StarCraft II: Annihilation Campaign

Table of Contents

Current Status:

Mission 23 "Frontal Push" has officially been released. Let me know what you think!

Introduction:

This is my first serious map project for StarCraft II. I've always enjoyed the campaign aspect of StarCraft and have played through both the Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm campaigns several times, along with a multitude of different campaigns made by the public. I therefore decided it was time to create my own.

"Annihilation" is a 24 mission campaign with three different story perspectives that will intertwine into one final conclusion. Featuring high-quality terrain, lots of different characters as well as a wide variety of mission scenarios, this campaign, featuring 4 difficulty levels, will hopefully create an enjoyable experience for players of every skill level.

Link to the official Map Feedback thread can be found here.

Features:

Three seperate storylines intersecting and coming together into one final conclusion.
Play as both Terran, Zerg and Protoss.
Heavy focus on quality terrain and environments.
Custom soundtracks and several interesting Hero units.
24 missions pitting you up against many different challenges and mission scenarios.
A total of 14 boss battles pitting you up against a variety of different tacticts and strategies.

Story:

It all starts with Investigator Maxwell Reeves of the Spec-Ops: Infiltration Program, who sets surface on the planet Callithus IV to assist the Terran settlers with what initially appears to be a minor Zerg problem. However, they soon realize that events has been set in motion that will potentially change the fate of the universe, and it will be up to the different clans to work together against stopping this threat.

Missions:

Annihilation 01: Mindless Creatures - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 02: An Unfriendly Ally - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 03: The Idu'ran - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 04: Fallen Brethren - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 05: Departure - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 06: The Daggerfang - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 07: Homecoming - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 08: The Wandering Shadow - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 09: Bio-Weapons - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 10: Newfound Enemies - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 11: Ussorus - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 12: Reawakening - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 13: Facility 14A - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 14: The First Step - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 15: Entrance Into Risk - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 16: The Breach - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 17: Last Stand - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 18: A Major Downfall - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 19: Planetary Incursion - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 20: Sentient Reality - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 21: Mysterious Revelations - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 22: The United Forces - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 23: Frontal Push - Completed (RELEASE)
Annihilation 24: Edge of Annihilation - Releasing on Mon, December 17th.

Difficulty Levels:

This campaign contains 4 difficulty levels, ranging from Casual, Normal, Hard and Brutal. Your success in completing the individual missions on these difficulties greatly depends on your level of skill.

Casual: A difficulty requiring little to no multitasking and micro skills, featuring less enemies and focus on story.

Normal: A difficulty requiring minor multitasking and micro skills, featuring fewer enemies and focus on story and minor challenges.

Hard: A difficulty requiring good multitasking and micro skills, featuring a high number enemies and focus on challenges and entertainment.

Brutal: A difficulty requiring great multitasking and micro skills, featuring tremendously more enemies and heavy focus on challenge.

Troubleshooting:

You may have trouble opening these maps if you open them directly from the map itself. If you do have this issue and the map opens up as just an empty map, then I suggest you open it in the following way:

Open up the StarCraft II Editor.
Once finished, go to "Open".
Find the map in your catalog, and select it. Using this method to open any maps from the campaign should fix any issues you have with opening them.

Music

You may notice some of the music in the campaign are not from StarCraft, in fact, I focused heavily on the use of soundtracks to bring the campaign to life. If you wish to see a full list of all the tracks confirmed to be used, click here.

Credits:

Special thanks to the respected composers of the various different music soundtracks used in this campaign.
Special thanks to Thrikodias for the awesome custom models and units used in this campaign.
Special thanks to VastanX for creating the unique models for various Hero units used in this campaign.
Special thanks to all those who play and provide useful feedback to help improve these maps.
Special thanks to users JayborinoPlays, deltronLive, Redlerred7 xMasterKD and Palnai for playing and providing entertainment and feedback for this campaign.

Patch Notes:

There are currently no patches planned for the campaign.

Screenshots & Videos:

Comments

Archangelos
- Join Date: 12/22/2017
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#98 Archangelos

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Posted Dec 22, 2017
Mission 21 is fun, but 3 boss fights in one campaign does get tiring.

