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Starcraft was a massive hit -- no one needs to be told that. It redefined strategy gaming and set new standards across the genre. Beyond just a gripping story and revolutionary gameplay, it also came with a powerful mapmaking tool: StarEdit. StarEdit was a tool that allowed one to create new Starcraft maps, briefings and all. Because this was back in a time where game companies just gave you the tools to make your own content. StarEdit had powerful capabilities but, more than that, it was very simple to use. Pretty much everyone knows what this led to: the Use Map Settings goldmine. Maps that turned Starcraft into genres that we now call 'tower defence', 'MOBA', etc. Sunken D, Evolves, Cat and Mouse, Defend the Temple, Life of a Civilian, Zone Control, Aeon of Strife, Helm's Deep, Pokemon RPG, [insert pop culture reference here] Madness, a hundred different intricate Lord of the Rings simulations... What I think people are less aware of, however, is the custom campaign community. It was where I spent most of my time with Starcraft. A lot of people put in a fair amount of time and effort to putting their own spin on the Starcraft universe. I remember that the first custom campaign I played was called Redemption, and I think it was the first one hosted by the now-defunct website Starcraft Legacy. It was pretty simple: Jim Raynor sets out to rescue and de-infest Sarah Kerrigan, and does so. You can't find it now, though. It vanished off the Internet at some point. A lot of these projects did. While the news of Starcraft: Remastered led to something of a custom campaign preservation project, many of the custom campaigns, especially ones that were uploaded prior to the release of Brood War at the end of 1998, have been lost to history. That history continues to crumble away, piece by piece. CampaignCreations.org was the premiere site for high quality custom campaigns. It has been offline and undergoing maintenance that'd take "days or weeks" since June 2023, so, I don't really anticipate it returning. I'm pretty sure I played every single Starcraft campaign they had there, and most of the Warcraft 3 ones. Even the really anime-inspired ones by RazorclawX. I was thinking about these campaigns around the start of this year. It's a shame that so much work and effort and exuberance has been lost to the slow decay of old Internet infrastructure. Some of them were really good fan efforts, and still hold up today, and represent interesting attempts to bridge story and gameplay and push the Starcraft engine to its limits. Others are, well, really earnest attempts to tell stories written by amateurs with more heart than skill. I think that's more admirable than the ones that are just high quality, really. I thought it'd be interesting to go back and replay the ones that're particularly bright in my memory, and also to just talk about what made them so memorable. Below, I've detailed a brief timeline of the Starcraft custom campaign community, and it covers the ones I'll talk about in a bit more detail. I'm not an expert, nor was I involved with any of these teams, but I just spent a lot of time devouring every custom campaign I came across. A thing to remember about these campaigns is that the individual missions could get as big as  TWENTY MEGABYTES in an age where dial-up was standard. It was the time where websites, such as CampaignCreations, stressed the use of download managers such as GetRight when downloading such large files. And that perhaps makes it even more impressive that some of these campaigns had full voice acting and even custom-made rendered videos.A BRIEF TIMELINE OF STARCRAFT CUSTOM CAMPAIGN HISTORY Enslavers (March 1998) The first custom campaign. Included with the release of Starcraft, it is one of the few custom campaigns to feature and utilize a branching mission structure. Overall, however, it isn't very impressive. It's really just a proof of concept by Blizzard to show the audience that you, yes you, could make missions just like this. Or, perhaps, better. Because soon after, there was... Antioch Chronicles - Episode I: Psionic Storm (June 1998) The first episode of the Antioch Chronicles, Psionic Storm, was one of the first fan-made campaigns released for Starcraft and, shockingly, one of the best. Not only was it remarkably good on the mapping and writing side of things, as well as fully voice acted (and decently, at that!) but it was the first campaign to include mods. Specifically, it included new response lines for the custom hero characters and modified portraits for those same heroes (even if only a tint shift.) Psionic Storm is even more notable in light of the fact it came out before (and, so, overshadowed completely)... StarCraft: Insurrection (July 1998) and StarCraft: Retribution (November 1998) I'm grouping these together because they're very similar. Prior to Brood War, there were two authorized add-ons for Starcraft -- Insurrection and Retribution -- that were made by third parties and released in stores. Neither was well-received by critics or fans, but time has been kinder to Insurrection than it has been to Retribution. Blizzard does not consider either of them canon. StarCraft: Brood War (December 1998) It didn't help those two releases that Brood War came out just a short time later, either! For mapmakers, the Starcraft expansion was a godsend. It included three new tilesets (desert, ice, twilight), three new critters, six new units (some with new abilities), a bunch of new heroes, and that's not even detailing the remarkable story that left the heroes beaten and broken and Sarah Kerrigan ascendant. That is to say, the perfect spot to ask yourself, well, how does the story continue from here? Emerald StarEdit (1999 approx.) At some point around this time, StarEdit got broken wide open with the Emerald Patch and a powerful tool was put into overdrive. Many things that had been impossible were now possible -- easily possible. It's difficult to sum up just how much of a paradigm shift it was for mapmakers: buildings could be placed anywhere, terrain no longer had to be isometric, 'special' units like Zerg eggs, installation security traps, and resource chunks could be placed into maps, as could 'hidden' characters like Mengsk, DuGalle, and Aldaris. Antioch Chronicles - Episode II: Negative Suns (June 1999) The second part of the Antioch Chronicles story. Bigger, better, and more ambitious while retaining the polish and presentation of the first entry, Negative Suns is the ideal of what a sequel should be. A more character-focused story than the first entry, Negative Suns picks up precisely where Psionic Storm left off, with a mysterious attack leading to an uncomfortable revelation concerning hero Charlie Mox. Personally, I think Negative Suns is perhaps the best custom campaign created. It also ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, Episode III: Thoughts in Chaos never eventuated and the creator officially announced it as cancelled in 2001. That said, in 2018, a dedicated team of fans put together their own take on what Thoughts in Chaos might've been (albeit in the Starcraft 2 engine) and with the blessing of the original creators at that who even returned to perform their voice roles. While the original Antioch 3 script was released, I'm unsure how much of the SC2 release matches it. Perhaps I'll play through it. Legacy of the Confederation - Episode 1: Past Purposes (July 1999) Legacy of the Confederation is, along with Antioch Chronicles, probably the most well-known custom campaign series. What separates them is that Legacy of the Confederation was envisioned as much more of a cinematic epic. Specifically, one that would tell the story of how Earth would involve itself in the Koprulu Sector. Which Blizzard themselves detailed with Brood War's United Earth Directorate. Past Purposes does not remotely fit with the Blizzard canon, primarily because it was in production prior to the release of Brood War. In that sense, it's an alternate timeline derived from what little was known of Earth and the United Powers League from the Starcraft manual. Along with Antioch Chronicles, it was featured in some PC gaming magazines and included on some demo discs and, much like Antioch Chronicles, featured extensive voice acting. What separates it from Antioch is more of a focus on epic storytelling and cinematic gameplay, for better and worse. Interestingly, Past Purposes was reimagined in a more canon-adhering form in 2022, which I only found out about while writing this post. It was released for Starcraft 2 as UED: First Light. I think I'll talk briefly about it, too, because it's always interesting to see second takes on material from the minds behind it. The Bob Levels (1998-1999) Not all campaigns were serious adventures. One creator turned a few random maps into a tongue-in-cheek campaign known as The Bob Levels. The core idea is that, moments before its destruction, the Overmind spawned a Cerebrate known as Bob. Bob promptly decides that he doesn't want to be evil and would rather be cool, and teams up with Jimmy the Cool Terran and Zeratul the Cool Protoss and thwarts everything from cloned heroes, devious civilians, and violent critters. An affectionate parody of Starcraft, Brood War, and the custom campaign scene, The Bob Levels managed an entertainingly goofy sense of humor that never became outright stupid. Some people say it works really well with the Cartooned graphics pack released by Blizzard for the Remastered client. While the creator never intended for The Bob Levels to be a campaign, it ended up with two sequels in 1999, the fittingly named The Bob Levels 2 and The Bob Levels 3. As with Antioch Chronicles and Legacy of the Confederation, they just took what the original had done but did it bigger and better. Notably, the third and final campaign featured a final mission where you, the player, could decide which faction wins. They also released a special edition trilogy release in the year 2000 that generally improved things further, but also gave Bob a cool pair of sunglasses. Legacy of the Confederation - Episode 2: Dawn of Darkness (November 1999) It's a toss-up between this campaign or Antioch 3 for the most anticipated custom campaign of all time, I think. Legacy of the Confederation's second episode continues the LotC alternate timeline as the people of Earth enter the Koprulu Sector and encounter enemies both familiar and unknown. Dawn of Darkness was incomplete for some time, but was finished in late 2004. However, the third and final chapter -- Galaxy of Fire -- never eventuated. Dawn of Darkness featured voice acting, a detailed story, a lengthy campaign, custom music, a new splash screen and UI, rendered cutscenes -- basically, it was big. Additionally, I believe this was the first custom campaign to feature 'new' units. The Shifters (2000) The Shifters is something of a black sheep. While most Starcraft campaigns could be called micro or macro campaigns, The Shifters offers a third option: the cutscene campaign, of which I'm pretty sure it was the first. However, it is also a bit... strange. This is because it was based on an original screenplay by the creator, and it feels like it was hastily rewritten to fit Starcraft's world. Memorable but awkward, I've always felt it was a very heartfelt if deeply peculiar campaign that very obviously does not fit into the Starcraft universe. Broadly speaking, it concerns the idea of humans who volunteer to serve the Zerg Swarm and an Admiral-turned-pirate whom is brought back for one last job. It included custom music and portrait swaps. Legacy of the Confederation: Fallen Angel (May 2001) Essentially a spin-off/side campaign of the Confederation series, Fallen Angel follows an elite squad of ConFed operatives known as The Keepers and delves into the past of their most mysterious member. In many ways, it feels like it exemplifies a lot of trends in late-era custom campaign design: micro-focused gameplay, extremely intricate triggers and scripting, and, unfortunately, bugs. Presumably, Fallen Angel's cast would've played some role in Galaxy of Fire. As with the other Confederation releases, it featured top-notch production values: custom music, new portraits, new units, voice acting, and so on. Warcraft 3 (2002) Included for historical interest. Warcraft 3's WorldEdit program was so much more powerful than StarEdit that I don't think it's any surprise that a lot of the energy behind Starcraft's custom campaigns switched lanes over to Warcraft.  Note the date of this PC Gamer article: August 2007. FAQ Are those dates correct? I hope so! I even downloaded some of the old files and cracked open a few readme.txts to see if they were dated. Some, however, the exact month I was not able to determine. Are these compatible with Starcraft: Remastered? Kind of. From my experimentation, the maps themselves work fine and the campaigns are generally playable. Remastered didn't touch much in the way of the scripting, although I've seen notes that some scripts do not function correctly. However, many custom campaigns included custom .exe files that patched in things like portraits, unit responses, and custom units. These .exe files do not function with Remastered. Additionally, you cannot mod in what they added by creating folders such as 'portrait' or 'sound' because Remastered handles its data differently. So, for the most part, yes -- if you don't mind missing some of the content. However, for campaigns that contained custom units (such as Legacy of the Confederation 2 and Fallen Angel), this means that there might be issues concerning playability. In that case, you may need to play on a pre-Remastered patch. Wait, Starcraft had new custom units? I didn't think that was possible. Because it wasn't, really. My understanding is that a lot of the more extensive modifications of Starcraft were, for a lack of a better term, pretty hacky. New units could not be added/created, but existing ones could be modified although it was a difficult, messy process that involved patching the Starcraft executable. So, when Legacy of the Confederation 2 claims to add two new units, all it's really doing is altering the details of two units in the database. For example, the Zerg Devourer becomes the Confederation Battle Platform. This means that when wanting to add in 'new' units, you had to be pretty sure which units you didn't want to appear in your campaign. That's not to say it was impossible. There were some full-fledged total conversion mods back in the day, and I think people still create projects like that. The Vision of the Future campaign series went very heavy on new and modified units, but my understanding is that campaign series broke and became unplayable well before Remastered was released. What about [insert campaign here]? I've included these ones because I think they're some of the more prominent ones in the history of Starcraft's custom campaign scene, and/or they're ones I still think of fondly to this day. Many campaigns have simply been lost. There are some others I want to revisit, but I'd rather go through these ones first. For example, I'd like to go through Vision of the Future again, in all of its anime crossover glory, but my understanding is that it might not be possible to make functional. Not only would it not be Remastered compatible, my understanding is that it'd broken several patches prior to it. What's a doodad? Starcraft maps are made up of terrain and elevation, but they're also made up of doodads. Doodads are trees, rocks, statues, signs, and other little bits and pieces that add character and a sense of place to the map. Proper artistic usage of doodads could do a lot to make a map feel like an actual place. Some campaigns even went so far as to modify doodads to enhance their missions. Doodads were not just decorative though, and also included elements like bridges and ramps. What's a trigger? A trigger is the scripting for a Starcraft map. Basically, it's a command that fires in response to a condition and could affect any individual player or all of them. Triggers had a wealth of conditions and a similar number of effects that allowed for a lot of flexibility when designing missions. People got really, really clever with scripting these. What's a critter? A neutral wildlife unit that wanders the map aimlessly. Each tileset had a different critter -- for example, the jungle tileset (typically representing Aiur) had a feline bengalaas. If clicked on multiple times, critters would explode. What do you mean by a well-designed map or mission? It's easiest to outline what a badly designed map is. Maximum size, lots of unused space, and terrain work that feels simplistic or artificial. An inability to work with the isometric perspective in an artistic sense. Repetitive doodads (or no doodads), oddly placed resource fields, and so on. Basically, the map looks ugly and/or plain. A badly designed mission is more difficult to pin down, but perhaps the easiest ways to sum it up would involve looking at difficulty, objectives, and agency. Is it the kind of mission that might drive the player to use cheat codes? Bad design. Is it a simple 'build up and destroy' macro mission like a melee map? Boring. Is it a mission that can just play itself? Bad design. The map plays ugly, you could say. It was not uncommon for some campaigns to think difficulty was just throwing ludicrous forces at the player, for example, or for many missions to fall into a trap of just building a critical mass of power units (battlecruisers, carriers, guardians) and then wiping out the AI. Some campaigns exhibited missions, often defensive ones, where the player could go