them different and interesting."

Kristo's School of Quality Mapmaking, by Kristo

"Mapmaking, in my opinion, is as much art as it is designing a challenging and fun scenario. If you look at the maps that came with the game, you'll notice that each of them looks as though the land could actually exist. This is the biggest key to a high quality map."

- Kristo's School of Quality Mapmaking originally appeared on The Strategist's Corner. Reprinted with permission.

The Map Maker's Checklist, by Jenn

"Decorate, decorate, decorate. Large grass spaces are useless in most cases and boring! Tips on decorating: layer-several layers are often needed to achieve the look you want. Guys, don't be afraid of flowers, they are not gender issues."

Map Making

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Sir Timotheus

The Round Table Proposal

Part 3: Heroes and Combat
by Sir Timotheus

Asking Heroes fans to agree on whether Heroes should participate in combat directly or stay on the sidelines is like asking the world to agree upon a single religion. Thus, on the Round Table Forum, a twenty-one page discussion resulted from the asking of a single request: Please post your views on the Hero’s role in combat.
Due to the approximately equal number of people who sided for each option, I cannot say which has supporters, and I won’t let my biases affect this article. I will post some views from each side.

Keep Heroes in Combat

Dalai: “Heroes, as the core part of the game, should be able to perform all the possible functions. And Heroes definitely should fight alongside their troops. And there definitely must be an option to have more than one Hero in each army.”
PeteusMax: “I found HOMM IV's heroes on the battlefield much more interesting than HOMM III’s on the sidelines. They became more a part of things, and added to battle tactics because of the need to protect them. In HOMM III, both opponents would have one very powerful hero, and army building was about who could load up with the most powerful stacks of creatures. In HOMM IV, you also had to consider how many of those stacks to replace with heroes, and balance the desire to have heroes with various specialties in your army, and the need to keep powerful stacks of creatures along too.”
Sermil: “I liked Heroes on the battlefield, myself. It added a lot of strategy to the game; a lot of new options. I don’t mind combat-heavy heroes being able to take on multiple black dragons – such is the stuff of legends. (How many knights – champions – could Lancelot beat in combat, you think?) And don’t forget that combat-heroes need to be balanced against magic heroes with their high level summonings and implosions.”

Get Heroes out of Combat

Campaigner: “I want a functioning system where Immortality Potions don't exist and where creatures are the important ones! The utterly failed heroes-in-battle attempt known as Heroes IV went for an RPG style of play while Heroes 1-3 was strategy oriented. We all saw the result...”
JSnake8: “I think that the Heroes V should be more like the In the Wake of Gods expansion. The main hero should not be able to cast attack magic but rather only magic that will improve their troops’ abilities. The commander will then be on the field and cast spells or attack based on their skills. This also helps the gameplay in that a higher leveled hero's stats will still relate to his troops, unlike Heroes IV, in which their stats only counted for themselves and a slightly larger army would still be able to knock out the majority of your troops.”
Apeman: “My major point would be that it never felt 'real' to me in Heroes IV; I know -what's the point of reality in fantasy - but hear me out. A hero should be beside an army for morale, and yes it would be better for morale if the hero would fight, but what if the hero dies? In that situation, the morale should lower to such a point that your army just runs away. I never liked the ‘Hero on the Battlefield’ idea the first time it was introduced, and I strongly agree with John Van Caneghem.”

Strike a Happy Medium

Veldrynus: “The heroes should participate in combat just like in H4, but their offensive skills should be greatly reduced. It's not logical if a single hero can do 3000 damage to a black dragon. The spell casting system in H4 was good enough. Maybe the heroes could have less spell points.”
Dragon Angel : “The two principal and objective problems with heroes on the battlefield are: Heroes of low level or without combat may die easily, especially vs. certain tactics; and Hero-only armies… when heroes reach certain level, especially with the aid of combat skills and potions of immortality, they may be able to handle great armies by themselves, thus making creatures nearly unimportant. A possibly simple solution for these problems, based on the Heroes IV system, might be: 1) Increase base hit points (Even low level heroes should be able to resist an attack from a stack of a few top-level creatures) and 2) Implement a capturing system (Hero(es) without an army (attacked when alone, or that lose all the army in the battle) is/are immediately captured by the enemy/killed by neutrals).
Lwaren: “I propose that heroes be allowed to be either on the battlefield or off the battle, with benefits and consequences to both. If the hero is off the battlefield, for example, they might not provide any Morale or tactical bonuses, but if they are on the battlefield, they are in danger of being attacked and slain/knocked unconscious. If properly balanced, I think this system would work best.”
Lampeskjerm: “My idea to make this possible is that every army consists of 8 slots, in which you can place creatures and heroes in 7 of them. The last slot is a special "hero" slot, in which you can only place a hero, and this hero will act like the Heroes from Heroes I, II, and III. If you only have one hero and nothing else in your army, you cannot place a hero in the hero slot. In battle, the hero in the hero slot may step down from the horse, but then he cannot go back up. If you have no creatures left, the hero steps down automatically.”
Light Daemon : “I rather have no heroes in combat, but since this is not what's going to happen, then allow me to discuss one more point: If you have a Barbaric hero/heroine, allow them to have a sidekick who knows some magic to defend him/her from the troubles of the wandering monsters/enemies.”
GhostWriter: “Every hero of a given level, whether Might or Magic, must be able to survive against a certain level of force applied to them. If you say, for example, a Might hero at 20th level, shouldn't be able to kill 20 black dragons alone (which means he'd die against them), but should be able to kill say, 5 black dragons (where he'd barely survive against them), then that hero won't be able to survive against the sizes of forces that normally appear later in a game, which is where that hero will be by the time he reaches 20th level.”
Squiv: “If the hero is to be on the field you must abstract his hit points and think of it as total survivability and not just a physical body. Maybe the simplest thing is to separate strength from hit points. Hit points can grow independent of a skill like combat. That way a thief may not do much damage in combat, but his quick reflexes as he levels up will make his hp climb. Also a mage may not have a great melee attack, but his intellect will make it hard to score a killing blow. It does not matter how you rationalize the effect.”

Or…

Lord Haart : “Combat could well be ditched, and instead, Ubi could place more emphasis on tactics and nobility (in my opinion, nobility should affect morale, as true leaders can inspire people).”

Pretty much every possible side has been presented. With the wealth of options available to Ubisoft, most fans are confident that a balanced and enjoyable system will result, whether combat involves direct Hero intervention or not. On a side note, most (but not all) supporters of Heroes out of combat are those who disliked Heroes IV, and most (but not all) supporters of Heroes in combat are those who enjoyed the game.

Check out the full discussion about heroes and combat here.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Angelspit

The Round Table Proposal

Part 4: The Heroes V Artwork (part 1)
by Angelspit

The discussion about the Heroes of Might and Magic V artwork released last December dealt with the gender of angels, mythology, technological advance in fantasy, creatures upgrades and anime. Heroes players are serious about the look of their game, and they have the knowledge to back it up. As shown in the poll below, which covered the first five pieces of artwork only, the creatures easily got most of the attention of the fans:

Which piece of artwork is your favorite?

Answer	Votes	Percentage
Archangel	33	31.4%
Archer	29	27.6%
Cavalier	19	18.1%
City	23	21.9%
Map Building	1	1.0%

Instead of trying to summarize everything that has been said, I will let the fans speak by themselves. Below are the most interesting quotes from the forums. I decided to stick to the first impressions mostly, and left the nitpicking, the theological debates and the off-topic discussions out. Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The Coastal City

If that's a town, i'm very interested in how they will use this in game. Can't wait to see the other images. (Sisko)
The shear number of individual structures visible in the drawing suggests to me that this is more than a mere barricade. (Helcaraxe)
It's hard to imagine that this would be a town design, because building such a thing would be an engineering marvel of the highest order. A bunch of settlers don't just find a likely spot and decide to throw a dam up! (PeteusMax)
It cannot be a town. At least not fully upgraded. Come on, if it is a town, it must only be a part of it, without dwellings etc. I believe it is a kind of quest guard. (Pitsu)
Lots of interesting details and that -- european maybe? -- feeling, looks charged of history, of the wishes of many governors that were trying to make their town shine amongst the other. It's position, in the middle of a great river or a sea pass, brings up the intriguing part on how towns in general will be and were they will be placed... (Dragon Angel)
It would be great to have some towns we could put in different places, like over water, between moutains, or with a built-in garrison (Shadow Hydra)
Imagine this great drawning rendered for a 3D Heros game. (Fidanas)
Taking a closer look at the bridge like structure it appears to possibly be a gate into a castle. The mechanical contraption to the side might be a device to raise and lower the gate. I think this could be very cool. (Bacchus Tydral)
I'd love to have more action on the water and if this is a type of water town, there'd be a real reason to have your heroes hop into a boat. (Erica Marceau)
We must go back to the ‘living’ animating cities of Heroes 1 where people walk, talk & everything moves, and not just do a bunch of dead boring buildings with smoke coming out like in Heroes 4. Seeing those flying birds and moving ships in your concept art gives me hope... (Blake)
It looks just like the picture of the south/north gate from the final fantasy ix art book, page 95. I don't know if that was intentional or not. (Dragon Lady, former NWC artist)

The City on a Hill

Looks like one from lords of the rings. (White Wizard)
I'm especially intrested in the peak to the far right surrounded by flyers... Dragons? Griffens? Thunderbirds? This one painting suggests several various dwellings, not just the castle. (ScarlettP)
It seems we have here the 'knight' castle - so the bridgie town could be the 'mage' one... or perhaps that points we'll get to see different factions from the used ones. The pictures look much more Disney than Anime for me. (Dragon Angel)

