You're showing an extremely high level of productivity here. I hardly get anything done (though for a good reason: school).
This looks cool. I loved your previous zerg mission, and it'll be cool to see one that takes place in a lava setting too! I'm guessing the emitters will make the zerg rage hard.
Congratulations! This was your best mission yet. It was clean, good-looking, good-sounding, was a ton of fun to play, and it flowed so smoothly! So many cool parts!
The terrain: amazing! Who knew Zerus water platforms could look so good?! :D
You start things off so well with your intro. It's short, intriguiging and to the point. You horizontal cameras worked better this time (no lag). I should use them more often now, I realize.
The gameplay was fantastic. The prison escape was amazing, as was the second part. I loved the boss part (baneling death was clever), and the final escape was so intense (though strangely familiar).
PIcked up a few errors, though:
Krayen's HP bar is kinda low. I don't remember how to raise it at the top of my head, but it should be pretty easy to fix.
I've written something in my notes: "Every part ... as possible", but I can't remember what I meant. I know it was a grammar error, that it happened early, and that it also showed up in one of the tips. I think it was about how the "as possible" is wrong to use in that context.
The boss' target searcher (the green circle) sometimes appears and then doesn't disappear. I don't know if she's given an order and then given a "before" order after it (making it stick), or if it's just a bug. It was still there after she died.
The mission objectives in the last section doesn't count the rescued zerg (though it's still completed).
When Krayen dies, I get two messages: that he's dead, and that all my structures are destroyed.
I didn't like having the old SC1 zerg track, to be honest. I think it can be used, but the context was wrong (the lighting is too bright in contrast to the track, which is quite dark). I'd personally using something from The Thin Red Line (which is a jungle war film, after all), or maybe "The Maw" from Halo.
I also agree that the bombings could be more powerful. Either use nukes or the "create explosion" trigger to liven it up.
I can speak from experience when I say that the map-maker has it easy! That's why I have testers.
I was a bit arrogant when it came to Crimson Moon, not using them, and kinda thinking "my way is the best way". Big mistake. You see, the problem isn't necessarily difficulty. I want my missions to be challenging. But I'm not sure I want them to be frustrating.
For instance, CM05 had an early Banshee attack that was hard to counter unless you were lucky or knew it was coming. I put it there for the sake of challenge, but it ended up being just a frustration for a lot of people (everytime someone criticizes that mission, it's the banshee attack that gets it).
Another example could be All In from WOL. It's the last mission, so people expect it to be difficult (which it is), but I think people will accept the last enemy attack to be ridiculously powerful, even if it makes them lose a few times. But if there is a random, almost unwinnable attack in the middle, it would be more frustrating.
I'm not gonna lie: that was frustratingly, near-masochisticly difficult. I tried at hard first, then failed. Figured I'd try brutal. Big mistake. Finally settled for normal, and even then I had trouble. I think the explanation of the difficulty is very simple: the mission is very intense, because the APC cool-downs are so short, and the APCs themselves are very fragile (they have 200 HP and move very fast).
So, to be honest, I'm not sure what to think. I like the mechanics and the gameplay, and you put your own twist on the escort scenario (I like that you're forced to move out, and essentially have the APC come to you). The terrain is fantastic (though a bit too dark to see things clearly occasionally), and the music is great. But I felt my patience was tested more than my skills. So often the APC would die because a ton of zerg would pop out of a cave, and I'd have to restart or load.
A lot
I think if the APC was a bit more sturdy, the mission would be a lot more fun. If you changed that, and maybe gave the player more resources in the beginning, it would make a big difference. I mean, the story is great. I like Rhik, for instance. He's a lovable asshole, and he gives the campaign some needed levity (although I trust him less than Reeves and Balwdin do).
