MapTips
Program as you go.
There are a number of HOMM4 objects that need programming from the mapmaker. The 'battle debris' is one such; if nothing is set, it turns out to be 'just a trick of the light.' That's annoying for the player.
What's worse is if something like a Pandora's Box is left unprogrammed. In HOMM4 a Pandora's Box is little more than a placeholder for an event. If there is no event, then not only does the Pandora's box not do anything, but it will stay there - continuing to block the way!
When you place an event, pandora's box, or something else that *should* be customized, do the customization immediately. Don't leave it til later - you might forget to come back to it. And if you can't think of anything to put in, don't place it; place a tree or rock instead!
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Adjusting Map Difficulty
If you want a stonger computer opponent you can always let the computer have more creatures and dwellings, as well as giving the computer heroes more experience and skills.
There is also the possibility to adjust the scenario difficulty by asking the player in an event (usually day 1) whether they want that map to be hard or normal difficulty. For example, if the player wants a harder game, the difficulty event will set Hard (variable) to true. Now, in the computer opponent's town, will be a timed event in day 7 that has a condition: If Hard = True then construct
dwellings else do nothing. Also you can have more events than just one relying on the same variable making the map really hard.
This can be a really useful idea in multiplayer maps; when human players want to play against each other and not to lose against computer, they play without the dwelling boost, but in single-player games the AI boost means the map is still challenging.
--Thunder
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Release Wandering Neutrals
Timed release of neutral (or coloured) stacks may add interest to otherwise pacified lands. (If you want your released stacks to be able to take towns give them a hero.)
This can be done in various different ways:
1) blocking the stack behind the trees and then setting it free with a bomb on day 27.
2) block the creatures behind a quest gate that will require that it is the certain day of the week in order to the creature to pass.
3) Another one is by using a creature stack with limited
movement range to block neutrals with limitless movement range.
--Thunder
4) Stacks can be set to have zero patrol radius until something happens; this means the player can get to them, but they won't come after the player until they're released.
5) And why tie things only to a given date? The release of these creatures or heroes can be tied to the human player's completion of quests, which is good when your map may be being played by people of varying ability.
-- DragonSister
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Journal
This is mainly useful in story or roleplaying maps, so the game can keep a track of the various events occurred and to show them to the player when (s)he wants so. Use a timed event that will ask a question from the player so the player is not forced to read the same things over and over again. Also don't make it happen every day, as it can soon become annoying.
How to fill the journal then? This happens by using boolean true/false variables in events. For example (Placed Event): Display "Hero Gnubul picks a mushroom from the ground and eats it". Set Ate_Mushroom to True. When the timed event then occurs and the player wants to view the journal, it will trigger a custom event that has a condition: If Ate_Mushroom = True then (Display "I watched as Gnubul ate a mushroom!" Trigger Journal Page 2) else Trigger Journal Page 2.
This will ensure that if the event haven't yet happened it will not show the page and will show the next page regardless of the variable. --Thunder
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Scenery
Avoid vast empty areas. That should be a rule number one for map makers. There are plenty of objects to fill the map anyway. Another important thing is not to use the same objects over and over, like making whole forest by using a single tree. Avoid also large completely blocked areas in your map. If you have to use them because you have run out of ideas, it would be better that you make a smaller map.
If you want to make lots of hills by using the elevation tool, do not make vast swamps. --Thunder
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Handling the Creature Growth
If you want to keep certain stack of creatures from growing, use a continuous event that will take 9999 creatures and then give n number of creatures back. Make sure that you uncheck "Run only during owner's turn." in the case of neutrals. If you want to control creature growth by adding more creatures to the stack, the solution to that is a bit more complex affair. Use a continuous event that will have several conditional actions in a sequence.
