[SC:BW] Resilience Rising

[Pr0nogo]

A nice little terrain update for chapter two of Resilience Rising is here, to whet your appetites for the big video update that's due tomorrow or Wednesday. Let me know what you guys think!

[Falchion]

Double posted. Ooops...

[Falchion]

Okay, I'm definitely getting out of line for what I'm about to say, but that mirrored doodad...

STONE PORN!!!

[Legion]

Wow, dude , this terrain looks fierce. Most of it's your own work, too, which is good. Some of the screens kinda confuse me like this always does http://www.interpellatie.nl/wp-content/ ... escher.jpg but it's still a very good set of new terrain features.

[mark_009_vn]

http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu2/ ... rrain1.jpg

The cliff terraining...thing, looks utterly hideous and confusing. I don't even know what the hell am I looking at. The meeting points between the cliff and the dirt titles gives me the notion that it is some sort towering, massive giant cliff, yet the awkward layout of the terrain and the monotone feel made it looks like...a void in space and time.

[Eredalis]

Although I really respect your creative power, but these stacked cliffs looks absolutely retarded... -_-'
And where the hell is the Zerg creep? o_O

[Pr0nogo]

Clearly, I'm working with a very limited engine here, boys. You're looking at a mountain. There's a cliffside base (picture 2) and a mountaintop base (not featured) that the player controls. A set of three Gateways (plus defences, picture 9 - last picture) will allow a continuous stream of refugees from other provinces, which will travel to the Warp Gate (not featured) that will evacuate them to Shakuras. More will be revealed in time, as I have a video planned, and the terrain looks quite "pleasing to the eyes" (not my words, but those of the people I've already shown) when seen from in-game.

I have spent an incredible amount of time finalising terrain details. Here's a full look at the first mission, to demonstrate.


(final doodad count: 730 natural)

I want Resilience Rising to be flawless in all aspects. Of course this is a hopeless goal, but I'm going to do my best to make this project the best there is.

Going back to mission two's terrain...

Aside from a few blocks in the raised dirt area (picture 7), everything is blended perfectly (that is to say, there are no terrain blocks - NOT that the terrain is flawless in nature). Terrain was a big focus for this map, and part of the reason why it took so long to properly produce. Triggering, scriptwriting, and voice acting has begun in full swing, at this point, and the briefing is nearly complete. While not as lengthy as the ten-minute-long one from chapter one, this briefing will feature a short, foreshadowing monologue, followed by a battle scene (like the first briefing) and finally the actual mission briefing. My plan is to properly set the scene for every mission, and this is how I'm going about doing this. It's my artistic vision, if you will, and I feel that I will be able to flesh out my campaign very well throughout this method.

This will be the last briefing featured, however, because otherwise... Well, you'd never want to watch another Resilience Rising briefing ever again.

To give the bigger picture of the map's terrain, however... I present ye with this.


(final doodad count: 850 natural)

Of course I wish there was more terrain variation I can do with the cliffs. Of course I wish such stacking was already supported. Of course I wish I could make it look more natural. This is what I have, though, and this is really the best I can see. If I find a better way to stack cliffs, and there's a way to do it without having to redo the entire map, then I'll do it. I can't see a better way at this point, though. I know that sounds pitiful and stupid to some, but I really can't. That's the truth.

And where the hell is the Zerg creep? o_O

I disable creep in SCMDraft's view tab so I can doodad properly, and so I can show off said doodads when taking screenshots.

(natural, in the case of counting doodads, is to differentiate between doodads that were placed in the doodad layer and custom or extended terrain doodads that were placed in the terrain layer)

EDIT: Before anyone asks, both maps are 128x128 in size.

[IskatuMesk]

A set of three Gateways (plus defences, picture 9 - last picture) will allow a continuous stream of refugees from other provinces, which will travel to the Warp Gate (not featured) that will evacuate them to Shakuras.

I dunno if I'm alone here, but I find it kind of redundant to warp guys into a region just to walk to another building that then warps them out.

[Pr0nogo]

I dunno if I'm alone here, but I find it kind of redundant to warp guys into a region just to walk to another building that then warps them out.

Warp Gates have a much more powerful range than mere Gateways. Or at least, it is implied, as Blizzard's first Brood War Protoss mission shows a Warp Gate next to a base that has at least one or two Gateways operational.

A quick look at SCWiki yields this information;

The warp gate is a xel'naga structure designed to facilitate instantaneous travel over interplanetary and interstellar distances. Knowledge of how to use warp gates is rare.

And further down,

The protoss gateway and stargate perform similarly to the xel'naga warp gate but are technically inferior due to incomplete understanding of the original examples.

Source: http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Warp_ga ... %27naga%29

The only reason there is still a functional gate on Aiur (other than the one featured in the first Brood War Protoss mission) is that it is insinuated that new gates could be created or salvaged, and outright stated on the same SCWiki page that it is possible for the Protoss to create such structures.

Following the Brood War, the protoss had become so desperate they became willing to attempt to build these devices themselves.

The thing that makes things interesting is that Khaydarin crystals were necessary to ensure the Warp Gate would maintain an operational status. That's essentially the story device I'm using to prevent the Protoss from being able to just drum up a Warp Gate anywhere. They need a power source, and such sources are rare, and hard to obtain.

[IskatuMesk]

This sounds like bad retconning to me (like stalkers trapped on auir bad), but okay.

[Pr0nogo]

I can only use what Blizzard gives me!
(except horrible headaches and lardpuke (pukelard?), but that can't be used in any positive manner for this project)

[poiuy_qwert]

Would be awesome if you added custom tiles to that tileset for your mountainside.

[Pr0nogo]

I plan on including some tileset edits, like a 'nighttime' version of jungle, and maybe some more Protoss doodads (architecture, broken Pylons, etc. etc.). We'll see what comes of it.

[Pr0nogo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIu0rCvw6CM

As promised. Available in 1080p.

February has come and gone. Here's to March. Expect the next monthly update to be less revealing, although I do intend to include a gameplay/story video every month.

Cheers.

[Church]

Looking good!
I like the poetic-ness of the first part of the briefing, it really sets a chilling mood.

The refugees have a neat graphic as well. Everything looks pretty well put together.
also yes the cliffs do seem to be prettier in game