The Archangel

Perhaps I am a bit prejudiced because I loved the Archangels in both H3 and H4, and this is quite different, but it doesn't strike me as something very powerful, but rather leaves a feeling of awkwardness. I think it has something evil about it, too... (Dragon Ranger)
Why is Angel hiding his/her eyes? Where is the power of Ultimate Life warrior? Sorry, it's no Heroes. (Dalai)
The style looks like the usual anime (everything is overdone. I mean, who can walk with at least 50 kg of metal strapped to your shoulders). In HoMM, they always tried to make things look as naturally acceptable as possible. (Marelt Ekiran)
The angel looks incredible, but fits more into Disciples than Heroes. (Bacchus Tydral)
I don't think those colours are the best either. Blue and white worked very well in previous HOMM games, and red and white too. (Vitirr)
The dress, the cape, the wings, the gloves, the sword and especially the Halo and the golden Armor are unbelievable. (Svetac)
While the proportions of its hand needs to be fixed, it finally looks to be angelic and the design of the sword is fantastic. I dislike units being upgraded into the opposite gender so I'd hate if this is a female angel and she was upgraded into a male angel or vice-versa. (Erica Marceau)
To make the AAs some divine muscular hunks is not a bad idea at all but...isn that already done before? Twice? Try something for a change. (Lichie Lich)
Has anyone noticed that the angel is left-handed? (Lord Haart)
She looks unbalanced, with all the armor at the top and a long, feminine skirt on the bottom. It's all about proportion, really. If I were going into battle, I would want armor and a kick-ass sword, too, but not so much armor that I couldn't move around, or so big a sword that I couldn't lift the thing. (Vaudy)
If the Archangel is to be Jewish (which may not necessarily be a wise decision, since, to my knowledge, none of the Abrahamic religions per se exist in Enroth, Antagarich, Jadame, or Axeoth), then it must be male, because the Angels of Biblical mythology are not the fair, golden-haired maidens that we are used to in popular culture. Rather, they are buff, powerful men. (Xenophanes)
As a cartoon, this archangel looks like a bellaminette from bellamy to me (Cyll)
I took the picture to my wife, who has hundreds if not thousands of anime and manga titles in her library, on her computer, on video, on dvd, etc. She took one look and said, "That's not anime." (Bandobras Took)

The Cavalier

I think that the cavalier looks as if he wrapped his tie around his head. (Marelt Ekiran)
That [picture] makes me think about a barbarian that have stolen a horse from a jousting tournament... I would like the Cavalier/champion to have lots of armor. An armoured head with an armor mask for the horse. (Campaigner)
Really cool with the details (the hair) and I also like how it is yellow, really seems to represent the good side of things. (Echo)
The cavalier is really great, but doesn't his spear look somehow wooden? He could also wear more armor and take that ninja-like thing off his head. (OLoRiN)
Maybe the guy's just practicing? (Erica Marceau)
The color combination, that someone have opposed to, it's fantastic for me, I'm tired of bluish knights, black-yellow it's a welcome change. (Dragon Angel)
I'm inclined to think that this represents a Knight Errant rather than a full-blown Knight (hence the lack of a helmet). The colors are nice, and the proportions are suitable. Nice... very nice... (Lwaren)

The Map Building

The other building doesn't really look very good. I know it's just an early concept art, (and maybe this can look good in the real game engine), but here it just look too simple and colours too... pale?. (Vitirr)
The smoke is cool. I also hope that the whole thing is going to move. (OLoRiN)
The mechanical building looks as if it doubles as a store and a factory and I think it's great since it can be so many different kinds of store. The big mechanical wheel is great. (Erica Marceau)
I am proudly in the camp of people who want to see a liiiittle steam-powered machinery in Heroes V. I approve of this building. (Lwaren)

The Archer

The artists clearly have great knowledge on armors and weaponry. (Svetac)
He has a chainmail or splintmail armor which is perfect. The only platemail is the knee pads which I don't think is a necessity. I don't agree that they should have crossbows instead of bows. If he's an archer then he uses a bow. (Radwar)
I don't really give a rip about longbow versus crossbow. It all depends on the context. If the storyline includes some sort of breakdown of civilization, then it would make sense that some of the more technologically sophisticated weapons would be "forgotten." (Vaudy)
Look at his feet and hands, They are huge. It wouldent suprise me at all if it was the same person that drawn [the Archangel]. (Olorin)
With the big bow and those big arrows the desing reminds me of the famous brittish longbowmen. Simply breathtaking. (Kole)

The Mine

It looks really nice, almost as if the cart is meant to be tipped over and the contents dropped into the water or maybe that device is used to put the rocks into the cart and the handles used to pull it away. Whatever the use, it's a very interesting device and it definitely has an air of Dwarvish about it. (Erica Marceau)
The only thing I don't like is the pond looks too small compared with the rest of the drawing. (Dragon Angel)

Bottomline

It seems that it's not Hoeroes style but I think that developers shouldn't copy New World Computing and make their own look of the game. (Valerdos)
None of the pics posted are Manga. Manga is adult anime. I don't feel any of the pictures are anime looking anyway. Just because it has a cartoon feel to it doesn't make it anime. (Bacchus Tydral)
This might seem somewhat un-American, but I am far more interested in content, story, variety and quality of game play than the "look" of the new version. Substance first. (Gurney)
And if this game lives up to the quality of the games that Ubi Soft has been releasing this past year, I say were all in for a big surprise when this comes out... (ShPhoenix)
NWC, where for art thou? (Ryder)
UbiSoft should be trying to maintain the elements that made Heroes so successful in the past, as well as adding exciting new things that are in keeping with the existing series. For people who have never experienced the existing Heroes games to come along and design new artwork/gameplay/music/whatever for the next in the series is a recipe for disaster. (Richard Hallas)
What I like most about the artwork is the simplicity. Fewer details but great skill - still. Whereas HeroesIV was a thousand details and colours everywhere. (Holger)
It nicely hybridizes western mythological and historical themes with a style that is slightly anime inspired. very contemporary! (Hambone)
I would like to see some evil creatures too. Can't wait to see some ghosts, skeletons, and dragons of course! (Vortex)
In general, one of the things that always attracted me to the HoMM games was the bright, saturated colors. Gave me the feeling of playing with some bright new toy. (gmknobl)
I absolutely cannot stand Anime or Manga. But I'm loving this artwork. (Bandobras Took)
If they can make 40+ creatures of this quality, i'll be overwhelmed with joy and humbleness. Love them and... yeah i have put one of them as my desktop image. (Fantasizzlin)
LOTR LOTR LOTR! (Emperor Yohon)
Actually, what Ubisoft's art team is trying to do is create an atmosphere that Eastern, Western, male, and female minds can relate to; they accomplish this by incorporating certain styles (in this case, anime and Disney) and certain genders (female angel). (Hero the Sandwich)

I wish to thank all Round Table members who joined the discussion. Look for more artwork by the time the game is officially announced.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Dragon Angel

The Round Table Proposal

The Map Editor
by Dragon Angel

The map editor is one of the greatest assets of the series and, despite some problems, is one of the things the participants on the discussion consider has brought good features in every Heroes game, being always powerful and easy to learn. The general opinion is to keep what has been made, and improve on it keeping a balance between power and ease of use. Qrystal sums up this feeling nicely: "I think the H5 editor should combine the best features of H3, H4 and add new features that will astound the mapmakers with their functionality and simplicity."

Ease of use or possibilities was one of the questions brought into the discussion, and the most common answer was, not surprisingly, both of them. In any case, realizing these can be opposite variables, there were different options chosen. More experienced mapmakers demand overall a friendly environment to work with, and as many options as possible; while others miss the simplicity of Heroes II and Heroes III editors, with less but more clear, non-scripted options. A compromise solution might be the editor could show two faces, an ‘advanced user’ one, with full options, and another ‘simple’ one, with less but more clear options.

The combined demand of a friendly environment and more options appears in the wish list for new functions of the editor. The ability to set grow rates on the neutral stacks, the control of the month-of events, the option to have several ‘environment’ layers to modify in-game the map, or a better control of the AI behaviour are of examples of the second. While functions as the modification of the savegames of a map that is being tested, the option to cut/copy/paste whole areas of a map, a better search and replace option or a brush tool like the one introduced with Heroes 4 Winds of War editor, are desired by the mapmakers as features that save time and ease the process of making a map.

For advanced users, the scripting options introduced by the Heroes 4 editor should not be missed, and the desires of improvement follow the same lines as in the overall editor: an easier and more flexible environment than the current window one: code-based, palette-based and a combination of the two the presented options. And more options, either structural: loops, options to print and carryover variables... and on functionality: placing objects on the map; more possibilities on the things that can be removed (as all the creatures of an army, flagged objects, certain buildings on a town, individual objects placed in the same position as others...), the possibility to move an army to another place of the map, or options to reduce movement, disable luck or morale, and to modify the text shown by certain objects, are some of the things desired by the mapmakers.

On a last point, the customization of certain parts of a map is also a request of some mapmakers. The option to create ‘different’ heroes, as BallistaeHero explains "Not just being able to set the skills, (...) but (...) the actual abilities. (...) [A hero] that can naturally fly without (...) [the fly artifact] . Or a medusae hero that can turn people to stone. Some Lich heroes that are actually undead...", is one of the most requested ones, as the option to create new artifacts (preferably with art not used by other artifacts of the game to avoid confusion). Terrains, Towns, Units and the rest of objects on the game are also interesting options.

Most of the wishes expressed follow one of the two ‘main lines’ exposed: functionalities to avoid the most boring tasks, and more powerful configuration options to get the map to do as the mapmaker want. Some people mention the Warcraft III editor as an example. In any case, the expressed wishes could be summed up in making the mapmaking experience even more enjoyable than the previous games.

Random Map Generator

On a slightly different subject, a second question was suggested on the thread dealing with the idea of a Random Map Generator. While this is not considered a priority by most of the mapmakers who discussed the editor features, there was a fairly great group of players, mostly of multiplayer games, that dropped by to express its a very valuable feature for them.

Check out the full discussion about the Heroes of Might and Magic V map editor here.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Sir Timotheus

The Round Table Proposal

Part 1: The Story
by Sir Timotheus

The issue of the story of Heroes V was hotly debated at Celestial Heavens’ Round Table forum. Should Ubisoft continue the storyline of the previous Heroes and Might and Magic titles, reference it a bit but not center on it, or start with a completely clean slate? Each viewpoint was represented, some in greater numbers than others, making it clear that no matter what is ultimately decided upon, some fans will be pleased, others dissatisfied. Of course, that is to be expected no matter the topic, but storyline is an integral part of Might and Magic and its spinoff series. It’s what defines Heroes.

