So I'm not supposed to push into the base south of your eastern expansion? I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go to that base. That's the only way I can think of to get to the south eastern generator thing
Does it cost health or is it basically just Frenzy but for Krayen.
edit: Just made an attempt at completing mission 13. I keep getting smoked by the southern bases. Complete army wipes with not enough income and larva to re-max at a reliable time.
Mission 11: Yeah, I played it but didn't really get much out of it. There was a good amount of talking and lore and grinding that I didn't really pay attention to. I listened to a podcast while playing. It's about the same experience as when I was still playing MMOs. The nostalgic feelings it gave me were hard to describe. In any case, good job.
Mission 12:
This is the first Zerg mission in this campaign that I legitimately enjoyed even though I played it in what could possibly be the most boring way possible.
First off, let me make some comments about the change in game mechanics. It was weird and interesting, being limited to resource pick-ups and a single base. I'm not entirely sure if I liked the change but it mixed things up and gave me a different experience. Defensive buildings and the Nydus Network being on different build hotkeys threw me off but nothing too drastic.
Now, as for the actual mission, I was quite happy with it for a number of reasons.
For one, Krayen is basically pre-Zerus Kerrigan now. 500 health, lots of energy, can kill things quickly with a single ability. I like how versatile he's become. No longer is he restricted to a support role due to his less than ideal health and energy, he is now an offensive tank with really good sustain.
Early on, the strategy I went for was pretty much the same as everyone else: Roaches. They have regen when they burrow, have high armor and health, and deal a good amount of damage. Weirdly enough, Corpser Roaches are so much better in this mission than in the HotS campaign. It's mostly due to the fact that you can't be constantly making Roaches. So having units that make more units for free is has more utility than having a good unit that becomes progressively better the more you have of them. I also added some Hydralisks and ran around the map with a small group of units. Literally like HotS. I loved it.
Later, I started making Mutalisks. Sundering Glaives. Oh how I love that upgrade. I used them mostly for defense and didn't really roam the map with them. I wanted a big enough ball for what I took the objectives
The strategy I went for was possibly the safest and at the same time, the most boring. Instead of taking out the Hatcheries one island at a time, I decided to clear the entire map, cover it with creep, and then take the Hatcheries one after another.
During the defense sections, I loved playing around with K'zool. She's basically a one-unit army. I almost didn't need my other units. My favorite ability is definitely Razor Swarm, or at least that what it looked like it was. The area damage over time + slow made basically demolished anything trying to go through the choke points.
Overall a fairly fun mission. First one from the Zerg that I liked. Congratulations.
(I feel like I wasn't able to say all I wanted to say with this so I may make a follow up post for when I better understand how I feel about mission 12)
I'm still a little miffed by the use of "all time" since people's tastes change as they grow older. In any case, here's my 3x3 of my current favorite movies. BTW, none of this is in order
I'd also like to point out that it's entirely possible that they had no idea how these mappers implemented their systems into the game. Blizzard may very well have made their own similar system. Telling them to give credit sounds a little high and mighty.
Also, just from watching replays, Heptacraft is about as balanced as the regular game, possibly less so due to it being relatively new. The meta has not been established yet and it doesn't seem like many high level players are trying it out. Really, it's all a matter of when players find something broken and exploit it.
Okay, finally finished Mission 10. I'm ready to start putting out videos again.
Anyway, that was a really long mission. My recording (unedited) is nearly 2 hours, which is just insane.
The installation mission was once again, very fun and I actually like it more than Mission 9. And the great thing is, there are almost no "gotcha" moments at all. Nearly all engagements can be analyzed before initiating meaning there's almost never a time where you lose a bunch of units to things you couldn't possibly prepare for. And when there are gotcha moments, it's usually in a relatively safe environment, where you don't have to deal with enemy units.
