Some time ago I was checking every single campaign map to count the number of units and doodads, as well as their overall map size. If Blizzard can keep the performance stable, then using these numbers as reference can't hurt, right?
As far as doodads are concerned in the campaigns, the numbers are all over the place.
They went a bit overboard in Wings of Liberty with missions like "Safe Haven" (3145), "The Moebius Factor" (2918) and ""Haven's Fall" (2892).
Overall, though, they seem to try to keep it under 2000 doodads, or 2500 at the very least.
Blizzard seems to have learned their lesson, though, and scaled back on the doodads in Heart of the Swarm. The mission with the most doodads there (The Crucible) only has 2265 doodads in total. Every other mission doesn't even pass the 2000 mark.
Mind you, those are singleplayer offline maps. For online, it should be lower if possible, and most definitely not above 3000 doodads.
It's your decision how to design your forest and all, but always remember: Less is more.
One trick I have in mind is to make each tree model bigger (change the scale to 2.0 and copypaste that doodad over and over again). That would mean, in theory, half the doodads for the same amount of space filled with trees.
Ohhhh! So these other documents in the UI editor are sub-classes of the Game UI. I swear, why can't Blizzard just give us one big XML file we can edit, and be done with it?
Anyway, thanks for the hint - it worked!
I'll post my code below in case others need this setup as well:
Here's a picture on how the results look like in my project: Screenshot
Please note that I've disabled the UI via triggers expect the Command Panel and Info Panel, and I've replaced the wireframe of the hero unit with a symbol.
This way, the player can keep track of his health more easily, while the numbers below the wireframe still give him some details should he need it.
I've been sitting here all day and night, and I'm just about to give up.
I have no clue how to move UI elements if they're not inside the Game UI. Heck, I have no clue how to "figure out the correct path" for anything outside of the Game UI.
I managed to move the unit's info stuff (aka info panel), but for some reason the wireframe is not affected by this.
All I need is the wireframe, and ideally the health and energy numbers, to move above the command panel. I've managed to avoid using dialogs and triggers for all my UI needs so far, it would be a shame if I had to resort to health bars just for that.
Hello, your map is awesome but the mods download link on mapster is broken and the file got removed on sendspace. Can you reupload it?
I second that. It's not possible to play the map online due to the lag (not to mention the not exactly ideal choices for the hotkeys). Having the map offline would help a lot.
Very well. If there is at least one person showing interest, I'll oblige.
You can find the demo here: Dropbox
(I'll wait if there are any errors being reported by players, and upload version 1.1 on SC2mapster later)
Just extract the content into the main StarCraft II folder and load "Map 000 - Start" via the editor.
____
The demo let's you play through the first chapter which consists of three gameplay maps and some cutscenes between them.
The demo starts from the beginning after you've reached the end, and all credits and upgrades are carried over. This allows you to become stronger and stronger, until the enemies become not much of a threat even on Hard difficulty.
It's been a while, hasn't it? I decided to take a break from my other project and revisited Sanctuary Guardians.
While the core gameplay is good, I always knew that there is little reason to play this map more than a few times. I created the ultimate team-based map which requires thinking, skill and patience (and that doesn't require a permanent leveling system).
But little did I know, there's next to no interest for this kind of game on Battle.net.
So, I decided to add two new game modes to cater to the other types of players as well.
Over the past week, I've added two new game modes to the map: "Exploration" and "Base Defense". (The original Sanctuary Guardians experience is still avalibale via the "Classic" mode).
Exploration mode is the same thing as Classic, expect that the relics you find in this mode give you a permanent stat boost that is saved in a bankfile. The number of relics is reduced in exploration as to not make you ridiculously strong after just one round, but over time, players can become very strong.
Base Defense is a real hero survival experience, as enemies spawn constantly and try to destroy the Nexus. Not even Easy Mode is actually beatable unless you've aquired some stat boosts.
