Some feedback / ideas from map1 played at "Casual" difficulty:
How about changing Gateways to Warp Gates? This way player could bring Warp Prism with main group and warp more units instead of waiting them to complete from Gateway that is far away. I had no patience to wait that my extra Zealots are finished from Gateway.
That Zealot warrior wireframe doesn't look good.
Dialogs are always nice but without sound dialogs aren't very interesting. (Yes I know its huge job to make voice acting)
I didn't know how much I have time to destroy that Zerg base. I just know that neither of Zerg broods isn't allowed to destroy each other but without any idea how quickly I should move. - Should I use Dark Templars to kill units slowly but without losing units or just charge forward and do I have time to use my Gateways to produce more zealots. I recommend to add timer so player has some idea is there really need to hurry.
Improve loading screen someway?
Nice map anyway with good terrain. I'm waiting for more missions / full campaign.
As it is the first mission in the campaign I won't add warpgates. That's the reason I removed the Warp Prisms transport mode ability in the first place.
In this mission you'll have Zealots and gateways as your tech + your hero units.
Also, the mission isn't timed.
The two Broods attacking each other are made just for the visuals, not as a timer or anything.
The only way you can lose the mission is to lose the Executor.
What unit were you referring to when you were saying something about the wireframe didn't look good?
Just played it on "Hard", didn't use gateways at all and still had lots of zealots in the end, might try brutal later to feel the difference. Here is some feedback.
-Who are we, where are we, why are we here.
Tell players answer to these fundamental questions while he stares at the loading screen. I felt pretty lost the whole game because I felt like some random insignificant protoss dude who crashed on some random insignificant planet.
-Set starting speed to fastest
-Add voices to heroes, even if those are generic unit voices. Silence while ordering units just feels wrong. I need to hear some responses.
-Add description to heroes.
-High Templar Hero(Toroniz) Wireframe and group icon don’t match. His Psi Storm doesn’t have splat actor. Storms buttons tooltip is messed up. Also he lacks PsiShield wireframe.
-Dark Templar Hero(Anis) health wireframe doesn’t match to his model.
-The passive “Cloak” button should be individual(have description “Anis/Udin is permanently cloaked”, instead of default DT button).
-Heroes ranks shouldn’t be mentioned in their names. Instead have their rank displayed where it belongs (near kills). Like Zeratul will always have “Dark Prelate” rank.
-“The Khala” is not “The Force” from StarWars. Every time I see someone mix SC and SW I die inside alittle. My understanding is that Khala is “the path of anscension”, a philosophy. Wiki says it’s a religion. Imagine someone say “May the Christianity be with you”, wouldn’t that sound weird? Also, Khala maintains communal psionic link, one could assume that the link itself could be called “Khala”. Protoss can be in Khala (linked), but it cannot be with anyone.
Also, some of dialogs sound overly druidish :D
-Baneling mines (in the beginning) exploding on my invisible DT (makes it possible to detonate all banelings with my highshield tank).
-Requirement to step into Beacon in order to trigger events. Beacons should just display where I need to go to, and events should automatically fire once I enter beacons proximity.
Beat it on brutal, didn’t feel as challenging second time, but for some reason I had less zealots in the end this time(didn’t buy any again), so I suppose it works.
Overall impressions are mixed. I saw big map and thought that it would entertain me at least for half an hour. Protoss talked about Zerg and about building a base. I thought that after I kill weakest Zerg I would set up a base and eliminate winning brood. And if I took too long one of the broods would win and give me all of it’s attention, thus making base building much harder. That way the faster I would kill my target, the more time I would have to safely build my base. And I could use minerals for something other than resupplying my zealot army. Seeing end message was very anticlimactic for me. Want more. Don’t make me play a map and tell me that I won when there is half of map left unexplored. Also, terrain isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more diversity.
