Shadows of the Tal'Darim
Shadows of the Tal'Darim is a 3-part 1-10 player RPG for Starcraft 2.
Shadows of the Tal'darim 1.09 features:
- 15 Unique heros
- A hero save system that holds 5 heroes per player
- Content that adjusts difficulty based on how many players are present (Mobs and bosses have +100% life per player)
- Content that drops more loot when there are more players present.
- A Unique Stat-point spending system that allows you to customize your character, and re-spend these stat points freely at any time.
- A talent system that can unlock new abilities or improve existing abilities.
- Diablo style followers that get stronger as you get stronger, and level as you level.
- Over 240 pieces of gear including helms, shoulder, chest, bracer, gloves, boots, rings, shields, trinkets and relics!
- Drive 1 of 4 different types of vehicles!
- A waypoint system similar to Diablo.
- A PVP Arena where 4 or more players can have arena battles and compete for XP and Vespene!
- Released Dec 28, 2010. Updates every week.
Visit the Shadows of the Tal'Darim Forums
- Act I Level 1-25 content
The Protoss and the Tal'darim were fighting above restored Haven. Shortly after the Terran colonists sent up a battlecruiser from the surface, a sub-space Vortex opens up above the planet, engulfing several vessels. Trapped and stranded 85 years in the past, our heroes grow tired of waiting for reinforcements
The Tal'Darim have set up fortifications, while they gather enough materials to launch an assault on Aiur (and through their madness, destabilize time itself!)
- Act II Level 23-50 content
After nearly defeating the Destroyer, our heroes head South in pursuit. Chal'marr and his band of Templars have taken over a nearby Tal'darim outpost. This outpost will serve as a temporary sanctuary for Chal'marr's survivors while they investigate the Tal'darims recent expansion into the region.
- Act III Level 45-80 content.
Near the end of Act 2, one of the Destroyers Dark Archons had mysteriously appeared and stole a powerful crystal artifact that the Destroyer was excavating. The Destroyer was enraged. The Tal'darim Archon opened a time rift and escaped to the present.
With the timelines restored, our heroes return through the temporal vortex, but they pick up a Tal'darim warp trail that leads straight to Korhal! Chal'marr's survivors (on General Larrens Battlecruiser) follow the warp trail to an experimental research facility on Korhal, which is still mostly in ruins after the last Zerg attack.. The Ta'darim Archon (known as Nezzax the Consuming) is harnessing the powers of the crystal to amplify his ability to control human minds!
Psi storms seem rather weak in Act II. Regular attack + feedback is 2-3x more DPS. Scaling wise, I have 20/2/6 Int/Crit/Haste, which dominated Act I but didn't do much in Act II. The Telekinesis spell sometimes works and sometimes not against bosses. Have you encountered this? I get the invalid target message.
I didn't see any new upgrades entering Act II for the High Templar.
Spectre - his Kill Field Generator could use a life buff. In Act II, it's destroyed within 1-2 seconds of deploying.
I just did a complete run of acts I and II with 2 others, I was on the medic tying to figure out what was going on with medic XP. I noticed the same thing after I killed the Ursodak Boss. Chal'marr refused to give any quests or provide further directions. I just applied some changes (yet again) and it should (hopefully) work.
I'll check out vortex but i'm sure it's working how it should. It should just be a persistent damage over time effect that inturrupts casting and gently 'pulls' enemies into the void zone. I may explore the possibility of giving vortex a debuff that stacks infinitely and lasts for 30 seconds.
Psi storm however is working as intended. It stacks 2x, so you can have 2 psi storms per area. It's intelligence/haste/crit scaling is awesome.
I never noticed this before but the Vortex ability of the HT doesn't work. Enemies walk right thru it and I haven't noticed much damage with 20 INT attributes.
Psi storm is dealing 125-250 DPS on my lvl 30 HT with 20 INT. From my last post, I don't think there was a lvl 3-6 upgrade option available.
