SC2Mapster

This is sort of a thing where kueken isn't solid sure he's goind to dedicate his time to making a campaign. Right now it's sort of a fiddly thing where he spends time here and there to see how he could make it work. I'm merely speculating, but I think this'll go on until like 25% to 50% of the way being done with the mod just by itself and that may take a month or two. Then on top of that, he's also got the missions to do.

EDIT: Haha! Sc2mapster, I don't know when they did this, but they fixed the accidental double posting. Thanks guys!

Just watched the vid...

That looks flipping upside down awesome.

I knew you were one of the better data designers and especially one of the best spell designers and I also knew you were working on those spells...but I hadn't imagined something quite like that vid.

Im pretty much drained of ideas for a campaign that may not happen...when or if you finally get to a point when you need some more or you are finally finished with the mod, I'll come back for help.

But for now, all I can do is shake in excitement for what this mod could become. Nice work.

I don't like making all these final decisions right now.

A) I'm not the author and you arent either and I'd like the author to make these final decisions

B) The author already said he hasnt taken this up as a serious project

I can't see us doing very much now that we've discussed all this stuff. I think we're getting a little over-excited and we're getting into the stuff that we can't possibly design perfectly unless the mod is completed. I think what we should do now is go back over some of the units and give a few more ideas for buildings, structures, and the hero. Besides that, I think we should wait back and be patient.

Some ideas for some spells for the hero...

Vivid Sight: Creates a large area of sight at the location of the hero. (does not follow him) Reveals over cliffs.

Radiant Prestige: Causes all nearby enemies to fear the hero. Enemies in fear will randomly run in circles for 5 seconds.

Psionic Tempest: Creates a massive gold psionic storm at the target location.

Psionic Lash: (works like viper) Pulls the target area of enemies to the hero.

Flash: Warps the hero to the target nearby location and stuns enemies near the location that the hero warped to for 2 seconds.

Aurora: Heals and recharges the life and shields of all allies at the target area for x amount over 5 seconds.

Again, kueken said in first post that story wasn't his top priority and since nobody has rejected the story design we've been doing, I think we'll continue with just the two of us with the story...

Here's some story design behind each individual character and how they are going to react throughout the story.

Praetor Jaedur: The original idea was he made a mistake and I wanted that to be important to the story because it bites him in the butt later. In order to try and redeem himself, he tries to find and catch the retreating terrans. In the first mission, you catch a scent of where they are going and throughout the story, you continue fighting through different obstacles, until finally, at the 5th to last mission, you finally catch them in a space battle. Then, in the 4th to last mission, you reclaim the secret weapon. I had no plans for what the weapon could be, but I wanted it to be small and I feel a mothership is too big.

Judicator Exardoss: This guy is like your boss throughout the story. He was the original guy that sent the expedition and now, since you messed his plans up, he wants you to do all his work for him. I think it's fine if he does special stuff that you need along the way. Anyways, his behavior towards Jaedur is going to be rudeness, anger, and vengeance. At the end, on the 3rd to last mission, he betrays you and takes the weapon for himself. His plan, all along, was to decimate, not only the Conquest Legion, but also the Dominion, Raynor's Raiders, the Swarm, and every enemy in his way. Throughout the last 3 missions, you get closer and closer until you finally defeat him.

Executor Urakunn: I wanted this guy to be your adjutant, mainly because that's his normal job in every melee game you'll play. Besides that, maybe he could play a role as a merchant or something for upgrades, I don't know.

Dark Prelate Vaxor: I wanted this guy to be a playable hero in maybe 1 mission. I kind of wanted him to be like tosh from WOL. I wanted him to be an ally that you get somewhere in the middle of the campaign and then use him in a mission later on. That's all the background really. (He uses the mohandar ship and maybe a different portrait, not sure)

Dark Templar Arilar: I didn't design this guy, but you can make him whatever you please for the campaign and so far, I'm ok with it.

