Hell, It's About Time: Let's Play Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty Campaign Mode! (DONE)

[smuchmuch]

So, can anyone else give a logical reason what Tychus does to make the toilet flush in the Odin? I mean, he’s welded into his armor, so the suit he’s already got must have some sort of systems for dealing with that sort of thing, and he can’t take the suit off to use a toilet anyways – I don’t see any hinges on his over-engineered codpiece.

Well even if that suit has a catheter system, there still must be tanks to empty once in a while.
Either that or unleashing wanton destruction made him really happy (yes, that kind of happy) and the suit systems handle that kind of need in a fashion wich involves necessary evacuation.

Anyway:

-Ripwave missiles (they really comme in handy against mutas later), Spend or save the rest as you see fit. Tank upgrades aren't a bad choice if you go for terran metal and infantry, Cc 1 style, but they cost a lot.

-Media Blitzz.

[The Glyphstone]

Ditto. Tank upgrade, Media Blitz. Another mission between EoD and MB kinda breaks the timeline...and I see you closing little plot holes quite nicely.

I'm actually curious, which actual plot holes have I managed to sew shut? And for that matter, have I left any gaping ones open?

[Draken]

Tank upgrade, save surplus, gogogoMediaBlitz!

I echo this statement.

[dgnslyr]

Ripwave missiles and Media Blitz.

[Forbiddenwar]

I'm actually curious, which actual plot holes have I managed to sew shut? And for that matter, have I left any gaping ones open?

Was the reporters use of "us, we, our" when referring to the raiders intentional? Has she officially changed sides?

I was kind of hoping for some comment on the super battlecrusier, like wondering why it was on break, etc. oh well.

[Talanic]

I'm actually curious, which actual plot holes have I managed to sew shut? And for that matter, have I left any gaping ones open?

There's a few too many plot holes in the game to possibly sew 'em all shut, but most have to do with the prophecy and the artifact - like, how does the Moebius Foundation know exactly what the artifact does and its effects on all races when they've never even seen it?

The one I saw you closing was about seizing a long-range transmitter, when they apparently just blew 'em up in the game. It's never addressed, but I can't help but imagine that the Dominion to lost contact with Valhalla, complained to a dead phone line that the Odin was late, then asked no questions and didn't even bother to check who the pilot was when it arrived by the wrong shipping service.

Seriously, it's an epic failure of Dominion security, but the whole Matt Horner line requires that the Dominion practically swallow an Idiot Ball.

[Eldariel]

The lost viking achievements are really easy after someone on this forum posted a simple script that created continuous fire. Or rather made the long levels easier on the space bar.
Here is the post.
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...44#post9047944

It's how I did the achievements.

also, once i understood that the powerups change and cycle in a definitive pattern, it was easy to get the right powerups right when i needed them.
Don't know if any of this helps, but that's how I got gold after 2-3 hours of playing.

I find it really easy; just pick up improved Side Lasers, two Drones and then nothing but Bombs. Shoot things and if things get sluggish, use Bomb to clear the screen. Alternatively, if you are in danger of dying, clear the screen. The boss patterns are quite dodgable and since you don't need bombs during the first playthrough, you should have plenty to clear Gold on the third in spite of having to burn some Bombs to just get rid of the Scourge shrapnel in the Zerg round 2.

Side Lasers and Drones ensure 100% kill rate and are more than adequate against all the bosses; Plasmas just force you to stand in the lane of fire while you can just Side Laser from safe positions.

[Forbiddenwar]

How does the Moebius Foundation know exactly what the artifact does and its effects on all races when they've never even seen it?

Emil Nurad, I thought that was very clear. At least to a brood war player. Probably will become more clear in Heart of the Swarm.

[DaedalusMkV]

Emil Nurad, I thought that was very clear. At least to a brood war player. Probably will become more clear in Heart of the Swarm.

