Dominion SpecOps Campaign [WIP]

[MrFlibble]

My interest in Starcraft rekindled after the announcement of Starcraft II, I've decided to "recycle" the campaign maps I've created a while ago into a new, consistent campaign, just to practice my editing skills. So here's the Dominion SpecOps campaign, of which currently 2 missions are completed. The story takes place some time after the end of BW, on an as yet unnamed planet.

Hope you'll enjoy the missions, and tell me your opinions about them

And by the way, Happy New Year everyone!

EDIT: The missions have been updated.

[agentheart]

seriously too hard  think its mainly because
1  your terrain for your base sucks
2  theres nothing in between your base and enemies  except the choke for ground  like needs something inbetween the enemy and you
first mission i can build medics and ghosts why

[MrFlibble]

Well, I intended the missions to be hard, and you've got to expand quite quickly lest you be crushed. BTW, the misisons are still much easier than the Enslavers: Dark Vengeance, which I regard as more or less a model for my campaign.

The arsenal of the Dominion SpecOps Division is limited. You don't get field medics, and that's on purpose, mainly to increase difficulty as well.

Could you please explain what exactly you don't like about the terrain?

[agentheart]

theres no space in between me and my enemies and in that space is usually resources
and space inbetween also delays the attacks
terrain for the bases sucks for the player for defense
and in dark vengence im pretty sure the zerg dont start moving till u have a a base

u cant expand quickly because zerg base is too big

[Marine]

Uhh ya Agent is right i just looked on a map editor and they are really huge, and you have a ramp that leads immediatly into a Zerg base, have a hidden timer or just wait a little bit into the game before you have them immediatly attack your base.

[Legion]

Too difficult. I was attacked within 5 minutes, and subsequently overwhelmed. Didn't even have time to create a small army. Story elements were cool, but it needs some balancing.

[Whiplash!]

Hey I love how you want to make it a "hard" campaign, but even I, an above average starcraft player find the campaign a bit too difficult. I don't want to have to restart each mission multiple times so I know the computer's exact moves.

I would recommend giving the player control of a hero unit, maybe the wraith hero in the mission briefing. The space between you and the first base isn't so bad, but I would push the player somehow to try to capture that second resource base quickly.

I think it was a mistake to not give the player control of medics OR comstat when the zerg uses a lot of lurkers. Give players medics at least to counter the small amount of units you have at the beginning of the map. I would also put a missile turret or 2 around the initial base so the zerg drops (and subsequent ones) aren't so annoying. I tried to slowly creep up the zerg base terran style but ended up constantly bringing  many of my units back to my base to defend from zerg raids. I would at least give the terran player 2 supply depots and a barracks as well. If you do these things, I believe the mission will be manageable without making it too much easier.

[Lavarinth]

Correct- If I wanted to, I could also plop one hero Marine and say "survive until the dropships arrive" and place 7 Zerg bases around me with hard AI scripts.. But I wont do that, because that's impossible.

[MrFlibble]

Hey, I was afraid my missions would be too easy If you guys say they're difficult, I'll see to it that they're toned down.

Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them I'll try to update as soon as I have time.

[MrFlibble]

I have played mission 1 once more and honestly, I haven't experienced any such difficulties that you have described. However, I have delayed the AI start time, and incresed the amount of starting resources for the player. Also, I have made minor changes to mission 2, and added the line "Veteran Level Campaign" to mission descriptions, so that no one gets confused in the future. Enjoy!

I hope getting mission 3 done sometime in forseeable future

[agentheart]

do you use hacks when you play???

[MrFlibble]

Hacks? You mean additional programs used for cheating? Or minor game modifications? No, I use neither.

Do you still have trouble with the missions? The only feasible explanation I can come up with is that, for technical reasons, my Starcraft version is 1.09, and some later patch updates the AI to be much more powerful than it is in v1.09.

By the way, since we're talking about difficulty, and I've mentioned Enslavers: Dark Vengeance, have you beaten it?

[Whiplash!]

Hey I played the second map and managed to beat it, very nice and challenging! A few suggestions though:

Change the mission objectives from destroying all units to destroying all buildings. After I destroyed all the zerg bases and the terran one there were a few overlords and a single dropship left. It really is unnecessary to have to destroy these units as well, it just made me use black sheep wall at the end to find the units and kill them.

Another thing I'm noticing is that you dont give access to medics/Valkyries, but you did give the player the charron booset upgrade for the goliaths. Definitely useful for the guardians as golaths were the cheepest counter but I really miss the Marine/Medic combo that is such a staple versus zerg opponents. The difficulty for the mission is just right, there were times where I thought I was going to lose but once I got that terran base (my minerals ran out just before I got my command center build at their base) I was able to easily defend the various mutalisk attacks and did a slow MASS siege tank, vulture/goliath/turret combo towards the enemy base. The bottom left zerg base was destroyed with 1 dropship, 2 science vessels, 2 siege tanks, 1 vulture, and 1 goliath. Its tricky but I used a small cliff on the bottom of the map (slightly to the right) to place a siege tank.

Note I didnt use any cheats besides black sheep wall in the end.

A hero unit would be nice to spice up the map a bit as well, and maybe some type of specific objective to give you a little bonus in resources or units earlier on in the map.

I really think you have potential for this campaign, If you entered into the starcraft campaign contest I would be more then willing to give you additional support/testing.

[MrFlibble]

Thanks for the comments Mantis, I'll tweak mission 2 sometime soon. As for the participation in the contest, I'd be glad to, but I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it in time, since I've got lots of higher priority activities on my todo list.

[Whiplash!]

Thanks for the comments Mantis, I'll tweak mission 2 sometime soon. As for the participation in the contest, I'd be glad to, but I'm afraid I won't be able to finish it in time, since I've got lots of higher priority activities on my todo list.

The point of the contest was to spur community activity, which is what we managed to do!