AFK and still win. What's a macro campaign versus a micro campaign? Broadly speaking, Starcraft can divide its missions into two types. Micro missions, where you must use a limited number of units to accomplish a goal, often on the installation tileset, and macro missions where you mine resources, build units, and so on. As custom campaigns got more detailed, they began to move away from macro missions towards micro missions. Partially due to ambition and partially due to there being only so many maps involving the destruction of every single enemy structure that you can play through before finding it tedious. On the other hand, micro missions could be tedious in a different way as they'd often involve awkward puzzles and insta-death sequences that, perhaps, didn't quite work as neatly as the creators envisioned. A campaign that is mostly made up of macro missions could be called a macro campaign, and one made up of micro missions a micro campaign. Antioch Chronicles - Episode 1: Psionic Storm is a macro campaign. Legacy of the Confederation: Fallen Angel is a micro campaign. Can I post about [insert campaign here]? Sure! I'm really just interested in starting a discussion and showing off the history. The one thing I'd like, however, is if we can maintain a sort of chronological approach. That's not to say to do it in order, but placing each campaign when they came out can give one an idea of how these campaigns were evolving and influencing each other which is one of the things I feel is most remarkable about the scene. Feel free to discuss broader Blizzard custom campaigns (such as Warcraft 3) but my focus will be on Starcraft and Brood War. Aren't you a contrarian pedant whose brain focuses on all the wrong things? Do you really think these are that good? Pretty much. While I tend to lean toward critical and/or oppositional readings, this thread is more of a trip down Nostalgia Lane. I genuinely think these are interesting pieces of art created by amateurs with surprising talent. I think they represent a time period of the old Internet. But, yes, I also think they are overwhelmingly a product of their time, and I don't think you can have a proper nostalgic effort if you don't also acknowledge how goofy and melodramatic these works could get. It's part of what makes them great. What's your plan for the thread? As time permits, I'll be playing through the campaigns I listed in chronological order. As of writing this post, I've already played through some of them to completion and have posts in varying states of readiness. Some I may discuss mission by mission particularly if, like Legacy of the Confederation, the missions are complex and varied. Some might get a broader post simply because there's less to note. What version will you be testing this out on? I'll be playing through them on Brood War version 1.15 as well as in the latest version of the Remastered client. The reason why I am using 1.15 is because many campaigns are still not 1.16 compatible based on my testing, and 1.15 appears to be compatible with all the ones I have listed above. Where can I download them? The best source is the Starcraft Fan Campaign Listing as it includes a huge list and any compatibility patches if required. That said, I would not put much stock in the scores or commentary in that list. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Apr 11, 2024 |
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Apr 7, 2024 07:32
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Hell yeah. I loved playing custom campaigns in SC and War3. I briefly did custom maps/TC work for War2, even. Looking forward to this thread. When I'm done replaying C&C, I think I'll dive back in and play some of the mentioned campaigns that I may have missed. If they're still available, that is.
TheHoosier fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Apr 12, 2024 |
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Apr 9, 2024 13:29
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Antioch Chronicles - Episode I: Psionic StormThe Antioch Chronicles, Episode I Story posted:Prophecy Unveiled  Judicator Turmalis introduces himself to the player in a very true to vanilla format. Sure, it doesn't have anything astounding. It doesn't have the advantage of years of experience with StarEdit, nor the more powerful third party tools like SCMDraft or Emerald StarEdit. It doesn't have custom music or in-game cutscenes. It doesn't have puzzles or mini games or scripted sequences. But nor does it fall into the pitfalls of being too ambitious. What it offers is a vanilla-esque campaign with a whole lot of polish that features fun characters, minimalistic writing, and novel gimmicks to put a little spin on the vanilla gameplay. However, it also did some things many campaigns wouldn't, and even wouldn't do so well. Psionic Storm is fully voice-acted, with I think every role being played by the campaign creator (and his faux-Australian accent is better than some professional attempts!) The performances are good, fitting right into the style of Starcraft's own campaigns. Psionic Storm's Protoss voices were best in class for a very long time. It also included modded portraits for its new heroes, even if they were only relatively simple recolorings.  Turmalis, Khorun and Nurohk. Note the recolorings. The cast is generally of a comfortable size. It almost feels like I'm underselling it, but I'm not. Basically, the strength of Psionic Storm is that it does everything well and doesn't get distracted by bells and whistles. The maps are well designed and look good, with effective doodad placement and general terrain work. The missions might be simple but are, again, designed well and the 'gimmicks' bring to mind the approach Starcraft 2 would take years later with its campaign missions.  It's a small thing, but depleted mineral fields and a collapsed geyser doodad do a lot to make the maps feels like places with their own history. For example, the first mission of the campaign is similar to the first mission of the vanilla campaign: scout out the area and build a base. But you are advised to clear out as much of the Zerg presence as possible before doing so. The reason? They'll unburrow and attack en masse once you start building your base. The sixth mission, a seemingly standard twenty minute long base defense, complicates matters by not allowing you to gather more resources.  Charlie Mox is very Australian and is, somehow, not a caricature. The plot itself is, likewise, solid. Set just after the end of the vanilla Protoss campaign, the player is dispatched to the province of Antioch to investigate a mysterious psionic force that is weakening the Protoss there. The player clashes with the Zerg and Terrans as Judicator Turmalis and his allies try to resolve the situation. The ending, with the mysterious Kel-Morian attack on New Brisbane Station, is still a fantastic cliffhanger. Even now, over twenty years on, it's impossible to find fault with it. Whatever issues Psionic Storm has is due to either Starcraft itself or just being created before the community had filed down the rough edges on some of the vanilla concepts. For example, the installation mission suffers from the usual installation mission pitfalls -- without any way of restoring health and a simply overwhelming number enemies, you must creep forward almost pixel by pixel and abuse the fog of war to draw enemies in one by one. A later mission where you need to destroy all Zerg Spires is functionally a 'destroy all structures' mission. The most notable overall issue is perhaps that, due to how Starcraft's units and heroes worked, there are particular units you can't build during the campaign because they shared portraits and voice lines with the new heroes (Firebats, Archons, Arbiters, Goliaths, etc.) On the other hand, this encourages the player to try new tactics and face challenges without their usual go-tos.  With an ominous surprise attack, Psionic Storm comes to a cliffhanger ending... It's also really goofy, but I appreciate how the twin Protoss warriors based on Fenix's two units are Khorun and Nurokh. Yes, they just mirrored the names. Pros: Everything. Well conceived, Well executed, well polished. Cons: Some of the writing doesn't mesh perfectly with Blizzard's lore? Remastered Compatibility: Yes, albeit without the custom portraits and voice responses. Additionally, the Antioch Chronicles website is still preserved online in much the same format as it had been back in the day. The character page gives a pretty good idea of how strictly they were intending to nail the 'feel' of Blizzard's storytelling and writing. Starcraft Manual, Roster of Heroes posted:Jim Raynor Antioch Chronicles Episode I, Characters posted:Charlie Mox Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Apr 18, 2024 |
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Apr 10, 2024 07:08
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Insurrection and RetributionStarcraft: Insurrection posted:Brontes IV was a small planet missing from most Confederation nav. charts. Starcraft: Retribution posted:It is a time of profound strife. The Argus stone, an ancient artifact of immense power, has been unearthed on the Terran world of Aridas. The warring Terran, Protoss and Zerg forces have descended upon the planet in a quest for possession of the omnipotent weapon. Insurrection and Retribution were two "authorized add-ons" for Starcraft produced by third parties. What they were, essentially, were a set of custom campaigns and a bunch of melee maps. Neither add-on pack was well-received and neither sold well. They would be quickly rendered laughable by the arrival of Brood War but, among custom campaign enthusiasts, they had already been overshadowed by the first episode of the Antioch Chronicles. They weren't lacking in features. They both featured multiple campaigns with full voice acting, for example. What they were lacking in was, well, quality. The maps were poorly designed, the missions were frequently buggy or just too difficult, and the lore didn't fit neatly with Starcraft's universe. Perhaps this is unsurprising given that they had been released so soon after the initial release but, again, Psionic Storm had demonstrated what one person could do (albeit with a shorter campaign.) I've included them mainly as a historical point. Insurrection is, in retrospect, kind of endearing. It has this The Room-esque quality to it. For example, the creative team couldn't mod in new unit voices, so they hired soundalikes for their characters so they sounded something like the units' existing voices during briefings. It feels like they hired friends and family based on whatever Starcraft unit they could kind of imitate, ranging from performances that were okay-to-good to enjoyably comedic. Perhaps the worst part is they utilize the fan favorite character of Tassadar and, uh, their imitation is not great.  An early exchange from Insurrection. A nameless Sergeant and a nameless Marine discuss how to detect rebels. The writing is fine. It's the sort of writing that is weakened because the performances are distracting. It doesn't neatly fit into Starcraft's lore, but it's not terribly egregious either (especially given how little the universe had been defined.) There's a varied cast of characters whose paths cross now and again and some live and some die and the weakness of it all is, perhaps, that some of the briefings can be a bit too long as they try to accommodate their expansive cast. It feels like whoever was writing the story for Insurrection was having a lot of fun with it. But what's most interesting about the storyline is that, after meeting this cast of characters and fighting with them, learning about them, getting to know them, herding them through twenty-something missions... The player murders them to the last when it becomes time to play as the Zerg. That's pretty cool! It's an element that Blizzard themselves would go on to use in Brood War, where the player kills fan favorite Fenix and the love-to-hate antagonist Edmund Duke.  Insurrection makes a very earnest attempt to tell a more character-focused tale than one might expect...  ...but the tone is a bit all over the place. Insurrection is basically a pretty standard macro campaign -- build a base, destroy the enemy. It doesn't really do anything novel, which is where the cracks show. The maps aren't great. They feel very much of their early StarEdit era, but there are one or two with some unique twists. They do recycle some maps, but it is to create a sense of geography and place -- you build a base there in one map then, as the Zerg, you come back and blow it up. Insurrection might have a story that's fun to follow, but the campaign itself is frequently tedious or difficult to the point of absurdity.  Insurrection's map design isn't anything to write home about, but not for lack of vision. Here, the city of New Dresdin is under siege. Where Insurrection is notable, however, is that it was ahead of its time in one particular area: the inclusion of female characters. Multiple female Protoss in prominent roles, a hero Terran dropship character, and even a female-voiced Zerg Cerebrate. Even Brood War didn't do so well on this front, given it's almighty two female characters among the cast.  Edullon (Fenix, left) and Syndrea (Arbiter, right) are the series' first female Protoss depicted. Demioch (Fenix Dragoon) is Edullon's father. In that sense, I think the failing of Insurrection is that people were expected to pay money for it. Indeed, the Gamespot review in April 2000 explicitly said "with several high-quality fan-made campaigns already available for free on the Internet, there remains little reason to own this add-on." Had it been a free release online, I think it would be more fondly remembered. These days, people are kinder to Insurrection than they were in the past, because I think the fact it's so goofy and enthusiastic does a lot to make up for the spikes in difficulty and bland maps -- and that, yes, you don't need to pay for it.  At the end of each campaign in Insurrection, characters break the fourth wall to congratulate the player. Which brings us to Retribution. Retribution has just been forgotten. It was, perhaps, slightly more 'professional' than Insurrection but far less ambitious. For example, Insurrection tells a goofy but generally entertaining story that escalates from a missing Confederate patrol to a full-scale Zerg invasion with intricate mission briefing scripts that can feature half a dozen characters. Meanwhile, Retribution has the three races fight over a magic rock and briefings that feature only one character and is less canon-adherent. Insurrection feels like a tie-in novel by someone who had passion for the project even if the skills weren't quite there. Retribution feels like the infamous Baldur's Gate tie-in novel.  One person telling you things boringly -- a pretty standard example of a Retribution briefing.  Meanwhile, Insurrection sometimes plays with conventions -- here, Jack Frost is watching a propaganda video. The map quality is about the same, but I would put Insurrection slightly ahead. Retribution's missions either fall into 'destroy the bases' or 'bring a unit to the location' and Insurrection sometimes mixes it up a little bit more than that (although nothing like Antioch Chronicles or Legacy of the Confederation) but each campaign tends to be very tedious to actually play. Perhaps the most interesting thing about Retribution is that it features some branching missions. And, while I'm being tongue in cheek, there's a certain poetry to the Retribution designers featuring Char as a jungle world (not the volcanic world it should be) much like how Blizzard altered Zerus in Starcraft 2. Retribution also features the idea of a Xel'naga prophecy leading to the creation of a 'Supreme Being', oddly reminiscent of Starcraft 2, as well.  Retribution's maps feel lazy and uninspired, and have weird decisions like the placement of these structures...  ...and yet it would have taken a fair amount of time to get those terrain elements like that. Perhaps the only notable difference between the two campaigns is in the voice acting -- I'm pretty sure that Retribution's (uncredited) cast includes Paul Eiding and Michael Gough, who played Aldaris and Tassadar respectively, in contrast to Insurrection's team of wonderful amateurs. What makes this odd, however, is that Retribution also features Tassadar with a soundalike (a good one, to be sure, but I'm 99% sure that Gough himself voices a Cerebrate so I'm not sure why they didn't just have him play Tassadar.) That said, if we ever get to it, RazorclawX's anime-inspired epic, the Vision of the Future series, is a sequel to Retribution. When it comes to the world of custom campaigns, it is an appropriately mystifying historical note to end on. Pros:
Something I feel I should mention is that there is a remastered "update" for Insurrection. I do not recommend it. While it makes some interesting changes, generally polishing everything up and bringing it closer to a 'good' fan campaign, fixing bugs, and so on, it also makes a lot of bizarre and unnecessary balance changes that don't appear to serve anything except the creator's whims. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 13:44 on Apr 14, 2024 |
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Apr 14, 2024 12:58
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I never actually played any of these as a kid, I was crap at Starcraft and couldn't even get past the first Terran mission with flying units, but I loved looking at the potential of the map editor and learning the bits I could. Great idea for a thread.
