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Saturday, 1 August 2015

Map development log: Homm III - Adventure Islands

Go directly to the map pack's download:
Tane Norther's Heroes of Might And Magic III (SoD) XL-map pack (Download) 

Just wanted to drop a word about a new HOMM III SoD XL map (Heroes of Might And Magic 3: Shadow Of Death version) I started working with; and of it's development process. I'll share it with my map pack (Tane Norther's Heroes of Might And Magic III (SoD) XL-map pack) file, when it's ready. Don't wait it to be finished too soon, though. As explained previously I make these just for a hobby and for my own fun (and hopefully for the others, too), so I hold no deadlines for myself. I thought about taking a longer break after the last one, but I came up with a slightly different type of a map, which I wanted to make, so I decided to start making it anyway. I don't like about making many similar maps in row. The map-pack already includes 6 XL maps plus different team-variations, so feel free to grab the current version for free!

So, while my last map Forest of The Old Godz was event-driven, pretty railroad'y map judging by it's movement paths, with teams (co-op), and featured quite level-scaled items and thoroughly as accurately balanced for all teams that I could make it to be, I wanted to make something different this time. We'll see how this shapes up, as it can change along the way when making the map. The new map will be called "Adventure Islands". The basic plot for the map is, that an old sailor at New Sorpigal, Erathia, has been spreading rumors about unexplored island patterns at far Eastern Sea. The islands being rich on treasures and such. So many adventurers rush to New Sorpigal to talk with the sailor only to find out he's most likely speaking the truth. Soon adventurers of the several races set their sails from the New Sorpigal's docks towards the Eastern Sea to explore and colonize these islands.

"Somewhere far at Eastern sea from New Sorpigal, Enroth, lies unexplored vast cluster of islands, known as "Adventure Islands". Several adventurers of different races before you have tried to conquer it's glory, but have never returned. Can you lead your race to the dominion of the these islands?" (early in-game short description)

The map will be two-sided XL sea map with quite many smaller and mid-sized islands. The only way to the "other side" will probably be "Whirlpools", so entering from the "underground" to ground-level and vice versa comes with a cost. Six players, 3 on underground-side, 3 on above-the-ground-side, and all versus all. The underground isn't really underground, but just another fully featured sea-side with islands. Some route-restrictions will be featured on the sea to prevent fastest access route between each of the players. Other than that, I try to make it not to be so railroad'y and restricted as "Forest of The Old Godz".

The other difference to highly balanced "Forest of The Old Godz" will be more randomized content, thus you never know which way is the fastest access to the best items and such, each time you play the map. More randomized content (items and such) combined with several small islands on the sea should be fun. I try to add some balance, so that you cannot get LVL4 items at your starting island, for example. A few islands will be always "lower level", with their creatures and items, while there will be some places always featuring higher level monsters and items, but some will be completely random. No ultimate balance this time, but exploration may be better way rewarded!

I'll also try to come up with some events to spice up the map a bit. I'll drop a few in-development pictures to this post when there's something to show. Needless to say, this may, once again, take a long time to be fully finished, as I work irregularly with HOMMIII maps. I have some other hobbies, which need more time and more regular schedule.

Short summary for "Adventure Islands":
-6 players
-All VS. all
-2-sided sea map with a lots of medium-small islands
-Not too restricted paths
-Items and monsters quite highly randomized, exploration rewarded
-Some events to spice it up
-Whirlpool connection between the 2 sides of the map

Additional possibitities yet in consideration:
-Additional 3 VS. 3 version (underground vs. above the ground)
-Additional 2 VS. 2 VS. 2 version (mix-match)
-More random and more balanced versions separately (I probably won't do this, if I decide to do several different aforementioned team variations)
-Events granting troops, or surprise-encounters (not sure yet if I'll use many events on this one)

UPDATE: 6.9.2015 - the map is coming damned slowly. I've completed perhaps 15-20% of the landmass for both sides of the map (filled completely /w landmass-objects, but no "places of interests", yet), plus drawn outlines for all planned islands. This may take a while! But it's coming. Plus I'm still considering how randomized I'll make it. I'm also considering of making more and less random versions for the map, plus perhaps all VS. all and in addition 3 VS. 3 also, but these are all yet undecided. Depends how much work this takes (to make the all VS. all more randomized version first.)

