Production stills from Purity of Form

[DJBaker]

This is the first mission from the campaign-in-progress. (Very brief SC2mapster page: http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/purity-form/) At this point it's completely playable and fully triggered, but needs fine-tuning. In particular, I'm hoping to get a more interesting enemy AI set up.

Terrain 001.jpg

The main character, Ryan Kligsen, is tasked with retrieving a protoss probe for his new employers, the khala-following terran cult called the Pure Form of Man. Here his base comes under initial attack from Dominion forces that have overrun the lab where the probe is being stored.

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He constructs a large force and leads it on a winding path up the mountain where the lab is located. This is one of two available attack routes to get to the lab.

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Here he protects the entrance to the lab itself while retrieving the probe.

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After returning the probe to safety in the Purists' base, he is ordered to pull his troops out and escort the command center to a rendezvous in the southwest. Here his forces protect the CC from enemy fighters.

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So yeah, that's where I'm at with the first of five playable missions. The cinematics are very dialogue-centric and won't be much to look at until the voices are done.

[Dem0nS1ayer]

Will you be able to have it be under 50 mbs with voices? O.o

[DJBaker]

No, and I'm also not going to respect the no-copyrighted-music and rough-language restrictions.

I'll just put the maps up on the web for people to download and play from their HDs. SC2mapster has a pretty good system for this, and I'll probably also make my own little site for the campaign.

[Lavarinth]

Put aside the limitations, we all know single player campaigns wont follow such foolery anyway.

DJBacker, what's the premise of your campaign? The story, I should say.

[DJBaker]

Kligsen, the main character, is a UED commando marooned on Mar Sara after the destruction of the UED fleet by Kerrigan. In the intervening four years, he's worked as a War Pig mercenary but had to leave the company because of his stimpack habit.

As the adventure begins, he's forced to kill a corrupt marshal in a gunfight. Shortly after, he's offered a job and a chance to leave the planet by Justin Escalio, leader of the Pure Form of Man cult. The cultists ("Purists") believe that humanity, like the protoss, were engineered by the Xel'naga, and that humans, unlike protoss, are a successful realization of the Xel'naga ideal "purity of form." As a result the Purists follow the khala, which they believe was really meant for terrans.

Kligsen thinks all this is insanity, but he has to get off Mar Sara somehow before the law catches up with him.

He is then ordered to find a protoss high templar and former judicator named Zolthanon, who wants to defect and join the Purists. Kligsen is suspicious, but Zolthanon tells him that he has joined the terran cult because he can't bear living under Dark Templar rule.

They then travel to Aiur, where Escalio seems overly interested in collecting zerg specimens rather than the protoss artifacts he claims to be after.

It'd be hard to go much further here without spoiling the ending in a big way...

[johnnythewolf]

So how's it going? Any progress?

I gotta say, the plot sounds relatively original, but what bothers me is the fact that an ex-UED officer forced to do mercenary work could have access to high-tech weaponry such as Thors and Banshees right off the bat. Kinda ruin the whole "on-the-run" feeling that you seem to be aiming for...

[DJBaker]

Yeah, the first two missions are complete and playable, although I still have some tuning to do on the second one. It's a dungeon-crawl style map, so it's taking some precision to get the right difficulty level for the player. In any case, my playtesters are trying out the first map now.

I've put together the complete voice cast and the sound files are beginning to trickle in.

The military equipment was provided by the Purist cult, which has a lot of wealth and power behind it despite being a band of fugitives. I admit it's artificial how much gear they have, but I also don't want the missions to be boring because of an overly limited unit selection.

[johnnythewolf]

Well, is there supposed to be a reason why they would need to hire Kligsen specifically? I mean, since they already got the most advanced weaponry in the whole sector, why would they require the assistance of some random outlaw? They are not Dominion-affiliated like the Moebius fundation, aren't they?

But hey, I'm just asking: maybe there's more to it than the summary tells us.

[DJBaker]

The first reason is that they need a commander and their former guy was killed. But the main reason is that Kligsen is very tough. He's a cyborg implanted with UED nanobots that regenerate his injuries -- a fact that made him a social pariah on Earth, given the anti-cyborg sentiment there.

[johnnythewolf]

I see. That sounds interesting.

So, do you still need help with your project?

[DJBaker]

I see. That sounds interesting.

So, do you still need help with your project?

Not with voices, but it would be helpful to have another person working on maps for the later missions. With one of them I haven't even started the terrain yet, so there would be considerable freedom available for someone with their own ideas.

I had planned on doing these myself, but if someone were interested I certainly wouldn't turn away their help...

[johnnythewolf]

Sign me in then! I'd be glad to help you with terraining. PM any relevant directive, and I'll start mapping ASAP.

[johnnythewolf]

Extreme Makeover: SC2 Edition!

First map (Before):

Terrain 001.jpg

First map (After):

Purity2.0.jpg

Still far from being finished, though. Beta-testing can be so time-consuming, especially when you keep improving the map between two play sessions.

Also, like I mentioned in another topic, we are still trying to figure out how to make portrait characters move their mouth for the whole dialogue duration. If any of you knows how, please let us know!

[IskatuMesk]

The map is still very naked. Other than placing some terrain textures here and there it does not appear that doodad placement has been significantly altered.

I'd worry about detailing the map before "beta" testing, as in my opinion it's not near beta stage in terms of terrain yet.

[wibod]

for a place with so much water there is very little vegetation