SC2Mapster

So I'm on Act 1, mission 3, playing on Brutal. Think this mission needs some more tuning. The second Stryker segment in particular, because the first time I went through, it was close, but I made it through. That was apparently a fluke. When I later realized I had to restart due to wasting too much time, it took me multiple tries to get through because the widow mines don't kill the bot fast enough a lot of the time. There was one instance where the bot lost track of Stryker, my last remaining unit after it killed the others, and it... ran out of attack range of the mines. When I tried to lure it back in, it just killed him. In another, the mines pushed it into the corner where I was hiding him and it killed him anyway.

The only way I found I could consistently get through, was to use my marauders as decoys to hopefully pull it to the right where it gets stuck on the warehouses, instead of wandering towards Stryker. Then it's just waiting for the mines close to it to rearm and finish it off... which feels more than a bit silly, picturing the 'beast of Stratbough' quivering in a corner while waiting for the mines to finish off the scary robot.

Either the mines need to fire faster, do more damage per shot, or need to be positioned forward more. Having your ability to proceed largely based on RNG feels gross to play.

Add on to that, the continually stacking attack waves from the north that spawn in constantly and not being able to just ignore my main command center to finish off the final base when it was down to a handful of structures, and it just felt frustrating, not fun to play. There was on especially infuriating moment where an enemy artillery strike started right when half of my forward army was being slowed by enemy marauders and I lost about a third of my attack force.

I eventually beat it, but it was exhausting, and not in a good way. I like high difficulty, but this felt less like a test of my abilities as a player, and more like just a test of my patience. The first map was hard, but it felt good to figure out how to win without medics. The second map was likewise fine, even if the upgrade disparity and not having bunkers made every engagement a bloodbath, I just powered through that with high production.

I like the marines of my main force being able to drop turrets, but 3 as a maximum feels a bit too restrictive. Especially when I'm pushing into the rebel outposts while also defending the increasingly large northern attacks. Even just bumping it up to 4 or 5 would feel better.

In reply to draelvik:

 Follow up comment regarding mission 4, also on Brutal (and a bit of Hard, after switching between the two to compare them):

The micro segment running from the vikings feels like a bit too much. Adding marauders to the drop-pods causes too much wasted time, even comboing the grenade with snipe. I did eventually make it through that segment, but not without a lot of quicksaving and reloading, with both of my heroes at maybe 10% HP.

As for the base segment... on Brutal, playing by the game's rules and how you seem to want us to play, it seems impossible to deal with. Even once I knew the order in which enemy attack waves would arrive and alternating my starting marines (only 8, when there were at least 3 dozen just before this segment started feels weird) and SCVs. By the time the first Viking drop arrives, I just didn't have enough time to properly build up a forward defense, let alone have units ready to receive 2 vikings without suffering massive losses in marines and/or SCVs, which I can't recoup before the next set of attacks arrive, and 3 more vikings land in my mineral line. At first, I wrote it off as impossible and bumped it down to Hard, which was almost insultingly easy by comparison up until the base segment.

It was during that run that I wondered something about the siege tanks bombarding me from the other side of the river... and as an experiment, I reloaded back to the start of the base segment, salvaged my four starting bunkers, and rebuilt them further back. Turns out the tanks never move across the bridge, so I just ignored them for the rest of the game. I didn't even really need the siege tank and widow mines I got from the optional objective (and only had about 2 minutes left by the time I got them anyway). With that in mind, I tried the same trick on Brutal and the results were similarly staggering in how much it trivialized the mission. Tightening up the defense line made dealing with the normal attack waves much easier, and I rarely lost a bunker, even if it meant having about a fourth of my SCVs on constant repair duty. I never really felt threatened the entire time, and like on Hard, I didn't even need the siege tank or widow mines and only had less than 2 minutes left when I had enough reapers to secure them.

With all of that said, I'm assuming you don't want us essentially not playing one of the map's threat mechanics. If we're meant to deal with the tanks, then I feel like the addition of the spawned-in vikings is a bit much, at least in number. On Hard, there's only one, then two, then one again that drop in. On Brutal, the two that spawn in initially is fine, but three dropping into your mineral line feels excessive, especially since we can't even target them before they start landing. It feels silly that my missile turrets essentially can't do anything about flyers just zooming into the middle of my base, especially when we're dealing with banshees on top of that. The timing between attack waves is likewise unforgiving, and if both bunkers on one front fall, there's never time to rebuild them, especially if a siege tank is still in play. About the only thing I can say I'm happy this map doesn't do, is flood the player's base with everything on the map like some other timed defense missions seemed to love doing.

I have to say, the new release mission is a brain teaser. Not because the mission is wonderful or because the cinematic is fantastic, but because I can see the effort you put into, story, camera angles, and the experience I had watching Jay play it. Great work, my friend; I'm excited for the release as well as the upcoming additional missions in Act 3.

In reply to CooperHawkesOdyssey:

Even getting last 3 missions of Act II would be just wonderful, for good act closure.

The last mission was really something.

hey buddy good to see you are releasing a new mission. Hope you are doing okay waiting for the franchise's new mission soon :D

Jayborino has just played your unreleased last mission and says he was blown away and it's a real treat. Hope to see it released soon!
Thanks you for your work, Luis - it surely belongs to "Greatest Hits" of custom campaigns not only in SC2 but in RTS in general.  You made so many people happy with Odyssey, man.

In reply to CooperHawkesOdyssey:

Of course there's a lot of people who value your effort. Check Jay's stream right now, he'll stream this mission.
It's not even started yet but about a hundred people are there, waiting already.

It's really big for custom content community.

Hello CooperHawkesOdyssey, first of all thank you very much for this wonderful campaign that you have brought us. I relay enjoyed this so much.I hope that Act 2 will continue at some point and that the motivation will return. Regardless of this, have a nice day. Cheers from Germany

hey cooper how is the odyssey campaign going you do not need to rush on your work man 

but i am curious about the progress for the upcoming missions 

well i am waiting for a campaign called Invicta for more than a decade now so you do not need to rush on your work.

Have a nice day man :)

In reply to CooperHawkesOdyssey:

 Don't worry dude. No need to be burnt out of your big project!

Hello!  Any news about the mission 11?

An act 3 is excepted?

I love this campaign. Good gameplay and story. i am hyped for the next missions.