Campaign Creations

Theres something I've noticed recently from some new campaign creators. They don't like to use custom exes. In this day and age Starcraft modding has been pretty refined and there are a general set of guidelines to follow if your going to create a campaign that is up to current day standards. Besides great triggering, story, and terrain, and even voicing, you need to bring more to the table to truly captivate your audience.

Some advantages to exes:

1. Custom music
2. Custom background screens
3. Custom graphics/portraits
4. Modifying unit properties beyond the editor's limitations.
5. Using Firegraft you can use custom button sets for units (ala an attacking dark archon hero or a caster with spells from different races).
6. Rename units beyond the editor's limitations, including attacks, ranks, etc.

Remember, in the end the most IMPORTANT thing to remember is that your campaign should be fun. If its not fun to play, then you need to restart from square one and make it enjoyable.

Whiplash! wrote: Theres something I've noticed recently from some new campaign creators. They don't like to use custom exes. In this day and age Starcraft modding has been pretty refined and there are a general set of guidelines to follow if your going to create a campaign that is up to current day standards. Besides great triggering, story, and terrain, and even voicing, you need to bring more to the table to truly captivate your audience.

Some advantages to exes:

1. Custom music
2. Custom background screens
3. Custom graphics/portraits
4. Modifying unit properties beyond the editor's limitations.
5. Using Firegraft you can use custom button sets for units (ala an attacking dark archon hero or a caster with spells from different races).

Remember, in the end the most IMPORTANT thing to remember is that your campaign should be fun. If its not fun to play, then you need to restart from square one and make it enjoyable.

Agreed. Back in the day it was perhaps more of an arduous undertaking to do, but with all the available software, I think anyone is capable of producing some decent mod. It's easier than making the actual maps, anyway!

Additionally, I think mapmakers should focus on text formatting and coloring for the maps. I never thought this would happen, but I hate looking at Starcraft's blue font, especially when mapmakers didn't use any form of formatting. This has been addressed a million times, but I still wanted to mention it because I think it fits this new design philosophy.

In contrast I find colored text to be distracting and annoying more than anything.

All campaigns should also make extensive use of iscript.bin in fact every unit in any custom campaign should have at least 5 possible attacks as well as a giant blood nova explosion.


Seriously, campaign standards are 'fun, doesn't look retarded'. Anything beyond that is just candy.

tipereth wrote: All campaigns should also make extensive use of iscript.bin in fact every unit in any custom campaign should have at least 5 possible attacks as well as a giant blood nova explosion.


Seriously, campaign standards are 'fun, doesn't look retarded'. Anything beyond that is just candy.

I used to think like that. Yet more and more do I find myself expecting that exe file. Don't know why that is -- probably because we've seen it all. It's just that nowadays, I wouldn't play a campaign that's 'fun, doesn't look retarded'.

Mesk, there are a lot of annoying text colorings out there. When I say colored text, I mean decent and consistent color schemes and formatted text blocks.

Pretty sure that was sarcasm there, BM.

Pronogo wrote: Pretty sure that was sarcasm there, BM.

first part was, 2nd wasn't.

Please read through posts better

NORLY THAT'S WHAT I MEANT.

Anyone could see that except you though, apparently.

BadManners! wrote: I wouldn't play a campaign that's 'fun, doesn't look retarded'.

Well, that's unfortunate. I'd play a campaign that was fun even if it did look retarded.

tipereth wrote:

BadManners! wrote: I wouldn't play a campaign that's 'fun, doesn't look retarded'.

Well, that's unfortunate. I'd play a campaign that was fun even if it did look retarded.

Fun means different things to different people I guess.

Pronogo I knew he was being sarcastic I just didn't care. This is the internet.

Edit:
Thanks for the warning though. I admit, it took me a while to get it but it was the blood nova that gave it away. There's no such thing as blood nova even I know that!

Off to bed now.

BadManners! wrote:

tipereth wrote:

BadManners! wrote: I wouldn't play a campaign that's 'fun, doesn't look retarded'.

Well, that's unfortunate. I'd play a campaign that was fun even if it did look retarded.

Fun means different things to different people I guess.

Pronogo I knew he was being sarcastic I just didn't care. This is the internet.

Edit:
Thanks for the warning though. I admit, it took me a while to get it but it was the blood nova that gave it away. There's no such thing as blood nova even I know that!

Off to bed now.

Someone hasn't played AO.

Krazy wrote: Some mods can be a pain in the butt.  If you have to downgrade starcraft, that's a huge minus.

BWAI downgrader, problem solved.

No battle.net, problem not solved.

Pronogo wrote: No battle.net, problem not solved.

Single player does not need Battle.Net.  Problem irrelevant.

I know what you mean, though.  This is a big downside of mods. Oh well.

Single player does not need bnet as stated.

Mods can stick with the most recent version of brood war and even use a watered down firegraft (which by the way does what most people need it to do for them anyway) which covers almost all modding besides advanced stuff that mesk would do or custom plugins which I haven't seen properly utilized by any sc campaign yet. There is no excuse to not have your mod work for the mots recent version of sc if its just a campaign and its not over 5 years old.