I have played both maps. I think the newscaster is a nice touch to the mission briefing; it's more interesting than the overt info-dumping other people often do. On the other hand, I find the gameplay is uninvolving.
The missions are very easy because we have the whole tech tree at our disposal (including medics and valkyries even though we're supposed to be the Confederacy), but despite that we only need a control group of siege tanks and some goliaths to steamroll either maps, even easier if you take some time to get weapon/armor upgrades. We also generally start the game with a largely pre-built base and plenty of resources.
I recommend putting more thought into terrain design and enemy unit placement to shape the mission's difficulty (instead of relying on harder AI scripts) as well as making it more engaging to play.
For example, on mission 2, almost 50% of the map isn't effectively used. The expand locations are not reachable by ground, but expanding isn't necessary anyway because we start with plenty of resources and, unless you bother to build dropships, aren't located in a manner that is significant to victory; they are distant and superfluous.
This could be remedied by designing the map in a way that would make it worth investing the time and effort to secure those expansions, such as decreasing the amount of resources that can be mined in the player's starting base, and changing their location on the map and the surrounding terrain so that they are more relevant to progressing the mission.
A few more things I found to be an issue was:
- The placement of the command center relative to the minerals/geyser: The command center was always placed unnecessarily far from the resource nodes, warranting me to lift it up and move it closer. You should have it as close as possible, or use unbuildable terrain if you want to force a certain distance from the resource nodes. Otherwise it's an annoyance because the potential for more efficient mining exists but the player has been deprived of it for no reason.
- Edmund Duke's antagonism in the story seems very petty and silly; a terrorist group have glassed an entire planet and are still growing in threat, but he's frustrated that another group---that is part of the Confederate military---is taking action. I suppose it's meant to be corresponding with Duke's role in Terran 02 when we destroy the infested command center, but in that instance there's a justifiable reason for it (destroying Confederate assets). Here, what justifies Duke to order a group within their own military to stand down, and rebuke them despite their success? This irrational behavior prevents me from taking it seriously.
- Use "Set Next Scenario" to tie your maps together, so we are brought to the next mission upon achieving victory, or reload the same map if we are defeated.
I hope my feedback will help you improve your project!
