[New Campaign] StarCraft I: Echoes of the Swarm (new name)

[noname]

I completed the campaign, and it was quite fun!
The story is awesome (this is so rare!), maps and map settings are well made (I liked that there were actually quite a few reminders/details from the original SC campaign), the difficulity is challengig and needs strategical thinking (where to expand, overall strategy, so on. In the majority of maps I used the ancient hyra+gua combination quite succesfully, cause of the heavy ground resistance.
Altough the last mission is just too hard.. You don`t get enough resources, or even solid amount and well arranged of resource patches/geyseres. Expanding is a suicidal, neither expand places are safe nor rich enough. I`m curius that have you completed it without cheats?
Overall: good job, and major props!

[omega20]

I completed the campaign, and it was quite fun!
The story is awesome (this is so rare!), maps and map settings are well made (I liked that there were actually quite a few reminders/details from the original SC campaign), the difficulity is challengig and needs strategical thinking (where to expand, overall strategy, so on. In the majority of maps I used the ancient hyra+gua combination quite succesfully, cause of the heavy ground resistance.
Altough the last mission is just too hard.. You don`t get enough resources, or even solid amount and well arranged of resource patches/geyseres. Expanding is a suicidal, neither expand places are safe nor rich enough. I`m curius that have you completed it without cheats?
Overall: good job, and major props!

Glad you did enjoy it! I planned for the campaign to be that of rising difficulty, so everyone may be able to play it.

WARNING, SOME SPOILERS MAY BE INCLUDED AHEAD!

Yes, the last mission is hard, but you actually get enough resources. But the initial ones you get are not intended to allow you attack the enemy main bases directly. Attack their expos first, then build yours in their place. They've quite a lot of resources, between 2000 and 4000, and by the time the actual mission starts (when you can already build your forces) they should be around half that number. In this map, you must actually FIGHT for the resources.

Of course, there is the Psi Disrupter objective, where you must destroy it alongside the generators within a time frame. Actually, both of those are intentionally placed within a 'relatively' undefended area (it also depends on how the AI decides to reinforce those areas). You may have noticed that you just need to destroy one of the generators for the entire generator grid to collapse, hence their high HP. You should be able to destroy those with a combination Guardians and some backup in order to protect them (I prefer mutalisks and some hydras, yet for the latter you should be careful about enemy siege tanks). Don't be afraid to upgrade your warriors' attacks and defenses as necessary. You will be able to upgrade them up to a 10 level, while the enemy will only be able to do it up to 3, giving you some advantage over them.

Also, as long as you keep Araq alive, you'll be rewarded a Torrasque, that'll keep reincarnating itself as long as Araq is still alive. The Torrasque just by itself is, litteraly, a killing machine. Once upgraded to level 10, rolling over your enemy's ground forces will just be a piece of cake.

Anyway, this mission CAN be beaten without cheats. It requires, though, a lot of thinking about, not just where you should expand, but which targets you must attack first and how to do it without suffering too huge losses. If in the end people find it too difficult, though, I may add more resource patches where to expand, to make it easier. I just wanted it to be a real challenge for any SC player who plays it (without need to using the 'Insane' AI script for the four computer players)

Thanks for your review! Regards.

~omega20

[noname]

I thought about upgrading above level 3, but since I already had level 3 it` quite useless on the last map (I used mass upgrades on air units at the map where the objecitve was to kill stargates - I used only air gua+muta+queen (ht snipe), cause reavers and sotrm broke me apart in narrow coridors, when I tried ground), becuase when I say a level 4 carapace will kick in you won`t have units anyway, becuase of the cost/time of it.  It is hard because the comps attacking you all the time, and I just don`t have enough resources (thus forces), and there is the timer too with two objectives. When I wanted to attack the generators/disruptor a "huge" number of enemies just appeared killing my stuff at home. I tried to beat it a few times, with loads an stuff but still, I couldn`t, but I will definitely try one more time, now I will focus on expanding, but I still think it is impossible!  :P
Btw, the music was awesome too!

[omega20]

Thanks for your reviews!

Well, if you really find it too difficult, I can just lower the difficulty when the next version comes out. The hard thing of this is that when you are given the resources and workers to carry out the final objectives of the mission, the AI has already upgraded their units to the same level that your own and had have plenty of time to build up its forces. Perhaps having more resources patches on the map, as well as adding more resources to those already in there could solve this issue.

Anyway, wait for the next version. I'll try to have all those issues fixed by then.

[omega20]

A bit late I think, but here comes the new version of the campaign. RL issues as well as my attention temporarily turning on SCII's both campaign and editor have contributed to the delay. Nevertheless, here you have. Only small changes has been made; small spelling fixes in various maps and minor to major fixes in map 10, in which several resource patches has been added throughout the map. Also, the disruptor's cowntdown has been raised by 10 minutes. Hopefully this will make the map easier.

Here is the download link:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gozhh7

Enjoy!

Regards

~omega20

[johnnythewolf]

Have you updated the DL in the first post, or should we download this one instead?