All of this comes with a new bank system, some changes for first-time players so that their first game session is not quite as frustrating, and a few map optimizations to (hopefully) reduce the very long load times.
Lastly, both the difficulty selection, as well as the class selection, has been moved to lobby options.
Just like with MineralZ Evolution, you can now select your class from a drop-down menu in the lobby, right next from the player color.
The difficulty is defined by the host now, but it is Easy by default, so nobody is in for a rude awakening when playing the game for the first time.
I hope all these additions and improvements make the map a little bit more attractive.
As always, feedback is appreciated.
Note: The new additions are currently only live on NA battle.net. I'll update the EU version as soon as everything has been finalized.
I'm happy to announce that chapter 1 has been completed!
Instead of showing you another walkthrough, I figured that a quick demonstration of the new features would be better and shorter.
Since YouTube's annotations editor don't work with HTML5 player (I uninstalled Flash recently), I'll post my notes in this post instead.
Alarm System
()
In this video, an enemy soldier triggers an alarm (asks for reinforcements via radio). This is indicated by the enemy flashing.
The soldier blinks red on high shaders, and blinks white on low shaders (for some reason, I recorded with low shaders. Oh well).
On the minimap, you can see how pretty much all of the soldiers come rushing to your location. This is a prime example on how you can get cornered by the enemy troops if you trigger the alarm at a bad spot.
Also note that some soldiers don't move away from their posts (the two soldiers at the resupply pickup in the north-western corner). Some enemies won't budge from their position, so that in case the player has "lured" the enemy onto one point and sneaks past the incoming troops, there will still be some resistance.
Squad Selection System
()
In this video, you can see the squad selection menu in action. You can create your own group of units, with up to 4 groups possible at the end of the campaign, which each of them containing 15 units.
On the left is the squad selection as well as the credits counts.
One mercenary-type soldier is worth 50 credits, and I lost only one soldier in the prior map. As I started with a group of 8 soldiers + the three soldiers that I met in Map 2, the maximum of credits here is 550 (50*11). Minus one makes 500 credits.
I select some units, switch unit types, reset the group once, and go on to create two groups. Each group has another support ability enabled for the support soldier type (blue soldier). Group 1 has grenades, Group 2 has mines.
The formation is carried-over as well. In this case, the formation is rotated 90° clockwise.
One More Thing
In the two videos, you can see the new wireframe and unit button images for each unit. I wanted to give this campaign as much a custom feeling as possible, and so I've created new ones for each of them. While I don't have white outlines, I think the contrast is still good enough to notice the green, yellow and red colors.
@Cacho56: I don't know if I'll bother with lib movement to be honest.
I won't do the advanced method as it's too much trouble to integrate it. Even if I did, most of the characters don't have long-enough lines, so the lib movement would repeat itself during one sentence. The magic will be gone after a while.
Besides, I don't even have voices to create the illusion of somebody talking.
(Please forgive this rather simple logo. I'm not the best artist, so I created this placeholder graphic)
Greetings everyone, and welcome to the development thread for the singleplayer campaign "Herakles".
Introduction
Herakles is a campaign in which you only control units - no base building involved whatsoever. The focus lies on managing your units and use them wisely to survive.
In other words, this campaign is all micro, but no macro.
Story-wise, the campaign is set in a different universe than StarCraft II. There are still terrans, zerg and protoss, but I'm re-introducing them here to the player. It is set at the early years of human colonization in space, which means that some of the technology of present-day SC2 does not exist yet, and that is reflected in both story and gameplay.
Think of it as StarCraft Origins, expect it's not trying to be a part of the real StarCraft lore, but rather it's my own take on the origins of the three races.
This campaign is a remake of sorts of Terran Tactics, a project which I started back in 2011. The core ideas from back then are still included, but otherwise I've started from scratch to ensure that this project will be as good as possible.
Features
You can assemble your own groups. Prior to the beginning of each mission, you can define what unit type, and how many units in general, are being assigned to each group.