Indeed, it's pretty clear that the whole damn plot of the game (with the exception of Horner and Tosh's missions) is a big convoluted plot by Narud and the Foundation to

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get Tychus into position to kill Kerrigan.

I'm not sure how they got Arcturus on board, but everything else makes a lot of sense when you realize just who founded and leads the Foundation. That is

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Samir Duran, primary agent of the Fallen Xel'naga that is making the Hybrids.

The only reason that their plot didn't go off without a hitch was Zeratul and his not-so-cryptic warnings to Raynor.

[The Glyphstone]

Was the reporters use of "us, we, our" when referring to the raiders intentional? Has she officially changed sides?

I was kind of hoping for some comment on the super battlecrusier, like wondering why it was on break, etc. oh well.

That is, actually - if you notice through the updates, she's using the inclusive pronouns more frequently as the story goes on.

As for the Loki....I actually skipped the thing. I had earned the achievement for it on my normal playthrough, hadn't built enough airforces to take it out on my own, and by the time I remembered that it existed, the Odin was already wandering past its dock, so I couldn't get support/tanking from Tychus. In this continuity, I guess the super battlecruiser doesn't exist.

There's a few too many plot holes in the game to possibly sew 'em all shut, but most have to do with the prophecy and the artifact - like, how does the Moebius Foundation know exactly what the artifact does and its effects on all races when they've never even seen it?

Yeah, that's not a plot hole so much as a huge case of All There In The ManualPrevious Game's Secret Mission Subplot.

Voting appears to be dominated by Shaped Blast Rounds and Media Blitz, as expected. ETA for update unknown, I have a busy weekend ahead.

[Talanic]

Emil Nurad, I thought that was very clear. At least to a brood war player. Probably will become more clear in Heart of the Swarm.

That just changes which plothole it is - "How do they know" to "Why don't they ever ask him how HE knows that, if he doesn't have any material to 'study' for the info?"

It's one of my big beefs with the game. My first response to "The artifact will do this!" is "How the heck do you know that?" And they never, ever ask - to the point of funding a major military expedition, committing half of their entire fleet with zero chance of survival unless Narud is completely right about an artifact he's never seen.

In those circumstances, I'd expect them to at least have another scientist look at his experiments first...which I think would lead down an interesting path.

Basically, Narud's disguise is paper-thin, in my opinion. Right down to the backwards name.

[Runestar]

If you did the agria and outbreak missions first (to access the lab) before smash and grab, Hanson will comment on the 1st fragment of the artifact being only thousands of years old (the xelnaga are supposedly millions of years old) and radiates energy destructive to zerg and protoss.

You won't get this comment if you have 2 fragments (which most players who opted to do smash and grab first will have).

So it is highly likely the xelnaga constructed the artifact only recently to get rid of kerrigan and possibly the protoss as well in one fell swoop. Whether her turning back to human was intended or not is another issue though.

[Talanic]

Actually, she only comments on 'most alien relics' being millions of years old. Not Xel'naga.

And considering that they're always found in Xel'naga ruins, including a worldship, they're probably exactly what they say on the tin - Xel'naga artifact bits.

Which were split into pieces for no discernable reason. I'm going to be upset if the artifact has no more role in Starcraft's plot, because if not, that's a blatant case of MacGuffinism.

But before I start ranting inappropriately, I just got called off to work...

Edit: Back from work. It's to the point that the only way that I see the Starcraft plot working at all anymore is if the Xel'naga were literally behind everything - including all of human history. Which raises the question of, why didn't they raise a finger to prevent themselves from getting slaughtered by the Zerg?

Double edit: But I think I should stop talking about my gripes with the storyline here because The Glyphstone has an excellent LP and I don't want to sidetrack it.

[The Glyphstone]

I lied. Update!