The puzzle with the doors is very meta and kinda stupid when you think about it. Blocking the door from opening by putting a unit over it. It's an amusing solution but sort of fourth-wall breaking. That Zealot I had path block should have been crushed. And yet it wasn't. Oh well.
The only thing I used the High Templar for for the entire duration of the micro section was for Feedback. I find it interesting that all the Terran air units that can shoot ground have energy so those units plus the Thor are the only thing the HT are useful for.
Khaduros' Blade Barrage attack has an unfortunately long casting time. The wind up just prevents me from being able to utilize his ability the same way I used Kerrigan's Psionic Shift - that is to say, using it to escape enemy fire. But then again, his ability is significantly more powerful so it's more of an engagement initiator ability than retreat or traversal.
You can't skip the drop ship cutscenes.
The macro section, I explained my strategy and really I just did the same thing except making more Zealots along with Immortals and Scouts.
Originally, my idea was to get a bunch of Phoenix to help kill air units outside of Stalker range but it wasn't quite as effective as I hoped. However, the Scouts were significantly more useful against the enemy Guardian waves than I first realized. I wasn't able to see what their stats were, but two Scouts could very easily take on four or so Guardians, especially with good micro. It really helps that they're very tanky.
Because I focused on units more than static defense, I had an overall bigger army but my forward defenses fell two minutes earlier. I feel that two columns of four Cannons were the minimum amount of defense I had to make to hold the forward choke for as long as I did. Any more would result in the same problem as before where I didn't have enough Zealots. Too little and I'd have wasted my money since it'd just fall when they started sending Aberrations my way.
In my recording, I wasn't quite able to utilize my Sentries and High Templar as well as I did in my previous attempts though I was able to Feedback an Infestor and storm a good number of units before that came at me in full force.
I finished the section barely holding on, though I was behind on my upgrades so that may have been the cause.
Also understand that I had like 80 supply worth of units, all of which were comprised of Stalkers and Immortals. I had like no Zealots at point my forward defenses got crushed so the only melee unit I had was Khaduros and he gets absolutely massacred every time. Literally, the only thing I think I had to counter Zerglings were Khaduros and Psi-Storm/Force Field.
Ah, didn't notice that. Sorry. And the answer is "yes."
Also, currently editing my reviews for missions 4 and 5. They should be up for tomorrow. Still haven't recorded mission 3 yet. Currently uploading mission 1 along with Annihilation 7.
I get the feeling this is going to be an FTL-esque Last Stand where you're supposed to kill a giant flag ship while trying to survive a constant onslaught of enemy forces. Maybe we're going to be fighting another Annihilator.
I keep forgetting to keep him out of the battles. He's melee so the moment my forces get attacked within his vision radius, he charges in and gets himself killed. When I remember to, I put him on hold position and really only use him for shield recharge. The problem is, he immediately moves in and attacks the moment I recharge shields. I'll try to put him on a hotkey and see how well it works.
In the in-game menu, the hotkey for Select Warp Gates is in "global hotkeys." I don't want to set it to just W since it'll mess with Voradin and Khaduros' abilities but I don't really have any other key that I will absolutely will not use. Maybe I'll set it to tilde ( ` ) for a similar level of easy access.
If it's a base defense mission then I'm very very excited. The last difficult Terran defense missions I've played that didn't completely frustrate me was Assume the Position from Crimson Moon and Desert Dogs from Amber Sun. The former, everything went mostly well, with a slight hiccup involving a fleet of battle cruisers destroying my eastern defensive line. The latter, I barely got by with the skin on my teeth, saved only by that last Gorgon flying over the northern most generator I needed to defend. If its anything like those, I'm in for a treat.
Also, I'm finishing up on mission 10. I can't get past those last 5 minutes because Khaduros always dies to that wave of Lurkers, Zerglings, Queens, and Ultralisks. Every time, at the 5 minute mark, it's always Khaduros that dies.
