Hey again folks, and welcome to the fifth edition of the Bi-Weekly Testing Thread!
As per an initiative from JayBorino and me, we've set up the Bi-Weekly Testing Thread, or BWTT, with the purpose of testing specific maps made by community members. What does this mean? Simple: editors in need of feedback suggest their own maps (either via PM to me or JayBorino, or by posting it in the intro thread), and we'll pick one that will be used for the BWTT.
For this week's target, we've picked up on another campaign map. More specifically, "A New Dawn", the first mission from the "StarCraft: Replicant" campaign. Taking place after the fall of Amon in Legacy of the Void, the Replicant campaign focuses on the Protoss trying to rebuild Aiur. The map can be found at the above link.
So for the next two weeks, see if you can take the time to download the map, give it a play-through, and post your detailed feedback here. What did you like, what did you not like? What could be improved, and possibly: how?
This thread will stay up for two weeks, until tuesday, June 28, at which point I'll upload thread #6. Up until that point, all suggestions for maps that require testing are welcome - please put them in the general thread found here.
Are there any rules or sort of etiquette regarding the content of a review?
Anyway, here's what I experienced:
Possible bugs:
----------------
- I was able to blink through the cliffs and reach the town, killed the marines, before getting the dialog. Thankfully, I didn't push northward before trying to trigger the cut-scene.
- I used the same cliff and abused it during the zerg attacks.
- I was able to do this using the psi-orb and blinking as vision over the cliff shows up.
What's needed:
-----------------
Terraining can be given more touches.
Testing.
Suggestions:
--------------
-Avoid straight lines when creating natural terrain. Use fractal, or use nature's way of organizing things. Creating immersion for your players will make things more enjoyable.
-Try tinkering with lighting to create less washed out visuals. Monochromatic things induces a sense of emptiness, and you don't want that unless it is intended as a dramatic effect.
-Give heroes regeneration, or else respawn options, depending on the type of gameplay you want. Installation missions can have non-respawning heroes, BnD can have respawning. It all depends on what part heroes play during a mission.
-The zerg waves scene could use better pacing. Pacing the waves will give the player a sense of rising action, allowing him/her to adjust. The emotional impact of this would also be nice.
-When being creative on terrain, have at most two screen sized areas and change up the theme of the area. You can change it dramatically, or just a tiny bit. This instills interest and a sense of adventure for your audience, and prevents them from thinking the same thing is occuring over and over.
-Avoid tweaking the terrain height on the gameplay area. Starcraft 2 isn't good at this, and it makes the map look stretched. It can be used for certain effects though, where the player is not focused on.
-Try to avoid having dialogue or speech during combat. If you need to, have a pause or alter the game speed using the trigger function: Set Global Time Scale, and set it to 0.1 or less or as you desire. It's hard to focus on reading the story while the player's attention is needed elsewhere.
-Examine blizzard maps, Starbow maps, and official melee maps for ideas on terraining, doodads, game areas, etc. They are good sources for area sizes, doodads, movement, etc.
Encouragement:
------------------
Overall, I see a lot of your time has been spent on the map. That alone has given you XP, and having finished the campaign, you're better now than when you started. And I'm certain the next map you'll be making will be even better.
I envy you for having the guts to push along and get the entire thing done and over, and I'm sure you want to improve things here and there.
I'm looking forward to your next project, but first, I have to take on missions 2-10. XD
Are there any rules or sort of etiquette regarding the content of a review?
As for etiquette, it's mostly just "don't be a dick". This is why in the OP, I ask people to give constructive feedback and possible ways bad things can be improved. Look at feedback as if it were a diagram with 2 scales, one being "helpful" vs "unhelpful" and the other one being "given like an asshole" and "given in a friendly manner".
