Got a bunch of recordings for this campaign. Just gonna post them all at once. I hate scheduling - it's too tedious. I need some way to automatically do it.
Fair warning, all of them are me playing the way I would normally play this game. That means I don't care about the story, I play my own music over it, and don't really try to make good commentary (not that I consider my commentary is good in the first place)
Edit
Attempted mission 7. It's frustratingly difficult on normal and basically impossible on hard. You might want to tone down the rate at which they send reinforcements/replacements.
Also, I saw your comment that Kaiser's void form would make it so that they're able to solo the entire map all on their own. I don't see how that's possible considering their energy regen is so slow and their damage output is actually lower than a regular Hydralisk. Care to help this sorry soul figure out what strategy you had in mind for that?
Wait, it does? Well, I was playing on low shaders so that explains why I didn't notice it.
Something to note about playability: If playability is negatively impacted by setting the graphics options to the lowest possible settings then you may have made a bad design decision. What about people with crap computers who can only get stable frame rates at the lowest graphics settings and resolution? Do you just not want them to be able to play?
Maybe make the aura more similar to the Sentinel's reconstruction or the Immortal's barrier. It'll be seen by anyone who can run the game.
(it still doesn't really give any indication of what directions the lasers will come out from)
Re: Designing boss fights
Yeah. I can understand what you mean. The are limits to what you can do with just the Galaxy Editor and there are some things that are just way too time consuming. Creating custom animations for attacks come to mind. It'd require 3D animation software, importing and exporting the target model to and from the software, animating said custom animations, implementing the new animations into the editor. Lots and lots of work.
Still though. Even something as simple as a split second target marker on the ground or the targeted unit would be enough of a tell.
Sorry if I sounded harsh with that. I think I was being a little unfair with my criticisms.
It was was basically Agria from the Evacuation mission, with a couple of small tweaks.
The first part with handsome jack was fairly easy. There are three encounters, and you have three mines. Plant one in advance for each encounter, pull the enemies into the mines, and engage like normal. The next parts with Kyra and company were significantly harder but nothing too dramatic. You seem to have a knack for putting mines in inconvenient places, luckily I'm pretty well acquainted with that style by this point.
The boss fight was not very inventive - it's basically the Arch Angel/Stone Zealot fight all over again except easier now that all of your units are ranged.
There was a lot of waiting around while in front of a door. Really boring just standing there reading, especially when you don't really want to read. Either make it a skippable cutscene or cut down the wait time to 10 or less seconds.
Overall, passable map. Nothing new to the table except a change in units fought. Would definitely play mission 1 and 3 over this one. 6/10
Finished mission 5 and replayed mission 6 on hard.
So mission 5. I guess it was pretty easy, though that may just have been the way I played it.
The only unit that really needed to be cloaked was the Baroness as she had higher target priority whenever she healed. Otherwise, enemies would always be attacking the Cobra Commander. CC just does so much damage per shot that all enemies hit by him will immediately switch targets, especially when their original targets cloak or move behind him. Also, CC is really tanky - what with his Psi-shield basically increasing his health by 33%.
In any case, I ran past most of the enemies and the ones that were in my way I wiped out. I took the same route when I got to use the HoD crew and just hauled ass. Nothing to it.
The boss fight was my least favorite boss fight. I have no idea what tell Radgar has for his beam attack. There's no lines on the ground. It doesn't seem like it's aimed. It just seems random to me. Radgar doesn't even face the direction of whichever beam attack comes out of him. How can I possibly predict what attacks he does without suddenly dying to it and needing to reload?
4/10 - Not absolutely terrible but does not live up to the rest of your boss fights.
The other parts of the mission however get a strong 7 to a light 8.
Mission 6 on hard mode caught me off guard. Namely, the macro section
You have to play very scrappy. Once you kill the Ultralisks in the attack wave, you have to immediately destroy the closest hive. After that, you have to hold out for a good long while until you've got enough tanks that you can leave your SCVs and your now building Command Center and kill the western base. Rinse repeat unit you have so many units that you can kill basically everything the enemy has and still survive somehow.
The macro section gets a strong 8 from me.