Out of the three main viewpoints, the most commonly held was to keep some reference to the previous games of Might and Magic and Heroes, but not to focus on them. The main argument there is that Heroes IV’s storyline was lacking, especially in the expansions, and the whole premise of blowing up the word of Heroes 1 to 3 and Might and Magic 1 to 8 was a horrible idea. But the old tales of Erathia, the Ironfist dynasty, and Sandro still need to be around to make it a true “Heroes” game. The forum member ‘Campaigner’ said on the Round Table, “I too want the story to continue from where NWC left off. If there’s no mention of the Ironfists or Gryphonhearts, then it will NOT feel like a Heroes game to me. About Hexis and the expansion [characters], I don't care as I didn't play those expansions. But there must be some mention about the Gryphonhearts or Ironfists.” Ubisoft has already made it clear that at least Sandro would remain in Heroes V, and some preliminary artwork leads many to believe that at least the concept of an “all-human” town, like Heroes II’s Knight town, Heroes III’s Castle town, or Heroes IV’s Haven town, would stay. Does this mean that Ubisoft is sticking with this viewpoint?

Others want a more direct tie to the series. One proposal is to advance Axeoth’s plotline from Heroes IV, utilizing interesting but underdeveloped characters like Gauldoth Half-Dead or Emilia Nighthaven, and tie all the new storylines together. One thing Heroes IV lacked was bringing together its campaign stories. Every fan wants unity and a sense of togetherness. Those who support strong ties to previous Heroes games want unity throughout the entire series. ‘Khaelo’ from the Round Table said, “Storyline is very important to me; it's one of the major reasons I'm hooked on the series. If the old story and characters are trashed, there'll be no motivation for me to buy the new game, quite frankly … A continuous history makes the world more realistic and adds depth.” A related viewpoint involves a sort of “prequel” mindset – if the cataclysm occurred on the planet with Enroth, Antagarich, and Jadame, what about other worlds? What happened to the Ancients and the Kreegans? What about Might and Magic VII’s “good” ending (the “evil” ending’s storyline was used for future reference)? Some suggest Heroes V to tie up some loose ends from earlier in Heroes/Might and Magic history. ‘Dragon Angel’ says, “[Some] people see Axeoth as a 'stained' world (a world associated to the decay of the series that Heroes IV represents), and therefore won't like to see a new game in the same world.”

Finally, some simply say to scrap everything and start anew. To them, there simply is nothing else to expand upon, or there are too many inconsistencies to try to correct or keep up with. ‘Da Vane’ of the Round Table wrote, “I think the there should be a new world, with a new story for HoMM V. It would be nigh on impossible for Ubisoft to keep things together using the previous history, and even if they did, they would inevitably bring back the inconsistancies that filled those games.” New World Computing tried in some respects to create a clean slate for Heroes IV, but they felt the need to save some of the basics (particularly specific Heroes and creatures) to appease fans. However, the lack of development of Axeoth may facilitate the axing of the other worlds. How important is it to keep the old ways of Heroes?

Well, there are the three main viewpoints of Heroes V’s storyline. The slight majority rules in favor of a primarily new storyline with glimpses of NWC’s former works, while a good number of people want either strong, direct tie-ins or just the opposite. Whatever is ultimately decided, all fans agree on several points. Heroes V, Might and Magic X, and everything beyond should tie with each other, following the tradition of New World Computing. Also, a strong, coherent storyline is a must for the new Heroes game. A weak, stereotypical “I’m a power-hungry lich who wants to take over the world!” just won’t do for most players. ‘Svetac’ says, “What we need in the story, though, are strong and complete characters. Ones that will let us associate with, and take us through, the story.” Based on Ubisoft’s reputation and willingness to work with fans, I believe that whatever the decision, we will all learn to love it.

Check out the full discussion about the Heroes of Might and Magic V storyline here.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Sir Timotheus

The Round Table Proposal

Towns and Creatures
by Sir Timotheus

The topic of “towns and creatures” once again sparked interesting conversation on the Heroes of Might and Magic Round Table. Every person has their own favored lineup of towns, whether it includes a Foundry of mechanical units, a Hive full of mutated insects and plants, or a classic Barbarian/Stronghold town. Here are some of the more popular town ideas that forum members invented or want to keep in the game.

The Necropolis, the town of the undead, must stay, say fans. A mainstay since the dawn of the Heroes series, skeletons, ghosts, vampires and more must have a place to congregate to plan their attacks against those “holy” types. Mummies, zombies, liches, bone dragons, and death knights are the must-have creatures, with the Necromancer and a Death Knight as their leaders. Although the demonic creatures (venom spawn, cerberi, imps, devils) shared a town with the undead in Heroes IV, most fans prefer the demonic and the completely dead to remain separate.

In direct juxtaposition, a holy town, whatever its name (Haven, Castle, Knight town, Life town), has to remain. Most units in the town should be humans with some exceptions, including standard fighters (swordsmen, archers, pikemen) and those with divine ties (monks, angels, paladins). Peasants should be in there somewhere as well, even if as a neutral unit.

A semi-neutral might town, as in previous Heroes games, is another common request. However, just what creatures should reside within is up for debate. Among the potential units for the town are trolls, cyclopes, orcs, wolves, harpies, goblins, ogres, behemoths, rocs, centaurs, nomads, and berserkers. Most likely, this town, known as the Stronghold or Barbarian town, would have minimal or no magic capabilities at all.

Beyond these basic three, there is disagreement as to how to make the other towns. Should they be based on terrain? Origin? Themes? There is not one simple answer. However, from these discussions came the following town ideas:

Sand/Desert Town – sand golems, sand worms, and various desert animals
Hive – insects and plants of all kinds, including beetles, mantises, and mancatchers
Preserve/Rampart/Sanctum – the opposite of the Hive; the “holy” side of nature; elves, sprites, unicorns, and phoenixes
Inferno/Demon Town – similar to Heroes III’s Inferno, contains demons, imps, and devils of various types
Forge/Mechanical – dwarves and their creations (golems, mechanical dragons, gargoyles… just no naga tanks!)
Wizard/Enchantment/Academy – magi, genies, halflings, and titans unite in this haven of wizardry

With the topic of towns and creatures come two more issues: upgrades and neutral creatures. Neutral creatures, ones that can be found and recruited on the adventure map but without any town to call their home, are generally approved of by the community, and are staples in the Heroes series. Upgrades, however, split the community. Every game from Heroes 2 to Heroes 4 treated it differently. Most fans seem to want an incarnation of the Heroes 2 format, allowing certain units to upgrade (perhaps multiple times for certain creatures such as dragons), and prohibiting certain other units from upgrading at all. That allows for the greatest variety, balance, and strategy. This will be touched upon more in the next summary.

Of course, on a topic like this, it is nearly impossible to achieve complete agreement. But this summary contains the general, most popular ideas expressed by the members of the Heroes Round Table.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Charles Watkins

Celestial Heavens is proud to feature the writing of Charles Watkins, long-time mapmaker and member of the Heroes community. The Behind the Curtain columns include mapmaking tips and views on the state of the game.

1) Mapmaker as Entertainer: "I’d like to explore the emotional side of heroes from the point of view of the player. But much of the discussion is addressed to the mapmakers, since their reward stems from the reactions of the players. By providing players with an enjoyable experience, mapmakers can in turn enjoy the praise and recognition that makes all the work seem worthwhile.
Essentially, the mapmaker is an entertainer. No matter what type of map it is – pictorial, battle, puzzle, RPG, or whatever—it will be judged by players according to whether they had a good time playing it."
2) Saving NWC: "I think there is also a familiarity factor involved. As I recall, in the early days of Heroes III we also complained a lot about the AI. It did not develop castles well and often made stupid mistakes in recruiting. I remember the struggle my friend Corribus had in getting a hero to go through a Lith. But eventually mapmakers learned to live with the problems and found ways to get the AI to behave."
3) Wrangling the AI: "Most every experienced Heroes III player has noted some inferior qualities of the Heroes IV AI. In fact, this is probably the one factor that has led some veteran players to shun the game. (Lack of multi user support was another, but many players hung on long enough to see it finally arrive.) We’ve seen some improvements in the more recent versions, but in Heroes IV, the computer players just don’t seem to play as well as they did in Heroes III. To be sure, Heroes IV is a more complicated game than Heroes III, but even so, there are some obvious shortcomings.
I have no doubt that if they had been given more time to produce the game, the developers would have addressed most of these. But as it is, we have to live with the flaws—and by ‘we’ I mean those who have found that on balance the new features in Heroes IV make it worth playing, despite the weakness of the AI."
4) Epic Heroes: Developing heroes who are both powerful and fun to play. Charles Watkins, whose preference for large maps is well-known, suggests different career paths for your adventurers, who might otherwise become boring Generals. He also answers the age-old question of the Heroes of Might and Magic games, how many heroes?
5) Over the Shoulder -- Charley Makes a Map: In this first reality show of mapmaking, Charley lets you look over his shoulder as he creates a map "and get a sense of the thought process that a mapmaker goes through in the course of a project." The first part deals with the early steps of the process, the hardest thing about making a map according to Charles. See how he finds a suitable storyline for his theme, and how he handles the basic map design.

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: Posted 04 January 2005; by Gothrak

Because the Heroes is mostly a serious game, die-hard fans always enjoy exploring the lighter side of the game. Heroes Revealed is an hommage to the series' players, whose imagination and creativity have no limit.

I. Christmas in Axeoth

NECROPOLIS

So, what does happen in the infernal boneyard on a certain night of December? Using my powers of diplomacy and two bottles of Rotting Cadaver Perfume, I decided to find out for myself.

