Starcraft reboot ideas discussion thread

[Mislagnissa]

^- that actually sounds pretty dope.

Really? Thank you. This pitch is being composed on the fly so I was not expecting to produce anything above average. It is supposed to be an example campaign more than anything else, not the entire narrative universe.

In terms of structure I imagine the campaign as being three concurrent, not linear, campaigns from the three races' respective POV. The terran campaign centers on the New Texas Colonial Militia and Epsilon Squadron with the Shadow Hunters as allies, with the Zerg Swarm and Protoss Empire as the antagonists. The protoss campaign centers on the 34th Fleet of the Koprulu Expedition, which is the most political of the campaigns as the leadership argues over philosophy and morality while fighting terrans, zerg and dark templar. The zerg campaign delves into the psychology and culture of the zerg as the broods reminisce over past victories, failures, creations, and wax poetic about the nature of life, the universe and everything.

[ragnarok]

Anyway...

At the same time the terran/nerazim alliance is fighting off the protoss, the zerg are having their own problems. The system has two broods assigned to it to seek and harvest psychics. These broods are ancient beings who have served the swarm for millennia and consumed many species (in contrast to the typical depiction of PCs being literally newborns). Their names given by the Confederacy are Narfi and Vaali, after the sons of Loki in Norse myth.

Vaali falls for an experiment performed by Project Bellwood (managed by Nova Squadron and Cerberus Program), which attempts to enslave the brood but loses control. Instead, the brood goes berserk and no longer recognizes the swarm's authority. Now it wants to replicate and conquer the universe. Narfi must now exterminate the rogue Vaali before it can build its own swarm.

Meanwhile, a local detachment of Epsilon Squadron (scientific border patrol and armored corps) lead by Doctor Jessica Wong is monitoring the protoss communications and uses EMP to jam the empire's fleet and deploy mechs to delay them long enough for the New Texas Militia and their nerazim allies to save the planet from annihilation.

Hmmm, the nerazim alliance with the terrans, I'll look into that as a idea for my fic in the future

[Mislagnissa]

Hmmm, the nerazim alliance with the terrans, I'll look into that as a idea for my fic in the future

Both the nerazim and terrans suffered genocide at the hands of the khalai, so it makes sense that some nerazim might project on the terrans and help them when the same danger rears its head. Their shtick is that they are more human in their thought processes than the khalai.

That sort of plot does not work in canon, because the first contact war is reduced to a footnote.

[Mislagnissa]

So anyway, I have three campaigns for each race's POV in New Texas.

In the terran campaign, Magistrate Ramirez is dealing with zerg infestation planet-side and Doctor Wong is dealing with protoss invasion in interplanetary space. Prelate Khoros appears and offers assistance, since the nerazim empathize with the terrans due to their similarities in thought and their shared victimization by the Protoss Empire. The nerazim have some technical differences from the empire forces because they rely largely on guerilla tactics and mobile buildings similar to terrans: warp prisms instead of pylons, phase cannons from the SC2 beta, and even a mobile battle-ready nexus similar to the Necron monolith in Dawn of War.

In the protoss campaign, the 34th fleet of the Koprulu expedition is beginning to strain under the weight of the schism between the purifiers and sympathizers. Judicator Sahaqal is a member of the purifier faction and advocates glassing the planets of New Texas. Executor Raziel is a member of the sympathizer faction and advocates fighting the zerg conventionally. Raziel attempts to make overtures to the terrans, but this fails because the terrans justifiably have no reason to trust them after the widely publicized glassing of Chau Sara. When the nerazim show up, the protoss are shocked but Raziel refuses to commit genocide so Sahaqal assumes control of the fleet. Glassing the colonies of New Texas with their current fleet would take far too long to be effective in the time they have, so Sahaqal is forced to make do with conventional tactics.

In the zerg campaign, the broods Narfi and Vaali are overseeing the invasion of New Texas. They have intercepted protoss communications and learned that the expedition has called off the genocide and planned to wage war conventionally so as not to destroy the terrans. This is a boon to the zerg, but also means they are dependent on a terran presence: if their hive worlds do not have terrans, then the protoss will glass them; although that assumes they can defeat the terrans at all since their current forces were allotted based on logistical calculations. The brood mother Fjori is responsible for spawning their forces, but they will need months in order to collect the resources and spawn the warriors they need for a prolonged conflict. Meanwhile, Nova Squadron uses psi emitters to lure Vaali to their hidden bases and track down the cerebrate to its creche. They attempt to enslave it using drugs and ghosts, and the attempt is seemingly successful. Vaali turns against Narfi and attempts to take over their hives, but suddenly turns against the terran slavers. Unfortunately, Vaali has turned rogue and now intends to form its own swarm to claim the sector. Without the Overmind to regulate it, it is now free to replicate without any restrictions and spawns a half-dozen new broods that spread across the system.

