StarCraft II: Annihilation Campaign
Russian Translation:
A russian team has taken the liberty of translating the campaign to Russian! Download it here!
On their website you can find more Russian translations of custom campaigns. For a full list of available campaigns in russian, click here!
Introduction:
This is my first serious map project for StarCraft II. I've always enjoyed the campaign aspect of StarCraft and have played through both the Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm campaigns several times, along with a multitude of different campaigns made by the public. I therefore decided it was time to create my own.
"Annihilation" is a 24 mission campaign with three different story perspectives that will intertwine into one final conclusion. Featuring high-quality terrain, lots of different characters as well as a wide variety of mission scenarios, this campaign, featuring 4 difficulty levels, will hopefully create an enjoyable experience for players of every skill level.
Link to the official Map Feedback thread can be found here.
Features:
- Three seperate storylines intersecting and coming together into one final conclusion.
- Play as both Terran, Zerg and Protoss.
- Heavy focus on quality terrain and environments.
- Custom soundtracks and several interesting Hero units.
- 24 missions pitting you up against many different challenges and mission scenarios.
- A total of 14 boss battles pitting you up against a variety of different tacticts and strategies.
Story:
It all starts with Investigator Maxwell Reeves of the Spec-Ops: Infiltration Program, who sets surface on the planet Callithus IV to assist the Terran settlers with what initially appears to be a minor Zerg problem. However, they soon realize that events has been set in motion that will potentially change the fate of the universe, and it will be up to the different clans to work together against stopping this threat.
Installation Guideline:
Note: When playing the maps, avoid using the Resume from Replay function, as this may break aspects of the maps. Instead, use the Save/Load function.
- Download the Annihilation zip file, extract them and put all the files inside the Maps folder in your StarCraft II directory. The file path should be something like "StarCraft II/Maps/Annihilation". If the Maps folder does not exist, create it yourself.
- Open the "AnnihilationLauncher.SC2Map" file through the editor. To open the editor, either drag and drop the map file to the SC2 Editor icon, or open the editor, and use the File -> Open function on your taskbar.
- Once the Campaign Launcher is successfully opened, launch the game through the editor by heading into File -> Test Document on your taskbar.
NOTE: Do NOT change any of the file names. Doing this, as well as not having the files in the correct filepaths listed in the Installation Guideline above, will prevent the campaign maps from connecting and in turn, make the Campaign Launcher completely useless.
Ignore the "DS_Store" files that you may recieve upon downloading. These folders are added automatically when you store a file in folders on Mac computers. You can safely delete these.
Missions:
- Annihilation 01: Mindless Creatures - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 02: An Unfriendly Ally - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 03: The Idu'ran - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 04: Fallen Brethren - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 05: Departure - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 06: The Daggerfang - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 07: Homecoming - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 08: The Wandering Shadow - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 09: Bio-Weapons - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 10: Newfound Enemies - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 11: Ussorus - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 12: Reawakening - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 13: Facility 14A - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 14: The First Step - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 15: Entrance Into Risk - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 16: The Breach - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 17: Last Stand - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 18: A Major Downfall - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 19: Planetary Incursion - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 20: Sentient Reality - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 21: Mysterious Revelations - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 22: The United Forces - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 23: Frontal Push - Completed (RELEASE)
- Annihilation 24: Edge of Annihilation - Completed (RELEASE)
Difficulty Levels:
This campaign contains 4 difficulty levels, ranging from Casual, Normal, Hard and Brutal. Your success in completing the individual missions on these difficulties greatly depends on your level of skill.
- Casual: A difficulty requiring little to no multitasking and micro skills, featuring less enemies and focus on story.
- Normal: A difficulty requiring minor multitasking and micro skills, featuring fewer enemies and focus on story and minor challenges.
- Hard: A difficulty requiring good multitasking and micro skills, featuring a high number enemies and focus on challenges and entertainment.
