SC2Mapster

I´ve released the first maps in the prolog for Darkness Rises Campaign. They are in Beta and I would really appreciate testing and feedback.

If you can´t find the maps yet they are under assessment by the moderators and will hopefully be available soon.

The project can be found here: Darkness Rises

Conratz on the Prologue !

Good to see people still making custom campaign.

In reply to hultmanable:

 The link has a error, hult.

In reply to vastanx:

 
still waiting for approval, I believe that is the reason, the link isn’t working yet. 

Seems hard to get anything approved here now days. I hope it will be up soon

At last the project is up

The waves are too much hult. In this attack, the enemy comes with 3 siege tanks + marines + medics + marauders + hellbats

In reply to vastanx:

 Thanks for the feedback, I Will look in to ut right away!

Seems interesting from the map page. I'll give this a shot within the coming days and hopefully have some useful feedback for you!

In reply to dudkisc2:

 
thanks! Looking forward to it

Hey, tried the the tutorial and the first mission so far. Really enjoyed them! Here’s my first impressions/suggestions etc. I suppose let’s start with the tutorial.

Darkness Rises Tutorial Feedback:

Good terraining. Even though it’s a small map purely meant for teaching the player about stuff, you added in some nice visuals to it as well which was appreciated.

Good idea to include a tutorial for a custom race. Allowed me to get a good grasp of its mechanics. And I found the concept of the faction really cool, but then It turned out that I wouldn’t even get to use it more, since we play as Protoss in the first mission, which I found interesting. I assume we get to play as this modified Terran at some point?

Now keep in mind, when I playtest things, I’m a sucker for the minor details that really immerse the player in the experience. So a lot of my notes here are gonna be purely nitpicking. Nevertheless, I thought I’d mention what i did notice:

Other notes:
- Workers do not have a repair animation. They just stand idle. I’m not sure they actually have one, but if you made them play their attack animation while repairing it would look a bit better.
- Command Center’s unit description still uses the description of the standard Command Center, stating that it can lift off and morph into an Orbital Command.
- Would be useful if the Command Center had 2 separate rally points. One for Workers, and one for Builders, similar to how it works with Zerg. Right now, Builders rally to the same location as the Workers, even tho they can’t actually mine.
- In the button descriptions for the Shelter and the Training grounds, there are some weird spaces.

Typos:
- When introducing the builders, Marcus says “try buiding something”. Should be “building”.
- The Shelter’s description says: “the shelter provides movement speed bonus”. Should be “the shelter provides a movement speed bonus”
- In the Sandbags unit description, it says “nor” instead of “not”.
- After killing the infected, Marcus says “You will fit in very nicely with us,” but you end the sentence with a comma instead of a punctuation mark.

Bugs:
- The worker’s portrait model is buggy. Its face twists and warps in strange ways whenever it speaks. (As in, whenever you select them or order them to do something). Look at the image I embedded onto this post to see what I mean.
- When double-clicking your custom structures, all structures of the same type are not selected. You have shift-select the structures individually. This did not happen with Command Centers and Refineries, but all other structures shared this problem.

Darkness Rises Mission 01 Feedback:

Cinematics and terraining are both well done. The cinematics had good camera angles, dialogue flowed nicely so I had time to read, and I saw no glaring issues. I like the atmosphere of the map as well.

Having the ability to use Void Prison on Xy’tal makes for such interesting gameplay since strategic use of it against the Spewers will give you such a big advantage. Very nice design choice!

Very cool design choice to have the Nerazim use the Void Pylon model. They look ten times cooler and really captures the theme of the nerazim so much more.

A difficulty selection would be a nice addition to accommodate the skill levels of individual players.

I think attack waves arrive too frequently. It’s very hard to keep up with the amount of stuff the enemy sends within just a few minutes. This is one of the reasons why I think having different difficulty options would be a welcome addition. I think the reduce the power of some of the earlier waves, and have them get stronger as you go.

I find the choice to have a tal’darim themed console interesting, considering its a Nerazim-based faction you’re playing as. With the latest sc2 patch, you can set a specific player’s console skin using the “Set Player Console Skin” function in triggers. I think having the Nerazim console would work excellently here!

Consider allowing players to skip cinematics. If you lose and forgot to save, it’s a bit of a nuisance having to watch the cinematics again.