UPDATE: 7.9.2015 - I've been sick and sitting inside, so to save myself from dying of boredom, I completed a big chunk of landmass for "Adventure Islands" map. Still way too much to go for the map being two-sided XL map and all. I think, that the basic landmass filled with landmass based objects is about 30% done now. Here are some of the very early development pictures I took:

UPDATE: 8.9.2015 - another sick day of cold, so I had time to continue "Adventure Islands"... "time"... patience more likely, since it's hell of a boring being sick. Seems like the map is coming out rather nicely, and will be rather versatile looking with different arch types of islands. On the other hand I have no idea, how well will pure island map like this play out when finished. Now closing in 50% of total land mass created. The central islands on both UG and AG-sides which are maybe 25% of the land mass together, will be most likely faster to create, than the small islands. Maybe one day I can push this one out... :-)

UPDATE 10.9 - starting to feel better, so I'll be spending less time indoors next days, which means the pace of developing the map will slow down. I'll do smaller chunks. Never felt like I was a pro map-maker for Heroes3, but I'm kinda excited about this one, because there's not really many decent XL island maps in the game. I've told that I like to place deliberate amount of treasures and artifacts usually... this map will have a bit more of them, than I usually use, but not overly so. "Less is more" when adding places of interest and artifacts, in my opinion. Too cluttered map will be less exciting (in means of discovering the good stuff and seeking them). I've once again also noticed that "less is more" applies for land-object placement (at least, unless you're a real wizard with the Heroes3 tile-set). While I'm by no means great using the tile-set of Heroes3, I've noticed that if you clutter the terrain with objects which do not match even closely each other, thus you have "no theme", for example, for one island, then it will look like unpleasant mess for the eyes. I think, that "coherent", when using the tile-set, is the keyword - with some "spice" added by using "surprising" objects among the safe and logical objects you've selected for your theme (for example for one island). Enough blabber, I've now completed way over 50% of the landmass for the map... perhaps something like 70-75%? Central islands to go, and them some smaller ones. I'm planning to add some events to spice the map up... of which some will grant you extra creatures, and cost money, or require you to fight, and reward you with something. I want to keep the map's gameplay flowing, so the amount and depth of the events will not be too deep and time-consuming, though. Same goes for the quests, which I'm planning to make just for the kicks and fun. Some quick ones just from the scratch, "brain-farts", so to say. One that I'm planning to be the main quest which revolves around the whole cluster islands ("Adventure Islands") is several smaller quests, and one major quest with major reward (whoever makes it first), is about "New Sorpigal Refugee Company". The company appears to be a friendly bunch of fellas who have previously lured adventurers from New Sorpigal to the islands, helping them to settle, find a place to sleep, and tour around the place... the members of the company aren't honest as it seems, however. I'm planning for the aforementioned quest(s) to be scattered around the cluster islands, whereas players have to find and clear several camps of "New Sorpigal Refugee Company" for a reward, and then, as last and major quest, their high ranking commanders (the main camp with the toughest combat). Just not sure, how big reward I'm going to give for the main quest not to totally unbalance the map. I'll also create several miscellaneous small quests, so there's something more to do than "just kill monsters", well, which the quests basically are too, but with some briefly written plot on them.

UPDATE 11.9 - did some more landmass-creation today. Only bunch of quick small islands left, besides the large inner main islands on the both sides of the XL map. I would say I've maybe completed 80%, but I bet that the central regions are going to be faster than creating several small islands. Still every non-landmass objects to place after the land itself is done, plus quests, events - the text based events which will take time, even if I don't make them too extensive. That's mainly because my English is far from perfect, thus time-consuming to write quests. The garrisons you see in the latest picture below, divide each players "core area" from each others (the each side of the map is divided into three core areas for each player,  which I try to balance a bit). Connective pathways between the "core-areas" are guarded by garrisons, harder than your average stack of a single monster, because I want player to be required to explore some close islands first and gain Hero stats, plus more troops, before he is able to proceed to the other players "core-area" and charge his main castle. I don't want this to be able to happen too early in the game, although I want some areas to be tougher to reach, than crushing the garrisons between the core areas, so, that when a player is able to crush the garrison dividing each player's core areas, it's still at the point in the game, when he's still not strong enough to necessarily kill any monster stack around every island on his core area. I'm trying to make it so, that when a player has possibility finally to be strong enough to "break the barrier" and attack enemy main castle, there's still island with treasures left, unexplored, worthwhile to go. Perhaps aiming for possible mid-game first encounter with enemy heroes - not too early - not too late. Separate from the three core areas for the each player, on both sides of the maps (so six (6) all together)), is the hardest part to reach: large middle island. Each player has one magical garrison access to there, and each route is connected, so you can reach from one players core-area to another's through the middle island, too. Planning to add one town without fort (all buildings ready) and one with everything available, there. Both the same random race.(edit: impossible with the regular map editor, so I guess I have to settle with one (1) town without fort, and one with fort enabled, both random, but not necessarily the same race (totally random), UGH). This will make middle area worthwhile to break into, despite the tougher magical garrisons. Also level 4 artifacts and the map's main quest will be found there (the main quest event locked behind a border guard of some color on underground's middle island; the keymaster's tent on another middle island on "above-the-ground" layer's side. A lot to go.

