My second StarCraft campaign, "Voices of the Swarm", is finished and available for download:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/iilmhvcteye84i5/Voices_of_the_Swarm.zip/file (5.7 MB)

"Voices of the Swarm" is set during the original Zerg campaign and takes place between "The Dark Templar" and "Full Circle". Only moments have passed since the death of Zasz at the hands of Zeratul. The Garm Brood has been driven insane, the Overmind has gone silent and the Cerebrates are in a state of deep concern. Acting as the Cerebrate of the Grendel Brood, you are contacted by Daggoth, who is filling in for the Overmind's absence, and who explains that you are the only one who can fulfill an important assignment on the Terran world of Tarsonis, because a part of your Brood is still stationed there. From then on, a chain of events unfolds that will bring the Grendel Brood from his marginal role to eventually become one of the most relevant Broods in the Swarm's ranks.

This campaign was designed to be played with the original StarCraft. While it is technically possible to play these maps with Brood War, this is considered cheating, since the extra units and technologies would severely alter the gameplay, making all of the missions entirely too easy. If you have Brood War, please play "Voices of the Swarm" in StarCraft mode. Thanks in advance for any comment, I hope you'll have fun with these missions!



Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on May 11 2020, 8:47 pm by Andrea Rosa.

If you don't want Brood War units available, you should just disable them in the map editor. It would completely remove any complications with people playing in Brood War single player.

I don't think the game loads unit settings for expansion units if the map is an scm. That being said, I have no idea why he doesn't make his maps as scx files instead. Most triggers require it and you can't as much as change colors without using .scx.

As far as I know, it does. If I remember correctly, if you play Enslavers with Brood War you can use the extra units.



I had Brood War till some years ago, but I don't have it anymore. At present, I only have the original StarCraft, that's why I design for it. I know that BW is available for free download, but I keep postponing downloading it. To be honest, I did not fall in love with the expansion as much as I did with the original game, that's just personal taste.



StarCraft patched to version 1.04 supports nearly all BW triggers as far as I know (issue order, give units, etc), and the same goes for colored text, if that is what you mean. I don't like colored text very much, but I used a bit of it in "Voices of the Swarm" (mainly in the briefings).

By unit settings, I meant customized unit settings, as in disabling a unit that is enabled by default. I tested it and couldn't disable lurkers in an scm file.

By changing colors, I meant changing player colors using SCMDraft.

I start from a simple assumption: every StarCraft user has StarEdit, but not everyone has SCMDraft, and I like that everyone can be able to open my maps and examine how they were made, for didactic purposes. I've been working this way since the early 2000s, when I designed for Age of Empires, we could say it's my modus operandi.

Maybe in the future I will use SCMDraft, but no one will ever persuade me that modding is the only legitimate way to obtain a decent StarCraft campaign. The only game I have modded is Quake II, because that game didn't come with a dedicated level editor, and also because its open source nature meant that Quake II was born to be modded.

Blizzard has cancelled StarEdit and no longer supports it, so this is a fallacious assumption. SCMDraft 2 is the de facto editor (as stated by blizz devs) and after the current StarEdit build gets deprecated (assuming that hasn't already happened), users will no longer be able to use it.

By all but the most stringent definitions, using SCMDraft 2 instead of StarEdit is not modding - particularly given it's the only feature-complete, functioning editor left. I think it's very telling that you decided not to explain your premise (that you don't need third-party tools to make a good Starcraft campaign) and instead stated your view as immovable. I suppose we'll all be barking up the wrong tree by offering ways for you to improve your project, and debating whether a good campaign exists to begin with (let alone an unmodded one) is well outside the remit of what this topic is designed to discuss, so I'll leave that there. Congrats on releasing your project, and should you ever decide to get into modding, you know where to look for help.

Thanks for the info man, I didn't know about the gradual demise of StarEdit. In any case, this doesn't necessarily mean that the scm format will no longer be compatible (should this happen, I will surely update my scenarios in scx format).

Anyway, scm or scx, StarEdit or SCMDraft, who cares? The really important thing is that a campaign is playable and people have fun with it (and I'm talking mostly about the occasional players, not just fellow designers). The only prerequisite for this campaign is that people play it in StarCraft mode, because the story is set during the original Zerg campaign, when Lurkers and Devourers had not been revealed yet. If they decide to play it with Brood War, it's not a big issue, some missions will just be a little easier.


LOLOL that was very funny, you really conveyed a vivid image! I must add this expression to my English lexicon.

New starcraft custom campaign!