[ragnarok]

Both the nerazim and terrans suffered genocide at the hands of the khalai, so it makes sense that some nerazim might project on the terrans and help them when the same danger rears its head. Their shtick is that they are more human in their thought processes than the khalai.

That sort of plot does not work in canon, because the first contact war is reduced to a footnote.

The whole genocide at the hands of the Khalai would hardly be anything new. Even in Shadow of the Xel'Naga it was said the Khalai made virtually no attempt to understand the Dark Templar. And back then it certainly gave grounds for Ulrezaj to act the way he did.

[Mislagnissa]

The whole genocide at the hands of the Khalai would hardly be anything new. Even in Shadow of the Xel'Naga it was said the Khalai made virtually no attempt to understand the Dark Templar. And back then it certainly gave grounds for Ulrezaj to act the way he did.

Ulrezaj is honestly my favorite villain, since from his perspective he is a Space Jew/Romani fighting the Space Nazis.

Speaking of canon, I finally realized a way that the plot of Episode 1 could be salvaged. The main problem I have with Episode 1 is that Arcturus' plan makes no sense at the time: overthrowing the Confederacy while in the midst of an invasion by two genocidal alien races is blatantly suicidal. But nothing bad comes of this because the zerg and protoss withdraw due to writer fiat, and there is no way Arcturus' could know that would happen. Fixing it is actually surprisingly simple: ignore the canon events following and instead have the war keep going. What are the consequences of Arcturus' success? Well, since he is responsible for fomenting rebellion and destroying government infrastructure the terrans are now unable to hold a united front against the zerg and protoss. The Confederacy has not collapsed because it was too big for that and now answers to a military junta (since the government killed on Tarsonis was the civilian government, and the military leadership is decentralized precisely to prevent being decapitated like that). Furthermore, the zerg captured the Ghost Academy on Tarsonis and can now incorporate those genes into their new experiments. Great job, Arcturus!

[ragnarok]

Ulrezaj is honestly my favorite villain, since from his perspective he is a Space Jew/Romani fighting the Space Nazis.

His actions were fine in Enslavers. Shame they didn't explain more on his actions in the DT Saga

[Mislagnissa]

I would not be adverse to campaigns from Ulrezaj's perspective. He would work great in the expanded First Contact War narrative I dreamed up to replace canon. His actions neatly justify conflict with the terrans (he allies with pirates), the protoss (he wants to kill the khala protoss), and the zerg (he wants to enslave zerg as weapons).

So Ulrezaj uses dark crystals or whatever to enslave one or more zerg broods, which aggravates the Overmind and prompts the swarm to send its bounty hunters after him. He allies with pirates like Schezar to acquire stolen EMP weapons, which provokes the Confederacy to send their police forces after him. He uses his enslaved zerg and EMP weapons against the Koprulu expedition, which the protoss have to defend against possibly by making an alliance of convenience with the Confederate police forces.

Let me think about the characters some more...

Ulrezaj is a nerazim librarian who was expelled from the library for misusing the knowledge and currently seeks to destroy the Protoss Empire for exiling his people. He has allied with a sect of the Tal'darim and used his secret knowledge to become a cult leader, naming his sect/cult the Xava'kai (aka Fist of Ulrezaj, Fist of the Benefactor, etc).

Schezar is a terran pirate who was contacted by Ulrezaj and promised wealth and power in exchange for helping the tal'darim acquire EMP weapons and zerg test subjects. Schezar is craven and if things get too hot for him, then he and his scavengers will abandon Ulrezaj.

"Malcolm" (the name comes from a fanfic I read, coined by Schezar) is a cerebrate that Ulrezaj enslaved using stolen khaydarin crystals, psychotropic drugs and rogue ghosts provided by Schezar. Malcolm maintains a limited connection to the swarm which allows the zerg to track its whereabouts and get a rough understanding of its mental state.

Doctor Krauser (from the Enslavers 0: Tales of Halcyon custom campaign) is a rogue ghost who gives orders to Malcolm. His origins are not really known, but apparently the Ghost Program is either less successful than advertised or similar programs are conducted by other parties.

Mojo is a protoss "praetor" (whatever that means in this context since the lore lacks consistent ranks) who was raided for crystals, defeated and imprisoned by Schezar when his forces pursued. It is not clear why Ulrezaj is keeping him and his men around, but apparently unethical experiments are involved.

That's all I have for now...

[ragnarok]

I would not be adverse to campaigns from Ulrezaj's perspective. He would work great in the expanded First Contact War narrative I dreamed up to replace canon. His actions neatly justify conflict with the terrans (he allies with pirates), the protoss (he wants to kill the khala protoss), and the zerg (he wants to enslave zerg as weapons).