Edit:
Vortex does slight damage in Act I but no stunning effects. Act II no benefits for an ability with 1 min cooldown.
Ran thru Act I, only thing that didn't trigger was completion of the Bonus Objective - Destroy nearby Hatchery. ! mark over the destroyed hatchery.
Just started a new run-thru on my 3rd Hero on Act II, that I was saving to play with friends, and here is what happen.
1# Went to town first. Spoke to Chal'marr, then to phased stalker and started the DT Agent quest. The DT agent was safely escorted back to town and nothing happens after that. Phased stalker has a ! over his head. No Broken Scanner award.
2# Spoke to Chal'marr, triggers the Black Reaver showing marker on map. Once you go to the top right to the marker, it disappears along with the quest (tracking). I proceeded to kill the reaver and returned to base, but nothing happens.
3# With nothing else happening, I went to the merchant and it triggered the kill the Ursodak bull quest. Killed it and went to Chal'marr and nothing happens. Same with the merchant.
Note:
Not sure if this is with your latest update but bnet still has the same map. I also have the templar talisman.
Ok I'll check out act I real quick and continue working on act II. I think I fixed Act II (just now), I've uploaded it, try again. I even added a few quest objectives for the Destroyers Temple.
yea that's an awesome idea. Chal'marr would totally have access to Zerg biosamples, being a hybrid Xel'naga/Protoss and all. With 2 melee mercs already, another ranged would be cool.
Hydralisk/Hunter-Killer If it seems more AOE dps is needed, I'll make their shots impale right through the target, hitting things behind it in a straight line. If more single target dps is needed, I'll give them a 'curse of the weakened' style stackable corrosive acid debuff. Something that doesn't tick hard but it stacks infinitely and lasts 30seconds.
@Sharicasmi: Go
Act I Quest - Purge the eastern temple is still pinging bottom right pylon location.
Act II - Went to merchant upon load to trigger kill the Ursodak bull. Killed and returned to Chal'marr, nothing happens. I still have the templar talisman.
That would explain why none of the higher quest triggered for me since I still have the talisman.
I like the synopsis.
I'll make a run at Ursodak and report back.
For the 4th merc, consider the hunter killer/hydralisk to help fight for the cause!
I also think it will be refreshing killing corrupted terrans for a change. People will be tired of killing protoss and zerg by level 50.
I fixed a few things about the Act II quests, but some of them are still acting up, or not firing at all. My main focus right now is fixing the ursodak boss quest, it's not properly removing templar talisman from your inventory, which is preventing the later quests from being run. I made some changes last night and I'll be on to test them in abit, try killing the Ursodak boss and returning to Chal'marr. If it doesn't work, I'll try something else to fix it.
In space, not a bad idea, I tried experimenting with the idea of Act III takes you to space. The reason the first draft failed in my eyes was that too much of the map were phased zones, and if one player is on a different phase of the quest line, it puts both players in that players phase zone (preventing player b from getting his quest done. It was supposed to open up as 'a mission on mars sara.' The map turns into Shakuras after completing the first mission. The storyline was great and all, lots of in depth lore about the Protoss high council, but just doing that first mission took up 25% of the map and didn't leave me much room to add raiding content.
After a space battle with a Tal'darim mothership, Chal'marr's survivors (on General Larrens Battlecruiser) track the enemy vessel to Korhal, where the Ta'darim used their psionic powers to manipulate High Commander Darren Shepperd, head of the Halif province munitions depot on Korhal. With a high ranking agent set up on Korhal, the Tal'darim now control enough forces to cause a power shift in the Korprolu sector. The sons of Korhal defense forces fight Chal'marr's expedition at first, until they realize that their control over the area is diminishing, and they need your help.
It's pretty much fighting terrans and mech's with shields. There will be a mad scientist 'professor putricide' style fight, a 5 miniboss boss fight (like moroes or faction champions), and a 'lady deathwisper' style last boss.