For Example: If Current Day < 8 then take 9999 trolls from this army and give 9 trolls to this army. And the next one: If Current Day > 7 AND Current Day < 12 then take 9999 trolls from this army and give 12 trolls to this army. Third one: If Current Day > 11 then take 9999 trolls from this army and give 15 trolls to this army. --Thunder
Also note: Creature stacks that are not neutral do not necessarily grow - and assigning a monster stack for a quest to be the only creature of a given colour is a nice robust way to handle a quest. There are two hitches here; one, if any stack of a given colour can wander, other such stacks may be fed creatures from flagged dwellings via the wandering stack. Two, there are only six player colours available! --DragonSister
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Burned Down Structures and Trees
You can make an illusion of forest fire or a deserted village by hiding dead trees behind the living ones. And during the game you can make the forest fire happen by using the editor bombs. Same can be done for structures as well thanks to burned down houses. Use cool volcanic terrain if you want to make more ashy look. --Thunder
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Hidden Paths
Secret passages are easy to create by using either trees or mountains or other large objects to conceal. There can be a town, some creature dwellings, monsters, treasures and artifacts without the player ever noticing them behind the
thick wall of trees. As a map maker, you can possibly use editor bombs to blow away the concealing trees. Or you can give the player a hint like "Can you see the forest for the trees?". --Thunder
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Stack Growth Control
One thing that for some reason was left out from H4 was the checkbox "Quantity do not grow" for neutral monsters. There is often reasons for not wanting more colored stacks than necessary- not least if the stacks is supposed to be wandering and they shouldn't pick up resources placed on the map, and extra colored stacks slows down the game. The logical thing to do instead would be to set it up through some script- a timed event that triggers each day that sets the number by first taking all monsters and then adding up to the original number would probably be what most people would try at first. The only problem with that is that it's impossible to give or take creatures in such an event. There are two solutions to that problem- the first is to do the same "On Encounter". The problem with this is that the stack won't show the correct number on the adventure map.
The other way is to create a triggerable event for each stack, and create a normal timed event that calls all these triggerable events.
There is a small problem with this, and it is that the stacks seems to lose any artifacts it's carrying, but that's easily remedied with a script that gives these artifacts when the stack is defeated, which with great result can be combined with a nice message about how hard it was to defeat those monsters:)
Note: Stacks in a neutral garrison does also grow, and that's best prevented by setting that garrison to be owned by some color.
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Limiting the power of Thieves
1) The smallest, simplest, and most effective thing you can do is make the chokepoints joining different regions of the map one square wide; then thieves cannot sneak past the creature you place in that square. If this is all you do, then thieves will still be powerful, but probably about similar to other high-level heroes.
2) Ready access to more than one learning stone near starting towns may get Thieves over the initial 'Advanced Stealth' hump quickly and freely. These and other hero boosting sites should probably be guarded, and/or remote.
3) When guarding mapsites, it is good if the only path to flag the mapsite goes through the monster, just like in 1).
4) If a stack of mainly (say) L2 monsters includes 1 L3 monster, (or L1 monsters with one L2 look-out) then a) it is vastly harder for the thief to sneak up to them (they have to be much higher in level), and b) the stack is only a little harder to fight. Only hitch is c) the player has to right-click on the stack to realise b). However, if you do this routinely, the player'll figure it out pretty quickly, and thieves will have a hard time getting the stealth experience flowing.
5) A few ambushes slow a player's exploration down quite effectively. However, use these with care - a player won't like lots of senseless ambushes. Gentle foreshadowing is good - anything from "You hear someone sneeze." placed immediately before the ambush, to "Your friend tells you bandits and thieves roam the western mountains, ambushing unwary travellers." as a timed or placed event some time before the player reaches the 'western mountains'.
These tips paraphrased from a post by ArmageddonUnlimited, at Heroes Community.
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Editor: Palettes
**** New Pull-down Menu
Modify or create palettes. Yes, you heard correctly. Menu is:
Tools> Customize> Object Palettes
*** Change Order:
Text box on left: Select one of the four groups. Then in right text box, move palettes up or down.
*** Create new palette:
See four buttons in a row above the "Palettes" text box? Click the one farthest to the left, which looks like a rectangle made from dotted lines. Now name your new palette.
Add objects: Double-click on the palette's name. An alphabetical listing for all objects and decorations (even ones that don't exist yet) appears. Use <page up> or <page down> to aid scrolling. To add, double-click.
*** Add/remove objects: shortcuts
You can also use mouse and keyboard shortcuts while viewing the map. To add, select and drag object onto palette (This controls location and allows it to appear twice, if desired.). To remove, select object on menu and press <delete>.
**** Object list
Accessible through Tools menu (see "Create new palette" above). All objects listed by type, even those the game designers did not want you to find (i.e., certain relics). It's a very long list, but also well organized. For example, "artifacts.amulet.Collar of Misfortune" is actually "The Fizbin of Misfortune" [Editor note: Ackkkk! It's baaaaaack!]