Also, I was able to get away with significantly less units than would be ideal by building defensive structures in that choke point before the fork leading to either my base or the device. I had a force of 2 High Templar, 2 Sentries, and 6 Stalkers at the choke, making liberal use of Force Field and Psi-Storm. At some point, the attacks became too constant and I wasn't able to properly defend requiring me to fall back to the device. I also think that I might not have made enough probes as I was running on 18 workers as opposed to 27 (multiplayer saturation rather than campaign).
Finally, Warp Gates being Shift+W is really fucking me up as I'm forced to hot key my Gates to 3 as opposed to just pressing W like in the campaign. I realize now why all of the heroes in LotV have abilities mapped to only Q and E.
I'm a big fan of exploration in games and back tracking and general traversal of densely detailed terrain doesn't bother me that much. One of my favorites games is Metroid Prime 2, which went a little overboard with its back tracking. I could spend hours in upper Torvus Bog, just going from room to room and enjoying the sights. Mission 9 has elements that appeal to that part of me.
Personally, I'd like more boss fights like the Malrick fight: A boss with simple attacks that can be used in multiple different situations. You can even make it more difficult as the fight progresses. Increase the complexity by adding more attack patterns or simply increase the speed in which attacks are made. It's all a matter of testing and fine-tuning. Personally, I love it when a boss progressively gets wilder and wilder as the fight progresses until at 5% you're barely holding on even as the boss is just a few more attacks left before it's defeated (of course, that's a thing that happens in bullet hell games and it's usually reserved for the final boss).
Eh, I'm not really blaming you. There's always room for improvements but it usually isn't truly visible until the work is finished. Besides, much of my complaints with the story's execution (other than my weirdly specific tastes) is born from how well done it was in the first few missions.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
So I'm not supposed to push into the base south of your eastern expansion? I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to go to that base. That's the only way I can think of to get to the south eastern generator thing
0
Does it cost health or is it basically just Frenzy but for Krayen.
edit: Just made an attempt at completing mission 13. I keep getting smoked by the southern bases. Complete army wipes with not enough income and larva to re-max at a reliable time.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
Yo, finished mission 11 and 12.
Mission 11:
Yeah, I played it but didn't really get much out of it. There was a good amount of talking and lore and grinding that I didn't really pay attention to. I listened to a podcast while playing. It's about the same experience as when I was still playing MMOs. The nostalgic feelings it gave me were hard to describe. In any case, good job.
Mission 12:
This is the first Zerg mission in this campaign that I legitimately enjoyed even though I played it in what could possibly be the most boring way possible.
First off, let me make some comments about the change in game mechanics. It was weird and interesting, being limited to resource pick-ups and a single base. I'm not entirely sure if I liked the change but it mixed things up and gave me a different experience. Defensive buildings and the Nydus Network being on different build hotkeys threw me off but nothing too drastic.
Now, as for the actual mission, I was quite happy with it for a number of reasons.
For one, Krayen is basically pre-Zerus Kerrigan now. 500 health, lots of energy, can kill things quickly with a single ability. I like how versatile he's become. No longer is he restricted to a support role due to his less than ideal health and energy, he is now an offensive tank with really good sustain.
Early on, the strategy I went for was pretty much the same as everyone else: Roaches. They have regen when they burrow, have high armor and health, and deal a good amount of damage. Weirdly enough, Corpser Roaches are so much better in this mission than in the HotS campaign. It's mostly due to the fact that you can't be constantly making Roaches. So having units that make more units for free is has more utility than having a good unit that becomes progressively better the more you have of them. I also added some Hydralisks and ran around the map with a small group of units. Literally like HotS. I loved it.
Later, I started making Mutalisks. Sundering Glaives. Oh how I love that upgrade. I used them mostly for defense and didn't really roam the map with them. I wanted a big enough ball for what I took the objectives
The strategy I went for was possibly the safest and at the same time, the most boring. Instead of taking out the Hatcheries one island at a time, I decided to clear the entire map, cover it with creep, and then take the Hatcheries one after another.
