8 player Multiplayer map. If you play vs AI set alliances in the editor for bigger challenge. The map can become very difficult when AIs are all banded together and have a good tactical day. You can also mark chosen starting towns as neutral to reduce the number of players with no negative consequences. DD, Spellbinders, and Orb of Inhibition banned.
TP & Fly available later, must be obtained in specific places.
This is my first map, so I apologize for potential derps/balance issues.
If you point them out, I'll fix them in a revision.
Author: Платон мне друг (Latvia), 23-05-2024 17:55 GOOD IDEA...USELESS UNDERGROUND - Surrea: {The Shift} Thx for map.Humans,48 days,3 navigators,Luna,Elmor,Aine and Kaitleen+2 towns on second day.I think that to make garrisons or colour tents for opps.No diplomats here.A lot of useless pandora boxes on water and extra mana.Mine Elmor with one unicorn collected thousands of gold.
Author: Akidson (Olsztyn, Poland), 24-02-2021 20:54 Like 10/10 - Surrea: {The Shift} Easily one of the best multiplayer maps I've ever played. Had a lot of fun playing it against 7 AIs. Gigantic map with lots of details and many interesting locations. It's among my favourite ones, along with Prismatic Greed and A New Day Tomorrow.
Author: onr (turkey), 27-12-2019 12:09 rofl - Surrea: {The Shift} nice looking map with good environment
some cons.
-boats not reachable when you build them
-big money issue vs ai as always.
-nearly no speeders(stables ect) in game
-not safe to leave main town
Author: Derr (Bucharest, Romania), 27-04-2018 15:30 Great looking map, little use of underground - Surrea: {The Shift} Hi there, I must say I share Mike's opinion on this one. I only expored the labirinth, accessible via northeast. The only way I would have managed to take a look to the whole thing was if I left an enemy alive whith troops at his door. My two cents: severely cut down on those guardians and/or force the players through the underground. May I suggest a single player map that does that brilliantly? It's called Astrogonia, a SoD XL map. While its fundamentally different in concept, it really takes you everywhere. Anyway, good job for the first map. Alot of time invested in it.
Author: Adrian (Bucharest, Romania), 23-04-2018 01:11 Like Cannot get access to certain places from underground - Surrea: {The Shift} I was not able to reach to Necropolis castles from underground.
I saw in map that there is a subterranean gate in the restricted area of one of Necropolis castle but there is no correspondence for it at surface. Is that a mistake on the map?
Echo writes:
23-04-2018 01:21
Necro towns - Surrea: {The Shift}
If you mean the Necropolis castles on the snowy swirls, you can reach them from the surface, but there's a catch. The map provides workarounds to the "problem". They are a special location of sorts.
Adian writes:
23-04-2018 12:45
Necropolis castles - Surrea: {The Shift}
Thank you for the quick response.
Green player manged to go there and captured the three Necropolis castles.
I cannot finish the map as I don't know how to get there. It's possible to be something simple but I did not find it.
Could you please explain me how to get there? From which portal, etc.?
Thank you!
Author: Magnus (Denmark), 11-04-2018 18:18 Great map - Surrea: {The Shift} I enjoyed playing the map, but I also didn't go underground untill I had defeated everyone execpt green, and then I began exploring underneath.
But I still like it, also because of the differnt ways of comming back to your towns without TP (untill I found it).
Echo writes:
23-04-2018 01:23
Underground - Surrea: {The Shift}
Yeah, I was making this map with multiplayer in mind, preferably people playing blind and exploring stuff :) Also, my first map, so balance of the Azure Dragons and what not is probably a bit off haha. I like to play slowly so for someone who goes fast it may be far too many dragons!
Author: sj (Chelyabynsk, Russia), 22-04-2017 16:19 Like Best map i ever played - Surrea: {The Shift} I agree that it is difficult to defend my cities, but I think this is a kind of interest. But after the entire upper world is captured, you can take your time and study the HoMM universe. And it is amazing!
I have never seen such a successful balance and rational submission of artifacts. 11/10
ps don't stop ;)
Author: Mike, 25-07-2016 20:22 Interesting but mostly wasted - Surrea: {The Shift} This was a fun map, but most of it is wasted. All of the towns are located in that small circle covering half of the above-ground area. You can easily gain control of the map without ever venturing underground, so all of the wonderful design down there is wasted. (It also appears that the portals that lead there are pretty well guarded by monsters you may not even be able to overcome).
The one-way and two-way portals make a nice challenge, and some towns can be easily defended while others are close to a one-way gate exit and are hard to hold. The size of the map and the amount of sea makes it difficult to explore some of the more unique areas of it. If you spend that time exploring, it's hard to also defend your towns.
