Great experience binge playing these 3 missions. Was expecting a micro-mission at the end of map 6, but eh, oh well. Overall, Blizzard doesn't disappoint.
Whoever does their art, doodads and tilesets deserves a raise. Always overdelivering. Those tourism doodads?! Shenanigans.
Also those dreamy, Night Elf-y purple forest doodads will definitely be of use.
As far as the programming behind the missions, once again Blizzard opts for "create these 40 units via trigger and throw them at the player" rather than setting up an enemy base. Call me old-school, but I like the feeling of destroying the enemies factories and having it mean something. The closer I looked the more shortcuts I found: spore crawlers created out of thin air, swarms of corrupters flying in from off-screen. Also there's parts of map 2 where the terrain just wasn't done at all, albeit the area is usually under creep.
The upgrade panel was interesting to use. Was fun experimenting with different ideas. I found fast-siege liberators and regen goliaths to be my bread and butter.
Nova had some cool loadouts as well. Some weapons and equipment are much better on some levels compared to others. I also found an interesting bug: on the last mission, if you load Nova's Holo Copy into the subway station and wait for the duration to expire, then unload the Holo, the unit now has infinite duration. I created a shotgun load-out Nova and had a pretty mean hit squad of 15 or so Novas by the end of the game!
I also found an interesting bug: on the last mission, if you load Nova's Holo Copy into the subway station and wait for the duration to expire, then unload the Holo, the unit now has infinite duration. I created a shotgun load-out Nova and had a pretty mean hit squad of 15 or so Novas by the end of the game!
That's the case in all maps with campaign-specific temporary-units I think. Normally, you're not supposed to be able to load temporary units into transports but with campaign units, you can. That's why Heart of the Swarm didn't have Drop Overlords and Nydus Worms since Roachlings and mini-Banelings are a thing in that campaign and there aren't any restrictions on loading them into transports.
No new units, mobs-grinding missions, poor story development, no new units/effects/assets, too short.
Pack 1 didn't have any new units as well. I haven't played SC2 in multiplayer since Wings of Liberty, so playing with Liberators and HERCs (wait, that's new?!) definitely felt new.
This pack took me slightly longer to complete than pack1, so I'm satisfied. As story goes, I can see they put a lot of effort into cinematics but it can never shake of this feeling of being just a DLC, where we know that at the end of the day, not much will have changed.
I'm pretty sure there are new assets. I have never see those baneling-like infested civilians on Map 5.
well, if you ever applied to a Blizzard's vacancies you won't be talking bad of anything they release right? But i just express my honest opinion. Pack 1 contained a lot more new assets for nova abilities and weapons, had great chasing sequence on a vulture bikes (fun and fresh gameplay in sc), Stealth infiltration missions, etc.
I just compared overal effort and quality of 1 and 2. 2nd is much worse in my opinion. The 1st mission just plays out for itself most of time, while i can be afk.
Yes there are plenty of new doodad assets but thats it.
Story and storytelling: From pack 1 I could see so much in common with Rebell Yell, a feeling that pack 2 maintained, that I'm expecting Nova to be left behind in the middle of a zerg invasion by the last mission of pack 3. If she gets infested to be a new queen of blades I won't be surprised. But then again the whole SC2 story arc was shit hitting the fan in my opinion, so.... yeah whatever, just give me gimmicky missions.
Campaign UI and overall appearance: There's no way to deny that this DLC craps on the head the expansions and specially Wings of Liberty in terms of UI graphics. Mission briefings and Nova/unit upgrades selection are all out of this world. Some of the missions have amazing terrain too. I still don't get why Nova's portrait is so bad or her unit sounds are just her WoL sounds with adjusted pitch.
New assets: We are always hungry for new units, we did not get many of them. But we got a few, like infested siege tanks (that I'm already adding to my mod) and they come "complete", with portraits, death animations, and all that. We also got some unfinished units improved from what I've seen (our old "Fatty" is an example). AND, we can always use the assets to create more, for example I didn't find a unit model for that Jarban Minor beast and I'm willing to make one out of the doodads or the structure that holds them.
