I've been mostly adding custom AIs to my campaigns in order to break the mold, not to add difficulty per se (up until starting work on WODF, I was really afraid of really challenging attacking AIs). But I kind of had to because even when using the campaign AIs from SC or BW, it's surprising how most of them have their issues that prevent them from being used as an effective replacement for the (frankly quite irritating) stock medium / difficult / insane AIs. It's possible to find a few decently balanced Zerg scripts - probably mostly because the Zerg are everyone's punching bag so they're appearing more often as enemies - but Protoss and especially Terran are few and far between.

As of right now I already have almost 150 scripts in my campaign, replacing pretty much every stock BW mission script, and some other ones. Of course, many of them are "auxiliary" ones, and some of these are just one-liners. I'm doing it not for bragging rights but because few scripts lend themselves to being re-used, even if I discount the elements that firmly anchor them to the mission they're intended for (which, unlike the vast majority of the stock SC/BW scripts claimed to be useful only for this or that mission, are an ironclad fact because they're, for instance, tied to the location layout in a particular map, or alter the settings of a very particular player).

Actually writing a decent attacking AI script is very easy. It happened often that I was writing AIs that initially ended up too aggressive for the intended use, and had to tone them down, sometimes repeatedly.

Wow!!!!

Well, Pronogo does exactly that (and it couldn't be done any other way as custom tiles can't be brushed), and I use this method on occasion to make more compelling blends. On the other hand, I'm not sure it would be even possible to do in Champions of Kandia as its not a feature default Staredit supports (I don't know whether Andrea had started using SCM at that point).


The problem isn't whether they're enjoyable or not, or whether they're difficult or not, the problem is that stock AIs are too simplicstic. I believe it is possible to make use of combinations of stock AIs to make them somewhat meanacing, but if you just slap a vanilla script like its done usually, you'll just have your supposedly epic Protoss fleet of destruction send 1 zealot every other millenia - that is unless you slap a Protoss Campaign Insane, but then this AI will just look exactly like hundereds other AIs in other campaigns. This is probably the biggest gripe I have with the newest installment of SC2 custom content that is UED First Light - their Zerg are not menacing at all, they don't look competent or act competent, and yet we're supposed to believe they are capable of conquering Earth in its entirety.

Yes, I am working on it. Progress is just slow because I spend a majority of my time helping others with their work, and also have other higher-priority projects of my own outside of SC.

I didn't.

I don't.

I wanted to illustrate the deficit in fresh content by comparing the overuse of prefabricated scripts with the similarly absurd concept of if every campaign ever made only used the same handful of prefabricated maps.

I counted and the game has 293 AI scripts by default. Though many of them are initially empty, and around 40 are explicitly non-combat ones (say, the Share Vision and AI {do action X} Here bunches).

Alright, I looked and 140 is more like it in my case, though there are 3 more missions to go and two of them are to be macro. I guess it's par for the course for a project that includes 3 full "acts", like Alternate or UEDAIP.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 19 2022, 8:05 am by IlyaSnopchenko.

All of his maps are very nice, especially Nemesis. However, as far as sheer landscaping goes, Andrea plays in a league of his own. This was already hinted at when he used Staredit, even more so now with Scmdraft.

The tileset index was indeed the main reason for which I started using SCMDraft2, however I haven't abandoned StarEdit (CoK was entirely finished and functional when I decided to postpone its release to embellish the maps with SCMDraft2), and not just because I've been using it for so many years: under some aspects, StarEdit is more practical and quicker, as opposed to SCMDraft2 which sometimes feels like using a crane to lift a pencil (which is understandable considering the plethora of powerful functions available). Placing units is faster and easier in StarEdit, and you can always freely scroll the map window with the cursor keys, because it gets priority as long as the mouse pointer is over it, whereas in SCMDraft2 you need to click on the map window in order to activate it. Furthermore, StarEdit actually has at least two overlooked features that are missing in SCMDraft2: it gives the the length of audio files, and it warns you when you delete a location which is used in your triggers. As far as I am concerned, I will keep using both editors: StarEdit for the basic layout and triggers, and SCMDraft2 for everything StarEdit can't do. Kind of two different golf clubs.