First of all, they don't have have trees in the Necropolis. The zombies tend to sharpen their teeth on the lower branches, and it's hard to stop the leaves wilting. Instead they shove a pole into a Venom Spawn and drop a heavy metal star on his head.

Venom Spawn: Ow .

Is that as painful as it looks?

Yes. Yes it is. But that's okay, because it fills me with festive glee. I already feel warm and fuzzy inside.

That's because you're melting.

Really? I told them not to string up the candle ornaments! Somebody help me! Find an adhesive!

The story of Christmas in the Necropolis is a little different to the traditional version. I found an illustrated version of 'Christmas Stories For Boys, Girls And Ghouls' which I found to be very enlightening.

Apparently a devil known as Satan Claws travels from gravestone to gravestone on Christmas Eve, dropping flaming corpses into the stockings of lucky young imps. However, he knows if you've been bad or good - and if you've been good, he devours you into his infernal belly for a thousand years of unimaginable suffering.

It's really very touching.

PRESERVE

Some like to think of the Preserve as a woodland grove where the creatures of Nature roam free and united, protected by the spirits and dryads of the forest. I like to think of it as a hippy commune.

All the same, Christmas is still celebrated in the depths of the forests. I wasn't exactly welcome inside the sacred ground, but I did get quite a good look at my surroundings while being carried around forcibly by two gigantic elves.

Elf: I can't believe you violated our sacred, holy soil, man. It's such a downer.

Sorry. I'm just trying to research Christmas in Axeoth.

Christmas has really positive karmic vibrations. It's, like, an eternal cycle of love and joy. See that unicorn?

The one with the immense, lethal horn on his head?

Yeah. We call him Rudolph the Red-Horned Unicorn.

But his horn isn't red.

It will be when he's finished with you, man.

I'm going to scream now.

This is what Christmas is all about. Doesn't it bring a tear to your eye?

I performed the rest of my investigations in a more covert style. Because cutting down trees is, like, a total bummer, they cut down a lumberjack and decorate him with colourful lights. Then they carefully arrange their stockings underneath, awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus himself.

The elves in the garrisons are given strict orders not to shoot at the sleigh, unless he appears to be bringing in a rich land-grabbing industrialist. For Christmas gifts, he gives out soy-bean products and meat-free sandwiches. For those who have been bad, he puts a free pamphlet on helping the environment into their stocking.

My research was cut short by a griffin who insisted on mauling me in his traditional Christmas manner. It's a good thing I can type this with just one hand.

STRONGHOLD

There is only one person who can read in the Stronghold, and he's on a spike above the city gates. All the same, the barbarians welcome Christmas with open arms. They put aside time for a special Christmas celebration in the wrestling pits.

On Christmas Day, all the population gathers in the Pits to beat each other with sticks. This is very different to the celebration of St. Patrick's Day (where they beat each other with stones) or Halloween (where they beat each other with pumpkins) or even Valentine's Day (where they beat each other with flowers).

Cyclops: Merry Christmas ! *thwack*

Ouch!

Berserker: Merry Christmas ! *thwock*

Hey!

Nomad: Merry Christmas ! *whack*

Ow!

Behemoth: Merry Christmas ! *CRUNCH*

It's a good thing I order these Guardian Angel potions in packs of ten.

ASYLUM

After putting on a heavy rubber orc costume (actually a Klingon costume that I stole from a Star Trek convention, but close enough), I passed through those wooden gates to see for myself.

It didn't take long before a shadowy figure leapt out of an alleyway and put a sharp object up my nose.

Bandit: Give me your money!

But you can't rob me. It's Christmas Eve.

Oh, come on. Do you think I'm heartless, huh? You hurt me with those cruel barbs. See how I cry. You've suggested that I'm a merciless thug who ignores the joys of Christmas to take advantage of unwitting travellers, is that it?

Well... are you?

Of course not. I'm robbing from the rich to give to the poor.

That's not Christmas. That's Robin Hood.

Oh. Right. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to take your gold and hide it in the garden so that children may enjoy searching for it.

That's Easter.

Er, I knew that, sure. Sure. What I meant to say, is that I'm going to take your gold, sew it into the belly of a rabid pig, dangle him from a piano and send him swinging through a burning window frame.

I don't even want to know what that is. But I'm pretty sure it's not Christmas.

Just give me the damn money.

Christmas is very popular in the Asylum. They tend to skip over the bit about presents and religion and rich old men and decorations to get right to the part about the fireplace. In fact, they're so taken with the fireplace idea that on Christmas it's traditional to set fire to absolutely everything and run around screaming.

I had my feet burned completely away by a merry efreeti wearing a red and white turban, and a jolly black dragon utterly incinerated my left arm. This is considered to be a very lucky omen on Christmas Eve, as it means that Ol' Flamin' Nick will give me a lump of charcoal for Christmas.

Until then I will have to use wooden prosthetic limbs.

ACADEMY

The golems were busy stringing up tinsel and elves when I entered the nearest Academy, and the dwarves were industriously shovelling snow into gigantic snowmen which the halflings would then decorate from afar with their slingshots. The damage a flying carrot can do to the human body is really a lot worse than you'd think, but I brought plenty of bandages this time.

The mages appeared to be enjoying Christmas the most of all. I encountered one carefully writing a letter to sent to Father Christmas himself.

Mage: ... and I've been a very good boy this year. Love, Theodorus. There, that should do it.

What did you ask for?

Oh, nothing extravagant. I asked him for a leather-bound copy of Dezyck's Grimoire on the Ponderous Thaumic Creation of Essences, for a start.

Oh.

And I've always wanted an original tome on the Essential Theoretical Decisions of the Complex Matrix Based Inanimate Mind. With illustrations, of course.

Ah.

Not to forget a genuine Merlin(tm) Wand of Instant Skin Dissolving, RRP 7834 gold pieces, left hand slot.

Hm.

I also wrote to him for an original scroll of Thunderbrick's Equations for Magical Formulae in the Production of Anti-Physical Ethereal Beings.

...

And then for a potion of Genuine Construction Fluid, to keep the golems well-oiled, and a limited edition copy of The Dissimenation of Magickal Dimensions in the Limited Quadratic Folds of Space...

... must... escape...

... and then there's the Negational Relative Physics of Unrelated Gravitational Conjuring...

... brain... going... numb...

... and the fifth page of the Ancient Book of Irriational Productive Thought Negational Topics...

... world... so... dark...

HAVEN

It's hard to have mystical stories about angels when real, live angels are standing right next to you and trying to read the newspaper over your shoulder. Nevertheless, the Haven population do their best to uphold traditional Christmas celebrations.

Hoping not to be mugged, impaled, burned, crushed, bored into a coma or mauled, I walked into the very centre of the city where a crowd of peasants were gathered around a single large Christmas tree.

Peasant: Christmas is so commercial these days, don't you think?

Well, I guess.

I mean, take a look at me. I'm a serf who earns on average about 6.37 gold coins a month in return for the farming and tilling of about 87 acres of land, and the division of taxes creates a rather uneven ratio with effort and reward, don't you think?

Yes. I agree. I think.

You've got to put things into perspective. If I want to celebrate Christmas, I'll do it with a turnip. You see, peasants are the burden of the economic system when it comes to financial matters. I'm always being pressured to provide for the taxational relief of other less productive citizens, which infringes my rights as an individual.

Er... so, who's up for singing a Christmas carol?

Sorry. I can't. Union rules forbid the overusage of oxygen without any financial bonuses or rewards for the usage thereof. It's in the fine print, if you look closely.

Okay. Okay. Can't we just admire the tree, then? Have some Christmas Spirit!

You obviously have no idea how much Christmas Spirit costs to rent these days. As for the tree, do you realise how much gold each of those decorations costs the entire peasant population averaged by our economic income? Do you? Tell me, tell me this, if I was to provide the government with about twelve percent of their potential financial bracket for the productive distribution of complex internal gains, and if the marketsystem wasn't crowded by the perptual cycling of the revolutionary funding system, would YOU dare to admire this tree?

Um... yes?

You monster! Capitalist pig! Oppressor of the people! LYNCH MOB!

It's amazing how painful pitchforks and burning torches are. A single group of angry peasants can do more damage than being run over by a hydra, but the local Church resurrected me for free and even gave me a complimentary 'I Went to The Afterlife And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt' souveneir.

Merry Christmas!

(Gothrak is currently recovering from severe multiple injuries caused to him by fictitious strategy game characters. His New Year's Resolution is to be killed less often.) Back to top

II. Hunting and Fishing with Crag

[Somewhere off the coast of Axeoth]

Camera moves in on Crag Hack, relaxing in a gently bobbing boat with a fishing rod in his hands. He is smoking a leprechaun while he attaches some bait to his hook.

CRAG: Hello, viewers. Today we're going after the biggest catch this side of Enroth - the Sea Monster. Now, as you loyal fans know, I'm an expert on all things Might related. In fact, the Sea Monster is actually a Might creature, but we couldn't build an aquarium large enough to breed them in.

Crag stubs out his leprechaun and tosses it overboard, then reaches into his trusty Backpack.

CRAG: We have a real treat today. I've got the one bait that no Sea Monster can resist. It's the perfect lure. That's right - it's a Grandmaster Combat Hero. And this appears to be a Grade A, top class Sir Mullich.

Crag carefully attachs the Sir Mullich lure to his fishing rod, making it sag alarmingly.

CRAG: All we have to do is cast and wait. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll catch a glimpse of the Sea Monster... or if we're really lucky, we'll haul her aboard. And if that happens, I'll be happier than a Conflux with a Grail, let me tell you.

Two hours of boring fishing footage cut and replaced with the bikini section of Miss Sprite 2002.

CRAG: What's this? I can feel something tugging at the lure! Something - something huge!

Sure enough, a dark shape is rippling through the water, growing in size as it nears the surface. The water explodes into a shower of droplets as Crag hauls back his rod.

FERRET: Hi there, folks! Golly!

CRAG: What are you doing here? I fired you.

FERRET: Come on, Crag. You don't really want to fire ol' Ferret.

