after completing my Mercs only playthrough on hard, which was good fun, I decided to collect all interesting constraints I've seen for playing the campaign. I also include a few new constraints that I haven't seen before. Hopefully it gives you some ideas for your next playthrough!
If you post any other crazy and fun rules, I'll add them to this post. Please explain the rules carefully and think it through before posting: is it conceivably possible? What missions do you expect to be hard? What happens in the prophecy missions?
Also, let us know if you complete the campaign using any of the challenges that have not been listed as completed yet. If you decide to create a new thread for your playthrough, please post a link to that thread so I can put up a link.
I colour challenges:
green if they have been completed at the hardest reasonable difficulty,
blue if they have been completed at a lower difficulty than what should be possible,
red if they haven't been completed yet,
black if I don't really know.
Please help paint this whole thread green, and have fun!
Miscellaneous:
Hurry Up: It's Raid Night Finish the campaign in 8 hours or less. You even get achievement points for doing this.
Sometimes the best counter is to go fucking kill him Complete the game killing as many enemy structures as you can, except perhaps on all-in. This means eradicating all enemy presence on zero hour, evacuation, moebius factor, maw of the void, devil's playground, welcome to the jungle, great train robbery, cutthroat, media blitz, whispers of doom, sinister turn, echoes of the future, gates of hell and shatter the sky. Kill as much as you can on the other maps; you decide your level of obsessive-compulsiveness here. Variants: Do you have to kill things on supernova before the fire kills it? Do you have to kill stuff on all-in? Etc.
No Buildings Your scvs may not make any buildings except supply depots and pylons. Note: Add-ons are allowed. Although this forbids bunkers, turrets and PFs this is probably just about doable on Brutal (?)
It's too quiet You're not allowed to make more than one of any building except defenses and supply depots. Reactors are also not allowed, including Tech Reactors. So no more than 1 CC, 1rax, 1fac, 1port. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7903724
Minimalistic Skip as many missions as you can, i.e. only do artifact missions and some missions required to get to those. youll have limited upgrades, but im pretty sure this is doable on brutal. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7775187
Put this revolution into overdrive Every unit produced or ordered (merc) must be instantly rallied to attack. You are not allowed to accumulate troops before you attack. If a unit or a group of units survived an attack, it must be asap send to another attack before reinforcements arrive. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7815614
Gas Leak You may not mine from vespene geysers, but you can pick up special gas drops. Optionally, you must pull all workers to destroy any starting refineries immediately. Note: A watered-down version of the Marine-only challenge. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7850424
Batteries Not Included Units can be given orders only once. Two exceptions: (1) you don't have to do this if you have no base, and (2) an SCV can be told to build something (One thing- no shift building!) and then resume mining. Their batteries are charged, since they keep vising the command center. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7599058 Variation: Alternatively, you can allow giving units a single command queue by shift-adding a long list of commands. In this case, you may be able to beat some of the parts where you have no base, but you'll have to find a good balance of difficulty.
For Uniden! Chaaaaaaarge! You are not allowed to have any supply building left before you move out to attack. The last of your supply building must be destroyed by the enemy. You cannot rebuild supply buildings.
This is possible with zero hour. Fly a barracks away and hang on before it is focussed down by mutas.
Mercs only You can not train units, including scvs. You can use any other units you get, including mercs. Hardest difficulty completed: Hard. Was fun, but No Units is funner. See the OP in the thread below for specifics. Thread:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7370190
Hurry Up It's Marine Night! You are not allowed to make any units other than SCVs and Marines and you have to complete the campaign in less than 8 hours total mission time. Note (by Drunken.Jedi):Pretty sure this can be done on brutal, but it won't be easy. Note: I don't know if either A Sinister Turn or In Utter Darkness can be completed on brutal without making units. So if this is too hard, either allow some protoss units or skip some of the missions, which helps with the time as well. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7584847 Hardest difficulty completed: Normal, see http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7921296
Marines and Zealots only It is not allowed to make scvs or get mercs. You can use non-marine units that you are given. A variation is to allow War Pigs, or to replace zealots by stalkers.
Cloaked Units Only Here you have to unlock ghosts or spectres ASAP and from then on you can only make cloaked units (and scvs I presume). Uncloaked units that you are given can only be used defensively. Thread:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7385573
I don´t like multiplayer Finish the campain (from evacuation onwards) without using a unit that is also in the multiplayer part (scvs excluded). You are allowed to use: Firebat, Medic, Goliath, Vulture, Diamondback, Spectre, Wraith, Science Vessel, Predator, Hercules Note: There seem to be two variations: either avoid prophecy missions or also allow all Protoss units. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7517728 Hardest difficulty completed: Brutal, reported to be fun. See http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7850424
I don't like SC2 You can only use starcraft 1 units: marines, firebats, medics, vultures, tanks, ghosts, goliaths, wraiths, bc's, sci vessel, and dropships. Zealots, high/dark templar, carriers, etc. Note: Should be doable on brutal Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7542401
Out of the box You're not allowed to, with exception of forced circumstance (like the very first mission) use the unit or building introduced in that level. Once the forced circumstance is gone (the banshees clear the landing zone in Supernova for example) you must in fact destroy the "introduced units." Note: The Odin should be considered a hero Thor, so you must let it be destroyed without it doing any unnecessary damage in Media Blitz. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7520082
Choose Choose ONE unit for every mission where you can make units; make only that unit and SCVs. You can get the mercenaries that match your chosen unit, but you can't use the same unit twice. Note: You will mostly have to make the featured unit of that mission, making this pretty much the opposite of "Out of the box". Some discussion in this post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7537810
Sky Terran You only train air units. You only train mech. The missions before you have access to air units are excluded (but you have to get air units asap). You can train SCVs. Note: Should be doable on Brutal. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7534765
Pirate mode! (RELEASE THE GRACKEN!) Marauders, Vikings. I know both are kinda far apart in the campaign so substitute marines until Safe Haven/Smash and Grab. Note: Do this on Brutal, dammit Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7550082
Combinations:
No Units or Buildings See above. Note: Some missions would be very challenging even on Normal difficulty: in a No Units playthrough the lack of units is compensated by using turrets, bunkers and PFs. How are you going to beat the evacuation?