You have a budget (credits). Each unit you recruit into your group costs money, and if one of your units die during a mission, that money is gone forever. Thus, it is important to keep everyone alive as good as possible.
Each unit has a limited number of attacks available (ammunition, energy batteries ect.). If a unit runs out of energy, it can no longer attack. Therefore, it is important to plan ahead and find alternative ways to conserve ammo.
There are resupply pickups which can refill both the health and ammo of units, but those are rare (1 or 2 per map), so plan accordingly.
The terrain plays a big role in the campaign. There are environmental objects such as explosive barrels and destructible rocks to kill or otherwise stop the enemy. The height difference is also important, as it allows you to observe the enemy without being spotted.
You can define the speed of the dialogue to adjust to your reading speed. No more message that pass by too fast, or take forever to finish!
Demonstration
Note to moderators: If possible, please DO NOT feature this video on the front page. It's very long and kinda messy. A proper teaser/trailer will follow another day.
Note to video watchers: Activate annotations! I explain quite a lot of stuff during the video.
Here's the direct link in case the embed function doesn't work for you:
Progress
February 11th, 2015: All of chapter 1 has been completed.
January 18th, 2015: Half of chapter 1 has been completed.
Credits
There are way too many models and music tracks to list them all separately. Once the campaign is close to completion and the assets list is final, I'll post a document with some detailed credits.
Until then, I'd like to thank the following people:
Wargirl, for helping me with the terrain on past map projects, and giving me the courage to create at least some basic maps for this demonstration.
The first map was done by me from scratch, the second map is one of Victiln's template maps, edited by me. Victiln actually helped me with the maps for Terran Tactics all these years back.
alleyviper85 for Christopher's model (Marine Marauder V2). The original Marine Marauder model didn't work perfectly, and he took the time to fix it quickly.
JayBorino, as well as all the custom campaign creators out there (Gradius12, EivindL etc) for restoring my faith. Up until a year ago, I totally thought that most of the community only cared for multiplayer maps - and then BAM, so much campaign goodness I discovered all at once last Fall, it was incredible!
What I need is a map designer, as well as some testers. If anyone is interested, send me a PM me and I'll fill you in on the details.
Below are the details for the positions:
Map Designer
I'm not good at designing maps at all (I have ZERO skill), and this campaign will require quite a few maps, which is why I need a helping hand with this.
I mostly need help with making the layout, as well as adding some doodads. I don't need a super-good looking map right away, as I'm more concerned with testing the gameplay and setting-up the cutscenes first. We can always go back later, and finish the looks of a map later on.
You don't need to be a fast worker either, it is more important if you're reliable and can work for a few months consistently.
Tester
The campaign has a custom gameplay system: No base building, each unit has ammo, different armor types etc. It's not your standard StarCraft II experience.
Since this is a new gameplay experience, I want to make sure that it's fun and balanced. While I'm doing a good job at this myself, I want to make sure that I'm not balancing it too hard or too easy. Also, I need some feedback on this custom gameplay style in general, so I can detect any broken mechanics if necessary.
I played the Cave Defense. Gameplay wise it was fun, but I didn't really understand the story in fact I didn't know he had made 4 other maps! Is he still around?
Oh... I just noticed the date of Dance's last post. This must be my very first necropost ever XD.
However, I saw Mission 3 showing up on the open game list in the Arcade recently, so I thought this was a recent thing. It's an unintentionally-good way of advertisement, as I've discovered the Subjection campaign this way as well - Mission 3 and 8 seem to be played ALL THE TIME on the NA server XD.
Anyway, the campaign itself isn't half-bad. You only have robotic units available, and occasionally some mercenary units, but no regular Terran units at all. It makes for some change of pace, not to mention that I have an excuse to go for mass Widow Mine :P.
All of the map and mod files have to be placed in the StarCraft II folder under "Programs". All of the map files must remain in that folder for the game to find them, so you can't for instance move the campaign launcher to somewhere else.