Now, some small details:
There are some typing errors. "APC's" should be "APCs" (the former denotes ownership, the latter plurality). This one pops up a lot (at least you're consistent). On the loading screen, you write "withing" instead of "within" (though it should be "on"). And it should be "Reeves", not "Reeves' " (you only denote ownership for the last person). "Hypothesis" should be followed by a colon.
I prefer bottom left portraits in cinematics to center left, but that's me.
In the middle of the intro cinematic, the text scroll starts again for a second time, but it gets stuck. I didn't check if it was a one-time thing, though.
I wouldn't mind a more moving camera in cinematics, especially when there's a lot of dialogue.
Now, I loved the timing of the appearance of the text scroll. The natural thing thing is to have it right off the bat, but you wait for it, almost like in a movie. Nice.
A little tip that I recently started using: use music more for certain events, like an APC moving out. If you play Blizzard maps, they do this all the time: a special event happens, and the soundtrack changes to highlight this. I did it myself for AE03, and it works splendidly. The best way to do is to first trigger a special soundtrack and set it to default. Then, when an APC moves out, play another soundtrack (preferably a short one, maybe just consisting of a short stinger), but don't set it to default. In the data editor, set next soundtrack to be your default soundtrack. The map will then go back to your original soundtrack once the music event is done.
Obviously, this could be a bit irritating considering how many APCs you have, but you can use it occasionally (as well for other events in your campaign). I feel that when you don't have voice-over to draw the player's attention, this becomes the next best thing.
Anyway, I'm rambling on. Keep up the good work! I'm a bit busy these days, so I don't know when I'll get to play mission 6, but hopefully it won't be too long!
Btw, this mission is eeringly similar to AE03 in so many ways. You even have a nice little battle cinematic too!
Looks good as always, man! Love your multi-perspective approach.
By the way, I wanted you to know that the quality of your campaign has made me up my game substantially. For instance, there will be a long-ass, action-packed cinematic for AE03 (it's currently clocking in at 7 minutes, which is a definite record for me - and it's not finished yet).
I tried the first part of the mission. The music seems to work fine now. It didn't at first, so I turned off/on the music during the intro, and then it appeared.
What confused me about the R.S.S.I wasn't their sudden appearancd (I have seen enough of The Wire and Game of Thrones to trust an author that things that don't make sense at first will do so eventually), but rather that I hadn't played the previous missions in a while and didn't remember all the details.
I like skyboxes too. If you turn the camera upwards, you get less lag. Alternatively, you can put the camera closer to the map edge, so there isn't so much "info" for the cam to pick up.
The music was gone for the entire mission.
I used the same "corpse" technique for Phantom Locust. What I did to fix it was to have a Trigger with Repeat Forever hiding the corpse until the boss is dead (with a 1-sec delay).
I really liked the intro. It made me cockishly think, "Is this guy better than me?" You have a lot of details going on (units getting into position, warping in, etc), which really enhance the experience. I noticed the skybox was absent, and thought it might be lack of far clip in the camera, but it's simply that there is no skybox in the direction the camera is facing.
I love that the story has multiple persectives. Can't wait to see how it all will intertwine. I was wondering, have we met the R.S.S.I. before? I seem to have forgotten.
I also loved your music. It really was perfect for the context at all times. I think I even heard some SC1 protoss music. Am I correct? That was cool.
I was told to destroy a door opener after I had destroyed. I think (it was a bit confusing). Maybe use a boolean variable that checks if it's still alive before the transmission plays?
The pacing was awesome. Action all the time, making me feel like I really was on an invaded spaceship (cool that you use terran too, as you'd expect zerg, really).
I also loved that you could use stone zealots. Because the player naturally has to be an underdog, it's easy to forget how awesome it is to use powerful units sometimes.
All in all, there weren't really much to nitpick. Maybe a spelling error here and there, but nothing major. However, the heroes don't have "army select" flagged, so they're not included when the player presses F2.
A4:
Cool loading screen! It really built up anticipation.
Upon opening, I get the message "All devices has been drained!". First of all, "devices" is plural, so it's "have", not "has". Secondly, I'm guessing it shouldn't be there?