- Brutal: A difficulty requiring great multitasking and micro skills, featuring tremendously more enemies and heavy focus on challenge.
Troubleshooting:
You may have trouble opening these maps if you open them directly from the map itself. If you do have this issue and the map opens up as just an empty map, then I suggest you open it in the following way:
- Open up the StarCraft II Editor.
- Once finished, go to "Open".
- Find the map in your catalog, and select it. Using this method to open any maps from the campaign should fix any issues you have with opening them.
Music
You may notice some of the music in the campaign are not from StarCraft, in fact, I focused heavily on the use of soundtracks to bring the campaign to life. If you wish to see a full list of all the tracks confirmed to be used, click here.
Credits:
- Special thanks to the respected composers of the various different music soundtracks used in this campaign.
- Special thanks to Thrikodias for the awesome custom models and units used in this campaign.
- Special thanks to VastanX for creating the unique models for various Hero units used in this campaign.
- Special thanks to all those who play and provide useful feedback to help improve these maps.
- Special thanks to users JayborinoPlays, deltronLive, Redlerred7 xMasterKD and Palnai for playing and providing entertainment and feedback for this campaign.
Discord:
Enjoy Annihilation? Follow my official Discord, and engage in discussions about the campaign, or chat with me directly. Following this discord also gives you access to frequent updates and WIP showcases of my latest campaign project, A War Story.
Patch Notes:
No patch notes are planned for the campaign.
Videos:
Im trying to open map 4 in the editor (I logged into my account in the editor prior to opening the map in editor) and i get this.
The map stops loading after about half way through and says the following:
The launch of this game makes refernce to mod or map dependencies which are no longer available
[9/4/2020 3:17:24 PM] Warning: XML: GameData\ActorData.xml(1,1) : m_comment == nullptr Source: Campaigns/SwarmStory.SC2Campaign/
[9/4/2020 3:17:24 PM] Warning: USER: [ 86e 2] CActorDoodad[Decal] Model produces empty (zero) bounds. Consider using DefaultToModelAABBBounds to fix.
[9/4/2020 3:17:24 PM] Warning: USER: [ db1 2] CActorDoodad[Decal] Model produces empty (zero) bounds. Consider using DefaultToModelAABBBounds to fix.
[9/4/2020 3:17:24 PM] Warning: USER: [ e14 2] CActorDoodad[Decal] Model produces empty (zero) bounds. Consider using DefaultToModelAABBBounds to fix.
[9/4/2020 3:17:24 PM] Warning: USER: [133b 2] CActorDoodad[Decal] Model produces empty (zero) bounds. Consider using DefaultToModelAABBBounds to fix.
Any suggestions?
In reply to hognek:
I get all of these issues as well but they don't do anything. You can easily launch the map and play without facing any problems.
Some maps do launch with a few error messages, but they usually don't mean much.
In reply to dudkisc2:
It is when its launching and halfway through that this happens;
The launch of this game makes reference to mod or map dependencies which are no longer available
In reply to dudkisc2:
In reply to dudkisc2:
Mission 5 Works. 4 does not.
In reply to hognek:
Mission 5 never had any of the issues. But, even though the errors in mission 04 pop up, it should still load up. Is it not loading up at all in the editor? My only recommendation is to restart the editor and try again. Try to use the Editor's "Open" tool and open the map directly from that. Sometimes that fixes certain issues people have.
In reply to dudkisc2:
I also have the same problem with mission 4. I am guessing that a patch on sc2 broke that mission(maybe another one too? didn't try aside mission 1-5). You can check yourself if it works for you the mission 4.
In reply to dudkisc2:
Hey :)
Loading in editor is fine, its while the map is loading in StarCraft 2 it crashes
"The launch of this game makes reference to mod or map dependencies which are no longer available"
In reply to roskoll:
Just checked to confirm. I have the ability to save as I normally do. It's very strange, no idea what's wrong.