For the first boss fight, could you give a hint that only grenades can harm the boss, and that normal attacks and snipe don't work at all? I couldn't even kill him when he was red with my normal attacks.

I played on "hard," but it felt like brutal at times. The split map mechanic was good, but in the stealth section, I felt I was babysitting the non-ghost hero (can't remember his name), who contributed absolutely nothing to that section but needed to be hidden away so that no one would see him. Then I only need to babysit him a while after Reeves saw Rhik/Cowley through the window., and suddenly he was teleported to where Reeves was.

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Highlord_Alarak
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#99 Highlord_Alarak

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Posted Jan 5, 2018
In reply to Archangelos:

I think u missread the reduced dmg, the boss takes 60% less dmg when not cloaked. Ferring can be usefull to snipe enemys(with his greande) after they have been stunned by reeves. In the New version they have hold fire aswell.

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Archangelos
- Join Date: 12/22/2017
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#100 Archangelos

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Posted Jan 10, 2018
In reply to Highlord_Alarak:

I was talking about Arrow in the first boss fight, as his steady shot deals zero damage when the enemy spector hero is decloaked. The only damage you can deal is with grenades when you guess correctly the spot he is at while cloaked. If you are supposed to kill the 1st boss with grenades only, why not disable the steady shot during that fight?

This is a split map; Reeves and Ferring are on the "stealth portion" where Ferring is a liability that entire section.

Unless of course Dudkhi has changed the map since I played it.

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DudkiSC2
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#101 DudkiSC2

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Posted Jan 10, 2018
In reply to Archangelos:

Arrow does deal damage. Your Steady Shot, and all your other attacks against the Silent Hunter while he's decloaked deal 60% less damage, as stated in the tooltip of the Grenades you pick up. If your Steady Shot didn't deal any damage at all, something must have happened at the moment you used it. Can't say what exactly that was about.

About the Reeves and Ferring section, I usually use Ferring more than Reeves, honestly. Reason being is, Ferring's grenades can insta-kill most of the patrols, where as Reeves's stun will only give you just a second afterwards to finish units off, which increases your chances of being spotted. I just walk around with them both, killing as many patrols I can, and using cloak on both Ferring & Reeves very rarely when I need them.

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Archangelos
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#102 Archangelos

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Posted Jan 10, 2018
In reply to DudkiSC2:

I see. Well, at least I didn't see any damage being dealt. I killed the Silent Hunter purely with grenades, and ran every single time he decloaked and attacked Arrow.

When they split, I was told Arrow was to assault his way through, while Reeves and Ferring were in the stealth section. As such, I just use Reeves and stealth to make it through the entire section, killing none of the units. Cloaking both Ferring and Reeves together through every part of the map without being spotted was extremely difficult so I just left Ferring behind.

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CooperHawkesOdyssey
- Join Date: 5/22/2015
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#95 CooperHawkesOdyssey

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Posted Dec 18, 2017
The terraining is so damn good in this last mission!

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DudkiSC2
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#96 DudkiSC2

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Posted Dec 18, 2017
In reply to CooperHawkesOdyssey:

Thank you! :D

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Highlord_Alarak
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#94 Highlord_Alarak

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Posted Dec 15, 2017
Mission 21 is out!!!!

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Farmel
- Join Date: 7/17/2016
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#93 Farmel

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Posted Sep 6, 2017
You should make a launcher

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spykie1986
- Join Date: 2/28/2017
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#92 spykie1986

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Posted Jul 30, 2017
Mission 20 last phase when yu draw daggerfangs to map locks itself on 10fps with me tried rebooting will not work maybe something up with map but start of the map was fine.

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Highlord_Alarak
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#107 Highlord_Alarak

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Posted Apr 5, 2018
In reply to spykie1986:

I think it is becuase of the CRAZY amount of units on the map. I’m not sure, but I’m guessing that there are a lot of units outside the playable map area.

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VisionsofKhas
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#91 VisionsofKhas

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Posted Jul 21, 2017
Holy crap, Sentient Reality was hard! I could barely do it on Normal, nevermind Hard.

