Revolt in Shakuras addon

This map can be played in StarCraft version 1.16.1 and Remastered. But keep in mind that this mission features a custom color (blueish grey) for one of the factions, which will not display in the Remastered version. Instead, this new color is displayed as standard purple in Remastered.

Installation

Requires StarCraft Brood War 1.16.1 or StarCraft Remastered.
Put the map "Revolt in Shakuras.scx" in the StarCraft directory. Play the map in Play Custom option, choosing Use Map Settings as the game mode.

Factions

- Khalai Insurgents (brown): You control this faction, including the High Templar Aldaris (yellow rescuable). This is the only faction with Carriers and Arbiters available, but you will have to build a Forge and Photon Cannons for defense and detection, as your stronghold's defense has been sabotaged.

- Khalai Refugees (teal): Aldaris gained detractors as soon as he plotted against Raszagal, some Khalai templars joined Matriarch's forces. This faction attacks the player from the beginning. You must be careful against their formidable Reavers and High Templars.

- Nerazim Warriors (blueish grey): A tribe of Dark Templars from Shakuras, introduced for this mission. Their color represents the silver appearance of a Nerazim attacking blade. Settlements near the Citadel serve to assist the Fleet of the Matriarch. They control the highest number of expansions in the map. Attack waves are mostly composed of Dark Templars.

- Fleet of the Matriarch (blue): Before the unleash of Dark Archons, this faction limited itself to Dark Templars. It warps Corsairs for air support.

Map description

You start with a base in the middle of the map. There are three computer players, but relax, only one of them is active at the beginning (teal). The other two players activate later.

Resource layout

Computer players do not have infinite resources, but they start with good amounts of ore and gas. Mineral Fields and Vespene Geysers have different quantities throughout the map, as these have been modified to give the map a more natural feeling. Resource nodes controlled by computer players have a considerably higher amount of mineral and gas, compared to other nodes, but the AI will mine them quickly because it starts with lots of workers. The human player still has a good chance of getting a lot of extra resources, if he or she attacks a base and gains it quickly.

Gameplay features

- Enemies can "train" (spawn) workers via triggers. Since most AI scripts train few workers, a trigger mechanism was implemented, which increases the number of workers for a player. Otherwise, the map would be easily exploitable. Without this set of triggers, a human player can kill the starting enemy workers and the map would become too easy, since the AI's economy relies on harvesting resources -AI would harvest too slowly and nodes would contain excessive resources when claimed-. Triggers were designed in a way that it limits the number of workers depending on the number of headquarters controlled, in order to prevent excessive workers when the number of bases is reduced.

- Enemies spawn combat units from their factories to send them in attack waves. This creates a more challenging map while adding variation to the stock AI scripts. Although this is basically cheating, unit costs are deducted for the player right before each spawn. Depending on the type of unit being spawned, tech tree conditions are requested before. For Protoss players, triggers not only check if a factory is being controlled, but also check for Pylons near the factory. Triggers cannot check for population limit and unit queue (at least not without Extended Unit Death maybe), but AIs always create Supply Depots, Overlords or Pylons when they are close of being overcapped. It is also true that all factories are preplaced, so being unable to check unit queue is not a problem. Spawning units only increases the production rate and factory density -trigger rates were estimated for a 25% to 50% production increase- which is equivalent to stacking buildings (cheating in a way, after all).

- Triggers provide upgrades and tech abilities. This is simply achieved by exchanging units from one player to another, so that the player receiving the unit acquires an upgrade or research from it after the transaction. Resources are deducted after, and not before, for simplicity. Trigger conditions check for buildings, time and costs. The downside is that buildings are not actually being used for the upgrades, so there isn't a real interaction with the human player. The advantage is that it overcomes the script limitations.

- Triggers check unit maximum. Combat units are constantly spawned in a loop, so it is always necessary to include a trigger to prevent unit spawning after a certain limit.

Created by Luis F. Calderari