The boss fight was about the same, though I'm starting to like it less after playing the other boss fights. It has the same problem I had with Radgar. Last Remnant has two attacks that have absolutely no way of predicting and can easily kill one of your units. Psi orb. Once again, no lines on the ground, no tracking, no indication of which unit its aiming for - how am I supposed to dodge it without knowing beforehand what direction LR will shoot?
These boss fights are slowly losing their novelty to me and the more I look at them critically, the less I find them appealing. 6/10
Although...
My standards for might be a little high, for this. Holding a dodge-micro boss fight in an RTS like StarCraft to a boss fight in a Bullet Hell shooter like touhou is pretty unfair. Still, it doesn't change the fact that I'm unsatisfied (not that it matters that me specifically am unsatisfied. It's just an opinion, just like anyone else's)
I'm talking about when it's not transparent for your own units. If you choose to hide enemy units behind walls then fine but I want to be able to see my own units when they're under doodads
Okay. Just finished mission 1-3 again. Played on hard this time.
Mission 1 is pretty much the same, even on hard mode. Nothing for me to really comment on.
Mission 2 still has the most interesting if a little tedious enemy placement. Reavers just wreck me, even in engagements I technically win. Also, the Colossus are not scary at all. You need like 4-6 at once if they're every going to be a threat. Unfortunately, by that point, it'd just be unfair as their total health pool would make killing them a nightmare. Nothing else really new to report other than the progression being somewhat more streamlined. There are still major terraining and doodading issues, though. You have several doodads that block the view of your units and they don't turn semi-transparent when there are units behind it. Similarly, high cliffs can block the view of your units, preventing you selecting them when they're pressed against them.
Mission 3 is still ridiculously easy. Which I'm fine with, I guess. I had music turned off but the game kept playing music so I just turned off sound. Word of advice, if you're gonna put music in a game with a volume slider for music, have the music actually be affected by the slider.
Mission 1 was pretty easy since we're dealing with mostly Zerglings. Between Psi-storm and Whirlwind, it wasn't really a big issue.
The boss was annoying mostly due to positioning problems. It's really tall and any unit behind it won't be selected when you click on it because the boss is blocking your view. Other than that, it's all a matter of micro.
Mission 2 was really tedious if you don't know what you're doing. Reavers are a nightmare to face and since they're LotV Reavers, they can infinitely respawn their scarabs. In any case they can easily be dispatched with careful positioning. Kyra can stim in, blast it with a plasma gun, and back away towards Mira Kel while Ben Ar and Radamantis can move in and finish it off. As a side note, all of these characters are suddenly moving significantly faster than in the previous mission. I'm assuming it has to do with the fact that we're facing Reavers.
Of the four I've played, this boss is the least interesting to me. It's literally just a more-dakka version of the Archangel fight from HotS. Though it did throw some curveballs. Occasionally, it had dickish shot placement (full-surround with no hope of escape) and had a tendency to target fire the medic. While I found that really annoying, it did make the fight more interesting. Similarly, that shock wave attack was a nice addition to its move set.
Mission 3 was the easiest mission. Ben Ar now being ranged and dealing 30 damage with every attack is a major improvement. Similarly giving them that shield ability makes for a great addition to their move set. In any case, with all of that plus the enemies' slow movement speed, kiting them was child's play. I even ran past all the Ursadon Matriarchs you spawned at the end of the mission.
The Elemental Dragon boss is my favorite of what I've played, with the second being Last Remnant. It's a bit dickish making it possible to lose the fight so early into it, though. If you let all three heroes get trapped, you're basically fucked. But ignoring that, it seems this boss follows a certain attack pattern with a relatively simple strategy for completing. Ben Ar's shield ability has a fairly long cool down but it can be timed so that its only used when necessary, which is when the Medic gets target fired. Kyra can tank if she's being targeted as long as she's at full health and constantly being healed so shields aren't necessary. Mira Kel is really squishy and can only heal herself for so much. As your tool tip said, use shields to save a life.
Overall, fairly fun set of maps. The bosses are a little annoying but pretty enjoyable. Will definitely play these maps again.
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Got a bunch of recordings for this campaign. Just gonna post them all at once. I hate scheduling - it's too tedious. I need some way to automatically do it.