Be sure to check out the extension mod: Hots Custom Map support on NA and EU, Despite the name it greatly expands the roster of options for the default 3 races and is updated all the way to NCO.
well, if you ever applied to a Blizzard's vacancies you won't be talking bad of anything they release right? But i just express my honest opinion. Pack 1 contained a lot more new assets for nova abilities and weapons, had great chasing sequence on a vulture bikes (fun and fresh gameplay in sc), Stealth infiltration missions, etc.
I just compared overal effort and quality of 1 and 2. 2nd is much worse in my opinion. The 1st mission just plays out for itself most of time, while i can be afk.
Yes there are plenty of new doodad assets but thats it.
I wouldn't be applying if I wasn't a fanboy :)
The thing is, in my mind I don't seperate between packs 1, 2, or 3. They are all part of one larger pack. That way it makes sense for me to see most of the new stuff in the first pack. I was surprised to see 3 more new tilesets (yes, in some way they are just recolors of existing tilesets). I was a bit dissapointed in the lack of unique mission design (like stealth and Vulture chase), but I can also see that its still an RTS, so it has to have base-building in most missions. Bugs were also an issue this time: Couldn't build any Banshees or Goliaths in Mission 4 (apparently you have to load a save from Mission 3 and continue from there).
Quote:
The 1st mission just plays out for itself most of time, while i can be afk.
I'll keep this to a minimum, so I have a lot to talk about when MP3 is released.
- The assets are gorgeous as always. In special, props for the guys whom made the cliff doodad buildings for the first mission, reminded a lot of SCBW wasteland buildings. Also, infested banshee and siege tank portraits. :D
- The story was... ok. The culprit could be seen in a planet afar, sure, but I wanna see how it ends. Also, against SoulFincher, very unlikely they'd run the same gag twice. Very good and unexpected cameo, BTW.
- Only unbalanced 'tech' so far was giving railguns to Marines, AND still having bunker stim pack when there's no stim pack for marines. Liked making the Raven a medic-spawner.
- Biggest complaint is the mastery achievements, especially the first mission. The timer for mothership charge could use a bit of a slow-down and an interval before starting to recharge.
- Good gameplay twists, like choosing what enemy unit types to neutralize and mixing Welcome to the Jungle with Outbreak. The first mission needed more time and work though... :p
The broken units on map 5 (goliaths and banshees) was a HUGE mistake on Blizzard's part. I was under the impression you just couldn't build them and you just got a select few as a jump-start into the mission. Switched the starport tech lab to the Factory at the start of the mission. Really dismayed and surprised that they dropped the ball there.
- Only unbalanced 'tech' so far was giving railguns to Marines, AND still having bunker stim pack when there's no stim pack for marines. Liked making the Raven a medic-spawner.
- Biggest complaint is the mastery achievements, especially the first mission. The timer for mothership charge could use a bit of a slow-down and an interval before starting to recharge.
1) The Stimpack ability on the bunker doesn't actually give the marines stimpack. It does a redirect, so when it is used, it issues an order to all units within. So if the unit within doesn't have it, it won't do anything. They left it on the bunker for this reason, plus with aliasing, it means it gets sent to whatever unit has stimpack (marauders). Plus, unless I forgot something, the marines come with stimpack built in, they just can get the super one that heals instead of hurts.
2) Slight spoiler/tip. You can build multiple ghost academies and queue up multiple nukes. So the apparent strat is to have 5-7 nukes so you can chain nuke/push down each generator, allowing quick reset of the mothership.
Be sure to check out the extension mod: Hots Custom Map support on NA and EU, Despite the name it greatly expands the roster of options for the default 3 races and is updated all the way to NCO.
Bummer on Blizz dropping the ball on the Banshees and Goliaths. I ended up starting from Mission 1 so I didn't run into those problems. I've only played Mission 4, but I thought it was awesome!! I'm sure the QA team is getting chewed out right now.
I played it on Brutal and had to restart a few times. I started spamming nukes and phew that helped out a lot! Still wasn't able to get the fleet beacon, but I will be playing again someday soon. Gameplay was good I thought. It had enough build a base/destroy your enemy feel to it, but I felt pressure to get the job done...which I always appreciate.
