While the commanders are fantastic and the added difficulty is fantastic, we still have the same maps to play on as we have for a very long time. If several more maps were made, I think that would immensely add to coop replayability.
I don’t think making a mission is as hard as making a commander, and if Bliz wants, they can run contests where SCII players make missions as entries, and the winning entries get implemented as actual missions. I know if like 2 entries come in and they both suck that’s not good. I mean, if there’s sizeable interest, this would work.
As I recall, a couple missions were already made using this model. We’re starved for missions, Bliz! Please feed your hungry coop gamers! xD
Hope it’ll be better designed to fit all commanders. I think a pronounced issue with newer maps will definitely be how to accommodate the power discrepancy between older and newer ones.
Well, balancing is always an issue. But I think we have so many good commanders, and more good commanders get put out – I am not saying that’s at all a bad thing – but the number of maps remains the same. If there was a bunch of more maps, you could select Random on maps and never get bored because of so much mission variety.
Each of the co-op commanders is indeed unique and is true to a theme. The co-op team has succeeded in differentiating it from the others. I don’t know how they do it but they keep finding new ways to do something that hasn’t been done before. However, it would be great to have some new missions/maps.
Thanks for keeping co-op interesting and fun to play.
Had a game with the missus today, she wanted to try out Brutal + and see if the Oblivion Express map really is as bugged as I claimed. We ended up turtling in the expansion after one train slipped and we realized they really get destroyed. Twas fun.
Anyhoo, the reason I say this is because I wouldn’t mind an “Onslaught” style map or two where your job is to survive until a certain wave or time. Higher difficulties would require surviving more waves in order to win and stronger waves. Well, those do get stronger anyhow.
A couple of maps I could see as it would be two missions from the WoL Zeratul missions, one where Maar (the first hybrid) comes at you again and again, every time stronger than before, the other could be the last of the four where the Protoss make their last stand. Also the mission where Kerrigan turns into the Primal Queen of Blades and the one where Jimbo has to protect the freshly turned Xel’naga Kerrigan from the Epilogue (I believe the second mission).
Can you believe it’s been over a year since the last mission was released? I couldn’t believe it myself but yeah, the same boring maps for over a year.
Making maps is hard work, pretty similar to COs in a ton of ways actually.
Unfortunately it appears like the current model of free maps to add value for paid COs just doesn’t look good to the powers that be. RtC seemed like a way to appease them, skip the brainstorming stage at least. But then both of them ended up poorly received (though personally I like P&P), with comments all the time about outright quitting CoD whenever it shows up.
They really do need to figure out a way to add more maps though… We need more maps to keep it fresh.
I’m not complaining about having new Coop commanders, I’m just wishing to have more side campaigns, even if they must take more time to deliver and must charge a bit more for it.
I wouldn’t have any arguments with this myself. However, the market doesn’t seem to support that. I started a thread awhile back wondering if folks would be willing to share how much money they spent on Coop. Directly or indirectly. Many were not willing to spend ANY money on cosmetics, which is fair enough b/c I only spent money on the Warchest for the XP boosts. Then folks “thanked me” for supporting coop, having sunk in around $75 (IIRC? Too lazy to look up the actual amount, nor do the math). If folks think $75 is a lot of money for a AAA game, then go figure why they’re less inclined to sink too much time into Sc2 Coop. Especially free endeavors like new Missions.
Anecdotal evidence. I had not even seen that thread, and I bet most people don’t even visit the forums that often. However, perhaps there is some truth to it.
We RTS gamers have become a niche, and the subgroup that only wants campaigns and doesn’t care that much about multiplayer like you and me, we are probably even worse in a niche of a niche situation. Yet, even so, even if Blizzard doesn’t bother making campaign maps anymore, they should at least make sure their game engine doesn’t fail when it comes to supporting community made ones in that regard.
Hell, Blizzard could at least make sure basic things work!
People keep saying making missions is not hard. Look at the Rock-the-Cabinet event, people spent lots of time to make missions, not many people cared to vote and only voted for the first mission on the list.
Then, when the 2 of them were added to the map pool: “Part & Parcel” and “Cradle of Death”, people trashed them to rock bottom.
So, who among here has enough confidence to make a mission, which satisfies everyone?
Isn’t SC2s dev teams constantly getting shaved off? I imagine problems arise in their department and they are playing the silent game for a reason. Even when it comes to player created maps there needs to be large teams formulated to make something happen. And even then the results are always finicky. I get we all love this game but when you look back the pie chart only moves in one direction of the slice.
I’d imagine it is a shrinking team, yeah. Not much is being done for the game except some balancing and some co-op development. They need to score better to get the funds they need for development.