There are a lot of cinematics with lag, caused by the camera direction being horizontal. It looks cool, but it really slows things down to a halt, which is unfortunate, considering the cinematic possibilities of it (which you showcase).
Why was there no music? I wondered if perhaps I had turned it off, but no. At first I thought you simply wanted the wind to be soundtrack, before you played a track later, but there was never anything.
I love the gameplay in this one. Hunting down objects while avoiding warhounds was so cool, and so difficult. I got spotted like a million times, but that was my own fault, I guess. Loved the inclusion of the incursion team. Nice mechanic! Would have been better with some kind of alarm sound too.
The terrain was very cool. It is very rich, very detailed. So rare to see.
During the cinematic where they discover the secret lab, the camera suddenly turns very odd (there was a brief shot of a strange, white-looking area).
I loved that you made use of the walkable walls. Blizzard didn't really put them to use in HOTS.
A boss? Cool! He did seem familiar, though. :p It was quite difficult, and I had to save so much. Had to think too, to figure out what the second hero's role was. I liked that.
By the way, when you hide doodads (like I assumed the thor corpse was supposed to be), they will reappear when they player loads a game. I did that several times (even before I met the boss), so I kept walking through the corpse of the enemy I was supposed to be fighting.
Anyway, can't wait to play more! You inspire me to up my game!
I think "Valerian" has different languages because some of the quotes you chose are language-sensitive, as in they change language if the user does, while others are not.
Do you have an estimated date?
Nice, nice, nice. My holidays are coming up, and I can't wait to play mission 7 and 8!
You're showing an extremely high level of productivity here. I hardly get anything done (though for a good reason: school).
This looks cool. I loved your previous zerg mission, and it'll be cool to see one that takes place in a lava setting too! I'm guessing the emitters will make the zerg rage hard.
Mission 6:
Congratulations! This was your best mission yet. It was clean, good-looking, good-sounding, was a ton of fun to play, and it flowed so smoothly! So many cool parts!
The terrain: amazing! Who knew Zerus water platforms could look so good?! :D
You start things off so well with your intro. It's short, intriguiging and to the point. You horizontal cameras worked better this time (no lag). I should use them more often now, I realize.
The gameplay was fantastic. The prison escape was amazing, as was the second part. I loved the boss part (baneling death was clever), and the final escape was so intense (though strangely familiar).
PIcked up a few errors, though:
I didn't like having the old SC1 zerg track, to be honest. I think it can be used, but the context was wrong (the lighting is too bright in contrast to the track, which is quite dark). I'd personally using something from The Thin Red Line (which is a jungle war film, after all), or maybe "The Maw" from Halo.
I also agree that the bombings could be more powerful. Either use nukes or the "create explosion" trigger to liven it up.
Anyway, keep up the good work!
A comment, StealthToast: didn't the mutalisk start low and then fly up when they emerged from the caves? I can swear I saw that at least one time.
I'll also bring up the point that the main base was perhaps a bit small. Units got stuck unless I really put an effort into where I put my buildings.
I can speak from experience when I say that the map-maker has it easy! That's why I have testers.
I was a bit arrogant when it came to Crimson Moon, not using them, and kinda thinking "my way is the best way". Big mistake. You see, the problem isn't necessarily difficulty. I want my missions to be challenging. But I'm not sure I want them to be frustrating.
For instance, CM05 had an early Banshee attack that was hard to counter unless you were lucky or knew it was coming. I put it there for the sake of challenge, but it ended up being just a frustration for a lot of people (everytime someone criticizes that mission, it's the banshee attack that gets it).
Another example could be All In from WOL. It's the last mission, so people expect it to be difficult (which it is), but I think people will accept the last enemy attack to be ridiculously powerful, even if it makes them lose a few times. But if there is a random, almost unwinnable attack in the middle, it would be more frustrating.
