Vumpalouska

The Dimensional Merge is near!

And now for something completely different...

I've always loved the classic Heroes of Might and Magic series of games. Recently, I had an inspiration for a lengthy story-based HoMM IV scenario and decided to use the Campaign Editor included in the game to realize it. And now the scenario, titled Apotheosis, has been finished.

The scenario is very loosely based on the fantasy world Tiera featured in some of my works. In the scenario, you'll have to face the ancient undead Archmage Jymm and put a stop to his plans to ascend to godhood at the expense of the surrounding lands. Along the way, you'll have the opportunity to expand your own territory from a single city-state to a genuine empire, commit an Elven genocide and discover some strange truths about the world you live in.

The scenario can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zyn6fDWK09X81RzCM8jAEAxn7I3CUohx/view

To install it, just put the file "Apotheosis.h4c" into the "maps" folder in your main Herores of Might and Magic install location, and the scenario should appear in the "Scenarios" section of the start menu.

There are sites dedicated to HoMM maps, but I haven't uploaded Apotheosis into any of them yet because I'm still unsure about the balancing of the scenario. I've finished it once (on the easiest difficulty) and found no issues, but I'd still like feedback on whether the scenario is too hard or too easy, if the sidequests are too well hidden, etc.

So, if there are any Heroes of Might and Magic IV players out there, feel free to give my scenario a try and share your thoughts about it. (Note that you need the full version of the game, including both expansions, to play the scenario, although that shouldn't be a problem - I don't think you can get the game in any other form these days.)

Last night, I had a dream where I existed in a universe on the verge of heat death. In fact, I was living in the last light of the very last star... It was both depressing and fascinating to know that when this last star went out, the universe would be completely dark forever. No new stars would form ever again, and the universe would continue to expand and cool down until nothing remained but an infinitely diffuse sea of lonely photons.

In the last light of this last star, I was desperately trying to build a Lego castle so that the dark universe would have at least some organized structures. But before I could finish the castle, the last star went out and it became pitch black.

And then, in the utter, eternal darkness, I accidentally knocked down one of the towers of the castle.

I woke up when I had started to consider ways to end my existence now that I had completed (and botched) my final purpose.

Welp. Looks like they just did.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/

So the Gallery deviations are now spread out to several different pages (like in old DeviantArt) instead of all simply being loaded into a single large scrolling page. I think this is very much a welcome change (for once). Individual pages, as opposed to a single large one, are much more browser friendly, and it's much easier to find a specific deviation, especially in larger galleries with thousands of submissions.

Do make this feature permanent :-)