Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

(June 6th, 2009 - June 15th, 2009) Completed: July 31st, 2009
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Dem0nS1ayer
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

-.-

I figured having beacons would make it more clear for the player, but I guess not. :P
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Dem0nS1ayer wrote: -.-

I figured having beacons would make it more clear for the player, but I guess not. :P
It's no big deal. Think about it like the Tassadar mission where he goes to rescue the dark templar from the zerg. It was bring Tassadar and two zealots to the beacon cause that was the entrance. It's an easy fix, though, so don't worry about it.  ;)
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Moving on, now I've come to your campaign, sir. 20 missions, eh? I'm ready!  :)
"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will."
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

Cool, just make sure you download the updated version of the last mission.  It's in the first post.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by omega20 »

Huh, in the installation mission (Raynor's Raiders 3), once the countdown is over, nothing happens. I looked at the triggers with the SC Editor and it's supposed to end in victory, but it doesn't.

Also, a suggestion. Create burrowed zerglings/hydralisks on the vents instead the no borrowed zerg will make it look better. Sometimes, when my forces are really close to the vents, the zerg are created in the middle of the room. As they're not borrowed, it's kinda weird... ;)

EDIT: Also, in the briefing, there're two Raynor portraits. I know that the other one is for a Renegade Marine, but I think you should change it for that of a normal marine.
Last edited by omega20 on Wed Aug 19, 2009 3:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

:o  It's supposed to be a custom marine portrait.  How the fuck...  It's been working fine this whole time...
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Alright, so I made it to the mission with the Ion Cannon and the beacons that Krazy was talking about. I must say that it was pretty self-explanatory, but there isn't much reason for them to surround the Ion Cannon. Meh, whatever.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Krazy wrote: Yeah, I had never meant to make a big deal about it, it was more a matter that the way I was trying to beat the mission was neither condusive to ambiguity or spread out unit placement.  I mean, it was a one sentence fix, that I spent one sentence reporting.  When you disagree with a bug report, then it makes it seem like a bigger issue than it really is.
Hehe, it's no big deal, sir. I agree that it was a little odd, but it's all in the past now.

EDIT: Since your campaign has yet to be reviewed by the judges as well, I will be PMing you mine. However, since yours is so long, I'm gonna address each mission individually cause it''s hard to come up with overarching suggestions over 20 missions. I'm up to mission 5 now and it looks pretty good so far. Good stuff, man!
Last edited by thebrowncloud on Wed Aug 19, 2009 11:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Krazy wrote:
thebrowncloud wrote: EDIT: Since your campaign has yet to be reviewed by the judges as well, I will be PMing you mine. However, since yours is so long, I'm gonna address each mission individually cause it''s hard to come up with overarching suggestions over 20 missions. I'm up to mission 5 now and it looks pretty good so far. Good stuff, man!

About how long does it take you to beat each mission?
Anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. I spent more than an hour on 3, but that'e because it was extremely hard all the way until the end and then it was impossible.  :P
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

Lies.  The first part of mission 3 (getting to the computer) isn't that hard. D:
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by thebrowncloud »

Dem0nS1ayer wrote: Lies.  The first part of mission 3 (getting to the computer) isn't that hard. D:
True. "Extremly" is an overstatement, but the zerg spawning whenever you're near the openings was quite overwhelming at times. The details will be in my full review. However, I just found out that I am going on a boating trip this weekend and will not be coming back until monday or tuesday. So I won't be able to continue playing until then. Sorry, sir. :(
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

So I didn't realize that you're supposed to put credits at the end of your campaign, so here are 2 updated maps and the credits map.

**NOTE**  Make sure you play a map before playing the credits map.  It's an odd size and it'll crash your game unless you play a map before it.  Just play another mission, then quit when the mission starts.

http://www.filefront.com/14385509/Updated.rar
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

Yay final version!  Made it easier (still really hard though) a couple days ago, but just now felt like putting it online.  Here you go. :o


http://www.filefront.com/14483973/Rise%20From%20The%20Ashes.rar
Last edited by Dem0nS1ayer on Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Dem0nS1ayer »

Raynor's Raiders:

Map 3: Removed some enemy units and made the last part (surviving) a bit easier.
Map 5: Changed AI from Difficult to Medium.

Aiur's Rebirth:

Map 4: Debuffed "bosses."
Map 7: Removed some enemy units, made AI easier, changed survive time from 45 minutes to 35 minutes, made Zerg waves (survive part) easier.

Tyranny's Rule:

Map 4: Made AI easier.
Map 5: Made AI easier and removed some enemy units.

I basically made the AI easier for every map, and then changed some things here and there for certain ones.
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Re: Rise From The Ashes -- COMPLETE

Post by Ricky_Honejasi »

Critical Aspects

-> YES - Campaign's storyline is between Starcraft 1 and Starcraft 2.

Comments related to the direct scoring

===TEXT
-> + Grammar seems fine overall
-> + Informs the player correctly of events.
-> + Text properly formatted for reading.
-> - Few typos (considering the length of the campaign's text).

