[WIP] Smugglers Campaign 2!

[Fey]

ayy lmao, another new map is out

here's a zip with every map in the campaign so far, including the new one, S16V1.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1y48LuY8cuL4KU3iHpZ__WakoGs_bbwDW

this is an Arrakis map. so, it's different from S16V2, but it should be about as hard. you need to head into Grose Valen and protecc the Fremen and Imperials while killing the Tleilaxu. but with a talented commander like Moriaen organizing the enemy, and given that you're surrounded, this is easier said than done even taking into consideration the hardiness of the holdouts you're coming to rescue.

here are some details:

Spoiler

I don't have a par time yet for this one. I hope it's about even with S16V2.

Make your first build order Barracks > Trap > Ref > HFact if you want more defenders readily available sooner, either for protecting yourself or your allies. Do Trap > Ref > HFact > Ref instead if you're confident you can defend effectively with your starting units. Remember, massed Light Infantry are actually an effective counter against Shock Raiders, so you may find them quite useful in the early game to keep your base secure while you focus on economy.

Split your forces in half to ensure no harm comes to your base. Your defenders can handle attacks from both the east and west while split, but you should pay attention to them both. Send forces down to the Fremen and Imperial bases if you want to assist in their defense, but be ready to pull them back whenever the Tleilaxu attack you again. You can defend by clumping all your units together, but you may suffer some damage to your base if your units are only protecting one side at a time.

The Fremen and Imperials will do their best to look after themselves, but see if you can send a few units down just to sit in front of their turrets. A few heavy Combat Tanks or artillery units behind their fortifications can seriously help them out.

Try to build a Starport ASAP. You and your allies together will get six free light Combat Tanks delivered every 3 minutes... so, you'll have 9 minutes between each delivery of your Combat Tanks. Only six drop at a time, either for you, the Fremen, or the Imperials. However, don't neglect your defenses! Get both a Light Factory and Heavy Factory up first. You can spam Harvesters with the Heavy Factory and Raiders with the Light Factory, and a few Quads couldn't hurt either. That should be enough to stave off the Tleilaxu and assist your allies until you can get a Starport up.

When you're ready to attack, consider your targets. Every enemy base has a Storm Lasher in it. The northern Tleilaxu bases are less defended, but they won't be pushovers either. They spam Shock Raiders and use Sardaukar Gholas. And, they're kind of set up to make entry pretty difficult, with cliffs on the left and walls on the right. The southern Tleilaxu bases are the ones launching Death Hands and massing Devastators against you. You might be able to take down the Palaces of Destruction early on, maybe with Stealth Raiders or something, but actually destroying the southern bases is probably harder than destroying the northern ones. Still, you'll find there are Wind Traps in numerous spots in the southern bases, and they have multiple entrances.

Stealth Raiders are very useful around Storm Lashers since they can appear wherever you want them to in the enemy base if you can sneak them in successfully. Use them to instantly break enemy fortifications or damage important structures! You can even roll them right up to the Storm Lasher itself.

However you do it, victory is yours if you keep the Fremen and imperial leaders alive and defeat the Tleilaxu forces. Good luck and have fun!

hopefully it's about as difficult as S16V2 and takes about as long to beat. they're very different maps, one being a Heighliner map, so it's kinda hard to balance them with each-other, but again these are only the first drafts of S16V1 / V2. after some testing, I'll have all the data I need to make the maps properly tuned for their final releases and stuff

anyway, good luck, please drop a comment if you give it a run and let me know how it feels. the more data, the better my tuning will be for the final release

Edit: arma kindly did a testing run of the map and I was able to fix some glaring balance issues. S16V1 should be much fairer now! This new draft has replaced the old link.

Edited September 5, 2019 by Fey

[Fey]

Heya, folks! I've been super busy lately, but I managed to complete the first draft of S17V2, so here it is.
S17V2.zip

As with other downloads, all you need to do to install it is merge the data folder in the zip with the one in your D2k directory. To uninstall the mod, do the same thing with the data folder under backup in the zip.