I will check it out like I did with your previous campaign.
Cheers~

Another new custom campaign this year, but my own special custom campaign is coming soon...

Glad to see you mate! I hope that "Voices of the Swarm" will entertain you. It's a bit harder than "Tales of Halcyon", but it still falls in the Intermediate Level category, so an experienced player like you won't have any problems in beating it. How about you? How is your "Impending Doom" project coming along?


I can never stress enough how much your videos have helped me in improving on several aspects of my previous campaign. There's nothing better than watching another person playing a scenario to spot weaknesses. I take this opportunity to spend a few words on the main changes in the definitive version of TOH:

- All levels have a different intro that matches the style used in "Voices of the Swarm".
- In mission 1 the Zerg now research all basic upgrades (previously they only upgraded flying units). I've also duplicated all the dialogues of the hero Tank (John Larsson), so his transmissions work properly either when he is in normal or siege mode.
- In mission 2 and mission 3 the enemies are slightly more aggressive.
- Mission 4 now features a WW2 style air raid siren that precedes the attack waves and adds a lot of atmosphere (this feature was meant to be present right from the beginning, however I couldn't find a suitable free sound effect back then).
- In mission 5 there are nastier triggered attacks, and the resources have been rebalanced, forcing the player to seek for more expansions.
- Mission 6 now features an extra CPU player that, after 15 minutes, will constantly try to nuke your peripheral defenses (this was achieved by adapting an AI script taken from "The Hammer Falls"). I've also fixed a quirk that prevented Schezar's Scavengers from fully upgrading their units (this was apparently due to the fact that I had disabled Spider Mines); this change has also affected the overall aggressiveness of the red player, which now attacks with many more Tanks and Ghosts using Lockdown. Lastly, the final confrontation with the Torrasque now is harder, since he is accompanied by a wave of Zerglings and Overlords, that will distract your units and nullify the cloaking field provided by rescued Protoss Arbiters.

Of course you don't need to record a new playthrough for TOH, but I suggest you to get the new version anyway: should you play it again in the future, it will be a funnier experience.

UPDATE:

Fixed a minor bug in Mission 3 that could display the message "This door is closed" even after opening that door.
Also in Mission 3, fixed an inconsistency in the Mission Objectives displayed by pressing F10.

yup, you need scmdraft2.

Nah, I just need serotonin LOL

UPDATE

Again in Mission 3, changed how some of the Installation doors work: doors that are not locked will now be toggled instead of staying permanently open. Some enemy units have been repositioned for better reaction. Enemy units can now use teleports, although this will be a very rare occurrence.

UPDATE


MISSION 3

- Decreased the energy cost of the Hero Defiler's special abilities.
- Added new rooms.
- Added new sound effects.
- Some enemy units have been repositioned.
- Improved triggered attacks.
- Fixed an issue with the Healing Station that allowed to heal more than one unit at a time.
- Messages such as "this door is closed" are now displayed multiple times.


MISSION 4

- Decreased the energy cost of the Hero Defiler's special abilities.
- Increased AI difficulty.
- Increased the amount of minerals available on the map.
- Fixed a bug that allowed Carriers to attack the Cerebrate.


MISSION 5

- Minimal changes to the map.
- Decreased the frequency of Infested Terrans attacks.

UPDATE

MISSION 3

- The position of the Healing Station is now shown on the minimap as soon as the station is activated.
- Slight changes to the map layout, in order to prevent the player from discovering the secret terminal too early.
- Added a new room.
- Changed the behavior of some enemy units.

How do I try your campaign? Just download and load map from within sc? Or do I need Any extra to play it? Just tryid mission seemed to hard for me

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 30 2019, 5:04 pm by GGmano.

Hi GGmano. You don't need any extra, just play it as any other old school campaign.

The overall difficulty level is moderate, and the first mission is fairly easy, you shouldn't have any problems in beating it once you understand what to do. In the first level the Terrans will attack often, but they will take quite a while to research their basic weapons and armor upgrades (roughly 15 mins). Once you have a couple of Sunken Colonies in each base you will have more breathing room to create enough Zerglings and Hydralisks to go on the offensive. You only need to destroy the 8 Siege Tanks perched on the ridges of the canyon (you can use Overlords with speed and sight upgrades to spot them), so you can ignore enemy buildings, especially the Bunkers. The tricky part of this mission is that you need to coordinate two separate attacks: if you find this difficult to do, I suggest to begin your assault when the countdown reaches 10:00, so you will have enough time to clear the two parts of the map separately (the southern part is easier, so start attacking from there).

If you need more help, let me know.