CRAG: Yes. Yes I do. Didn't you get the letter from my agent? I don't require a 'wacky sidekick.'

FERRET: Sure you do. Shucks! What are you doing, Crag? Can I help, huh? Can I? Can I?

CRAG: Shouldn't you be out delivering Thunderbirds somewhere?

The fishing rod moves in Crag's hands as something takes the bait!

CRAG: Stand back, Ferret - I think this is it!

FERRET: Thar she blows! The great white whale!

CRAG: Shut up!

A mighty leviathan of the deep arches into the air and crushes down heavily onto Crag's boat, splintering it and the occupants into several thousand pieces.

Camera moves to Crag as he recovers in the hospital ward. The remnants of Ferret are recovering in a jaron the bedside table.

CRAG: Well, fans, wasn't that something. Not only did I catch a Sea Monster, I also broke every single bone in my body.

FERRET'S REMAINS: Give it to me straight, doc... can I still play the violin?

CRAG: Shut up. Now join me in watching this previously filmed footage of my expedition into the darkest regions of the swamp tiles just on the edge of the map, in search of the mighty Hydra.

[Somewhere in a generic swamp]

The camera follows Crag unsteadily as he makes his way around bubbling pools and frothing tendrils of slime. Crag crouches onto his knees and beckons the camera-man closer.

CRAG: See this? Hydra spoor. It means we're close.

FERRET: Ha ha! Crag's playing with poopies!

CRAG: I hate you so much, Ferret.

Crag points out some suspicious looking marks in the mud, and the search continues through the overhanging fronds of the swamp canopy. Crag raises his hand warningly.

CRAG: Now, fans, remember that I am a trained professional.

FERRET: What about me?

CRAG: You're just an idiot. What I'm trying to say is that you should never, ever try to hunt down a Hydra. Call for the professionals, like me. Because these things are nasty when they're trapped in a corner.

Crag now carefully lifts aside a puply mass of foliage to reveal a heavy, leathery creature shuffling in a small pit of filthy green ooze.

CRAG: He hasn't seen us yet. That's a good sign. It means we can sneak up on him, quiet and slow. We don't want him to know we're here.

FERRET: Hey, look! I can use his neck as a slide! Wheeee!

[Ferret Mauling Censored]

Camera bounces wildly as it follows the rapidly fleeing Crag. The sounds of heavy pursuit can be heard admist the frantic breathing of the camera-man.

CRAG: This... *puff* is why you shouldn't try to hunt a Hydra without the proper equipment. Like a ballista, or a twenty-two thousand tonne black dragon.

HYDRA: Moo!

CRAG: Behind us we can hear the haunting cry of a Hydra as he hunts his prey. This menacing call is also used to attract potential mates.

HYDRA: Moo, sailor!

CAMERA-MAN: He sounds like a cow.

CRAG: That's what they want you to think. Nobody is mauled by a cow, are they?

CAMERA-MAN: I had an uncle once who--

There is a heavy crunching noise, a wet slurping and static replaces the television image. There are five minutes of rasping silence.

The camera returns to Crag in his hospital bed.

CRAG: Ah, memories. I can feel the intense back pain like it was only yesterday. When it was, in fact, only a week ago. How's the leg, Charlie?

CAMERA-MAN: Sometimes I can feel movement in my toes.

CRAG: Great. That's just great. Well, fans, thanks for watching today's episode of Hunting and Fishing with Crag. See you next week!

FERRET'S REMAINS: Don't forget to tune into Hunting and Fishing with Ferret next week! With a guest appearance from Crag Hack! Hahahaha!

CRAG: If my arm wasn't in this sling I'd hurt you now, Ferret. Back to top

III. Hunting and Fishing with Crag – Special Episode

[Crag Hack's Luxury Hut, somewhere in Axeoth]

The camera moves through the door of Crag's luxury hut, a weird hybrid of abandoned fishing cottage and five-star hotel. The camera moves underneath the sagging skeleton of a great fish, through the stuffed thorax of an elephant and into the comfortable lounge room.

CRAG: Welcome! This is a special episode of Hunting and Fishing with Crag. We're welcoming three very special guests onto the show, for a big hunting expedition!

Crag gestures at the gigantic One-Way Portal in the corner of the room.

CRAG: Come on in, Sandro!

SANDRO: Good evening, filthy mortal. Bow upon your knees and show me reverence - I have entered your filthy domain.

Sandro drags his decaying feet over to a giant red inflatable beanbag and clatters onto it. Some embalming fluid begins trickling out of his eye socket, and Crag tries hard not to notice.

CRAG: What do you think of my hut, Sandro? Nothing like a hut to come back to and talk about your hunting and fishing exploits.

SANDRO: I think the hut is nice, but it would be better - if it was filled with flaming endless doom!

CRAG: Really? I was thinking more along the lines of a jukebox.

SANDRO: The impaled skulls of my enemies! Blood weeping from their gaping jaws and pooling thickly around the gore-coated stakes! The power, I tell you, the power is all mine!

CRAG: Uh... Please welcome our second guest, Theodorus!

Theodorus staggers through the portal, wiping clouds of thick mist off his shoulders. He wheezes and staggers into a banana-yellow armchair.

THEO: P-pleased to b-b-be here, Crag.

CRAG: Hello.

THEO: Say, C-crag. Would you lend me five th-th-thousand g-gold coins?

CRAG: No.

THEO: Are you sh-sh-sure?

CRAG: Pretty sure.

Theodorus waves his hands mystically.

THEO: What about n-now?

CRAG: Nope.

THEO: D-damn. W-what about now? Feeling s-s-sleepy, aren't you?

CRAG: No, not really.

THEO: I h-hate GM Magic R-r-resistance.

SANDRO: And I hate you.

Without warning, the portal explodes into a cascading firework of sparks and light, dizzying colours spiralling into the air as Jeddite cartwheels into the hut and dazzles an impressive array of meteors into the air.

JEDDITE: Jed-Man's in the house!

THEO: Hahaha! J-J-Jeddite's bald!

JEDDITE: Shut up!

SANDRO: What'll you do if we don't? Polish our scalps?

CRAG: Look! Look! It's like a mirror!

Sandro's beanbag bursts into flame.

JEDDITE: I said shut up!

THEO: Anyone want to go b-b-bowling? We could use his h-h-h-head!

Sandro's glass of champagne melts and sizzles a hole in the carpet.

JEDDITE: Shut up! Shut up!

SANDRO: You burned right through my shoe!

CRAG: Let's hope that Heroes V has a new artifact class - the toupee!

JEDDITE: You work with Black Dragons and see how long your hair lasts, you stinky barbarian! Now stop joking, or I'll punish you by making the roof fall on Sandro's head!

CRAG: Calm down, now. We were only having a little fun. Nobody really thinks your hair loss is funny. In fact, we weep for you. It's tragic.

FERRET: I liked the joke about the bowling ball!

CRAG: Shut up, Ferret.

[In another unspecified part of Axeoth, which all looks the same anyway]

JEDDITE: Do we really have to do this?

CRAG: It's a Hunting and Fishing show, isn't it? This isn't the Alamar Winfrey Show. We're not going to sit down and talk about your childhood.

THEO: H-h-hunting is all v-very well, but why are we h-h-hunting something so d-d-d-dangerous?

CRAG: Because all our medical fees are payed by the sponsors.

SANDRO: Listen to you wimps. I die once every sequel, and do you hear me complaining? No!

The undergrowth crackles warningly. Crag gestures for everyone to duck for cover, which in Sandro's case is more of a slow sideways lurch, and then points at something moving in the distance.

CRAG: Sssh. What we're hearing now is the migrational rustlings of the rare but harmless Woodland Vampire.

VAMPIRE: Blah!

CRAG: If we're quiet, we will see him flapping from tree to tree, returning to his nest where he will feed his little vampire hatchlings. We don't want to disturb him now, so stay quiet.

SANDRO: Is your little friend meant to be doing that?

CRAG: You mean Ferret, who seems to be running around with a gigantic lobster clamped to his head?

SANDRO: Yes.

CRAG: It's okay. He's insured.

VAMPIRE (distantly): Blah!

Crag rises to his feet and scrapes mud off his knees. Without a word he leads the small troupe through the forest, ducking underneath branches and stepping over gaping chasms filled with lava, an unfortunate geographical obstacle in maps designed by people who take far too much pleasure in using the Inferno brushes.

CRAG: Now, if you look closely, you'll see that the imprints in this mud are formed into oddly concentric circles.

JEDDITE: What does it mean?

CRAG: It means that a dwarf has passed by recently. As everyone knows, dwarves are fond of concentric circles.

THEO: You m-made that up.

CRAG: Er, let's continue tracking our prey. Judging by the direction the wind is blowing and the light I can see reflecting off the pool seventeen metres through the foliage to my left, I believe we are precisly sixteen seconds away from encoutering our quarry.

FERRET: Golly. You sure are smart, Crag – for a stupid dumb-head!

SANDRO: If I get to use Necromancy on Ferret at the end of this, I may consider the day to have been a success.

JEDDITE: Uh-oh.

With a whirring of giant wings, a huge Mantis clicks through the air and slashes its mandibles into the ground. Little chitinous rasps vibrate down its side as the carapace settles.

CRAG: Actually, that should have been fourteen seconds. Okay! Ferret! Hand me the Mantis Catching Net!

FERRET: You mean the one that I tore into small pieces and planted in the ground, hoping they'd grow into beautiful apple trees?

CRAG: At times like this I'm glad that I book my doctor's appointments in advance.

JEDDITE: Just step back and let me take care of it with my awesome plethora of magical powers.

Jeddite creates a Meteor Shower and deftly aims it at the mantis. The flaming chunks of rock that should have obliterated everything in a mile radius somehow passes through the mantis without visible effect.

JEDDITE: Damn... they took out Meteor Shower in Heroes IV! Aauuugh!

[Jeddite Mauling Censored]

JEDDITE'S REMAINS: Well, that was annoying.

SANDRO: Amateur. Let the necromancer show you how it's done.