@epicprawntime: Go

I think since Jaedur is a high templar that his abilities should all be high templar related. So, dark shift I think should be renamed "power shift" or something related because kerrigan already has psi shift.

I'd also like to mension that kerrigan could have 7 abilities total. 4 of them were either activatable or passive and the other 3 were always passive.

I know kueken is thinking about having choices for which abilities you want at a time, so perhaps 2 choices are high templar and 1 choice is dark templar and all the dark templar stuff unlocks later. (Based on kerrigan in the hots campaign)

Hero Abilities, Hero Name, and maybe some more missions...

EDIT: I've figured out the names...

Judicator Exardoss, Dark Prelate Vaxor, Executor Urakunn, and...Praetor Jaedur ('J' - 'drr')

Hows that sound?

I feel as though that should be mission 2?

I'd like to see mission 1 have just the hero and thats it.

Some designs...

The First Scent: Prologue

In this mission, you get JUST the hero and occasionally get zealot allies that are not under your control. The idea is you have to fight through a science vessel. You start off in the hangar, fighting off their first line of defenses with an army of zealots. As the mission progresses, you will complete different objectives to disable their defenses and help get closer to their navigation room. Once you eventually reach it, you find that they have a hidden base on Dartan. But, just as you were going to make your escape with this information, the science vessel starts going on meltdown. This marks the second half. You have somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes to escape, less if harder. Once you return to the hangar, you win.

I'd also like to mension that I already thought up an ending and that would require 3 other characters. An executor, a dark prelate, and a judicator. I've already come up with the judicator's name, Exardoss, and the dark prelate's name, Vaxor. I will explain what I think the ending should be soon...

I've discussed the hero thing with kueken a little bit and he'll come and talk about it when he wants...

But the main idea is he's using the preserver model and its a male. Not much else is decided, but it will work very similar to kerrigan in the way this character functions. Kueken mensioned the hero will start with a melee attack and get a passive that makes him ranged. He also mensioned summoning a mothership as a final ability and another final ability that I will let him reveal later.

For now we can discuss story and abilities and such.

If you want to talk about missions, read my post at the top of this page first. It has A LOT of ideas in it. I'd also like to note that having sc lore heroes is the last thing we'd want in this type of campaign. I'd rather have this take place with characters not in the campaign, but I don't know what keuken wants. He did say he didn't care too much, so I think it might be up to us. :D

So, some ideas for background story...

1 year earlier than the start of this campaign...

Praetor (hero's name) was tasked with defending a secret protoss science facility on a distant moon. It was a boring job, but important, due to the fact that what they were experimenting with was one of the most powerful weapons that the protoss have ever developed. It just so happened that on this day, the terran faction known as the Conquest Legion has managed to finally track down the protoss science facility. This terran faction was known for stealing powerful technologies in order to raid the dominion and steal a lot of money. Only recently, this faction managed to spot the protoss weapon and the protoss have had to keep moving bases. But now, the protoss were outgunned and with the remaining forces that (hero's name) had, he warped back to shakuras. They couldn't lose that secret weapon, so (hero's name) was sent on a mission to find the Conquest Legion and return the weapon to the protoss. Now he's finally caught up with them and that's where the campaign begins.

I've been thinking over the past hour on various ideas for what I could design next and I realize that Kueken...first of all is really good at the data editor...second of all, he's doing gateway right now and we've already discussed the sentry in detail and dragoon doesn't take much design, just do what I suggested...

So...what about the hero? I feel it almost deserves its own model and its own background story etc etc. This is probably the most important unit to design. Any ideas?

@epicprawntime: Go

I'd honestly like to see the dragoon unlocked first and at tier 1, then the stalker unlocked a few levels after...though depends on player's choice on which level they want to play first.

Dark templar, high templar, dark archon, archon, and twilight archon are all tier 3.

You put tempest in there twice.

