Good choice with Annihilation. I think Dudki's macro maps are noticeably more challenging than typical Blizzard maps when playing on equal difficulty settings, good luck! If you can finish Annihilation on Brutal, you'll be ok with Hammer of Dawn for sure :)
My brain is tied between Shadow of the Xel'Naga and LifeForce, but my heart says Amber Sun so I'll explain my thoughts on that one.
A lot of folks are mentioning Perfect Soldiers and I played them when they were technically separate campaigns, so I'll stick with Amber Sun, the middle campaign. The missions are unique, the story is engaging, and the challenge felt just right to push my abilities without being obnoxious. When I talk about unique missions, I mean they changed the way you play - remember there was very, very little data editing in Perfect Soldiers. So, even using the vanilla SC2 tech trees, the maps were designed creatively in ways that remained incredibly engaging. EivindL just had/has a real knack for creating encounters that pressure the player and feel incredibly rewarding when completed. I'm not really even sure a better way to describe them other than 'They just feel right'.
I think it will vary. I know some like the Queen, Corsair, and Reaver are being replaced with their respective LotV models. The controversial (if you could even call it that) one is the Dragoon and they've chosen to use their existing one. I personally like their one better than the LotV asset when it comes to best representing the SC1 Dragoon, but at the end of the day I'm pretty ambivalent.
It depends on why it is long. If it's one big macro map where the conditions do not change and it's just a grindy push to slowly smash enemy bases, then 30-40 minutes of gameplay (not including cutscenes) should be good enough. If it takes longer, then odds are there is something that is making the map frustratingly annoying and prohibits timely progress. All Build/Destroy maps that I've played that go past 40 minutes start to feel like a chore.
Keep in mind that once the player gets over the initial hurdle of getting rid of one enemy base, the map becomes easier as there will theoretically be less production for the enemy to attack with. Unless some other mechanic is introduced, it's just a time consuming trek to the end. A lot of the original SC1 maps come to mind... think of Omega where once you put a dent in one of the three enemies, the map is basically over as it just gets easier and easier, yet will still take a bunch of time to clean the map up and win.
On the other hand, there are plenty of things to do that can vary up the standard Build/Destroy map so it's hard to put a time limit on it.
I think SotX did great at having failsafes (OutsiderXE did this in his WC3 campaigns as well), but most of those are not traditional RTS-type maps. It's a lot different when adding something along the lines of a Resurrection Stone for a hero that dies, versus a checkpoint for an RTS macro map. I'm honestly not sure if it's possible to create force autosaves in usermade maps, but I assume no simply because no one has ever done it. With the complexity of map triggering, I think a checkpoint system (outside of forcing saves) is simply not feasible especially when you think about how difficult it is to simply skip cutscenes as you have to meticulously update all of the triggers.
No one is wrong to say that it's on the creator to try to do this, but it's definitely not something that can be realistically expected based on the amount of time it would take given the tools. I'm no mapmaker, though cost/benefit of this is to either spend dozens and dozens of hours to add a checkpoint system by resetting/moving triggers with very rigorous testing as this is pretty likely to break stuff VERSUS the player hitting Ctrl+Q once in a while. So, again, both sides of the argument are technically valid and I would really really like to see a solid answer on whether forcing autosaves is even possible, but I sympathize that the trigger work just to circumvent a lack of quicksaving would be crazy in most cases.
Mass Recall 6.0 should be out within maybe a week or two! I plan on making a new series for it and I assume there will be a 6.1 as I progress. I'm part of their beta testing and can see the issues list so I know nothing should be overtly broken, hence I plan on starting very soon after it's release rather than waiting for the first patch. I've considered playing SC1 simultaneously, releasing those videos on the same day, but that's also a pretty big time commitment.
My Replicant showcase series is finishing up this week and I'm going to play the newest 3 Silent Scream maps after. I predict Mass Recall being released by then and will start it at that point. If it gets pushed out there's a new Marauders map and a new Annihilation map as well. Mass Recall will be a very long series and there may be weeks where I do 2 a week instead of 3 so that I can open a day up for other things at my discretion. I could also leave a gap between each of the 6 campaigns for other videos. This will allow for a lot of the in progress stuff to be worked on though and I look forward to playing them when the time comes!
Wow, I feel like this has really flown under the radar! I may be able to provide some lines for a relatively small to medium sized role, but am by no means professional nor do I have any experience with sound editing - you would have to apply any filters you're looking for. Do you plan on releasing any of the maps for people to try before the voices are added?
Would it be ok if we use the first map for the next bi-weekly testing thread? Could be good for a little more exposure and feedback if you're interested.
This a shot in the dark, but for Redler and Edhriano have you made sure that the editor is not being blocked by an OS firewall of some sort that could have stopped it from downloading dependencies?
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MMMM now this is some good stuff!
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It's a demo campaign for the original SC. Blizzard released them as UMS maps and they are canon.
