Map Editor - Tricks

This is a list of tricks employed by Map creators to achieve some particular scripted outcome or to set up certain types of puzzles.

Inaccessible Towns

Towns can be placed with no route for heroes to access them. This is used to force a player to fight some "boss" hero instead of having the hero dismissed after a week without a town. Inaccessible towns can also be used to make the "or defeat all enemies" part of some victory conditions unattainable, so that the player has to complete the main objective.

Darkness

Necropolis towns are sometimes used as a map building tool by the Horn of the Abyss team. These towns are not accessible by the player. Since the Cover of Darkness resets map vision around them each day, it forces the player to solve movement-based map puzzles before moving to the next area.

Skyship Towns

Tower towns are sometimes used as a map building tool by the Horn of the Abyss team. These towns are not accessible by the player. Since the Skyship reveals the entire map to the AI, it allow the AI to think further ahead and increases the overall difficulty of the map.

Lightning Rod Damage Towns

Factory towns are sometimes used as a map building tool by the Horn of the Abyss team. These towns are not accessible by the player. Since the Lightning Rod damage stacks if multiples are present on the map, adding more of them makes the Lightning Rod damage more potent.

One-way passages

Prisons may be used to create one-way passages, as they can be interacted with only from one side. The same obviously applies to one-way Monoliths.

Seer's huts

Seer's Hut's may be used to create new artifact sets, as new creature upgrade facilities, trading posts apart from providing normal quests. For more information, see Map Editor - Guide - Seer's Hut quests