One thing though, this vision shows the past of Wells' planet, so it was previously inhabited by Protoss tribes who eventually killed each other?
You'll hear an abridged version of the old Rastar in the briefing of Chapter 4, and maybe your question will be answered then. I don't want to spoil anything.
*sees Pronogo* Ack! Is that -- human? lol j/k
Nope.
Kidding aside, you seem very much in charge, which is good.
I've always been a good public speaker, and I feel confident in what I said in that VLOG.
Last thing I wanted to hear was "yeah I'm making this campaign, it's uhh... yeah, it's got some cool stuff and umm...uhh", lol.
I hate it when mapmakers feel uncomfortable addressing their audience. It makes it hard to take their project seriously if they can't take their own audience seriously enough to make a strong address.
Some bold words you said there, I hope you realize this video puts some considerable hype on this project... now you and Jim must live up to it!
We're certainly trying our best, and I'm confident that you'll all be impressed with the final project.
We've been busy working on NOMAD in map form. I've neglected the written aspect, though, so here's a heaping pile of juicy words.
We're going, Rick, with or without your approval.
"Yeah, whatever." No matter how hard he tried, the stubborn soldier found it impossible to reason with the alien. Why don't you grow arms and legs and do it yourself?
The argument at hand concerned a journey to the corporal's military installation. Irritated by the invasion of privacy caused by the foreign presence in his mind, Wells had wanted to stop moving to rest. Don't be so spiteful, Rick. You know the risks. You're bound to come across Zerg. Better to be awake and at the ready than in a death sleep. The soldier knew that the alien's statement was more than accurate and needed no further emphasis. Yeah, I suppose so. I'll have to call in for evac after we find a good spot. Stepping into the unlit elevator and using his suit's built-in lights to find the correct button, Wells waited for the upwards journey to end. It was fairly silent in the elevator's box, with only the periodic beeping punctuating the quiet environment.
Slithering down from the shaft and dropping into the elevator, a Hydralisk made its presence known by shrieking loudly.
Dive!
Without thinking, the soldier leapt to the right, narrowly avoiding the Zerg's lunge. As the alien crashed loudly into the elevator's frame, Rick Wells rose to his feet and shook his head, rifle arm trained at the beastly creature. "Ugh, you're worse than the resoc! You give orders, and you talk!"
Before he could continue with his tirade, the Hydralisk hissed and began spreading its jaw. Shut up and shoot the Zerg! Complying without any semblance of hesitation, the soldier's gauss rifle fired off round after round, each impact sending chunks of Zerg bone and meat around the walls of the elevator.
When the beast ceased its unholy wail, Wells triggered the reloading function of the weapon and additional rounds were fed into the rifle. The soldier exhaled audibly, kicking the lower half of the Hydralisk out of his way as the elevator doors opened. That was a surprise. He felt the alien within him stir and start feeling around his mind for information. "Ugh. You know that's irritating. I never know what the hell I'm doing when you grope my brain like it's a friggin' toy." When he received no response from the alien, the soldier sighed and pressed on, going slower than usual to make sure he was headed in the right direction. The smallest of things could escape him when his mind was not his own.
Rick. Stop.
Silence. What? What is it? Now, the alien had gone quiet. Wells was not used to the mental silence after spending but a day with the creature inside him. Okay, seriously... Should I be concerned about this?
He glanced around and heard a fizzing noise emanating from one of the distant rooms. Frowning, Rick went to explore. If his internal alien wasn't talking, he was going to find out what was going on himself. "Never needed that stinkin' thing before today..." As he rounded a corner into a machine room in disrepair - possibly engineering at one time - the source of the fizzing became more than apparent with a bright white sparking fuse of a light.
Rick's eyes widened.
Shit!
Rounding the corner again and taking cover against the wall, the soldier grimaced as the door was blasted open by explosives. Strained shouts and footsteps were heard as Rastarian militia poured into the room. They were most likely a follow-up team, which meant they'd be heavily armed and expecting the worst from the installation.
Which meant they could easily think that Wells and his team had been killed. Or infested.
Rick knew what he had to do. The soldier gripped his gun tightly with both of his gauntlets and ducked his head, retreating back to the previous room as silently as he could, his blast shield lowered. Thankfully, the ruckus from the forced entry was loud enough to mask the armoured soldier's footsteps, and Rick took comfort in the fact that he would soon be out of this hellhole. Taking cover behind another corner, the soldier timed himself.
Fifteen seconds went by. He heard footsteps. Thirty seconds. Orders barked. A minute. A group of men began walking in his direction.