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farkybunny
- Join Date: 6/19/2017
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#87 farkybunny

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Posted Jun 26, 2017
Playing it on normal and casual. It's a well made campaign with very good scripting and storyline. However, in mission 7 Homecoming I bugged out - couldn't finish despite spending an hour scouring the entire map for signs of enemies (found a few, killed them, and still not mission accomplished.)

In mission 8 Wandering Shadow, plain couldn't finish it on casual. Following the War Pig proved impossible. I did pass the door and follow him to a compound, but then he had a conversation with someone else and the game seemed to bug out. Stood there for like 10 minutes until I clued in about the bug. I did try loading other saves and recce-ed the area around that mini compound, but couldn't destroy the rocks or find another shortcut into the base to trigger anything.

Mission 9, Bioweapons, couldn't find any way to defeat Boss Malrick. Finally lost patience. Too many boss fights.

(somehow managed to defeat Malrick at hp 2900 of 3500. Is that a bug or what? I'd gotten him to less than that level in several rounds, without the ending scene sequences being triggered.)

Mission 10, Newfound Enemies, couldn't open a door. Ran all over the map looking for triggers but no luck.

wonder if anyone managed to make it all the way through?

Last edited by farkybunny: Jun 26, 2017

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DudkiSC2
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#88 DudkiSC2

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Posted Jun 26, 2017
In reply to farkybunny:

Hey, thanks for playing. I'm sorry to hear you're having issues.

Mission 7: Did you get Overseers as advertised in the tip? In order to complete the map, you have to get rid of all units (granted, only inside the main zerg bases where the Psi-Emitters are located). This includes all burrowed units, and also things like Creep Tumors. If you indeed did do that, then that is a bug, and I apologize for that. This can happen occasionally.

Mission 8: This part is a puzzle. That's why the War Pig is standing still. I programmed him not to move so you had time to figure it out. Remember those Bullhorn Lights you had to attack earlier? Right next to the Rocks there is another one. Simply attack that one and a Marauder will come forth from the other side of the rocks, destroying them for you.

Mission 9: Seems like you're having trouble figuring out how the fight works. Malrick is on a timer. He jumps down to fight you, and will stay down there for about 75-90 seconds. Then he will jump up again, resetting his health. This might explain why you thought you beat him with more health than other times. What you have to do is simply stand on the beacons that turn on when he jumps down, wait for them to power up to a 100%, and you will strike Malrick with an electrical current, depleting some of his energy. Depleting all his energy will grant you the victory. Charging the beacons have to be done before Malrick jumps up again, as this will reset them.

Mission 10: Some beacons you access will lead you to a different compound. You have to travel between them sometimes. As I don't know exactly where you were when you got lost, I can't really pinpoint you in the right direction. I think you may just have missed a beacon somewhere.

Last edited by DudkiSC2: Jun 26, 2017

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farkybunny
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#89 farkybunny

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Posted Jun 28, 2017
In reply to DudkiSC2:

OK, I'll go back and try these missions later.

For now I'm stuck on 15, Entrance into Risk. I think the 'casual' difficulty setting is broken. This is one of the most impossible missions I've ever played, with huge enemy armies attacking from all directions all the time. Got to be like 50 food worth of attacks starting barely a couple minutes into game, and I'm talking about from all directions. I totally ran out of minerals, got to 180 food (can never afford 200 food), built 15 cannons per generator to defend them with at least 30 food of troops hanging around to support, and still couldn't hold more than 2 generators. Moreover I'd taken the hint with 4 geysers in my starting area and natural expansion, so I'd loaded up on gas-costly troops like Void Rays, and didn't wind up in a situation where I had lots of gas and no minerals left. Nope, I really spent all resources available on this map. Really not happy to play maps where the enemy consists heavily of scripted troops and can't be seen, and where the enemy is not constrained to 200 food. No way I can get at least 50 food of attacks from the RSSI faction every 30 seconds on a sustained basis, unless they are not constrained by production speeds or food limits.

I've played more than half of all Starcraft 2 missions on Brutal, and this is harder than Brutal.