Update 14: In Which a Witty Title Would Detract Unnecessarily From the Drama

Media Blitz

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November 8, 2010;

Dear Diary;

It’s…not fair. Why would they do this to me? I never really meant to hurt them – I’ve even sort of come to like most of them. And now…now I’m probably going to end up dead because of them.

I woke up this morning, like normal. Got washed and dressed, like normal. But when I tried to leave, my door was locked – from the outside. Nothing I did could get it open; I thought at first it was a computer glitch. So I went to my terminal, and found a message from Raynor waiting for me:

‘Ms Colby:

It’s been a pleasure hosting you these past few weeks, truthfully. All of us have been fighting for so long; it tends to slant our view of things. Just having an outsider’s perspective did a lot to get myself and Matt back on focus, so you did help us out by finding us. But it’s time for everyone to lay their cards on the table. You probably didn’t realize it, but Gabriel Tosh is a telepath, and a good one. As soon as he came aboard, he felt someone here was a spy for Arcturus. Couldn’t tell who on his own, but putting two and two together with the short list of recent recruits made it pretty easy to figure out.

This revolution is too important to risk, and with that adjutant we dug up, I’ve finally got the ammo I need to bring Arcturus down for good. But if you managed to get away and warn him first, it’d all be a waste. We’ve been watching you for a while now, ready to intercept anything you might have tried to send to the Dominion…but now we’re on Korhal, where any slipup would mean disaster. You can still get incoming data feeds, and I’d suggest you watch UNN in half an hour or so for a very special broadcast. That security pass of yours had all the codes we needed to crack UNN channels, so maybe you can get some consolation in knowing that you helped deal a great blow for freedom.

-Jim Raynor

He was completely wrong, but how could I convince him of that? I’d never even met Emperor Mengsk personally, and I had never planned on betraying the Raiders. My exclusive report wouldn’t have been very complimentary to them, but it’s not like they had vital military secrets to lose, and everything I recorded is outdated anyways. I was just going to get my footage, and then sneak away next time we stopped for supplies somewhere – they’d hardly even miss me. So much for that plan…with nothing better to do, I tapped into the ship’s sensor feeds…or more accurately, UNN’s camera feeds live from Korhal. The Hyperion couldn’t get near the inner system without being spotted by security patrols, but the Raiders still had real-time coverage thanks to – my stolen security pass.



The Dominion was going to ‘unveil’ the Odin. Only Raynor, the Raiders, and I knew that it was Tychus driving it. No one else – not the troops, or the Emperor, or the crowds of civilians gathered for the ceremony. I think I saw Bethany in one of the stands…



At least that was safety, then, because there weren’t any Dominion troops in the stands for Tychus to open up his murderous barrage on. Everyone started running when he started shooting – soldiers toward him, citizens away…but I could see dead civilians everywhere, caught in the opening salvos or the following crossfire. Was this Raynor’s grand plan? Send his pet convict on a vicious butchery spree in downtown Korhal to break people’s faith in Emperor Mengsk? No, it had to be something else; everyone called Raynor a terrorist, but I knew him now, and he’d never order this sort of…terrorism.



I couldn’t contain my relief when Tychus started marching for the nearest Dominion base, instead of turning his guns on the closest skyscrapers. I wouldn’t put any atrocities past that man, but he did listen to Raynor, and it seemed Raynor had briefed his friend better this time.





The Dominion forces were like sheep, at first. None of them had been expecting the Odin to suddenly go rogue. Some thought it was on their side, defending against an alien or rebel attack, right until Tychus blew them away.



By the time they finally got organized again, the Odin had devastated almost everything with Dominion paint jobs inside Korhal City, and for some reason, the fleet presence seemed awfully light. It didn’t help that Tychus’s final target was the local military starports, and the civilian pads weren’t designed to support military craft.



It seemed Tychus hadn’t been fully briefed beyond the point of ‘kill stuff’ – maybe his attention span was too short. Captain Horner started explaining their real plan, and I think I stopped breathing. This entire sneak attack was just a diversion, a distraction. Their target wasn’t Korhal City itself…they were going after the UNN Studio Building! Everyone in the Dominion had access to UNN through those transmitters, and the Raiders were going to use them to broadcast something.