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Apr 15, 2024 19:29
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So this thread made me curious about the state of Warcraft III campaigns, and it seems like there is a lot of really cool stuff still coming out. I haven't had a chance to check any of them out yet though. Warcraft 3 Re-Reforged https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkkMrAWh8js Somebody is fixing reforged to be the game Blizzard promised it would to be. Its finished the first two campaigns, and the Undead campaign is in progress. Prologue campaign Human Campaign Chronicles of the Second War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=420SUSIuU3c A remake of Warcraft 2 in reforged. They currently have done the orc campaign. Orc Campaign
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Apr 15, 2024 19:53
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Glad to see this up! Bizarrely, for the sheer amount of Starcraft and Warcraft I played, I never played any custom campaigns, except for Enslavers. Though my friends and I did try to make our own, but we were never able to really understand the editors.Milkfred E. Moore posted:Retribution feels like the infamous Baldur's Gate tie-in novel. gently caress me that book was bad. I paid good money for it as a kid and I was pissed.
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Apr 16, 2024 02:05
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IShallRiseAgain posted:So this thread made me curious about the state of Warcraft III campaigns, and it seems like there is a lot of really cool stuff still coming out. I haven't had a chance to check any of them out yet though. I've seen these, but haven't gotten around to trying them. After the success of Starcraft: Remastered, I was looking forward to Reforged, but it really feels like it was something of an atrocity. My understanding is that while Reforged has now, finally, restored custom campaign support, many of the changes made have made a lot of custom maps no longer compatible. When Remastered came out, I was on Battle.net for a few weeks playing many classic UMSes straight out of my Downloads folder. When I tried the same in Reforged, it felt like the odds were worse than a coin flip whether the map would load much less be playable. From memory, Reforged just entirely omitted the on-foot Furion and Fel Orc models. Which was a big problem for a lot of customs, including Blizzard's own Skibi TD! What also struck me about Reforged was the few 'reforged' maps they still included were so amateur hour. I think I recall their terrain being entirely flat. Usually, Warcraft 3 maps had a lot of little valleys and rolling hills and ditches and things like that thanks to the raise/lower tool. It made the maps feel like, well, wilderness. When I hit the reforged undead mission, I was surprised at how they felt like the work of a fairly amateur WorldEdit guy -- flat terrain, no doodads and details, etc. And what's worse, is I think those Reforged maps have totally replaced the originals. Between that and the nonsensical cutscene camera angle changes for maps that were otherwise left unchanged, there's a part of me that considers Reforged an act of artistic vandalism, and I'd love to know how they hosed it up so badly. catlord posted:Glad to see this up! Bizarrely, for the sheer amount of Starcraft and Warcraft I played, I never played any custom campaigns, except for Enslavers. Though my friends and I did try to make our own, but we were never able to really understand the editors. Even when I was an undiscerning kid, I knew that book was bad. I think it still might be the worst book I've ever read. In the author's defence, which is one of those phrases I never thought I'd say, he has said that he had about two months to deliver what he thought was a first draft, only for it to be published as is (and he suspects an editor never even looked at it.) According to Athens, the game wasn't even in beta and all he was given was an Excel spreadsheet with little more than names and a basic flowchart of plot beats. That said, I'll never not be a a little salty that they actually canonized Abdel Adrian, either.
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Apr 16, 2024 12:28
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:I've seen these, but haven't gotten around to trying them. After the success of Starcraft: Remastered, I was looking forward to Reforged, but it really feels like it was something of an atrocity. My understanding is that while Reforged has now, finally, restored custom campaign support, many of the changes made have made a lot of custom maps no longer compatible. When Remastered came out, I was on Battle.net for a few weeks playing many classic UMSes straight out of my Downloads folder. When I tried the same in Reforged, it felt like the odds were worse than a coin flip whether the map would load much less be playable. From memory, Reforged just entirely omitted the on-foot Furion and Fel Orc models. Which was a big problem for a lot of customs, including Blizzard's own Skibi TD! Yeah, Reforged is wretched especially since they made the superior classic version difficult to get except through piracy. Reforged is actually what encouraged me to start buying stuff on GOG since you can't pull this bullshit with DRM free games. They also were extremely mad about not being able to steal DOTA, so they implemented a new real strict EULA which gives them full rights to anything in a custom game. The art direction is non-existent, and they didn't take into account readability. The install size went from 2gb to 30gb. Oh and the menu is done via chromium.
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Apr 17, 2024 17:53
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I still have my warcraft 3 cds. Can I redeem them on the blizzard launcher, or does it turn them into reforged keys?
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Apr 17, 2024 18:00
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Node posted:I still have my warcraft 3 cds. Can I redeem them on the blizzard launcher, or does it turn them into reforged keys? Reforged keys, you can still download the installer somewhere, but you need your cd keys.
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Apr 17, 2024 18:07
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Antioch Chronicles -- Episode II: Negative SunsThe Antioch Chronicles, Episode II Story posted:A Dying World Abandoned Picking up right where Psionic Storm left off, Judicator Turmalis arrives at New Brisbane Station only for Charlie Mox's new installation to come under attack by Kel-Morian fighters. The Protoss and the New Brisbane forces manage to destroy the attackers, but an investigation of the station turns up a complication -- a tracking device, one found in Charlie Mox's quarters! Protesting his innocence, Commander Mox takes his few loyal men and heads off to clear his name. Meanwhile, the Protoss finalize the retreat from Aiur to Shakuras, leaving Judicator Turmalis to ensure that the last few refugees from the Temple of Jepok make it through the warp gate. But Tumalis and his allies find themselves caught in a web of treachery, ancient rivalries and new complications... and something dark and unprecedented awakens beneath the surface of Shakuras... Overall, Negative Suns does everything just as well as the original did. It is the high watermark for Starcraft custom campaigns. The voice editing and sound design is even better than the original. The maps are just as pretty to look at. The missions are more intricate, as is the story. It is, in that sense, more of the same, and that's great because the same was very impressive. Additionally, it manages to slot itself neatly into Brood War's lore which hadn't existed at the time that Psionic Storm was created.  The new character Moloch is particularly impressive. Many of his lines and responses fit in my brain alongside the 'canon' Dark Templar lines. That said, there are surprising weaknesses to Negative Suns. In the Antioch's team desire to do more, and tell more of the wonderful story they had created, everything begins to buckle under the weight of their ambition. As we'll see more obviously with Legacy of the Confederation -- more is not necessarily more.  Nannoth/Taeradun returns to the narrative for precisely one briefing -- who do you think is the traitor? It's probably Nannoth/Taeradun! That is not to say that Negative Suns is unpolished or ugly or messy or bad. Across the board, it is still an extremely polished experience. Having put out a relatively modest campaign, the desire to go beyond that restraint is obvious. But this is the source of the relative weak points of Negative Suns. The other, which we'll get to, is the pop culture emphasis. As Auspex himself said: "Yes. I will admit that Episode I is fairly dry and straightforward in that sense. You get briefed, you go and you kick butt, you win, but there's only a minimum of character interaction, at least until later on. In Episode II, we've completely gone to the other end of the spectrum. You get immersed in the story now." Where Psionic Storm was a plot-focused campaign with strong characters, Negative Suns shifts more into a narrative that is more focused on the characters. It isn't dissimilar to Insurrection, really. Episode II of Antioch Chronicles is definitely much more focused on telling a story, which is where the cracks begin to show. It's a weakness that shows up a few times in these campaigns. People always point to campaigns like The Shifters or series like Legacy of the Confederation, but it's broader than that. See, I think it's hard for a fan effort to not fall prey to this trap: the story wants to escape the confines of the medium. Especially when Starcraft and Brood War had a very strong emphasis on story. Why wouldn't fans want to tell their own stories? Look, you can do in-mission dialogue and briefings with multiple characters and you can even script out whole cutscenes in the missions... But can you do it neatly? Is it fun? Could your desire to tell the story overpower the campaign itself?  The focus on character-based storytelling presents issues -- just why would Mox hire Trench to poke around New Brisbane Station given the stakes and, indeed, later revelations? Perhaps the most obvious way to demonstrate it is to look toward the middle of Negative Suns. The cast has expanded, which is generally fine, and remain distinct -- a strength of the writing. But multiple characters deliver lengthy exposition dumbs in quick succession. Sometimes this is to explain earlier story elements and to set up things to come (Trench) and others seem to just be bluntly establishing facts for Episode III (Khrillian.) While briefings were maybe a minute and a half long in Episode I, some take up to five in Episode II. There's a lot of lore and shifting motivations and aeons-old reveals, but it's hard to care about it. Additionally, for all the stuff it does well and the lengthy exposition it does less well, Episode II feels a lot like nothing happens. A few characters die, more are introduced, some loyalties change, and a new enemy is revealed... but that's about it. It's very much one of those middle sequels that is more focused on setting up the final chapter than being a stand alone story in and of itself. Psionic Storm was similar, but the business with the Psi Cocoon was a one-and-done story.  As a story set during Brood War, Negative Suns does its best to slot in amongst the canon story. For example, a notable weakness is the character of Nannoth/Taeradun, an Archon the player encounters early in Episode I. Simply put, the heaping of exposition thrown upon him (them?) isn't really possible to reconcile with how Khorun reacts to meeting him in Episode I. The implication in Episode I is that Khorun knew Nannoth and/or Taeradun prior to leaving Jepok and returned to find them as an Archon. Episode II's account of Nannoth/Taeradun as an ancient figure who had been sealed away in the Temple of Jepok makes this impossible.  Turmalis attempts to comprehend the loredump. Sevorak and Kuldarus are entirely new to the story at this point.  Soon after that, Trench -- whom Turmalis has never met -- drops several paragraphs of this size upon him concerning Mox and Gurney and the events of Episode I. Charlie Mox also takes a hit. In an attempt to clear his name, Mox employs Trent 'Trench' Aster to find out who framed him -- which leads to Trench uncovering that Mox is, in fact, a really bad dude who had been playing the Protoss for fools (among other things!) While Trench provides some good insights into the events of Psionic Storm, it's unclear how much was planned in advance or if it was a result of Brood War defining the setting a bit more and Negative Suns needing to course correct. It works, but the fact it needs so much exposition to work is a sign of weakness and makes it unfulfilling. Additionally, the seeming heel turn of Mox's feels odd. As does seeing Mox murder unarmed civilians in the next map. Mox is an enjoyable character, so, seeing him suddenly presented as a unscrupulous vagabond who was going to unleash psychically-controlled Zerg on innocent people to secure mining rights is a bit... much. However, the real weakness of Negative Suns is the pop culture references. It isn't a matter of dating these stories -- they're dated by being told in Starcraft -- but they're rather overbearing. Starcraft has always had a bit of a tongue in cheek approach, of course. Most frequently, however, it was restricted to lines characters would say if you clicked on them too much. Psionic Storm had those, but Negative Suns goes further by introducing it into dialogue, and it gets a bit much. Additionally, it hits certain characters. New character "General" Mason Rockwell, for example, feels like a parody of The Rock. Multiple characters quote films verbatim and then remark "I heard that in a movie once." Charlie Mox points out how bizarre Ian Anduin's vague Scottish-British-Irish accent is. (That said, Trench Aster remarks in a taunt line that he "eats chumps like Jack Frost for breakfast" and that is pretty funny. That said, while Auspex clearly does not like Insurrection and Retribution, he treats them respectfully. Argus, as in the Argus stone from Retribution, also earns a subtle mention as a fallen Protoss hero. Was he named for the stone or the stone for him?)  That said, Rockwell is entertaining. Because Starcraft does not allow you to change ranks, and Rockwell is based on "General" Edmund Duke, Rockwell is just an eccentric sergeant who everyone calls General to placate. Perhaps the most interesting encapsulation of Negative Suns is the second mission, Planetfall. It is, honestly, incredible. Charlie Mox takes his loyal marines to Bora Dalis Spaceport to locate Trench Aster and the player has to navigate public transport, fight off people Mox owes money to, and soak in the atmosphere. It's an attempt to depict a bustling Mos Eisley-esque spaceport in Starcraft -- and it is extremely well-executed. It's packed full of things to see! There's all sorts of interesting places to find, such as a rhynadon stables and an arboretum. Ships fly back and forth across the map. Jim Raynor makes a very brief cameo. The map itself is packed with things you won't ever see unless you use 'black sheep wall' to see it, so, I don't know if there were greater plans for it or if it was just some insane attention to detail. More than that, the micro level gameplay is tough without being frustrating, and you get just enough resources that you need to watch them well to succeed. I am reasonably certain that Fallen Angel would attempt a similar 'spaceport experience' and fail to meet the bar.  