During the defense sections, I loved playing around with K'zool. She's basically a one-unit army. I almost didn't need my other units. My favorite ability is definitely Razor Swarm, or at least that what it looked like it was. The area damage over time + slow made basically demolished anything trying to go through the choke points.
Overall a fairly fun mission. First one from the Zerg that I liked. Congratulations.
(I feel like I wasn't able to say all I wanted to say with this so I may make a follow up post for when I better understand how I feel about mission 12)
0
I've been having internet troubles for the past several days. I meant to have this up much sooner. In any case, here's the video
0
I'm still a little miffed by the use of "all time" since people's tastes change as they grow older. In any case, here's my 3x3 of my current favorite movies. BTW, none of this is in order
0
I'd also like to point out that it's entirely possible that they had no idea how these mappers implemented their systems into the game. Blizzard may very well have made their own similar system. Telling them to give credit sounds a little high and mighty.
Also, just from watching replays, Heptacraft is about as balanced as the regular game, possibly less so due to it being relatively new. The meta has not been established yet and it doesn't seem like many high level players are trying it out. Really, it's all a matter of when players find something broken and exploit it.
0
@houndofbaskerville: Go
You didn't need to explain the joke. I already knew it. Error 404 is "Not Found"
My comment was literally just a continuation of it....
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
Okay, finally finished Mission 10. I'm ready to start putting out videos again.
Anyway, that was a really long mission. My recording (unedited) is nearly 2 hours, which is just insane.
The installation mission was once again, very fun and I actually like it more than Mission 9. And the great thing is, there are almost no "gotcha" moments at all. Nearly all engagements can be analyzed before initiating meaning there's almost never a time where you lose a bunch of units to things you couldn't possibly prepare for. And when there are gotcha moments, it's usually in a relatively safe environment, where you don't have to deal with enemy units.
The puzzle with the doors is very meta and kinda stupid when you think about it. Blocking the door from opening by putting a unit over it. It's an amusing solution but sort of fourth-wall breaking. That Zealot I had path block should have been crushed. And yet it wasn't. Oh well.
The only thing I used the High Templar for for the entire duration of the micro section was for Feedback. I find it interesting that all the Terran air units that can shoot ground have energy so those units plus the Thor are the only thing the HT are useful for.
Khaduros' Blade Barrage attack has an unfortunately long casting time. The wind up just prevents me from being able to utilize his ability the same way I used Kerrigan's Psionic Shift - that is to say, using it to escape enemy fire. But then again, his ability is significantly more powerful so it's more of an engagement initiator ability than retreat or traversal.
You can't skip the drop ship cutscenes.
The macro section, I explained my strategy and really I just did the same thing except making more Zealots along with Immortals and Scouts.
Originally, my idea was to get a bunch of Phoenix to help kill air units outside of Stalker range but it wasn't quite as effective as I hoped. However, the Scouts were significantly more useful against the enemy Guardian waves than I first realized. I wasn't able to see what their stats were, but two Scouts could very easily take on four or so Guardians, especially with good micro. It really helps that they're very tanky.
Because I focused on units more than static defense, I had an overall bigger army but my forward defenses fell two minutes earlier. I feel that two columns of four Cannons were the minimum amount of defense I had to make to hold the forward choke for as long as I did. Any more would result in the same problem as before where I didn't have enough Zealots. Too little and I'd have wasted my money since it'd just fall when they started sending Aberrations my way.
In my recording, I wasn't quite able to utilize my Sentries and High Templar as well as I did in my previous attempts though I was able to Feedback an Infestor and storm a good number of units before that came at me in full force.
I finished the section barely holding on, though I was behind on my upgrades so that may have been the cause.
0
@houndofbaskerville: Go
Eh, I can't find any joke there.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
Also understand that I had like 80 supply worth of units, all of which were comprised of Stalkers and Immortals. I had like no Zealots at point my forward defenses got crushed so the only melee unit I had was Khaduros and he gets absolutely massacred every time. Literally, the only thing I think I had to counter Zerglings were Khaduros and Psi-Storm/Force Field.