The Odin’s rampage had distracted the fleet enough that Captain Horner and Raynor had slipped a small force through to land on Korhal itself. A raiding party, at most – just enough to break into the studios and upload whatever it was they were telling everyone. I could only hope they wouldn’t kill people. My co-workers were there – people I knew, cared about, people I didn’t want to be blown up or shot. And Kate, of course, but that wasn’t much consolation.



It wasn’t even surprising at this point that Tychus disagreed. He’d already defanged most of the Dominion in the area, so he didn’t see any reason not to finish the job personally. Raynor had evidentially expected this, though – he kept most of his men defending their camp and let Tychus do his thing.



Thankfully, he didn’t blow up the building after the Raiders had taken over the transmitters. That made sense, though, since they needed control over all three broadcast towers before they could leave. I don’t know if my passcodes saved any UNN security guards from dying in last stands, but I hope they did. The passcodes saving them, that is, not the guards dying.



Now the Dominion forces were finally getting their act in gear. There was no sign of the Royal Guard, but they were undoubtedly protecting the Imperial Palace in Augustgrad, half a planet away. The Emperor was in no direct danger from the Odin. His men, on the other hand, melted like butter in an oven. Captain Horner had finally been kicked out the local security nets, making it safe for fleet units to drop into Korhal airspace. Unfortunately, the Odin’s precision anti-air turned out to be as good as its ground-level weaponry, and they couldn’t conduct orbital bombardment without hitting the city itself.



The engineer, Swann, still wanted to ‘help’ Tychus, which happened to take the form of a brand-new machine he’d built up for testing. He called it a Thor, basically a miniature Odin that the Raiders could actually manufacture parts for. Tychus disagreed, rather enthusiastically, that he needed any help – Raynor sent them in anyways, but they got sidetracked somehow and never made it to the Odin.



Of course Tychus was right, he seemed perfectly capable of taking on the entire Dominion armed forces with nothing but some automated repair drones. Less than twenty minutes after it all started, the Raiders were back onboard the shuttles and fleeing out-system, looking for all the world like civilian refugee crafts and zooming right past the security patrols heading in to blow the Odin into scrap metal. I think they had to sedate Tychus to get him off-planet, he really didn’t want to give up that machine even though there was no way to take it with them this time.



I almost fainted at what came next. It wasn’t very long…maybe five minutes at most, and part of that was the introduction. First, it was Raynor’s voice, speaking to everyone in the Dominion, and…reassuring?...them that what they were about to hear was authentic. This was an old recording, he said, from an adjutant on Tarsonis when the Confederacy fell. Everyone alive remembers the Fall of Tarsonis, how the Zerg swept in out of nowhere and devoured everyone there.

First, a man’s voice, calling himself ‘Duke’ and claiming that the ‘emitters’ were online. That must have been General Edmund Duke, one of Emperor Mengsk’s old officers who died during the Directorate Invasion – he has a plaza named after him not far from home. A woman’s voice was next, asking who approved using these ‘psi emitters’. The third voice…I knew it, and so did every person in the Dominion – he made weekly speeches to every citizen of the Dominion, and had done so for the last four years. The female lieutenant continued to argue, saying that Mengsk was…unleashing the Zerg on an entire planet? How was that possible? The Zerg hadn’t attacked Tarsonis randomly…they had been lured there by these emitters? And Emperor Mengsk had put them there? It couldn’t be true. Raynor and his men must have fabricated this.

Then it was Raynor’s voice in the recording, a younger-sounding Raynor. He called the Emperor by name and told him that he shouldn’t do it. Wait – when had Jim Raynor and Emperor Mengsk been on speaking terms? That didn’t matter though, with the ending bit. Mengsk wouldn’t listen, and then he started making a speech. A four-year old speech, dug up out of the past, and his voice sounded just like it did now. His words, though…they weren’t his words. They were the words of a tyrant, or a madman.

