General: At the request of Jayborino, maps no longer automatically start at the end of the briefing. This will no doubt engender complaints about the end of the briefing, a fact to which the Antioch team resigns itself much as a prisoner resigns him or herself to the inevitable fall of the headsman's axe, or as do the last drifts of snow to spring's first rays of sun.
What is wrong with the end of the briefings?!?!?!? I'm already upset about it.
Yeah, I'd definitely put this up there alongside some of the best custom single player content I've showcased. The mapmaker is sending me Mission 9 in advance so I can tack it on to my current playthrough this week (I'm the Youtube channel MaskedImposter was talking about above), but then we'll probably have awhile to wait for the next few maps.
I agree with some of the feedback above. Personally, I had no problem with multiple heroes with multiple abilities; I rather liked it actually, though maybe this gets too challenging for other players (#humblebrag). You provided an ample amount of easy enemy waves to mess around and learn before things get more challenging, which is why I think it works just fine. The mission can be completed without having to tab through and use everything super-effectively anyway.
I also have no issue with the length considering this is not advertised as a campaign. If you do have plans to make this into a campaign, I think you could make this into 2 or even 3 missions if you change/add some content to flesh them out into two separate maps for sure!
Some of the cliff edges tripped me up - I think EivindL has a good idea with using fog to emphasize the canyons more. Overall, a really good, fun map with a lot of potential if you ever want to make it into a larger series!
FYI, the Cerebrate in Episode 2 is killed by Tassadar between the canon episodes 2 and 3. The Cerebrate of canon episode 6 is a different Cerebrate that Kerrigan eventually kills when she eradicates all the remaining Cerebrates according to Blizzard lore. Maybe there could be a story of the Cerebrate before she kills it or something.
The Executor from episode 3 is Artanis I'm pretty sure, and in Episode 4 is Selendis, so these have sort of been covered by existing lore.
I just played most of the new Mission 1 and I liked it a lot. I chose Hard difficulty and it felt very balanced for what I would consider 'Hard' from a SC2 campaign perspective (on the Casual, Normal, Hard, Brutal scale). Well done! What is the intended play speed of these maps? Some notes:
-I very much liked the opening cinematic after diving down to the planet
-The Debug/Error checkbox was still visible for me, albeit toggled off
-The cinematics throughout were not too long, and were scattered in with gameplay so it never felt that they interrupted the mission; they kept things fresh and delivered exposition at a pace that felt right
-Re: the destroyed vehicles, you may have to replace them with doodads rather than the actual unit models
-The shape of the path taken is very straight from turn to turn, maybe consider adding a gentle curve or zigzag to the more straightforward canyons. You could leave the villages where they are, but make the path less perfectly straight. The straightness I'm referring to is more obvious on the minimap. The attack trigger locations would need shifted along with this though which I know could be a slight pain.
-I went to the training grounds and liked the extra dialogue that could be considered hidden. I was excited that maybe I'd get some sort of extra equipment, but instead was greeted by Nydus Worms that spewed out Banelings, killing half my group. I like the attack that went with it, but maybe add some reward for going down there.
-I actually ended up losing to the Roach/Baneling attack about 75% of the way back because I'm tired and also not exactly a crack player. I like the need for micro here! I'll have to go back and finish the mission tomorrow, but wanted to report this stuff before I forgot.
-I like the premise of the story, as well as the dialogue. The group communicates like an actual military unit, and not just rednecks in space (as was presented in the SC2 campaigns). I was left intrigued as to what will end up happening! The only thing that held me back just a tad was an excess of named heroes. Granted, they each had an ability and those abilities needed to be used to win, so that made them all sort of necessary. But 3-4 named heroes were suddenly there at once with no introduction or spoken lines.
Anyway, hope this helps. Don't take anything I say incredibly serious or demanding, these are just my two cents. Looking forward to more!
Wow, this is very ambitious, but also awesome! You are a very motivated individual.