UPDATE 14.9 - Oh boy, finishing up the map is taking forever. Still long ways to go. The landmass is basically all done, with some minor tweaks and enhancements to do along with placing places of interest and monsters. Yup, I've completed the landmass 100%. Finally. I used method, in which any time I started to feel tired and losing focus, I always took a break. This, so that I wouldn't make bad looking "filler areas" just to get the job done fast, when tired. There are several small quests to do, and many small events. I've done some of them. The biggest, most text-heavy main quest considering defeating "The New Sorpigal Refugee Company" is basically ready. Same goes for the small quests, one for each players, to defeat small encampment of the company near the starting town (basically of  finding and defeating a nearby group of Champions (12) beside "Refugee Camp" (adventure map location) for 14,000 Gold). I've also added few events lowering ones morale until the next battle, and these you will encounter with rather randomly, but once you step into the event once, you'll know where it's located. They will not cancel after the "first visit", and will spice up the map a bit. Ones to mention will be such events before the entrance of Dragon Cities, to make them a bit harder to clear. Besides that, there will be following quests to make:

  • For each player, one "grand quest" given nearby the starting area, and taking place further away. Eg. defeating 1000 Magogs near town of "Old Sweetwater" for 40,000 Gold (Grand prize!)
  • For large middle island to the both sides (layers, AG/UG) of the map, one "defeat the arena and become the champion" -quest, which basically means that you have to beat a garrison with high level creatures next to arena, and grab a specific artifact behind the garrison, then return it for the quest giver. This will be for 1 Azure Dragon, most likely.
  • For large middle island to the both sides (layers, AG/UG) of the map, one semi-grand quest to kill a bunch of enemies near Library of Enlightenment (reward yet undecided).
  • The philosophy for the quests is, that they are all time-limited
  • I probably won't want to do more quests than that, because I don't want emphasize them too much over the hand-placed resources and arties, plus I don't want the map to be too text-heavy for multiplayer games and such. I'm trying to make it to be straight-forward, yet diverse, with elements of surprise!
And, of course, all resources and monsters (mostly) are yet to be added, balanced, and though over. I won't be giving too many monster stacks to be able to join one's army, but a few will. Though, that will be rated so, that the monsters will join as rarely as possible. Still thinking about the philosophy of the map behind all the randomness. How random will monster stacks be (level, amount), how to decide which island are random, which level scaled, and so. Same goes for the artifacts. One new picture added below! I wrote this quickly, so sorry for any spelling errors.

UPDATE 17.9 - written all the few short quests and finished with them. Language check will be done later, to see if I can improve any at later on (usually I can). The prizes range from 14,000 Gold to 50,000 Gold, an Azure Dragon (1), and +3 permanent to either Spell Power, Attack, of Defense skill. The quests have some duplicates on both sides of the map and so on. For example: there is a bounty hunting quest for every player near their starting castle (to find and hunt for Azure Dragons), which is basically the same for everyone. I didn't see point writing it differently to everyone, because I didn't think it would had improved the map's quality, thus I took the shorter route. There are two gladiator arena quests, one on the each layer, which are basically "the same", or similar. The quests are mostly short with the descriptions. Besides, you cannot do anything very complex with the regular HOMM3 map editor, anyway. I still though that these quests add some final touch to the map. An example about a vampire hunting quest for 40,000 Gold (kill a group of Vampire Lords); the textual run:

1. Seer (the quest giver): ~~~THE CURSED CHAPEL~~~ An old seer calls you in: "Welcome to my hut, adventurer. I have a quest for you, my son. At far North, there once was a happy community lead by father Greco, living on a small peaceful religious island. The town was called "Sunray Villa". Then one day, a vampire managed somehow to infiltrate the community, and started feeding itself by the people of the island. It lived for years hidden inside an abandoned tower of an old chapel, feeding itself with the local priests at nights. The disease spread quickly. 