EDIT: My idea for the arbiter's time shield was to try and make it not overlap the mothership's time bubble. I think I figured out how to fix this...

Time Shield (Arbiter): Creates a shield around the arbiter in a radius of 5 that slows all enemy projectiles and enemy units inside the shield to 35% of their normal speed.

Time Bubble (Mothership): Creates a bubble at the target location with a radius of 5 that slows all enemy projectiles and units inside the bubble to 10% of their normal speed.

The idea is the arbiter creates a field around him that isnt as effective, while the mothership THAT YOU CAN ONLY GET ONE OF creates a bubble at a target location that is more effective.

Ohh that makes me so mad. I had a nice and neat setup for the replicant all typed out...

Basically...the replicant has 100 shields and 50 life and 200 energy. It has the speed of a marine. It comes from the robotics and doesnt require anything. It costs 175 of each resource and takes 120 seconds to build. It has two abilities...

Replicate: Transforms the replicant into the target enemy unit for 30 seconds. Can't be used on workers or heroics. 30 second cooldown after it returns to a replicant.

Clone: Clones the target non massive, worker, and heroic enemy unit over 10 seconds, disabling the replicant during that time. If it is successful, it will create a permanent clone of the unit. Costs 100 energy.

EDIT: I just now realize the dark archon would overlap the replicant, so it might be better if the replicant didn't have the clone ability at all. Instead...give it this...

Clone (Version 2): Duplicates the target non worker and non heroic owned unit. This duplicate has a timed life of 60 seconds. Costs 100 energy.

EDIT 2: Make the replicate ability cast when you right click an enemy with the replicant.

Renamed clone...

Duplicate: Clones the target non worker and non heroic owned unit. This duplicate has a timed life of 60 seconds. Costs 100 energy.

Thanks alot epicprawntime! I really like that design for the shuttle. Never thought about morphing it between things. Maybe it switches between the sc1 shuttle model and hots shuttle model?

I feel this leaves the robotics facility without warp ins...so...

I'll use epicprawntime's format...

Arbiter (Time machine...with a twist...get it?...it's a time warp...and it's got a twist...aww forget it...)

• Trained At: Robotics Facility
• Requires: The arbiter used to need an arbiter tribunal, so make it require a robotics bay
• Cost: 100 minerals, 350 gas, 4 psi, and 160 time to build (Right from a wiki)
• Life: 200
• Shield: 150
• Energy: 200
• Attack: Basically a photon cannon with 10 damage per shot
• Speed: somewhere between 1.88 - 2.25
• Abilities: Well...all the abilities that the arbiter USED to have are all taken up except for stasis field, but in a campaign...not useful.

Mothership Core: I think this should be unlocked pretty early in the campaign. It'll just be a defensive type summonable hero. I think it should be left at default, except change some of the abilities as you please.

Mothership: I think this should be unlocked later in the campaign and it should probably feel way more powerful than it is right now. I'd like to have that massive mothership I saw in alpha. It should get time bomb and planet cracker. I'd suggest making it shoot lots of smaller projectiles like it used to as well, kind of like a battlecruiser.

Phoenix: I'd suggest keeping this unit the same as default, except give it maybe 1 more ability.

Scout: Default, but give it upgrades for being better vs ground rather than air so it doesn't overlap the phoenix.

Dragoon: I'd suggest making the dragoon a more defense based version of the stalker, which is more of a striker type unit. To do this, you could make the dragoon start with a bit more range, but a bit less speed. Then you could add an upgrade that makes the dragoon work like the mutalisk so it hit multiple targets. You could also add an upgrade to give it a shield bonus so it's kind of like an immortal, which makes sense.

Reaver: You seem to really want this one to happen, so I'll let you have the creative freedom for this one.

Sentry: I suggest doing something similar to epicprawntime's suggestion where it's really good with supporting your army.

Oracle: I suggest, for this one, give it 3 abilities, like normal. Here are some ideas...