Other notes:
- The Spewer’s still has the spectre prisoner unit description.
- An indication for when the item gained from killing Spewers arrives and where would be helpful. Be It a ping, or a piece of dialogue or whatever. Not all people read the objective text so people may not realize that you get an item or where it spawns.
- Azimar has a custom hero health bar above the unit, while Xy’tal does not.
- The Xel’Naga vaults you have to destroy as part of the bonus objective still has the description from the WoL mission, stating that its the final artefact piece.

Typos:
- After getting ahold of your base, Azimar says “sucha a”. Should be “such a”.
- Azimar’s and Xy’tal’s permanently cloaked icons on the command card says “Zeratul”. In addition, their Blink abilities have the same error.
- The Vanquish Spewers bonus objective have multiple typos. Firstly, Vanquish is misspelled, and in the objective description, “worthy” is misspelled as “wordy”. Also, “study” should be “studying”.

Bugs:
- The Spewers appear to be attacking, but when selecting the unit, the weapon is not visible.
- Shadow Blade states it deals 500 damage, but it actually deals a lot less.

That’s all I have for now. Overall, this seems very neat. I’ll be playing mission 2 at some later stage and share my thoughts.

In reply to dudkisc2:

 Thank you for the feedback! This is good stuff. I didn't know that you could change the UI console skin, will have to look into that. 

Yeah, I had the problem with different rally points in replicant too. I do not know how to make them use this independently. Perhaps you can help me? 

"When double-clicking your custom structures, all structures of the same type are not selected. You have shift-select the structures individually. This did not happen with Command Centers and Refineries, but all other structures shared this problem."

I'm not sure whats controlling this, I will have to look into that. 

Heh, the tutorialmission5 is supposed to be played last... Hinting about something that is coming. Perhaps I have to clarify that =D

In reply to hultmanable:

 Ooh, sorry. Did not realize that mission was last. I just saw "Tutorial" in the name and automatically assumed that had to be played first.

"Yeah, I had the problem with different rally points in replicant too. I do not know how to make them use this independently. Perhaps you can help me?"

It is very easy to do! Take a look at the Hatchery's rally point ability and base it off of that. in each rally, there is a set of Validators that determine whether or not the target point is on a Resource, a Drone etc. Add some new Validators and change the values to your Builders and Workers.

If you can't figure it out, let me know. I'll make a more comprehensive guide on how to do it, but I think it's pretty simple XD

I'm not sure whats controlling this, I will have to look into that.

You may not wanna mess with this. It might not be worth it. As I just learned, it's apparently very complex. It's essentially because the custom models are missing some sort of element that allows it to be drag-selected/double-clicked. Essentially the way to fix it is to add a new normal model that can be clicked on, like a Command Center. In actor events, you would then set this model's opacity to 0, so it becomes invisible. Then, that actor will need another model of type ModelAddition with the actual custom model that you're using. That apparently fixes it, but heck, it's very complicated. It isn't really a huge deal.

In reply to dudkisc2:

It is very easy to do! Take a look at the Hatchery's rally point ability and base it off of that. in each rally, there is a set of Validators that determine whether or not the target point is on a Resource, a Drone etc. Add some new Validators and change the values to your Builders and Workers.

If you can't figure it out, let me know. I'll make a more comprehensive guide on how to do it, but I think it's pretty simple XD

I duplicated the zerg rally point. I changed the validators to match my worker and builder.  Unfortunately only one of the rally buttons shows up... Perhaps I will need your guide after all =D.

You may not wanna mess with this. It might not be worth it. As I just learned, it's apparently very complex. It's essentially because the custom models are missing some sort of element that allows it to be drag-selected/double-clicked. Essentially the way to fix it is to add a new normal model that can be clicked on, like a Command Center. In actor events, you would then set this model's opacity to 0, so it becomes invisible. Then, that actor will need another model of type ModelAddition with the actual custom model that you're using. That apparently fixes it, but heck, it's very complicated. It isn't really a huge deal.

Sound like something I had to do with the Valerian model in Replicant... =(

In reply to hultmanable:

I duplicated the zerg rally point. I changed the validators to match my worker and builder. Unfortunately only one of the rally buttons shows up... Perhaps I will need your guide after all =D.

