SC2Mapster

Fixed a long outstanding issue where the game would throw error messages regarding the flashing buttons at the start of the level. Apparently Blizzard changed their functionality at some point, and flashing buttons now need to be told to "stop flashing" before they are destroyed, otherwise they will throw errors forever. Sorry about that!

I've been MIA for a long time because other higher priority projects have been taking up most of my time. I would love to come back to this, I realize there's an audience, and I'd really like to polish up and release the first three missions in a complete state at the very least.

It's probably a project that's going to have to wait until after GDC 2012 in March. However, if the changes to Battle.net and map sharing, as well as map creation and custom campaign linking pan out well, I would be very interested in going back into at least part time production on the project.

If you like what you've played, favorite the project and I can't say when, but there will be updates in the future! Thanks for your interest!

@Tyneara: Go

I'll look into this, I've never run into the APC randomly not attacking... Can you confirm that you successfully completed the salvage event, and that the weapon was in fact enabled on the APC, and it was functionally firing, and then it would suddenly lose its ability to fire?

A new version of Backwater Station is up!

Mission 02 "Backwater Station" Beta Ver 1.1

Additions

• Added a large number of tips throughout the level.
• Added additional resource caches.
• Added safety measures for new players on casual and normal modes.
• Added map pings and spacebar events where necessary.
• Added talk icons for much of the dialog.

Changes

• On hard and brutal, the primary zerg opponent will now pressure both sides of Backwater Station.
• On hard and brutal, zerg will now research upgrades as the mission progresses.
• The area surrounding the coolant tower is now larger and more easily navigated.
• Adjusted firebat intro scene to interrupt play less.
• Adjusted the location of certain zerg enemies.
• Adjusted the terrain and doodad layout in some areas.
• Bonus objective no longer introduced through lengthy cutscene.
• Adjutant now scans red zerg base to reveal the potential threat during bonus objective.
• Destructible rocks no longer targetable/highlightable before bonus objective revealed.
• Removed creep tumors in canyon to the right of the main base in order to prevent player confusion.

There are a lot of new things in 1.1, and a lot of small polish tweaks. But here's a list of things that have yet to make it in and will be coming in the near future.

• Victory cinematic.
• Achievements.
• Additional tips.
• Dialog adjustments. (To increase clarity, and reduce confusion in certain areas.)
• Contingencies to deal with a possible exploit. ( I won't elaborate on this one unless someone figures it out before I fix it! )

@Tyneara: Go

Thanks for the great feedback!

• I've surprisingly had a lot of issues getting the game to be silent at the beginning, even though I've told it to play no music track, it seems intent on doing so. I'll look into fixing this.
• You're actually right on the money as far as the bonus objective goes, on Brutal you need to keep 3 marines at the mine entrance, it's a game of numbers. 3 marines (along with the npcs) will be enough to stop any zergling from getting in range to deal damage. As for defending the APC, positioning your additional marines to the side of the APC, and micro'ing Raynor is the most effective way to approach this segment. The hydras were actually nerfed recently, but it may still be too difficult. If you focus on making sure the hydras go after Raynor, it shouldn't be too difficult though. I'll definitely continue to tweak this section of the level. early in development, a lot of feedback I got about the bonus objective on brutal was that it was far too easy, for too great a reward. So this will probably continue to be adjusted until I find a sweet spot.
• Can you go into a bit more detail about the autogun not firing? Do you mean it literally stopped shooting at enemy zerg, even when they were in range? If so about where did this happen? Which particular sections was the APC moving too quickly? This is another hard part for me, obviously as many players are going to feel like it's moving too slow, while others will find exactly the opposite to be the case.

@Iecerint: Go

Sorry, I didn't do much with the WC3 editor. But hopefully you continue to look forward to new missions!

A new version of the Wastelands mission is up!

The mission is now largely feature complete, I've also begun uploading the entire campaign as a set, but to clarify, the version of Backwater Station in the .zip is not new. A new version of Backwater should be coming by the end of this week hopefully.

Change Log

Additions

• Added a third and final achievement, "No Marine Left Behind."
• Added a safety mechanism that alerts players of the salvage location after 60 seconds of not finding it.
• Added new tips.

Changes

• APC now waits for a majority of the player's force to be nearby before moving out after bonus objective.
• Salvaging parts for autogun repairs is no longer listed as a mission objective.
• Adjusted some enemy groups and their locations on hard.
• Adjusted the textures in the city at the beginning of the map.

Bugs

• Fixed issues where the APC's portrait did not display correctly.
• Fixed an issue where the APC would not drive forward if all zerglings at the blockade were killed.
• Fixed an issue where hydralisks would spawn during the bonus event on hard.

@Iecerint: Go

There's that, and believe me I'm aware. Which is why I'm hoping for more support for custom campaigns in HotS, if there was a way to get custom campaign content onto battle.net, a lot more people, including unskilled players would find it. I have a lot of friends who play SC2 single player and don't play multiplayer, or the game competitively at all, etc. They would never see this.

The decision wasn't made "practically," so to speak. I realize most people, especially here on SC2mapster are going to be relatively skilled players, as they're an active part of the SC2 community, that's why I recommend most people here play on hard or brutal. For my purposes though, I want to represent all four Blizzard mission difficulties accurately.