Fair warning, all of them are me playing the way I would normally play this game. That means I don't care about the story, I play my own music over it, and don't really try to make good commentary (not that I consider my commentary is good in the first place)
Edit
Attempted mission 7. It's frustratingly difficult on normal and basically impossible on hard. You might want to tone down the rate at which they send reinforcements/replacements.
Also, I saw your comment that Kaiser's void form would make it so that they're able to solo the entire map all on their own. I don't see how that's possible considering their energy regen is so slow and their damage output is actually lower than a regular Hydralisk. Care to help this sorry soul figure out what strategy you had in mind for that?
@EDHRIANO: Go
Re: Radgar's beam attack telegraph
Wait, it does? Well, I was playing on low shaders so that explains why I didn't notice it.
Something to note about playability: If playability is negatively impacted by setting the graphics options to the lowest possible settings then you may have made a bad design decision. What about people with crap computers who can only get stable frame rates at the lowest graphics settings and resolution? Do you just not want them to be able to play?
Maybe make the aura more similar to the Sentinel's reconstruction or the Immortal's barrier. It'll be seen by anyone who can run the game.
(it still doesn't really give any indication of what directions the lasers will come out from)
Re: Designing boss fights
Yeah. I can understand what you mean. The are limits to what you can do with just the Galaxy Editor and there are some things that are just way too time consuming. Creating custom animations for attacks come to mind. It'd require 3D animation software, importing and exporting the target model to and from the software, animating said custom animations, implementing the new animations into the editor. Lots and lots of work.
Still though. Even something as simple as a split second target marker on the ground or the targeted unit would be enough of a tell.
Sorry if I sounded harsh with that. I think I was being a little unfair with my criticisms.
Just finished mission 4
It was was basically Agria from the Evacuation mission, with a couple of small tweaks.
The first part with handsome jack was fairly easy. There are three encounters, and you have three mines. Plant one in advance for each encounter, pull the enemies into the mines, and engage like normal.
The next parts with Kyra and company were significantly harder but nothing too dramatic. You seem to have a knack for putting mines in inconvenient places, luckily I'm pretty well acquainted with that style by this point.
The boss fight was not very inventive - it's basically the Arch Angel/Stone Zealot fight all over again except easier now that all of your units are ranged.
There was a lot of waiting around while in front of a door. Really boring just standing there reading, especially when you don't really want to read. Either make it a skippable cutscene or cut down the wait time to 10 or less seconds.
Overall, passable map. Nothing new to the table except a change in units fought. Would definitely play mission 1 and 3 over this one. 6/10
Finished mission 5 and replayed mission 6 on hard.
So mission 5. I guess it was pretty easy, though that may just have been the way I played it.
The only unit that really needed to be cloaked was the Baroness as she had higher target priority whenever she healed. Otherwise, enemies would always be attacking the Cobra Commander. CC just does so much damage per shot that all enemies hit by him will immediately switch targets, especially when their original targets cloak or move behind him. Also, CC is really tanky - what with his Psi-shield basically increasing his health by 33%.
In any case, I ran past most of the enemies and the ones that were in my way I wiped out. I took the same route when I got to use the HoD crew and just hauled ass. Nothing to it.
The boss fight was my least favorite boss fight. I have no idea what tell Radgar has for his beam attack. There's no lines on the ground. It doesn't seem like it's aimed. It just seems random to me. Radgar doesn't even face the direction of whichever beam attack comes out of him. How can I possibly predict what attacks he does without suddenly dying to it and needing to reload?
4/10 - Not absolutely terrible but does not live up to the rest of your boss fights.
The other parts of the mission however get a strong 7 to a light 8.
Mission 6 on hard mode caught me off guard. Namely, the macro section
You have to play very scrappy. Once you kill the Ultralisks in the attack wave, you have to immediately destroy the closest hive. After that, you have to hold out for a good long while until you've got enough tanks that you can leave your SCVs and your now building Command Center and kill the western base. Rinse repeat unit you have so many units that you can kill basically everything the enemy has and still survive somehow.
The macro section gets a strong 8 from me.
The boss fight was about the same, though I'm starting to like it less after playing the other boss fights. It has the same problem I had with Radgar. Last Remnant has two attacks that have absolutely no way of predicting and can easily kill one of your units. Psi orb. Once again, no lines on the ground, no tracking, no indication of which unit its aiming for - how am I supposed to dodge it without knowing beforehand what direction LR will shoot?
