New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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Andrea Rosa
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Andrea Rosa »

Revolta wrote:Disabling units that AI use will cause issues 9 times out of 10.
This means that I was rather lucky, since the AI scripts work without freezing despite having disabled certain units (Blizzard should have prevented the user from disabling units for the computer players, or at least they should have stressed this fact in the StarEdit instructions). Disabling units was a necessity in some scenarios, for example in the last mission the computer would have been able to build Battlecruisers, and this was not good because I had re-defined that unit as a hero. Given the impossibility to create maps running AI scripts different from those available in StarEdit without modding the game (which I'm not willing to do), disabling units was the only work-around I found.

Now I have a question: Does disabling special abilities harm the AI in the same way, or the problem only occurs upon disabling units?
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Revolta »

Disabling tech will cause the same issue if the AI has commands to research them. Being unwilling to mod means you are unwilling to fix any number of issues with the base game that need to be addressed if you want your project to be as good as it could be.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Andrea Rosa »

I have just realized that I forgot to update this post with the list of changes in the latest version of Tales of Halcyon, which was released on September 30, 2019. So here it is:


MISSION 1: "DEUS EX MACHINA"
- The Zerg now research all basic upgrades (previously they only upgraded flying units).
- All the dialogues of the hero Tank (John Larsson) have been duplicated, so his transmissions now work properly either when he is in normal or siege mode.
- Added new sound effects.


MISSION 2: "BAD MOON RISING"
- The Protoss are slightly more aggressive.
- New triggered attacks.


MISSION 3: "UNNATURAL SELECTION"
- The Morians now start with fully upgraded armor for their Dropships.


MISSION 4: "THE STAND"
- Added a new sound effect, a WW2 style air raid siren that precedes the Zerg attack waves (this feature was meant to be present right from the first release in 2015, however I couldn't find a suitable free sound effect back then).


MISSION 5: "TURNING THE TIDE"
- The resources have been rebalanced, so to encourage the player to create more expansions.
- New triggered attacks.
- Minor changes to the terrain.


MISSION 6: "ORBITAL DELIRIUM"
- Added an extra CPU player that, after 15 minutes, will constantly try to nuke your peripheral defenses.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Schezar's Scavengers from fully upgrading their units.
- Schezar's Scavengers now produce more Tanks and Ghosts and are generally more aggressive. They also use Spider Mines now.
- The Hit Points and Shields of the Pylons surrounding Schezar's Command Center have been increased to 1000.
- The final confrontation with the Torrasque is now harder, since he is accompanied by a wave of Zerglings (that will distract your units) and Overlords (that will nullify the cloaking field provided by rescued Protoss Arbiters).


Meanwhile, Tales of Halcyon has reached 2000 downloads on my MediaFire account, so I take the opportunity to warmly thank everyone who spent some of their time playing it (and giving advice on how to improve it) during the past four years.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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I have now gotten around to reviewing this campaign. As it is the best prequel campaign to enslavers that I've seen so far this is recommended for that reason alone. If it was not an enslavers prequel this campaign would still be recommended, but only just barely. It suffers from excessively long drawn out maps, the dialogue isn't as good as in voices of the swarm and there are other issues as well but it's pointless for me to mention them since you are already well aware of what those issues were and you made sure to avoid all of them when you made voices of the swarm so good on you for learning from your mistakes. :)

here is my evaluation along with everything else I've evaluated: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... q5Ra7HTF4U

I do hope you continue to make more custom campaigns. Considering the quality of voices of the swarm in comparison to this, I can't wait to see how good your next campaign will be. I recommend trying to get some voice acting into your missions if possible, it would be awesome even if the voice quality isn't that good.
Andrea Rosa wrote: Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:31 pm Meanwhile, Tales of Halcyon has reached 2000 downloads on my MediaFire account, so I take the opportunity to warmly thank everyone who spent some of their time playing it (and giving advice on how to improve it) during the past four years.
You shouldn't use that to count the number of people who have played the campaign, the number is likely to be significantly higher because many have gotten it off of the archive instead.

edit: As it turns out, the plot in enslavers redux conflicts with the plot in this campaign, which means this campaign can only be recommended for those not interested in playing enslavers redux.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Andrea Rosa »

chris wrote: Sat Jan 11, 2020 3:46 pm As it turns out, the plot in enslavers redux conflicts with the plot in this campaign, which means this campaign can only be recommended for those not interested in playing enslavers redux.
I was quite surprised to discover that Enslavers Redux makes a reference to Halcyon (I have not played it because I don't have SC2, I've merely watched a longplay on YouTube) but you are right, the plot conflicts. However, Enslavers Redux is a complete reboot for a different game, so I don't really care. Moreover, I suspect that the reference was a coincidence, since Enslavers Redux was released six months before Tales of Halcyon and I was completely unaware of its existence. Apparently, both I and the creator of Enslavers Redux chose Halcyon as a setting, independently from each other.

I'm currently working on a similar project for StarCraft, titled "Enslavers Special Edition". It's not a reboot nor a remake, just a reworking aimed at fixing some bugs, plot holes and gameplay issues found in the original Enslavers, while retaining its spirit. Most of the story will remain unchanged, with expanded dialogues and some subtle references to Tales of Halcyon. Also the maps will be the same, with more or less evident changes in terrain and triggers, but this Special Edition will feature an additional mission (an alternate version of "The Rescue" with different objectives), so to make the two plot branches symmetrical.

