HOMM 4 : "Mother Nature" User-Map Review
- From: The Qurqirish Dragon <qurqirishd@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 18:27:12 -0700 (PDT)
Matthew Charlap, the Qurqirish Dragon, proudly presents journal entry
#349, as recorded by the cleric Aylyra:
The land of "Mother Nature" originally discovered by Wandrak
Date of land exploration: 25-October-2009
DESCRIPTION: Medium, single layer map of advanced difficulty
Gathering Storm map
Win condition: capture the town “Sand Island”
Loss condition: lose your starting hero
# OF PLAYERS: 3HC Nature. Played as 1 H
COMMENTS: First I will note that although the map has an underground
layer, it is actually a single-layer map, as there is no wasy into the
underground. When I later checked in the editor, I found there was no
underground layer at all. If you like to get high scores, be certain
to open the map in the editor and destroy that layer, otherwise you
will only get a 50% exploration score. As for the map itself, you are
one of three nature factions, trying to prove your worth. There are no
taverns in the map, so you don’t have to worry about the loss
condition – if you lose your hero, you’ll never get another, and so
cannot capture the target. There is also a fairly unique idea for the
quests on the map. There is NO reward for completing the quests, but
they do give you information that can greatly help when you are ready
to go after Sand Island. This is by far the most distinctive part of
the map. On the downside of the no taverns aspect is that you know
that you will only have to defeat two heroes to win – after that it is
simply a matter of gauging your own skill to decide how strong a force
you need. With six towns, you can get a large force of the three level
4 creatures available fairly easily. I didn’t spend any time
specifically building forces, but they were being produced faster than
I could purchase them, so there was a continuous stream of
reinforcements coming through. I really didn’t need as much as I had,
as the confusion spells from my faerie dragons and wasp swarms from my
hero neutralized the main opposition in the final battle. The timid AI
took care of the rest.
SOME TIPS: Concentrate on getting your opponents’ heroes, as they are
the only true threat. Play with Equilibrus if you don’t want the
benefit of lots of summoning portal troops that the AI won’t purchase.
BUGS AND PROBLEMS: None, other than the lack of an underground layer.
SCORE: On my first try at advanced difficulty, I won on day 165 (month
6, week 4, day 4) for 498 points and Air Elemental rating.
PROS: Good battle map, with an interesting take on quests.
CONS: If you are score conscious, the missing underground is an
unwelcome penalty.
THE BOTTOM LINE: The twists make for a definite advanced map, but the
missing layer hurts the utilization. 4/10 for utilization, 10/10 for
rating to earn ***1/2 on description. Nothing special on the layout,
but nothing bad either. 7/10 on appearance, 8/10 on Story, 10/10 on
Flavor, and 8/10 on scripting (losing a tad for minor problems in
presentation of one script), to earn **** on entertainment. The sides
seem well balanced, but I do disagree with the location of the single
ship, although that is mainly an aesthetic choice. 20/20 for balance,
and 16/20 for placement, to earn ****1/2 on design, for an overall
rating of **** (83 out of 100).
THE EDITOR SAYS: There are three main skills that could have cause
problems in this map – summoning, stealth, and diplomacy. All of these
skills have been banned, so the designer definitely took care in the
creation of the map. However, there seems to be an emphasis on
summoning spells, which makes the banning of the skill a bit counter-
intuitive.
---------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own. Any criticism is of the
map, not the designer (so if you are offended for some reason don’t
complain to me! :-) Comments and questions on the review are welcome,
simply reply to this message.
This map is available for download at Celestial Heavens: www.celestialheavens.com
.
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