I actually lost first time i tried that, it seems to demand a lot of reclaim/rebuild micro with one's rector spam - maybe a lot more than you'd expect from a complete newbie.

(or maybe that was because i went scouting for units first, so i lost all ticks due to chain boom, and lost crabe due to rapierball, huh)

It seems camera doesn't get set back to where it was after the cutscenes.

From the dramaturgical point of view though, i think the initial phase is too open for this kind of mission - there are too many things to do while gathering up for the real action.

(kinda like defense of xel'naga temple in SC:BW where you could just exterminate all zerg before seizing temple, except here it won't help you defend)

I think the radar suggestion spots could be more clearly visible, for instance drawn in player colour - i actually mistook a radar hint for actual radar first time, and only found out it wasn't real when clicking on it during the second run.


Loved the final shot - i had the crabe sitting on hill bombarding foes, he got nicely in the frame :P

quote: changing the Firewalker to something I can't think of, though D:

Any other arty? Maybe merl or pillager.

Or just set it on holdfire by default.

An idea for the less-dynamic initial phase: set another timer after first kill, after which the enemies get angry!

Great piece of work!

I guess hitting esc during cutscenes could skip it, rather than pause.

do it make defencing easier if i kill most units at map ?

It will make it easier to win if you intercept some of the guys before they reach the defense position :P

For instance, sniper and glaives controlling the northern route right near spawn point help a LOT.

It's the free camera mode. Works best if you're using COFC; else restoring the user's original camera is already on my todo list.

Ctrl+F2 gets your TA camera back.

The most fun mission I've played. The last stand scene at the end was really tight. The only reinforcements I got for myself before the battle were the three zeus and a firewalker. My banisher got stuck at the very beginning due to a pathing bug and the roaches chainexploded to the enemy lotus that was next to them. :D

The beginning was really slow and static, basically just taking out units with the athena+sniper combo. But the end was a nail biter. Had no idea when the mission would end, and I was just about to collapse when the transport came to my aid. Truly dramatic.

I haven't yet applied some fixes/refinements I wanted to.

Ideally the dialogue would be voiced as well before it's featured but ehhhh...

Nice, nice, very nice! This is exactly what ZK needs to appeal more to the general RTS crowd.

But...

A couple of things bothered me during the game.
The technical issues.

First of all is the camera. It enables the smoothscroll and that other (forgot the name) camera. And, tbh, they are terrible :( Verys slow, unresponsive and you cant rotate the camera's angle. I disabled those at the start but after a cut scene the camera froze. I had to renable the ZK camera and disable it again to unlock it.

Secondly, it doesn't use my hotkeys. (i actually self-D the athena when i wanted to make a turret because ctrl+d is Aa-defense in my layout :S)

Isn't it posible to just read the users spring and ZK settings and use those in the mission?

About the mission itself.
It may be a little simplistic but an OK excersice. The sniper could just play on his own until the defense part while the glaives had hardly anything to do at all. i agree with Antero here that this part is a bit too static.
I'd cut the Bansiher from the group. It isn't suited for the terrain. It can't move up all the ramps where you'd expect him to. Or you'll have to explain how the F2 view works.
The end was good fun though! I only had 3 zueses and a firewalker unlocked when the defense part came.


I am not sure how much knowledge of ZK you expect from the player but given you teach what an LLT is i guess that it is minimal. However, you assume a lot already. Things like repair, cloack, jump are available without info.

The fact that you have to make a condtructor with an Athena instead of a factory in a tutorial mission is a bit dodgy i think. Isn't a better idea to just spawn one or two?

You could also say that the Athena is VERY fragile at the start of the mission.

The Fire Walker is a nasty friendly fire award generator. Is it an idea to put it on hold fire and explain that you have to fire it manually?

(mentioned before) the chat is a bit childish, but that might just be me :P

Saves.. i know this is imposible with the current engine. I won't critiscise the mission for this. But it is something every RTS player is going to expect. These type of longer missions are hardly playble without them to most people. They want to retry every little engagement 4 times. Is it an idea to stick to smaller tutorials and missions that evolve around a single gameplay element?

Overall still a major step towards a more mature RTS game :D Mega props to KingRaptor for your hard work. I know it is not easy to make these things :D