The recording had to be fake. But what if it was true? All I had was the Dominion. With my security codes fingerprinting this broadcast – real or not – I’d be painted as a traitor. There’d be Ghosts coming after me by the end of the week. Treason was a capital crime, as was aiding a traitor, so my...family would be dead or in prison soon too, and my friends. Ironically, being a prisoner of the Raiders was the safest place in the sector for me, even if they had taken everything away from me. And now...they’d exposed a man I’d looked up to for years, who’d overthrown the Confederacy and displaced its brutal reign of terror, to be just as bad as they were…

Armory: 150,00 to spend
+40% Firebat attack spread (40,000)
+2 Firebat armor (85,000)
2x Hellion attack spread, 40,000)
+10 Hellion damage vs. light armor, 60,000)
+75 HP to Missile Turrets, 50,000)
-Missile Turrets do AoE damage, 80,000)
-Hire Devil Dog Firebat Mercenaries (25,000)
-Diamondbacks +1 Range (75,000)
-Diamondbacks +50 HP (90,000)
-Hire Hel's Angels Viking Mercenaries (45,000)
-Ripwave Missiles (Viking anti-air attacks do splash damage = 75,000)
-Hire Siege Breakers (2 Elite Siege Tanks, 45,000)
-Cerebrus Mines (Spider Mines have +33% blast radius and trigger radius = 50,000)
-Replenishable Magazines (Vultures can rearm Spider Mines for 15 minerals/mine) = 60,000
-Terran Buildings extinguish fires and repair to 50% life) = 90,000
-Goliaths can fire at air and ground simultaneously) = 50,000
-Goliaths gain +3 missile range, +1 cannon range) = 80,000
-Hire Spartan Company - (2 Elite Goliaths) = 40,000
-Wraiths start with +100 energy) = 80,000
-Cloaked Wraiths deflect 20% of incoming attacks) = 125,000
New: Thors gain 330mm Barrage Cannons, Aoe stun+heavy damage (130,000)
New: Immortality Protocol (Dead Thors can be rebuilt in the field (140,000)
-Save Everything (0)
-Save Surplus (0)

Missions:
-Piercing The Shroud (Secret Mission, +4 Protoss/+3 Zerg)
-Prophecy Missions (+11 Protoss, +13 Zerg research)
-The Moebius Factor: Evacuate the Moebius Foundation (120,000+3 Zerg, Medivacs)
-Breakout: Side with Tosh and free the other Spectres from New Folsom Prison (175,000, Spectres)
-Ghost of a Chance: Betray Tosh and demolish his Spectre training facilities (175,000, Ghosts)

I’d rather save Piercing The Shroud for later. It’d be a bit of a mood whiplash, and the nature of how I’ll be doing it means it can wait without disrupting continuity.

And the random bolding..it's not some sort of secret message, it's my attempt at imitating blots on the diary pages. Not sure if it pushes the update into literary Narm or not. But you guys wanted a Broken Cutie, so I took this Cutie and Broke her.

[DaedalusMkV]

Well done, without a doubt.

Welp, we need to put a bit of distance between this and Piercing the Shroud, for sure, and the Prophecy Missions might have the same problem. So, I'll vote Breakout and Save Everything (For Medivacs and Banshees).

[Brother Oni]

And the random bolding..it's not some sort of secret message, it's my attempt at imitating blots on the diary pages. Not sure if it pushes the update into literary Narm or not. But you guys wanted a Broken Cutie, so I took this Cutie and Broke her.

NOW you tell me.

I spent a good 15 minutes trying to crunch a pattern out before I decided to read the LP to see if there were any more hints.

[The Glyphstone]

NOW you tell me.