Marines, SCVs and Zealots only, No Upgrades or Research No mercs allowed. You can use non-marine units that you are given. It's both previous constraints simultaneously, except that making scvs is allowed. Hardest difficulty completed: Shiladie seems to have gotten stuck on All-in brutal. Thread:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=6402671
Commandments: Instead of forbidding anything, the following rules require that you play in a certain fashion.
A very standard transition Every single time your base is attacked you must lose at least, or destroy yourself to fulfill this requirement, 5 buildings- two of which must be unit producing structures. Every 4 attacks, you must destroy all engineering bays and forges you own, including those under construction. Every 3 attacks on your base, you must annihilate the command center/nexus you own that has the most workers assigned to it and must cancel any that are under construction at the time.
You are not allowed the "Orbital Depots" upgrade from the Protoss research line. You are not allowed the "Automated Refinery" upgrade from the Protoss research line. You are not allowed the "Advanced Construction" upgrade for SCVs. You are not allowed to Salvage bunkers.
Due to the way that All-In functions, in that you are technically bombarded constantly by a constant stream of hostile units, substitute "audio warnings" (Seismic disturbance detected- nydus worm inbound. / Matt Horner warning about incoming air) in place of "attacks." Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7794699
Video communications blackout A building you own must always be centered on screen, unless the mission itself moves the screen against your will in which case you must put it back at the first opportunity. This means that most of the time you're not going to be able to micro your units (unless of course you center the view on a bunker that's in on the action.) If the building you're centered on is losing health, you must change to a different building when/if it falls under half HP.
This means that while you're able to access a control group and give the orders to attack, retreat, and stim or whatnot, you can't actually view what they're doing yourself. You must rely on the information given by the unit status panel and the audio cues to determine what is happening outside of your base.
This obviously doesn't apply to missions where you don't have buildings. You may think another exception to this may be Welcome to the Jungle but for those unaware- that mission can be automatically completed by destroying every protoss on the map. I think the Reaper mission follows this as well. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7755384
Mutiny Approximately every 4 minutes you must somehow destroy at least half of your own current supply of units. This can be accomplished by killing them yourself, endlessly move-commanding them into the enemy, or by any other creative method you can think of. Round up for odd numbers if needed. This doesn't apply to missions where you have no production facilities as that would make them impossible. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7755384
Inexperienced scientists When adressing the research console, roll a die and if the result is even, choose the left research, if it is odd, choose the right research.
Terran Typing Class After selecting any building, unit, or control group you must type- in it's entirety and perfectly in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation to the best of your abilities- an introductory line from a song or movie of your choosing. You must do this before giving the selected unit or building(s) orders of any kind.
When you have chosen a line in this fashion, you must then continue along the script of that movie or lyric sheet of that song and cannot deviate until the movie, song, or map ends, and must continue to type in chronological order the lines used in that movie or song after every selection change you make. It is your choice how to specify which character is talking if/when speakers change during your typing choice. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7846839
What do you mean "I lost my credit card"?! he moment you queue any non-worker unit, you must fill the entire queue of all buildings you own to their maximum. You must then keep those queues maxed out at all times and must continue this until the end of the map. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7857436
Loan Shark You can't build anything except workers, supply depots and refineries until you build up 3000 minerals and 1500 gas in reserves. From then on, you're not allowed to drop below those amounts. If and when you gain 5500 minerals and 3000 gas, these restrictions are lifted until the end of the mission. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7857436
Cheater Terran Once you start producing units from a building, you may never stop producing units from that building (unless you hit 200/200). This includes scvs from command centers. You may only build new unit producing structures if you are already producing from all of the ones you have, and when a new building finishes you have to start producing from it immediately. Note: This implies that you can't lift command centers, or construct planetary fortresses, except, if you like, your starting cc before it has made any scvs. You will also likely end up with an excess of scvs (don't get the cc reactor!). On the other hand, your production efficiency should be so high that you should easily beat brutal with this.