There will be new (stronger) marine and firebat mercenaries, and I'll try to figure out a new mercenary for act III so you can have up to 4 mercenaries at once in act III.
After thinking about my last post, the design I suggested was similar to Act I with central base and NSWE entrances. Act II is good if you like to free roam.
That was the biggest distinction for me. Act I is linear, following a story line and quests. While Act II, there weren't many ping markers showing you where to go... so I just went for the bosses.
Like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, the only quest trigger was the DT agent at the beginning of Act II. Ursak Bull triggers but you can't turn in the quest and the DT merchant still has (!) over his head. Note there may be an issue with the scanner reward not applying to all players (like the pylon in Act I). My buddy didn't get his scanner when we finished the quest.
Are there ping markers on the map in Act II beside the DT agent?
If there are, then I have to do a new run-thru. I have 2 heroes with act II complete so it's free roam for me.
Since you're back to the drawing board, what if the story leads the heroes to space? You could design the terrain like in Piercing the Shroud campaign. Not sure about space terrain but a central base in a broken laboratory setup with entrances in North/South/East/West for example. You could have some of the entrances sealed that unlock with quest completions to lead to new areas of the map.
Another suggestion is maybe adding burning objects just for details. Act III, world is falling apart, heroes land stand to save the day theme. Haha.
Here's a map of Piercing the Shroud: http://www.infestedraynor.com/IRfiles/SC/maps/mPiercingTheShroud.png
On another note, in Act I the enemies to the right of the stranded marines used to open up if you've beaten Act I by talking to Chal'Marr. First barrier is blocked with the big reaver and only way in is drop ship.
k fixed. It was just pinging the wrong location. I'm goanna abandon my current design concept for act III, because I think it's crap, and it's layout is horrible. I wouldn't be able to fit 25 levels on this. Just goanna start over (based on current act II)
k ill check it out. I managed to get 2 others into act II with me a few days ago, and things were working pretty good.
In other news, killing spree (dark templar) is now available in Act I. You no longer have to wait till act II to get this ability.
In Act I,
Once you help the DT in the eastern wastes to purge the temple, the objective marker pings the bottom right corner where the pylon is located. Not sure if this intended or an easy fix.
yea players can still sometimes get quest item duplicates in multiplayer games. This used to occur with nearly every quest item rewarded by a quest, but i went in over it a month ago and fixed 80% of the quest item duplicates. There will still be some remaining quest item duplicates, some of the quest firing triggers are just simply too huge to be adding any more actions (which is why some quests don't have proper objective tracking)
I'm really just trying to make an in-depth multiplayer RPG that's easy to learn, with heroes that feel really customizable and unique. Functionality improvements and bug fixes (in acts I and II) is my primary concern right now. There's lots of things that (basicly) work, but they could be working better.
Hey, I was wondering if it's a glitch that my char has 2 disguises. You obviously can't drop them because it was a quest item but it's pointless to have 2 in my inventory.
Great game though, glad to see that you added ActII.
Ok I'll fix it ASAP. After playing 21-28 on a healing Archon in Act II with 3 players, I'm applying a couple adjustments.
In Act I,
After speaking with the zealot in the Doomed Wastes with the pylons, it triggers the message about the pylon is set up and we can teleport here. Then every time you unload from any vehicle and click on your character the following message reappears over your hero:
"The teleporter is set up. We can now port here directly from the base!"
It's kinda funny to me because I kept asking for the pylon fix haha.
I will be doing lots of 3-5player tests in Act I. I've removed a glitch from the bank save triggers in Act I, this should reduce bank files size. I've also made some adjustments to how the bank files are opened in multiplayer, and we should see more reliable hero saves in act I
medic loads fine but the medic gains no XP in Act II it seems. Disabling the creation of this class in Act I until this issue is resolved :(
Act II the teleporter in Chaos Mountains (for the Black Reaver quest) should now port your mercenaries as well