Say the issue in a map is that you're having trouble selecting a hero because the selection areas are too small. There's various ways you can point that out, ranging from 'terrible' to good:
Unhelpful dick fashion: "fuck u the map is shit couldn't even select my hero" (what is the mapper supposed to do with this?) Somewhat helpful dick fashion: "hero selection is fucking shit" (you're still being a prick and you aren't going into detail, but the mapper has an area to focus on now) Helpful dick fashion: "the hero selection is shit, any proper mapper would know they need larger regions for this kind of stuff" (still a dick, but you've given fairly detailed feedback on what needs to be changed)
Alternatively, even if you aren't a dick, you can give advice that is unhelpful, somewhat helpful, or plain helpful:
Unhelpful nice fashion: "I really liked the opening sequence of your map and would really like to try the gameplay, but I couldn't select my hero!" (good, but needs specifics to be of use to the editor) Somewhat helpful nice fashion: "The introduction was really cool, but selecting a hero seemed a bit hard; I think I was miss-clicking or something?" (you have hinted the mapper at an issue, but more information would have been more helpful) Helpful nice fashion: "You've done a great job on the hero selection screen, but it needs larger selection regions: I had trouble selecting a hero every single time I tried the map." (you have pointed out an issue and provided a possible solution, helping the mapper out tremendously)
The more objective 'information' you give ('I saw this, did this, tried this, had problems with this because of X'), the more helpful your post. If you're a mapper yourself, then the more solutions you provide ('perhaps you can fix X by doing Y?'), the more helpful your post. It's up to you to see how in-depth you want to go, but ideally you want to be at least 'somewhat helpful' if you're going to be nice, and straight up 'helpful' if you're going to be a dick.
- For some reason Launcher map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P1 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P2 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P7 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
Seems like I cant play any of these maps so I will try to help you to solve some possible technical issues.
- All maps open fine in editor but when I press "Test document" button I get the error.
- I believe you are using too many mods. This may cause some problems.
- Create a mod for your campaign immediately. It saves you lot of time in a long run when you dont have to modify each map for small changes. For example if you want to give your hero +1 damage you need to copy the change for ALL maps. In mod you need to do it only once.
- When you create the mod file choose only Void (Campaign) as dependency for the mod.
- When you have the mod file ready modify all maps to use the mod.
- Map -> Player properties is almost empty. There should be AI, Color etc for all AI players. (Screenshot from P2 map)
- Use AI editor to create "personality" for each Computer player. This is also much easier way to send attack waves. (Screenshot from P4 map)
- I get "unable to load map info" message each time I open any of these campaign map in editor.
In general I see lot basic things that need to be fixed before actual upgrading is possible for this campaign.
Oh yeah, you only need one dependency for the standard stuff because they include the stuff before them so you only need Void story and it will automatically include Swarm story and Liberty story with it because they are dependencies for Void story. In other words your maps are downloading most of those mods two or three times depending on which one.
And I agree with Terhonator. If you have more than a couple of missions in your campaign, it is best to make use of a custom mod. It makes fixing bugs much easier and consistant.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Discord - Discord is a custom fan made campaign. When it's done it will have 30 missions and cover 3 interwoven stories.
Custom Campaign Initiative - Visit the Custom Campaign Initiative to see other authors campaigns.
Oh. I didn't know about the deprndencies. So have you tried to remove all tjat is not needed and started the Maps?
I have never created a mod and used it. It seems har to test the Changes in a mod? I have to first create a mod and then add it to one of my maps to test the Changes?
I played map 1 and enjoyed it a lot. I had no editor issues like some others, which is quite strange. The hero's abilities work well together and the cooldowns are long enough to not be spammable, but short enough to not feel like a slog. The only thing I noticed that the hero's attack animation has no sound from the projectile leaving the weapon or hitting a target, which I think you acknowledged in your other thread. I found the Spine Crawler sections earlier on to be a slightly slow only because you have to just constantly throw Psionic Orbs out at them. The end section of holding out was a nice challenge for the player to properly use all of the abilities in tandem.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Visit my channel where I showcase custom content! Send me a PM or respond to my YouTube thread if you'd like to see your map/s on my channel (eventually!)
Loved the campaign so far but that first mission is pretty hard. I barely managed to micro Cornelius and ended sending my Probes into the fight and the very beginning.
The Loading Screen is amazing. Where did you get that artwork?
