SC2Mapster

I've been working on these on the official forums for a while. Would like to see your opinion, too :).

My ideas are divided into 3 parts: the base, the NPCs and the campaign layout.

Also, feel free to post your own ideas as well ;).

THE BASE

With Raynor's Riders at Wings of Liberty, we got a spaceship base, the Hyperion, with a lot of features and new characters.

What do you think will come next, with Heart of the Swarm?

My idea:

ROYAL PALACE OF CHAR

We already saw this place at the last mission of WoL, All In. At the beginning cut-scene, Kerrigan emerged from it. Later, at the final cinematic, the team is seen inside it, too. Kerrigan doesn't need to be present to control the swarm, so she doesn't need a spaceship, and can sit tranquil at her palace, going near her troops with a sac or something when she needs so. Rooms:

Throne chamber (Throne)

The equivalent of the Hyperion's Bridge. Features:

• Throne (decoration).
• Tactical bio-map (missions from here, like at the Hyperion).
• Trophies at the sides of the throne (at the Hyperion they were at the Cantina).

Egg chamber (Hatchery)

The equivalent of the Hyperion's Laboratory. Features:

• Huge room with pools full of eggs, where queens spawn experimental units faster than in the normal ways (decoration).
• Research with special points (mutating/infesting terran and protoss stuff).
• Mercenaries (special limited broods).

Arena (Arena)

The equivalent of the Hyperion's Armory. Features:

• A pit where units fight each other to test their skills and see if they're useful or not (decoration).
• Unit upgrades (may be done through some arena minigame, with limited play-options, so you can't get all the upgrades, and you need to play x missions to unlock x games).
• Arena minigame (read line above).

Queen's Chambers (Chamber)

The equivalent of the Hyperion's Cantina. Features:

• A room full of terran stuff, ghost equipment and a bed-pool where Kerrigan rests (decoration).
• Special missions objects (like Ihan Crystal and its Zeratul missions; maybe Raynor wnt on some mission and sends the Ihan to Kerrigan to let her know about it, or maybe we recover some UED special mission archives).
• Other special stuff (equivalents to the adjutant and the artefact pieces, and mutations for Kerrigan, to get slowly reinfested).

Outside the palace (Surface)

No equivalent on the Hyperion. Features:

• The surface of Char, overlooking your palace at the back (decoration).
• You’ll see your palace grow, getting new parts, spikes, simply bigger or tentacles. Eventually, at the final missions, your palace would be able to move, and would be your fortress for the final missions, where Kerrigan needs to be at the front (cinematic in the style of WoW: WotLK, only that bigger than a dragon, don’t say you wouldn’t love it :D).
• Communication with Raynor's Riders, UNN news and other things that need to be outside, because your palace blocks the signals.
• Unit gallery (like at the Hyperion’s armory, only that you see them flying or running around, like a small zoo).

All of it, and not just the outside, would grow. For example, at the beginning, the throne chamber would be too simple, but after some missions, everything would “evolve” automatically to make the room look cooler and the throne bigger+taller. Other rooms may be unavailable from the beginning, too, and you would need to play to evolve the palace to open them.

Some “choose” situations could affect the palace, too, making it look “good” or “evil”, by, for example, editing the “membrane windows” at the ceiling, to give different illumination. Other may give it spikes to look “strong”, and the opposite some sort of “wings” to make it look more agile or something.

In the end, all of this could be put into a special Leviathan or transport, but it's more "original" if it's not a spaceship, at least at the beginning. Before recovering the palace (from infested Tychus? http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/1874669023 :P), Kerrigan would be fine at the Hyperion. So:

• Joeyray’s Bar = Hyperion (check http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/566439421 for ideas on linking both campaigns)
• Hyperion = Palace
• Char camp = Flying palace

THE NPCS

These are my NPC ideas (dependent on the rooms above):

• Throne chamber:
  • Some sort of infested male terran (Stukov, the one from DT novel trilogy, etc) that works as the “assistant” to Kerrigan and helps her lead the swarm.
  • The rest of the characters would appear around this room sometimes, just like what happens at the Hyperion’s Bridge.