This drill of mine shall pierce the heavens For any mission where you have SCVs, you must end that mission with one SCV in your possession that has performed at least 20 kills and obtained the rank of "Commander." Specify this SCV at the start of the mission. You're not allowed to let it die. Note: This is a more reasonable variant of the SCV all-in below. Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7867844
SCV All-In You can train anything, however only SCVs and structures can get kills. This does not include when you cannot train/don't have any SCVs. Note: Oh, and you're not allowed to build units, then destroy your cc, and then attack The idea is obviously that you bring down enemy units to near-zero health before engaging with your SCVs. On all-in to reduce the amount of micro required you can use hive mind emulators to grab units quickly (after which you'll have to kill them quickly to make sure they don't kill anything), and planetary fortresses. You can only use turrets vs air units! Post:http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7526788
You only live once Complete the campaign without losing a single unit. Buildings are expendable but every units must survive. I believe it's doable on Normal if you micro perfectly and avoid using squishy units, but I havent tried it yet, im only throwing the idea cause I believe it might be fun to try :D
I don´t like multiplayer Finish the campain (from evacuation onwards) without using a unit that is also in the multiplayer part (scvs excluded). You are allowed to use: Firebats, Medics, Goliath, Vultures, Diamondback, Spectre, Wraith, Science Vessles, Predator, Hercules
(This is a fairly easy and fun one) Out of the box You're not allowed to, with exception of forced circumstance (like the very first mission) use the unit or building introduced in that level. Once the forced circumstance is gone (the banshees clear the landing zone in Supernova for example) you must in fact destroy the "introduced units."
On January 07 2011 20:53 shoop wrote: Note: Is the Odin a Thor? If it is, then you must let it be destroyed without it doing any unnecessary damage in Media Blitz.
Ah, that's an interesting one. That would adjust the difficulty of that level a lot- I'd say yes, the Odin is a hero thor and therefore a thor and shall be treated as such. You could also, if you want to jack the difficulty up, rule that Raynor is a hero marine in the first level and either not use Raynor or not use his ancillary marines in the first level. Also, most of the Nova/Tosh levels are gigantic forced circumstances so don't feel bad about those, and similar levels like belly of the beast are just fine. It's not a terribly hard restriction in any case, it's just to get people thinking out of the box a little to prepare for the other ones (I've had a lot of fun doing the hellion mission with diamondbacks and reapers.)
"Sky Terran" where you only train air units and "Mech only" where you only train mech. The missions before you have access to mech or air are excluded. You can train SCVs.
It's not difficult to do this but it sure is fun haha.
On January 10 2011 04:51 theBOOCH wrote: Some of these are ridiculous X) The "You only live once" is really fun on the really easy missions and the "micro" missions but that's about it.
I have to agree. I'm moving those to a special category "unrealistic" until someone gets some actual results.
Request for comments on "Choose". A friend suggested this, and I'm interested because it seems to require some careful planning. I think I might attempt it on brutal (probably with all-in air, all-in ground seems too hard because you will also have to spend a unit on shatter the sky in that case). The problem is that you hardly have any freedom in choosing what unit to use on what mission. With a couple of exceptions, you basically have to make the unit that is featured in that mission, because at every stage into the campaign, you will have used all other available units already. In a sense, you get the opposite of the "Out of the Box" challenge. The problem is that this means that you can hardly ever upgrade your units!
The simplest way to plan this mission: you use the featured unit on every mission, except: "a sinister turn": zealots or immortals "echoes of the future": stalkers "in utter darkness": immortals, colossi or void rays "gates of hell": predators and mind controlled units "all-in": spectres and mind controlled units
You will have used every unit this way except the raven/science vessel. With one unit left over, you could consider doing all-in ground: with shatter the sky you have another mission to burn your units on, but I don't see how you could beat that on brutal with ravens only.
There are two ways to try and create some freedom to change the order in which units are used: the breakout mission gives you spectres without requiring you to spend a unit, and you can research the predator and the raven. Doing all those things gives you a slight bit of space to reorder which units you use in which missions, but not much, and I don't see how it could be used to get better unit assignments, because you have the additional problem that there are way too few units that hit air.
There are two reorderings I can think of: (1) I can try to beat media blitz with the odin (even though it's weak anti-air), predators and turrets, which frees up upgraded thors for e.g. gates of hell or all-in. And (2) I can rely on mind controlled units for all-in, freeing up the spectres for some harder mission.
Do you have any suggestions on how to play this? Is there a mission where the Raven would really shine, thus freeing up more options? Perhaps it would be ok on all-in air, with its point defense drone and seeker missiles? How would you do the protoss missions? Should I keep the spectres for all-in or is all-in air so easy with mind control that I should spend the spectres on a harder mission?
Be Magical Enemy units may only be damaged by spells or units affected by spells. Only on missions when applicable. Get creative, you can storm or concuss your units and attack while they're affected, but must stop when they are no longer affected! Passive abilities, other than Zeratul's cloak, are not considered added effects. Stim is not considered an added effect
Note: I'm not sure I like this last rule, because (a) it would allow you to use all uncloaked units on base defense missions like All-In, and (b) it makes missions where you don't have a base impossible. On the other hand, without this rule it becomes impossible to beat In Utter Darkness.
I'm not quite sure what you mean here: I've played through almost the entire campaign on hard mode doing my cloaked units only challenge and base defense I mostly handle with Planetary Fortresses and Missile Turrets. I'll admit I haven't done All-In yet (I am NOT good at this game, but I do enjoy it) but I don't think that the abundance of units you get will be particularly gamebreaking (not when I can just cluster Spectres round the artifact :-D). Also what do you mean when you refer to missions where you don't have a base? If you mean things like Piercing the Shroud and the forced circumstance missions like the beginning of The Dig and Maw of the Void then some leeway has to be given.
How about simply getting every achievement on brutal difficulty? Some of those would be really damn hard. I'm thinking especially of 'It's so easy' for the Terrazine level.