USe the Protoss sounds for the Intro Segment/Cinematic. Also, maybe just do the whole text bit at once and leave it up for a minute instead of having it drawn out
Set it up so dialogues are automatically displayed since you have no voice
Cinematic is very very good! You got some skills! Seeing Artanis with the zealot ax statues making a border of the scene was a very nice touch.
The only thing that bugged me was everyone being in stasis chambers. I thought that it looked weird.
Mission
i feel like a praetor should have some bodyguards going with her at the start of the mission
The psi orb thing is amazing. I spammed it the entire mission. I think you should increase the cooldown and give the player some stalkers. I really abused it.
love the oracle voice for ralis
i think you shoudl alert us to how long we need to survive the zerg attack waves. I was like running around the base and like I hope this ends soon!
what is the model for the sniper? It looks really cool
show the warp in of the probes. I think this would be a cool thing to see in game
love the mineral layout very sc1 feel
turn off fire once i get the base?? One of my gates was on fire the whole time,
Ending
Nice short ending cinematic was very well-done.
1st mision is awesome. Looking forward to playing through the rest.
What do you mean by "Set it up so dialogues are automatically displayed since you have no voice"?
Yeah I tried to find something good that the council would stand in, and that was the best I found =/
I found the brother ghost model here on sc2mapster but I can´t find the author anymore..
Na, Ralis is to good for bodyguards, Rokar has trained her, so relying on others is weakness.
Good ideá on showing the warp in of the probes. I don´t think however that the cooldown for ps orb will stay the same. It is there for spamming . hehe.
Yeah perhaps a dialogue with Ralis saying that the zerg nummbers a reducing or something.
Actually no I haven´t tried the Antioch Chronicles yet. Is it good?
Hey again folks, and welcome to the fifth edition of the Bi-Weekly Testing Thread!
As per an initiative from JayBorino and me, we've set up the Bi-Weekly Testing Thread, or BWTT, with the purpose of testing specific maps made by community members. What does this mean? Simple: editors in need of feedback suggest their own maps (either via PM to me or JayBorino, or by posting it in the intro thread), and we'll pick one that will be used for the BWTT.
For this week's target, we've picked up on another campaign map. More specifically, "A New Dawn", the first mission from the "StarCraft: Replicant" campaign. Taking place after the fall of Amon in Legacy of the Void, the Replicant campaign focuses on the Protoss trying to rebuild Aiur. The map can be found at the above link.
So for the next two weeks, see if you can take the time to download the map, give it a play-through, and post your detailed feedback here. What did you like, what did you not like? What could be improved, and possibly: how?
This thread will stay up for two weeks, until tuesday, June 28, at which point I'll upload thread #6. Up until that point, all suggestions for maps that require testing are welcome - please put them in the general thread found here.
Good luck and have fun to all!
I can't participate, keep getting unable to open map for mission 01.
But here is my review for mission 08 :
The Replicant
Best of luck to all participant and have fun.
My projects : The Hammer of Dawn, Noir : Automata, Noir : Evolution, Noir : Ascension, Hammer of Dawn Revamp
Many awesome projects : Custom Campaign Initiative
Something for the community : A Small Letter of Thanks, SC2mapster Classic Skin - Alevice
Are there any rules or sort of etiquette regarding the content of a review?
Anyway, here's what I experienced:
Possible bugs:
----------------
- I was able to blink through the cliffs and reach the town, killed the marines, before getting the dialog. Thankfully, I didn't push northward before trying to trigger the cut-scene.
- I used the same cliff and abused it during the zerg attacks.
- I was able to do this using the psi-orb and blinking as vision over the cliff shows up.
What's needed:
-----------------
Terraining can be given more touches.
Testing.
Suggestions:
--------------
-Avoid straight lines when creating natural terrain. Use fractal, or use nature's way of organizing things. Creating immersion for your players will make things more enjoyable.
-Try tinkering with lighting to create less washed out visuals. Monochromatic things induces a sense of emptiness, and you don't want that unless it is intended as a dramatic effect.
-Give heroes regeneration, or else respawn options, depending on the type of gameplay you want. Installation missions can have non-respawning heroes, BnD can have respawning. It all depends on what part heroes play during a mission.