[omega20]

Have you updated the DL in the first post, or should we download this one instead?

As of 23 September 2010, at the time of this post, the first post's link has been updated. Both links are the same; you can download whichever of them you prefer. However, if you used the first post's link BEFORE this post, you should reconsider checking it again, since you most probably downloaded the previous version of the campaign.

[johnnythewolf]

Great! That's good to know.

The first mission plays fine. Only bug I noticed, apart from all the Zergs roaming around, is that, right after Venezoth's taunt, I get Araq's failure message. It still sends me to the next mission, though, so it's not really a game-breaking bug.

Presentation's fine too, save for two gripes: our faction's colour, which doesn't fit the Zergs at all IMO, and the custom soundtrack. While I can live with the first, I find it very aggraviating to hear the same single frantic track over and over again, especially considering how out of place most the music is. I wish there were either more appropriate songs (e.g. Echoes of War's kickass rearrangements) or just the option to switch back to the default sountrack.

Besides, Heavy Rock music with lyrics during Zerg missions? Are you kidding me?

[omega20]

The first mission plays fine. Only bug I noticed, apart from all the Zergs roaming around, is that, right after Venezoth's taunt, I get Araq's failure message. It still sends me to the next mission, though, so it's not really a game-breaking bug.

Well, I don't recall having that bug. However, I'll check it out anyway, just in case I messed up something without noticing.

Presentation's fine too, save for two gripes: our faction's colour, which doesn't fit the Zergs at all IMO,

The player's color represent that of a new zerg brood. Since the colors that most fit the zerg are already used by other factions (red = Sons of Korhal/Dominion, orange/brown = Terran Confederacy) or are already used by major zerg broods (purple = Jormungand Brood) I found green the most fitting of the remaining ones for the zerg. At the moment I don't plan to change it.

and the custom soundtrack. While I can live with the first, I find it very aggraviating to hear the same single frantic track over and over again, especially considering how out of place most the music is. I wish there were either more appropriate songs (e.g. Echoes of War's kickass rearrangements) or just the option to switch back to the default sountrack.

I added a great variety of songs in the campaign which I didn't thought to be out of the place. Of course, it's up to everyone's tastes on music to decide whether they like it or not, and I'm not going to complain about that. As such, I'll definitely upload a new "light" version of the campaign, without music or just music in the most critical moments (i.e. boss battles and the credits scene).

Besides, Heavy Rock music with lyrics during Zerg missions? Are you kidding me?

I know that the lyrics may distract the player, but only if he/she focused on listeing to the music instead of playing. Otherwise, it should be no problem. Moreover, I already tried to implement other songs (i.e. Echoes of War Evolve and Eradicate theme). However, I did find them just too long and heavy for the first ones, and while they would fit for the latter ones, I should note that those are divided into several parts, with a different music track playing on each part, which would be screwed up should I use long tracks. Because of that I decided to add music themes no longer than 3-4 minutes.

Thanks for your review.

~omega20

[johnnythewolf]

Glad you're no offended! I was worried for a while that I might have been a little too harsh...

Just ouf of curiosity, what is the custom .exe for, besides custom portraits? SC1 doesn't look very good on a widescreen, and that's why I recently decided to use Chaos Launcher, but I dunno if there's a way to run the custom .exe at the same time.

[Lavarinth]

Currently there's not, I'm sure it'd add a few years of lifespan to all these projects if we could.

[omega20]

Glad you're no offended! I was worried for a while that I might have been a little too harsh...

iN no way would I be offended by criticism. My campaign is in no way perfect, and I understand there may be people who may don't like aspects of it. Criticism, be it positive or negative, is helpful in that it helps me to further improve my project. How could I be offended by that? No way.

Just ouf of curiosity, what is the custom .exe for, besides custom portraits? SC1 doesn't look very good on a widescreen, and that's why I recently decided to use Chaos Launcher, but I dunno if there's a way to run the custom .exe at the same time.

It's for nothing else, just the custom portraits and the title music track (the one you hear when you star SC, I changed it). The campaign can perfectly be played without the .exe, so no worries here.

[johnnythewolf]

Any ETA for the next release?

[omega20]

Any ETA for the next release?

(Sorry for not answering before, I hadn't noticed this post).

The next release is almost ready. In fact, if I've not released it yet is because I'm looking for some ways to further improve the campaign's mechanics, as well as searching for possible unnoticed bugs (if there's any left).

I've done important changes, though. Map 2 has been almost entirely remade (basic aspects, such as terrain, unit placement and briefing remain almost the same, but triggers have been entirely reworked, as well as new music scores replacing the old ones to fit the new version of the map. This is not your average B&D map anymore). I'm looking forward to improving more missions this way, too. Missions 1, 3, 5, 8, 9 and 10 will almost surely remain untouched in terms of modifications, but I may plan something else for other maps. Still thinking about this, though.

Regards.

~omega20

[Church]

Heh, that's funny, I was just about to download this campaign. I'll wait for the next release. Can't wait to play it