For a comment on Choose, I think mass raven could work on cutthroat or the wraith level but I have a question about the rules for it: do shrike turrets count as something that's limited? I could see those being the key to doing an all raven or all predator build.
Marine micro challenge - You can only make marines and SCVs (Any new units given at the beginning of a mission are fair game) And you must not lose more than say... 20 per level? Seems like it would be kinda fun seeing if you can micro enough marines out of harms way when the bulk of your force is that.
Pirate mode! (RELEASE THE GRACKEN!) Marauders, Vikings. I know both are kinda far apart in the campaign so substitute marines until Safe Haven/Smash and Grab
How about simply getting every achievement on brutal difficulty? Some of those would be really damn hard. I'm thinking especially of 'It's so easy' for the Terrazine level.
I was surprised that it wasn't that difficult to get the "it's so easy" on brutal. It seemed harder on hard. It's a lot harder if you're trying to get all of the relics as well, though.
@ShatterZer0: the only spells you can really use seem to be ghost/spectre spells and Yamato, and I'm not even sure you should count snipe. I'm not sure I like this that much.
@Unastheslayer: okay, I removed my comment. It sounds like fun play.
@FlyingZergling: mass raven sounds like it could be made to work, although the planning remains complicated. I'll update when I've thought about it some more. Shrike turrets would be allowed as they're on a building, but they are incredibly weak (low damage very low range). I found them useful for "no units" on normal difficulty (to get past evacuation and great train robbery before you have perdition turrets), but I don't think they help on brutal when you also have access to actual units.
@Zeh: cool, I've linked it. I've actually started doing this myself but I'll let you do the reporting :-) I'll comment if my experience differs from yours.
Well the thing with ravens is if you could pull all 3-4k of the gas from those two geysers you're always given immediately into ravens, you'd end up with an unstoppable fleet of them. It's the way you have to siphon the gas a little at a time and spend it on other defensive options that slows you down. Any level where you pick up gas canisters and any level where you'd have access to improved refineries sounds good, as well as any level where you're given access to at least 3 geysers.
Come to think of it, Maw of the Void gives you all of those, and a starting tech lab starport for the BCs. It's almost begging to be tested...
On January 10 2011 16:29 Hautamaki wrote: How about simply getting every achievement on brutal difficulty? Some of those would be really damn hard. I'm thinking especially of 'It's so easy' for the Terrazine level.
Welcome to the Jungle isn't too hard if you do it fast.
For example this
only lets 1 Terrazine thing get sealed which could have been avoided but that wasn't the goal, which is why he sacrificed a lot of SCV's. I think something like Echoes of the Future would be harder, having to kill 50 units with zeratul and finish in <20mins
I started this on casual. I've only done evrything up to smash and grab (included) but i think i'll start over on normal... casual is just too boring even with the no death requirment. (started on casual cause i was hinking of setting the goal low for a start and then uper and uper)
at first it did me quit a shock when i found out this time i could actualy train scv and units (meaning i didin't do it for the first minute on outlwas before remembring it), got too accustomed from your last chalenge =D
is there any way to record replays on single players ? we can see the 0 death at the end of the mission but there is no way to actualy tell the difficulty level from this screen. Fraps (and co.) are out of order since i pause to think and reload so often in a single mission that would be very boring to watch.
You are not allowed to make any units other than SCVs and Marines and you have to complete the campaign in less than 8 hours total mission time. Pretty sure this can be done on brutal, but it won't be easy.
the only achievement that's hard to get on brutal is the only use the artifact once one, and so long as you upgrade decently it's not that bad (however any kind of restriction on your upgrades that affects the units you use makes the achievement near impossible).
though an all achievements only play each level once on brutal would probably make missions zero hour (kill 6 hatcheries without losing a structure) and the protoss one with the preservers (kill everything with a time limit) near impossible as well as probably a few others i'm not thinking of off the top of my head.
Batteries not included Units that have been given an order cannot ever be given orders again, with two exceptions; The exception of forced circumstances- such as the The Dig where the introduction on a difficult enough mode is near impossible to complete without utilizing siege mode at least twice or a mission like Belly of the Beast can't be attempted with this challenge at all, and the exception that an SCV told to build something (One thing- no shift building!) can then be told to resume mining. Their batteries are charged, since they keep vising the command center.
This means that you can't stim unless in pure self defense, you can't reposition siege tanks away from their rally points unless you don't want them sieged and once your medic-marine ball is told to a-move into the enemy base all you get to do is sit there and watch. I sure hope you have really good building placement, because you're going to rely on rally points to defend your own base- if you box your units and attack move to defend your base that counts as their one order and you now have no way of ever using them again. I wonder if actual patrols would work for The Great Train Robbery?
@flyingzergling: very interesting, one that doesn't just revolve around which units you can get! It seems quite tricky and I'll sleep on it before adding it to the list. I don't see a real reason to lift the imposed restrictions for the dig, but you probably need to limit it to the missions where you can actually make more units (otherwise liberation day would probably be impossible). To reduce the amount of frustration, you could consider allowing any number of move orders and then a single different order (probably attack-move or hold position or siege), do you think that would be more or less fun / difficult?