• Egg chamber:
  • Half-terran queen (Ariel Hanson is a good candidate, supposing that she and all the Agrians were infested since the beginning, thus joining the swarm would be a good idea to keep their sanity) who directs the “terran” program (mission needed to unlock her).
  • Half-protoss queen (new character you meet and fight, in her last moments of life she understands your goal and asks you to let her join the swarm to save the galaxy and bring peace between their races) who directs the “protoss” program (mission needed to unlock her).

• Arena:
  • Some sort of infested half-hydralisk male protoss (new character, but should have joined the swarm long ago) who directs the arena.
  • Half-ultralisk aberration (new character, but should have joined the swarm long ago) who serves the director of the arena. They’re deep friends, usually making jokes about their infestation.

• Queen’s chamber:
  • Some sort of infested young female terran (new character, apparently weak, but full of Kerrigan-style body-weapons, that shows only when she’s angry in some cinematic) who guards Kerrigan’s chambers and doesn’t let anyone in without her permission (she may be the “successor” to Kerrigan, and even her daughter). She’s a good friend with her queen, and the one Kerrigan shares her hidden “emotions” with.

• Outside the palace:
  • Some half-overseer infested terran (new character) who controls all the radio and transmission mechanisms, while he “levitates” around. He’s the mad technician type of guy. He has a pet observer he has modified with organic stuff.
  • A normal infested terran (new character) that acts pretty rude, mostly with the assistant of Kerrigan. He’s usually at the throne room, arguing with the assistant because he has better tactics, or outside, watching the technician and not trusting him (everyone would suspect him to be evil, but later the technician could be the evil one, betraying the swarm to some terran faction). He watches for Kerrigan’s young protégé when Kerrigan herself isn’t around.

(Note: some characters are worth returning as infested, like Edmund Duke, Fenix, Karass... they all died at Kerrigan’s hands, and maybe she “captured” their corpses and conserved them for some reason; also, Stukov was deinfested, but a return could be possible; same for infested protoss, that were said not to exist)

MISSIONS OUTLINE

My "main" idea for the missions layout, right now, is a tree, and not just 4 branches, like Wings of Liberty.

This means that each mission you play unlocks 2 missions, unless the missions is a "final one". I think this model is good because it matches the zerg tech tree fine, and makes sure you don't play the broodlord mission before the corruptor mission.

If we follow a WoL layout, you'd have the entire T3 in a single branch, since you need infestor and bla bla bla, which makes it predictable and boring.

My idea would be something like this; aside from playing previous missions, some might require to play a previous amount of missions, preferably those starting a new tier:

Tier 0

• 01: unlocks 02 (zergling)
• 02: unlocks 03 (queen, overlord)
• 03: unlocks 1A and 1B (spine crawler, spore crawler)

Tier 1

• 1A: unlocks 1AA and 1AB <<Raynor>>
  • 1AA
  • 1AB

• 1B: unlocks 1BA1 and 1BB1 (Roach)
  • 1BA1: unlocks 1BA2 and 2A
    • 1BA2
  • 1BB1: unlocks 1BB2 and 2B <<Raynor>>
    • 1BB2

Tier 2

• 2A: unlocks 2AA1 and 2AB1 (Infestor)
  • 2AA1: unlocks 2AA2 and 3A (Corruptor)
    • 2AA2
  • 2AB1: unlocks 2AB2 and 3B1 (Mutalisk)
    • 2AB2

• 2B: unlocks 2BA and 2BB (Hydralisk)
  • 2BA (Nydus Worm)
  • 2BB (Lurker)

Tier 3

• 3A: unlocks 3AA and 3AB <<Raynor>>
  • 3AA (Brood Lord)
  • 3AB
• 3B1: unlocks 3B2 and 41 (Ultralisk)
  • 3B2

Tier 4

• 41: unlocks 42
• 42: unlocks 43
• 43: final mission

I only placed those I'm sure that fit (Lurker may the exception, in case it's T3, Hydralisk would switch with Mutalisk and Lurker with 3B2).

