StarCraft: Reality blog thread

[Sheliek]

Just a thread for me to post updates and personal thoughts while I slowly but surely whittle away at my custom campaign project.

Also, this will be the first place I post demos, even SC2Mapster won't get them before you guys do. This place will always be my StarCraft home.

Anyway, so that this isn't a waste of space, a note on titles:

I've been hard-pressed to come up with a name for this project for the last few months (once I learned Gradius had dibs on StarCraft: Unity for his own project I had to come up with my own different name; that was my original choice before I learned he announced it first). I'd been stuck on what to call it for a while, but then I decided on a call-back to Rebel Yell for the first episode of the project, which follows Raynor's Raiders. I was listening to a weird folk album by a group (formed by black metallers who want to apply that mood to folk-rock) called Man's Gin. The album was titled Rebellion Hymns, and I thought that'd be a nice title for a campaign about a bunch of free-lance mercenaries and rebel malcontents.

(Incidentally, I only just realized this now, but if I had an unlimited budget, there's a song on that album that I've always thought evoked the character of Stukov.)

After falling in love with that name, I've decided that all the episodes will be named after albums. That brings us to StarCraft: Reality, named after an often-overlooked latter-era David Bowie album.

Also, here's a quick summary of the first three missions, in which no major plot developments occur. I will release these as a demo when they are done:

Raynor 1 - Greenhorn:
Tilesets: Urban, Wasteland
New characters: Attila Kovacs, Jim Raynor, Matt Horner
New units: Marine, Support Medic, Vulture
Main objectives: Meet Jim Raynor; Reach Raynor's Base
Bonus objectives: Rout the local gang (Kovacs loyalty)
Result: New recruits arrive at Raynor's Raiders outpost.

Raynor 2 - Cat's in the Bag:
Tilesets: Wasteland, Terran installation
New characters: Martin Haynes, Oswald Smidge, Mirabel Lafayette
New units: SCV, Firebat
Main objectives: Penetrate the Ys fortress; Rescue the Oswald Smidge
Bonus objectives: Destroy docked battlecruiser (Haynes loyalty); rescue civilian slaves (Kovacs loyalty); access Ys archives (Horner loyalty)
Result: Ys mercenaries defeated; Smidge rescued.

Raynor 3 - ... And the Bag's in the River:
Tilesets: Wasteland, Terran installation
New Characters: Keith Jarbo, Nova Terra
New units: Deimos Wraith, Bulwark Dropship
Main objectives: Defend until the Hyperion is repaired
Bonus objectives: Assassinate Dominion phantoms (Haynes loyalty); rescue Raiders prisoners (Horner loyalty); capture pirate factory (Jarbo loyalty)
Result: Smidge acquired by Dominion special forces; Raiders retreat to Shiloh.

Each campaign will have a simple gimmick, and crew loyalty is this one's. As you gain loyalty, upgrades, side missions and new units are unlocked. I actually like that concept so much that I might just apply to each episode, with twists to suit the specific faction you play as.

[Sheliek]

Haven't gotten around to the sketches of the Hyperion maps yet; had a busy holiday weekend of gardening and partying with friends and family. I'm still very hungover, so instead of doing any hard effort today, I've just decided to theorycraft some campaign mechanics for future episodes. I've got a nice set of ideas for Episode II, starring the Forged (or as you might know them: the Fist of Ulrezaj):

World Map and Fealty: much of this campaign will take place on the southern continent of Aiur, and the control of Aiur is split between the Forged (purple), the Feral Zerg (red, white and brown), and Khalai Survivors (colour yet to be decided, probably Cobalt or Tan). Between missions, you will be able to decide which territories to invade and conquer, as well as which faction you'd like to focus your efforts on. Main story missions will be marked with green indicators, and side missions will be marked with yellow indicators. You can just speed through the green missions and finish the campaign's main story in about 5 missions, but you won't have all the units, structures and upgrades that doing side missions and increasing your rank (Fealty) with the Forged will give you.

If I wanted to be adventurous, I'd implement it in a similar way Emperor: Battle For Dune did its world map: all three sides get one turn to attack the territory of another faction; first Forged, then Feral Zerg, then Khalai Survivors, back to Forged, repeat. At the very least though, I'll just have scripted territory changes for the AI factions, making the World Map interface at least a more visually interesting version of the Wings of Liberty choose-your-own-adventure mission choice screen.

[Sheliek]

Made some inroads with the data editor today. Made a few simple units (a marine variant and a flame tank). Nothing fancy, but baby-steps. I figure if I can at least finish the 7 factions that will appear in Episode I, then and only then do I deserve to do the fun parts (mapping and dialogue).

[Sheliek]

Lookie what I just managed to do.

sc2 colors.png

[Sheliek]

In the interest of saving time, I will only add factions to the mod as they are needed in the campaign (speaking of, almost done with Raynor's Raiders before I start testing). The factions present in Episode I are:

1. Raynor's Raiders
2. Fringe Pirates
3. Dominion of Man
4. Shadow Corps
5. Shadowguard
6. Overqueen Brood
7. Feral Zerg
8. Kel-Morian Combine
9. The Forged

[Sheliek]

Essence and Form are both philosophical concepts with distinct meanings, and I might just use those definitions and apply them to the Zerg and Protoss instead of SC2's... odd interpretations of the words. I'm still not entirely sure what Purity of Form is according to SC2 to be honest.

[Turalyon]

I'm still not entirely sure what Purity of Form is according to SC2 to be honest.

It's apparently a term to describe a race with great psionic potential. How it relates to the actual meaning of the words "purity" or "form" is beyond me. One wonders why they'd bother using the abstruse term of "form" at all when they could easily replace it with "psionics" and have it make some inherent sense at the least.

Purity of essence being described as a race with great capability of change makes even less sense since the word "purity" often denotes something that doesn't change or unadulterable and "essence" often denotes a natural/intrinsic/innate quality. Like with the word "form" should've being replaced with the word "psionics", why the word "essence" isn't instead "change" in the first place since that's what it really means, makes no sense at all.

[Mislagnissa]

It's apparently a term to describe a race with great psionic potential. How it relates to the actual meaning of the words "purity" or "form" is beyond me. One wonders why they'd bother using the abstruse term of "form" at all when they could easily replace it with "psionics" and have it make some inherent sense at the least.

Purity of essence being described as a race with great capability of change makes even less sense since the word "purity" often denotes something that doesn't change or unadulterable and "essence" often denotes a natural/intrinsic/innate quality. Like with the word "form" should've being replaced with the word "psionics", why the word "essence" isn't instead "change" in the first place since that's what it really means, makes no sense at all.

SC2 actually confused the purity, an end goal, with the qualities the xel'naga sought in the protoss and zerg in the first place as a basis for that purity.

The protoss were originally defined by their physical power and their telepathic coordination. The zerg were originally defined by their genetic versatility and psychic sensitivity. The xel'naga tried to foster this potential into their end goal of purity of form (physical perfection) or purity of essence (spiritual perfection). These were actually arbitrary qualities the xel'naga pursued as a vanity project to advanced their own knowledge, and were not complementary or metaphysical in any way. During the writing of the game script, Metzen shoehorned in some religious mumbo jumbo that completely misunderstood the backstory.

[Gradius]

I don’t have any projects called StarCraft Unity.

[Turalyon]

SC2 actually confused the purity, an end goal, with the qualities the xel'naga sought in the protoss and zerg in the first place as a basis for that purity.

Ya, so much for retcons simplifying things.