Have you considered adding voice acting? Surely the great work needs to come with voice acting I'm sure there is plenty of us who would be happy to help with that.

That would take forever and a day, and besides, would require dozens of different characters voiced, many of whom are female which poses an extra challenge. Even through the use of TTS systems, it would still be a monumental undertaking. Bear in mind that the canon characters would also have to be re-voiced down to the units, because all of them have non-canon speech, and I could not afford to have their unit responses and the in-game transmissions to be made in different voice, could I?

Anyway, I resolved that I would not predicate the campaign's release on this, but would look out for the possibility to add something later as patches/updates.

Video walkthrough of the penultimate map, by Alex.
http://www.staredit.net/378523/
Actually it's the very last mission of the campaign but there is one more that needs to be created. Then, it will be release time!

The final map (3-6) is started and almost half of the terrain was done in one day (Dec. 25th). Hopefully I'll be able to continue soon.

The (last) map is progressing, though still mostly in the terrain phase;
Auras now finally have visual effects, praise Neiv;
Optimizations are being added along the way;

All in all we're looking good.

The last map is mostly finished, but I'm having problems with the AI Scripts for a change. Will be solving it shortly, hopefully.

The script issue has been solved, the last map is in the "polishing" phase. Then, on to optimizing and retesting the whole campaign, and it'll be release time.

A new system has been added: pointing your allied AI to their attack destination with a button in a special building. Was pretty fun to make although it isn't easily scalable and requires some expenditure of locations (as well as large amounts of iscript code).

Test of the last map by Alex is here!
http://www.staredit.net/378597/
There's some explanaiton about that mission in the thread.
Release is imminent.

Alright... I'm posting updates almost daily in Discord, but for those who are not paying attention there.

The testing / polishing phase is in full swing. I've spent days working on the most complex and trigger-heavy map of the campaign, 2-1, and hopefully I've finished editing it, unless someone finds a bug. But I've solved the long-standing issue with some effect timers in iscript being wonky, which has been plaguing the map for an effin' YEAR, give or take. Besides, my attempts at "optimizing" iscript in early January left some mechanics broken for reasons I was unable to understand, so it took... quite a bit of time to fix everything.

I'm continuing and hopefully will finish soon. The two most complex maps are back to back - 2-1 and 2-2 - but I've already taken the (similarly lengthy) look at 2-2, although one final retest wouldn't hurt.

I really want this to turn out as awesome as I can. Of course not "best campaign ever" awesome, but hopefully as close to that as possible.

Man... Humility is not my strong suit, innit.

Map 2-1, "Forging the Sword", has been submitted to this year's Maporino contest. It has not been showcased yet but it can be downloaded.
See the Jayburrito discord: https://discord.gg/RHrpQKaq

Speaking of the campaign itself, I'm still testing / editing and I'm feeling like it's taking forever.

Map 2-1 was showcased on Maporino with good results (as in, Jayborino has finished it, unlike the submissions from the previous two years).

I'm trying up the loose ends and very much hoping for release sometime later in May (this year, of course )

I've also returned to the process of translating maps in arc 2, now working on 2-2.

I've almost finished a marathon of testing, going through all the maps to weed out the remaining issues and maybe optimize things. As always, it led to another bunch of oh so important minor features added, which slowed me down a lot. But it's almost over - one phase of the last map remains to be checked.

I'll also need to finish one of the supplementary maps, and add one more little bit to the campaign, and then it's release time. Took me long enough.

Today I've finished triggerwork for the last of the supplementary maps. So I guess the release is within sight after all.

Give me a day or two to finish testing that supplement, and then...

I'm honestly jealous of users who are good at making remastered mode (draft). I've also tried creating a remaster mode (draft), but I've given up several times because the way to make it is so complicated. However, I decided not to give up after seeing the users completing the gear.

I hope you can complete the wonderful campaign. And I'll also find a way to make a remaster (draft). Always cheer up and fighting.

Hello and thank you for the kind words. I've been translating maps for the built-in Russian localisation like crazy these last few days. I set July 9th, the 5th anniversary of starting work on the campaign, as the absolute deadline for the release (after having blown every date I've set for myself: June 15th, 23rd, 30th...)

Speaking of remastered mods, some things are easier and more straightforward than in classic, but working with graphics is a pain. The basics are the same and overall it's not any harder than with the classic. I know I won't return to the classic except maybe for re-releasing my old campaigns.

Don't be discouraged man, starting is the hardest part, but sometimes good things take time.
I understand that it's annoying not to have a guide or tutorial as such, but I've already suffered twice as much considering that I don't fully speak English.
Luckily people like Illya exist and share knowledge.

All the translations (of both the campaign and the supplementary maps) have been finished and played through, so that minor typos and formatting errors would be found. Interestingly enough I found one non-cosmetic issue in the process. :-)

I'll do some more refinements today and tomorrow, and then... you got it. I'm being consumed by the mighty trepidation about releasing it after all these months and years of work. But I will do it.

And the project goes live today (July 9th, 2023). See first post for details and download links.

What a saga. Congrats on the release!