In the end, the units by tier are:

• Tier 0: 3: zergling, queen, overlord, spine and spore crawlers.
• Tier 1: 8: roach, baneling + new.
• Tier 2: 8: infestor, mutalisk, corruptor, hydralisk, nydus worm +new.
• Tier 3: 5: ultralisk, broodlord + new.

The overseer should be a research unit. By "new" I imply a new unit is added, be it from Brood War or completely new. Some maths and we get to the conclusion that we would need 7 new units for the missions, and 3 for the lab research (although the lab could bring more).

Back from BW, we could have: scourges, guardians, defilers and devourers. WoL could bring: brutalisks, swarmhosts and swarm guardians.

I don't mention side missions, but they don't count for the main run so it shouldn't be a problem.

Total number of missions: 27 (WoL is 26 with 3 side missions)

• Tier 0: 3
• Tier 1: 8
• Tier 2: 8
• Tier 3: 5
• Tier 4: 3

Of all the missions, 4 could be played as the terran. The main idea is that Raynor's Raiders are helping Kerrigan, and sometimes contact her to inform her of some mission they did. You play the mission and you unlock the bonus. These missions wouldn't give any new unit, but could in turn unlock missions that do. I marked them as <<Raynor>>, although there's still 1 left I'm not sure where to place.

I'll try to make an image of everything later to explain it better, if I'm bored enough :P.

Original thread here: http://eu.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/2037896877 :).

ive sorta already said some of my ideas on the official forum thread so i'll just pop by to say hello and save space to edit in ideas at a later date

We don't need ten thousands infested characters to lead the swarm. Infested Kerrigan can lead the swarm because she was a ghost of tremendous psychic capacity. What we need is talking brains and worms, just like old times. Plus, infested protoss is not possible. I think melting protoss and zergs in any form (infested, hybrid) should be kept exceptional, but that's just me.

I think the "Kerrigan levels up" process will be something more parallel to her army composition. Maybe some missions, infested of giving units, give special stuff to Kerrigan alone, although I think the main way to go is: assimilate hydralisk, Kerrigan gets her wing-like claws.

I don't think Kerrigan will be playable in all the levels, just some, like Raynor and other heroes during WoL.

Well, any opinion on the base classification and the missions layout? those are the parts I focused most on, and I would love criticism from a designer viewpoint. You think this could be good? :P

Quote from Yaos01: Go

We don't need ten thousands infested characters to lead the swarm. Infested Kerrigan can lead the swarm because she was a ghost of tremendous psychic capacity. What we need is talking brains and worms, just like old times.

Plus, infested protoss is not possible. I think melting protoss and zergs in any form (infested, hybrid) should be kept exceptional, but that's just me.

It's something left unclear again and again. First, they said they were able to be infested, then that not, then that yes, then that not, and like that again and again. There's even a StarCraft: Frontline story, Creep, in which a zealot gets clearly infested.

In my opinion, they can be infested. I mean, why could they not? they're a living creature like any other.

i'd prefer if we got a kerrigan hero every mission rather than a raynor "well let's get down there, and by that i mean you get down there while i'll stick around on the hyperion"

about the actual design of the base- i'm not really sure if it fits mainly due to the fact we don't know what kerrigan's state of mind is, i mean if kerrigan wants to be QoB again then maybe she would have a base like this but the way blizzard describe how HotS will play out makes it seem like regaining control of the zerg is something she feels she needs to do, not necessarily something she wants to do and because of that i think she will probably not take something like a queen's position, i'd guess she would more likely try to stylise herself as a regent for the zerg until someone/thing she thinks is appropriate comes along to lead them

they were made in a lab, not "infested". they can make up w/e rule they want.

edit: exactly what grey said. Didn't know they couldn't be infested tho, but like I said, they can easily change that as they need to for the story.

Quote from Lonami: Go

Well, any opinion on the base classification and the missions layout? those are the parts I focused most on, and I would love criticism from a designer viewpoint. You think this could be good? :P

So? :P

Personally, I think it's mostly perfect, but I'm sure you have some kind of criticism somewhere, so please, criticize xDDD.