Here are some details about the new map:

Spoiler

FULL MAP IMAGE:


STRATEGY:
Durant will protect Aurelianus while the Ixian Godslayer is under development (a role you would play in S17V1), but it's your job in the meantime to travel to Tsimpo Heights and capture or destroy Moriaen's superweapons. If allowed to use them against you in the final battle at Hajj Plateau, Moriaen would easily destroy you before you gain any ground whatsoever.

Wait for your initial reinforcements to clear the way into the territory, then bring your Engineers and Stealth Raiders south. Kill the enemy Saboteur near the G/T Cabal superweapons before capturing them with your starting Engineers, along with the nearby Wind Traps. Use your extra Engineers to take the two ConYards to the west and east of where your MCV will land for maximum buildspeed.

Capturing the G/T Cabal Barracks will allow you to summon Fremen Warriors to the battle. Taking the Research Centre near the eastern SLashers would give you immediate access to a Palace of Diplomacy and Fremen Fedaykin, as well as Rocket Turrets if you upgrade your ConYard. A Repair Pad is in the western section. I recommend taking the Barracks first. Also, you might want to clear out the Wind Traps at this base... just in case enough turrets are destroyed by Moriaen to put the power back on. You'd suddenly have some active SLashers in your base.

You'll have some time to build up before it starts raining bombs. Set some Rocket Turrets up on the cliff edge to take pot-shots at enemy units approaching your base, and keep a mobile force of defenders ready to respond to any attacks that may come from your sides. Try to establish a good economy and get one of each factory up before Summers guesses Moriaen's weapons must be ready. You can also try to sneak your Stealth Raiders down and take out an enemy superweapon or two before Moriaen uses them against you. You'll probably lose the Stealth Raiders, but their sacrifice could help you out a lot. At the very least, try to scout the enemy positions enough to use your superweapons on cooldown against juicy targets.

The enemy will use mostly LAVs and infantry against you, so consider building or ordering some Siege Tanks. Your Raiders will work well against enemy Shock Raiders, and Quads will outmatch RPG Quads in close combat. Throw in some Combat Tanks to soak damage for those units.

When you're ready to move out, the central and southwestern enemy bases are relatively exposed to you. Come from the far west and you'll be able to attack the southwest base without dealing with the SLasher, at first. If you attack from the north and fight your way past the SLasher, you'll be able to eliminate all of their Wind Traps and effectively de-tooth the base. As for the central base, you could sneak some infantry (especially Fedaykin) up the infantry-only on the far east section of cliff wall. Take out a Guild Wind Trap or two and the local SLasher will go down. Otherwise, there are a few clustered Wind Traps just beyond the main entrance that would make great targets for one of your Death Hand Missiles.

After you've breached the central enemy position, the southern and southeastern bases are exposed to you. Go straight south and push through the Rocket Turrets, and you'll be able to take out their power. Otherwise, cling to the east side of the map and head south from there to take out the weaker enemy base in the corner. Destroying the SLasher at the southeastern base would give you better access to the southern base's Refineries and superweapons.

However you manage it, you'll achieve victory after all enemy bases have been destroyed. Good luck!

The missing missions between S15 and S18 are all build-up to the final fight against Achen Moriaen and the Emperor Worm. The only one left to do is S17V1. I'm excited to finish it and call this campaign complete!

This is a first draft map, so please remember to come back here and leave a comment with some feedback if you give this map a shot. The map is meant to be harder than S16V1 / V2, but easier than S18. My testing run went well for me, it felt to be around that difficulty level, but the only way to know for sure is to get feedback from others. I want to make sure it's perfect before doing the final release!

(also, please note that this is one of the last maps in the campaign. if you haven't played any maps in the campaign yet, I DO NOT recommend starting with this one! it is not meant to be easy! check out some earlier maps and get a feel for the mod first! )

Thank you! See you when S17V1 is done.

Edited November 13, 2019 by Fey

[Cm_blast]

I really want to play the finished campaign, I need to replay the originals since you modded the game even more since the last time I played, and the "second part" I remember testing some of the early maps, but I am not watching too much in dept the remaining. I really want to play the whole campaign, I hope don't take too many months to finishing (and I mean playing, not the work xD).

