For symetrical 4v4 games.
No Fly/TP/DD/Graal/Treas/ManaVort/PortailSum
Sea and islands = relevant navigation
Various terrains = relevant pathfinding
No outside well/mage guild = relevant mystic/intell
Middle area fog of war = relevant scouting
Main details:
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Map name: Cadrabella
Map size: 144x144
Author: JC
Type: gameplay/balance/strategy [X----] look/story/atmosphere
Designed for: 4v4 games with a lot of strategy. The map is (almost) perfectly balanced since it is (almost perfectly) symetrical.
Version: 1.0.20
Status: fully tested
Average duration (to fully complete a game): 140-220 days (game time)
Introduction:
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All the castles of Might&Magic 3 are clashing together into this game:
They have gathered into 2 teams:
the good (Castle, Rampart, Tower and Dungeon) at the left side,
and the evil (Stronghold, Fortress, Necropolis and Inferno) at the right side.
(I do not consider the Conflux castle as a "real" MM3 castle: it is nothing more but a cheap add-on content with neutral units pieced together)
The map is designed for team games, with a spawn zone on the sides of the map and a warzone in the middle of the map.
The spawn zones are where the players begin the game and the warzone is this place that they have to control if they want to win the game.
The spawn zones only contain features such as the main castles, wood and iron mines, and minor monsters and loots.
The warzone contain the middle castles, mines and recruitment buildings.
It is necessary to control the warzone in order to control the map in order to have a chance to win the game:
the middle castles work as "fog of war centers", which are necessary to control in order to get proper map intelligence, and for additionnal income,
the mines are necessary for additionnal income (to provide materials to trade at the market to recruit the armies),
and the recruitment buildings are important as well to improve the castles population and to work as an additionnal 3rd castle to recruit the armies.
(all buildings are available for all castles from unit level 1 to unit level 7)
The recruitment buildings are also an option for getting reinforcements in case of stupid plague week and/or for extra troops when you can afford them.
There are also the keymasters to find, in order to free the 3rd main heroes.
All the monsters and loots are random:
Sometimes the monsters are dangerous, sometimes they are nearly harmless, sometimes the loot is junk, sometimes it is strategic over the whole game.
Find the best loots before the enemies.
Removed and added features
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Removed spells:
Town portal
Dimension Door
Fly
Water Walk
Summon Boat
Blind (not completely removed, but very seldom)
Scuttle Boat (not completely removed, but very seldom)
Elementals (not completely removed, but very seldom)
Removed Artefacts:
Angelic Wings
Boots of Levitation
Sea Captain's Hat
All the artefacts messing with the magic resistances and spell casting (Orb of Inhibition, Orb of Vulnerability etc, not the +% to magic res)
Removed map locations:
Teleporters
Magic wells
All the +1 primary skill buildings (Marletto tower, star axis...)
(Spells) shrines
All these features have been removed on purpose in order to make more sense out of the strategy side of the map and the game (I have the teleport/fly abilities, it ruins the game in my opinion)
Added:
All set artefacts (except Armor of the Damned and Admiral Hat)
All campaign heroes (available at the tavern)
The Plague week couldn't be removed: this event makes no sense to me, but I don't know how to remove/disable it.
The only way to mitigate the devastating effects of that completely random, unexpected, unearned, unpreventable event is to use the recruitment buildings in the middle warzone to recruit your armies.
Main castles and middle castles
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The main castles provide all the buildings to build (except mana vortex, treasury and Portail of Summoning).
The middle castles provide nothing more but the Shroud of Darkness control and basic extra income (+500 gold/day).
You can't recruit heroes in those middle castles, can't recruit armies, and can't defend them properly.
This is done on purpose: they are supposed to work as "fog of war points", not "real" castles.
The only way to defend them is to control the area. This is done on purpose.
The heroes can recover their spell points in the main castles only.
There is nowhere else on the map where they can recover their spell points. This is done on purpose, to push the players to maximize their heroes strategy/management.
Spells cannot be mindlessly spammed all over the place continuously, there is no magic wells and mage guilds on each screen of the map, the spell points of the heroes have to be managed with care.
There is one option though: the Wizard's well.
The only way to be able to fully recruit all your armies is to get additionnal main castles, in order to get more marketplaces to get more gold from trading the mine resources.
Main heroes and normal heroes
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The main heroes are heroes that are supplied at the beginning of the game:
All the castles have 1 might hero + 1 caster hero + 1 additionnal hero.
Their skills are preset. This is to make sure that they are exactly related with their types.
(meaning "that they won't end up with skills that may feel useless for their purposes)
If you don't like the preset skills, just drop the main heroes and recruit and train new ones.
The normal heroes are the normal heroes that can be recruited at the tavern.
There is an additionnal 3rd main hero to recruit, but it is necessary to get to the keymaster in order to free him or her.
Why 3 "main heroes"? Because they are required for this map.
It isn't possible to win the game with all your armies and skills and items focused on 1 single hero, unless you play against bad opponents:
You have to both explore/expand/flag mines/acquire artefacts, attack the enemies and disrupt their expansions and defend yourself and your allies at the same time. 3 main roles 3 main heroes.
There are learning stones all over the map.
Send your new heroes on "training trips" in order to review the learning stones around and get started with their roles.
Games with AI allies
-------------------
The AI plays the game very differently everytime.
Do not expect either your allies and your enemies to play the same way in your current game than what they did in your last game:
sometimes they play normally, sometimes they play smart and sneaky, sometimes they play plain dumb.
I don't know why. Maybe the map is too open for them, and they end up being endlessly tricked by or lost with the fog of war that is constantly regenerating from the middle castles.
In order to help your AI allies, consider:
1. giving them the resources they might need to build the last buildings of their castles, in order to help them unlocking their best monsters and spells,
2. "flag" the middle castles (by taking then), in order to disable the fog of war regeneration, and try to deny as much as possible the area to the enemies.
AI leeching
There may be "AI leechers": AI leechers are those AI ally heroes that do nothing else but taking all the resources in your area.
Sometimes the AI allies do not explore and expand and fight against the enemies as they should, they just linger into your areas and turn around your heroes.
That may be a problem because they may end up killing monsters and taking artefacts and mines and buildings that are important for you, such as:
1. artefacts related with combat, spell points regeneration, and population,
2. mines related with the main resource of your castle (necessary to recruit the 7th level units),
3. recruitment buildings related with your castle,
4. easy monsters good to boost the experience of new heroes who need to level up quickly.
It is especially annoying because the AI most of the time will not even use the artefacts and recruit the units.
In order to prevent that kind of problem, consider:
1. "locking" the path to those areas by leaving heroes at those points where only 1 hero can pass at a time (AKA choke points or gateways),
2. NOT engaging in battle against the map monsters if you do not have enough movement points to then get the loot behind them right away,
3. getting enough friends to play a whole game with no AI ally (good luck with that), or play the allies/other castles yourself.
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