Zincoshine,

"The Restoration of Aiur"

I don't see download link, however I sent you this campaign with 3 missions.


Ps. please, check new my link with custom campaigns and read the text file with info - https://disk.yandex.ru/d/kQtaobNfDorQAw
Pss. let me know when you will load this rar file, I'll delete the link.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 25 2022, 3:19 pm by C(a)HeK.

Hmmm I'm confused now. You mentioned a campaign called "the restoration of aiur" but the rar file does not contain a campaign with this name.

Aside from that lets see what we have here....

- alliance chronicles I already have under its french name "chroniques d'alliance"
- warmachines is not on my index, I'll add it soon. Thanks for finding it
- CC2000 is actually not a campaign, just a movie showing all of the broken promises for 2000.
- Director's cut is already on the index and archived. It's real name is not known. It is the campaign all the way at the bottom of the English language section. It's extremely bad.
- EDAST is already on the index and archived
- Echoes is already on the index and archived
- Emperor's path is already on the index and archived
- fotg is just a unpacked version of fall of the gods
- iron wolves does not appear to be on my index. I'll archive this soon. Thanks for finding it.
- project merge is part of lost worlds, so its already on my index
- star adairis is already on the index and the archive
- the eternal flame and solid are both on the index and the archive
- The legend original is on the index but NOT the archive. Thanks to your find I can now archive the files for this and move this from the missing files section to the English language section
- brood war aftermath is already on the index and the archive.
- Zerg is Zerg expansion and I already have it on the listing and archive.

In addition to this Luis Caldera has found another campaign for me. I guess it is time to do an update soon...

edit: the warmachines is just part of CIS which is already on the archive and listing

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jul 29 2022, 6:59 pm by Zincoshine.

restoration of aiur - https://disk.yandex.ru/d/fumuY_pOkZIvUg

Latest changes:
- Iron wolves has been added to the archive and the listing in the English language section. I will eventually QA this.
- Psionic yell has been added to the archive and the listing in the English language section. However, I'm not QAing it.
- The legend original has been archived and the relevant entry in the listing has been updated and moved from the missing files section to the English language section. However, I'm not QAing it.
- The restoration of Aiur has been archived and the relevant entry in the listing has been updated and moved from the missing files section to the English language section. I will eventually QA it.

The page of SC:Aftermath by QED is encrypted.

It looks fine to me, can you show me the URL of the link to the download?

I see I was using https://mega.nz/folder/8BUGTDaT and it rejects me.
The working url is https://mega.nz/folder/8BUGTDaT#YOQPM7WC-OTLyIC8wxppvA.
These characters disappear for some reason in my local file.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jul 31 2022, 7:46 am by Finally91.

Yeah the stuff after the # is the key.

It look like Omen is working on another campaign.

I've added it to the listing now. I've decided to delay archiving until after this community is done giving feedback and Giacomo responds to that feedback.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 14 2022, 6:49 am by Zincoshine.

Found some campaigns from Chinese forum.
Tao Qingxian(陶晴贤)'s campaigns(English): https://mega.nz/folder/nzwjSBTJ#y9z3pw2l1QMF08rbjv32Hw
Solomen's sorrow(Chinese, author unknown): https://mega.nz/folder/OmQ0SIDA#eKGW7AfEY-xKJvZqpGK8yQ
Not sure for their accurate publish date, but definitely before 2014.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 3 2022, 10:19 am by Finally91. Reason: add detail

all but one of these campaigns were made during 2006 and 2007 by the way. the last one was made in 2014

edit: Zeratul is misspelled Zelatul. oh dear god...

edit2: and OF COURSE some of these maps are stolen from other campaigns.

edit3: Text Message("No more dialogue, if you want to read what we talk about, you can see MICROSOFE WORD. Sorry, English is my weakness. Forgive me, my friend.", 15000);

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Sep 3 2022, 12:54 pm by Zincoshine.

Zincoshine,

Ilya posted 1 act WODF, check it.