Echo writes:
18-08-2016 14:05
Yep - Surrea: {The Shift}
Yes, vs AI alone the underground does end up being unnecessary. I made this thinking of human vs human skirmishes, but maybe one day I'll tinker around an alternative version that'd be more suitable for a solo player :)
The portals are guarded by 100 Azure Dragons, it didn't seem too much for a map this size, but it seems people are just breezing through and conquering the world with 1 month worth of army or so :D In such case they sure are a lot.
Author: asd, 26-06-2016 18:30 map comm - Surrea: {The Shift} this map sux, when I went undgnd for necro'es I realised, that there is no coming back, I got stucked there and i lost the will to play it further. Hate when this happens. It would be fine without this stupid undergrounds though.
Echo writes:
02-07-2016 02:01
The trap - Surrea: {The Shift}
Hey there, sorry you got stuck. There were warnings before that area, but I get that people might expect such warnings to be just 'flavor' and actually not true. I wanted to make the flavor spicier with the necro area and make being trapped there a real deal if a hero didn't heed the warning.
Of course it's possible to get out of there. If you went in without TP you need to obtain it and use a hero with scholar [available in the witch hut on the island right beside the portal] to deliver it to the trapped soul.
There's only one such place on the map since Summon Boat is available in every starting town in case someone got stranded on an island for some reason, but yeah, it was a conscious decision to go for a serious choice and consequence here. I understand some might not like it and I'm sorry if it got you frustrated. Hope the next map you play won't be this evil. Cheers.
Author: alex, 26-06-2016 10:47 Like Rating didn't go - Surrea: {The Shift} Rating didn't go, maybe it's broken but ill try rate again.
Author: alex, 26-06-2016 10:36 Fun map, but my buddy kicked my ass kappa - Surrea: {The Shift} Fun map, played with buddy, he didn't find my necro empire hehe. Was all the time whining where my army is he sees it in tavenr and can't kill it :D lost in the end he went underground first and found the horn and hidden cities cause i played bad and tho I got my necro army out on him by scholar hero, it was too late but I'll rematch him on this map next time and kick his ass hard. We liked the weird areas now we know where they are and we will chase for them probably or pick different ones idk but it's gonna be cool rematch!
Author: Standa (Prague), 19-06-2016 23:49 Very good map - Surrea: {The Shift} Hello Echo,
thank you for the map, it was a pleasure to play it. You are very talented if this your first map and even such a huge one.
I played it twice, for dwarves and warlocks. Challange is not very big for a bit experienced player, I suggest one vs. all allied as you state in description.
In both my playthroughs I did not go to the underground, it is not necessary and to get the good artifacts you need to defeat over 100 azures. AI has no chance to do this. I felt sorry for you that you worked on the underground and in my opinion it was pointless. I would put there some powerful necromancer who would break through to the above ground in time or something like that.
With warlock finished m4w2.
I look forward to seeing more from you!
Echo writes:
20-06-2016 00:37
Underground - Surrea: {The Shift}
Hey, thanks a lot for taking the time to give your feedback :) It's very nice to hear someone enjoyed the map.
Don't worry about not exploring the underground, that part was made 100% with the thought of multiplayer where you might need more power or want some fun ways to get an upper hand and surprise your opponent.
Aside of the "power areas" the events talk about, there are two hidden, a bit gimmicky places that could be fun [I hope] to find if someone's playing with a buddy, but without much reason to explore while playing VS AI since it's too easy anyway :)
Adding a very strong AI there would probably severely unbalance the map and factions (unless it was some sort of planned invasion with AI heroes storming all main towns), but that would eradicate all other AI players and I'm not convinced the challenge for single player would rise considerably anyway. All the actually difficult single player maps are made with SP in mind and are built in an entirely different way, gating off other zones and controlling the map rarely leaving it an open world which, I believe, for MP is the better choice :<
Perhaps adding events in towns that produce more creatures each week, but apply only to AI, could help a little (they already get resources), but I'm not sure about that. AI is generally not so great in H3 and can only provide a real challenge while being hand-held by a rigid map design.
Standa (Prague) writes:
26-06-2016 23:43
You are right - Surrea: {The Shift}
Thank for explanation :-)
Surrea: {The Shift} walkthrough
A vision of power to be had put an end to relative peace. Now each country begins an arms race to be the first to lay their hands on the untold riches lurking in the mysterious Shift.
Loosely based on the world from the novel New Amazing Nightmare.
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