Sandro conjures a dark hand that waves across the Mantis' soul, attempting to banish it to dark eternity in Oblivion. The mantis doesn't seem particularly impressed.

SANDRO: That was supposed to kill eight units. What went wrong?

With lightning speed the Mantis strikes, but Sandro is too quick -- well, he decomposed slightly on his left side and the attack missed, but assuming that he dodged it is so much simpler.

SANDRO: I'll get you now! I'm going to use Jeddite's corpse to summon an army of skeletons!

JEDDITE'S REMAINS: Hey! You need a permit for that!

SANDRO: I don't get it! No matter what spells I use, they just keep failing! It should be suffering anguish unknown to any living being!

FERRET: Hey, Crag. We're all out of this Mantis Spray because I just sprayed it all over that gigantic killer mantis.

CRAG: That's not Mantis Spray. That's Death Ward Spray.

FERRET: Oh. Hey, look! Sandro just got eaten!

SANDRO'S REMAINS: Not again! Do you know how much I pay in funeral fees?

THEO: O-okay, it's m-my turn! Look deeply into my eyes, mantis. Come closer and s-see the h-h-hypnotic powers of my terrible g-g-gaze...

CRAG: I don't think it's working.

THEO: It w-w-ill. I just have to k-k-keep concentrating.

CRAG: Is this going to work?

THEO: J-just be patient. I have to f-f-focus.

CRAG: Are you sure you know what you're doing?

THEO: S-s-s-sh! Don't disrupt my c-c-c-concetration!

FERRET: Hey, Theodorus! Can I put this spider in your ear?

THEO: Huh? W-w-waaaargh!

[Theodorus Mauling Censored]

FERRET: Don't worry, Crag! I'll save the day! Mighty Super Ferret Transformation - Go!! My power level is rising! Can you feel my true power level now, Crag?

CRAG: He's going to eat you, Ferret. I think I'll start running.

FERRET: Go on, run away, I'm going to fight the– aaargh!

[Ferret Mauling replaced by a picture of a small kitten]

CRAG: Okay, viewers. As you may be able to see, we're currently filming footage of a man being chased by a mantis. Take note of how the mantis uses its powerful forelegs to propel itself, and how it can glide gently with its wings. Watch as it nears its prey and begans to slide open its mandibles in anticipation of the meal. See closely as its eyes home in on its meal, and watch carefully as it begans to lift the food into its mouth and–

*static* Back to top

IV. Hunting and Fishing with Crag – Telegrams

(starring DR as Sir Mullich's remains)

To: "Hunting and Fishing with Crag" producer

Dear Mr. Producer

After the recent events and disclosures about the "Hunting and Fishing with Crag" show, I believe you are looking for a new character. I guess you are not very happy at the fact that your so-called superstar doesn't have the courage to face danger himself. What could you expect from a barbarian after all? They have never even heard of anything like nobility. I can offer you that, and much more... I'm sure you will find my application most suitable for this responsible position.

Respectfully yours,
Sir Mullich's remains

To: Sir Mullich (deceased)

Dear Sir Mullich,

We understand that Crag Hack cannot attend a civilised social gathering without beheading the waiter and trying to loot and pillage the dessert. We also realise that in each of the last 98 episodes of 'Hunting and Fishing with Crag', he has broken 763 bones, 17 vital organs, and 674,546 cameras.

However, Mr. Hack has a very solid fan base. We get many mails daily from those who wish to inform us that Mr. Hack is both a dude and utterly grouse to the max. We also believe that he is extremely rad. Some would go so far as to claim that he is a hip daddy.

In addition, Mr. Hack is currently holding a very large axe to my neck and threatening me with decapitation. We believe quite firmly that under the circumstances we must deny your application.

Mr. Sebastian Solmyr
Producer of 'Hunting and Fishing With Crag'

To: Mr. Sebastian Solmyr, Producer of "Fishing and Hunting with Crag"

Yes, I should have known that a producer who keeps this barbarian bastard for that long would never understand. Is there anyone left in this world who respects the values of honesty, bravery, loyalty? Is everybody going to betray his own principles simply because a freak is holding an axe next to his head? Is everybody going to let those hedious giants do their evil deeds just because others think they are windmills?

Regretfully yours,
Sir Mullich (still existing somewhere)

To: The Afterlife

Dear Sir Mullich,

We are fortunate enough to have discovered a vacancy for one with your acting talents. We currently need a prop in Scene 67, where Crag attempts to tame a rabid Nightmare with nothing but a spoon. We believe your cadaver has the exact contours required for the scenic background.

Sincerely,
Mr. Sebastion Solmyr, 'Hunting and Fishing With Crag' Back to top

V. Bad, Bad Multiplayer Tips

Using these horrible, horrible tricks in a hotseat game will land you in the front page story of your local newspaper. Expect another four pages of your friends saying 'He/she was such a nice person... and the two were great friends. I can't believe he/she would force them into a paper shredder and press the ON button.'

However, anyone who is two tectonic plates away from you is fair game for these insidious tips. They are guaranteed to make your online opponent really, really hate you. I mean 'stalking you down and eating you' hate, not just 'constant abuse over the game chat' hate, although you'll get plenty of that too.

Minotaur Madness

Don't you hate it when a minotaur reflects all your attacks? Doesn't it fill you with insane rage, causing you to attack your keyboard or monitor?

Of course it does. That's why you make an army composed entirely of eight minotaur stacks.

Continually attack them with minotaur armies, who will take half an hour to kill because of their constant reflection. By the end of the sixth minotaur wave your enemy's brain will have dissolved. Kill them while they babble and chew on their mousepad.

You Are Feeling Very Sleepy

When facing an opponent with only a single creature stack, Hypnotize that creature. Walk it back to the enemy's side of the combat field. Wait three turns, hypnotize the creature, walk it back again.

Keep doing this for roughly seven hours.

Surprise!

Get a hero with Grandmaster Stealth and sneak into your friend (soon to be enemy)'s lands. Run up to one of his mines and flag it. Then type the following message:

!!!! SURPRISE !!!!!

Run away giggling. When he moves a hero over to reflag the mine, flag another one. Once again, type !!!! SURPRISE !!!!

Repeat this until you begin to feel bad and guilty.Or until he reaches through the monitor and strangles you.

By the way, you can also use this to steal all the artifacts, resources and chests still on the game map. Have fun. Enjoy the final few days you have left until they find out where you live.

The Siege Never Ends

Your enemy is trapped inside his fortress, with only the pitiful rabble he's scrapped out of his garrison to meet your armada of elite and deadly troops.

Hit wait.

Hit wait.

Hit wait.

By now he's probably moving his peasants around, waiting for your black dragons to fly over the walls. Don't fall for it. The key is to wait.

Keep waiting. He could be planning something. You'll never know unless you hit the Wait button.

By the time he takes out his troops through that drawbridge in a suicidal attack to end this stupid, stupid siege, you will probably have grown a metre-long beard. Even if you're female.

Wild Harpy Chase

He hasn't got any ranged attackers? How about magic casters? Really? Good.

Try to find out how long it takes an army to catch a single harpy that's flying madly around the screen. Be sure to have your food and water being fed in through an intravenous drip. Your enemy won't have that advantage, and so the victory will be all yours.

They Can't Count the Counts

Play as Death Magic and use Grandmaster Necromancy.

I'm Confused

When you crush your enemy's army except for one final stack of units, cast Confusion on it until you run out of mana.

This is best done after visiting a Mana Vortex and with the Supreme Crown of the Magi.

The Queue

Hire two months worth of level One units, and then send them into enemy territory one at a time. Try to break the game by having the most armies you possibly can, all consisting of One Squire! Attack your enemy's castle over and over with a force of One Wolf! Squeal with delight as you continually harass Solymr, the Level 48 Archmage, with an armada of One Imps!

Lost at Sea

Gather up as much gold and wood as you can, find a shipyard, and build boats. Don't stop. Just make boats. Fill the shores with boats. Cover every inch of the continent's edge with boats. You mustn't stop. The voices want you to build boats.

Now hide in one and watch as your enemy painstakingly examines each of them for a little waving flag.

Ceaseless Caravan

When you take over a minor city belonging to your opponent, make a Caravan list as long as you possibly can consisting of single level One units, much like The Queue.

Then let them take the city back. They'll be having to kill level one troops outside their city for months. This is your opportunity to harass them with the Queue and make their frontal lobe implode.

Artifact Avarice

Whenever you get an artifact, be sure to tell your opponent all about it. And mention how great it is. And how pleased you are that you got the artifact. Remind them what slot it goes in, and what stats it does, and how pretty the icon is. Tell them all about how you looted it from behind that stack of crusaders. Let them know how nice it looks around your hero's neck.

Self-Loathing

Discover the true name of your opponent (unless it really is crazyLoveMachine67) and give that name to all your heroes. See their reaction when they're forced to beat themselves to win the game. Enjoy the psychological trauma you've inflicted.

And then, once you've lost, point out that they were actually defeated, captured and locked away in an enemy prison. Several times.

The Sneaky

The trick is to never buy your units. Sit and wait, watching that tiny pixel on the Thieves' Guild which is your Kingdom Army Strength. Wait for the gloating enemy to move towards your castle, towing along his little friends.

Then, on the turn that he's about to attack, suddenly buy five months worth of creatures.

Imp Frenzy

Isn't it great how imps drain mana? Be sure to build entire imp armies and attack a caster hero with the sole intent of draining out his mana before the fight begins. Then attack with your real forces, and laugh each time he tries to cast Fireball.

I Hate To Say It, But...