Yeah I have trouble remembering the "Here's the only units you're ever getting" missions, have to lift the restriction on all of those because of impossibility. I have worded it to try to point this out, the challenge is supposed to be fun not impossible. Several intro "phases" do this, Supenova's intro phase MIGHT be impossible with a single order (which ends up being attack move without cloak), and etc. Both the Tosh and Nova missions are also obviously impossible with a single order so again nix those. If you can remember any others, include those.
zeross actually brings up a great point about shift-queues. I'm trying to make restrictions that are as just as fun/funny as they are difficult. Allowing shift-queues would allow you to save before a major encounter until you "get it right" but I suppose it's the same deal with the original too. If you want, list it as a variation where you're allowed to create a single shift-queue per unit (which will be like 80 steps long lol) than that sounds like fun times too. The original would have to remain without the shift-queue though, as a shift queue is nothing but a list of orders that are mutually exclusive- one order is not started until the previous finishes, therefore they are different orders.
Pro Gamer Can only build units which are in multi-player melee, so no: Mercs, firebats, diamondbacks, science vessels, or research/upgrades that aren't in multi-player.
@cortomontez: not too fond of that rule, it still allows most units, I don't see how it's particularly challenging. And we all know the multiplayer units, right? The rule should be an excuse to use the weird units more!
You only live once Complete the campaign without losing a single unit (also applies to mind controlled units). Buildings are expendable but every unit must survive. Post: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=7520123 Note: this is going to be extremely frustrating, even on Normal. You can't do Utter Darkness. Good luck trying to prevent Kerrigan from getting any kills on all-in. But it might be possible...
Did you know that in "piercing the shroud" (secret mission), if you use that warbot to kill the brutalisk, DON'T loose the warbot, and let him timeup after killing the brutalisk you still got a "lost" in the mission stats ?
but the second warbot (the one that slow the hybrid down on his own without your control), and the autoturret don't give you a lost in the stats.
only 1 death T.T i think i know when i scrwed up, at a moment i was like "i was sure i had 3 scv here and there is just 2 now... was i wrong ? did i sent it elsewere ? don't remember...". I think the scv died by a kerigan storm on my hive emulators. i'll try again (or just load a old enough save) and post the update.
so far i didn't got realy a mission that was particulary hard.
Liberation day is easy, for the middle of the town part just lower the marines rates until the new marines come and you will save them all (if you just chill out one of the new marines will probably die from the damage burst of all the marines surrounding)
Outlwas i didn't go the the enemy base until i got one medic per marine and microed a little for the bunker part
Zero hours have no change, bunkers beat them all in normal
smash and grab i left all my marines in a bunker in my base for the zergs with one scv repairing, and got out with marauders, 2medic and scv for bunkers. after doing the merc only chalenge my micro on this mission is good enough to save every units
evacuation have no change, mass marines and medics kill fast enough to have no death
devi'ls playground i have bring one medic with my reapers to heal them. a reaper can get hit by spine crawler once and will die the second time so put it back after the first hit and let the medic heal it. marauder + bunker kill the brutalisk easly.
great train robbery i massed diamondback to victory with scv repairing
welcome to the jungle i used the planetary fortress+turret technique adding goliaths
the dig have no change, mass tank kill just everything
whisper of doom : no change. did you know that "surviving stalkers" at the end show you only the stalkers that actualy go into the ship ? if the stalker is alive hiden at a end of the map it doesn't appear here.
sinister turn : on normal you can run through the protoss base with 3 DT and don't loose any if you go by the northern side of the base. the rest do not change.
echoes of the future : no change, zeratul solo rush to tendril
breakout : no change
outbreak : no change, planetary fortress defence and mass reapers (be aware of the few spine crawler but devil's playgorung give practice for reaper vs spine crawler)
safe heaven : 3 starport reactor vikings. i massed a lot of vikings and attacked the mothership. i let him spawn the first defence units and retreated to kill them and came back to finish the mothership. enough vikings make a good burst to kill it before it can kill a single viking
cutthroat : no change, just mule your way to minerals and create few tanks. when you have the second base get out with the tanks, siege them at the south of the planetary fortress, scann and one-shot it.
engine of destruction : mass viking and let the odin take care of every ground forces
media blitz : no change, odin + 1thor + scv to take the towers, few thors to defend
piercing the shroud : see my previous post
moebus factor : don't drop the unit on the bulding but a little before to clean the areas and don't loose any tanks.
supernovae : no change, banshee + vinkings for victory
maw of the void : no change, mass battlecruiser + repair. when there is cannons and your DTs can kill anymore use them as a wall to prevent your second base to get attacked
gate of hell : i didn't rescue everything. massed banshee and BC as fast as i could. got 4 banshee and 6 BC (merc included) when i reached 100 army. took only those to snipe the nydus with very little micro needed
belly of the beast : strange enough it did make me load a few times to save thise weak marines. but not realy hard to do.
all-in : ah here we come to the only real difficulty of this chalenge. double PF defences at each choke, 2-3 scv per PF and 2-3 bunkers full of marines for mutas. hice emulator near the artefact as always. kerrigan is not realy a problem in normal. i let her attack a Pf first (unsiege all tanks and get them away or she'll one shot them). when she start to attack a PF i came from the high ground with mass specters to do their 200damage (well like 70 on kerrigan) burst to one shot her. save the nova to weaken her if you can. i did the leviathan exactly the same way with a shielded BC to take the aggro and the nova to weaken it. don't take too many muta or it'll be a pain to make sure everyone of them is alive. PF kill ground, muta are only used to kill faraway broodlords so you don't need much.