Terrain is well-done. Goliaths and Banshees look awesome. The Viking pilot cinematic was good, but holy shit the cinematic at the end of the mission was spectacular!!!!!!!!!!! I love that special guy. Also, I didn't realize you could move the briefing map around and see al the little bits of lore until this mission. That is a very nice touch by Blizz.
Also, I didn't realize you could move the briefing map around and see al the little bits of lore until this mission. That is a very nice touch by Blizz.
This is more then a nice touch, it is a new property for all UI frames, you can make any UI element draggable. You then can make another frame to serve as the restricted area for movement, but the default allows you to move the element anywhere.
"As far as the programming behind the missions, once again Blizzard opts for "create these 40 units via trigger and throw them at the player" rather than setting up an enemy base. Call me old-school, but I like the feeling of destroying the enemies factories and having it mean something. The closer I looked the more shortcuts I found: spore crawlers created out of thin air, swarms of corrupters flying in from off-screen. Also there's parts of map 2 where the terrain just wasn't done at all, albeit the area is usually under creep."
I hate that so much, I really wished they'd stop doing that and just plop down a tough to destroy base
It's also obvious with that second part that they forgot to turn creep off in the editor and didn't bother terraning.
"Last time people were super pissed that there wasn't any build a base and destroy the enemy's base. Blizz just can't win!!!"
? I'm still complaining about that.
I'd much rather have 10 B/D missions than 10 goofy non-RTS rail sections.
Just finished Mission 5. That was a fun mission!! Welcome to the Jungle and Outbreak combined with mini-boss fights in-between...what else can a nerd ask for.
The griffin swooping in for the terrazine was a nice touch. Terrain was well-done, but the loading screen for that mission was salivating. I am very impressed with these missions. I like how each terrazine site got progressively more and more difficult to hold. The toss attacks were pretty weak and easy to hold off or intercept. I was banking mad minerals and gas, but by the end had almost none...so I must of been losing a lot of units and not realizing it!! The whale things were a nice touch. I really took my time on this mission...like 50 minutes...was having so much fun with the liberators...such a cool unit!!
Spoilers ahead.
Great experience binge playing these 3 missions. Was expecting a micro-mission at the end of map 6, but eh, oh well. Overall, Blizzard doesn't disappoint.
Whoever does their art, doodads and tilesets deserves a raise. Always overdelivering. Those tourism doodads?! Shenanigans.
Also those dreamy, Night Elf-y purple forest doodads will definitely be of use.
As far as the programming behind the missions, once again Blizzard opts for "create these 40 units via trigger and throw them at the player" rather than setting up an enemy base. Call me old-school, but I like the feeling of destroying the enemies factories and having it mean something. The closer I looked the more shortcuts I found: spore crawlers created out of thin air, swarms of corrupters flying in from off-screen. Also there's parts of map 2 where the terrain just wasn't done at all, albeit the area is usually under creep.
The upgrade panel was interesting to use. Was fun experimenting with different ideas. I found fast-siege liberators and regen goliaths to be my bread and butter.
Nova had some cool loadouts as well. Some weapons and equipment are much better on some levels compared to others. I also found an interesting bug: on the last mission, if you load Nova's Holo Copy into the subway station and wait for the duration to expire, then unload the Holo, the unit now has infinite duration. I created a shotgun load-out Nova and had a pretty mean hit squad of 15 or so Novas by the end of the game!
What did you think?
<Click Here> To See My Epic Single Player Campaign (LifeForceCampaign.com)
i think that pack suck ass
No new units, mobs-grinding missions, poor story development, no new units/effects/assets, too short.
@Bilxor: Go
That's the case in all maps with campaign-specific temporary-units I think. Normally, you're not supposed to be able to load temporary units into transports but with campaign units, you can. That's why Heart of the Swarm didn't have Drop Overlords and Nydus Worms since Roachlings and mini-Banelings are a thing in that campaign and there aren't any restrictions on loading them into transports.
Pack 1 didn't have any new units as well. I haven't played SC2 in multiplayer since Wings of Liberty, so playing with Liberators and HERCs (wait, that's new?!) definitely felt new.
This pack took me slightly longer to complete than pack1, so I'm satisfied. As story goes, I can see they put a lot of effort into cinematics but it can never shake of this feeling of being just a DLC, where we know that at the end of the day, not much will have changed.
