Dark Swarm (working title)

(December 27th, 2007 - March 24, 2008)
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Legion
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

VDJ wrote: Just finished playing. Liked it, especially the voicing. The campaign did feel quite refreshing (e.g. the end of the 1st Mission and the arrival of Ghosts - a very nice touch), but I found some parts of the storyline slightly odd: I always thought the Zerg are the most cruel beings out there, which is why the phrase "friends" in the epilogue sounded a bit out of place (as well as the assumption that the Cerebrate could care for his minions). And also it seemed weird that instead of simply killing the Cerebrate the Overmind would leave him behind.
My point in this campaign was to show that the Zerg are a sentient species. The player's Cerebrate is actually quite different from others, but that will be revealed in the next instalment.

The reason that the Overmind didn't kill the Cerebrate seemed logical for me. I theorized for myself (which I maybe should have explained) that the Overmind doesn't randomly kill insubordinates. He may or may not come back for this one.

All in all, in my defense, this campaign was meant to raise questions. :D

In the 4th Mission at the end of the second Data Disc transmission there is a typo: "I wish he we hadn't tried to open that door at all..."
Thanks. I'm not going to change this right away for various reason (read: laziness), but this error and some other trigger malfunctions will be fished out for a next release.
Overall I had a great time playing your campaign, thank you.
Thanks. It means a lot.

-Legion
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Download Link

Post by Legion »

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Re: Download Link

Post by Ricky_Honejasi »

The link is not working although I presume you did mean that : http://sc.campaigncreations.org/legion/

You did post the right link somewhere else in the thread. :p
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Ricky_Honejasi »

Positives :
- Very good terrain
- Excellent voice acting
- Only two typos I found after having to open the maps and copy-paste each phrase into online correctors
- Some custom art

Brownie Points :
- Mimicking the Overmind's voice almost perfectly.
- Managing to give an interesting story for a Zerg campaign (which is rather hard due to the Zerg general mindset)

Negative :

- Two critical bugs that prevent map completion if you encounter them.

Now, time for being an evil man and show my preference/bug list :

###README FILE###

-You didn't update your readme file after switching from your old-style sounds to the SEMPQ method. Thus your readme file has information on how to use your old-style which is no longer valid.

###MAP 1###

Preference : Might have been preferable to have more starting drones or more resources since the terrans doesn't attack you and it would have been more interesting to move on with the story.

###MAP 2###

CRITICAL : Grathax cannot move down the stairs or it is VERY hard to do so. I spent like 3 minutes trying to but no avail. This essentially prevents to complete the map since he is required to move down the stairs to access a location to finish the map.

No defeat conditions if you lose all your zerg units (before getting the two heroes)

Preference : Might have been preferable to instantly start with the Hunter Killers instead of having to move a zergling to get them.

###MAP 3###

Preference : Why the bottom-left hatchery and bottom-left minerals are far from each other? In theory, commanders would almost always put the hatchery to closest possible to the minerals.

###MAP 4###

CRITICAL : At the gate location, if the player moves Grathax away in mid-dialog before being given to player white, the trigger bugs and the map cannot be completed.

The sole two typos I found :
RECORDED TRANSMISSION
"This temple holds many secrets. It's as if the walls move before our eyes, and reconfigure the temple  every few hours. Johnson has managed to find the correct code for the door, which is incrypted in this transmission. I wish he we hadn't tried to open that door at all..."
Access code aqcuired!
(in trigger regarding Check2 location)
Last edited by Ricky_Honejasi on Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

Thanks man, for this thorough test. I tried to take most of these bugs out, and the new files are online. Understandably, nobody who played the initial version will download the bugfree version. :D

Even though this piece of work has seen some bad releases and whathaveyou, I am proud of it and I'm happy that people liked the voices for this campaign. I was a little worried about some of voices, but I'm glad I managed to give Dark Swarm a close-to-authentic Zerg feel. :D

Cheers,

Legion
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Marine »

Good job Legion!
I've never heard anyone come close to Zerg as well as you. Especially the Overmind.
[img]http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3600/zergsig5smallff5.png[/img]
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by chris »

I'm back.... read the critical bugs and thought I should wait until the fixed version comes along. So.... what is the ETA for the fixed version? I want to play it! :O
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

4 days ago.
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by chris »

woops, I should have read your last post more closely.
Anyway, your campaign looks very promising, I'm gonna play it tomorrow :)
[quote="Zilla-"]
campaign creations presents campaign creations starcraft campaign contest
[/quote]
[quote="Lavarinth on podcast"]Hey kids, this is Lavarinth. I know I didn't say much in this podcast, actually, I didn't say anything at all. See you guys on the next podcast.[/quote]
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

Thanks! Well, don't get your hopes up too high, because it's all fairly simple and easy. :)
Jadefang

Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Jadefang »

Hi Legion,

I played through your campaign and wanted to write down my thoughts.
Overall I like your campaign very much. The voice acting is superb, personally I especially like Vail Sterling. Also, existing soundfiles form SC have been really nicely put together.

Now regarding suggestions, I have these to add to the comments already made by other reviewers:

MISSION 1:
a) I would suggest to reduce the amound of buildable units/buildings, since your base cannot be attacked, or at least take thouse buidlings and upgrades out that are not possible to be utilized, such as the Queen upgrades.

MISSION 2:
a) You map design is 99.8% perfect. It is almost frank nitpicking, but if you want to really dot every i and cross every t this map, remove the wall with the door symbol bordering a sublevel (thus ending in empty space)
b) When I activated the security camera trigger, it would have been nice to have a brief glimpse at the target, such as a map revealer for 1-2 seconds.
c) I also was not able to move the Grathax unit from its prison to the lower level. I have a suggestion how to fix it: Edit the unit size properties in Arsenal III (or other appropriate program). If you give him the properties of an e.g. archon, it should be possible to move him down.

MISSION 3:
a) While the tarrain is very, very good, small drawback is the higher ground, especially the large cliff east of the starting base. There is a lot of empty tarrain without doodads. Perhaps just enter a few things or alter with high grass.

MISSION 4:
a) The tiggers go off with any small zerglink moving a long way ahead of your troops, potentiallly 1-2 screens away. Perhaps, they sould be tiggers by the heros only.

MISSION 5:
Shocking turn of events :)

Overall a very nice campaign!! Very well done  :)
J

EDIT: included remaining missions into critique
Last edited by Jadefang on Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Lavarinth »

I think you downloaded an older version because I had no issue with Grathax as there were no stairs.
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

Thanks, Jadefang. I've already taken out a lot of bugs, and I'll surely upload an updated version in the future.

Grathax no longer has an elevated prison (by popular demand:) ) and it should work fine now... :)

Thanks for the tips!
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by chris »

Dude! Your campaign is awesome! I just finished playing it, very interesting storyline even though the ending seems a bit rushed. Great gameplay, great designing and LOL at door in 4th map :P
[quote="Zilla-"]
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[/quote]
[quote="Lavarinth on podcast"]Hey kids, this is Lavarinth. I know I didn't say much in this podcast, actually, I didn't say anything at all. See you guys on the next podcast.[/quote]
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Re: Dark Swarm (working title)

Post by Legion »

chris wrote: Dude! Your campaign is awesome! I just finished playing it, very interesting storyline even though the ending seems a bit rushed. Great gameplay, great designing and LOL at door in 4th map :P
Thanks! The ending was a bit rushed. Planning on continuing it, if enough people liked this one.

Heh, yeah the door. Pity there's no temple door in Starcraft 1. Here's hoping for more doodads in SC2.
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