As a fun side note, differently from you I think that Tales of Halcyon is superior to Voices of the Swarm (especially the 2019 version) but maybe it's just a matter of personal taste, since the Terrans are my favorite race and I had more fun in creating it.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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Awesome! I can't wait to play it :) try to make it tie in with juxtapose's campaign: StarCraft interbellum. It follows a design style nearly identical to yours and goes well with both campaigns you have made so far as well as the original enslavers.

Edit: I decided to give a full recommendation to your campaign because its not fair yours doesn't get one while starcraft interbellum does (that also conflicts with enslavers redux)
Andrea Rosa wrote: Tue Jan 21, 2020 6:29 am As a fun side note, differently from you I think that Tales of Halcyon is superior to Voices of the Swarm (especially the 2019 version) but maybe it's just a matter of personal taste, since the Terrans are my favorite race and I had more fun in creating it.
Eh? No... Tales of Halcyon suffers from missions that are too long as well as 1998 syndrome. Do you know that the last two missions took me 4 hours and 3 hours respectively to complete? The lack of battlecruisers and the short supply of resources necessitated trench warfare with siege tanks in the front with goliaths in the back to protect them from air attacks, and SCVs to repair both after advancing a tiny bit each time. Never before have I seen siege tanks kick so much ass but it was still really long and tiring. The arbiters were an awesome addition at the end though. Cloacked siege tanks, lol. poor ol torrasque didn't stand a chance. It also would have been nice to have a micro mission, the one in voices of the swarm was awesome.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Andrea Rosa »

chris wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:40 pm Tales of Halcyon suffers from missions that are too long as well as 1998 syndrome. Do you know that the last two missions took me 4 hours and 3 hours respectively to complete? The lack of battlecruisers and the short supply of resources necessitated trench warfare with siege tanks in the front with goliaths in the back to protect them from air attacks, and SCVs to repair both after advancing a tiny bit each time.
Understandable point of view. You are not the first to criticize the length of the last two missions. By contrast, there are players who enjoy large maps, as long as the layout is interesting and the gameplay is consistent throughout. Admittedly, "Turning The Tide" and "Orbital Delirium" could have been scaled down a bit, but I made them intentionally that way because I wanted them to be lengthy and immersive to compensate for the small number of missions. This is relative, however, since there are playthroughs of them on YouTube that last less than one hour (they are played at maximum speed, but I prefer to play at normal speed). By the way, what do you mean by "1998 syndrome"?
chris wrote: Fri Jan 24, 2020 11:40 pm It also would have been nice to have a micro mission, the one in voices of the swarm was awesome.
I had initially considered about adding a micro mission, but then I scrapped it because I had the other scenarios already delineated and the story didn't require it. After all there is "The Stand" that, while it can't be considered a micro mission, it isn't 100% macro either, and can be seen as the peculiar scenario in the campaign.

Just out of curiosity, which version have you played? The original from 2015 or the latest one from 2019? (you can check this information at the end of the readme file)
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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To be clear, your campaign didn't lose any points because of how long it took for me to beat the maps. Rather it was the jenkins and nuke thing that cost the campaign a few points on design. This is because you cannot seriously expect a player to spend money on nukes when low resource availability is the trademark design of your campaigns, including this map. Furthermore, ghosts are too vulnerable against the zerg because, you know, overlords everywhere. The only viable option was siege tanks, goliath, SCVs and a lot of patience. I played the 2019 version by the way.

By the way, I have decided to add campaigns that are a work in progress into my spreadsheet (including your upcoming one) with the intention of playing them at the set position if they are released by then. I think it is extremely unlikely that you will be finished with your upcoming campaign by the time I reach it as it is only 22 campaigns away at the moment but hey, It would be so awesome if a miracle happened and it did get released before I reached it ;)
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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chris wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2020 1:34 pm By the way, I have decided to add campaigns that are a work in progress into my spreadsheet (including your upcoming one) with the intention of playing them at the set position if they are released by then. I think it is extremely unlikely that you will be finished with your upcoming campaign by the time I reach it as it is only 22 campaigns away at the moment but hey, It would be so awesome if a miracle happened and it did get released before I reached it ;)
Actually, Enslavers Special Edition will come out quite soon, probably early in March if not before. It's a minor project and I don't consider it as my third campaign (I will credit myself as co-author along with Blizzard Entertainment). Done that, I will start to plan my real new campaign. It will be Protoss themed and, similarly to TOH and VOTS, it will take place during the timeframe of the original campaigns.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by chris »

wow, awesome. OK I'm waiting. :) Waiting years for that protoss campaign to come out is something I can't do but should I still be around by the time that is out then I'll definitely play it and in turn add it to the spreadsheet.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Rawflesh0615 »

I think the Protoss story would focus on Aldaris, or the Vanguard of Aiur, or Zeratul, or Tassadar.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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Rawflesh0615 wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 10:21 am I think the Protoss story would focus on Aldaris, or the Vanguard of Aiur, or Zeratul, or Tassadar.
I still find myself confused over how tassadar and raynor found each other prior to artanis rescuing them both. A campaign focusing on that would be pretty nice.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

Post by Eredalis »

Off Topic
You can read the full elaboration of that circumstances in Book 2: The Queen of Blades.
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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chris wrote: Sun Feb 16, 2020 6:29 am I still find myself confused over how tassadar and raynor found each other prior to artanis rescuing them both. A campaign focusing on that would be pretty nice.
As Eredalis pointed out, those events are explained in the Queen of Blades novel, of which you can read an exhaustive summary here:
https://starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/StarC ... _of_Blades
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Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon

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Andrea Rosa wrote: Sun Feb 09, 2020 6:29 am Done that, I will start to plan my real new campaign. It will be Protoss themed and, similarly to TOH and VOTS, it will take place during the timeframe of the original campaigns.
I am really looking forward for this.
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