===PROFESSIONAL

-> + Some good thread updates with screenshots and videos
-> + A few sounds added there and there
-> - No credit section at all

===TRIGGERING

-> + Good overall and fairly functional overall.
-> + Use of locations.
-> + Instead of switches, the author mostly used a death count system with odd units/doodads to keep and compare their death counts. Useful for his specific needs.
-> + Commented Triggers
-> + Use of Hyper Triggers (mostly in some case of anti-bugs rather than direct uses of it)
-> - Four critical bugs (All has low to average likelihood to happen at the middle to near end of the affected maps overall, all of them do prevent a map to be finished).


===MAPPING - LAYOUT

-> + Terrain is fluid.
-> + Sometimes had trouble maneuvering the map (mostly in the Raynor commando mission).

===MAPPING - BEAUTY

-> + Very good overall
-> + Good placement of doodads
-> - Occasional inconsistency for the author's efforts for doodad placement from map to map. Many can be fully featured but some are be nearly void of doodads.


===Brownie Points
Note : This doesn't influence directly the scores but might improve it

-> + Some graphical modding for the characters' faces.
-> + Custom Music (modded and trigger-played)
-> + Custom Background graphics
-> + Code system idea for the bonus missions (despite its flaws).

===Drawbacks (outside the score system)
Note : Might potentially influence negatively the campaign's scores.

-> - Quite a few too many B&D maps
-> - Occasionally computers' scores can look odd when you see a score of millions or higher (mostly due to infinite ressources).

===INDIVIDUAL MAPS=====


General

Complain : Hero Marine's soundset is not replaced (and we hear "Raynor here", "This is Jimmy" for generic hero marines)




Prologue Map

-> Complain : Zerg units stay all stacked up instead of being more separate


Raynor Map 1

-> Suggestion : Would be preferable if there are beacons more or less at the middle of the locations that are considered as "outposts" so the player knows which locations are outposts without a doubt.

-> Note : For the above suggestion, due to split outposts (2+ locations), you might want to name the beacon "Outpost segment" or something similar to avoid misleading the players into thinking that one beacon equals to one outpost.

-> Praise : Good use of custom points and goal completion leaderboard-wise.

-> Complain : When finishing the map, it says completed under 30 minutes but time played didn't matter in the triggers.

-> Typo (Brief) : "tranmission" instead of "transmission"


Raynor Map 2

-> Bug : Destroying a Power Generator supposedly gives +5 minutes but gives +10 minutes instead.

-> Bug : The countdown timer reaching zero doesn't trigger a defeat like it is supposed to.

-> Suggestion : Renegade Marines should become invincible when all four reach the beacon to avoid any sudden deaths out of bad luck due to the script delay until victory.



Raynor Map 3

-> Issue: Despite trying to have more advanced door triggers (as opposed to only let doors stay open), doors tend to close oddly when a unit gets away (when opened, it "opens" again then "closes" twice in a row).

-> Complain : Hard to bring the prisoner goliath upstairs.

-> Critical : Near the end of the map, it can be possible for the player to mass teleport its troops to Sector 1 from the "four teleports room". However, the door in Sector 1 might be locked and they can't teleport back thus the units gets trapped. If the player decided to mass teleport there, he is essentially forced to load an earlier save or to restart the mission completely.

-> Issue : A map without two-way teleports should NOT have a room with multiple different teleport beacons (issue of spreading commando troops map-wide). Worse, the room's setup can give the impression that either it is the final teleport room and all of the beacons lead to the same destination OR it is the computer room.

-> Bug : The survival part can essentially be avoided since the exit door is still open and you can just move your units outside the "survival room" without Zerg units pursuing you much further. Ultimately, your units are safe and you let the timer hit zero by doing nothing.

-> Critical : After getting the plans and surviving 10 minutes, the map might not trigger the victory and just continually spawn more zerg units after the timer is over.



Raynor Map 5

-> Typo (Briefing) : "a" instead of "and" (in "just barge in a start fighting")


Raynor Map 6

-> Suggestion : Maxell (and all dropships since he can be in one) should be invincible to prevent him dying after reaching the last beacon during its dialogue until victory hits in.



Raynor Epilogue

-> Complain : Pointless use of an odd-sized map that can crash if you loaded it as first map instead of just using a 64x64 size. This is also considering that the map uses music so the filesize economy is very minimal versus the potencial crash.

-> Note : For the above complain, the author did warn that the map can crash and why.

-> Typo (Mission) : "suceeded" instead of "succeeded"



Aiur Rebirth Map 1

-> Complain : Rescuing the outpost (with 3 zealots) doesn't rescue the zealots at the same time (need to manually get them).

-> Complain : New units are made in teal color (the "hero" color used by the hero) and should be yellow or white (normal unit colors for this map).

-> Typo (Mission) : "oneanother" instead of "one another"
-> Typo (Mission) : "eldar" instead of "elder"
-> Typo (Mission) : "serveral" instead of "several"



Aiur Rebirth Map 2

-> Typo (Brief) : "mighiest" instead of "mightiest"
-> Typo (Brief) : "sacrafice" instead of "sacrifice"



Aiur Rebirth Map 3

-> Critical : It is possible to be unable to finish the map if the player tries to kill Garith with lots of ground troops without a Dark Templar that might cause him to not respawn correctly (unit unplacable error).