"Hey!"
Without even seeing the men, Wells knew what had happened. He heard them snap to attention, felt their anxiety. "Rick Wells, corporal." He moved into their view, keeping his rifle pointed at the creep-covered floor tiles. He took some measure of amusement in the fact that the men were practically browning their pants at the sight of him and repressed a smile before it turned into a grimace. "Last survivor."
No one seemed to know what to do for a moment. Wells himself was somewhat in shock and relief that the follow-up detachment came as early as it had. Rescuing you must be pretty high up on the general's to-do list, huh? After the realisation that he was still getting the silent treatment from the alien, Wells looked amongst the soldiers. None looked like an officer. "Who's your cee-oh?"
As if on cue, a tall, white-armoured man, possibly in his mid-thirties, entered the room. "Sergeant Vic. You're Wells, huh?"
Taken aback by Vic's sudden appearance, Rick took a moment before nodding. "Yeah. That's me." The sergeant looked around, as if taking in the surroundings for the first time. "Well," his gaze returned to meet the corporal's. "What the hell happened?"
The corporal immediately decided that he didn't like the sergeant too much. Frowning, he replied, "What do you think? My men are dead. Slaughtered. Didn't stand much of a chance. Fuckers bit straight through my leg padding." He tried to read the sergeant's stony-faced expression as the rest of the soldiers milled about under the illusion of paying no attention to the conversation. "And the subject?"
Wells opened his mouth to reply but closed it, feeling a minute adversity. As much as it had tried to stay silent, the alien presence couldn't let the Terran corporal give away their secret. Rick thought for a moment. "Zerg must have got to it. There was nothing in the room but a human body and some dust." The sergeant's brow furrowed into his skull. "That's fuckin' nice. Command's gonna love hearing that." He turned to his men, who immediately stopped aimlessly walking and stood at attention. "Looks like our lucky day, boys. We found what we came here for earlier than expected. Let's get on out of here now. We have our orders."
As Wells filed out with the rest of the men, he couldn't help but notice the grim expressions on every soldier and wonder why.
Damn Pr0, this was your best yet. You're improving, I think. Interesting word choices, and it flows along nicely.
You should consider releasing this written material together with the campaign itself, as a bonus of sorts. Like those games that when you pre-order you get additional stuff like an artbook or the OST in the package. Maybe design a cover for it and make it a .pdf document, could be nifty.
Thanks a bunch, mate. We intend to release the NOMAD Saga as a whole when all four episodes are finished and bug-tested. It'll be the "Final" version, so-to-speak, containing all four episodes, the soundtrack in .mp3 form, and most likely a rewritten version of the story material. Maybe we'll throw in a few extras if we think of any more ideas.
Terrain can really affect gameplay. My compatriot Pr0nogo and I are working hard to ensure that there is a huge exploration aspect in NOMAD. We both love to have fancy terrain to look at, so we're pushing that aspect into these maps.
---
In crafting any universe, diversity is a must. This applies, of course, to StarCraft projects as well. When creating The NOMAD Saga, I initially had no intentions of creating a mod, but when thinking about it - what better way to create diversity? You really want to set apart your campaign from any other campaign. NOMAD attempts this in various ways; custom portraits, voice acting, and weapons, which all obviously need a mod to be implemented. Having all these unique, never before seen things really adds a sense of diversity and realism to to our universe. Little things like this are really important.
---
Pr0nogo on Voice Acting:
'Whether you're expanding upon an existing universe or creating a world from the ground up, voice acting is paramount to establishing an instantly-relateable or hateable character from the get-go. Ever wonder why your favourite villain has an ominous or creepy voice? That's to establish a subconscious connection to the player's brain and make them think "no matter how cool that guy is, he's a real jerk!". The same goes for protagonists, who generally have a more appealing and emotional voice. Voiceovers set each character apart, and give more structure to building a character than dialogue and actions alone.'
---
Pr0nogo on Music Composition:
'Mood and ambience. These two words spell out to the player the ultimate depth of any project. Does the Zerg-infested jungle planet that was formerly a Protoss colony feel like that, or is it just Zerg in a jungle? Do the events in said location make you feel anything, emotionally, about the scenario? A really great way to both back up your project's ambience and set a specific location's mood is with music, and I've personally composed every last bit of the background sound you'll hear when playing the NOMAD Saga, with each mission having a different score to it.'
Last edited by Church on Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.
I've got another story passage incoming (like, say, by tonight or tomorrow night) to go along with the devlog. If anyone wants to check out some more recent music, it's up on my YouTube channel and I've embedded one of the tracks here for your more immediate enjoyment.