Look at that minimap! The scale of Bora Dalis spaceport cannot be understated. Much of it, like Bora Dalis Control, can only be seen with cheats.  Air units flying back and forth across the spaceport is a great touch, but the whole environment is rich and inviting.  There's even a PA system that plays announcements and advertisements. The problem is that, in their drive to do something like Mos Eisley, they got a bit too into the Star Wars references. New character Ian Anduin does the Obi-Wan 'go about your business' exchange, in full, to some bounty hunters (while another character remarks they don't need that scum.) There's a scrap dealer named Quatto. An SCV has a bad motivator. It does somewhat bring down the otherwise incredible mission because there's just so much of it.  This is how Planetfall starts. Which wouldn't be so bad if it was all there was.  But it goes something like this. Taunt lines are one thing, it'd be another if Sarah Kerrigan had said "Help me, Jim Raynor, you're my only hope." (Yes, I'm aware, Blizzard did put that in as a Battle.net easter egg in like 2005.) When it comes to gameplay, though, just like Psionic Storm, the campaign shines. The maps and missions are of premium quality. There's a really strong attention to detail. The 'macro with a gimmick' structure feels very similar to Starcraft 2, where perhaps the weakness of Negative Suns is they do a few missions which involve managing a base while a strike team handles the objectives, but the missions themselves are still enjoyable. A notably weak mission is the one involving mining charges, however, which I had to cheat through to stand a chance of winning (and, beyond that, it is over long of the sort of 'three times would be enough, no need for five.') The final mission, a tough battle royale where you rotate between all three sides, is really well done, too, and the player force being credited as "Captain, Commander, Executor" is wonderful. The layout of the installation mission matches the overall layout of New Brisbane Station. It's just details, details, details. That said, the difficulty for some missions is a general step up from the first episode.  For all my criticisms of the storytelling, the maps are so well done that it almost feels wrong to build bases in them. A strength that I feel is particularly unique to Antioch Chronicles is that the creative team -- or whoever was making the maps, individual or otherwise -- feels like they had a very strong awareness of the Starcraft 640x480 scale resolution and how much it let the player see at any one time. Areas never feel busy or over-detailed. Doodads never repeat themselves too obviously. Knowing how much the player can see on the screen is such a good way to determine how much you can show, and I don't think there's any other campaign that arranges things on that point as well as Antioch Chronicles.  In between destroying pirate outposts, Charlie Mox looks out over a desolate expanse. Perhaps the biggest weakness of Negative Suns is that Episode III, Thoughts in Darkness, never eventuated. My understanding is that the Antioch team fell apart either around or just after the release of Episode II. It appears there was an attempt to re-tell the story in an original setting that never got off the ground. Of all the unreleased custom campaigns in the history of Starcraft, I think Thoughts in Darkness was the biggest loss. Especially given how, just like Psionic Storm, Negative Suns ends on one hell of a cliffhanger. While a team of fans did construct their own take on Episode III, I'm yet to play it and probably won't. Unless, perhaps, I get to the end of this little project and get curious. Ultimately, I feel the story of Antioch Chronicles was born from the original team, and the fan effort, while worth celebrating, will only feel 'off' as many fan-continued projects do.  As Moloch, Turmalis and Khrillian grasp the scale of the threat beneath their very feet...  ...a horde of infested Protoss bear down upon them. All in all, it's a great experience and overall perhaps one of the best, if not the best, campaigns for Starcraft, even with my misgivings about the expanded scope of the story. The fact it came out before Legacy of the Confederation, the next campaign we'll talk about, is really startling to me. As a final note I couldn't fit in anywhere else, Negative Suns runs with the concept of infested Protoss. This is an interesting tidbit and is not, as some may think, in violation of canon. While modern Starcraft insists that Protoss cannot be infested and will simply die during the process, that was only introduced in the lead-up to Starcraft 2 (to explain the divisive hybrid plot.) But I'd argue that the Zerg are more than capable of infesting the Protoss in Brood War with the hybrid project being a different beast entirely. That said, while many players believe Dark Templar Matriarch Raszagal to be infested during the events of Brood War, it is never explicitly stated, always being referred to as something like 'psychic domination.' Pros: Like Psionic Storm, Negative Suns is practically best in class across the board, especially with regards to attention to detail and general polish. Cons: The pop culture references can be a bit much; story and character developments are not as neat as they could be. Remastered Compatibility: Yes, albeit without the custom portraits and voice responses. And, as a historical note, some statistics from the Antioch Chronicles website: Antioch Chronicles, Episode II Statistics posted:
Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 11:17 on Apr 19, 2024 |
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Apr 19, 2024 05:21
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Legacy of the Confederation - Episode 1: Past Purposes Legacy of the Confederation is perhaps my favorite custom campaign series, although I think it's obvious that the Antioch Chronicles is generally better and of higher quality. The Legacy series is much more interesting, however, and does some things that Antioch doesn't even attempt. On the other hand, Legacy of the Confederation somewhat exemplifies one of the more annoying trends in custom campaigns. That is, a focus on story over gameplay to the extent that gameplay is almost in conflict with the desires of the author. This is both Legacy of the Confederation's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. Episode 1: Past Purposes was intended to be the story of how Earth would enter the events of the Koprulu Sector, only for Blizzard to do that themselves with Brood War. Funnily enough, this is an issue that hit Antioch Chronicles as well, but where Antioch did their best to fit into the new Brood War canon, Legacy of the Confederation became a full-fledged alternate timeline. Whereas Psionic Storm is a relatively true-to-form vanilla Starcraft experience, Past Purposes goes in a radically different direction, aiming to use the Starcraft engine to tell a story with a distinct sense of atmosphere and tone. Generally, what Psionic Storm and Negative Suns do well, Past Purposes does not. The maps are worse, the voice acting is generally worse, and some missions barely have gameplay. Whereas Psionic Storm attempts to be as original as possible, within the confines of the Starcraft universe, Past Purposes happily cribs from Aliens, The Matrix and, yes, very heavily from Starship Troopers (and more!) Legacy of the Confederation feels like it is paying homage to a lot of sci-fi that it's creator/s loved and wanted to reproduce in Starcraft. What I think is most notable is Past Purposes' quality varies wildly from mission to mission, and there's a surprising lack of polish (especially given how simple some of it would be to correct.) That said, the ambition and scale of Past Purposes outstrips its Antioch counterpart. If the Antioch team understood the idea that 'less is more', the Legacy team thought that, well, 'more is more.' As the readme.txt states, Legacy of the Confederation promises "to provide you with a campaign experience unlike any other." There are forty-nine (yes, 49) credited speaking roles in these ten missions alone. Because of that, this is a campaign I'll need to discuss mission by mission. Past Purposes contains ten missions, including the prologue and epilogue. Past Purposes, Prologue Past Purposes, Prologue posted:EARTH, 2097 I have reproduced this from LegacyPrologue.scx (the map file) with no alterations. Now, it would be the easy path to talk about how goofy this is, the grammar, the spelling, the names, whatever. While I'm going to be a bit tongue in cheek at times, I don't want to, well, be a jerk. It is very important to place all of these campaigns in the time of when they were made. While I don't know anything about the people who made Legacy of the Confederation, I suspect they were young and inexperienced and were looking to create something 'cool' more than they were something professional. That said, it is kind of funny. There's a Soviet Bloc that has persisted until 2097. Also, we're already departing from canon -- the Starcraft manual establishes that the UPL was formed in 2229 with the four supercarriers that would form the basis of the Terran Confederacy being launched around that time. We know that Starcraft is set in the year 2499, and Legacy wants to be set about 250 years prior, which should place us around 2249. Why the prologue and Protoss first contact take place in 2097 is unclear. It could be put down to a weird error, except that it isn't, as Past Purposes' website clearly states that, in this version of events, the supercarriers were launched in 2077. Also, thirty-six were launched instead of the canonical four. When one of the supercarriers collided with a black hole mid-transit, this drew the attention of the Protoss, who made their way to Earth and said they'd hand over cures to every known disease and other advanced technologies in exchange for the Protoss being allowed to remain in orbit and study humanity. Anyway, the United Powers League is said to be as per the manual "the ultimate incarnation of the vision of a unified humanity" that controlled "close to ninety-three percent" of the Earth's population and often resorted to "harsh, fascist police actions to maintain the public order." It's a world government that designated English as the "common tongue" and eradicated "the last vestiges of racial separatism" and would implement a bunch of policies in the name of racial purity and cleansing undesirables -- a "genocidal crusade was the government's final solution." Yes, really. Legacy of the Confederation isn't really concerned with any of that, and that makes sense given the UPL is the ruling power and the player is in the position of a UPL Admiral, but I'm still not particularly sure the creative team understood the background of the UPL and instead read them as more of a generic world government. As we can see, the political element of the briefing is fairly sophomoric. I'm guessing Kazakhstan became a city state at some point (great success) and, as a former Soviet state, joined the Soviet Bloc which seemingly seceded from the UPL due to suspicion regarding the motives of the Protoss. That said, there's one interesting note here: the Russian bloc is right to be suspicious of the Protoss. The Prologue mission was not the first mission made, as far as I'm aware, but it's a perfect summary of the issues that are present throughout the whole series. It has a grandiose scale, lots of writing, lots of voice acting, gameplay that is rigidly linear, and an overall lack of polish. In this mission, your "death squad" will infiltrate a city in disguise, take medical supplies to a hospital as a cover story, witness an uprising, break into an armory to steal battle tanks, use those tanks to enact a prison break, and then arm up the prisoners to massacre the local government.  Legacy of the Confederation has a few missions that, like this one, proceed in phases and update your objectives as you go. It sounds better than it is, really. It is closer to a weird puzzle game than a traditional Starcraft level, micro or macro, and this is what Legacy of the Confederation will establish as its 'house style.' The map itself is bland, made up entirely of badlands structure and asphalt tiles with two doodads of note and no interesting design work whatsoever. The idea of a mass prison riot and revolutionary march on the government building just becomes a bit of a clusterfuck given the sheer number of units and Starcraft's problematic pathing. It sometimes requires you to intuit the correct course of action, or to otherwise save/load your way through the mission (such as when Petrov advises you to run away from the hospital when it comes under attack.) That said, it does do something that Legacy will continue to do well: establishing a sense of place and time.  Another notable element of LotC's style: verbosity. Also, Slovenia is five thousand kilometers away... See, StarEdit might not allow you to create new units, but it does allow you to modify the values of existing ones: damage, health, armor, name, and resource cost. Throughout Past Purposes, the Legacy team will make a bunch of modifications to Terran and Zerg units to help create a fairly unique sense of atmosphere, which is the strongest feature of the campaign. For example, here are the changes made in this mission:
However, this mission doesn't do it so well. Perhaps the most obvious example is the curious case of the 'sss.' The 'sss' is seemingly completely identical to the Sentry Drone, and is indeed the Goliath Hero unit, but whoever created this mission either couldn't be bothered to come up with a rename, or just chucked in something as a placeholder. But it's odd that it was never corrected, especially when a bit of the appeal of a custom map is seeing what everything has been re-interpreted as. And that the 'sss' is actually more common on the map than the Sentry Drones.  Characters in Legacy of the Confederation love to talk. Dmitri Petrov makes it clear from the very first mission. The mission also isn't strictly necessary. Like most prologues, it could probably be scrapped. It doesn't really tell us anything that couldn't just be backstory. However, I do appreciate stories that take some time to establish 'a day in the life' before the inciting incident. So, while not strictly necessary and not particularly interesting as it is, I think the Prologue mission is a neat concept. The real point of the Prologue is to continue the 'kayfabe' that the Past Purposes website went with, that the campaign would be based around the UPL bringing Russia to heel. I have no idea whether this was an effective twist.  A clear flaw in Legacy of the Confederation is that focusing on going as big as possible just makes things unwieldy, such as this prison break-out. All that said, it takes a few missions until you can see what, I think, made Legacy of the Confederation so beloved and influential. It's very much a work where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
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Apr 24, 2024 01:20