[Fey]

On 11/13/2019 at 4:31 AM, Cm_blast said:

I really want to play the finished campaign, I need to replay the originals since you modded the game even more since the last time I played, and the "second part" I remember testing some of the early maps, but I am not watching too much in dept the remaining. I really want to play the whole campaign, I hope don't take too many months to finishing (and I mean playing, not the work xD).

I try to establish a sense of scale and desperation with my maps. Big maps, the occasional side objectives, secrets or Easter eggs, and some very tough fights against foes meant to feel superior to you. While there's only so much I can do with the gameplay to make a foe feel imposing without making the game unfair, I certainly try to keep up the feeling through the story! S16V1 / V2 and S17V1 / V2, the missing maps (three of which are now complete), are the build-up to S18 I needed to make it a fitting climax. The player and his ally, the mercenaries, fight two separate battles against a single superior commander. It prepares the player for S18, I hope.

Although some of the earlier maps may still take some time to beat on account of multiple objectives, a sequence of events, or large enemy presence, I still tried to make sure they're fast-paced as heck. Once Combat Tanks show up, there's only one really fast-paced map, that being S04V1, on account of it eventually becoming a 3v1 map. Some maps later on, like S17V2, are meant to be taken apart piece by piece. I designed them piece by piece, too!

The most important part, I believe, is a sense of progression. It may take more time to beat the map, but the player always feels he's making progress. I achieved that on S09V2 through the arrival of allies and how the battle changes around them. On S18, it was the slow crawl up Hajj Plateau, the trudging through endless enemies, that established a sense of desperation on both sides. You, trying to surmount impossible adversity, and your enemy, holding you back by whatever means they can, stalling until the apocalypse.

These recent maps are more single-tiered, if you know what I mean, to feel a bit smaller than the climax maps. S16V1 is a desperate defense across a wide area as you push against the enemy that surrounds you, and that persists through the whole map. S16V2 snowballs rapidly as you capture more autofactories. That feels better for a sense of progression, but it is kind of crowded, it feels more like a constant push. S17V2 offers many opportunities for early aggression before you push through enemy territory with less stealthy units, but that's as tiered as it gets. For S17V1, I'll have to see what I can do.

They're definitely quicker to do than S18, and that's by design because they are meant to feel smaller and less intense than the final battle. If it's a "one objective" kinda map, it needs to go by faster because it'll become a slog. You know? If the map's like S18 or S09V2 and has multiple events going on where stuff happens, the map can drag on because it evolves, it changes, and the aim of that is to keep it interesting all throughout.

So hey, even if it does take a while to complete the campaign, my aim is for every map to be unique from the others in its own way, and for it to be fun all throughout.

[Fey]

Alright! S17V1's first draft is complete, meaning all that's left to do is make sure everything works, fine-tune a bit, and release the full campaign. Here's the download link:
S17.zip

As with other downloads, all you need to do to install it is merge the data folder in the zip with the one in your D2k directory. To uninstall the mod, do the same thing with the data folder under backup in the zip.

Here are some details about the new map:

Spoiler

STRATEGY:
The enemy will attack very soon! Quickly assume command of the Imperial forces and send the MCV that flies in to one of the two free rock islands near the Ix base. The western one is bigger in-game than it appears in the map image.

Take the west island if you want to strike out at the northwestern base first. Take the east island if you plan to push southeast, initially. The west island is dangerously close to the central SLasher, which could be used to your advantage if you get creative with it, but you'll be able to better defend the Research Centre. The east island is more comfortable to build a base at, but you'd better keep an eye on the Research Centre.

Aurelianus can reveal the areas around SLashers on this map. Send a few Light Infantry towards the nearest enemy bases. When the SLashers one-shot the Light Infantry, their presence will be reported and you'll be able to see around them. Use this to help keep an eye on the enemy build-up and movement, assuming you're not trying to keep an eye on stealth units...

Where S17V2 had you contend with powerful superweapons, like Ornithopters and Death Hand Missiles, S17V1 is pure ground combat... with some stealthy twists! The enemy will attack with Fedaykin Gholas, Saboteurs, and Stealth Raiders. Scatter Light Infantry around your important structures, keeping them in the path of Saboteurs, and make sure to keep some Raiders of your own ready to intercept them. Turrets can't be left on their own! If they detect a Saboteur, that Saboteur will immediately enter the turret since he won't be able to reach his original goal alive. However, turrets could greatly help you ward off attacks while you build up.

