SC2Mapster

Hi again,

I haven't really been active on these forums lately, but CraftCraft is still being updated. The changelog is about 160 lines longer now than it was since my last post here! :)

I also wrote an article about the future of the map a few days ago. It focuses on improving endgame and replayability. Check it out here.

EU has newest version as I publish it on EU. It's not impossible, just difficult until you learn all how it all works.

Quote from Chiquihuite: Go

@A1win: Go

Yeah I actually see Hard difficulty being quite...err..hard. I've been unable to win in 3 successive attempts with random people, usually because one person wasted a bunch of resources >_>

The attacks are absolutely relentless and if you start to fall behind it's a slow (potentially >1hr) and painful death from there. You might want to consider some degree of difficulty adjustment based on player success level. Either quickly wipe out teams who are struggling too much, or give them some additional breathing room to catch up.

Interesting game overall, though. You've done quite a few things I like here.

I've tweaked pacing a lot since the currently released version on NA. If you're not making progress, it causes you to lose faster (because enemies become stronger faster, and you don't gain enough to survive). There's still room for improvement for pacing but it's heading to the right direction.

There might be a solution to the Mac dropping issue (an update to OS X Lion).

Good to hear it made on the front page in NA as well. :)

On EU, CraftCraft is currently down to 2nd page as new players are done skimming it through.

Unfortunately, my dedicated uploader is currently not available, and I'm not sure how long he'll take.

Quote from Vergred: Go

So why is it hard difficulty when first timers can actually survive quit a lot?

The learning curve is still quite hard for most players. If I ever get it easier to learn, I might rename Hard difficulty to Normal or something.

It is a desync problem, and I don't really know how to fix it. I haven't seen many complaints about it, so I'm assuming it's a very small minority of players having it, mostly Mac users. It would seem it has something to do with pathfinding or the way the rocks split up the navigation mesh, but I can't really decrease the number of rocks, because that'd mean I'd have to decrease player sight radius by one, and it's only 7 at the moment.

If anyone has any bright ideas, I'm all ears.

Thanks for all the feedback!

A few comments:

• If you end up having too much vanadium, it means you have produced too much of it, and wasted neosteel and vespene gas (power costs vespene). Try turning off your Forges when you have enough vanadium.
  
• I removed MULE in the latest patch, and replaced it with a Quarry building, which produces neosteel by mining it from under the ground at the cost of power.
  
• I'll add more interesting vehicles once I have the time to develop them. Vulture is quite a bit faster now, and I'll try to make it even more interesting (it's never been "bad", just not useful as often as a Goliath).
  
• More content will come (and just did in patch 0.114, although not yet on NA). The map has been published for only 11 days, and I've already added a huge bunch of stuff! Just check the changelog here. The release of Diablo III will slow things down, but if people keep playing the map, I'll keep working on it.
  
• The (secret) reason why things don't break down easily by the huge number changes is that none of the changes are actually very big in comparison the number of features the map has. Another reason is that the map doesn't break if things get easier or harder, because it is co-op: they simply make it easier or harder. That, and I can easily estimate how big an effect the change actually has, since I made the entire map just by myself. :)
  

Yup, I should improve the tutorial even further, and work on ways to make the learning curve smoother. I'll see if I can get the SCV demonstration in at some point.

As far as I know, I can't change a client's status bar settings, that needs to be done manually.

The researches you do at the Research Lab are extremely important for keeping your bases alive. This isn't explained to new players in any way and should be improved. I also had an idea how to make the research system better, which will change things a bit. :)

Released on NA servers. Go give it a shot!

The first public release of CraftCraft is now available on the EU region. US will have to wait for a bit longer.

CraftCraft is a large-scale, polished co-op map focusing on mining, exploration, base management (with a power grid system), survival, and steady progression. It's playable with 1-4 players with approximately an hour or two of gameplay. For more details about the map, check the CraftCraft thread on the Project Workplace forum.

I'm mostly looking for feedback about balance and difficulty. I might add some features in the future, but I'm not expecting to spend much more time on the project other than improving user experience.

Now go have fun, but don't forget to check back here afterwards! ;)

Update: Now also available on NA!

I think I'll get better test results with more players than just my friends.

Released CraftCraft 0.70 Beta on EU region. I'm not sure when I'll get it on US but shouldn't be too long now.

I'll finish CraftCraft before Diablo III is released, because after that I'm pretty sure I can't be bothered anymore. :D

Singleplayer gameplay feels fine for now, but I still need to get some tests with more players done. I'm dropping max players to 4 from 6, because I have a feeling it wouldn't be very fun with 5-6 players, and it'd take a lot more time to test with 1-6 than with 1-4.

A lot of ideas that I've had probably won't see the light of day, but the map works just fine without them.

If you want to help with testing (on EU), poke me on the #SC2Mapster IRC channel during the evenings or nights (my sleep pattern is screwd up atm).

Edit: Two-player test went well. Looks like I nailed my last bug with the power grid system as well (wasn't sometimes removing the cable models when demolishing multiple structures at the same time). Trying to get some 3-4 player tests done tomorrow.

Follow @A1win on Twitter for updates.

Yeah, everything except the control of the SCVs is shared between the players. All buildings are controlled by a neutral player, and all players can give orders to the buildings even without being near them with their SCV.

I've taken it for granted so I've forgotten to mention it almost everywhere. Updated the first post with that now. :)

Things are going well and there isn't much left to add anymore. However, I want to make sure the map is properly balanced and that user experience for new players is good enough before releasing even the first version. It's now just a matter of organizing some playtests, but I might take a little break before that. Working on the map for over a month literally every day has burned me out once again. ;)

Meanwhile, a sneak peek on my next project, which will be something completely different:

That's not a gameplay test, just a test for the controls. The delay after teleport has nothing to do with Battle.net lag.

Ah, thanks. That piece of custom script to create the beam with triggers is all I needed! ^^

Now I can just create or destroy the beam with triggers whenever needed.

actor gf_BeamCreate (string lp_model, unit lp_launchUnit, string lp_launchAttachPoint, unit lp_impactUnit, string lp_impactAttachPoint) {
    // Implementation
    actorscope as=ActorScopeFromUnit(lp_launchUnit);
    actor a=ActorCreate(as,"SiteHosted",lp_launchAttachPoint,"","");
    ActorScopeRefSet(as,"::scope.BeamLaunch",a);
    a=ActorCreate(ActorScopeFromUnit(lp_impactUnit),"SiteHosted",lp_impactAttachPoint,"","");
    ActorScopeRefSet(as,"::scope.BeamImpact",a);
    return ActorCreate(as,"BeamSimple",lp_model,"::scope.BeamLaunch","::scope.BeamImpact");
}

And here's what it's for!

There are multiple motherships and each of them can have one beam active at a time to any of the others. One mothership can have multiple beams targeted to it, but can only send one itself.