But having said all that, I think sometimes you have difficulty controlling difficulty settings. Generally Blizzard is very good with calibrating difficulty, but not all game designers are consistent. I used to play Heroes of Might and Magic (a TBS, not RTS game). They had like 7 serials, Heroes 1 to Heroes 7. On officially designed campaigns, the highest difficulty is usually easier than the lowest difficulty. I've played all their official campaign maps, and this anomaly is a consistent feature of their game. Because it's set up such that neutrals are very strong on higher difficulties, which naturally benefit a human player whereas the AI will sustain severe losses fighting neutral monsters. This system causes human players to advance more quickly than the AI opponent when difficulty levels increase.

Whatever it is, I don't understand why your Casual difficulty is worse than Brutal/ Impossible on Mission 15.

Spent a whole night on mission 16. Very fun, but I would also describe it as totally not casual or normal. It's a challenge level Blizzard would describe as Hard. Not to mention many sub-sections, like 5 or 6? Lost track. This is the level I've played at most consistently across the official campaigns, where the challenge and my abilities are most balanced for an enjoyable game. But since I chose the setting Casual, I think it is much too difficult for a casual gamer. I don't have as much time as I used to, so I really want to play through quickly and not have to struggle.

Have I been too negative so far? Here's a big positive. I have great praise for your music choices. Considering that they pay top DJs as much as $250k for a single 2 hour gig, your music choices prove that you don't need to pay a DJ a pile of cash to get a very good music selection. I am normally not a fan of your musical selections, but they fit the scenarios to a T so they really add to the mood and atmosphere. If you had been able to throw in voice acting like in Mass Recall, I suspect most people would have difficulty telling that it was not an official Blizzard campaign.

Last edited by farkybunny: Jun 28, 2017

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farkybunny
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#90 farkybunny

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Posted Jun 28, 2017
In reply to farkybunny:

Mission 7, must be a bug then. I was aware about enemy lurkers, and had overseers all over the place. No problem; all I missed were the ending cinematics.

Mission 8, thanks about the bullhorns. Yup, finished it. Minor bug is that after burning down a supply depot, the thor and marauders come forward to investigate, but one enemy soldier doesn't. And I can't shoot him either because he's invulnerable. So I had to run pass him to complete this map. Probably because I ran past some trigger flag, I was still able to complete the map despite the invulnerable soldier chasing and shooting me, although it does make a mockery of the mission objectives.

Now I'm on Mission 18, Major Downfall. The map itself is really way harder than anything Blizzard ever made. Taking and defending 10 locations while fending off attacks at my main, while I have a so-so amount of resources? And with an enemy that is dedicated to killing off my creep? On Casual it is offering as much challenge as a Blizzard map on Hard.

Despite my grouses about the difficulty level not being appropriate for Casual (or even Normal), I'd say that the storyline is superb. More than that, I would say that you have a pretty good head about the intricacies of human relations. A pretty high level of maturity is required for writing the conversations and interactions between characters; you're clearly not an average 20-30 year old tech guy. Big applause there. Despite map being much harder than I really want to play (Casual), you have me following it all the way because I really want to know what happens at the end...

Last edited by farkybunny: Jun 28, 2017

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von_hupfburg
- Join Date: 5/23/2017
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#86 von_hupfburg

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Posted May 24, 2017
This campaign is a masterpiece from start to finish.

I can't wait how to see how it continues.

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Free4Days
- Join Date: 3/4/2017
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#85 Free4Days

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Posted Mar 6, 2017
Man I've played the entire campaign and damn this campaign has Blizzard quality if you had voices for the texting and cinematics that could be starcraft 3 ! I cannot wait to see how the story ends up and I' m excited for the future missions !

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Pizgariu
- Join Date: 2/22/2017
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#83 Pizgariu

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Posted Feb 22, 2017
Can someone explain me, how to install it? How can I run it without running editor? I try to find some news about it on Google, but nothing interesting I found.

This must be started as one mission, not as external campaign?

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DudkiSC2
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#84 DudkiSC2

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Posted Feb 22, 2017
This doesn't work like Blizzard campaigns. They're only available from the editor. You have to start each mission individually.

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