I'm pretty sure there are new assets. I have never see those baneling-like infested civilians on Map 5.
@OutsiderXE: Go
well, if you ever applied to a Blizzard's vacancies you won't be talking bad of anything they release right? But i just express my honest opinion. Pack 1 contained a lot more new assets for nova abilities and weapons, had great chasing sequence on a vulture bikes (fun and fresh gameplay in sc), Stealth infiltration missions, etc.
I just compared overal effort and quality of 1 and 2. 2nd is much worse in my opinion. The 1st mission just plays out for itself most of time, while i can be afk.
Yes there are plenty of new doodad assets but thats it.
So guys, what's your opinion of story and storytelling/character dialogs in this DLC?
Last time people were super pissed that there wasn't any build a base and destroy the enemy's base. Blizz just can't win!!!
Story and storytelling: From pack 1 I could see so much in common with Rebell Yell, a feeling that pack 2 maintained, that I'm expecting Nova to be left behind in the middle of a zerg invasion by the last mission of pack 3. If she gets infested to be a new queen of blades I won't be surprised. But then again the whole SC2 story arc was shit hitting the fan in my opinion, so.... yeah whatever, just give me gimmicky missions.
Campaign UI and overall appearance: There's no way to deny that this DLC craps on the head the expansions and specially Wings of Liberty in terms of UI graphics. Mission briefings and Nova/unit upgrades selection are all out of this world. Some of the missions have amazing terrain too. I still don't get why Nova's portrait is so bad or her unit sounds are just her WoL sounds with adjusted pitch.
New assets: We are always hungry for new units, we did not get many of them. But we got a few, like infested siege tanks (that I'm already adding to my mod) and they come "complete", with portraits, death animations, and all that. We also got some unfinished units improved from what I've seen (our old "Fatty" is an example). AND, we can always use the assets to create more, for example I didn't find a unit model for that Jarban Minor beast and I'm willing to make one out of the doodads or the structure that holds them.
@SoulFilcher: Go
There is a unit model and portrait for the space whale, it has a weird name though.
http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/nolanstars-textures/
Be sure to check out the extension mod: Hots Custom Map support on NA and EU, Despite the name it greatly expands the roster of options for the default 3 races and is updated all the way to NCO.
I wouldn't be applying if I wasn't a fanboy :)
The thing is, in my mind I don't seperate between packs 1, 2, or 3. They are all part of one larger pack. That way it makes sense for me to see most of the new stuff in the first pack. I was surprised to see 3 more new tilesets (yes, in some way they are just recolors of existing tilesets). I was a bit dissapointed in the lack of unique mission design (like stealth and Vulture chase), but I can also see that its still an RTS, so it has to have base-building in most missions. Bugs were also an issue this time: Couldn't build any Banshees or Goliaths in Mission 4 (apparently you have to load a save from Mission 3 and continue from there).
What do you mean?
I'll keep this to a minimum, so I have a lot to talk about when MP3 is released.
- The assets are gorgeous as always. In special, props for the guys whom made the cliff doodad buildings for the first mission, reminded a lot of SCBW wasteland buildings. Also, infested banshee and siege tank portraits. :D
- The story was... ok. The culprit could be seen in a planet afar, sure, but I wanna see how it ends. Also, against SoulFincher, very unlikely they'd run the same gag twice. Very good and unexpected cameo, BTW.
- Only unbalanced 'tech' so far was giving railguns to Marines, AND still having bunker stim pack when there's no stim pack for marines. Liked making the Raven a medic-spawner.
- Biggest complaint is the mastery achievements, especially the first mission. The timer for mothership charge could use a bit of a slow-down and an interval before starting to recharge.
- Good gameplay twists, like choosing what enemy unit types to neutralize and mixing Welcome to the Jungle with Outbreak. The first mission needed more time and work though... :p
The missions ran together for me
Mission 4: Mass marines, kill stuff, rinse repeat.
Mission 5: Mass liberator/permacloaked banshees, kill stuff while defending, rinse repeat
Mission 6: Mass nova holos, nuke the spawn structures, kill everything, rinse repeat
Overall the level design was interesting but like you said, with them spawning units through triggers it just made attacking the bases pointless.