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Past Purposes, Chapter 1 The first 'proper' mission of Past Purposes begins on Pluto. The player is contacted by Fleet Admiral Hayes and abruptly reassigned from Russia to the edge of the Solar system, advising the player that at around 1800 hours yesterday, the UPL lost contact with its Braxis colony on Pluto. The UPL suspects there's been an insurrection as no distress calls were reported. The Admiral is to take a detachment of "shock troops" to Pluto and "remove any subversives", making "an example" out of them if they refuse to come peacefully. There are two immediate things about this briefing. The first is that it is, oddly, setup with the player as the Zerg, giving them the Zerg briefing atmosphere. Like some other elements of Past Purposes, I'm not exactly sure why the creative team made this decision. I suspect it could be either a. foreshadowing, b. to create the feeling of the player being watched, or c. the Zerg background music was seen as more fitting than the Terran one for this mission. The second is that Fleet Admiral Hayes is not acted well. Amateur voice acting is always going to be hit and miss, but Hayes is a very prominent role and I'm not sure he delivers any line well throughout this campaign. It's a sort of quick monotone like he's just seen the script for the first time and is scared to be reading for any longer than he absolutely has to. It's a shame that, again, he's a very prominent role and Legacy does deliver some otherwise fairly good performances.  Introducing Lieutenant Rand, one of the more memorable members of Past Purpose's cast. Upon starting Chapter 1, the player finds themselves with a fairly large force for an installation mission: 23 marines, 12 firebats, three civilians (who must survive) and a hero, Lieutenant Rand, whose survival is not noted as an objective. Continuing the trend, these units have been renamed from their vanilla counterparts. But, unlike the prologue, their gameplay values have been altered, too: UPL Shock Trooper
As you enter the colony installation, you get one of the few examples of good doodad work in the campaign: there's a bunch of dead marines scattered around. They're wearing the same blue armor as your guys, making it feel like they're the UPL loyalists and there maybe was a fight for the colony. But there's no sign of any rebels. And there's some very strange noises, almost like some kind of alien monster hissing and growling... Past Purposes has very effective sound design, frequently using sound effects and post-processing to enhance the atmosphere (eg. adding gunfire and Zerg noises if, say, a character is in combat while talking to you.)  The usage of the color blue is a good attention to detail. To such an extent that it's weird that no one in such a chatty story comments on these corpses. When you reach the command center, the civilians can investigate and pull data from the colony's computers. The first is a distress call from the Plutonian governor who, oddly, says that there are aliens inside the complex. But no one ever received it -- perhaps the attackers disabled the comm equipment prior to the attack. Another set of data indicates that whoever attacked the place also destroyed the cameras. Continuing to inspect the data reveals that the Pluto colony stumbled upon a form of alien life and studied it which, basically, lifts from Star Control 2's 'Hostile Alien Creature' science report wholesale. The alien creature they found possesses startling regeneration capabilities, resistance to toxins and poisons, and an odd resonating organ that they can't make sense of (and, of all things, something that The Shifters seems to make reference to.) The science team's recommendation was to get it out of the colony, but the alien/s broke containment, and the last message is from a horticulturalist, Brooke Madison, leaving a frantic log entry telling that the invaders are not human... and not Protoss. From there, the mission becomes something of a running battle through the colony. At first, you stumble on a few "Unknown Organisms" (Zerglings) and your soldiers are confused about it but also killing them isn't particularly difficult. While your weapons aren't terribly effective, neither are the Zerglings. This changes when the unknown lifeforms begin ambushing your soldiers and then set dozens of Hydralisks chasing you from the start of the map as you frantically try to escape to the UPL Dropship on the other side of the map.  First contact between the UPL proper and the Zerg -- or, as the UPL will term them, the 'Roaches.' And it's actually really cool! While you have about three dozen units, they're not very effective at what they do. And while the Zerg aren't terribly more effective, they have unending numbers, and they will catch and kill you if you don't leave soldiers behind every so often to slow them down. In the end, you'll probably need to leave Rand behind with whoever is left while the technicians make a mad dash for the dropship -- only for the dropship to not respond to the call for pickup! But the dropship, UPL Vertigo, arrives in the nick of time and extracts the survivors. The only people in the Solar system who are aware that the UPL is under attack from a vast, unknown enemy. So, here we have the things that Legacy of the Confederation does well. There's a heap of atmospheric dialog triggers that sell the situation: soldiers hearing Zerg noises and getting antsy, soldiers going 'what the gently caress' when they see their first Zergling, some poor Private getting ordered to scrape the corpse up for retrieval, soldiers freaking out when the horde of Hydralisks catches up to your soldiers, Rand ordering his people to form up in a firing line to buy time, and so on. It's great. Unidentified Organism (aka Zergling)
This is what Past Purposes does really well, and it'll become more obvious over the next few missions: it balances the sense of a doomed effort with the heroism of doing what you can to delay it even though it is, ultimately, pointless. Lieutenant Rand and his soldiers are wiped out getting the scientists to the dropship. Rand himself had to be killed here as he makes no further appearances in the campaign and he isn't even mentioned by anyone. He's just a guy, a notable hero unit, who dies in the line of duty. No one remembers him. There's no big moment where there's some heroic counterattack in his name. He's just one of the many, many people who die. And coming off retail Starcraft where heroes always lived, it's definitely unusual.  The need to leave some soldiers behind to hold back the horde of Hydralisks is an effective and memorable element of Past Purposes' first mission. While I don't want to discuss UED: First Light, the Starcraft 2 remake of Past Purposes, just yet from what I've seen it just makes it futile and pointless. For example, in Past Purposes' Chapter 1, the player gets the scientists off Pluto and this leads into the next mission, whereas in End of Innocence (the First Light version of Chapter 1), Rand's team attempts to signal a distress call... only for a freak solar storm to prevent anyone from hearing it, and the UPL figures insurrectionists killed them all. The thing is, as we'll see, letting the player win while still balancing the desperation and futility is a much more interesting choice than just having the player's efforts be for naught.
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Apr 26, 2024 08:14
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Past Purposes, Chapter 2 In Chapter 2, UPL Vertigo is burning hard for the Ganymede Science Platform, telling them they're under attack. Station Commander Noble says there aren't any pirates out this far and Vertigo says they have "no loving idea" what's chasing them beyond that they look like "giant fuckin' cockroaches" and the aliens have already hit the Io orbital platform, so, they're coming in hot. Noble is interrupted by Defence Net with a "Lancid priority" request. I assume they meant 'lancet.' DefNet, who I really think of as some kind of AI based on his voice acting and usage of the Ghost portrait and not a guy named Tolwyn Mada, says that Doctor Halsey aboard the dropship must transmit her data to Earth. Noble says they're a science station, not a battle platform, and requests UPL send reinforcements -- unfortunately, DefNet points out that the nearest UPL naval detachment is five hours away. Noble says they'll do what they can, even if it means pulling off a miracle.  Station Commander Noble explains the 'gimmick' to this installation mission. Chapter 2 is similar to Chapter 1 -- you need to get your scientist, Doctor Halsey, to the lab so she can transmit her vital data. But the Zerg are meaner and your men are a bit weaker. But, as you progress through the map, you can weld shut the doors behind you to buy time and delay the aliens. There isn't as much to say about it as Chapter 1, but it has a very similar vibe: Halsey welds herself into the lab alongside Commander Noble, transmits the data, even as everyone outside dies to buy time... and the Zerg will inevitably break through that door.  Please, Garret, time is of the essence! So, like Chapter 1, we have that pattern of characters doing their utmost to avert the Zerg advance, even at the cost of their lives, but the Zerg are such an overwhelming presence that it just doesn't matter. The player gets some objectives to fulfill that feel important and desperate, and the desperation is increased as the overall course of the war is not changed. Like Rand and his team, the implication at the end of this mission is that everyone on the Ganymede science station is killed.  Past Purposes' attempt to depict panicking hordes is interesting, but generally frustrating more than enjoyable. Notably, the ornery Doctor Halsey is not a reference to Doctor Halsey of Halo fame. Past Purposes came out two years before Halo and The Fall of Reach. As far as renames go, we have:
 The last moments of Chapter 2 -- people giving their lives to buy Halsey every possible second. The blue civilian is supposed to be Noble. Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Apr 28, 2024 |
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Apr 28, 2024 05:30
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Past Purposes, Chapter 3 Fleet Admiral Hayes expresses his condolences to the player -- while their division may have been wiped out on Pluto, his unit was able to transmit the data to Defense Net successfully. You might wonder why the player is being told this when they just saw it in Chapter 2, but there is actually somewhat clever. Throughout Chapter 2, Halsey is talking to Hobbes and not the Admiral meaning that, perhaps, the UPL Admiral had no idea what'd taken place. Meanwhile, as they speak, the UPL is busy analyzing the data to see what it can tell them about the aliens. At 1800 hours (the Zerg must like attacking at that time, huh), the UPL lost contact with their colonies on Ganymede and Io. Then, three hours later, they lost contact with Mars. Martian satellites captured images of "wurms" that the Protoss call "mutalisks." The Protoss Ambassador, Elandrea, provides what she knows: these mutalisks are part of a mindless horde that serves a central intelligence called the Overmind of which the aliens act as a colony of ants, an extension of its will. She has sortied the Protoss ambassadorial fleet to defend Earth while summoning reinforcements from their homeworld of Aiur, but it will take fifteen hours for them to arrive. That said, she is confident that they can hold the line. Hayes says the entire UPL fleet has arrived in orbit, and the line must be held at any cost.  Battle of Endor Syndrome, not just for Freespace 2! The UPL Jupiter and its escorting UPL Heavy Fighters make a powerful defensive bulwark. Now, this was the first mission made for Legacy of the Confederation. From what I know, the creators just wanted to do a big space battle and came up with a way to make it happen, which then led to the campaign proper. It is a fifteen minute long defence mission where hundreds of units crash together as an unending stream of Zerg air units try to breach the UPL/Protoss defences. The loss condition is the destruction of the allied fleet. It's a fight to the death where your losses are irreplaceable. There are civilian satellites scattered throughout the map (the red dots above) that'll inevitably get taken out in the cross fire. The problem is that, well, the Starcraft engine can't handle it. See, the Starcraft engine has a sprite limit. If it reaches that limit, it won't spawn anything further -- no units, no projectiles. The sheer number of units arrayed on this map mean the mission is virtually at its limit and, as soon as the sides clash, is. What this means is that very little combat actually happens because the game can't spawn the sprites for each attack. So, the epic fleet battle never quite eventuates. Also, you'll inevitably run into big UNIT UNPLACEABLE! errors as the game continues to try and spawn more and more waves of attackers.  The sheer amount of units on the map prevent (most of) them from actually firing at each other. That said, Starcraft: Remastered removes this limit, so, one benefit of playing this campaign in the Remastered client is that you can see this mission unfold closer to the creators' vision for it. It basically plays itself, and you're not ever in danger of the lines being breached, but that's reasonable, too. Because your Protoss warships are beasts, having been buffed compared to their vanilla counterparts as a way to depict their technological superiority.  Note the enhanced values of the Protoss Carrier, and the corresponding kill count. So, for fifteen minutes, the player basically watches the battle unfold. Then, at fifteen minutes/hours, two things happen: reinforcements arrive, only for it to be the next wave of Zerg attackers, and the Protoss decide to withdraw to Aiur in violation of the Earth/Aiur Accords. And, also, apparently an alliance that has existed for "the last twenty years." Judicator Aldaris, of all people, that wily ol' snake, tells Defence Net that they basically don't see the point of hanging around and fighting for humanity. It's done using lines of Aldaris' from Starcraft which, while impressive for the time, absolutely feels like Aldaris and Defence Net are holding different conversations that've been cut together, even back then. Regardless, Defence Net's plea is in vain: the Protoss withdraw.  The conversation between DefNet and Aldaris might be rough, but the fact the Protoss ships are your lynchpin makes their retreat hurt. Then, uh, you get to watch the Zerg continue to strike the UPL defenders while a 176kbps .wav edition of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters plays. It's very of its time, an XXX AWESOME DRAGONBALL Z LINKIN PARK NUMB AMV XXX kinda thing. It's goofy, but as a kid this was my introduction to Metallica and it was the coolest thing ever. The mission ends when the song plays out in full -- yes, really. It is not the most egregious usage of music in this campaign. That said, despite the Protoss' betrayal and the imminent defeat of the UPL navy, the mission ends on a strangely optimistic note: Past Purposes, Chapter 3 posted:"Even without Protoss support, UPL's armada destroyed an additional four waves of mutalisks before finally being overwhelmed. The pilots' bravery in that fight allowed earth an additional five hours to move its population underground, saving the lives of millions. And though the Zerg did gain control of earth's orbit, humanity's resolve was far from crushed." Overall, the mission is a mess. It plays itself, even with the sprite limit removed. But I admire the simple ludonarrative work with having the Protoss be your best ships by far (in fact, superior to their conventional stats) and their sudden departure heralding the failure of the UPL to hold the line. It is also our first look at the UPL's nomenclature for the familiar Zerg strains. Mutalisks are Roach Dragons. Scourges are Roach Skaters.
