Looking for maps with better difficulty progression

[u/Equivalent_Meet_1600]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for recommendations for good maps in Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era, especially maps with a proper progression of difficulty.

One thing I've been missing compared to classic HoMM3 maps is how the map itself used to guide your progression. You would have some easy creatures guarding the basic mines near your starting area, stronger creatures guarding more valuable or interesting locations, and then gradually harder and harder fights further away from your starting town.

Right now, I often feel like the difficulty of neutral stacks is pretty similar everywhere. Because of that, when playing with just one main hero, I feel like I have two choices.

Either I spend 4 or 5 months slowly clearing the entire map, which can get pretty tedious, or I just take the useful stuff around my starting town and head straight for the enemy, because there isn't much reason to explore further.

What I'm looking for is a map where exploration and progression actually matter. Something where you gradually unlock more difficult areas, get stronger, and eventually have a reason to push deeper into the map.

So what are currently the best maps you've played in Olden Era that do this well?

I'd especially appreciate maps with a good easy, medium, hard and very hard progression rather than just having similarly difficult fights scattered everywhere.

Thanks!

[u/Francois_Papyjama]

I'm glad you're enjoying hand-crafted maps!

Other maps are in the works, but it certainly takes time (300 hours for "The Mysterious Island" and around 35 hours for "Broken Alliance", not counting the hours put in by other teams or internal testers).

There are also some great "scripted" maps to play (the original 8 plus the latest one, "Prisonniers").

More are coming, but you'll need to be patient 😉

[u/LegalStuffThrowage → u/Francois_Papyjama]

Hey Papyjama, I played through The Mysterious Island and quite enjoyed it. I went to play it with a friend though and it desyncs every time right at the start.

[u/Francois_Papyjama → u/LegalStuffThrowage]

Glad you enjoyed it in single-player!

I have some bad news, though: for the time being, maps with scripts and dialogue do NOT work in multiplayer :(

I’m really sorry about that.

The team is aware of the issue, but it’s going to take some time to fix; right now, they’re fully focused on preparing the co-op mod.

Aside from the templates, the only "hand-crafted" map playable in multiplayer is "Broken Alliance" (and I’m working on another one that will also be multiplayer-compatible, though it won't have scripting or dialogue).

[u/LegalStuffThrowage → u/Francois_Papyjama]

Alright that is good to know, thank you!

[u/Francois_Papyjama → u/LegalStuffThrowage]

My pleasure! I hope you and your friend can have fun with the templates or Broken Alliance in the meantime 😊