Starcraft 2: The Crystal Shards Campaign
This is a custom campaign starring Stetmann and his journeys after leaving the Hyperion.
Join Stetmann as he explores the stars for ancient Xel'Naga Crystal shards.
Level up Stetmann, your base, and armies with new tech and many challenges along the way!
Features:
- 3 (of 7) Planets available
- 9 (of 21) total Missions available
- Fully Voiced
- Original Soundtrack
- In-game Cinematics
- Upgrade your arsenal with Tech earned from various objectives
- Customize your perks and research capabilities
- Achievements
- Balanced for 4 difficulties ( Casual / Normal / Hard / Brutal)
- Archive mode (replay older missions with tech and units earned in later missions)
IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading from a previous release (e.g. v1.0), copy and REPLACE ALL of the files.
Every single map and mod file has been updated and is not reverse-compatible.
Do not worry, your campaign progress will not be affected by this overwrite.
1. Download the latest The Crystal Shards release
2. Open up your Starcraft 2 install directory (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft II )
3. Extract the `Maps` and `Mods` folders into the Starcraft 2 install directory *Note: You might need to manually create the `Mods` directory
4. Your file structure should look something like this:
That's it! You're ready to play!
There are two methods for how to launch the campaign.
It is important to always use the "Launcher" map instead of jumping directly into a mission. Skipping the launcher can result in incorrect loading or corrupted data for this campaign.
[OPTION 1] - Use the Editor
1. Open the Starcraft 2 Editor (Battle.net Launcher > Starcraft 2 > Launch Editor)
2. Open up the "Maps\TheCrystalShards\Launcher.SC2Map" local file
3. Press the "Test Document" button (the green SC2 button in the upper-right)
[OPTION 2] - Skip the Editor
1. Open up the Starcraft II install directory
2. Open up the "Support" folder (or "Support64" if you're on a X64 machine)
3. In a separate file explorer open up the "Starcraft II\Maps\TheCrystalShards" directory
4. Drag and drop the "Launcher.SC2Map" file on "SC2Switcher.exe"
Tip: You can make this even easier by creating a desktop shortcut of SC2Switcher.exe so you don't need 2 file explorers open.
Enjoy the campaign!
Discord:
Discuss the campaign, earn server achievements, and get cool strats on Discord!
https://discord.gg/WbepzGYrVB
Credits:
Campaign by Gemster312
Original Soundtrack by Shimshon the Gadite
Patreon:
All of my content is free for everyone to enjoy! However, it costs a lot of time and resources to make. If you'd like to help fund this passion project, I would greatly appreciate your donations. Even if you cannot, I still greatly appreciate you for reading this. Have a wonderful day!
https://patreon.com/Gemster312
Hey and just WOW! What a wonderfull game you made here first of all many thanks for that! I love it.
When will you made the rest of the campaign available to play please?
Cheers from Germany and have a great time!
Nice map man. I had fun. Sad to see not very much people play SC2 anymore.
Definitely best designed missions I've played in custom campaigns so far. Enjoyed beating it on brutal though it took quite some reloads. Especially was surprised with consistency of the difficulty, which is rare on custom maps. Considering the great mission variety this is a great feat to achieve.
Eager to finish the rest of the planets when they'll be out! My favorite mission was the one with the trenches filled with zerg.
Small nitpick: the mana restoration ability of Stetmann was literally never useful in the order of planet completion that I've chosen.
Edit 1: now that I think about, maybe it can be used to pump energy into the orbital? brb
Edit 2: no it can't (and that's a good thing for the balance). But turns out I forgot about banshees which has energy though they are unlocked way later than the mana recharge ability. Maybe swap its unlock place with Iron Will?
In reply to direday3:
Thank you so much! I am glad that my consistency in terms of difficulty, variety, and design has made for a fun experience :)
Yeah a lot of the abilities (e.g. energy nova and iron will) should get more use as you progress further into the campaign. Figured I'd start with more simple and easy-to-understand upgrades at first, and unlockable cool upgrades to avoid overwhelming players.
I appreciate the feedback!
Just played the newly updated world 2 and 3.
They're pretty great and the starting units given each mission is nice.