-The zerg waves scene could use better pacing. Pacing the waves will give the player a sense of rising action, allowing him/her to adjust. The emotional impact of this would also be nice.
-When being creative on terrain, have at most two screen sized areas and change up the theme of the area. You can change it dramatically, or just a tiny bit. This instills interest and a sense of adventure for your audience, and prevents them from thinking the same thing is occuring over and over.
-Avoid tweaking the terrain height on the gameplay area. Starcraft 2 isn't good at this, and it makes the map look stretched. It can be used for certain effects though, where the player is not focused on.
-Try to avoid having dialogue or speech during combat. If you need to, have a pause or alter the game speed using the trigger function: Set Global Time Scale, and set it to 0.1 or less or as you desire. It's hard to focus on reading the story while the player's attention is needed elsewhere.
-Examine blizzard maps, Starbow maps, and official melee maps for ideas on terraining, doodads, game areas, etc. They are good sources for area sizes, doodads, movement, etc.
Encouragement:
------------------
Overall, I see a lot of your time has been spent on the map. That alone has given you XP, and having finished the campaign, you're better now than when you started. And I'm certain the next map you'll be making will be even better.
I envy you for having the guts to push along and get the entire thing done and over, and I'm sure you want to improve things here and there.
I'm looking forward to your next project, but first, I have to take on missions 2-10. XD
Whatever you do, wholeheartedly, moment by heartfelt moment, becomes a tool for the expression of your very soul.
As for etiquette, it's mostly just "don't be a dick". This is why in the OP, I ask people to give constructive feedback and possible ways bad things can be improved. Look at feedback as if it were a diagram with 2 scales, one being "helpful" vs "unhelpful" and the other one being "given like an asshole" and "given in a friendly manner".
Say the issue in a map is that you're having trouble selecting a hero because the selection areas are too small. There's various ways you can point that out, ranging from 'terrible' to good:
Unhelpful dick fashion: "fuck u the map is shit couldn't even select my hero" (what is the mapper supposed to do with this?)
Somewhat helpful dick fashion: "hero selection is fucking shit" (you're still being a prick and you aren't going into detail, but the mapper has an area to focus on now)
Helpful dick fashion: "the hero selection is shit, any proper mapper would know they need larger regions for this kind of stuff" (still a dick, but you've given fairly detailed feedback on what needs to be changed)
Alternatively, even if you aren't a dick, you can give advice that is unhelpful, somewhat helpful, or plain helpful:
Unhelpful nice fashion: "I really liked the opening sequence of your map and would really like to try the gameplay, but I couldn't select my hero!" (good, but needs specifics to be of use to the editor)
Somewhat helpful nice fashion: "The introduction was really cool, but selecting a hero seemed a bit hard; I think I was miss-clicking or something?" (you have hinted the mapper at an issue, but more information would have been more helpful)
Helpful nice fashion: "You've done a great job on the hero selection screen, but it needs larger selection regions: I had trouble selecting a hero every single time I tried the map." (you have pointed out an issue and provided a possible solution, helping the mapper out tremendously)
The more objective 'information' you give ('I saw this, did this, tried this, had problems with this because of X'), the more helpful your post. If you're a mapper yourself, then the more solutions you provide ('perhaps you can fix X by doing Y?'), the more helpful your post. It's up to you to see how in-depth you want to go, but ideally you want to be at least 'somewhat helpful' if you're going to be nice, and straight up 'helpful' if you're going to be a dick.
I will edit this post as I play!
- For some reason Launcher map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P1 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P2 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
- For some reason P7 map wont open. I get "Unable to open map"
Seems like I cant play any of these maps so I will try to help you to solve some possible technical issues.
- All maps open fine in editor but when I press "Test document" button I get the error.
- I believe you are using too many mods. This may cause some problems.
- Create a mod for your campaign immediately. It saves you lot of time in a long run when you dont have to modify each map for small changes. For example if you want to give your hero +1 damage you need to copy the change for ALL maps. In mod you need to do it only once.
- When you create the mod file choose only Void (Campaign) as dependency for the mod.
- When you have the mod file ready modify all maps to use the mod.