General points : - don't make too many units. 10marines with good micro is better for this chalenge than 20 marines (too difficult to put the weakens one in the back if you have too many) - mech > bio obviously - bio is inside a bunker or is not ! - i get the +100 starting energy/+100 max energy research for specters burst on kerrigan in all-in, pretty usefull. - save very often... like always with the chalenges on this thread :p - make groups just to count quickly the units. "ok i have 23 units in this group, this count must not change at the end of this battle". it make it easier to make sure you didn't loose anything on confusing battles (all-in for exemple :p). it's better than seeing at the end of the mission that you got to try again :p
Bloody hell, I'm impressed you pulled that off... reading your descriptions, it seems I overestimated how difficult this would be, but it is still quite astounding. Would be nice if something like that were possible in a real war ...
Are you going to redo all-in? otherwise I'll update the OP.
yeah i'm watching the code A finals VOD then i'll try all-in again. if i can make it one death i can make it 0, was just a small error
i think most missions would be doable on hard, but there is no way i'll try all-in in hard :p i'll go to the second "impossible" chalenge after : scv all-in :p (or more likely planetary fortress heaven ^^)
EDIT : oh btw i didn't mention it but i did every single bonus objectives for every mission as well (but not every achievement conditions)
It is done more well placed novae made it easier the second time, but still need to reload quite a lot. i think hard will definitely not be possible because at the end your are just overrun. you can't make a lot of hive emulator because you need a lot of specters so you can't burst with them and risk to loose some.
improvement of the secodn run : - better novae, don't need it a each kerrigan and it's better on levi; - less specters, they have time to respendish energy between each kerigans so you don't need to constantly produce them (on 1st attempt i was like always making them cuz i though i could only use their first energy available then put them away like HT, but no ) - more hive emulator (cuz less specters) and few more broodlords (espacialy thoose on the edge of the base that i killed because i didnt't want to put hive emulators there) - 4 scv per choke and 4scv around the hive emulators (put them away before the storms) seem to be a good number, easy to spot to put them back quickly, and still repair quick enough. - medivac to heal mutalisk (why didn't i though about that earlier ?)
now let's go for SCV chalenge. few precisions : - obviously marines in bunkers are counted as marines kills - can unit kill ennemies structures ? i would go for yes because its not realy a kill and because i don't see myself doing maw of the void with scv to kill generators - odin in engine of destruction obviously can kill stuff (difficult to be otherwise) but what about odin pre-alert in media bliz ? must let him die without firing to let the scvs do all the work ? EDIT : - and what about the laser drill ? it's a structure right ?
As to the SCV challenge: I think you may have a chance to kill the generators with PFs in maw of the void, so that particular mission may be doable without units killing buildings (?) But I suppose it will not be avoidable altogether - you decide.
I think the Odin pre-alert should not be used to kill any units - perhaps one if you can't get the mission started otherwise. If you decide that units can kill buildings, you can try to get some buildings with the odin before you fall.
Laser drill is a structure so is OK to use - agreed.
outbreak: if you're willing to get shrike turrets, you could build LOTS of those and salvage them when no enemies are in range anymore. (see the no units thread). Should be possible to go through the mission pretty damn fast that way. The occasional spine crawler can be handled with your units. Only problem is holding your base at night - you'll probably need PFs for that but on Normal perhaps you can get away with only shrike turrets? Don't really think so though :-)
oh yeah didn't tough of shrike turrets :o obviously they'll be a must with those restrictions (er that mean even evacuation will be less painfull that i thought ? disapointed :p) i think it'll be the first time i ever use them ^^
did loose less units that i though i would and didn't realy care to try to save them
well comic mission is finish, now zero hours should be pretty hard ^^
Edit :
well this is the only way i've found to got through zero hours in casual ... it's lame but... i've just fly my cc away and wait, in casual there is no mutalisk so your cc is perfectly safe
i've tried for 2hours to find another way but it's just not possible, either i kill a ling by mistake or i get overrun and my scv die too quickly
LOL @ images. Zero hour: I'm thinking, but can't see a way to do it. My only idea, don't know if it would work: use NO marines. Use your buildings to make a very narrow choke to funnel the lings so only a few of them can attack two SCVs at a time, who are constantly healed by medics and replenished when they fall. Also, did you check if the SCV attack is affected by the weapons upgrade? Is it helpful to build a second CC to get SCVs out more quickly? Finally, you don't need to do the bonus objectives, is it helpful to retreat to the high ground immediately and salvage the bottom bunkers?
For buldings choke the problem are the hydralisk that become hard to hit in the sea of lings and do sick damages to scv. Infantery weapon upgrades don't work, sadly, even if the icon is the same. but infantery armor upgrades do work.
Building a second CC is not helpful right at the begining, you do start with 400minerals so i just build it right away, but the first ling wave came as soon as it finish so you just don't have enough scv at that time.
For the low ground i did retreat as soon as possible, but didn't salvage them right away. i've let the ling hit them and salvage them whan they have just few hit point left (first at around 250-260 hp left to let it salvage just before it die) to gain some precious seonds to have maybe one or two more scv.
i'm not sure i'll finish this one. it's too hard to prevent your units to kill anything, you can lower the hp of only some enemy units that have quite a lot of hp and micro to avoid the kill is a real pain. and killing everything with scv only is just not possible...
have you tried walling with bunkers and then mass repairing with scvs? you don't have to attack anything and you can place medics behind the scvs to heal them up if necessary. if the wall gets beaten up you can lift off and see if you can survive the rest of the level. ill try it now and see if i can pull it off.