In reply to RageMast007:
Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to play and comment. The next update is deep in development. :)
Some players called WoL campaign as "Wings of Marines", and now we have even crazier marines, ahaha.
Cyclones counter vanguards is a good design, vikings and banshees collaborate to attack islands is also a good design, i really like these.
In reply to hydroaero:
Thank you! Glad you have been enjoying this :)
Excellent, very good map! I'm waiting for the sequel :)
In reply to shasta59280:
Thank you! Hoping to get the next release out before the end of the year. Glad you enjoyed the first world!
nice Try,
moving company is a nice way in mission 2。
I personally prefer not to develop it again within the game.
A super great game! Espacially the music and voice can bring a nice experience!!
In reply to bootcamp:
Thank you! Excited to develop more and bring new tracks in future updates :)
Nice campaign :3 keep working
Its get laggy in the mission 3, but is playable and enjoyable.
In reply to jashiko_kawashima:
Thank you!
Huh, I have not yet heard that report from others, but I'll see if I can do anything to improve performance. I appreciate it!
Great work! I've played 3 missions under brutal.
mission1: a little hard, load many times, to not lose any 45HP marine against 4-marine bunker
mission2: vary easy, never load, no attacking waves, only threat is ravens' missile, though 0weapon0armor VS 2w2a is annoying
mission3: very hard, load many times and maintain APM, for attacking come to 3 or 4 positions, and killing banelings timely can lead to very good result in each wave, vice versa.
Summarize
pro: rarely a medical soldier protagonist, very interesting
con (just personal opinion): marine&marauder are not very "worth-healed" as can easily killed even at full-HP, ones without stimpack is even less "worth-healed"; better give high HP healable units to player in next chapters, or Stetmann will be useless
Hope it can be a masterpiece when all chapters released!
In reply to hydroaero:
Thank you for playing and for the feedback!
I do think adding some Attack Waves to Mission 2 on Brutal might be a worthy addition. I'll look into that for a future release thanks for the tip.
Stimpacks will be an unlockable "Research Tech" on the next planet, so I hope that adds a fun layer of "worth-healing" when that releases :)
Thanks for the great wishes!
Played the first three missions. It's been a while to have played a great custom campaign even though mission 3 is pretty tough even on hard difficulty but still manageable, can't wait for the next update although I noticed a mistake here.
- Marine and Marauder can't use stimpack as the research for that ability is unavailable.
In reply to RageMast007:
Thanks for playing! Glad you enjoyed your experience :) Good reminder about the Stimpacks, it's a Research Tech opportunity in the next update, but it does seem I forgot to hide it on the units for this build. Thanks for pointing that out! Have a great day~
In reply to Gemster312:
This is literally one of the greatest campaigns ever created and rivals blizzard easily. It tingled almost every my kink but objectively it is worth its weight in gold by initiative and effort put into it alone. My admirations is based on how the creator approaches telling story by action and developing military potential by telling the story, cause and outcome, tactical needs and strategical goals.
For example when collecting samples for bonus upgrades in original sc2 campaign all blizz did was some hurr durr zurg semples herp derp protuss semples but here we have creative and unique scenarios tighten to the story that is being told and unravels additional narration before us. We recover scientific data from remains of previous expedition, we examine stetman`s favorite animal, we loot secret safes. Every time it is incorporated into the scenario and looks natural and belivebable in curent situation. Medic story is great and how she introduces technological advancement is great. Also the environment plays a role and i am big sucker for environmental mechanics. The desert planet has little resources and is shaped like a canyon in every mission by default because it is its personality. It can be explained by weather conditions and overall climate. I like the sandstorm play. The writing is so cool. Not my battle to fight - simple and rich. The goals of every scenario are cool. The reasons behind acquiring new vehicles are cool. Achievements are creative and actually want me to try to achieve them because mining minerals without additional cc but with a chain of bunkers looks like nice challenge and not only a colorful badge to acquire because something MUST be there because no everyone expect some silly achievement. The graphical design is professional to the point it looks like top tier company produced this campaign. The camp changes accordingly to the planet it is set on and the equipment collected are noticeable and praise worthy.