I spent a good 15 minutes trying to crunch a pattern out before I decided to read the LP to see if there were any more hints.

Hehehe. I was half-tempted to not explain it at all.

[Draconi Redfir]

ok we've had your meidia blitz fun now. can we PLEASE get some mercenairies?

[Edge]

Hire the Siege Breakers and get the Terran Building repair upgrade.

Go Breakout some Spectres.

[Brother Oni]

Hehehe. I was half-tempted to not explain it at all.

I read the first couple of paragraphs and was wondering if she was trying to leave a coded message in her journal so that if anybody found it at a later date, she'd be able to pass on a message.

You're an evil, evil man.

[dentrag2]

ok we've had your meidia blitz fun now. can we PLEASE get some mercenairies?

I don't know what your fascination with mercs is, but honestly, upgrades are far better than them.

Breakout, Save Everything.

[Runestar]

Mercs are quite handy for quickly boosting your army in a hurry. I only focused on acquiring a few upgrades, and so had enough cash to acquire some of the more desirable mercs (namely those I had purchased upgrades in).

I ended up buying the hero marauders, tanks, banshees and battlecruiser (which turned out to be a lot less useful than I imagined, but still nice because I don't have to build a fusion core).

I would recommend the nova mission, as I find ghosts situationally more useful compared to specters (their snipe is a lot more spam-friendly, and allowed me to clear the shatter the sky lv with relative ease).

[dgnslyr]

Hrm, the Nova mission would be pretty interesting, because then she would be getting "revenge" on Tosh for reading her mind. Also, Ghosts are win against Protoss for their shield-draining EMP.

[bobthehero]

EMP is unusable in my campaign playthrough, cloak seem to take EMP place and makes it disapear, dont know if its related to the suit that allow ghost to remain permanently cloaked.

[Draken]

Hrm, the Nova mission would be pretty interesting, because then she would be getting "revenge" on Tosh for reading her mind. Also, Ghosts are win against Protoss for their shield-draining EMP.

Except they don't have that ability in the campaign mode (neither do specters). The difference between ghosts and specters is that ghosts get their single-target damage spell and specters get their AoE stun.

Specters rule. Also, Breakout is a much more fun mission than Ghost of a Chance, in my opinion.

Breakout

Hire Siege Breakers.

Save Rest.

Mercs are really not all that useful, with their monster cooldowns. But the Siegebreakers are monsters. I don't think there is any unit quite as destructive.

Shame Kerrigan evaporates them in the endgame, while also not taking much damage at all.

---

Also, Tosh is not reading our heroine's mind. She is not the traitor. That is

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Tychus.

He's getting a vibe and she is the most obvious target.

[dgnslyr]

Also, Tosh is not reading our heroine's mind. She is not the traitor. That is

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Tychus.

He's getting a vibe and she is the most obvious target.

You probably didn’t realize it, but Gabriel Tosh is a telepath, and a good one.

Eh?
Also, I forgot all about the EMP thing, Specters do look much more useful. Also, someone said that Specters look a bit like Tom Cruise while the visor is up, and I can't unsee it. So I guess it boils down to whether you want psychic assassins or psychic scientologist-assassins.

[The Glyphstone]

Eh?
Also, I forgot all about the EMP thing, Specters do look much more useful.

Remember, that's Raynor ''talking''. Unreliable narrator and all that.

(Tosh's biography does list telepathy as one of his psi talents, but it's evident from the campaign that he can't actually read minds.)

[smuchmuch]

If you're going to go for the end of thre Tosh branch, go for breakout, simply because it's the one that make the more sense, storry wise.

[The Glyphstone]

Breakout is unanimous. It's an even split between buying Siege Breakers and saving surplus, or saving everything - and I love the Siege Breakers, so I'm tiebreaking in their favor.

[Draken]

Tosh is more of an empath than an actual telepath. Nova is more telepathic. He also shows a few signs of being a seer.