[Campaign] Empire Wars - RELEASE PARTY (Topic)

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[Campaign] Empire Wars - RELEASE PARTY

Apr 7 2010, 10:56 pm
By: Robotron

Pages: 1

Apr 7 2010, 10:56 pm Robotron Post #1

It gives me great pleasure to type this thread up. Anyone that's been following this project from the time of its resurrection so long ago will remember that I've always had the ridiculous ambition to create an entire campaign, a campaign the size of original StarCraft, ever since I was a small child when the game was first released, with my earliest attempts dating back to before even Brood War came out. After two failed attempts over the years to create such a campaign, it appears that third time's the charm.

Yep, after about 4-6 months(!) of hard work, I've created an entire 30-level campaign, completely from scratch, doing all of the mapping, triggers, storyline, and writing by myself. The only thing that I've had assistance with is testing the maps. For that, I'd like to give a big thanks to everyone that's tested my maps, specifically Pr0nogo for helping me give my first 5 maps (by far the lowest quality ones in the set) a major face lift, noname for being a high caliber player testing the most difficult maps that I could concoct, and Zakaib for helping me get this project back on its feet, and Bobdoily well...just because.

So without further ado, allow me to present a campaign with approximately 10 years in the making.

STARCRAFT: EMPIRE WARS
As previously stated, this campaign is a full 30 level map set for Brood War. It does not require any special .exe to run, just stock BW. Also included are 6 �Cinematic� maps (these don't count toward the level count of 30, by the way), which help advance the story. You will play as all three races, with each race having 10 levels and 2 Cinematic maps, giving you an even split.

These maps were made to closely adhere to the �classic� SC feel. Very little fancy stuff is used. No odd terrain, no stacked units/buildings, no �sprites�, etc. One other very important thing to note is that this campaign is extremely hard. If you were to rate the campaign maps on a 1-10 scale of difficulty, with the hardest Brood War maps registering a ~3-4 on the scale, there are multiple maps that would be ranked 10 or beyond. �Commando� maps will usually require near-perfect micro at all times. Later �standard� maps will push your ability to create the perfect attack force, attack at the right place at the right time, and manage your resources, to its limit. Unless I've vastly underestimated the SC community's skill, then beating the whole campaign without cheating is quite an accomplishment. If you seek a challenge or an opportunity to hone your skills, then look no further.

Don't let the above paragraph scare you, though. If the difficulty gets too high, there's no shame in the odd cheat here and there if you find the level unbeatable. Also, the first few maps of all three of the campaigns are pretty minimal in difficulty, so nearly anyone can get their foot in the door.

SPECIFICATIONS

Players
1 player only. This is a single player Campaign.
Map Tilesets
Every single tileset is used multiple times.
Map Size
Map size varies from as small as 64x64 to 256x256. Nearly every possible dimension combination is used.

STORYLINE/INTRODUCTION
This campaign takes place shortly after Brood War's conclusion. The Protoss have been broken, Zeratul is in exile after discovering the horrifying truth behind Samir Duran, and Mengsk has returned to Korhal to lick his wounds. The story was very heavily inspired by the Brood War secret mission Dark Origin. I encourage anyone not up to speed on that map (yes, all 5 of you) to either give it a play thorough or watch the dialogue from it on Youtube.

As for the campaigns themselves, there are three different ones, much like SC and BW.

The first campaign is the Zerg campaign, called The Grand Experiment. As the name suggests, this campaign focuses heavily around Duran and his plans to create the ultimate race of hybrids as well as revive his dark master. In these missions, you will almost always control Duran and sweep aside the various enemies that stand in your way.

The second campaign, the Terran campaign, is known as Confederate Counterblow. IT takes place immediately after the Zerg campaign's conclusion. This set of levels mainly stars Edmund Duke and his second in command, Jack Dark. Yes, General Duke. You read that correctly. Duke's return is explained in full detail during the Zerg campaign. As for the Terran levels, Duke's army, Sigma Squadron, is recovering from the crushing defeat suffered at the hands of Duran and his hybrids. Once you're done rebuilding Sigma Squadron, Duke, bent on vengeance, sets his sights on Arcturus Mengsk and his recovering Terran Dominion.