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Editor: Quick keystrokes
Like most windows programs, Heroes-III map editor included the DOS keystrokes <ctrl-X>, <ctrl-C> and <ctrl-V>. This allowed you to cut, copy and paste any object or text (I define "object" as anything that can be mouse-dragged.). You could also right-click to see descriptions. Heroes-IV lacks some of these features, but adds several new ones:
*** Text
Keyboard commands <ctrl-X>, <ctrl-C> and <ctrl-V> work normally.
*** Object: Copy
Keyboard command(s): Nothing.
*NOTE: The button bar (above map display) has standard windows icons for cut, copy and paste - but they are greyed out. Apparantly these features were intended; expect them in an early patch.
Use Mouse. Left click (to select), then <ctrl-drag>: Pulls duplicate from original; release button to place.
*** Object: Identify
Right-click on palette: Nothing.
Resting curser over object: Reveals title.
*** Object: Edit
Right Click: Nothing.
Left click (to select), then right click: Properties/ Delete menu.
Thanks to the mapmakers who brought these features to everyone's attention on "The Quill".
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Events
**** Monster ambush
Victorious/defeated is not related to the army that attacks, it is from the monster/heroВ's point of view.
=Malta=
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Single player
**** Balance from Day 1
A common mistake for novice mapmakers (and veterans, come to that! At least before they start playtesting ...) is being too generous to the human player. If you give the human extra resources, extra creatures, extra towns, you have to beef up the opposition to match - this means both the AI and the wandering stacks that the human will meet. A standard low-level random stack is fine for guarding mines when the human starts with only a handful of low-level creatures - but give the human even a single high-level creature and the situation changes dramatically. A single green dragon can take out up to 170 imps in one fight, if they're split amongst enough stacks and the terrain is favourable. A standard stack of 20-40 imps is trivial by comparison.
The underlying problem is usually one of game-theory. When you have developed a large force, and a mighty hero, and started carving through the AI like a hot knife through warm butter, one often enjoys a feeling of achievement. But this is because you have *earned* the power; not simply because you have it. If you were simply handed everything on a platter, then it doesn't take any skill or effort to win, and you can't take much pride in your success!
I'm not talking about huge boosts of fifty titans here, either. A force which is merely 'useful' in mid or late game is usually overpowering if available in the early game. Monster stacks haven't had time to grow. Your opponent hasn't had time to develop - and you can carve your way straight to him.
Similarly, if you want a hero to have a given skill, you don't need to give them the skill at expert level. Basic level will usually suffice - then the player can develop the skill themselves! In fact, basic level is often preferable, especially if you may be offering the player other skills later - it means they're less likely to fill all available skill slots before reaching your later events or witch huts.
In general, rewards should be earned - and sometimes delayed gratification is even sweeter!
You *can* provide starting forces of fifty titans if you really want to. You just have to do it right - if you're going to change the starting conditions in the game, you need to change the rest of the game to match! (grin) This is often called 'play-testing' ...
=Dragonsister=
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Beefing up the AI with events
One of the ongoing challenges for mapmakers is ramping - keeping the difficulty level in step with the player's skill. Events are really useful for this. If you have an AI-only colour, you can set town-based events granting extra resources, extra creatures, even building up the AI's town for you. And you can set placed events to give the AI experience, creatures, resources, and - usefully - stat-points. Like a Pandora's box, but invisible.
The advantage of using events rather than dwellings, mapsites, or artifacts to boost the AI, is that when the human player conquers that AI player, they will not get the benefits themselves. This means that they aren't vastly tougher when they face the next AI. And you did need to boost that first AI player, because a hero with starting stats is no match for a hero with a +10 advantage in all stats - even if the armies *do* match.
In Shadow of Death (and hopefully in H4) events may truly be 'computer only', not just 'human only' or 'colour only' - enabling you to boost the AI in a Human-or-computer position, without giving any humans the same advantage.
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Landing spaces
Many maps involve a certain amount of boat travel. Often, especially in story maps, there's only one square on which the player can land to reach a certain island or something. Most mapmakers already know that a hero cannot land on an event, monster stack, item of treasure, or any visitable mapsite. What is often forgotten is that monster stacks may appear on that square as a result of a 'month of the creature' - and being unable to land in that spot may make the map unwinnable! Since the placement of 'month of' stacks is beyond the mapmaker's control, the best way of defending against this possibility is to provide at least two squares for a hero to land on, wherever you provide even one.
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Maps should be playtested
It doesn't matter what version of Heroes you're dealing with; you still need to play the map through several times yourself, and to get someone else to play it; someone else may spot many things you hadn't thought of.
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