Re: New Starcraft Campaign: Tales of Halcyon
Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 3:08 am
Hi! I'm new to these forums (though I've actually been a casual reader for some time) and have created this account to be able to intervene and give my own insight in campaigns such as your own, which so far look pretty polished. So I decided I would play them chronologically; first TOH, then VOTS and finally I'll give a try to ESE.
Mission 1 was unexpectedly tricky. In my first run I tried going Marine/Firebat in moderate numbers with Goliaths for support against Mutas, but as soon as I attacked their first spawning ground they threw a bunch of Ultralisks upon my unsuspecting army and all but massacred it. I had expected that for a first mission I would be encountering mostly Zerlings + Hydras so... phew. I saw you used the 'Zerg Campaign Easy' AI for this mission, but this is a really weird script: it actually spawns Ultralisks and Guardians in large numbers.
Also, by the time I actually got successful and came near the Cerebrate, I saw the enemy Drones idle, just sitting there and doing nothing. I noticed that you deactivated Guardians for P1 (and not the Ultralisks? Lolololol), but the scripted AI will attempt to build them anyway. Since they won't be able to build them this may be causing the freeze issue. If you want the computer to go on the ZLing/Hydra/Muta combo, you should probably use 'Zerg Campaign Medium' instead, which is actually easier than the 'Easy' one lol (alternatively, you can also use one of the scripted SC campaign AIs).
As a result, I found Mission 2 easier. Even here, the occasional Carrier/Reaver attacks are triggered rather than some crazily-scripted AI, so at least we can be sure this is intentional and under control. Also, the vastness of space in the map coupled with the Protoss being an enemy gives somewhat of an eerie feeling to the mission which I really liked.
Having read other posts in this thread, I'm not as concerned about the 'Khaydarin in Halcyon? What the hell'-issue than the deux ex machina aspect of it, where the crystal appears just at the right time (i.e. just after Schezar's arrival and the Cerebrate's capture) at the right place (in the planet's moon). Plotwise, it can be justified in that it was all part of Schezar's plan: he already knew the crystal was there (probably having been left over by the Xel'Naga at some point, this is not difficult to justify) as well as the Cerebrate, so that's why he went to Halcyon in the first place. But this is not that clear from the mission dialogues, even if you'd suppose that Schezar would obviously conceal that key bit of info from the Governor because, well, he only sought to use Halcyon's resources to help him capture the Zerg and remove the Protoss threat.
In Mission 3 I was forced to get rid of the uppermost Kel-Morian base because they were too aggressive. Their persistent attacks were preventing me from focusing on the Protoss and drained me a lot of resources, which coupled with the scarcity of Vespene Gas available in the map required me to act quick. Plotwise, I don't know if this was intended, since taking them off is supposedly meant as an optional objective. Further, I see they use the 'Difficult' script (compared to the Protoss, which use the 'Medium' one only). Luckily enough, they have many of their advanced units disabled, though I fear this may cause the same effect as in Mission 1; probably a less difficult AI script should be used instead.
Mission 4 was wonderful... but hard. In the first run I was not expecting such a continuous attack wave and was ill-prepared myself to face it, so it brought me down fairly easily. In subsequent runs I was more prepared for what was to come, but the no Bunker-kill objective got me most of the time. This is one major flaw I see in this mission: this is a central objective and one that requires you to do a lot of micromanagement, to have your SCVs repair them and even place some of your units as cannon fodder, but there is no actual explanation in the plot as to why you cannot just rebuild your Bunkers once they are destroyed (only Larsson's mentioning that he wants all Bunkers loaded and some SCVs to repair them, but this doesn't explain why you can't just rebuild). Obviously you intended this for the mission to be more competitive, but I missed a context here.
Aaaand I have not yet played missions 5 and 6. I expect to do them within the next couple days, so I'll tell you once I do them.
Anyway, very promising work. The map design is intelligent and very natural-looking; this reminds me of the SC Precursor and Rebel Yell campaigns. Can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve.
Mission 1 was unexpectedly tricky. In my first run I tried going Marine/Firebat in moderate numbers with Goliaths for support against Mutas, but as soon as I attacked their first spawning ground they threw a bunch of Ultralisks upon my unsuspecting army and all but massacred it. I had expected that for a first mission I would be encountering mostly Zerlings + Hydras so... phew. I saw you used the 'Zerg Campaign Easy' AI for this mission, but this is a really weird script: it actually spawns Ultralisks and Guardians in large numbers.
Also, by the time I actually got successful and came near the Cerebrate, I saw the enemy Drones idle, just sitting there and doing nothing. I noticed that you deactivated Guardians for P1 (and not the Ultralisks? Lolololol), but the scripted AI will attempt to build them anyway. Since they won't be able to build them this may be causing the freeze issue. If you want the computer to go on the ZLing/Hydra/Muta combo, you should probably use 'Zerg Campaign Medium' instead, which is actually easier than the 'Easy' one lol (alternatively, you can also use one of the scripted SC campaign AIs).
As a result, I found Mission 2 easier. Even here, the occasional Carrier/Reaver attacks are triggered rather than some crazily-scripted AI, so at least we can be sure this is intentional and under control. Also, the vastness of space in the map coupled with the Protoss being an enemy gives somewhat of an eerie feeling to the mission which I really liked.
Having read other posts in this thread, I'm not as concerned about the 'Khaydarin in Halcyon? What the hell'-issue than the deux ex machina aspect of it, where the crystal appears just at the right time (i.e. just after Schezar's arrival and the Cerebrate's capture) at the right place (in the planet's moon). Plotwise, it can be justified in that it was all part of Schezar's plan: he already knew the crystal was there (probably having been left over by the Xel'Naga at some point, this is not difficult to justify) as well as the Cerebrate, so that's why he went to Halcyon in the first place. But this is not that clear from the mission dialogues, even if you'd suppose that Schezar would obviously conceal that key bit of info from the Governor because, well, he only sought to use Halcyon's resources to help him capture the Zerg and remove the Protoss threat.
In Mission 3 I was forced to get rid of the uppermost Kel-Morian base because they were too aggressive. Their persistent attacks were preventing me from focusing on the Protoss and drained me a lot of resources, which coupled with the scarcity of Vespene Gas available in the map required me to act quick. Plotwise, I don't know if this was intended, since taking them off is supposedly meant as an optional objective. Further, I see they use the 'Difficult' script (compared to the Protoss, which use the 'Medium' one only). Luckily enough, they have many of their advanced units disabled, though I fear this may cause the same effect as in Mission 1; probably a less difficult AI script should be used instead.
Mission 4 was wonderful... but hard. In the first run I was not expecting such a continuous attack wave and was ill-prepared myself to face it, so it brought me down fairly easily. In subsequent runs I was more prepared for what was to come, but the no Bunker-kill objective got me most of the time. This is one major flaw I see in this mission: this is a central objective and one that requires you to do a lot of micromanagement, to have your SCVs repair them and even place some of your units as cannon fodder, but there is no actual explanation in the plot as to why you cannot just rebuild your Bunkers once they are destroyed (only Larsson's mentioning that he wants all Bunkers loaded and some SCVs to repair them, but this doesn't explain why you can't just rebuild). Obviously you intended this for the mission to be more competitive, but I missed a context here.
Aaaand I have not yet played missions 5 and 6. I expect to do them within the next couple days, so I'll tell you once I do them.
Anyway, very promising work. The map design is intelligent and very natural-looking; this reminds me of the SC Precursor and Rebel Yell campaigns. Can't wait to see what else you have up your sleeve.
![:]](./images/smilies/flat-smile.gif "Smile"){kind=small}
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