0
@EDHRIANO: Go
Ah, didn't notice that. Sorry. And the answer is "yes."
Also, currently editing my reviews for missions 4 and 5. They should be up for tomorrow. Still haven't recorded mission 3 yet. Currently uploading mission 1 along with Annihilation 7.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
I get the feeling this is going to be an FTL-esque Last Stand where you're supposed to kill a giant flag ship while trying to survive a constant onslaught of enemy forces. Maybe we're going to be fighting another Annihilator.
I keep forgetting to keep him out of the battles. He's melee so the moment my forces get attacked within his vision radius, he charges in and gets himself killed. When I remember to, I put him on hold position and really only use him for shield recharge. The problem is, he immediately moves in and attacks the moment I recharge shields. I'll try to put him on a hotkey and see how well it works.
In the in-game menu, the hotkey for Select Warp Gates is in "global hotkeys." I don't want to set it to just W since it'll mess with Voradin and Khaduros' abilities but I don't really have any other key that I will absolutely will not use. Maybe I'll set it to tilde ( ` ) for a similar level of easy access.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
If it's a base defense mission then I'm very very excited. The last difficult Terran defense missions I've played that didn't completely frustrate me was Assume the Position from Crimson Moon and Desert Dogs from Amber Sun. The former, everything went mostly well, with a slight hiccup involving a fleet of battle cruisers destroying my eastern defensive line. The latter, I barely got by with the skin on my teeth, saved only by that last Gorgon flying over the northern most generator I needed to defend. If its anything like those, I'm in for a treat.
Also, I'm finishing up on mission 10. I can't get past those last 5 minutes because Khaduros always dies to that wave of Lurkers, Zerglings, Queens, and Ultralisks. Every time, at the 5 minute mark, it's always Khaduros that dies.
Also, I was able to get away with significantly less units than would be ideal by building defensive structures in that choke point before the fork leading to either my base or the device. I had a force of 2 High Templar, 2 Sentries, and 6 Stalkers at the choke, making liberal use of Force Field and Psi-Storm. At some point, the attacks became too constant and I wasn't able to properly defend requiring me to fall back to the device. I also think that I might not have made enough probes as I was running on 18 workers as opposed to 27 (multiplayer saturation rather than campaign).
Finally, Warp Gates being Shift+W is really fucking me up as I'm forced to hot key my Gates to 3 as opposed to just pressing W like in the campaign. I realize now why all of the heroes in LotV have abilities mapped to only Q and E.
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
The first mission with a terran macro section since mission 5 and I won't be able to play it. I cry...
0
@DudkiSC2: Go
I'm a big fan of exploration in games and back tracking and general traversal of densely detailed terrain doesn't bother me that much. One of my favorites games is Metroid Prime 2, which went a little overboard with its back tracking. I could spend hours in upper Torvus Bog, just going from room to room and enjoying the sights. Mission 9 has elements that appeal to that part of me.
Personally, I'd like more boss fights like the Malrick fight: A boss with simple attacks that can be used in multiple different situations. You can even make it more difficult as the fight progresses. Increase the complexity by adding more attack patterns or simply increase the speed in which attacks are made. It's all a matter of testing and fine-tuning. Personally, I love it when a boss progressively gets wilder and wilder as the fight progresses until at 5% you're barely holding on even as the boss is just a few more attacks left before it's defeated (of course, that's a thing that happens in bullet hell games and it's usually reserved for the final boss).
Eh, I'm not really blaming you. There's always room for improvements but it usually isn't truly visible until the work is finished. Besides, much of my complaints with the story's execution (other than my weirdly specific tastes) is born from how well done it was in the first few missions.
@EDHRIANO: Go
Same. A lot of new maps I can't play because I don't have money