Opened up your tutorial map. I don't see any changes to the rally point? You sure you added it. Anyways, here's my guide. Pictures embedded if you need visual guidance:

1. Go into the Abilities tab and copy the "Hatchery - Rally" ability.

2. With your new ability created, at the top of of the Ability data, there is a list of 4 Rally Points. Double-click the one in place of Rally 1: Set Rally Point to bring up the menu.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the menu to find the Validator called "Not Drone or Overlord." This rally is used for anything that isn't Drones or Overlords, in your case, the Builder units.

4. Create a new Validator of type: "Unit Type" called "Target Is Not Worker" and choose your Worker, and uncheck to "Enabled: Find" checkbox. Replace the existing validator with your new one. Then, press OK.

5. Now with that done, take a look at your Rally 2: Set Worker Rally Point. Double-click it to bring up the menu.

Scroll to the bottom of the menu to find the Validator called "Is Drone or Overlord". This rally is used specifically for workers.

6. Create a new Validator of type: Unit Type called "Target Is Worker" and choose your Worker, but this time, leave the "Enabled: Find" checkbox as it is. Replace the existing validator with your new one. Then, press OK.

7. Go to your COmmand Center, and replace the Rally ability with your new one. Make sure to set the button on the command card to the new rally as well. Remember, you may wanna add an additional rally button to your command card that is linked to the Builder rally, so its more clear for people that there are 2 separate ones to choose from.

That's it! I tested it, and it works. Hope it helps :D

In reply to dudkisc2:

 Ah, thank you. I did the things you described in your guide. The problem was that the old rally ability for the command center was overriding the new... So it works now, =D

In reply to hultmanable:

 Good to know!

Darkness Rises 2 Feedback:

Fun mission! The terrain really sold it as well. One thing I particularly loved was how you used those big bridges as walkable segments when rescuing the civilians. Looked really cool how it was all scaled up like that. For doodads, I’d be careful with placing those large korhal building doodads right next to the playable map area. While they help immerse the player into the world, they are very huge and will block your vision by quite a bit.

All the enemy units guarding the evacuation point where all tightly packed within that small area next to the beacon. I’d recommend placing a proper defence over there, and have the units being a little more spread out, instead of just putting a bunch of units on top of the point. Looks a little more natural that way, and it makes it easier for the enemy to retaliate as well, as they won’t get stuck on their own units. You can still make them send more troops, but at least make it so that all rallying units don’t just move to the same point and gather in one big group.
With that being said, I also think there should be a limit. I didn’t move towards the evac point until like 10 minutes had passed, and in that time, they had gathered that huge group over there.

It felt a little weird that there was no markers or anything on the civilians. Would be helpful to have them appear on the map as either pings or have them be revealed. Furthermore, the ping that shows the location of the next arriving civilians is black, which makes it very hard to tell apart from the fog of war.

Bugs:
- As soon as the map starts, I get that red flashy visual similar to when Marcellus gets attacked. It happened a few seconds later as well. Perhaps disable that during cinematics?
- When I rescued the civilians at the bottom left corner of the map, nothing seemed to happen. Got no dialogue or anything confirming it, and the civilians were just standing there at the corner not doing anything. Look at the image I included to see what I mean.’
- Sometimes the civilians heading for the evac point bug out. Look at the second picture I posted, where 2 civilians are just standing close to the point.
- During the final cinematic, while talking to the Inquisitor, Marcellus turned around, so he wasn’t facing him while they were talking. You can turn this off by disabling Turnable state on the unit.
- In the initial shot of the cinematic, additional civilians were on the surface that just stood in a line. Those are the civilians that were on the way to the objective but stopped when I completed it. Would suggest removing them when the cinematic starts.

Typos:
- The behaviour icon and passive icon on the command card for Combat Veteran Buff it says “Heros” instead of “Heroes”.
- When Horner’s first dialogue he misspells his own name as “Horne”.
- In the introductory dialogue “Thousand of civilians” should be “Thousands of civilians”
- In the Sons of Korhal tip, you misspelled “Elite” as Elit. Similarly, right after, it says “They continue there service” should be “They continue their service.” Finally, in the same tip, “eraced” should be “erased”.
- When informing you about the civilians, Horner said “civilian” instead of “civilians.
- In the final cinematic, Marcellus says “And what stops me from just kill you” should be “And what stops me from just killing you”

In reply to dudkisc2:

 Thank you! I´ ve started to fix the things you mentioned :D