Dark Swarm SE Download! (UPDATED!)

[Legion]

Ooh, I see the difficulty for the missions has been increased. I actually got owned a couple of times.

The first version was a joke in terms of difficulty. One of the main reasons was I did it all by myself and I had nobody to play it for me.

This time around, I had the invaluable assistance of thebrowncloud, who tested each mission a million times for difficulty. I'm happy you got beat.

You'll find the missions are actually more challenging and interesting than they were before. Especially 4.

[Eredalis]

I have found a strange little bug:

-- After the end of level 2, the same mission loads again. Don't know exactly why, the trigger seems to be correct. Maybe you should look at the switch called "Start" in the defeat condition, which is still active after all units will be removed through the victory trigger. The victory screen appears admittedly, but something goes wrong at this point...

E/

Mission 3:

-- In the mission describtion the word "Ovelord" is misspelled.

[Thalraxal]

I have found a strange little bug:

-- After the end of level 2, the same mission loads again. Don't know exactly why, the trigger seems to be correct. Maybe you should look at the switch called "Start" in the defeat condition, which is still active after all units will be removed through the victory trigger. The victory screen appears admittedly, but something goes wrong at this point...

E/

-- In the mission describtion the word "Ovelord" is misspelled.

Yeah, I was just playing it and got the same bug.

Also in Grathax's Prison: there were a few beacons that I didn't get any feedback when I went to them. Not sure if they did anything or not.

[The Oracle]

I can't find the missions.

[Legion]

I can't find the missions.

They are supposed to be in the archive. It's for SC1, by the way.

As for the bugs; the levels are supposed to be linked in the correct order. I'll look into to. The beacons in Grathax's Prison are also all supposed to be functional (eg. they give feedback). I'll look into that as well.

Weird. I thought I'd tackled everything that was wrong with the first version.

[HelpMe]

I can't find the missions.

If you downloaded the Firegraft file, it doesn't contain the missions, just Eredalis' alternative patch. The actual campaign is in the sendspace link, together with the original exe.

Legion, maybe you'd want to consider posting three separate links for download -- one for the maps, another for the WinMPQ exe and a third for the Firegraft exe. I downloaded Eredalis' patch thinking it would also contain the missions but like Oracle I didn't find them, and had to download the sendspace pack as well in order to play. Just a suggestion.

[Eredalis]

Recon squad Cerberus reporting:

-- The end of mission 3 is also buggy. After the destruction of all buildings, the scenario doesn't quit. I'd suggest, you should put player 7 not in the same group like player 1. Because player 7 owns the Ancient temple and that is a building, too, although player 7 is neutral.

P.S. Also, thebrowncloud has tested the maps? Interesting...

[Legion]

I'll look into it tonight. I'm sorry for any inconvenience.

Yes, thebrowncloud has tested the maps and they ran smoothly and without bugs. There must have been a mix-up; my mistake, not his.

[Eredalis]

Alright, I've played the campaign now fully.

First impressions:
-- Wow, this thing looks complete different to the version I've played two years ago.
-- The music themes are really cool, these tracks wrap the SE version into a very sad atmosphere.
-- Also I like the new portrait of Sterling, where have you found that?
-- Oh my god, these levels are now really big and doesn't have a connection to the original version anymore.
-- The difficulty of the new levels are as well different, though not really harder, imo. (Ok, maybe...)

Final impression:
To be honest, though the new DS has a new face, which is pretty cool at some points, I've liked the original version much more. In the special edition, the new plot lumbers a little bit... In the first version the timing of the events in the campaign was better. It was not so long-drawn-out.

Although you have a bunch of new gimmicks in the campaign, but the atmosphere is definitively not the same like in the original version. For the size of this mini campaign, the maps are now in my opinion way too big. Especially in the last one you fight, and walk, and fight, and walk, and fight - and so on, in the original version there was this awesome audio files of the terran scientists, which fires a lot of atmo in the level.

In mission one I've missed also the nice easter egg of the first level "Strongarm" from the Precursor campaign (Blizzard). Furthermore the campaign ends too fast. Is there anything, yet? A little logical mistake is also happens: The Overmind want to reveal the secrets inside the temple, but he had absorbed the knowledge of the Xel'Naga. Why did he already not know what is inside of the temple?

Overall, not bad, but the original one is better. Maybe Legion works better under pressure.

[HelpMe]

Phew. Mission 3 was unexpectedly lenghty. Will play last mission tomorrow, and post a mini-review by the weekend.

[Eredalis]

By the way, the cutscene at the end in mission 4 should be also checked once again. The game is paused and you can see the creation of all the observers in slow motion, which should actually create these shiny little effects. A bit fine tuning should fix that...

[omega20]

I found a bug in mission 3. If you let one of the orange overlords escape and go into the temple, the defeat screen plays as it's supposed, but the defeat message is "Sterling has been killed." Not that much of a bug, but something to be fixed. Besides this and some others of the bugs explained in previous posts, I like the campaign so much overall. It's short but entertaining. The voices are perfect; I like the Overmind's voice so much. I also liked the new "Unknown Cerebrate" voice. It sounds much more Zerg, unlike the old one who sounded a deal more like a mix of a Terran and Protoss. The dialogues are very convincing, too.

You've improved the map design and the difficulty, which is good. The new terrain looks much more natural, and I liked the "get to the temple before the bad zerg do" feature in mission 3. Good job Legion. I'm curious about what plans have you made for this project in the future. Do you intend to make a continuation of it?

Cheers and have fun!

[HelpMe]

Okay, I've finished playing the campaign and I'm posting my initial thoughts on it (better late than never, right?):


MISSION 1

A damn good start I'd say...

Briefing

The briefing for this mission is perfect IMO. The Overmind introductory speech is short and fitting; you obviously wanted to word it appropriately and it feels as authentic as any official Blizzard material. The added effects are nicely done. I am convinced you got this one just right.

Gameplay

The custom music you chose was rather unexpected for a Zerg campaign, since it sounds so... I don't know, "deep"? Anyway I liked it a lot, it was a good surprise in that sense.

Terrain looks nice. I'd add a few more details here and there, but then again I'm a doodad freak, and it does look more barren and desolate the way it is, which I think is a good way of portraying your arrival on an unknown and possibly hostile world.

I liked the fact there's plenty of expansions to take, even if they're not necessary. Makes the mission more fun IMO.

Difficulty is just right. I remember the first version was really easy, with the Terran just waiting to be killed and not bothering you at all. This time I was worried and saving constantly, which was thrilling. Good job on this aspect as well.

Another plus is that you show a bit of the Terran's point of view in this "first contact" between the two species. There was already some of this in the vanilla DS (if I'm not mistaken), but here you added a little more and it compliments the atmosphere.

One thing I'd suggest is that you insert the "pause game" action for the Cerebrate line at the end, so I can listen/read that bit more comfortably. Also, it says "I'm calling your troops back to the hive cluster" -- is "troops" a suitable word for Zerg forces? I like "minions" and "underlings"; not sure if troops is appropriate.

But that's a minor complaint anyway. While I'm on the subject of nitpicks, I'd say purple is a horrible color pick for Zerg. Purple and blue are for Protoss or Terran IMO, but that's personal taste.

Overall

Awesomeness. Not trying to sound like a fanboy but you did pratically everything right for this mission. I have no significant complaints about it.



PS: I'll edit this post as I finish reviewing the missions. More to come later...

[staredcraft]

Neither Links work anymore

[Legion]

Neither Links work anymore

Good.