Mission 5
I'm not gonna lie: that was frustratingly, near-masochisticly difficult. I tried at hard first, then failed. Figured I'd try brutal. Big mistake. Finally settled for normal, and even then I had trouble. I think the explanation of the difficulty is very simple: the mission is very intense, because the APC cool-downs are so short, and the APCs themselves are very fragile (they have 200 HP and move very fast).
So, to be honest, I'm not sure what to think. I like the mechanics and the gameplay, and you put your own twist on the escort scenario (I like that you're forced to move out, and essentially have the APC come to you). The terrain is fantastic (though a bit too dark to see things clearly occasionally), and the music is great. But I felt my patience was tested more than my skills. So often the APC would die because a ton of zerg would pop out of a cave, and I'd have to restart or load.
A lot
I think if the APC was a bit more sturdy, the mission would be a lot more fun. If you changed that, and maybe gave the player more resources in the beginning, it would make a big difference. I mean, the story is great. I like Rhik, for instance. He's a lovable asshole, and he gives the campaign some needed levity (although I trust him less than Reeves and Balwdin do).
Now, some small details:
Now, I loved the timing of the appearance of the text scroll. The natural thing thing is to have it right off the bat, but you wait for it, almost like in a movie. Nice.
A little tip that I recently started using: use music more for certain events, like an APC moving out. If you play Blizzard maps, they do this all the time: a special event happens, and the soundtrack changes to highlight this. I did it myself for AE03, and it works splendidly. The best way to do is to first trigger a special soundtrack and set it to default. Then, when an APC moves out, play another soundtrack (preferably a short one, maybe just consisting of a short stinger), but don't set it to default. In the data editor, set next soundtrack to be your default soundtrack. The map will then go back to your original soundtrack once the music event is done.
Obviously, this could be a bit irritating considering how many APCs you have, but you can use it occasionally (as well for other events in your campaign). I feel that when you don't have voice-over to draw the player's attention, this becomes the next best thing.
Anyway, I'm rambling on. Keep up the good work! I'm a bit busy these days, so I don't know when I'll get to play mission 6, but hopefully it won't be too long!
Btw, this mission is eeringly similar to AE03 in so many ways. You even have a nice little battle cinematic too!
Damn it! I have so much to do right now! I'll still find time for this, though! Your campaign is so good I feel it's making mine better. :p
Looks good as always, man! Love your multi-perspective approach.
By the way, I wanted you to know that the quality of your campaign has made me up my game substantially. For instance, there will be a long-ass, action-packed cinematic for AE03 (it's currently clocking in at 7 minutes, which is a definite record for me - and it's not finished yet).
I tried the first part of the mission. The music seems to work fine now. It didn't at first, so I turned off/on the music during the intro, and then it appeared.
Btw, I just wanted to say that mission 4 gave me an idea for me to make AE3 better. So thank you!
What confused me about the R.S.S.I wasn't their sudden appearancd (I have seen enough of The Wire and Game of Thrones to trust an author that things that don't make sense at first will do so eventually), but rather that I hadn't played the previous missions in a while and didn't remember all the details.
I like skyboxes too. If you turn the camera upwards, you get less lag. Alternatively, you can put the camera closer to the map edge, so there isn't so much "info" for the cam to pick up.
The music was gone for the entire mission.
I used the same "corpse" technique for Phantom Locust. What I did to fix it was to have a Trigger with Repeat Forever hiding the corpse until the boss is dead (with a 1-sec delay).
I've played the missions now, both on hard.
A3:
A4:
Anyway, can't wait to play more! You inspire me to up my game!
That looks very good. I like both terrains, but especially the second one.
Also, I think this is what you are looking for: http://www.sc2mapster.com/wiki/knowledge-base/markup-types/. Basically just hit "Click here for details" where you make a reply.
I think "Valerian" has different languages because some of the quotes you chose are language-sensitive, as in they change language if the user does, while others are not.