-> Note : Some triggers were added to prevent the above (by moving the units away but not always all) but it isn't enough.

-> Typo (Mission) : "asuming" instead of "assuming"




Aiur Rebirth Map 4

-> Issue : Doors tend to open/close over and over endlessly if they are unlocked and a unit is nearby in this map.

-> Critical : If Shirok and Sircarius are the only surviving units and they are trying to face any guardian, they aren't re-rescued (normally done to give teal color again) when the battle starts due to lack of normal units preventing the player to continue.

-> Fix suggestion : For above, temporally add a burrowed zergling and then remove it to ensure they get re-rescued even if there is no normal units to do it.

-> Suggestion : When a passage becomes unblocked, do tell the player along with a mini-map ping.

-> Suggestion : Same as above but for doors that becomes unlocked.

-> Complain : Passages can be very tight at times considering the army size you can get.

-> Bug : If a door became unlocked but wasn't visited in its locked state, it will still say "Door Locked." when visiting it (although it still does open in the end).

-> Complain : Having to go behind to the beacon to unlock the door after the second guardian feels pointless (should have been a blockade that gets removed after the second guardian is dead).

-> Typo (Brief) : "stange" instead of "strange"
-> Typo (Mission) : "deamed" instead of "deemed"



Aiur Rebirth Cinematic

-> Typo (Mission) : "Cystal" instead of "Crystal"




Aiur Rebirth Map 5

-> Issue : The unit used for Shirok is called "Zeratul" instead of being properly named "Shirok" (can be seen by quickly selecting him for the brief possible moment)

-> Typo (Mission) : "sheild" instead of "shield"



Aiur Rebirth Map 7

-> Bug : Unit Unplacable ("Protoss Dark Archon") was seen multiple times after Shirok blows up the reactor.



Aiur Rebirth Epilogue

-> Complain : Same complain as Raynor's Epilogue.



Tyranny's Rule Map 1

-> Odd : Selecting the Vespene Tanks on the ground, shows a custom Protoss portrait instead of a gas portrait or anything else fitting.

-> Complain : Medic Restoration tech is available for research but you cannot train or gain medics.

-> Typo (Brief) : "no where" instead of "nowhere"
-> Typo (Mission) : "opertional" instead of "operational"


Tyranny's Rule Map 2

-> Complain : Charon Booster tech can be researched while you can't train nor gain goliaths.

-> Odd : Looks odd when you kill a militia leader unit out of rescue range and then go rescue them like if nothing happened (while the dead militia leader talks). Militia groups should be invulnerable.

-> Issue : The north militia group requesting you destroy the top-east Zerg base should trigger a mission objective update (both on-screen and in game menu).



Tyranny's Rule Map 3

-> Typo (Mission) : "Shiled" instead of "Shield"



Tyranny's Rule Map 4

-> Complain : Titan Reactor tech research possible when you can't train nor gain science vessels.


Tyranny's Rule Cinematic

-> Typo (Mission) : "Shiled" instead of "Shield"



Tyranny's Rule Map 5

-> Bug : More or less 10 seconds into the mission, I didn't defeat the protoss at all yet I get some message that I did defeat them and then unlocked the bonus missions (along with the code given).

-> Complain : All white buildings should be invulnerable and then lose their invulnerability when a militia leader take over the area buildings in question.

-> Suggestion : You might want to give an unique color to the Starports in the "Hangar Bay" section to make it really obvious that it is those instead of others.

-> Typo (Briefing) : "bring" instead of "bringing" (situational, to re-check)

-> Typo (Mission Obs - Game menu) : "Destoy" instead of "Destroy"

-> Note : For the above, the typo is only in one version of the game menu's mission objectives possible.



Tyranny's Rule Epilogue

-> Complain : Same complain as Raynor's Epilogue.

-> Issue : The map's description (both a and b versions) in map selection has the same map description as Raynor's Epilogue map.



(Bonus) Evolution Map 1

Praise : It's a nice idea to input a code (despite the issues/problems mentioned below).

Issue : For your code system, you should allow instant or near-instant build of the terran units so that it doesn't take forever to create them just to input a code.

Complain : The code system is "flawed" in the sense that you only need to create 3 marines, 1 ghost and 1 firebat in any build order to make it work (as opposed to be the specific intended order of those).

Bug : In the bonus missions (all 3 of them), sending 6 Zerg units to the code input area (after inputting it correctly) will also start the "incorrect code" trigger and kill every building/unit you have.

Complain : Nydus Canal is set to be buildable but you can't since you can't reach hive tier (being its prerequisite).

Typo (Brief) : "firey" instead of "fiery"



(Bonus) Evolution Map 3

Major Issue : No credit section at all.

Complain : A zerg base should always start with at least one overlord and preferably enough overlords to support the initial food requirements. That's considering there is no story special case in addition that Kerrigan is there in person to command thus it looks even more bad.

Complain : Unfortunately, the bonus missions are mostly a let down since the story is too generic and it's mostly simple melee gameplay.
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