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Good choice with Annihilation. I think Dudki's macro maps are noticeably more challenging than typical Blizzard maps when playing on equal difficulty settings, good luck! If you can finish Annihilation on Brutal, you'll be ok with Hammer of Dawn for sure :)
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My brain is tied between Shadow of the Xel'Naga and LifeForce, but my heart says Amber Sun so I'll explain my thoughts on that one.
A lot of folks are mentioning Perfect Soldiers and I played them when they were technically separate campaigns, so I'll stick with Amber Sun, the middle campaign. The missions are unique, the story is engaging, and the challenge felt just right to push my abilities without being obnoxious. When I talk about unique missions, I mean they changed the way you play - remember there was very, very little data editing in Perfect Soldiers. So, even using the vanilla SC2 tech trees, the maps were designed creatively in ways that remained incredibly engaging. EivindL just had/has a real knack for creating encounters that pressure the player and feel incredibly rewarding when completed. I'm not really even sure a better way to describe them other than 'They just feel right'.
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@nolanstar: Go
Sounds cool! What about sending me a replay to cast?
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@QueenGambit: Go
I think it will vary. I know some like the Queen, Corsair, and Reaver are being replaced with their respective LotV models. The controversial (if you could even call it that) one is the Dragoon and they've chosen to use their existing one. I personally like their one better than the LotV asset when it comes to best representing the SC1 Dragoon, but at the end of the day I'm pretty ambivalent.
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I'll be putting the VODs of our SCU adventures on Youtube soon as well
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It depends on why it is long. If it's one big macro map where the conditions do not change and it's just a grindy push to slowly smash enemy bases, then 30-40 minutes of gameplay (not including cutscenes) should be good enough. If it takes longer, then odds are there is something that is making the map frustratingly annoying and prohibits timely progress. All Build/Destroy maps that I've played that go past 40 minutes start to feel like a chore.
Keep in mind that once the player gets over the initial hurdle of getting rid of one enemy base, the map becomes easier as there will theoretically be less production for the enemy to attack with. Unless some other mechanic is introduced, it's just a time consuming trek to the end. A lot of the original SC1 maps come to mind... think of Omega where once you put a dent in one of the three enemies, the map is basically over as it just gets easier and easier, yet will still take a bunch of time to clean the map up and win.
On the other hand, there are plenty of things to do that can vary up the standard Build/Destroy map so it's hard to put a time limit on it.
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The more the merrier
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I think SotX did great at having failsafes (OutsiderXE did this in his WC3 campaigns as well), but most of those are not traditional RTS-type maps. It's a lot different when adding something along the lines of a Resurrection Stone for a hero that dies, versus a checkpoint for an RTS macro map. I'm honestly not sure if it's possible to create force autosaves in usermade maps, but I assume no simply because no one has ever done it. With the complexity of map triggering, I think a checkpoint system (outside of forcing saves) is simply not feasible especially when you think about how difficult it is to simply skip cutscenes as you have to meticulously update all of the triggers.
No one is wrong to say that it's on the creator to try to do this, but it's definitely not something that can be realistically expected based on the amount of time it would take given the tools. I'm no mapmaker, though cost/benefit of this is to either spend dozens and dozens of hours to add a checkpoint system by resetting/moving triggers with very rigorous testing as this is pretty likely to break stuff VERSUS the player hitting Ctrl+Q once in a while. So, again, both sides of the argument are technically valid and I would really really like to see a solid answer on whether forcing autosaves is even possible, but I sympathize that the trigger work just to circumvent a lack of quicksaving would be crazy in most cases.
0
Mass Recall 6.0 should be out within maybe a week or two! I plan on making a new series for it and I assume there will be a 6.1 as I progress. I'm part of their beta testing and can see the issues list so I know nothing should be overtly broken, hence I plan on starting very soon after it's release rather than waiting for the first patch. I've considered playing SC1 simultaneously, releasing those videos on the same day, but that's also a pretty big time commitment.
My Replicant showcase series is finishing up this week and I'm going to play the newest 3 Silent Scream maps after. I predict Mass Recall being released by then and will start it at that point. If it gets pushed out there's a new Marauders map and a new Annihilation map as well. Mass Recall will be a very long series and there may be weeks where I do 2 a week instead of 3 so that I can open a day up for other things at my discretion. I could also leave a gap between each of the 6 campaigns for other videos. This will allow for a lot of the in progress stuff to be worked on though and I look forward to playing them when the time comes!
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Wow, I feel like this has really flown under the radar! I may be able to provide some lines for a relatively small to medium sized role, but am by no means professional nor do I have any experience with sound editing - you would have to apply any filters you're looking for. Do you plan on releasing any of the maps for people to try before the voices are added?
0
Would it be ok if we use the first map for the next bi-weekly testing thread? Could be good for a little more exposure and feedback if you're interested.
0
This a shot in the dark, but for Redler and Edhriano have you made sure that the editor is not being blocked by an OS firewall of some sort that could have stopped it from downloading dependencies?
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Wow! This looks great so far, it seems like you've already completed a great deal of work.