I have to say, I personally enjoyed Under a Crimson Moon quite a bit. You're right, the gameplay lacks that finale feel, but maybe it could be included as some sort of sequence between the current CM07 and CM09? It was sort of ambiguous what happens to Janus in that time before magically showing up at the northern base after meeting Quarinius in the abandoned base and this could serve that purpose.
Maybe Janus goes through the mission as a dream sequence (sort of like CM's trippy counterpart to Alzadhar), but it ends before the big reveal. Under a Crimson Moon definitely has that dream-like feel to it. Then he goes on to CM09 followed by the big reveal cinematic. You had talked about including more hints throughout the campaign, maybe the current CM10 could be tweaked for that?
EDIT: Also, the differing viewpoints is a great idea and also a callback to the Brood War days where you didn't want to kill Fenix, but that was the mission objective! You didn't want to kill Khalai survivors as the UED in order to get Mensk and Raynor, but that was the mission objective! This also serves to humanize the other factions and expand the plot overall with more cool tidbits.
Unacceptable. You can't just put your Starcraft responsibilities aside when real life comes up.
Haha, but really, take as long as you want/need - this is your hobby after all! It bothers me when I see commentors completely forget that. It's one thing to make new maps, fix bugs, and implement suggestions because a content creator wants to be friendly and also make their project better, as opposed to a commentor absolutely demanding a change because they insist something's not exactly how they want it.
Yeah, I was leaning towards not spoiling for myself until it's done so now I definitely will wait :) Good luck finding another tester if you end up needing one!
I finished recording Amber Sun last night. Just WOW. Incredible. I don't know if there are tester spots open for AE, nor can I decide if I'd want to if there are. Because - I'm unsure if I'd rather wait for the months it will take you to finish AE before playing any of the maps (as I'll be recording/uploading them of course!) so that they will all be un-spoiled for me like CM and AS were when I recorded them!
The reveal AFTER mission 9 is a really nice change that fits way better! I already recorded that mission; I'll have to talk about this at the beginning of Amber Sun.
0
That second screen capture looks awesome
0
What is wrong with the end of the briefings?!?!?!? I'm already upset about it.
0
Started a showcasing of your latest version! Do you think 0.2.299 will be pushed to us before next Wednesday for me to be able to do Mission 3?
0
He told us he would be making a Mapster page after finishing up Act 1, which I think is 14 missions. Right now it's only on the Arcade.
0
Yeah, I'd definitely put this up there alongside some of the best custom single player content I've showcased. The mapmaker is sending me Mission 9 in advance so I can tack it on to my current playthrough this week (I'm the Youtube channel MaskedImposter was talking about above), but then we'll probably have awhile to wait for the next few maps.
0
I agree with some of the feedback above. Personally, I had no problem with multiple heroes with multiple abilities; I rather liked it actually, though maybe this gets too challenging for other players (#humblebrag). You provided an ample amount of easy enemy waves to mess around and learn before things get more challenging, which is why I think it works just fine. The mission can be completed without having to tab through and use everything super-effectively anyway.
I also have no issue with the length considering this is not advertised as a campaign. If you do have plans to make this into a campaign, I think you could make this into 2 or even 3 missions if you change/add some content to flesh them out into two separate maps for sure!
Some of the cliff edges tripped me up - I think EivindL has a good idea with using fog to emphasize the canyons more. Overall, a really good, fun map with a lot of potential if you ever want to make it into a larger series!
0
FYI, the Cerebrate in Episode 2 is killed by Tassadar between the canon episodes 2 and 3. The Cerebrate of canon episode 6 is a different Cerebrate that Kerrigan eventually kills when she eradicates all the remaining Cerebrates according to Blizzard lore. Maybe there could be a story of the Cerebrate before she kills it or something.
The Executor from episode 3 is Artanis I'm pretty sure, and in Episode 4 is Selendis, so these have sort of been covered by existing lore.