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Apr 30, 2024 02:36
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I'm loving these reviews. Thank you.
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Apr 30, 2024 03:40
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Milkfred E. Moore posted:Then, uh, you get to watch the Zerg continue to strike the UPL defenders while a 176kbps .wav edition of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters plays. It's very of its time, an XXX AWESOME DRAGONBALL Z LINKIN PARK NUMB AMV XXX kinda thing. It's goofy, but as a kid this was my introduction to Metallica and it was the coolest thing ever. The mission ends when the song plays out in full -- yes, really.  I loving love it.
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Apr 30, 2024 04:57
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Arivia posted:I'm loving these reviews. Thank you. catlord posted:
Thanks! I'm still trying to figure out the relevance of Nothing Else Matters. Assuming it wasn't just 'I love this song, and I love Starcraft' I imagine it's just a pretty basic reading of the lyrics? "So close, no matter how far..." referring to the defense of Earth. With the "Never cared for..." chorus referring to the treachery of the Protoss and the UPL's memory of it? I don't know. It's wild. I love it. But I don't think it has anything on the usage of one particular song that'll come up in the final mission (Chapter 8.) Past Purposes, Chapter 4 Fleet Admiral Hayes informs the player that while the fight in orbit might be considered a disaster, it was not, as it allowed the UPL time to analyse the data the team retrieved from Pluto. With what knowledge they had from the Protoss, it has allowed Defense Net to come up with a plan. Before disclosing the plan, Defense Net mentions that during the "orbital incursion", the UPL Prime Minister and most of his political staff attempted to escape Earth via a "classified doomsday evacuation vessel", but was seemingly destroyed fourteen minutes after launch. Now, Fleet Admiral Hayes and Defense Net are in charge. (Seriously, I can never think of Defense Net as a guy named Tolwyn Mada. He feels like an AI!) Defense Net directs the player's attention to the monitor which, in a neat touch, lights up one of the briefing panels with the pulsating organic mass that is the Zerg Cerebrate portrait. Defense Net explains that what the Protoss call a 'cerebrate' is the commanding intelligence of the attacking swarm. If the cerebrate dies, the swarm will fall into chaos. So, the UPL is going to take it out. The plan consists of a pair of 150 kiloton thermonuclear warheads. The nukes will be placed right next to the "Roach Queen" and then be remotely detonated by Defence Net. Attempts to drop nukes via aircraft or ICBM have not been successful, leaving the ground assault as the only recourse. 'Luckily,' the "Roaches" are massing upon an attack on all of Earth's major cities, leaving the Queen relatively unguarded. As a side note, 150 kilotons is... not much, comparatively speaking. For reference, the infamous Tsar Bomba was 50 megatons (or 50,000 kilotons.) You'd think the UPL would be able to produce something much more powerful, especially if it was a one-shot do-or-die situation. Perhaps these were the only ones they had available. Chapter 4 is perhaps the least remarkable map in Past Purposes. So much so that I basically forgot to grab any screenshots! It's about as close as the series gets to a macro map, albeit with a very different execution to the norm. Essentially, the map is divided into a number of phases: securing the nearby UPL base, constructing an attack force, taking out a hive cluster to the north to paralyze the cerebrate's aerial defences, airdropping in the nuke team past the comatose spore colonies, setting the bombs, and then extracting your units to a safe zone before they go off. As usual, the standard Starcraft units have been renamed to fit Legacy's universe but, disappointingly, the creators kept the HP, damage, and etc. mechanics with their normal values. When the campaign was otherwise good at creating a sense that the UPL was not prepared to fight the Zerg, the sudden change is jarring. But it does give us a look into what the UPL calls the Zerg:
(In the future, Emerald StarEdit would allow for the 'powerups' to be renamed, too, and it's similar to the 'sss' from the Prologue in that it's a little disappointing that the Psi Emitters were never renamed to be nuclear warheads or whatever. What makes it even more curious is that Chapter 8 had to be made with Emerald StarEdit or a similar hack. And that others maps do, in fact, rename the 'powerups.') Past Purposes, Chapter 5 Several hours past the nuclear detonation, Defense Net contacts Fleet Admiral Hayes with a startling admission -- the Roach Queen isn't dead, but regenerating! So much so that a UPL analyst calls it "reincarnation." It's already pushing the swarm toward every major city on the globe, including New York, Moscow, Tokyo, Beijing, Paris, and the UPL capital of Geneva. Australia keeps winning, it seems. Hayes orders anything and everything mobilized. "If they're employed by the UPL, I want them suited up and on the front lines." Shock troops, local police, accountants, everything. The player is sent to coordinate the defense of Geneva with about fifty thousand troops, half the continental air force, and "every local law enforcement official between Geneva and Portugal." Like a lot of the maps of Past Purposes, Chapter 5 isn't much to write home about. Essentially, it is divided in half between badlands structure and asphalt and badlands dirt... which is certainly an interesting choice for the Swiss countryside. Maybe UPL Earth is really desolate. Similar to Chapter 3, this is a mission that plays itself. The Roaches throw themselves at your defenses and you knock them back. Gameplay values are somewhere between the first missions and the unmodified Chapter 4, which is pretty cool. There's some neat radio chatter from the beleaguered defenders, although some of the lines are... less than great (a UPL soldier insisting he and his squaddies are being turned into 'Swiss cheese.' In Geneva.) The atmosphere is made unique with the addition of air raid sirens going off pretty constantly.  Past Purposes really shines when it comes to atmospheric chatter and general sound design. What is also less than great (for the UPL defenders) is when the Zerg penetrate into Geneva itself. Fleet Admiral Hayes promptly gets on the comms and gives a speech that there's no way to beat the aliens through force of arms, and so he's going to handle it personally -- by nuking the Zerg as they converge on the major cities of the UPL.  Except, as always, when it comes to Fleet Admiral Hayes, he sounds like he's bored and in a rush. Defense Net insists that it's a bad idea and will not win the war because the roaches have two eggs laid for every alien on the offensive. Unfortunately, not only are Hayes' nukes already in the air, he doesn't really care about any counter-arguments. The missiles will impact within thirteen minutes. But Defense Net has a plan: given that the roaches knocked out the orbital satellite grid, Hayes' nukes require land-based guidance. Defense Net believes Hayes would have observers near by to guide the missiles in. He orders all city commanders to try and capture those command posts so they can override the missiles. Luckily, it's not difficult to find Hayes' command post. It's just in the lower left corner of the map. And here is where the Legacy team employs an interesting trick: you are advised to capture the Comsat stations, but they only have 1HP -- anything and everything will destroy them in one hit. This leads to Defense Net contacting the player with a sombre message that without the stations, the nukes cannot be stopped, and while UPL command is dispatching emergency transports, he doesn't think they'll reach in time, and he's sorry. The weakness is there's no reactivity to if you manage to preserve the comsats. It'd be great if you capture them and you try to transmit the codes but, poo poo, Hayes made sure that was impossible. The game has, of all things, reactivity for if the Zerg destroy the comsat station/s which can only really happen if you somehow lead them there, so, it feels like a missed opportunity. There's fantastic delivery on a line from a nameless marine when he realizes Hayes' forces are firing at them: "Jesus Christ! Those roach things are fuckin' kickin' our asses and these guys here are trying to kill us off?! gently caress!" Just the total I-can't-even exasperation on his last expletive, it's perfect. It's so strange that Hayes gives a consistently poor performance but a lot of the nameless marines are stand outs.  Confusingly, for all of its focus on renaming units, sometimes there are times like this. They renamed 'Jim Raynor to 'Raynor' but not into UPL Civilian Militia? That said, the final few minutes before the ICBMs strike Geneva is set to Enya's Afer Ventus with all unit sounds muted. It is honestly weirdly haunting, especially when you translate the lyrics and see that it's a song about the beauty of the planet, the shortness of human lives, and how everyone is going to the stars. Hokey? Sure. But earnest, too. Then, a grim countdown from fifteen seconds until the nukes impact, a huge explosion sound goes off, and there's a great use of location triggers to model a shockwave killing everything in an expanding wave from the impact point -- it is a really effective ending. Using licensed music like this is an interesting hallmark of this era of fan creations, I think. I actually think it's really cool, and it's exposed me to a lot of music I never would've heard of over the years. Using Nothing Else Matters is on one side of the scale, sure, but I think Afer Ventus is on the other. The Blue Planet series for Freespace 2 is another fan-made creation that makes incredible use of copyrighted music across the board. I know some people don't like the idea in principle, and I get that, but I feel like a lot of these fan creations are about remixing what exists with your own ideas, and I think that's an important step for any artist. And in the case of Legacy of the Confederation, they do credit the music they've chosen to use in the readme.txt file. It's much more of a problem these days, I think, because of the drive to monetize even a project like this. But when someone isn't making any money, what's the harm? That said, Afer Ventus is still not the most egregious usage of licensed music in this campaign.  It is difficult to capture, but the detonation expands out in a boom-boom-boom pattern of expanding squares of expanding size from the impact point. Similar to Chapter 3, a narrator relays the impact of Hayes' attempted decapitation strike. Past Purposes, Chapter 5 posted:"Hayes' missiles impacted on 90% of their targets. All Zerg warriors were killed by the blast and fallout as was 95% of the UPL defense force. Two days following, Zerg eggs at Hives across the globe hatched allowing the Roaches' second attack wave to move across the earth unchallenged. What remained of earth's standing defenses was flattened." Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 02:44 on May 2, 2024 |
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May 2, 2024 02:27
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Past Purposes, Chapter 6 Chapter 6's briefing begins with a very dramatic moment. Excerpts from global news networks with a dramatic explosion/eruption between them. CNN LIVE UPDATE posted:After UPL nuclear strikes destroyed our own soldiers in a desperate attempt to eradicate all of the alien presence, next generation roaches have already been sighted in Denmark and Canada...and we've yet to hear from our field correspondents as to how many of these roaches survived but... BOOM. CBS NEWS posted:Military experts are calling it the end of the world... BOOM. EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM posted:This is a report from the Emergency Alert System BOOM. ASSOCIATED PRESS posted:UPL remains tightlipped as to its next move, as the aliens are re-appearing all over the world. Press releases from the Secretary General indicate... BOOM. I feel like if every single major city got nuked, there maybe wouldn't be this much press delivering apocalyptic news stories, but it's a wonderful effect. But also, what's with the Secretary-General? I thought the bureaucracy was dead and Hayes and DefNet were in charge. What happened to Hayes, anyway? I assume he killed himself, or DefNet had him taken out, but it's a little odd that it doesn't tell you. Defense Net greets the player Admiral, who apparently survived the nuking of Geneva. As Defense Net puts it, the UPL is at less than 1% military readiness and there's no chance of stopping the roaches now. Much of Earth's population has been herded into underground shelters, but the UPL has a contingency plan. Doctor Damian Saxton explains that while the Protoss are the only alien species encountered (beyond the roaches, of course), they may not be the only ones out there. So, the UPL will send a powerful distress call deep into space. Even if it attracts other hostiles, they surely can't be as bad as the roaches. In order to project the signal with enough power, the UPL will need to preserve what's left of its communication relay and satellite grid. What's left of the UPL military will defend the ten locations and, hopefully, the fact that the roaches are busy devouring the cities and industrial centres then they will be able to do so unnoticed. It will take forty-five minutes to send the transmission, so, the Admiral will need to hold out for that long. It's a fairly standard macro defence mission, albeit punched up with the need to reconnect other comsat stations around the map to assist the signal. It's also, weirdly, set on the jungle tileset. Given the sheer number of Bengal Tigers (bengalaas) on the map, I assume the player is somewhere in continental Asia. Like Chapter 4, gameplay stats are vanilla, and there's not really much that's interesting to screenshot, so, I forgot. All in all, it's probably the first map in this retrospective that I'd say is too small for what the creative team wanted. After forty-five minutes or so, the narrator speaks again. While the UPL managed to send their signal, it was for naught. Meanwhile, the Roaches moved over the surface of the Earth, leaving nothing but ash and ruin, and, "within six months" had a greater population than "ever possessed by humans in the entirety of our history." I think eleven billion people were mentioned by DefNet back in Chapter 3. So, that's a lot of Zerg! For whatever reason, though, the Roaches never decided to crack open the UPL underground shelters. Perhaps there was no need because, as the narrator says, food stores inevitably depleted, people resorted to cannibalism, and illness and disease spread through the shelters like wildfire. It took twenty years for the distress call to be heard, but seven more for help to arrive... Past Purposes, Chapter 7  Wait, what? In what is certainly a bold move, Past Purposes shifts perspective over to the Protoss. We are no longer a nameless UPL Admiral, but Judicator Typhon. Judicator Astarte contacts the player and advises them to return to Aiur at best possible speed. The Conclave has received a distress call and is convening to determine a course of action. The distress call is, of course, the one from Earth. And yet it seems like the Protoss have no knowledge of Earth... This mission is an odd one, and I think it's most indicative of the future of Legacy of the Confederation. If you recall what I said about Antioch's second episode, and Legacy of the Confederation in general, where storytelling was choking out the gameplay -- well, this map will test your lung capacity.  