At one point in the campaign, the story shifts briefly to Jim Raynor as he aids Artanis in searching the stars for their lost comrade, Zeratul. However, our heroes find a lot more than they bargained for...

The final campaign, Hybrid Inferno, obviously focuses around the Protoss, namely Zeratul. This campaign begins with Zeratul finally making his return to Shakuras after failing to stop the hybrids from being created. Unfortunately for him, he's too late...

CHARACTERS

�Samir Duran � Duran's twisted schemes near fruition. Soon he will unleash his hybrids upon the universe. Can anybody stand in his way?

�Edmund Duke � Mysteriously surviving his supposed death on Korhal, he's returned more grumpy than ever. This time he's got his own personal army, Sigma Squadron, at his back. The origins of this army, and Duke's survival, are unknown.

�Xianou � A Protoss praetor, searching for Zeratul, under the command of Artanis.

�Jim Raynor � Raynor's Raiders assist Artanis in searching for Zeratul as well as in the coming battles against the hybrids.

�Artanis � Now the leader of the Protoss, is bent on finding Zeratul, for he strongly feels that he will need the Dark Templar's aid in the coming conflict.

�Zeratul - Searching the stars for Duran's hybrids, he lives in constant fear of Duran's dark prophecy.

�Jack Dark � The second in command of Sigma Squadron, an ace Wraith pilot. While Jack and Duke don't always get along, Jack serves Duke with blind loyalty.

�Isaac � A Terran Dominion scientist. Isaac finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place until he is rescued by Jim Raynor. This leads Isaac to defect over to the Protoss.

�Kerrigan � Now intent on hunting down our heroes, she quickly shifts her attention to Duran once she discovers what he's up to.

�The Dark Lord � Little is known about Duran's mysterious master except this: if he is allowed to return, the entire universe will be in jeopardy.

PROGRESS

IDEAS (100%)
TERRAIN (100%)
UNIT PLACEMENT (100%)
TRIGGERS (100%)

UPDATES

4/22/2010
�Removed a misplaced Doodad in Z2 that created unintended unit pathing.
�Fixed a bug related to the teleporter in T6(a and b) that could potentially cause the level to be unbeatable.
�Fixed a possible bug with Cyan's dialogue in P4.
�Slightly changed the spawn locations related to an event in P10 that created unit unplaceable errors.
4/26/2010
�Fixed a plethora of minor grammatical and spelling errors in the dialogue.
�Z6 has been slightly rebalanced. Instead of your main, one expansion, and a gas-only expansion, there are now two normal expansions. The actual resource count on the map remains unchanged. Additionally, the map has received some aesthetic changes, reducing the amount of empty space.
�The defences at the south of the purple Zerg base have been increased, making drop strategies more difficult to execute.
�The number of "units" on P9 have been reduced from 1,340 to 1,280.
�The number of "units" on P10 have been reduced from 1,337 to 1,280.

Made with the Map Production template.

As one last footnote, the Protoss campaign is not as thoroughly tested as I would have liked (damn disappearing beta testers!), so there may be a few kinks in it, especially in the difficulty department. Even though the campaign has officially been released, please feel free to leave feedback on how to improve it. As necessary, I will release new versions of it as important changes are made.

Finally, here is the download link to the current version of the Empire Wars Campaign: http://www.staredit.net/?file=2162

Post has been edited 6 time(s), last time on Apr 26 2010, 10:27 pm by Robotron.

None.

Apr 7 2010, 11:04 pm

ImagoDeo Post #2

test

Whaddya know, it's not working.

DLed. Gonna play over the next few weeks if I have time. I'll get back to you on it.

None.

Apr 22 2010, 9:45 am Robotron Post #3

I really don't know why the images won't work. They exist and definitely appear with the image tag on other forums just fine. Maybe SEN just hates Photobucket or something.

Either way, I just now uploaded this campaign (and did some copy/paste of the OP) to the DLDDB.

The DLDDB entry can be found here.

None.

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