The StarCraft II folder under "Documents" folder is for personal saves and banks, but not for the campaign files.
You can open these maps either with the editor, or you can drag & drop them onto "SC2Switcher.exe" which can be found in the "Support" folder (again, under Programs. That executable has the benefit of not opening the Battle.net Launcher, but instead StarCraft II directly (but you're still using the editor's "Local Player" test account for that).
0
Some time ago I was checking every single campaign map to count the number of units and doodads, as well as their overall map size. If Blizzard can keep the performance stable, then using these numbers as reference can't hurt, right?
As far as doodads are concerned in the campaigns, the numbers are all over the place.
They went a bit overboard in Wings of Liberty with missions like "Safe Haven" (3145), "The Moebius Factor" (2918) and ""Haven's Fall" (2892). Overall, though, they seem to try to keep it under 2000 doodads, or 2500 at the very least.
Blizzard seems to have learned their lesson, though, and scaled back on the doodads in Heart of the Swarm. The mission with the most doodads there (The Crucible) only has 2265 doodads in total. Every other mission doesn't even pass the 2000 mark.
Mind you, those are singleplayer offline maps. For online, it should be lower if possible, and most definitely not above 3000 doodads. It's your decision how to design your forest and all, but always remember: Less is more.
One trick I have in mind is to make each tree model bigger (change the scale to 2.0 and copypaste that doodad over and over again). That would mean, in theory, half the doodads for the same amount of space filled with trees.
0
Ohhhh! So these other documents in the UI editor are sub-classes of the Game UI. I swear, why can't Blizzard just give us one big XML file we can edit, and be done with it?
Anyway, thanks for the hint - it worked!
I'll post my code below in case others need this setup as well:
Here's a picture on how the results look like in my project: Screenshot
Please note that I've disabled the UI via triggers expect the Command Panel and Info Panel, and I've replaced the wireframe of the hero unit with a symbol. This way, the player can keep track of his health more easily, while the numbers below the wireframe still give him some details should he need it.
0
I've been sitting here all day and night, and I'm just about to give up.
I have no clue how to move UI elements if they're not inside the Game UI. Heck, I have no clue how to "figure out the correct path" for anything outside of the Game UI.
I managed to move the unit's info stuff (aka info panel), but for some reason the wireframe is not affected by this.
All I need is the wireframe, and ideally the health and energy numbers, to move above the command panel. I've managed to avoid using dialogs and triggers for all my UI needs so far, it would be a shame if I had to resort to health bars just for that.
Any help is appreciated.
0
I second that. It's not possible to play the map online due to the lag (not to mention the not exactly ideal choices for the hotkeys). Having the map offline would help a lot.
0
Very well. If there is at least one person showing interest, I'll oblige.
You can find the demo here: Dropbox (I'll wait if there are any errors being reported by players, and upload version 1.1 on SC2mapster later)
Just extract the content into the main StarCraft II folder and load "Map 000 - Start" via the editor.
____
The demo let's you play through the first chapter which consists of three gameplay maps and some cutscenes between them.
The demo starts from the beginning after you've reached the end, and all credits and upgrades are carried over. This allows you to become stronger and stronger, until the enemies become not much of a threat even on Hard difficulty.
I'm looking forward to your feedback guys!
0
Is anyone still interested in this? Do you guys even like the custom gameplay as shown in the videos?
I could try to release the first chapter as a demo if that would help getting some feedback.
0
It's been a while, hasn't it? I decided to take a break from my other project and revisited Sanctuary Guardians.
While the core gameplay is good, I always knew that there is little reason to play this map more than a few times. I created the ultimate team-based map which requires thinking, skill and patience (and that doesn't require a permanent leveling system). But little did I know, there's next to no interest for this kind of game on Battle.net.
So, I decided to add two new game modes to cater to the other types of players as well.
Over the past week, I've added two new game modes to the map: "Exploration" and "Base Defense". (The original Sanctuary Guardians experience is still avalibale via the "Classic" mode).