The decision to set a mission on Aiur using the desert tileset is an unusual one. The mission begins in the capital city of Pscion. As the meeting begins, Judicator Rak'hal mentions the distress call is from a remote and distant planet called Earth. Judicator Albrun mentions that this is first contact, and Rak'hal agrees. In that case, Albrun says, as the humans have done them no wrong, then the Protoss are honor bound to assist. However, Judicator Astarte disagrees. With a major rebellion within the province of Bah'rok on their hands, he advises that Aiur's attention should remain on their domestic issues. Judicators Regis and Aldaris agree with Astarte. As does Judicator Drealan, who says that the universe has many canons, but the oldest is that the strongest will survive and the humans must be left to evolve and endure on their own. Albrun points out that they can't endure while invaders control their world. Drealan reiterates the need to handle the rebellion before any other concerns. In the end, the Conclave agrees to not go to the aid of Earth and Judicator Typhon, the player, is ordered to crush the rebellion. Well, didn't this story just get a bit more complex! And so begins the first 'phase' of this rather epic mission -- and I don't mean that in the good way. You guide your Acolyte of Typhon (a renamed Tassadar) to an area of the map and build a base and offensive force to destroy the Protoss rebels. This takes about twenty minutes if you're competent and is, well, boring because -- as the map tells you -- the rebels will not attack. When you destroy the base, Judicator Astarte mentions that the rebel leader, Mallock, has escaped. He dispatches his agent, Vaeregoth, to help bring Mallock to justice. It turns out Vaeregoth is an Archon and, well, he's pretty bloodthirsty. Vaeregoth's first act is to kill the civilians who had been sheltering the rebels in order to drive Mallock toward the few people who'd still be brave enough to hide him.  While the attempt to demonstrate the civilian populace of Aiur is interesting, it doesn't amount to much beyond pylons and probes. From there, Vaeregoth heads to another section of the map where you need to penetrate rebel defensive lines and kill Mallock. Like the previous section, it means building up from nothing (even if you had a lot of resources banked.) Again, you build up a base, and the rebels never attack you. It's a big problem with this map -- there's an absolute ton of dead air time.  And, unfortunately, if you attempt to skip through some of the tedium, you'll find the mapmaker is one step ahead of you... Eventually, you hunt down Mallock and the rebel leader says that the rebellion is to save Aiur in order to avert a great darkness. Astarte orders you to kill Mallock regardless. You can choose to kill him or not but, if you do kill Mallock, you end the mission in a loss state. The Conclave congratulates you, you are a hero, and then Aiur is destroyed two years later.  Is it weird that while the false choice is fairly offensive, sure, I'm more miffed about a Protoss equating all of that with brimstone? So, of course, you let Mallock escape. Astarte and Aldaris ensure you/Typhon are exiled from the Judicator caste and you are exiled to a prison island. Which, as it turns out, is overrun with weird creatures. What Drealan calls a new weapon, one that will ensure your demise. At the point of certain doom, however, something spirits Typhon and his followers away from a horde of Zerg. That something is a being that calls itself The Oracle, which appears to be a sentient khaydarin crystal formation.  I feel that if you ever need to put this much text in a single transmission, you may need to rethink something... The Oracle claims to be as old as Aiur itself, a custodian of the Protoss race appointed by the Xel'Naga. It watches and observes, guiding the Protoss through subtle means, trusting in evolution to create the perfect lifeform. It is the 'light' counterpart to the 'dark' Overmind, which enacts direct control over its species as a "sovereign ruler." It, in fact, claims to be a Xel'Naga, one whom split itself into two halves -- light and dark. Interestingly, this all feels somewhat reminiscent of the direction Blizzard would take in Starcraft 2.  ...because this is only a fraction of how much The Oracle loves to exposit. The Oracle says that Drealan's obsession with the Xel'Naga led him to, fifty years ago, learn about the Zerg. He kept this information secret so he might rule Aiur himself. The Oracle will not intervene directly, but it will nudge Typhon to do something about it. To do so, it will turn Typhon into a Dark Templar -- but first, he must collect 50 Zerg Skins to prove himself worthy.  Do you think the Oracle grievously wounded Typhon to shove him in a Dragoon as per Protoss custom? I'm not kidding. The third 'phase' of this map is basically a MMO fetch quest, or a version of the UMS map Evolves. Using your Zealot, you must get a bunch of kills to turn into a Dragoon, then another bunch of kills to become a High Templar, and then finally wipe out some Zerg bases single-handedly and become a Dark Templar. It is arduous. And, upon achieving that, this map is only about halfway over... and it's maybe an hour long at this point. Now, with the powers of the Dark Templar, the Oracle instructs you/Typhon to go figure out what's going on. (Also, given The Oracle's appeals to evolution, and Drealan's 'oldest canon' about the strong surviving on their own merits... I have no idea if this is indicative of a subtle link.)  Meanwhile, Astarte and Drealan realize that Typhon is on their way to foil their plans, and Drealan quotes a movie. There's another base building phase, but it's a defensive mission while you take Typhon and investigate a Protoss archive and get another bunch of plot and lore dumped on you by tracking down sixteen computer databanks ("For Aiur. So be it. Very well. Ne'mah. For Aiur. So be it."), each containing a single piece of lore. To cut a long story short: As The Oracle said, sixty-five years ago (uh, give or take fifteen years, I guess?), Drealan learned about the Xel'Naga's "secondary species" and that they were weak to psionic control. Unable to locate them himself, Drealan decided to lure them to a world using Psi Emitters so he might gather specimens to study. Using any Protoss world was not viable, nor was using an uninhabited world, but the discovery of Earth provided him with the perfect opportunity to lure the Zerg out and gather some specimens for his own ends. Mallock was the commander of Drealan's Fleet whom he sent to make first contact with Earth under the guise of a diplomatic mission. Seemingly ynknown to the Protoss Ambassador, Mallock seeded the Earth with Psi Emitters under the guise of observation devices. This lured the Zerg to Earth. Mallock figured that the Protoss would defend the Earth as part of their sample gathering operation, but Aldaris relieved him of command when he led the reinforcements to Earth. Upon the return of his fleet, Drealan had Mallock and his warriors confined to the province of Bah'rok. But when word got out about the distress signal, and Mallock wished to inform the Conclave of what had happened, Drealan ordered Astarte to false flag an attack on Pscion and blame Mallock. This led to the events of six days ago (the hunt for Mallock by Typhon) and then to now. The final bit of data details that a Psi Disruptor can break Zerg control, but that this requires khaydarin crystals, so, Drealan has moved "all such crystals on Aiur" to Astarte's province of Thaxyn. (This is, of course, very strange as khaydarin crystals are practically batteries for the Protoss, powering everything from pylons to psi blades...)   A fairly typical example of just how complex this mission can be. So, with all that known to Typhon, it's time to head to the province of "Darkshire" and expose Drealan. Astate switches sides, only for Drealan to kill him via spontaneous broodling eruption out of him, which causes Vaeregoth to switch sides. Vaeregoth summons Astarte's fleet to attack Thaxyn, only for Drealan to sortie a metric fuckton of Zerg fliers. The player gets to watch as a few dozen carriers take on about a hundred if not more Zerg fliers, and lose.  TWO Battle of Endor set pieces in ONE campaign! You cannot ever accuse Legacy of the Confederation for not reaching for the stars. The next phase of the mission involves an attack on Thaxyn and retrieving the khaydarin crystals there. But when that is done, The Oracle speaks to Typhon/the player ("Judicator Typhon, I am communicating with you through telepathy, only you can hear me now  Another favorite sci-fi set piece of the Legacy campaigns is, basically, the Klendathu Drop. In the end, you do it, and the Zerg psionic link is broken and they turn on themselves. At the end of the mission, Judicator Rak'hal provides a solemn account of events. Until this time, Aiur had never been touched by invaders, and Drealan formulating such an ambitious plan was a major embarassment. Rak'hal resigned as head of the Conclave. Typhon's turn to a Dark Templar prevented him from serving on the Conclave. Aldaris, "though he did not participate in the crimes against the earth creatures" was made the new Conclave leader as there was "no dishonor" in following orders. Which is probably a lesson in why you should think twice about using canon characters in such prominent roles.  Another element that Legacy of the Confederation enjoys employing are timed sections. Still, Aldaris hunted down all the remaining Zerg from the surface of Aiur. The embarrassment was so severe that all historical records were destroyed and only Rak'hal's account of events was kept, which remained in her possession and were given to no one else. In a hundred years, Rak'hal supposes that Drealan, the beasts, and all associated with it will fade into myth -- which is really something when Protoss live for thousands of years. Rak'hal hopes the Protoss are ready when they inevitably encounter the Zerg again. But, there is some good news -- several weeks following the incident, the Conclave ruled to send a force to Earth to save humanity. A historical note mentions that Rak'hal's prediction of a second Zerg invasion was never taken seriously. And with that, mercifully, Chapter 7 of Past Purposes comes to a close.  'To be succinct,' he says. The Oracle talks a big game about not involving itself, but will bend time and space to ensure that Pscion does not fall... On one hand, this mission is groundbreaking. It's huge. It has about half a dozen mini-missions within it. It has about five thousand words of dialogue alone (an average book chapter could be 2500 words, for example.) On the other, it's basically awful to play. It takes about three hours to complete, assuming you don't do anything wrong. It's an absolute slog with a lot of that time being cutscenes or resource gathering. The mini-missions veer between basic or convoluted but are never terribly fun. It's something that should be split in three missions (putting down the rebellion, being thrown into exile; the Oracle's trials, reuniting with Mallock, learning the truth; gathering crystals, stopping Drealan) and I'm not sure why the Legacy team insisted in shoving it all into one map beyond to prove that they could. Similarly, the map looks fairly bland and ugly and while the use of the desert tileset is to demonstrate a wasteland on Aiur is novel, it prevents the map from ever feeling like it is set on Aiur. The timeline doesn't make sense broadly (Protoss lifespans) and in its own exposition (The almighty Oracle is off by fifteen years.) The Protoss voices are quite a bit worse than Antioch's. It introduces a ton of lore and characters, some of which will be relevant throughout the series (for better or worse.) It's bigger than anything in the Antioch Chronicles or Insurrection and Retribution, and yet kinda worse to play than any of them, too. And, like I said, Chapter 7 feels like the mission that best captures what Legacy's team considered a 'good' map. We see much of it in Chapter 8 of Past Purposes, but done better, and it sets a lot of the tone for Dawn of Darkness and Fallen Angel.