Wisdom Beam/Chaos Beam: One or the other is always active and chaos beam is active at default. Because it would be way to much micro to control your entire army and them at the same time, make it autoswitch. The idea is wisdom beam deals low damage, but regenerates energy and the chaos beam deals medium-high damage, but degenerates energy. When energy is full, it autoswitches to chaos and when energy is empty, it autoswitches to wisdom.

(Healing/Shield Recharging Ability): Creates a field of healing at the target area over 5 seconds. Depending on what you want, it could either recharge their life, shields, energy, 2 of those or all 3 of those.

Shadow Cloud: Creates a cloud of shadow around the oracle. All air and ground allied units are cloaked while in this cloud. (If you are currently selecting multiple oracles, they will all use this ability at once)

Tempest: You could take this multiple ways. You could make it do AOE, you could make it a long ranged artillery unit...it totally depends on what you decide to do. I suggest making it default, but then allow players to get upgrades to increase its range and give it another upgrade so it does AOE.

Arbiter: I never liked the arbiter, but I remember it was always like a time machine, so maybe you can do something with that.

Dark Archon: Default from sc1 would be amazing enough. I'd suggest making its mind control not able to cast on workers or heroic units.

Twilight Archon: I don't know what you'd do with this idea, but I would like to see something happen.

Shuttle: sc1 or hots versions...doesn't REALLY matter to me. I think sc1 shuttle doesn't have many options to make it interesting. The hots version has some potential for some interesting things. What I did for a mod of my own was I made it a protoss hercules, but it wasn't enough for me, so I also made it a mobile stargate/robotics that can make basic air units. I don't think either shuttles would work well, though.

Shield Battery: I honestly can't see any possibilities... :/

Replicant: I've always pondered at how you could make it work, but all the ideas seem like they would take a lot of work. The ideas I had all had te same concept though...make the replication only temporary. Here's a few ideas for what I mean...

Clone Unit (Replicate): Creates the target unit near the replicant with timed life. Costs energy each time.

Temporary Replication (Replicate): Transforms the replicant into that unit for 30 seconds or so and returns back to normal. Has a 30 second cooldown.

...If you were to do either of these, I might suggest giving it maybe 1 more ability that relates to replicating things. There is also the issue with the model. I'm sure someone will manage to make a good model soon, I wouldn't worry about it. I'd suggest giving it a temporary sentry model with maybe a blue tint so you can tell the difference.

Here's some ideas on some of the units that I KNOW you haven't gotten to yet because they're boring necessity units, but I have ways to make them interesting...

Probe (You may have gotten to this already, not sure...)

Upgrades...

Advanced Robotics: (PASSIVE) Improves the AI of the probe, increasing its movement speed and acceleration.

Energy Alignment: (PASSIVE) Increases the gather speed and production speed of probes.

Master Link: (PASSIVE) Buildings now warp in 25% faster. (ACTIVATE) The probe can now help warp in structures and units. (Effectively scv repair and nexus chrono boost combined) This can be targetted on warping in structures or structures currently producing something, doubling the output rate. NOTE: The probe is disabled while doing this.

Observer

Upgrades...

(The speed upgrade that you normally get from robotics bay): (PASSIVE) Increases the speed of the observer.

Long-Ranged Scanners: (PASSIVE) Increases the sight radius and detection radius of the observer by 3.

Warp Prism

Upgrades...

(The speed upgrade that you normally get from robotics bay): (PASSIVE) Increases the speed of the warp prism.

Pylon Hybrid Functions: (PASSIVE) Increases the radius of the power field of the warp prism to equal the pylon.

Shadow Technology: (PASSIVE) Warp prism is cloaked while in transport mode. (ACTIVATE) While in warp mode, the warp prism can warp to any location you can see. Takes 2 seconds to charge up and has a 30 second cooldown.

I will post below about the units you are uncertain about and say what I think you could do with them...