Nobody knows, where the vampire arrived from, but that don't matter anymore. At this point, the whole community is already infected and turned into vampires. The island is literally "dead". It will only be a matter of time, before the vampires will cross the borders of their home island, spreading the infection to the other islands. 

I need you to find this cursed island at far North, and destroy the vampire community living there, at once! There will be Throng of Vampire Lords, living next to a cursed chapel. Defeat them and then return to me for the grand reward of 40,000 Gold. Be hurry, before it's too late!

2. A signpost besides the island: Welcome to the Sunray Villa! Have a jolly great time. Be sure to visit the Chapel for some delicious muffins by father Greco. Read the Bible for free!

3. An event #1 (lower morale, boost luck): You're walking up the hill along the narrow path. There's ashes and dust covering the rocky ground, and along the whistling wind, you hear strange sinister sounds. The moon is almost buried by the high mountains surrounding your army. 

This village is haunted, for sure! Your receive a penalty of fear, lowering your morale, but get a bonus to luck caused by the adrenaline rush.

4. Vampire Lords encounter (quest target; the text): You approach the grim looking chapel, which walls are full of crackles. The sun is setting down. Suddenly, vampires start crawling out from behind every corner: "Welcome to our chapel mortals, you will make a great servants for us. It's time for you to feed our hunger." 

Father Greco... is that you?

5. Seer (quest completed): Ah, you have cleared the Cursed Chapel at the far North, and defeated the vampire community of the island. I heard that father Greco was amongst the defeated, and had taken the path on the dark side. 

Here, will you accept the promised 40,000 Gold as a reward?


Simple quest as that, but I think it's fun encounter  to a few these amongst the "faceless monster stacks".

I decided to make Knowledge improvements bit rarer on the map, compared to the rest, because it allows spell casters to cast powerful spells, but obviously be more careful with spending their usually infinite spell points in the combat... maybe. We'll see how this turns out. 

Adventure map locations, monsters, resources, and artifacts are still to go.

UPDATE 01.10 - A LOT has happened since the last update. Well, the map is basically ready. I have made a couple of test runs and found errors which I've corrected. The spelling isn't perfect, but I don't probably plan to polish it into perfection before the release - because I lack the actual skill to fix several very minor language issues.

By testing the map, it was far the best one I've made so far. Well, at least "Adventure Islands" turned out to be the most fun map to play for me on HOMMIII, for a long time. I think I've achieved that nice "random-y feel" with this map, but with a little bit of balance here and there. Also, the paths to explore aren't so railroad-y, but there is some freedom where to go and what to explore next - accompanied with the fact, that with every play-through the balance is different, and good artifacts can be found at different places. There are extra sources to spend troops and gold later on which will pay off, but it's always a trade-off (such as reaching Library of Enlightenments, which will cost money to enter each time, plus troops because of being heavily guarded).

The overall difficulty level varies (random), but monster stacks are mostly average at hardest - except with several hand-picked events which I felt really spice up the map. You may want that big gold reward of stat bonuses. Gold is especially handy for paying the bail bond to rescue few of those level 30 (max) heroes from the underground prison.

There are some major differences to a regular random map. First off, there are a few towns which you can upgrade with a fort, and many which you can't (thus no protective walls - less unit growth per week). It's a minor annoyance when recruiting units, because you cannot recruit them from the standard listing that clicking the fort, itself, a the town-screen shows - thus, you have to click each dwelling separately at the town-screen. So, obviously, cities with the forts are valued more than without the fort (creature growth rate, protection). This requires more tactics. Starting towns and nearest ones cannot provide upgraded units beyond level 4, but the further - harder-to-reach-ones can. The furthest towns, however, may be of different race (random) - and thus, your only choice is to reach Hill Fort (there are 7) to upgrade those precious high level creatures.

Even though I found this map fun to play this far, there are some issues. Obviously. CPU ain't the smartest one when playing an XL island map with many, many islands. First time I tried the map, it crashed without a reason. The map validator of the map editor says there are no issues, however. Every time after it has worked without problems.

