Enslavers Special Edition

[Andrea Rosa]

Here's a new project I've been working on lately. Notoriously, the original "Enslavers" had several flaws, including monotonous gameplay, time-consuming objectives, improperly displayed transmissions and misused AI scripts. With this Special Edition I've tried to address these issues. Please note that this in not a remake nor a reboot, it's a reworking of "Enslavers" aimed at fixing some bugs, improving the gameplay and expanding the story, all of this while retaining its original spirit. The maps are basically the same, with more or less evident changes in aesthetics and functionality, but a new mission has been added, so to make the two plot branches symmetrical. The original storyline has been expanded, and contains some references to one of my previous works, "Tales of Halcyon", which was an unofficial prequel to "Enslavers". For the complete list of changes, see the included documentation.


THE STORY

In the early days of the Terran Dominion, Alpha Squadron was dispatched on a secret mission to an undisclosed Outer Colony where an emergency had arisen: four months after having wreaked havoc on the fringe world of Halcyon, where he narrowly escaped capture by the Confederates, and after having been hidden who knows where, the infamous smuggler Alan Schezar and his personal militia had turned up again. Willing to carry out Emperor Mengsk's directive to imprison or eliminate any outlaw who acted against Dominion laws, Alpha Squadron reached their destination and began their hunt for Schezar, unaware of his true power and intentions.


Download "Enslavers Special Edition":
http://www.mediafire.com/file/i4emgwq0k ... E.zip/file (5.9 MB)


IMPORTANT NOTE: This campaign was designed to be played with the original StarCraft patched to version 1.04 or later. While it is technically possible to play these maps with Brood War, this is considered cheating: the original Enslavers was created for StarCraft, so the extra units and technologies would alter the gameplay, making some of the missions much easier. If you have Brood War, please play "Enslavers Special Edition" in StarCraft mode.

[chris]

I was about to PM you asking for progress on this since I'm nearing its entry on my spreadsheet, I'm glad to see I didn't need to do so

I see this doesn't include dark vengeance, that's OK though.

Speaking of dark vengeance, does anyone know where I can download that?

I will make another post here when my review of this campaign is completed. I am 5 campaigns away from this one as of the time of this posting since I just completed reviewing the so-called "random mission project" by DK (It turns out that apart from the first two missions the missions aren't random at all, the other missions are part of an unfinished campaign. The maps were haphazardly thrown into a single package and declared a random mission campaign.)

[Andrea Rosa]

I see this doesn't include dark vengeance, that's OK though.

I'm sorry, I only have the original StarCraft installed on the old PC that I use for map creation (it's a P4 that runs Win98 and is no longer connected to the Internet, I'm not joking). I had a cracked version of Brood War till 2014, but I deleted it because it lacked music and cinematics. Of course I have StarCraft + Brood War on my laptop, but I can't figure myself using it for designing, it's not comfortable.

Speaking of dark vengeance, does anyone know where I can download that?

It's available in the Archive, but you can also download it by following this very nostalgic link:
http://classic.battle.net/scc/OS/enslavers.shtml

[chris]

Ah that sounds like my first PC. I still remember how laggy the last protoss mission was on that machine. I'll prepare a StarCraft folder for you that includes brood war and will allow you to switch between version 1.07, 1.10, 1.14, 1.15, 1.15.1 and 1.16.1. I do this for every new PC I get, it is based on my installation on my first PC and it is by far my oldest folder ever with files dating back to 1999. if you don't have a brood war cd then versions below 1.15 won't work but that's ok. I doubt you care about versions anyway

This is all legal of course and isn't cracked, StarCraft is freeware now

[Eredalis]

O M G!
Why do you have increased the difficulty of the Enslavers campaign in such a sick way???
All you have achieved is that your version is nearly unplayable, especially from mission 2 on. The ridiculous amount of attack waves seems to be endless, and it's absolutely no fun in facing permanent attacks.

The original difficulty of the Enslavers campaign is already balanced in a way of a veteran level. I don't know why it was necessary to set up such a hate.

[Andrea Rosa]

O M G!
Why do you have increased the difficulty of the Enslavers campaign in such a sick way???
All you have achieved is that your version is nearly unplayable, especially from mission 2 on. The ridiculous amount of attack waves seems to be endless, and it's absolutely no fun in facing permanent attacks.

The original difficulty of the Enslavers campaign is already balanced in a way of a veteran level. I don't know why it was necessary to set up such a hate.

Acknowledged. A new version with reduced difficulty is now available (you can download it at the same link). The attack waves of the Purple Zerg in mission 2 contain fewer Ultralisks, and the interval between each wave has been extended.

[Eredalis]

Cool thing! I will retry mission 2 later in the evening. Although I've spotted 3 block collection points yet again in mission 2...

By the way: mission 1 of "Enslavers SE" is nearly perfect. The mineral and gas ratio is well balanced. Difficulty is slightly harder than the original, but doable. I am curious to reach mission 3a or mission 3b. Think I will first choose the plot branch of the Dominion.

[Andrea Rosa]

Cool thing! I will retry mission 2 later in the evening. Although I've spotted 3 block collection points yet again in mission 2...

Keep track of the attack waves, they come in this order: 1) Zerglings 2) Zerglings & Hydralisks 3) Defilers 4) Zerglings & Ultralisks. After 6 minutes or so, the cycle repeats, so the best moment to advance is after the Ultralisks appear. These attack waves will continue until you reach the northernmost Orange Zerg base, but be careful: they will start again if all of your units in that part of the map are destroyed. Also, they often prefer to target units instead of Bunkers, so Magellan's Defensive Matrix comes to good use.