Here is some more feedback for you:
-DifficultySelectionDialog could be better. ( I can help you with dialogs if you wish, love doing dialog-stuff);
-Empty loading screen makes this feel unfinished;
-Unskipable cutscenes;
- My first Brutal playthrough ended when I loaded all units into Warp Prisms(because I can), and was met with fact that I can’t unload them.;
-Minor flaws which show that you didn’t do much of “in-house” testing (such as text going too fast sometimes.);
-I would suggest to override portrait when you’re playing transmission. Otherwise it just feels lazy;
-While I waited for shield regen I noticed that Orange was dominating purple. Also I noticed “CreateUnit” trigger in action.. If you create them with triggers, at least create them somewhere where I can’t see it;
-Inability to deal with air units is annoying (detectors/baneling dropping overlord), but since we don’t even have void prison-like skill I can only think it’s intended.
I played it, or at least I tried, cause I got that damn hero killed. So here's what I can say for now (I'm going to play it again later):
The map looks good and the area where the Carrier crashed is great. But yeah, we need more information on those guys, the planet, and why they're there.
I'll try not to repeat what others mentioned before me, unless I have something to add.
When the units are warped by the Warp Prisms there is no animation, they simply appear there, take the time to include the animations. I guess you just created the units, instead of actually placing them within the Prisms and them order the Prisms to unload.
Why is the High Templar hero a dark unit? And why is his Psi Storm icon in the second row (from left to right) and not in the first?
Make it so when a group of units is selected, the one with abilities is the one displayed in the command card, cause I couldn't cast psi storm this way.
Did you use a fixed game speed? Maybe make each difficult level have its own game speed.
As Ducky mentioned, do you know what the Khala is? And do you know that Dark Templars are NOT linked to the Khala because they REJECTED it, so, change that line for the Dark Templar hero. One suggestion for you: spend your days reading that Starcraft Wikia site. You will need to read a whole lotta lore to please the fans.
From the first time you said you where working on a campaign I though I'd offer some help, and now I'm here for it, you can count on me specially for brainstorming the storyline and missions, but also for some graphics, I can create icons and wireframes for you, possibly a better loadscreen and some textures.
When the units are warped by the Warp Prisms there is no animation, they simply appear there, take the time to include the animations. I guess you just created the units, instead of actually placing them within the Prisms and them order the Prisms to unload.
I actually had the same impression, opened map in editor and checked the triggers. Surprisingly units were created in shuttle and then unloaded. Then I checked animation again on fresh map. Apparently that's how it really works. Glad I'm not the only one who feels underwhelmed by warp prism unload animation. Maybe you could improve your campaign by making Warp Prism unload more graphical? :D
Unit priority in control card is another issue I had a gripe with. I just forgot about it, good thing Soul was annoyed by it aswell. You can set color for unit borders in command card, and with this piece of knowledge I suggest you to make use of this feature to distinguish heroes from casual units when they're selected.
Also, you can count on me if you need someone to criticize your ideas/dialogs :D (I'm not a hater, it's just my way of caring)
Took me ages to finally make time for this, but a promise is a promise - I gave it a whirl. I wasn't specifically looking for a challenge right now so I went with normal mode.
Notes: Overall it seemed like a good start, but I'll be honest - it feels a tad mediocre. The story isn't too original, terrain is decent but could be improved and it doesn't have that 'wow' factor the Blizz campaign or even stuff like Debe's campaign has. Some more camera panning action during cinematics, better writing, more story and a little less '1-a your units into the enemy camp' (even on normal) could make it a little bit more engaging. Also, two smaller things;
-During the second cinematic (that shows the Zerg), there was an Overlord in the foreground twitching it out like hell. Would suggest you fix that, looks sloppy.
-I found a bug when I was trying to rescue the two lone Zealots (the group you reach just after you reach the group that gives you the Zerg cinematic). Since I saw destructable rocks, I decided to just put my army on there and run one hero up to the rescueables, to save some time. My hero reached the Zealots, after which the Infestors popped up and MC'd them. I immediately ran my hero back towards the destructable rocks so I could I sent in my army to take care of the units. What happened was the following: the neutral Zealots chased me down but ran out of the Infestor's range, breaking the MC. The roached were following me too, but were further back - they ended up attacking the neutral Zealots and the Zealots started pounding them. After they died I took my army up and killed one Infestor, which transferred one of the neutral Zealot's control to me. When I killed the second Infestor, the other Zealot remained neutral and just stood there until the end of the map.