My concerns currently regarding CPU AI:

Libraries of Enlightenments and Hill Forts are located beyond two chained "Events", of which the first one warns you that stepping further will cost you gold (to enter the Hill Fort), and the second event costs you gold. That's the only way with standard HOMM III map editor, that you can make these adventure map locations to cost extra gold each time you use them (assuming they are located at the dead ends, so that visitor will HAVE TO step over the two "Event" squares. They have to be set on "don't cancel after first visit" and "apply to computer", and thus, since the Hill Fort is located at the dead end, you step over them both times - entering and leaving the fort. Slight annoyance, as the same text-window pops up the both times, but there isn't any other way. I like the fact that they cost more gold than regularly. However, I'm a little bit scared of how HOMMIII CPU AI will react with them. Does it enter to upgrade the units or not?

On my few first play-tests it took ages before I saw CPU having upgraded LVL7 units. So my assumption is that they did enter the Hill Fort behind the two events, but at very late in the game. Now, obviously, upgrading at the Hill Fort is a major bonus on this map, so I can just hope that CPU does use the forts hidden behind the two money-costing "Events". Otherwise, CPU will be weaker than I'd like to.

There are also 2 Crystal Caverns hidden behind a Quest Guard and two money-costing events (hiring these is made VERY expensive!) in similar fashion. Now, I did see Crystal Dragons with one AI player, so CPU did enter it even, when entering is such complicated chain of events. Good.

The "island prisons", which hold those few precious level 30 heroes, are hidden behind complex chain of events to enter, as well. Now, I'm quite sure CPU doesn't know how to enter them - at least I've never seen CPU to do so. However, since the Hero Level is limited to 30, and the map is big - I don't think it's a game-breaker. Interesting to see, though, if I'm wrong, and see CPU to enter the prisons at some point.

The chain of events to enter the prisons to free up Level 30 heroes is this: 

1st Quest Guard (pay a lot of gold and resources to pass) -> Teleport (to the prison block) -> Event (give Bird Of Perception, which operates as the key to the 2nd Quest Guard) -> 2nd Quest Guard (requires Bird Of Perception to pass). 
Why so complicated, you ask? the 2nd Quest Guard is about "the choice". There's only one key per prison block, but each prison block has two prisons (and two Quest Guards, which require the key) - thus, you can only choose either, not both.

Can CPU handle this? I have no idea. Haven't seen them to do so this far.

Anyway, I'll be uploading this map to my map pack in the coming days, so anyone else can also play through the map. The map turned out to be a little more complex I initially intended to do, but this far, I like it quite a bit.

UPDATE 08.10 - I've done a rather big amount of tweaking on micro-level with the map, while play-testing it. I consider the map to be finished now. Added three (3) variations for the map: single-player, 2 teams, and 3 teams -versions. As the good news, I've also seen CPU AI being able to free one of the lvl 30 heroes out of the prison, and I've seen them with upgraded level 7 creatures, so I suppose they will be able to do the both things (visit hill forts, be able to to the multi-task -event to enter the prisons to free up high level heroes).

Seems all good to me. Visit the main map-pack page of Tane Norther's Heroes 3 map pack to download the newest version with "Adventure Islands", and have fun!

(Prison blocks 1-4, pay some gold to unlock one of two-to-three prison cells per block (will probably use "Bird of Perception" as a "key"), to free imprisoned high level hero (useful bargain later on at the game, when you need another high level hero quickly))

(Starting town (fully upgrade-able), and extra town of "same race": all dwellings of lvl 1-7 built ready, but cannot have fort (slower weekly unit growth rate, poor defense)

(Can you say "a volcanic eruption"? Little bit over-the-top with flashiness, perhaps, but I like it)

(Black ice..)

("Lunar Moon Inn", an encounter, or free recruits for the quickest, perhaps?)

(Waterway garrisons dividing each player's "core-areas"; hopefully they are blend in decently well)

(The more rich middle-island of the another of the layers)

(Just adding some small quest events. "Father Greco... is that you?")

(Some more goofing around with quests. Another of the gladiator quests. One of the rare places where it's easy to max out your luck until the next battle, but beware of the morale-lowering events...!)

In case anyone reads this, have fun! (moved from my other blog

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