CRIMSON MOON
"Crimson Moon" is a part of the Custom Campaign Initiative. Check it out!
What is this?
"Crimson Moon" is a 10-mission campaign. It features high quality terrain, an engrossing storyline with a high amount of cut scenes, many memorable characters, and a varied set of mission scenarios. Mission objectives range from the familiar (bring a limited amount of units to a special location, destroy the enemy base, survival), to the more unique (stealth, investigation). The storyline has its fair share of twist and turns, so I will not reveal too much, except for a few details:
- You play as Terran.
- It all begins on a backwater mining world called Roverville, where a missing morning patrol set events in motion that will have dire consequences.
- You will visit several worlds, and a multitude of different tilesets is used.
- In some missions, you will find yourself in unusual environments, such as sewers, winter military bases, and even a multi-story transport vessel.
How to play
- Download the file on your computer, and unzip.
- The maps should be placed in a folder named "Crimson Moon" in the "Maps" folder. If the placement is wrong, the maps won't connect.
- No mod is required.
- When starting the campaign, use the mission launcher, which lets you choose which mission you want to play.
Missions
- Roverville
- Quarinius
- A Future Uncertain
- The Black Khan
- The Shortest Straw
- Veil of Frost
- Graveyard of Memories
- Assume the Position
- Perfect Soldiers
- Under a Crimson Moon
Music
In addition to using selections from Blizzard's excellent soundtrack for Wings of Liberty, I've also chosen some tracks from other soundtracks and albums. Some appear several times, but here they are, in the order they appear in the game:
- "The Leper Affinity" by Opeth, from "Blackwater Park".
- "Vats of Goo" by Mark Morgan, from "Fallout".
- "Rock Bottom" by Kiss, from "Dressed to Kill".
- "The Forsaken Cemetary" by Russell Brower, Derek Duke, Glenn Stafford, Neal Acree and Laurence Juber, from "Diablo 3".
- "Intermission III" by Norihiko Hibino, from "Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance".
- "Arsenal's Guts" by Norihiko Hibino and Harry Gregson-Williams, from "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty".
- "Morton" by Ennio Morricone, from "Once Upon a Time in the West".
- "Main Theme (MGS3 Version)" by Harry Gregson-Williams, from "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater".
- "Siberia" by Graeme Norgate, from "Timesplitters 2".
- "Rex's Lair" by Norihiko Hibino, from "Metal Gear Solid".
- "Mr. Roque/Betty's Theme" by Angelo Badalementi, from "Mulholland Drive".
- "Metal Gear Saga" by Harry Gregson-Williams, from "Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots".
- "Neo Tokyo" by Graeme Norgate, from "Timesplitters 2".
- "Virtuous Mission" by Harry Gregson-Williams/Norihiko Hibino, from "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater".
- "Wandering Flame" by Nobuo Uematsu, from "Final Fantasy X".
Shout-outs
Though the project is all mine, I've also been inspired by others, and I'd like to extend my thanks to the following:
- Tyneara and the rest of the Custom Campaign Initiative for helping build a campaign community.
- The creators of the SC1 remake campaigns, from where I found the inspiration to using custom music and making atmospheric intros.
- OneTwoSC, for his Youtube video of how to make a snow tileset.
- Terhonator, for his mission launcher.
- The guys over at the Map Art Thread on the Team Liquid forums, for much visual inspiration.
- Last, but certainly not least: everyone who plays the campaign, and everyone who gives constructive feedback!
Bugs
There are no known bugs at the time being, but some have a tendency to show up anyway. Most of these is of the kind that only require a restart to fix.
Screenshots
- 6 comments
- 6 comments
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- #6
EivindL Apr 25, 2013 at 12:15 UTC - 0 likesThank you for the feedback. Though I am naturally the ultimate decider of what goes on in the campaign, I do consider what people say (with Amber Sun, I even recruit testers who have provided many valuable tips). If I disagree, I ignore it, but I do try to leave something for everyone (mission 5 is actually a "destroy the enemy base"-style mission solely because I know some people prefer that).
Feedback on The Black Khan is two-sided, it seems. :D Some, like you, didn't like it that much, others did. I thought it was cool experiment, though on second try I would indeed have made it smaller.
Mission 8, Assume the Position, is indeed very hard. Gameplay-wise, it is a climax of sorts. I've considered toning down the difficulty a tiny bit, though.
Mission 10 was my attempt at following a recent TV trend, where all the big stuff happens in the penultimate episode (see The Sopranos and especially The Wire), and the finale is used for contemplation and stuff like that. I know some people don't like mission 10 being this calm, but I find it strangely fitting. It is almost like an epilogue. Mission 10 in Amber Sun will be intense, though (at least if everything goes as planned). Expect a multi-part boss fight!
Cinematic length: I hope to never have someone feel these are too long, but you can't please everyone. I guess an interesting one can never be long enough and a bad one not too short, and I try to adhere to that saying. Usually a cinematic is actually as short as it needs to be. There is often much information that needs to be conveyed. I do, however, personally like lenghty ones, though a 70-minute style cut scene ala the one that ends Metal Gear Solid 4 is perhaps not something you'll see in the near future.
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- #5
TopOpT Apr 24, 2013 at 21:42 UTC - 0 likesI finally finished the campaign. I thought it was a great custom campaign. The storyline was solid and engaging. The cutscences were a bit long at times though. I believe short and sweet cinematics keep the players attention better through out the game experience. I really liked the winter levels where you use stealth. They were well designed and fun to play. The level where you run around the ship exploring was too long. I lost interest soon as there was no fighting and you had to back track a lot over great distances. Level 8 was pretty hard. Grouping units and buildings together in the begining would have been better than having them spread out so much at first. I spent some time in the beginning just moving the screen around setting up hotkeys. I would have prefered to immediately start building units, buildings, ect... The last level where you have to guid the SCV's was neat. It was a cool idea. I think if you increased the difficulty of it and decreased the required amount of SCV's it would have been better. It was a cool level but as the last level I think you need something a little more EPIC with an awesome battle. Congratulations on a great campaign. It was enjoyable. Thank you for putting the time and effort into it. I'm going to DL the preview of your next campaign. I'm looking forward to its completion.
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- #4
Terhonator Feb 25, 2013 at 04:52 UTC - 0 likesReally good job EivindL! Best user made campaign at the moment.
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- #3
ild Jan 27, 2013 at 16:21 UTC - 0 likesReally enjoying the campaign thanks.
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- #2
EivindL Dec 03, 2012 at 23:15 UTC - 0 likesThanks, Tyneara. I'm glad you like it. Hopefully we can use the the CCU to create a community of campaign creators.
I appreciate that you are engaged by the story. There's a lot in store! I focus on creating a cinematic experience, with scenes and moments that you will remember in a similar way as when you watch movies.
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- #1
Tyneara Nov 27, 2012 at 03:14 UTC - 0 likesThis campaign is awesome from the start. I've only played the first mission, but the terrain alone made my jaw drop. To say nothing of a story that caught my eye and gave me a reason to explore. (wanted to help these poor miners by killing as many zerg as I could)