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May 4, 2024 05:33
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Past Purposes, Chapter 8 Despite the usage of Metallica and Enya, the final mission of Past Purposes is the first to have this notice. If Chapter 7 represents what the creators thought of as the ideal map, I think Chapter 8 is a smaller and more refined version. However, my memory is that the next episodes of Legacy of the Confederation are closer to Chapter 7 than 8. But right now, the Conclave has sent Vaeragoth and Mallock to liberate Earth from the Zerg. En route, Mallock reached out to and asked for Typhon and his Dark Templar to accompany him, and Typhon agreed. Upon arriving in the Sol system, Mallock asked the Dark Templar to remain cloaked until they were needed or, otherwise, all hope of victory will be lost. The Protoss located the Zerg Cerebrate's approximate location, and teleported a contingent of warriors down to the surface, fifty miles south. This is what they found:  The opening shot of Chapter 8 'EARTH. 25 YEARS FOLLOWING THE ZERG INVASION' is very memorable and atmospheric, especially with the ruined command centre and dead trees. Great mise en scene. Interestingly, the lack of any music is used to good effect here. There's a desolate-sounding wind cycle on loop, which really helps sell the atmosphere of a ruined Earth. I always took the snow and dead trees to be the result of a nuclear winter, but I don't know if that's possible based on Hayes' nuke-our-guys gambit. Still, I think that's a really great way to begin the mission. Mallock announces that while he can detect a Zerg mining base nearby, human presence appears to be nil. Even now, there's a part of me that wonders: are we too late?  This is the first map in the series to show off some real doodad work -- but not only are the repeats obvious, it's a hassle to maneuver Dragoons through the woods. Chapter 8 is similar to Chapter 4 and Chapter 7 in that it's divided into unique phases, but much better than the previous attempt at hte concept. The first phase is a micro one that involves razing the Zerg mining base to the ground and killing all Overlords before they can escape, as they would alert the Zerg to the presence of the Protoss. Once that is done, the second phase involves building forces to Klendathu Drop at the weakest point of the spore colony batteries on the mainland. Here is where the custom music returns. Throughout this mission, there's four tracks that play. Three from Scream, one from Terminator. I haven't been able to pick out which tracks they are specifically based on my perusal of the soundtracks in question (the readme.txt credits them as suites, so, I think they were cut from different tracks and re-assembled) but they work really well. They definitely help it feel like you're wandering a dead planet that the Zerg are basically gnawing on the bones of. Once you've established a beachhead, you then push west, wipe out another Zerg base, and establish your own base on the mainland. It's here that you encounter your first set of humans -- and they are not happy to see you. They ask to help out on account of knowing the local terrain, however, and while Mallock is happy to have them, Vaeragoth is not. It's up to the player whether they want to bring the Terrans along as they push up a canyon.  It's weird that some of the more memorable characters are the nameless marines. Speaking of Mallock and Vaeragoth, however, Chapter 8 is basically their mission. They spend a lot of it discussing what happened and is happening to Earth. Broadly speaking, Mallock is guilt-ridden due to Aldaris ordering the fleet away from Earth and his compliance with that order. His mission is one of personal absolution, and for perhaps the whole Protoss species, too. Vaeragoth, basically, doesn't care. He is present because it is the will of the Conclave, and nothing else.  They still love making sure you get every detail, though. So, you can side with Mallock, and bring the marines along, or side with Vaeragoth and tell them to get lost. If you take the latter option, the marines return to their underground shelter, and Mallock is displeased. If you tell them to come along, the marines inform you of a Zerg supply line at the end of the canyon -- which turns out to be a trap! One of the "Human Soldiers" is infested, and gloats that it is the eyes and ears of the cerebrate, and the cerebrate wishes to play a game -- it'll tell the Protoss where it is, and all they have to do is kill it.  Note the small chrysalises. They're designed to block you off from proceeding through the map and sequence breaking it. You push east through an overgrown facility, which the Zerg have infested and turned into a mass hatchery. The sight of infested children and pregnant "females" begins to erode Vaeragoth's frozen heart and when the cerebrate shows up to gloat, Vaeregoth declares they'll liberate the humans. "Milkfred, this sounds pretty anime," I hear you thinking. You've seen nothing yet.  It's a bit edgy, but I think the intent is to make clear the horror of the Zerg. But at the same time, surely the audience already knows what the Zerg do? Zerg Cerebrates are funny things. I don't think there was ever a Starcraft custom campaign that handled them well. I think the unique presentation of the Zerg campaign gave many Starcraft fans an odd idea of what a cerebrate is and how it communicates. I'll explain. Zerg Cerebrates have speaking roles in exactly one campaign in Starcraft and Brood War -- the first Zerg campaign. We see Daggoth and Zasz communicate via dialogue and have distinct personalities and names, but I always felt as if this was 'translated' for the player's benefit. It's similar to the grandiose speech patterns of the Overmind. The communication we're witnessing is some kind of telepathic hive mind that humans couldn't parse without being infested. The only things we ever see cerebrates interact with are the Overmind and Kerrigan, who are both infested (and psychic, at that.) When Zeratul kills Zasz, the only thought process he interacts with is that of the Overmind. While the cerebrates have some degree of personality and intelligence, they always struck me as, essentially, specialized nodes of the Overmind. Which is why, as we see in Brood War, they can't survive without the Overmind and yet can form a new Overmind if they basically push themselves together into a pile.  Cerebrates probably could not watch and quote The Matrix, nor have I ever thought of them as having eco-fascist tendencies. Basically, I've never thought of the cerebrates as being able to go on evil monologues or even possibly have comprehensible dialogue at all with anything that wasn't Zerg. However, every fan campaign that featured talking cerebrates that I can think of basically depicted them as, well, how this mission does: anime villains. Probably because the Zerg had no real personalities to bounce off beyond Kerrigan. Anyway, this Cerebrate wants you to send twelve of your strongest warriors to take on its three best champions -- oh, and you have to do it in twenty missions, or it'll get bored and kill you. So, you do. You grab your twelve best units (ten Archons, Mallock, Vaeragoth, what else) and head into the arena to face the first champion, Kolkarasz. And THIS begins playing. Nothing Else Matters, sure. Enya, okay. Some Braveheart music shows up in Chapter 7 during the Battle of Endor sequence. The suites in this map, okay, all good, very atmosphere. But One-Winged Angel... I don't think I'd played Final Fantasy 7 when I first played Legacy of the Confederation, and if I had I'd probably have thought it was the coolest thing to hear it here, but I'm not sure there's anything that places this little artwork in the grand human timeline as succinctly as saying 'they scored their final boss battle with One-Winged Angel.' It's not that it's a bad piece of music! Even in 176kbps .wav format! It's just that this is, I think, the 'bad' kind of using licensed music. Nothing Else Matters was a bit goofy, but Afer Ventus was legitimately good. One-Winged Angel is the perfect song for the climax of Final Fantasy 7, that anime melodrama where the final boss has become a god and is throwing out actual supernovas in his attack pattern... It is not so good for a Zerg gladiatorial gauntlet. (I also think there's something about the synth sounds of it that make it very clear it's not a 'fit'.) (My memories tell me that there were other custom campaigns and scenarios that also used it, but I don't know if that's just my mind grasping at straws. But if that's true, then surely Past Purposes was the trend-setter.)  'Estuans interius, ira vehementi -- Kolkarasz! Kolkarasz!' Oh, it just doesn't have the same ring to it. That said, this might be one of the first instances of a 'boss battle' in a custom campaign. Kolkarasz is a very tough Yggdrasil-Overlord (6000HP, 4 armor) who floats around the battlefield while three Nydus Canals spawn waves of Zerg ground units. If you kill the Nyduses, Kolkarasz becomes vulnerable and you can hurt him, but the Nyduses will respawn after a timer, meaning you have to repeat the process. Pretty standard stuff, but definitely novel in Starcraft. So, you kill Kolkarasz, and head on to next champion, a Hunter-Killer named Ygragz (6000HP, 4 armor.) But Ygragz has a bunch of hallucinations, meaning you need to hunt down and kill the right one. While he'll also teleport and swap places with his hallucinations, he's probably easier to kill than Kolkarasz. One-Winged Angel is still playing. The third champion is a beefed-up Guardian, Grakhis (4000HP, 4 armor), but he's easier than Ygragz even if he summons Mutalisks to aid him. You beat him up, too, then make your way up to the Cerebrate -- who is immune to your "pitiful warrior skills." One-Winged Angel stops playing. But Vaeragoth says, "You are wrong, monster!" and calls in Typhon and his Dark Templar, because Judicator Drealan wrote down that "All Zerg are inherently composed of dark energies" and he's calling down Typhon to do his thing, just as the cerebrate's forces begin chewing through your bases. It's a race against time! And the first timer is still going! (Of course, Mallock is implied to be aware of this as he reached out to the Dark Templar, stressed the need for them to remain hidden, and even says the Cerebrate is aware they can't actually harm it earlier-- so, why is Vaeregoth acting like it's something he stumbled upon? Maybe Mallock just let him go for it.) Here is where the map is... unique. The Dark Templar have bit of a head start, but they need to run along the same winding path you've taken through the map to get to the cerebrate. The Guardians will reach Mallock and Vaeragoth before then -- unless you've built big enough bases along the way at the various resourcing spots to slow them down. The problem I had with this map was is I was able to clear it with my initial beachhead team, so, the Guardians would wipe out my one base and then reach the cerebrate before the Dark Templar were halfway there.  Nooo, you can't just mass Guardians and attack-move! That's my trick! But if you've given the Guardians enough to chew on, the Dark Templar reach and kill the cerebrate and the day is saved. With the cerebrate dead, the Protoss soon depart Earth but leave behind their technology as penance. But as the people of Earth emerge from their hiding places, however, they are filled with "a grim and malevolent resolve." Past Purposes, Chapter 8 posted:Humanity spent the following fifty years rebuilding their lost civilization, and after that, turned their eyes toward space travel once more. The world unified under a single global order, a regime which would later be named "The Confederation." That doesn't sound good? Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 10:38 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 10:35
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Past Purposes, Epilogue There isn't much to say about the final chapter of Past Purposes. It is, as it says, an epilogue. As we saw at the end of Chapter 8, humanity came out of the Zerg invasion with an ominous mean streak. The epilogue shows us what that means for the Koprulu Sector. Although it's taken two hundred years, humanity has finally regained its place in the stars and has spread out from the Sol system. They've colonized twenty-two star systems, including Alpha Centauri, Wolf, and Betelgeuse. But a recent development has troubled the Confederation: several exploration ships have vanished near the Koprulu sector, and analysts have determined that the perpretrators were Zerg. To that end, the Confederation is marshalling its forces, and "the time of Earth's vengeance is at hand."  President Deckard Cain. Look, you really just have to roll with it. The mission is basically a news broadcast. If there's one inspiration that Legacy of the Confederation has, it's clearly Starship Troopers. What makes me wonder, however, is if it was one of the pre-Brood War design elements, or if they just went a bit more obvious about it after Blizzard made it clear it'd influenced the depiction of the UED. This map makes it clear. It leaps right into playing Intro and Fed Net March from the Starship Troopers soundtrack (the first 0:55 seconds.) As President Deckard Cain gives a speech that I have transcribed below. Past Purposes, Epilogue posted:The Zerg took everything from us -- our lives, our pride, our history. They brought us to the brink of extinction.  And Past Purposes ends truly in the spirit it was intended... Everyone cheers, and a Fleet Admiral Wainwright announces to her fleet that the wait is over, and they're going in -- and then, boy, do they!  ...going as hard as possible and as large as possible and as wild as possible. Epilogue posted:The Confederation Fleets Arrived At The Zerg Infested World TO BE CONTINUED... Past Purposes is an interesting campaign. For better or worse, when I think 'Starcraft custom campaign', it is the one that leaps to mind. It's hard to call it good. As noted, at least two of the missions play themselves, some other missions are unremarkable, Chapter 7 is an outright pain, and so on. But at the same time, I think it is carried by its story and its atmosphere and there's a lot of enjoyment in seeing the story unfold. The general idea of an Earth that is completely unprepared for an alien invasion and the doomed effort that follows is compelling. While Hayes is poorly acted, his decision to nuke the major cities to Enya's music is very memorable. It isn't nearly as professional as Antioch Chronicles, and yet... I think that's an interesting discussion. Antioch Chronicles is clearly better, but I feel Legacy of the Confederation was much more influential. There's a whole discussion you could have as to whether a fan work should seek to replicate the core experience of the work that inspired it, as Antioch did, or to push the boundaries and try something new. I think it's deeply tragic that neither story was finished by the original team that started it. As we'll cover, Legacy of the Confederation certainly goes places. All that said, I think it's easy to see why Past Purposes is held in such high regard. I know some people deride it as only being good "for its time" but I feel that's a pretty banal statement to make: most things are only good for their "time." Perhaps the one thing I'm still trying to figure out, and I'm curious to see how the next two installments take it, is how much we're supposed to see the Confederation as bad guys. Like I said at the beginning of this, I'm really not sure how much the creative team understood the UPL to be a pretty terrible government. Is it moral complexity, or is it a bunch of nerds who didn't think it through? Am I supposed to be rooting for the Confederation, or is it a sort of epic tragedy? Is it the Starship Troopers where we're in on the joke, or the Starship Troopers where people go, y'know what, that would be kinda cool... Pros: An engaging narrative greatly assisted by atmosphere and sound design. Past Purposes nails the story of a doomed effort without losing sight of the heroism inherent to it. Mission 8 is very cool. Cons: Past Purposes is let down by an odd 'first draft/one take only' level of quality -- gameplay is rough and inconsistent, map/mission quality varies wildly, polish is surprisingly lacking. Mission 7 is an absolute chore to play through. Remastered Compatibility: Yes, albeit without the custom voice responses. Next up, something very different! Milkfred E. Moore fucked around with this message at 10:39 on May 9, 2024 |
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May 9, 2024 10:37
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