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| John DiFool's thoughts on mapmaking |
| John DiFool has played a great many maps, and analysed something of what works and what doesn't - and, almost more importantly, why! |
| DragonSister@heroes.mycomport.com |
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Mapmaking for Strategy
For the veterans out there, much of the following will seem like old hat, but in many maps which I Download anymore I keep seeing the same things over and over. My main concern is with multiplayer battlemaps (usually played with 1-2 humans vs. any number of AIs) where strategy, not story, is predominant. The problem with making any map is: how to make it challenging for the expert player (without also making it hopeless for the newbie)? The AI of course is a simple soul, and in dealings with a good human player adjustments must be made to give the AI a fighting chance. So herewith are some things to do, and not to do, when balancing a map in this way: |
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Few/no External Dwellings
Do NOT provide a lot of external dwellings. Why? Because the human player will make much better use of these than the AI will. The human will make sure to send a gofer to each dwelling each week, and then skedaddle back to the main castle to upgrade them for the main hero. The AI will occasionally visit them, and usually the creatures stay on the secondary hero without being upgraded. Plus a good human player will flag the 5-7 level dwellings ASAP, while I have noticed the AI is incapable of making that a priority-and a flagged 7th level dwelling means a 50% increase in 7th-level critters in each friendly town... Over time this can be a huge edge for the human. This goes DOUBLE for the 8th level dragon dwellings. If you provide one of these for each faction, 5 weeks later the main human hero will have 5 Azure Dragons, while the AI's main hero might have ONE Crystal Dragon... |
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Provide secondary towns
By contrast, DO provide a goodly number of secondary towns (NOT random! Same as the main towns) if you want the AI to have extra critters. This is because expert players usually play on Impossible, and the AI (since it has more wood, ore, and gold) will hence get an early jump on building the Fort in such towns and acquiring more creatures. |
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Fewer artifacts
Do NOT have a ton of artifacts laying around. Why? Because as the game goes on the flow of artifacts will be one way, from the AIs to the human. A human, if he loses a crucial showdown between rival main heroes and his hero "abandons the cause", will either reload the save or just quit. Conversely, if he stays in the game it means he is winning and defeating enemy heroes for their artifacts. This means he will be significantly beefed up for later battles. If of course the final showdown is with a very tough AI hero then this is fine-just a warning... If playing with the Shadow of Death executable (or AB with the patch), this goes DOUBLE. Combo artifacts can really make or break the game, and the AI doesn't seem to realize that "Hmm Sandro over there has the Dead Man's Boots, while Thant has the Vampire's Cowl and Clavius the Amulet of the Undertaker-hey I can make a combo artifact!" The more artifacts you have laying around the greater chance of the human constructing one of these babies, and then game balance goes out the window. |
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Spells to avoid.
I probably don't need to caution about Dimension Door or Fly, but Town Portal bears a mention. This spell more than any other can make a good game suddenly dull. The AI doesn't usually use it to blink back into a threatened town like the human does. Plus un-defended cities are like truffles to a pig: the AI is incapable of marshaling its forces and instead will immediately start sending heroes after 'seemingly' open towns piecemeal. Well the human's uber-hero will just blink back and massacre them. Other spells to watch out for: View Air and Earth can spoil any surprises or ambushes you intended. The AI never uses Berzerk, but in the hands of a human it is devastating. The AI doesn't make spell schools the priority they should be, spending precious skills slots on the likes of Artillery, Mysticism, and Eagle Eye (this is because they will obsessively visit any and all Witch Huts, and if said Huts have crap skills in them you just crippled the AI's capacity to fight). Thus higher level spells where specialities greatly improve them can also be a problem (aforementioned Berzerk, also Clone, Prayer, Frenzy, Resurrection). A Ress spell will greatly cut down on human attrition (combined with Blind), thus increasing the relative strength of the human's forces over time. |
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External (non-creature) dwellings.
This provides a chance to even the scale with the AI, if you do it correctly. An "AI only" area (with a color guard gate) with lots of upgrade places can be a good idea. I already mentioned Witch Huts-avoid them unless you purposely choose the skill to be learned. |
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