These boss fights are slowly losing their novelty to me and the more I look at them critically, the less I find them appealing. 6/10
Although...
My standards for might be a little high, for this. Holding a dodge-micro boss fight in an RTS like StarCraft to a boss fight in a Bullet Hell shooter like touhou is pretty unfair. Still, it doesn't change the fact that I'm unsatisfied (not that it matters that me specifically am unsatisfied. It's just an opinion, just like anyone else's)
@EDHRIANO: Go
I'm talking about when it's not transparent for your own units. If you choose to hide enemy units behind walls then fine but I want to be able to see my own units when they're under doodads
@EDHRIANO: Go
Okay. Just finished mission 1-3 again. Played on hard this time.
Mission 1 is pretty much the same, even on hard mode. Nothing for me to really comment on.
Mission 2 still has the most interesting if a little tedious enemy placement. Reavers just wreck me, even in engagements I technically win. Also, the Colossus are not scary at all. You need like 4-6 at once if they're every going to be a threat. Unfortunately, by that point, it'd just be unfair as their total health pool would make killing them a nightmare. Nothing else really new to report other than the progression being somewhat more streamlined. There are still major terraining and doodading issues, though. You have several doodads that block the view of your units and they don't turn semi-transparent when there are units behind it. Similarly, high cliffs can block the view of your units, preventing you selecting them when they're pressed against them.
Mission 3 is still ridiculously easy. Which I'm fine with, I guess. I had music turned off but the game kept playing music so I just turned off sound. Word of advice, if you're gonna put music in a game with a volume slider for music, have the music actually be affected by the slider.
@EDHRIANO: Go
Gonna try and go through all of the maps in quick succession and see what's new. Then I'll play mission 7. I'll post my thoughts when I'm finished
@EDHRIANO: Go
Those were recorded nearly a month ago
Yo
@EDHRIANO: Go
The QWER mod doesn't seem to work on any of the missions other than Last Remnant
@EDHRIANO: Go
Just played through the first three missions.
Mission 1 was pretty easy since we're dealing with mostly Zerglings. Between Psi-storm and Whirlwind, it wasn't really a big issue.
The boss was annoying mostly due to positioning problems. It's really tall and any unit behind it won't be selected when you click on it because the boss is blocking your view. Other than that, it's all a matter of micro.
Mission 2 was really tedious if you don't know what you're doing. Reavers are a nightmare to face and since they're LotV Reavers, they can infinitely respawn their scarabs. In any case they can easily be dispatched with careful positioning. Kyra can stim in, blast it with a plasma gun, and back away towards Mira Kel while Ben Ar and Radamantis can move in and finish it off. As a side note, all of these characters are suddenly moving significantly faster than in the previous mission. I'm assuming it has to do with the fact that we're facing Reavers.
Of the four I've played, this boss is the least interesting to me. It's literally just a more-dakka version of the Archangel fight from HotS. Though it did throw some curveballs. Occasionally, it had dickish shot placement (full-surround with no hope of escape) and had a tendency to target fire the medic. While I found that really annoying, it did make the fight more interesting. Similarly, that shock wave attack was a nice addition to its move set.
Mission 3 was the easiest mission. Ben Ar now being ranged and dealing 30 damage with every attack is a major improvement. Similarly giving them that shield ability makes for a great addition to their move set. In any case, with all of that plus the enemies' slow movement speed, kiting them was child's play. I even ran past all the Ursadon Matriarchs you spawned at the end of the mission.
The Elemental Dragon boss is my favorite of what I've played, with the second being Last Remnant. It's a bit dickish making it possible to lose the fight so early into it, though. If you let all three heroes get trapped, you're basically fucked. But ignoring that, it seems this boss follows a certain attack pattern with a relatively simple strategy for completing. Ben Ar's shield ability has a fairly long cool down but it can be timed so that its only used when necessary, which is when the Medic gets target fired. Kyra can tank if she's being targeted as long as she's at full health and constantly being healed so shields aren't necessary. Mira Kel is really squishy and can only heal herself for so much. As your tool tip said, use shields to save a life.
Overall, fairly fun set of maps. The bosses are a little annoying but pretty enjoyable. Will definitely play these maps again.