Edit: i did it.
at the start of the game, i created an scv and salvaged ALL 4 buunkers. i then flew the barracks to the ramp and sent the marines to die (without killing anything). then i made a third barracks and a missile turret behind to close the walloff and protect me from mutalisks.
i got +1 infantry armor, and put scvs between the repairing and the mineral line until i had 43. of those 43, 24 would be mining and 17 repairing, to create a ramp setup alike this:
the walloff held strong until 1:30 left, that is when i flew away and survived the mutalisks.
Video communications blackout: A building you own must always be centered on screen, unless the mission itself moves the screen against your will in which case you must put it back at the first opportunity. This means that most of the time you're not going to be able to micro your units (unless of course you center the view on a bunker that's in on the action.) If the building you're centered on is losing health, you must change to a different building when/if it falls under half HP.
This means that while you're able to access a control group and give the orders to attack, retreat, and stim or whatnot, you can't actually view what they're doing yourself. You must rely on the information given by the unit status panel and the audio cues to determine what is happening outside of your base.
This obviously doesn't apply to missions where you don't have buildings. You may think another exception to this may be Welcome to the Jungle but for those unaware- that mission can be automatically completed by destroying every protoss on the map. I think the Reaper mission follows this as well.
Mutiny Approximately every 4 minutes you must somehow destroy at least half of your own current supply of units. This can be accomplished by killing them yourself, endlessly move-commanding them into the enemy, or by any other creative method you can think of. Round up for odd numbers if needed. This doesn't apply to missions where you have no production facilities as that would make them impossible.
on normal i did the 'you only live once' challenge on liberation day. This level is extremely hard because of 1. you can't make more units to support the fight and add more DPS to you ball 2. you cant heal units (all you have is marines) 3. when the drop pods come down with more marines during the middle of the level a lot of them will die so it took me MANY playthroughs to get it right here are my results note that it is a good idea to let the civilians kill all the vikings/marines during the end of the level
Skip as many missions as you can, i.e. only do artifact missions and some missions required to get to those. youll have limited upgrades, but im pretty sure this is doable on brutal.
No abilities
Do not use any of the non-autocast abilities at any point in the campaign. This includes stimpack and siege mode.
thx for the new ideas guys! I'm especially excited about the scv defense. Although it will have to be followed up with a crazy strategy to beat smash and grab.
On January 11 2011 08:57 MOARpylons wrote: Pirate mode! (RELEASE THE GRACKEN!) Marauders, Vikings. I know both are kinda far apart in the campaign so substitute marines until Safe Haven/Smash and Grab
There are no restrictions beyond those specified. That's why I put it under "unit restrictions". I also think it'd probably more fun to up the difficulty to brutal with the upgrades, than do it on hard without the upgrades. However, you should obviously feel free to combine more than one constraint in your campaign if you want to be totally bad-ass!
I've got a new rule that I think is fun: Sometimes the best counter is to go fucking kill him See the OP. I'm gonna do it on hard, but this should be doable on brutal.
A very standard transition: Every single time your base is attacked you must lose at least, or destroy yourself to fulfill this requirement, 5 buildings- two of which must be unit producing structures. Every 4 attacks, you must destroy all engineering bays and forges you own, including those under construction. Every 3 attacks on your base, you must annihilate the command center/nexus you own that has the most workers assigned to it and must cancel any that are under construction at the time.
You are not allowed the "Orbital Depots" upgrade from the Protoss research line. You are not allowed the "Automated Refinery" upgrade from the Protoss research line. You are not allowed the "Advanced Construction" upgrade for SCVs. You are not allowed to Salvage bunkers.
Due to the way that All-In functions, in that you are technically bombarded constantly by a constant stream of hostile units, substitute "audio warnings" (Seismic disturbance detected- nydus worm inbound. / Matt Horner warning about incoming air) in place of "attacks."
I'm currently doing the "best counter" on hard; it's actually quite fun so far.
On smash and grab, did you ever attack the Zerg directly? I first killed all protoss forces on my half of the map like you normally do, but instead of triggering the waypoint near the statues I backtracked, then pushed directly into the zerg. (I used this order for convenience: this way the zerg has the time to kill some of the protoss on the other half of the map.) Horner (I think, or was it tychus?) warns you against doing so, and raynor snaps back that he is the one to determine strategy. Hilarious! I then rolled over the zerg with my huge m&m army and cleaned up the last protoss. The zerg keep sending drop pods with creep tumors, but I ignored those (kept some units on patrol to kill em), went back to the statues and finished the mission.
I am having some trouble with Zero Hour. The problem is that, even though I think I'm macroing well enough, I just can't kill the zerg quickly enough - they aren't completely dead by the time the nydus worms appear, and then so many units appear that either my remaining army is overwhelmed, or the mission is over before everything's gone. I also tried it on normal difficulty, then it's easy. I sort of almost killed everything and continued the campaign from there, but I'm going to replay this mission and see if I can really do it completely.
The Dig is also not easy, but doable. I started by immediately expanding. I initially defend with the two tanks and two bunkers (I used the factory's tech lab to get an additional marauder). I stalled for time by using the cannon to kill every unit that appears. I got the artifacts while macroing out 200 supply worth of tanks; I then pushed using the barracks to spot and the cannon to kill any air units (quickly).
Every unit produced or ordered (merc) must be instantly rallied to attack. You are not allowed to accumulate troops before you attack. If a unit or a group of units survived an attack, it must be asap send to another attack before reinforcements arrive.