So Ulrezaj uses dark crystals or whatever to enslave one or more zerg broods, which aggravates the Overmind and prompts the swarm to send its bounty hunters after him. He allies with pirates like Schezar to acquire stolen EMP weapons, which provokes the Confederacy to send their police forces after him. He uses his enslaved zerg and EMP weapons against the Koprulu expedition, which the protoss have to defend against possibly by making an alliance of convenience with the Confederate police forces.

Let me think about the characters some more...

Ulrezaj is a nerazim librarian who was expelled from the library for misusing the knowledge and currently seeks to destroy the Protoss Empire for exiling his people. He has allied with a sect of the Tal'darim and used his secret knowledge to become a cult leader, naming his sect/cult the Xava'kai (aka Fist of Ulrezaj, Fist of the Benefactor, etc).

Schezar is a terran pirate who was contacted by Ulrezaj and promised wealth and power in exchange for helping the tal'darim acquire EMP weapons and zerg test subjects. Schezar is craven and if things get too hot for him, then he and his scavengers will abandon Ulrezaj.

"Malcolm" (the name comes from a fanfic I read, coined by Schezar) is a cerebrate that Ulrezaj enslaved using stolen khaydarin crystals, psychotropic drugs and rogue ghosts provided by Schezar. Malcolm maintains a limited connection to the swarm which allows the zerg to track its whereabouts and get a rough understanding of its mental state.

Doctor Krauser (from the Enslavers 0: Tales of Halcyon custom campaign) is a rogue ghost who gives orders to Malcolm. His origins are not really known, but apparently the Ghost Program is either less successful than advertised or similar programs are conducted by other parties.

Mojo is a protoss "praetor" (whatever that means in this context since the lore lacks consistent ranks) who was raided for crystals, defeated and imprisoned by Schezar when his forces pursued. It is not clear why Ulrezaj is keeping him and his men around, but apparently unethical experiments are involved.

That's all I have for now...

I had hoped those unethical experiments could have been explained in detail, especially regarding the vat creatures from the DT saga

[Mislagnissa]

Back to my original campaign idea...

To provide better context for the player, I would use a Risk-style map to represent the New Texas system.

• The Magistrate begins with militia bases across the inner, habitable planets.
• The zerg already seeded these planets with spores years earlier and recently received reinforcements.
• Epsilon Squadron begins with science and military bases across the outer rim of the system.
• The Koprulu Expedition travels through this region to set up their nexus points.
• The Shadow Hunters have already set up warp points at strategic locations across the system.
• Project Bellwood has secret outposts in a number of obscure locations.

Each faction is driven by their motives, provided in the campaign as objectives:

• The Magistrate’s, Epsilon’s and Shadow Hunters’ overarching objective is to survive against the alien invasion. They are fighting a primarily defensive battle, but over the course of this conflict they may have to assault enemy bases to cripple their offense.
• The Zerg’s overarching objective is to harvest human psychics and sent their genetic material to the Overmind for cloning elsewhere. Fulfilling that objective necessarily requires assaulting the terrans and resisting protoss assaults.
• The Koprulu Expedition’s overarching objective is to purge the zerg from the system. This necessarily requires overcoming the obstacles placed by Epsilon Squadron, whose EMP weaponry impedes protoss communications and technology.

Multi-choice missions appeared in Enslavers and Retribution, so I am going to use the same idea:

• Epsilon Squadron receives a distress call from one of the protoss nexus points. The former executor and his loyalists were imprisoned for refusing to assist in the judicator’s plan to exterminate the terrans. If Epsilon frees them, they will help the terrans against the invading protoss and zerg. However, Epsilon may take advantage of this backdoor to deal grievous harm to the fleet’s operations.
• The zerg detect psychic emissions from different points in the system. During investigation, this turns out to be a trap laid by Project Bellwood. They have captured Vaali and somehow taken control of his brood. Narfi must assault one of their bases and destroy the apparatus enslaving Vaali.
• The Shadow Hunters have been spying on the terrans and zerg for some time. One of their scientists claims to have a working model of the zerg hive mind. If they target one of the zerg’s “brain bugs,” this will massively decrease their collective intelligence and coordination, making them easy pickings. Alternately, they could capture the brain bug and subject it to a series of experiments and interrogations to get a better understanding of the zerg threat.
• One of the rogue hive clusters has contacted Narfi with an offer to return to the fold in exchange for protection from nearby enemy forces. Narfi has the choice of either rescuing them, in which case they will be forcibly re-inducted into the swarm, or allowing them to be destroyed and then attacking the exhausted enemy forces.