KNIGhtMARE: d00d I k1ck3d yur butt
KNIGhtMARE: what is wrong with u i had 43 angels and u only had 6 titans
KNIGhtMARE: u must really suck i mean my hero was like 20 levels higher and i did not even lose a single squire in our
last fight
KNIGhtMARE: rofl i can't believe how much u suck
YOU: Well
YOU: I hate to say it, but
YOU: I let you win
KNIGhtMARE: like hell u did
YOU: No, really
YOU: My Buddhist guru told me to reward somebody today and to help them feel special
YOU: That person was you, KNIGhtMARE
YOU: I did it for my faith
YOU: I really hope it boosted your self esteem
KNIGhtMARE: i hate u

(--KNIGhtMARE has disconnected---)

VI. Hope for the Mythologically Impaired

Mythology is a wonderful thing. It gives us an ancient primal knowledge of something we'd never understand otherwise, and it also allows us to make quality fantasy-based strategy games. Many of the creatures in Heroes of Might and Magic come from a rich and diverse background, legendary beasts of different cultures throughout the wide span of Time.

The question is, what about those odd exceptions? Well, I, the Scholarly Gothrak, have delved deep into various dusty tomes and grimoires in the search for the Past. It was the imploring pleas of the creatures that sent me on this odyssey, my quest inspired by the little tears that rolled down their un-fabled cheeks.

Let us begin with that most venerable, beloved of creatures; the Venom Spawn.

Like the gryphon and the water buffalo, the Venom Spawn harkens back to the time of the Egyptians. The ancient pharaohs revered it is a holy beast, the one they called 'Jelly-Ra', the carrier of souls between the Afterlife and the Land of Lime.

Often found growing beneath the bellies of the royal crocodiles, the Venom Spawns were usually harvested from the banks of the Nile and smeared on primitive Egyptian bread. However, the Spawn was reluctant to be consumed, and was feared for its incredible ability to spit 16-24 damage.

My delvings into the history of this exotic creature proved fruitful after I discovered a missing paragraph of the Dead Sea Scrolls, just after the missing legal advice that claimed any copies of the original documented would be punished by having the copier's soul devoured by the holy beast serving Set, much like the publisher's warnings of today.

It went as thus: The wise men often speak of the fabled creatures that hold the key to immortality, such as the jackal and the flying wildebeest. Yet none inspires such fervour in the high priests as the one known as Jelly-Ra, greatest of slimy composites. We began searching for them an entire moon ago and our search has given no rewards, but it is near their breeding season and we must get fortunate soon. Must stop writing now; the cook has found some delicious gelatin and we're going to eat it. Will write again in the morning

Tragically, the note ended with a strange smear of blood and slime. A mystery to baffle all scholars for eons to come.

Yet another creature approached me imploring me to find it a past it could be proud of. The Ice Demon pointed out that, in theory, it couldn't have come from the Burning Flames of Hell because of its unhappy tendancy to melt when exposed to heat.

This was truly a puzzle. Where could an infernal creature develop without being scorched by the never-resting tongues of the Abyss of Flame? It was many long days of research before I discovered that they were the foul spawn of Satan Claus, who lived in an arctic wasteland known as the North Pole.

The ice demons are today named 'elves', and due to a severe case of dyslexia their evil creator is known as Santa Claus or, in extreme cases, Father Christmas. They serve their dark masters by creating toys to amuse small children, knowing all the while that the little plastic bit that holds it together is going to break, and none of Daddy's super adhesive glue will put it back together again, bringing pure misery to the hearts of all across the globe.

They also create the instructions for putting together model airplanes and bicycles, their fiendish ingenuity truly an example to all demonkind. Every time a child screams 'Mummy, my new twuck wheels came off!', an ice demon is listening and gloating.

Next to come begging for my wisdom was the Waspwort, devastated by its lack of mythological background. Inspired by pure chance, I slowly discovered that the waspwort evolved from an intelligent breed of plastic sunglasses, such as those worn by trendy Sumarians and Mesopotamians.

It took many years of demented evolution for them to reach their current state, but they are thought to have once reached the form of a terrible weed, a poisonous scourge to mankind, a vicious, monstrous, vile beast to taint the throats and boil the tongue of any that came near.

Yes, the waspwort was once a brussel sprout. Filled with insane glee by their horrible, monstrous background, I could only smile as the joyous waspwort slowly dragged itself into the dawn of a new day.

My final visitor was a surprise, for it was none other than a devil. I tried to explain that the mythological background of devils were solid indeed, but it would not hear my protests, explaining its woes with a single sentence:

"But why do I have a toasting fork for a hand?"

This was a good question. Where did the devil suddenly sprout a fork as a hand, and what were the mythological precedents? Where did this black transformation occur? I set to work.

It didn't take long for me to recover a story lost to history, the Reign of the Wrathful Marshmallow. This marshmallow had long endured roasting at the end of a sharp stick, slowly building up spite and even hatred for its human oppressors. One day, forced to the limits of its patience, the Marshmallow snapped. It called upon the dark forces of the world to rise, to come to its aid, and to impale then lightly roast its human captors over a jolly campfire preferably while telling hilarious woodland stories.

Many a man was tormented to his death in this cruel fashion, all the time hearing the story about the bear and the little boy who had to leave the tent to go to the toilet. Worst of all were those men who died to the chorus of 'Kumbaya', and even now I wince at the retelling. Those were tragic times, and it was only after a succesful rebellion that the shackles of Marshmallow were thrown aside and the toasting-fork demons sent back to the Hells, waiting for their chance to appear in the Heroes III sequel.

Unfortunately, the devil didn't believe me and proceeded to flay me slowly to death over a cauldron of burning magma. Which means that I'll have to stop writing this now, as my hand is going numb, and I'm not sure I can still feel my lungs.

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: Posted 31 December 2004; by Charles Watkins

Behind the Curtain: Over the Shoulder
by Charles Watkins

Part 3: Layout

In this series of articles I’m taking readers along as I make a map.

Since last time, ‘Lost Crusade’ has come alive as I placed the adventure and location objects on the map and got all the important scripts working. (Most of the time, anyway.) If you want to know more about the planning and design work, please see the previous two articles in this ‘Over the Shoulder’ series.

In many ways, this is most enjoyable part of mapmaking, so I’m almost sorry to bring it to an end. From here on out, I may make a few tweaks and embellishments, but I will probably not introduce any significant new functionality. Because I wanted to get into testing in plenty of time to finish by New Years, I have postponed writing the dialog. This will give me something to do while the map is being tested. Dialog can be done through Events assigned to individual heroes so that they speak only when the central character is present. Some of these are Triggered, some are Placed, and some are Timed. There are a couple that are delayed action—when an Event occurs a variable records the day and a Timed Event employs a numeric comparison to see whether some required interval has passed.

I had intended to create a ‘skeleton’ map with all the important objects laid out before beginning the detailing, but I found I could make better progress alternating between the activities. So each edit session, I would work on one area of the map, laying out its main objects and landscaping the area around them. Then I would come back and fill in the spaces. I did this 20 times over the course of about 3 weeks. Each time I incremented the version number so that as I go to test, the map will be version 0.21. On release, I’ll reset the version number to 1.0 and go from there.

For the rest of this article, I’d like to show you some of the notable locations on the map and make some comments about what went into them. It may come as a relief that I will not be lecturing on the history of the Crusades this time – but that will come again when I discuss the narrative and dialog. Next time, I should have test results to cover and will be ready to wrap up the project.

This is the starting area, Eleanor’s hometown of Aquitaine. After she arrives in Akkadia, Louis will capture the town and surrounding area. Each structure has a Triggerable Event called ‘LoseTown’ that causes it to change color to Neutral. Since there is the possibility that the player has a few armies running around, the same Event also unleashes a marauder to clean them up. There’s nothing they can accomplish and I don’t want to distract the player.

I had previously thought I would be able to require the player to keep the Sword of the Gods in Eleanor’s possession, but this turned out to be impossible -- as far as I can tell. The problem is you can test to see whether an army has a certain artifact, but you can’t test a specific hero. So the best I could do is make sure the sword stayed in Eleanor’s party. My script used a condition to determine whether (a) Purple player owned the sword and (b) Eleanor’s party did NOT own the sword. I did this mainly to get the initial party through the portal together with the sword. Once they enter the portal, Eleanor is ‘reborn’ in another party and the sword is long gone.

This is the Sprite Portal. The party has lost the Sword of the Gods in an ambush and will follow the trail to the Portal. I have positioned Sprites along the trail to urge the player to go that direction, but eventually it will be evident that all other paths are closed.

A One-Way Portal is embedded in a Quest Gate. To enter the Portal, the party must first satisfy the conditions of the Gate, which are to have all four nobles and the sword together. I may change this to a Two-Way Portal since the party is not coming back anyway. On coming out of the Portal the party hits a PlacedEvent called ExitSpritePortal, where the action really begins. The key to this transaction was having everything happen on the same move — the check to see the party is all together, the journey through the portal, and the events that occur on arrival.

The problem was not so much how to kill off the starting party so they could be ‘reborn’ in the new world, but how to dispose of the bodies. If I killed them at Aquitaine, some other army could take the bodies back and resurrect them. If I waited till they arrived in Akkadia to kill them, then the player might have Eleanor haul them around – and the reborn Eleanor might be disturbed to come across her own corpse. So I sent them into the dimensional void, where the player can get a glimpse at the space between worlds before the party is killed off. The bomb is to wipe out the Exit Portal so the player won’t try to get back there. Note the bubbles in the void – it turns out you can drop objects into the void using an Object Brush.

On the Figure, you can’t see the ‘ExitSpritePortal’ Event marker, but this is where the action starts. This Placed Event initiates a combat that the player cannot win and triggers another event called ‘EleanorReborn’, which performs a Change Color on an Eleanor clone to bring it into the game. I found I needed to run the ‘LoseTown’ and ‘EleanorReborn’ scripts prior to the combat so that the player would not be able to retreat and so that defeat would not result in an immediate LOSS. I also found it necessary to take the Sword of the Gods from the party, since there could have been a treasure pile if it were not equipped at the time of the combat.

This is Elise, the Nature town inhabited by Celeste and her subjects. Celeste is a powerful hero and I don’t want the player using her to carry the party, so the Quest Gate uses a NOT HAS SPECIFIC HERO condition to not allow any party through the gate that includes Celeste. Elise will first turn Green and the Purple.
Celeste needs to stay home because of periodic Orc attacks on the town.

