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A message of courage

Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:26 pm
by gamegearsmasher
Hi The Oracle,

I am a former Brood War player that has fell in love in your campaign when I played it back in 2009. I constantly checked back to campaign creations, and when I looked back at your recent posts, I had to make an account just to show that there are still fans out there and not to lose hope that nobody will ever see your future work.

If there is any voicing that you need, fuck yeah I'll definitely help out. I'm certain there are others that are willing to help out to. I'm sure there are more details than to just send you mp3 files, but if its not too much more complicated than that then I wouldn't mind taking taking a few sound clips for you to help your work.

Please give updates! I check here a lot more frequently now that you've posted!

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 5:17 pm
by The Oracle
First and foremost, thank you. The purpose of any campaign (or game really) is to create a fun experience for others. It sounds like that happened and it's feedback we'll never get tired of hearing.

Episode 1 (in production for SC2) has 140 speaking parts of which about half have been cast so far. If you have a voice reel, can you shoot me over a link?

A big update is forthcoming in mid-December when we get a bit more production level work completed.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:01 pm
by gamegearsmasher
I don't have a voice reel, but if there is a certain dialogue or text that you would like me to try to improvise, please let me know and i'll use my ps2 mic to see if I can manage to scrounge up some good quality mp3s. :)!

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:05 pm
by Ricky_Honejasi
Hello, it has been a while, Oracle.

Just some random info that SC2 now have a "Single Player" category in their Arcade section. The account's max filesize got also increased to 315 MB or so in LotV.

Wing of Liberty SC2 cd-keys (for extra accounts) does provide an extra 315 MB a pop. They tend to cost 10$ USD on special on the Battle.Net site. They allow LotV-level for maps and you can use a public dependency from 1 account to another.

The only tricky parts might be :
1) Auto-switching from one map to another.
2) Blizzard might be quick on the ban-bat for stuff like heavy swearing, unpolitical incorrect things or too mature stuff (aka really not PG-13)

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 3:22 pm
by uraniumoverdose
Personally I hope he finds another way to play his campaign. Blizzard censorship is ridiculous. A good example was a UMS map called Nexus word wars.
Probably the most fun UMS map I ever had a chance to play. It was basically a words per minute contest, with each unit having a random generated word hovering above its head. Typing the words above enemy units killed them. Strong units had giant words. Well some of the randomly generated words including some cussing. There were so many possible words that I rarely if ever saw a cussword. Well Blizzard caught on to the astronomically low possibility of ONE showing up in a game and banned the map. They since fixed the map, but now it's not even on the top 100 list (it used to be number 1). Because it fell off the popular maps list, less and less people could get a game going until it finally died.

I would MUCH rather have a bit more complicated work around to play LOTC than have to play a castrated version so that Blizzard's delicate sensibilities aren't offended.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 4:36 pm
by The Oracle
The MOD dependency will probably be half a gig by itself. All new unit voices, over a dozen new heroes, more than 30 new units. There's no way I could get a map up there even if I wanted unfortunately. The arcade would be nice publicity.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 5:12 pm
by IskatuMesk
Ricky_Honejasi wrote:They allow LotV-level for maps and you can use a public dependency from 1 account to another.
I don't even want to think of downloading 300mb off of b.ent's throttled server when it can hardly handle a 500ms connection to the west coast.

I was trying to help someone test a 70mb map and it refused to even try to download for several weeks at a time.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:31 pm
by Ricky_Honejasi
The Oracle wrote:The MOD dependency will probably be half a gig by itself. All new unit voices, over a dozen new heroes, more than 30 new units. There's no way I could get a map up there even if I wanted unfortunately. The arcade would be nice publicity.
Still possible to split it in two dependancies. I would have a hard time believing your single biggest file is 300+ mb.
IskatuMesk wrote:I don't even want to think of downloading 300mb off of b.ent's throttled server when it can hardly handle a 500ms connection to the west coast.

I was trying to help someone test a 70mb map and it refused to even try to download for several weeks at a time.
At that point? Although I remember having to download a 120mb one and it worked. However, I can understand that playing off b.net servers could potentially be frustrating for downloading.

Btw yes, the censorship part can be tricky but I believe they calmed down over time. Also popularity-wise, a campaign can't hold constant popularity over the b.net servers anyway even if Oracle get batted by Blizzard. Popularity tend to be only important for multiplayer maps so that they can be more played.

Ultimately, Oracle already own SC2 and he needs to pay 10-20$ for another account (or use a friend account's space) to get all his files at a shot over battle.net. It could be a different story if he basically needed to fork 60-100$.

EDIT : An alternative could be to put his first map(s) with the required minimal data and provide a link to the rest of the campaign.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:50 pm
by Revolta
Ricky_Honejasi wrote:Ultimately, Oracle already own SC2 and he needs to pay 10-20$ for another account (or use a friend account's space) to get all his files at a shot over battle.net. It could be a different story if he basically needed to fork 60-100$.
How is this acceptable for anyone... Blizzard really has a vested interest in working against custom content so they can make more money

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:15 pm
by IskatuMesk
Or we can just put it on the FTP like we have for 17 years and just not care about what Blizzard thinks, getting the best of every world. There isn't any real logistical complication for the end user. It can be as simple as download -> open menu map -> push test map.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 5:20 pm
by Ricky_Honejasi
IskatuMesk wrote:Or we can just put it on the FTP like we have for 17 years and just not care about what Blizzard thinks, getting the best of every world. There isn't any real logistical complication for the end user. It can be as simple as download -> open menu map -> push test map.
I am afraid that there is a bit more than that.

1) Players need to know the campaign's Mod files really need to be in that specific folder.
2) Players need to know that all maps must be in the same folder so the triggers properly jump from one map to another.
3) Players need to know they have to open the map in the editor (and somehow not in the game itself).

It sounds simple until you remember that 99.99% of SC2 players play over Battle.net thus the above details are very counterintuitive to them. Counterintuitive to the point that they might not want to play the campaign for that.

Oracle will have to write very clear "install" instructions, probably both in a readme file and on whatever download website page he decides.

I still believe he should have at least a first map or demo on Battle.Net's Arcade. If only to have something easy to access to. After that, players can find it worth it to do the required setup.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 6:42 pm
by IskatuMesk
That is easy to automate via an installer. Anyone who isn't intelligent enough to figure that out probably won't be playing the campaign to begin with and shouldn't be worth considering.

Re: A message of courage

Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 10:50 am
by Jayborino
I would make a simple install video for the new campaigns when the time comes, I already have a following of LotV virgins who didn't know about the campaign until I started uploading it. Many of my viewers know how to set up the file structuring from existing campaigns so it won't be a problem for existing folks playing SC2 custom campaigns - keep in mind tons of campaigns exist with people performing manual setups for them for over 5 years now.

At the same time, I don't think we should just discount new folks coming in, especially if an installer can be created easily. If they can't follow instructions in a YouTube video or a basic installer then yes, I agree, we are not their desktop support and they just will never get to play it. Mass Recall has hundreds of thousands of downloads and still needs manual file structuring to set up so I don't think setup will be a problem, rather just getting the word out that this campaign exists upon release.

I think a demo on the Arcade though could be a great idea, though have no idea how to do it the 'right' way for advertisement.