I did like the new model assets though, and having liberators and HERCs was nice since I've never played multiplayer.
Still alive and kicking, just busy.
My guide to the trigger editor (still a work in progress)
@willuwontu: Go
The broken units on map 5 (goliaths and banshees) was a HUGE mistake on Blizzard's part. I was under the impression you just couldn't build them and you just got a select few as a jump-start into the mission. Switched the starport tech lab to the Factory at the start of the mission. Really dismayed and surprised that they dropped the ball there.
<Click Here> To See My Epic Single Player Campaign (LifeForceCampaign.com)
1) The Stimpack ability on the bunker doesn't actually give the marines stimpack. It does a redirect, so when it is used, it issues an order to all units within. So if the unit within doesn't have it, it won't do anything. They left it on the bunker for this reason, plus with aliasing, it means it gets sent to whatever unit has stimpack (marauders). Plus, unless I forgot something, the marines come with stimpack built in, they just can get the super one that heals instead of hurts.
2) Slight spoiler/tip. You can build multiple ghost academies and queue up multiple nukes. So the apparent strat is to have 5-7 nukes so you can chain nuke/push down each generator, allowing quick reset of the mothership.
Honestly I'm happy they fixed the HERC grapple ability...
http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/nolanstars-textures/
Be sure to check out the extension mod: Hots Custom Map support on NA and EU, Despite the name it greatly expands the roster of options for the default 3 races and is updated all the way to NCO.
Bummer on Blizz dropping the ball on the Banshees and Goliaths. I ended up starting from Mission 1 so I didn't run into those problems. I've only played Mission 4, but I thought it was awesome!! I'm sure the QA team is getting chewed out right now.
I played it on Brutal and had to restart a few times. I started spamming nukes and phew that helped out a lot! Still wasn't able to get the fleet beacon, but I will be playing again someday soon. Gameplay was good I thought. It had enough build a base/destroy your enemy feel to it, but I felt pressure to get the job done...which I always appreciate.
Terrain is well-done. Goliaths and Banshees look awesome. The Viking pilot cinematic was good, but holy shit the cinematic at the end of the mission was spectacular!!!!!!!!!!! I love that special guy. Also, I didn't realize you could move the briefing map around and see al the little bits of lore until this mission. That is a very nice touch by Blizz.
I am looking forward to mission 5 tomorrow.
This is more then a nice touch, it is a new property for all UI frames, you can make any UI element draggable. You then can make another frame to serve as the restricted area for movement, but the default allows you to move the element anywhere.
"As far as the programming behind the missions, once again Blizzard opts for "create these 40 units via trigger and throw them at the player" rather than setting up an enemy base. Call me old-school, but I like the feeling of destroying the enemies factories and having it mean something. The closer I looked the more shortcuts I found: spore crawlers created out of thin air, swarms of corrupters flying in from off-screen. Also there's parts of map 2 where the terrain just wasn't done at all, albeit the area is usually under creep."
I hate that so much, I really wished they'd stop doing that and just plop down a tough to destroy base
It's also obvious with that second part that they forgot to turn creep off in the editor and didn't bother terraning.
"Last time people were super pissed that there wasn't any build a base and destroy the enemy's base. Blizz just can't win!!!"
? I'm still complaining about that.
I'd much rather have 10 B/D missions than 10 goofy non-RTS rail sections.
Just finished Mission 5. That was a fun mission!! Welcome to the Jungle and Outbreak combined with mini-boss fights in-between...what else can a nerd ask for.
The griffin swooping in for the terrazine was a nice touch. Terrain was well-done, but the loading screen for that mission was salivating. I am very impressed with these missions. I like how each terrazine site got progressively more and more difficult to hold. The toss attacks were pretty weak and easy to hold off or intercept. I was banking mad minerals and gas, but by the end had almost none...so I must of been losing a lot of units and not realizing it!! The whale things were a nice touch. I really took my time on this mission...like 50 minutes...was having so much fun with the liberators...such a cool unit!!
Can't wait to play the next mission!!
Defenders of Man have taken over the Sc2 facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/StarCraft