Exploration mode is the same thing as Classic, expect that the relics you find in this mode give you a permanent stat boost that is saved in a bankfile. The number of relics is reduced in exploration as to not make you ridiculously strong after just one round, but over time, players can become very strong.
Base Defense is a real hero survival experience, as enemies spawn constantly and try to destroy the Nexus. Not even Easy Mode is actually beatable unless you've aquired some stat boosts.
All of this comes with a new bank system, some changes for first-time players so that their first game session is not quite as frustrating, and a few map optimizations to (hopefully) reduce the very long load times.
Lastly, both the difficulty selection, as well as the class selection, has been moved to lobby options. Just like with MineralZ Evolution, you can now select your class from a drop-down menu in the lobby, right next from the player color. The difficulty is defined by the host now, but it is Easy by default, so nobody is in for a rude awakening when playing the game for the first time.
I hope all these additions and improvements make the map a little bit more attractive.
As always, feedback is appreciated.
Note: The new additions are currently only live on NA battle.net. I'll update the EU version as soon as everything has been finalized.
0
I'm happy to announce that chapter 1 has been completed!
Instead of showing you another walkthrough, I figured that a quick demonstration of the new features would be better and shorter.
Since YouTube's annotations editor don't work with HTML5 player (I uninstalled Flash recently), I'll post my notes in this post instead.
Alarm System
()
In this video, an enemy soldier triggers an alarm (asks for reinforcements via radio). This is indicated by the enemy flashing. The soldier blinks red on high shaders, and blinks white on low shaders (for some reason, I recorded with low shaders. Oh well).
On the minimap, you can see how pretty much all of the soldiers come rushing to your location. This is a prime example on how you can get cornered by the enemy troops if you trigger the alarm at a bad spot. Also note that some soldiers don't move away from their posts (the two soldiers at the resupply pickup in the north-western corner). Some enemies won't budge from their position, so that in case the player has "lured" the enemy onto one point and sneaks past the incoming troops, there will still be some resistance.
Squad Selection System
()
In this video, you can see the squad selection menu in action. You can create your own group of units, with up to 4 groups possible at the end of the campaign, which each of them containing 15 units.
On the left is the squad selection as well as the credits counts. One mercenary-type soldier is worth 50 credits, and I lost only one soldier in the prior map. As I started with a group of 8 soldiers + the three soldiers that I met in Map 2, the maximum of credits here is 550 (50*11). Minus one makes 500 credits.
I select some units, switch unit types, reset the group once, and go on to create two groups. Each group has another support ability enabled for the support soldier type (blue soldier). Group 1 has grenades, Group 2 has mines.
The formation is carried-over as well. In this case, the formation is rotated 90° clockwise.
One More Thing
In the two videos, you can see the new wireframe and unit button images for each unit. I wanted to give this campaign as much a custom feeling as possible, and so I've created new ones for each of them. While I don't have white outlines, I think the contrast is still good enough to notice the green, yellow and red colors.
Thanks for Reading!
As always, if you have any questions, ask away!
0
@Hockleberry: Absolutely!
@Cacho56: I don't know if I'll bother with lib movement to be honest.
I won't do the advanced method as it's too much trouble to integrate it. Even if I did, most of the characters don't have long-enough lines, so the lib movement would repeat itself during one sentence. The magic will be gone after a while. Besides, I don't even have voices to create the illusion of somebody talking.
0
Greetings everyone, and welcome to the development thread for the singleplayer campaign "Herakles".
Introduction
Herakles is a campaign in which you only control units - no base building involved whatsoever. The focus lies on managing your units and use them wisely to survive. In other words, this campaign is all micro, but no macro.
Story-wise, the campaign is set in a different universe than StarCraft II. There are still terrans, zerg and protoss, but I'm re-introducing them here to the player. It is set at the early years of human colonization in space, which means that some of the technology of present-day SC2 does not exist yet, and that is reflected in both story and gameplay. Think of it as StarCraft Origins, expect it's not trying to be a part of the real StarCraft lore, but rather it's my own take on the origins of the three races.