Since Durant is the one dealing with airstrikes and nukes, the majority of available reinforcements will go to him. However, the Sardaukar commander from S16V1 will be able to spare you some LAVs and infantry, including more Sardaukar Elites. When you're ready to attack, pick a direction and push in it.

If you think you'll have trouble with the SLashers, send some Stealth Raiders very close to enemy fortifications, or even the SLasher itself, and then reveal it. The SLasher will attack it, causing massive damage! This can easily break walls, kill clusters of infantry, or damage vehicles enough that Moriaen will withdraw them to repair.

Taking out the northwestern base first will give you some relatively secure Spice fields and leave the Research Centre quite safe. Once you have the SLasher down, you can push up into their Wind Trap clusters with vehicles, or sabotage them with a small group headed over the infantry-only path. Don't forget to take out the Palaces in the rear so they can't send stealth attacks your way anymore.

The central island is deceptively well-defended. There are a couple of Sonic Tanks and Deviators there, and the area will be crawling with Shock Raiders and Sardaukar Elites. Use a Stealth Raider to break the walls in front of the SLasher! Then, follow up with a Saboteur, or just keep putting Stealth Raiders next to the SLasher until it's gone. Alternatively, harass their Deviators and Sonic Tanks a little and they'll join in the next attack. Following that attack, the SLasher will be without LRA support, and it will be relatively easy to take down. Controlling the center of the map will give you several new vectors to attack the other enemy bases from.

You might also be able to crush the central SLasher at the start of the game, but be prepared to dedicate some funds towards defense forces following your aggression. Although the enemy defenses won't be as strong, they'll be fairly tough anyway.

The southeastern base is probably the easiest to take out, but it is guarded by a small Tleilaxu base. If you manage to simply take out the SLasher at that expansion, you can circumvent it and go for the throat. Both SLashers in the southeast are up against a cliff edge, so rush some LAVs ahead, get some LRA or armor up to them, and destroy them from below the cliff. Once the furthest SLasher in the southeast is clear, head around to the east and you can easily push in and pick off the enemy Refineries... but don't forget to take out the Palaces on the west side, or they'll still be able to send stealth attacks your way.

The final enemy base will do its best to support the others if they're under attack, so be prepared to deal with a great variety of units from the southwest. That includes RPG Quads, Sonic Tanks, and Deviators. A healthy mixture of Quads and Raiders can make short work of their LRA, but you'll need armor of your own to tackle all the rest of their units. Pushing into that base is no easier; they have turrets all along the cliffs, a SLasher protecting the core of the base, Starport reinforcements, and their Wind Traps are all the way in the back. However, both of their Refineries are relatively exposed and their Harvesters have nowhere safe to be if you control the rest of the map. If you can't brute force your way in, try controlling the Spice fields outside the base first, then attack after their numbers are thinned. Notably, the Saboteurs at this base will accompany their attacking forces and attempt to bomb your units amidst the chaos.

However you wind up doing it, you'll achieve victory only when all Guild / Tleilaxu Cabal forces are defeated. Good luck.

This level should be roughly equivalent in difficulty to S17V2. You may not have to deal with airstrikes and nukes on this one, but the wide-open terrain in your starting area means you'll have less opportunities to fire on enemy units during their approach. You'll have to face them head-on!

S17V1 / V2 are the only maps that need playtesting now. Once they're a bit more polished up, the campaign is considered complete, and it can be officially released. If you'd like to help out with the fine-tuning process, please leave feedback on this thread once you've tried S17V1! Or, contact me on Discord if we're in touch there. I could use a bit more feedback on S17V2 as well. Just bear in mind that these are maximum-size maps meant to precede S18, meaning they are very difficult, large-scale chaos maps compared to prior maps in the campaign! You might want to warm up on, say, S09V2 first.

Whether you're just playing or aim to test for me, enjoy! And once again, good luck.