To gain access to the town – this is the gate within the gate -- Eleanor will need either to have healed a Sprite she encounters soon after arrival, and who will then join her, or she will need to prove herself by healing a Wise Old Tree in neighboring Fredonia. (I try to give the player two ways to accomplish most main objectives.) Once this requirement is satisfied, a Triggered Event turns Elise Green, so it becomes an ally and the party can enter. On entry, they get the second main quest as the Standard Event: Entered — to locate and return with Eldaron, the Elf King. Eldaron is being held by some Orcs, but when he eventually enters Elise, it turns Purple via another Triggered Event.

There are two Quest Huts here. One sends the party off looking for the Druid Iblis and the other teaches Nature magic to Eleanor after she owns Elise. This second one uses a compound condition to make sure only Eleanor will get the skill. It is not possible for the Quest Hut to award Nature to a specific hero, so it is necessary to require that only one hero can enter. Another part of the condition determines whether Eleanor has an open skill slot and ask whether the player wants to fill it now.

Fredonia is a small human community build around a Wise Old Tree. The tree has the blight, as depicted by the overlayed dead tree. When Elise approaches, the Placed Event allows her to ‘heal’ the tree by deleting the dead part.

Each of the other dwellings has a minor quest. In one, the Mayor rewards the party for healing the tree. In another, a siege engineer needs a cart to repair his Catapult. (This will be extremely valuable in Foss as a prototype for the War Machine Factory.) A tavern offers the traditional drinking contest, and a retired soldier offers to train some Squires to be Crusaders.

Just Southeast of here there is an archeologist who can restore some nearby ruins, which show that Life was once present in Akkadia. Since this kind of work takes some time, I used the archeologist Completion Script to set a variable that indicated when the requirement was satisfied. Then a Timed Event running every two weeks checks to see whether enough time had passed, and if so to delete the objects blocking the ruins and notify the player.

Here’s the Municipal District in Foss. The Garrison is well fortified, but will Color Change to Green (ally) when the player completes the Tax Collector quest. It was not possible to uncheck “Can Remove” for a Neutral, but I found you can uncheck it if you change it to a color and it will stay unchecked when you go back to Neutral.

The Blue Keymaster provides access to Foss Town and some other areas. The Treasury Vault is where the party deposits the collected taxes, gaining access to some minor treasures. To access the Conservatory of Order, the player will need to join the Mage Guild, which is another quest.

The Tunnel goes down to the Dungeon, shown next.

The VIP section of the Dungeon needs special keys to enter, and these are available in the Guard House. The player get the keys and the guards join afte the guards get their back pay. That’s done with a Triggered Event that performs a Change Color for all the Gold Golem guards in the area.

One of the Prisons holds Godfrey, who reveals that he had found the Sword of Swiftness and hidden it before being taken captive. The Brown Idols in the cells represent parts of the map to where he buried the sword. Godfrey will take on the protector role with Eleanor and the two will have some conversations when they are in the same party. It turns out the each of the main characters represents a different type of relationship—Raymond is the friend, Hugh is the oppressor, Omar is the love interest, etc. More on this once I’ve written the dialog.

The Ninja in the bottom cell has Master Stealth, and will likely get off a surprise attack on the party. If no-one has Scouting, then the Bandits will attack with surprise as well. In the cell to the Southeast, there is a fairly well advanced Order Mage. She offers to join, but cannot leave the cell (like Celeste). The solution, which is a little different than with Omar, is to engage her in ‘shadow’ combat and allow her to retreat to the nearest town. This exploits a peculiarity whereby a Color Change performed by the Standard Event: Encountered results in the player controlling both sides in the combat.

Chernobyl is the center of Chaos in Akkadia, so I gave the landscape a random look. The Quest Gate sends the party looking for the Dragonslayer – who turns out to be the Ranger Raymond. The condition is satisfied when the party returns with Raymond and the Completion Script triggers a Color Change to Green for Chernobyl. Inside, I have seven Chaos lords, each specialized in a different spell. Once the gate is opened, they can come out—but if the player blocks the gate and keeps them inside, they will come along in the Color Change to Purple. I’m not sure how useful they will be, but filling up all 7 Garrison slots insures that the creature dwellings will be full.

On gaining entry to Chernobyl the party receives the quest to fetch a Megadragon, which will trigger another Color Change, this time to Purple, and allow Eleanor to learn Chaos Magic at the Quest Hut next door. To get the Megadragon, Eleanor needs to go to Dragon Cave, next.

There is no creature dwelling for Megadragons, so I made one using the Triggered Script for a Quest Hut. To access it, the player will need GM Stealth or beat the guard. If Raymond is in the party the player has the option of sneaking behind the Megadragon and extracting the Flaming Sword from its haunch. A Triggered Script on the Megadragon takes away the sword and replaces the Megadragon with a Troglodyte, as if it was deflated. (I may add a subquest that allows Raymond to become a Dragonmaster and in that case I will add a Color Change event to allow him to recruit the Megadragon.)

The Upper Crypt has two entries. One is a hefty Garrison and the other has a block against the Elf King. Down below are two chambers, one for Life and one for Death. This is where the Sword of the Gods and Soul Stealer originally resided.

You can barely see it, but inside the Quest Gate built into the Northeast wall is a Greater Ring of Negation. To get the ring, the player must complete the Undertaker quest, but this way I get to tantalize the player by displaying it beforehand. I’m trying to draw the player’s attention to the Crypt, since Hugh and the Soul Stealer wait below. The idea is for the player to come here after completing the other sword quests.

The Undertaker quest is optional and designed to see whether the player is committed to the principles of Life. To complete the quest, the player needs to release a Necromancer from a Prison and her presence will wreck morale if she joins the party.

The Forge has had some changes since last time. Rosencrantz gives the party a look at the towns in the game and the Idols provide maps to the Temple Treasures. This was the hardest script to code in the entire map because it has to deal with all combinations of the Sword of Swiftness, Flaming Sword, and Soul Stealer. I’m not sure I’ve got it quite right yet. The player needs either the Sword of Swiftness or Flaming Sword to enter the Forge and needs them both to destroy Soul Stealer.

I tried to do all this in a single script but it got too tangled up, so I lined up some Placed Events that the party will trigger as they approach Rosencrantz. Another complicating factor was the possibility that a player would first refuse to give up a sword and then transfer it directly into Rosencrantz’ inventory, so that DestroySoulStealer had to be written as a Triggerable Event for Rosencrantz. I set a Boolean variable to indicate that Soul Stealer has been destroyed, but the only use of it is in the Quest Gate to the East, which opens to take the party back to Earth.

I’m pleased with the way the Garden of Earthly Delights turned out. I still have to do the dialog here, but I have all the ingredients for what could be a most engaging encounter – drugs, sex, forbidden knowledge. All PG rated, you understand.

The party arrives in the little room at the Southeast and must pick someone to climb the wall (alone) to open the door from the other side. Across the entry hall is the Death Library, which will not open to any hero with Life. To exit the front door, the party will need to visit the Red Keymaster Tent across the courtyard.

This is where it pays the player to have kept Omar in the party, because having been here before, he knows the traps and can open the doors. Otherwise, the party has some challenges ahead.

The inner courtyard is where Hassan I Sabbah has lured some of Christiandom’s Champions with promises of exotic pleasures. Once under his sway, he takes them to the Dark Knights Sanctum to be reborn as Dark Champions. The elite are taken to the inner sanctum, where a reborn Iblis guards the Sword of the Gods. (It’s about time it showed up.) I’ve made Iblis a Demonologist (Nature + Death), but I have not seen whether he summons Imps like he’s supposed to because I’ve been using Quick combat for testing. I’ll have to set the strength of the Evil Garrison after I see what kind of force Eleanor can assemble. I wouldn’t be surprised if a typical party at this stage was Eleanor, Raymond, Godfrey, Omar, two good Shooters, and maybe some Angels. Some players may run one of the nobles as head of a defensive force, freeing a slot for something like Crusaders.

Hassan’s Portal leads to the basement of a desecrated abbey inside the Holy City. One of the Big Treasures is buried in the Altar room, and the Ice Gate is rigged to ‘open’ when the player defeats the Ice Demons, or sneaks past them. This is easily done with simple scripts. A cave tunnel leads to Solomon’s Stables. I don’t expect the player to recruit the Evil Eyes here, but they lend an atmosphere of corruption.

I may include some additional destinations for Hassan’s Portal. I’m thinking of a Neutral Necropolis, which could be the source of Hassan’s power. By blocking and blowing up Portals, the destinations could be made to change.

Solomon’s Stables did not turn out as well as I’d hoped. There’s something wrong with the colors and not much for the player to do. I’ll have to make it up in the dialog.

Out the Northwest are double doors to the Vault. It’s loaded with goodies, which make no difference to the ending -- so why not reward the player for getting this far? Here is the Portal to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, which comes out in the marshalling area joined to the Temple complex.

Jerusalem is too expansive to show with a screen-grab, so the picture is just a bit of the City Wall. Notice the wall is rigged to come down if the player opts for the Armageddon ending, allowing the Teal Christians inside to mix it up with the Red Turks outside. The final tableau is set outside the central town, but you can’t see anything but a lot of bombs.

My original plan was to allow the player to take one side or the other in the fight, but I learned that a Color Change script for the main party would likely be deleted when the roster changes. So I could not change Eleanor’s group to Teal (Christians) or Red (Turks). The only other option would be to change the Teal or Red armies to Green, so they would fight as allies to Eleanor, but this means scripting a Change Color for all those armies around Jerusalem. I may get to it, but for now once the walls come down, it’s a free for all. This just about guarantees that the player loses, but I should also put in a time limit so the ending does not drag on too long.

For Eleanor to participate, I would also need to do something about Purple and Green armies left in Akkadia, if the other side is to have a chance. Perhaps I could create a special loss condition when the Turks are wiped out or when they take Jerusalem. I’ll have to look at this some more.

Next time: I’ll wrap this series up with an account of testing, final fixes, dialog, packaging, and release. About the time that article comes out, the map itself should be available.

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