This campaign is a remake of sorts of Terran Tactics, a project which I started back in 2011. The core ideas from back then are still included, but otherwise I've started from scratch to ensure that this project will be as good as possible.
Features
Demonstration
Note to moderators: If possible, please DO NOT feature this video on the front page. It's very long and kinda messy. A proper teaser/trailer will follow another day.
Note to video watchers: Activate annotations! I explain quite a lot of stuff during the video.
Here's the direct link in case the embed function doesn't work for you:
Progress
February 11th, 2015: All of chapter 1 has been completed.
January 18th, 2015: Half of chapter 1 has been completed.
Credits
There are way too many models and music tracks to list them all separately. Once the campaign is close to completion and the assets list is final, I'll post a document with some detailed credits.
Until then, I'd like to thank the following people:
Help Needed
If you want to help out, check out the recruitment thread. Any help is appreciated!
0
Greetings everyone!
I'm looking for some help for my upcoming singleplayer campaign "Herakles". See here for information about the project
What I need is a map designer, as well as some testers. If anyone is interested, send me a PM me and I'll fill you in on the details. Below are the details for the positions:
Map Designer
I'm not good at designing maps at all (I have ZERO skill), and this campaign will require quite a few maps, which is why I need a helping hand with this.
I mostly need help with making the layout, as well as adding some doodads. I don't need a super-good looking map right away, as I'm more concerned with testing the gameplay and setting-up the cutscenes first. We can always go back later, and finish the looks of a map later on.
You don't need to be a fast worker either, it is more important if you're reliable and can work for a few months consistently.
Tester
The campaign has a custom gameplay system: No base building, each unit has ammo, different armor types etc. It's not your standard StarCraft II experience.
Since this is a new gameplay experience, I want to make sure that it's fun and balanced. While I'm doing a good job at this myself, I want to make sure that I'm not balancing it too hard or too easy. Also, I need some feedback on this custom gameplay style in general, so I can detect any broken mechanics if necessary.
Looking forward to hear from you guys!
0
Oh... I just noticed the date of Dance's last post. This must be my very first necropost ever XD. However, I saw Mission 3 showing up on the open game list in the Arcade recently, so I thought this was a recent thing. It's an unintentionally-good way of advertisement, as I've discovered the Subjection campaign this way as well - Mission 3 and 8 seem to be played ALL THE TIME on the NA server XD.
Anyway, the campaign itself isn't half-bad. You only have robotic units available, and occasionally some mercenary units, but no regular Terran units at all. It makes for some change of pace, not to mention that I have an excuse to go for mass Widow Mine :P.
0
Am I the only one who had trouble finding the maps on Battle.net? The search function wasn't exactly cooperative.
Here is a direct link for each of the maps, to save anyone else the trouble I had:
Mission 1: Risky Business - starcraft://starcraft/map/1/235628
Mission 2: Needle In A Haystack - starcraft://starcraft/map/1/236968
Mission 3: The Lost - starcraft://starcraft/map/1/237071
Mission 4: Seek And Ye Shall Find - starcraft://starcraft/map/1/237740
Mission 5: Cave Defense - starcraft://starcraft/map/1/239050
The maps themselves aren't half bad. Detailed feedback will come soon in each map's review section.
0
Not bad egod, not bad at all!
0
All of the map and mod files have to be placed in the StarCraft II folder under "Programs". All of the map files must remain in that folder for the game to find them, so you can't for instance move the campaign launcher to somewhere else. The StarCraft II folder under "Documents" folder is for personal saves and banks, but not for the campaign files.
You can open these maps either with the editor, or you can drag & drop them onto "SC2Switcher.exe" which can be found in the "Support" folder (again, under Programs. That executable has the benefit of not opening the Battle.net Launcher, but instead StarCraft II directly (but you're still using the editor's "Local Player" test account for that).