The archaic doors swung slowly open, creaking with a majesty that resonated within every fibre of the Protoss' body and mind. As the figure slowly entered the dull room, a dreary chamber illuminated only by the holotable affixed to the centre of the raised floor, thoughts roiled in bedlam and anarchy with no true form, passing as quickly as they came and bringing with them legions of others. One thought, however, drowned out all the rest - not because of force or strength in numbers, but because of its sheer simplicity. While other thoughts were scrambled and called for many different actions, this was a single word - a single thought.
Help.
Every tortured soul was slaughtered.
Every pained mind was relinquished.
Every frail body was incinerated.
At the mere nod of his head, the Protoss' armada carried out the grave orders.
And every voice screamed out in agony, HELP. US.
Corporal Rick Wells awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for air and trying desperately to recollect his thoughts while his eyes adjusted to the dark interior of the hospital room. As the soldier caught his breath, a monitor chirped and activated, bathing Wells' face in an eerie green light, bringing out his scars against the fleeing shadows of the night.
HEART RATE: 215
"Oh, fuck." Rick exhaled heavily, leaning back into his hospital bed and covering his eyes with both hands, sweat drenching his brow. "I gotta stop seeing shit in my dreams..."
*
Dreams of the past, Executor?
Executor Uldwe's muscles clenched above his eyes, moving in a downward motion that would possibly resemble a human frown if seen in the proper lighting. Against the backdrop of the shadowy-black night, however, the movement was barely noticeable to even a keen eye. Slowly, the imposing Protoss warrior rounded to face the speaker. The Executor was a startling height of nine feet and seven inches even before stepping into a Zealot power suit, putting him well above the standard height of a Protoss. His body was clearly built for action, with finely-toned muscles blending naturally with his bright cyan-coloured skin. His eyes shone a deep blue, a hint of magenta flickering in and out of existence, truly manifesting only when a thought was projected.
Uldwe's visage promptly eased when he saw the speaker. Salanas. The thought that identified his addresser as one of two High Templar chosen as personal advisors to the Executor was filled with recognition and a strong mutual and emotional connection - what humans would describe as "friendship."
Honourable Uldwe. The templar nodded his head in acknowledge of the rank of Executor, a ritual that Uldwe often grew tired of. Your thoughts are troubled. Without true cause, I have become concerned about your... security. A pause in thought projection signified that the High Templar was choosing his words carefully. Are you alright? The Executor sent back an emotion of appreciation of the other's empathy and yet another reassurance of their friendship before taking a pause himself. Salanas was a foot and a half short of reaching Uldwe's height, putting him just over the average size for a Protoss male, and his skin, a dull grey with scattered hints of purple, covered an exterior that was average at best in terms of strength. But the more impressive feature of the templar was his eyes. They crackled an electric green, belying true intelligence and illuminating the darkness. Salanas was chosen as an advisor for his ability to naturally establish an emotional and mutual connection between himself and another party, as well as his expansive understanding of psionics. The Executor himself was more fond of brandishing a pair of psi blades and charging in for a close-quarters fight, but that's what he enjoyed about keeping such company; they balanced him out.
Brothers.
This time, the Executor knew who the addresser was. First Templar Kempor, Uldwe's second consort, made his presence known with his ever-ghastly delivery, the resonance of his mental voice echoing throughout the minds of all those nearby. If there ever was a true foil to Salanas' character, it was Kempor. The brash, ruthless, almost malevolent personality the First Templar sported clashed almost every way with the calm, understanding, and benevolent one of Salanas'. Kempor was chosen to aid Uldwe in making tough but crucial decisions during any skirmish, large or small, and his option was almost always the quickest and the bloodiest - or, as he liked to refer to it as, "the most efficient way". This naturally created strife between the Executor's two advisors. While they both were powerful templar, however, Salanas had always been the more psionically-adept - becoming the natural choice for accompanying ground forces during operations - and this infuriated Kempor to no end. I am pleased to report that the Protoss insurgency in Taltamör has been defeated, as I predicted. There shouldn't be any more problems for quite a while after my demonstration...
Salanas' response was an emotion of distaste that Uldwe found surprising. The templar usually wasn't as blunt as that, even after such a distasteful action. Very well, Kempor. The Executor expressed a frustrated emotion - something a Terran would know as a mental 'sigh' - before facing his First Templar directly. Perhaps you can brief me in more depth at sunrise. Salanas and I were discussing a matter of importance that need not concern you. Uldwe kept his mental tone respectful but strong, hoping to avoid angering Kempor. The addressed merely nodded and stepped back into the structure, leaving the Executor and his templar at the balcony. Salanas sent a frustrated emotion not unlike Uldwe's own, to which he responded with an agreement. Turning to violence wherever there lies a problem only creates more.