In reply to dudkisc2:
Is not about saving or loading, our game stop working when we test it. The game do that error "The launch of this game makes reference to mod or map dependencies which are no longer available", in the loading screen, then the game close.
In reply to roskoll:
I cannot replicate this bug at all. I used the same version as the one available for download, and the map loads just fine for testing.
The error hints at a mod being unable to be read in the game. What I suggest is trying to log in to your bnet account through the editor in order to "verify" the account, so it can detect your expansion level, if you haven't yet.
Normally you wouldn't have to do this, but it's the only idea I have for fixing this. I'm sorry I can't really be of much assistance.
In reply to hognek:
I have the same problem, so its something new after starcraft 2 update i guess.
Managed to find a fix for the problem. Mission pack 1 has been re-uploaded with a functioning Mission 04. Sorry for the inconvenience. You should hopefully not face any other issues but if you do, don't hesitate to let me know.
In reply to dudkisc2:
It works now, thx for fast response, enjoyed the mission 4th today < 3
In reply to Forge_User_34208196:
Very happy to hear the fix worked!
Is it normal to not be able to save your game while playing these maps? I'm only on the second level but I've lost several times (on "normal" difficulty - ok, obviously I'm not pro). I'm enjoying the campaign, but with these large levels, that's a LOT to replay through every time I lose. Is there no way to save it?
I looked at the menu and it has "load" but not "save". I tried pushing ctrl+q and it does nothing. Is save somehow disabled? I don't think I'll be able to continue this campaign if I can't save along the way during the maps. PLEASE let me know what I can do!
In reply to madagascaradam:
I remember there was one other person who also couldn't save for whatever reason. It is very strange, and I unfortunately don't have any way to fix it. Everyone else who's played, including myself, have the option to save.
Did you use the "Resume from Replay" functionality at any point? From what I hear, using that feature breaks the option to save. If you launched a map and from the get-go you didn't have the option to save, then I unfortunately have no fix for that.
In reply to dudkisc2:
Thanks a lot for your response! Sorry for the delay in mine. It took me a while to get time to get around to it again. I tried several things and at least somewhat figured it out. Previously, I had custom StarCraft maps set to default "open with..." "SC2Switcher" so I could avoid having to first load them in the map editor and *then* "test map"... I did this upon the advice of another campaign I played, I believe it was some aspect of Mass Recall or something. Until this campaign (Annihilation), it worked just fine for me to load custom maps like that. But with this campaign that didn't work (as far as allowing me to "save" my games).
However, I tried some experiments and when I went back to the cumbersome method of loading the map in the map editor *first*, and then doing "test map" from there in order to play it... *that*'s when I was able to get the "save" function back on my menu. I tested and saved a number of times. Though this time I didn't lose the map at all, so I didn't actually test the load function. I presume it works fine though (and that my saves were fine, since they said, "save successful".
So anyway, that worked and now I'm going to move forward with playing the campaign! So if it comes up for anyone again that they don't have the "save" function, you might want to ask them whether they're trying to load it direct from SC2Switcher (like I was, and which didn't work with "save" function) or whether they're loading it through the Map Editor first then "testing map" to play it (which seems to have a working "save" function for me).
Not sure why yours doesn't work direct through SC2Switcher, and if knowing that would help you do some troubleshooting or anything... but at least there's a workaround! Thanks again for your reply!
In reply to madagascaradam:
Thanks a lot for the in-depth explanation! Very useful to know this in the future for anyone else having issues.
I don't use the SC2Switcher myself so I really wouldn't know how it all works when you launch maps through that. Much appreciated!
I must say, the amount of work done here is impressive. And the level design is awesome and interesting to play! (except that mission on ussorus maybe).
I didn't love the scenario much. Heroes seem to be a bit too dumb and naive asking obvious things and others explaining everything in detail for no reason. So the cinematics could be shorter.
And I can't find any way to donate for this piece of art btw.
I love you man,your work: its gold standard.........Too bad I don't have job,otherwise I would have paid you!