Some feedback / ideas from map1 played at "Casual" difficulty:
Nice map anyway with good terrain. I'm waiting for more missions / full campaign.
@Terhonator: Go
As it is the first mission in the campaign I won't add warpgates. That's the reason I removed the Warp Prisms transport mode ability in the first place.
In this mission you'll have Zealots and gateways as your tech + your hero units.
Also, the mission isn't timed.
The two Broods attacking each other are made just for the visuals, not as a timer or anything.
The only way you can lose the mission is to lose the Executor.
What unit were you referring to when you were saying something about the wireframe didn't look good?
Thanks for feedback, mate :)
Just played it on "Hard", didn't use gateways at all and still had lots of zealots in the end, might try brutal later to feel the difference. Here is some feedback.
-Who are we, where are we, why are we here. Tell players answer to these fundamental questions while he stares at the loading screen. I felt pretty lost the whole game because I felt like some random insignificant protoss dude who crashed on some random insignificant planet.
-Set starting speed to fastest
-Add voices to heroes, even if those are generic unit voices. Silence while ordering units just feels wrong. I need to hear some responses.
-Add description to heroes.
-High Templar Hero(Toroniz) Wireframe and group icon don’t match. His Psi Storm doesn’t have splat actor. Storms buttons tooltip is messed up. Also he lacks PsiShield wireframe.
-Dark Templar Hero(Anis) health wireframe doesn’t match to his model.
-The passive “Cloak” button should be individual(have description “Anis/Udin is permanently cloaked”, instead of default DT button).
-Heroes ranks shouldn’t be mentioned in their names. Instead have their rank displayed where it belongs (near kills). Like Zeratul will always have “Dark Prelate” rank.
-“The Khala” is not “The Force” from StarWars. Every time I see someone mix SC and SW I die inside alittle. My understanding is that Khala is “the path of anscension”, a philosophy. Wiki says it’s a religion. Imagine someone say “May the Christianity be with you”, wouldn’t that sound weird? Also, Khala maintains communal psionic link, one could assume that the link itself could be called “Khala”. Protoss can be in Khala (linked), but it cannot be with anyone.
Also, some of dialogs sound overly druidish :D
-Baneling mines (in the beginning) exploding on my invisible DT (makes it possible to detonate all banelings with my highshield tank).
-Requirement to step into Beacon in order to trigger events. Beacons should just display where I need to go to, and events should automatically fire once I enter beacons proximity.
I aswell thought that I had time limit. Rephrase that dialog then.
Nice map btw. Will look forward to see what it'll grow into.
Moved this for you. Will try it out myself later.
Beat it on brutal, didn’t feel as challenging second time, but for some reason I had less zealots in the end this time(didn’t buy any again), so I suppose it works.
Overall impressions are mixed. I saw big map and thought that it would entertain me at least for half an hour. Protoss talked about Zerg and about building a base. I thought that after I kill weakest Zerg I would set up a base and eliminate winning brood. And if I took too long one of the broods would win and give me all of it’s attention, thus making base building much harder. That way the faster I would kill my target, the more time I would have to safely build my base. And I could use minerals for something other than resupplying my zealot army. Seeing end message was very anticlimactic for me. Want more. Don’t make me play a map and tell me that I won when there is half of map left unexplored. Also, terrain isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more diversity.
Here is some more feedback for you:
-DifficultySelectionDialog could be better. ( I can help you with dialogs if you wish, love doing dialog-stuff);
-Empty loading screen makes this feel unfinished;
-Unskipable cutscenes;
- My first Brutal playthrough ended when I loaded all units into Warp Prisms(because I can), and was met with fact that I can’t unload them.;
-Minor flaws which show that you didn’t do much of “in-house” testing (such as text going too fast sometimes.);
-I would suggest to override portrait when you’re playing transmission. Otherwise it just feels lazy;
-While I waited for shield regen I noticed that Orange was dominating purple. Also I noticed “CreateUnit” trigger in action.. If you create them with triggers, at least create them somewhere where I can’t see it;
-Inability to deal with air units is annoying (detectors/baneling dropping overlord), but since we don’t even have void prison-like skill I can only think it’s intended.