Hurry up, it's Raider night / Rush hour
Complete all 26 missions in under 8 hours. (Is this actually doable?)
For Uniden! Chaaaaaaarge!
You are not allowed to have any supply building left before you move out to attack. The last of your supply building must be destroyed by the enemy. You cannot rebuild supply buildings.
This is possible with zero hour. Fly a barracks away and hang on before it is focussed down by mutas.
I don't know yet if it is a good constraint to also forbid to build any supply building before you attack.
Terran Typing Class: After selecting any building, unit, or control group you must type- in it's entirety and perfectly in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation to the best of your abilities- an introductory line from a song or movie of your choosing. You must do this before giving the selected unit or building(s) orders of any kind.
When you have chosen a line in this fashion, you must then continue along the script of that movie or lyric sheet of that song and cannot deviate until the movie, song, or map ends, and must continue to type in chronological order the lines used in that movie or song after every selection change you make. It is your choice how to specify which character is talking if/when speakers change during your typing choice.
Lots of new ideas, but they are getting slightly crazy I think it is about time someone actually started playing under some of the rules listed. Nonetheless, I'll update shortly.
I'm currently still doing the "best counter" thing, it is actually pretty difficult even on Hard, especially in the timed missions (zero hour, moebius factor). I still haven't completed zero hour properly on hard. I'm currently through all prophecy missions, those were cool and pretty straightforward. I had more trouble than I expected on echoes of the future, where there are actually semi-hidden zerg bases on islands around the edges of the map that are full of ultras, brood lords etc. I had to warp in tons of stalkers and suicide-blink in lots of them in order to wipe out those bases, quite tough. (You have to walk up a colossus to support and provide vision of the blink target). I'm now stuck at great train robbery (I really need banshees or BCs for that one) and moebius factor. I'll keep you updated.
I finished I don't like Multiplayer on Brutal recently; that was interesting. Probably the hardest mission was The Dig, because tanks are important there.
I have a new one. Gas Leak You may not mine from vespene geysers, but you can pick up special gas drops. Optionally, you must pull all workers to destroy any starting refineries immediately. This may be too similar to a watered-down version of the Marine-only challenge...
Oh ho, you thought Terran Typing Class was bad, I've got a couple of mean (and of course, funny) ones in my head.
These two promote terrible play ^^ What do you mean "I lost my credit card"?! : The moment you queue a unit up at any structure that isn't a worker, you must fill the entire queue of all buildings you own to their maximum. You must then keep those queues maxed out at all times and must continue this until the end of the map.
Loan Shark: You can't build anything except workers and supply depots until you build up 3000 minerals and 1500 gas in reserves. From then on, you're not allowed to drop below those amounts. If and when you gain 5500 minerals and 3000 gas, these restrictions are lifted until the end of the mission.
@flyingzergling: the loan shark challenge sounds like a lot of fun; still a bit unclear: can you build buildings? You need to be able to place at least supply depots. In the credit card challenge, are you required to keep the queues completely filled, or just to keep them nonempty?
I've got a related challenge that actually encourages good play: Cheater Terran Once you start producing units from a building, you may never stop producing units from that building (unless you hit 200/200). This includes scvs from command centers. You may only build new unit producing structures if you are already producing from all of the ones you have, and when a new building finishes you have to start producing from it immediately.
@zeross: let me know how you fare in zero hour. If you don't count the nydus worms, which keep popping up all over the place, I could do it on normal, and I've almost but not quite done it on hard. I think it is just barely possible, but you need to play really well to kill everything in time.
Edited both for clarification. Originally I thought the wording on credit card described it well enough- because the moment you queue'd a unit up for any reason you activated condition 1 and had to requeue everything to max anyway- and if you let everything get down to 1, and then queue'd another to keep it up, and then couldn't fill everything, than you weren't doing it right. And good point about the supply depots.
Now for a mean one.
This drill of mine shall pierce the heavens: For any mission where you are given an SCV, you must end that mission with one SCV in your possession that has performed at least 20 kills and obtained the rank of "Commander." Specify this SCV at the start of the mission. It is not allowed to die.
It's a mutilation of a line or two from Gurren Lagan, which is basically an anime about people and mechs that use drills as their primary weapon, at least near the end, as opposed to things like laser swords and guns. The original primary quote is from Kamina: "Your drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens!" But I suppose it could be... dirty.
You're not allowed to make more than one of any building except defenses and supply depots. Reactors are also not allowed, including Tech Reactors. So no more than 1 CC, 1rax, 1fac, 1port.
I'll try I don't like SC2 on hard. I haven't completed a regular brutal run, so someone else might want to try this on brutal. I also completed Hurry up, it's Marine night! in Normal difficulty.
An idea:
Feelin' Techy:
You are only allowed to use units that have non autocast abilities (the opposite to the no abilities run) If a unit has an autocast ability, you can use it provided you turn autocast off. Have fun repairing :D
@kunstderfugue: Good job on marine night! @all: We're still getting new challenges faster than they are being beaten. Please go beat a couple of them now!
EPT
The idea is obviously that you bring down enemy units to near-zero health before engaging with your SCVs. On all-in to reduce the amount of micro required you can use hive mind emulators to grab units quickly (after which you'll have to kill them quickly to make sure they don't kill anything), and planetary fortresses. You can only use turrets vs air units!
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