As for the small mineral clusters issue, they contain very few resources, and can be considered both as eye-candy and as emergency reserve (in case you desperately need 400 minerals to build a Command Center and you don't want to move one of your existing ones).

[Eredalis]

As for the small mineral clusters issue, they contain very few resources, and can be considered both as eye-candy and as emergency reserve (in case you desperately need 400 minerals to build a Command Center and you don't want to move one of your existing ones).

That sounds fine. And it's absolutely okay if these blocks conduce such kind of goals. But they should NOT used as an expansion per se. (Not the case here, but in mission 5 of VotS)

These attack waves will continue until you reach the northernmost Orange Zerg base, but be careful: they will start again if all of your units in that part of the map are destroyed.

Wait, what?!
I highly recommend you reconsider this in full scale. That's a gameplay keypoint and as far as I've played there is no explanation that this specific case can happen again. In other words, you should include some transmission or text hint or additional mission objectives or whatever to inform the player that the attack waves can start all over again. Otherwise it could feel like a bug or something if these attacks suddenly begin again without any obviously reason.

[Andrea Rosa]

In other words, you should include some transmission or text hint or additional mission objectives or whatever to inform the player that the attack waves can start all over again. Otherwise it could feel like a bug or something if these attacks suddenly begin again without any obviously reason.

Good point. I could stop the attack waves permanently, or I could make they come from a couple of Nydus Canals that the player can try to destroy. I'll elaborate on this, meanwhile thanks for the suggestion.

[Eredalis]

Nydus Canals sounds pretty good.
But I think 3 Ultralisks are still too much to handle in comparison on attack pressure generally. The same goes for these annoying Guardians which have nothing better to do than spit their poison all over the place.

How long it has been since you have played the original mission 2 of Enslavers?

[Andrea Rosa]

Nydus Canals sounds pretty good.
But I think 3 Ultralisks are still too much to handle in comparison on attack pressure generally. The same goes for these annoying Guardians which have nothing better to do than spit their poison all over the place.

I know, Guardians are annoying, but they give Kazansky a reason for being there, otherwise he would be as useless as tits on a bull.

How long it has been since you have played the original mission 2 of Enslavers?

I replayed it in November, a few days before starting this project (the last time I had played Enslavers was probably in 2010). Man, mission 2 was boring as hell: the Zerg AI froze up after I destroyed their first Hatchery (they kept mining but they stopped to build additional units), the red Terrans attacked two or three times in total, and they did not research past level 1 upgrades. Seriously, the original version of this map is a walk in the park, not to mention the possibility to win the rescue objective in less than one minute.

[chris]

I replayed it in November, a few days before starting this project (the last time I had played Enslavers was probably in 2010). Man, mission 2 was boring as hell: the Zerg AI froze up after I destroyed their first Hatchery (they kept mining but they stopped to build additional units), the red Terrans attacked two or three times in total, and they did not research past level 1 upgrades. Seriously, the original version of this map is a walk in the park, not to mention the possibility to win the rescue objective in less than one minute.

I think you are confusing difficulty with polish. What you are describing are bugs in a mission, not its difficulty. If the AI doesn't upgrade or build then that is a bug and enslavers is known for being buggy as hell.

Enslavers was too difficult then and it is too difficult now, the difference is that in your version you can't exploit bugs to make the playthrough easier. My recommendation is that since you've fixed the bugs you should also make the gameplay easier to balance out the lack of bugs, at least make it as easy as voices of the swarm or tales of halcyon. I got slaughtered by a swarm of zerglings and mutalisks when I only had time to build and fill two bunkers on my first try with mission 1. Havent tried the other missions yet but the discussion you're having with eredalis is reminding me of Kevin Cooper's story. It failed to get a recommendation because of gimmicks that made hard missions impossible to win without power overwhelming. Because of that, I'm going to have to support all of eredalis's suggestions.

[Andrea Rosa]

Enslavers was too difficult then and it is too difficult now, the difference is that in your version you can't exploit bugs to make the playthrough easier. My recommendation is that since you've fixed the bugs you should also make the gameplay easier to balance out the lack of bugs, at least make it as easy as voices of the swarm or tales of halcyon. I got slaughtered by a swarm of zerglings and mutalisks when I only had time to build and fill two bunkers on my first try with mission 1. Havent tried the other missions yet but the discussion you're having with eredalis is reminding me of Kevin Cooper's story. It failed to get a recommendation because of gimmicks that made hard missions impossible to win without power overwhelming. Because of that, I'm going to have to support all of eredalis's suggestions.

I understand. Maybe I should have simply fixed the original bugs. I'll consider about removing all extra features and triggered attack waves in all missions. It won't take me much time to do it, a much easier version will be available in a couple of days. Thanks for the suggestions!

[chris]

ah wait, hold on Andrea. I just completed the first mission on a second try. It was a lot of fun this time. I think I just needed to get used to playing your campaigns again. I'm going to begin the second one shortly and I'll let you know how it goes.

edit: OK, the waves here are a problem as Eredalis has stated. I just got my ass handed to me by the simultaneous assault of those ultralisks and the guardians. The thing is, this would be possible to handle with siege tanks but because you don't start with a vespene geiser it takes too long before you can really start sieging up to defend yourself against these waves.

edit 2: Tried again, slaughtered by schezar's forces because dealing with the waves left me with no time to make defences for the rest of my base...