I played it, or at least I tried, cause I got that damn hero killed. So here's what I can say for now (I'm going to play it again later):
The map looks good and the area where the Carrier crashed is great. But yeah, we need more information on those guys, the planet, and why they're there.
I'll try not to repeat what others mentioned before me, unless I have something to add.
When the units are warped by the Warp Prisms there is no animation, they simply appear there, take the time to include the animations. I guess you just created the units, instead of actually placing them within the Prisms and them order the Prisms to unload.
Why is the High Templar hero a dark unit? And why is his Psi Storm icon in the second row (from left to right) and not in the first?
Make it so when a group of units is selected, the one with abilities is the one displayed in the command card, cause I couldn't cast psi storm this way.
Did you use a fixed game speed? Maybe make each difficult level have its own game speed.
As Ducky mentioned, do you know what the Khala is? And do you know that Dark Templars are NOT linked to the Khala because they REJECTED it, so, change that line for the Dark Templar hero. One suggestion for you: spend your days reading that Starcraft Wikia site. You will need to read a whole lotta lore to please the fans.
From the first time you said you where working on a campaign I though I'd offer some help, and now I'm here for it, you can count on me specially for brainstorming the storyline and missions, but also for some graphics, I can create icons and wireframes for you, possibly a better loadscreen and some textures.
I actually had the same impression, opened map in editor and checked the triggers. Surprisingly units were created in shuttle and then unloaded. Then I checked animation again on fresh map. Apparently that's how it really works. Glad I'm not the only one who feels underwhelmed by warp prism unload animation. Maybe you could improve your campaign by making Warp Prism unload more graphical? :D
Unit priority in control card is another issue I had a gripe with. I just forgot about it, good thing Soul was annoyed by it aswell. You can set color for unit borders in command card, and with this piece of knowledge I suggest you to make use of this feature to distinguish heroes from casual units when they're selected.
Also, you can count on me if you need someone to criticize your ideas/dialogs :D (I'm not a hater, it's just my way of caring)
Love your feedback guys.
Working on it :)
Btw, yeah, about the dialogs and the story. I REALLY need some help there otherwise you'll see some weird phrases in the near future.
Updated the project with a LOT of changes.
There will still be one more update en route. However, whether if you've played the map before or not, you SHOULD really try it out.
The very face and gameplay of the map has changed dramatically due to the fixing of bugs and changes we added.
One more thing; I enjoyed my self on the Brutal mode. Be careful - Or you might lose one or two times.
Took me ages to finally make time for this, but a promise is a promise - I gave it a whirl. I wasn't specifically looking for a challenge right now so I went with normal mode.
Notes: Overall it seemed like a good start, but I'll be honest - it feels a tad mediocre. The story isn't too original, terrain is decent but could be improved and it doesn't have that 'wow' factor the Blizz campaign or even stuff like Debe's campaign has. Some more camera panning action during cinematics, better writing, more story and a little less '1-a your units into the enemy camp' (even on normal) could make it a little bit more engaging. Also, two smaller things;
-During the second cinematic (that shows the Zerg), there was an Overlord in the foreground twitching it out like hell. Would suggest you fix that, looks sloppy.
-I found a bug when I was trying to rescue the two lone Zealots (the group you reach just after you reach the group that gives you the Zerg cinematic). Since I saw destructable rocks, I decided to just put my army on there and run one hero up to the rescueables, to save some time. My hero reached the Zealots, after which the Infestors popped up and MC'd them. I immediately ran my hero back towards the destructable rocks so I could I sent in my army to take care of the units. What happened was the following: the neutral Zealots chased me down but ran out of the Infestor's range, breaking the MC. The roached were following me too, but were further back - they ended up attacking the neutral Zealots and the Zealots started pounding them. After they died I took my army up and killed one Infestor, which transferred one of the neutral Zealot's control to me. When I killed the second Infestor, the other Zealot remained neutral and just stood there until the end of the map.