0
I just played most of the new Mission 1 and I liked it a lot. I chose Hard difficulty and it felt very balanced for what I would consider 'Hard' from a SC2 campaign perspective (on the Casual, Normal, Hard, Brutal scale). Well done! What is the intended play speed of these maps? Some notes:
-I very much liked the opening cinematic after diving down to the planet
-The Debug/Error checkbox was still visible for me, albeit toggled off
-The cinematics throughout were not too long, and were scattered in with gameplay so it never felt that they interrupted the mission; they kept things fresh and delivered exposition at a pace that felt right
-Re: the destroyed vehicles, you may have to replace them with doodads rather than the actual unit models
-The shape of the path taken is very straight from turn to turn, maybe consider adding a gentle curve or zigzag to the more straightforward canyons. You could leave the villages where they are, but make the path less perfectly straight. The straightness I'm referring to is more obvious on the minimap. The attack trigger locations would need shifted along with this though which I know could be a slight pain.
-I went to the training grounds and liked the extra dialogue that could be considered hidden. I was excited that maybe I'd get some sort of extra equipment, but instead was greeted by Nydus Worms that spewed out Banelings, killing half my group. I like the attack that went with it, but maybe add some reward for going down there.
-I actually ended up losing to the Roach/Baneling attack about 75% of the way back because I'm tired and also not exactly a crack player. I like the need for micro here! I'll have to go back and finish the mission tomorrow, but wanted to report this stuff before I forgot.
-I like the premise of the story, as well as the dialogue. The group communicates like an actual military unit, and not just rednecks in space (as was presented in the SC2 campaigns). I was left intrigued as to what will end up happening! The only thing that held me back just a tad was an excess of named heroes. Granted, they each had an ability and those abilities needed to be used to win, so that made them all sort of necessary. But 3-4 named heroes were suddenly there at once with no introduction or spoken lines.
Anyway, hope this helps. Don't take anything I say incredibly serious or demanding, these are just my two cents. Looking forward to more!
0
Wow, this is very ambitious, but also awesome! You are a very motivated individual.
I have to say, I personally enjoyed Under a Crimson Moon quite a bit. You're right, the gameplay lacks that finale feel, but maybe it could be included as some sort of sequence between the current CM07 and CM09? It was sort of ambiguous what happens to Janus in that time before magically showing up at the northern base after meeting Quarinius in the abandoned base and this could serve that purpose.
Maybe Janus goes through the mission as a dream sequence (sort of like CM's trippy counterpart to Alzadhar), but it ends before the big reveal. Under a Crimson Moon definitely has that dream-like feel to it. Then he goes on to CM09 followed by the big reveal cinematic. You had talked about including more hints throughout the campaign, maybe the current CM10 could be tweaked for that?
EDIT: Also, the differing viewpoints is a great idea and also a callback to the Brood War days where you didn't want to kill Fenix, but that was the mission objective! You didn't want to kill Khalai survivors as the UED in order to get Mensk and Raynor, but that was the mission objective! This also serves to humanize the other factions and expand the plot overall with more cool tidbits.
0
My uploads are becoming obsolete! Maybe before AE comes out, I will stitch together something showing these changes as a video.
0
This is great!
0
Unacceptable. You can't just put your Starcraft responsibilities aside when real life comes up.
Haha, but really, take as long as you want/need - this is your hobby after all! It bothers me when I see commentors completely forget that. It's one thing to make new maps, fix bugs, and implement suggestions because a content creator wants to be friendly and also make their project better, as opposed to a commentor absolutely demanding a change because they insist something's not exactly how they want it.
0
Yeah, I was leaning towards not spoiling for myself until it's done so now I definitely will wait :) Good luck finding another tester if you end up needing one!
0
I finished recording Amber Sun last night. Just WOW. Incredible. I don't know if there are tester spots open for AE, nor can I decide if I'd want to if there are. Because - I'm unsure if I'd rather wait for the months it will take you to finish AE before playing any of the maps (as I'll be recording/uploading them of course!) so that they will all be un-spoiled for me like CM and AS were when I recorded them!
0
@EivindL: Go
The reveal AFTER mission 9 is a really nice change that fits way better! I already recorded that mission; I'll have to talk about this at the beginning of Amber Sun.