Getting back into the game + New Campaign

[KillerofGods]

Hey everyone! Been missing this game a bit and been thinking about it with the new SC2 expansion being released soon so I thought I'd drop by and create this thread!

This is mostly a for fun thread to just create some idle chatter + ideas for for what settings to enable on my new campaign. (Will probably do a campaign while I wait for responses.)

I'm still a newbie at the game as I've really only done one complete runthrough of the game at 5/5 and it was a cake walk. Granted I did lose once or twice very early on but that was because I was still learning the AI and underestimated how pissed off the AI would get at doing some things... But the point wasn't really to challenge me but to get an idea on the game at all the stages in the game.

------------------------------------------------
So in the spirit of halloween recommend any settings I should turn on in my next campaign, difficulty levels, ai plots, you name it! I'd like to stand a chance at winning but I'm perfectly fine with it being a slaughter (not in the good way which involves some very sad AIs.)

For my playstyle I like to take things slow and deliberately and plan things out and scout and get a grasp on the situation, so you can recommend settings to go against that and get me outside of my comfort zone or whatever you think will be funny (You can also set criteria I must meet ingame if you wish, like unable to get X technology or having to do X strategy. Or like no pausing...)

Just try not to be too horrible but if you want me to do 10/10 then I will! (I might do an AAR but I don't think I'd be too good on the narrative side of things but I'll make sure to tell you guys how "fun" my experience was if anybody is interested.) But it's all in the name of halloween and to have fun (even in defeat if that happens!)

PS: How excited is everyone for SBR? I'm really looking forward to it and can't wait for it's release in March!

[Pumpkin]

(...) you can recommend settings to go against that and get me outside of my comfort zone or whatever you think will be funny

Well, check the "Outa Tracks" thread here if you really want to challenge yourself. Maybe we could jump on this thread and go through the question-anwser "what's your playstyle?"; "then this and that options will be challenging". But I recommend you go for something within your playstyle first, if you prefer to get comfortable before tackling bigger challenges.

For the raw difficulty, I recommend 7/7, if you were far ahead of your level at 5/5.

If you want a thematic setup, let me propose you my lobby scripts: here. There is one script for each galactic race in the game (Spire, Zenith, Neinzul) plus one for humans. (Dangit, the files are a bit further down the thread.)

If you want lore, I recommend you to play the Light of the Spire "campaign". If you do, consider doing so without other mods, with a vanilla map style and easy AI types to stay focused on the campaign.

Speaking of that, maybe you could try something special with the non-Minor-Faction options. Try an original mapstyle, like concentric, wheel, clusters or grid. Or try an exotic AI types combination, like GravDriller/OneWayDoorMaster, or anything you want to experiment. (Just go through the list and say "Oh, nice name, I wonder what this one is doing. Let's try it.")

I recommend not playing with pain-only minor factions, like the devourer, miners, hybrids or astro-trains. First, get comfortable at your raw level (7/7?) then spice it up with MF, then upgrade the raw difficulty and clean the options (vanilla 8/8) before spicing it up again (8/8 + MF), etc.

Alternatively, you can toy with superweapons. Enable Golems, Spirecrafts and Champion and have fun. Beware not getting used to it, however. It took me a certain amount of time (and death) to drop the superweapons and get back to vanilla 7/7. My first home assault when I decided to quit the superweapons was... challenging.
(BTW, if you want a "mining" theme, enable spirecrafts at easy and balance it with miner golems. I'm sure it could be fun).


Hey, that post is longer that I thought. Anyway, welcome back, nice to see you again, and have fun kicking IAs in the teeth!