- Map -> Player properties is almost empty. There should be AI, Color etc for all AI players. (Screenshot from P2 map)
- Use AI editor to create "personality" for each Computer player. This is also much easier way to send attack waves. (Screenshot from P4 map)
- I get "unable to load map info" message each time I open any of these campaign map in editor.
In general I see lot basic things that need to be fixed before actual upgrading is possible for this campaign.
Oh yeah, you only need one dependency for the standard stuff because they include the stuff before them so you only need Void story and it will automatically include Swarm story and Liberty story with it because they are dependencies for Void story. In other words your maps are downloading most of those mods two or three times depending on which one.
And I agree with Terhonator. If you have more than a couple of missions in your campaign, it is best to make use of a custom mod. It makes fixing bugs much easier and consistant.
@Terhonator: Go
Oh. I didn't know about the deprndencies. So have you tried to remove all tjat is not needed and started the Maps?
I have never created a mod and used it. It seems har to test the Changes in a mod? I have to first create a mod and then add it to one of my maps to test the Changes?
Custom Campaign initiative StarCraft: Pandora , StarCraft: Replicant
I played map 1 and enjoyed it a lot. I had no editor issues like some others, which is quite strange. The hero's abilities work well together and the cooldowns are long enough to not be spammable, but short enough to not feel like a slog. The only thing I noticed that the hero's attack animation has no sound from the projectile leaving the weapon or hitting a target, which I think you acknowledged in your other thread. I found the Spine Crawler sections earlier on to be a slightly slow only because you have to just constantly throw Psionic Orbs out at them. The end section of holding out was a nice challenge for the player to properly use all of the abilities in tandem.
Visit my channel where I showcase custom content! Send me a PM or respond to my YouTube thread if you'd like to see your map/s on my channel (eventually!)
Loved the campaign so far but that first mission is pretty hard. I barely managed to micro Cornelius and ended sending my Probes into the fight and the very beginning.
KSNumedia's Assets: Custom Models for campaigns and mods!
I want to thank everyone that has tested the map and everyone that left some feedback, you are making me better =)
Custom Campaign initiative StarCraft: Pandora , StarCraft: Replicant
Just got to play the 1st mission.
Beginning
Mission
Ending
1st mision is awesome. Looking forward to playing through the rest.
Have you played the Antioch Chronicles?
@Hockleberry: Go
Thanks for the feedback =D
What do you mean by "Set it up so dialogues are automatically displayed since you have no voice"? Yeah I tried to find something good that the council would stand in, and that was the best I found =/ I found the brother ghost model here on sc2mapster but I can´t find the author anymore..
Na, Ralis is to good for bodyguards, Rokar has trained her, so relying on others is weakness.
Good ideá on showing the warp in of the probes. I don´t think however that the cooldown for ps orb will stay the same. It is there for spamming . hehe. Yeah perhaps a dialogue with Ralis saying that the zerg nummbers a reducing or something.
Actually no I haven´t tried the Antioch Chronicles yet. Is it good?
Custom Campaign initiative StarCraft: Pandora , StarCraft: Replicant
I guess I couldn't see any diaglogues until I manually switched it in my menu. I thought you could set it for the player...
Antioch Chronicles is an amazing campaign and I highly recommend it. You could throw in some easter eggs too!
I am playing mission 2 and I could not load the map through the launcher. I went into the triggers and noticed that you are missing a backslash
Old
Replicant/EpisodeIVReplicantP2
New
Replicant/EpisodeIV/ReplicantP2
It works now. I noticed the error is in the rest of the path names for the rest of the missions
Hey. Is name of this thread wrong because we are testing "StarCraft: Replicant" not "A New Dawn"?
EDIT:
Forget earlier. There is also campaign named "The Hammer of Dawn" so I got confused with names and mapmakers :)
Just finish marathoning DeltronLive's video play-through of the whole campaign.
Mission 01 and 09 is my favorite.
Great campaign!
My projects : The Hammer of Dawn, Noir : Automata, Noir : Evolution, Noir : Ascension, Hammer of Dawn Revamp
Many awesome projects : Custom Campaign Initiative
Something for the community : A Small Letter of Thanks, SC2mapster Classic Skin - Alevice