[HOMM3:HD] Dragon's Prize

Sjonsson · July 29, 2015

Hello there Mapcore!

What and why?
Followed by the HD release of the classic Heroes of Might & Magic 3 came my desire for making a map for the game. Partially because it's fun to work with aged engines (dunno, I'm a masochist) and partially because I wanted to put my documenting and research skills to the test. HOMM3 is a game with a vast variety of spells, units and different mechanics that you have to keep in mind when designing maps and more problematic; the game is pretty unbalanced in certain ways on purpose. Everyone who have played any of the HOMM games know random factors such as the randomized items, mine types, resource pickups and more. What I want to do with my map is to create a somewhat symmetric map which gives the players prequisites that are likeworthy.

The first thing I decided to do was to actually learn more about the game as it was at least six year ago I played the game. So I sat down with a veteran friend of mine, played a couple of games, read guides - just to get a better grasp on the different strategies thare exist in the game, their dependencies and how they relate to other counter-strategies.

I compiled some of my findings in a document (currently work in progress) as a reference to keep in mind while designing the map, if anyone's interested here it is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gh12rYun0efbaJiCqKXdya674KSeePWfDhWx4wLhudI/edit?usp=sharing

Map Objective
I want to explore by making this map is creating an objective for the players to reach within the level that is not only about conquering castles and flagging mines which is usually the case in HOMM3 maps. To achieve this the map will be focused around a quest called Dragon’s Prize which each player can get hold of in their starting areas. In short this quest is all about getting a password to unlock a portal to the Dragon’s Den, beat a series of challenging guards and finally reach the final room where there are tons of gold accompanied with Dragon Dwellings. The first player who get’s there will be able to recruit a massive army of dragons and eventually defeat her/his enemies.

Mega Screenshot Overview (Early Layout)
It should be mentioned that the initial design of the map does look boringly symmetric and I plan on creating it symmetric at first and then distort it with visual variation but keep the boundries the same - leaving the gameplay intact.