The Executor nodded. The insurgents have been increasingly violent recently. The last few takeovers have denied our negotiations, and I am not keen on letting them take our lands. Those who deal in violence will meet their ends just the same.
Salanas sought for a statement, but defaulted to merely sending his mental sigh once more. His frustration was met with Uldwe's empathy. You can't save them all, Salanas. Sometimes, they just don't see the bigger picture. The Executor placed a comforting hand on Salanas' shoulders, meeting his gaze and sending the feeling of mutual, emotional connection again before stepping past him to seek out Kempor.
The templar looked to the stars as Uldwe departed, and wondered just what had triggered his Executor to think back to their home, Rastar.
*
"And you found nothing in the room?"
Rick was tired of being barraged with this question over and over again. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, the soldier responded, "Sir, the only thing I saw in the room was dust and a human body, and the body looked like it'd been there for a long time. That's all there was." His response had the debriefing officer sinking his hand into his face and sighing, something Rick himself had felt inclined to do several times through his exceedingly-thorough questioning. "Is that all?" A bit agitation was evident in Wells' tone, and the officer definitely picked up on it, frowning as he raised his head. "Yeah, I guess so. Sorry about your men, sergeant."
Rick opened his mouth to respond, but stopped himself. Sergeant? "Sir?" The officer nodded. "Command saw it fit to promote you, seeing as how you attempted to fulfil your objectives long after there was any real hope of succeeding and still pulled through. I gotta give it to you, son - one hell of an endurance you got there." He rose and moved to the door, pulling it open for Rick. "Good luck out there, Wells."
The sergeant nodded after a brief pause and rose to step through the door, still a little surprised that he got a promotion for losing all his troops in a single skirmish. I guess that's how things work... Rick gave himself a mental shrug as he headed out of the office and back towards the mess hall for some grub. As he walked, a strange feeling crept over him, running over his mind like running water over one's arm. Rick smiled.
Jokes aside, I'm impressed by the production values here. Looks like NOMAD will be the proverbial *next big thing*. Excitement pts + 50
Do I see custom doodads in the first vid? Either way the terrain looks very nice. The composition is balanced and the details mesh well. Some other mappers have a habit of putting together doodad groups that just don't work; you look at it and just think "ehh... no". It pleases me that this current trend of campaigns -- which both of you are mostly responsible for -- dictates that solid aesthetics are a must.
Is Salanas the main protoss hero? Looking at the gameplay I hope he can handle all that close quarters combat, since HTs are usually frail and can't take much punishment.
Speaking of heroes, have you guys ever considered raising the limit for the kill count? It might sound silly, but sometimes I'd like to know just how many enemies my hero has killed, when it goes over the 255 limit. Then again, I don't know if that's possible at all.
A question for Pr0 on the voice acting: when you're recording, do you just follow the script line by line (switching from one character to the next) or do you record the characters separately? Because all that jumping around between different personalities and intonations can't be too easy (or practical). I'd probably go schizo with all that.
I like the OST so far. "Sombre Passage" gave me chills. I wonder what context it plays in.
Will read on the story later. Keep up the pace guys. I'll feed the hype machine while you're slaving away on NOMAD.
I make sure everything's in at least 720p so people who rip the content don't get short-changed.
i mean what
There are a number of custom doodads in general, and proper aesthetics are a must in any StarCraft project (one reason I don't like the original Blizzard campaigns very much, aesthetics-wise). Salanas is the main Protoss hero, yes, and he's pretty capable of handling himself. I believe the 255 kill count is something deep in StarCraft's monstrous code that I'd rather not delve into currently, but perhaps I'll look into it when the project is more well-along.
When I'm recording I usually do one character at a time, and when the established characters are done I do all the Marine, Firebat, Tank, Zealot, Dragoon, Scout, etc voices in any random order because it's fun to jump around like that sometimes.
Thanks for the compliments on the OST, and let me know what you think of the story!
THE NOMAD SAGA: THE MAJOR Safe haven - these words could be used to describe Rastar... before the onset of Zerg invasion.
Lieutenant Thomas Johnson is thrust into the fray, fighting to save Rastar from the Zerg menace. Never before being in a real battle, he tries his best... but with the Zerg, your best isn't always enough.
