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

[The Glyphstone]

Doesn't look like anyone's doing it yet, and I'm bored. I'll try to make it though this one, unlike my Ascendancy LP. This will be the story of the Starcraft II Terran single-player campaign, through the (attempted) viewpoint of a bubbly, somewhat airheaded junior reporter following around Raynor and his Raiders as they blow stuff up, rescue civilians from tyranny, save the galaxy from marauding Zerg, and other terrorist stuff.

I'm playing on Hard, in any case. Beaten in on Normal, and I'd be struggling to survive too much on Brutal to get any good screenshots. Do tell me if my writing sucks, this is a completely different personality than the cynical juvenile deliniquent of my previous LP.

[The Glyphstone]

Update 1: In Which This Update Has Always Been In A Single-Spoiler Format And Had Update Titles, With No Evidence of Retcons

Liberation Day:

Spoiler

Show

April 13th, 2504:

Dear Diary:

It’s just not fair! I put in all those extra hours for the network. I’m the one who did the groundwork for the exclusive on that new military expansion initiative. I worked overtime putting together the briefs for last month’s special on alien ruins for the Tourism Board. But do I get the open nighttime anchor slot after Johnny dies from Erewhonese Melting Flu? No, of course it goes to that prissy witch Kate! I’ve always been a better reporter than her, Diary, but I’ve only got one thing she doesn’t – ethics. You and I both know what she must have been doing to get that anchor spot, but now it’s hers, and I’m still stuck here. You just watch, though, cause I’m going to show her, and UNN too. I’ve got an idea that’ll land me the scoop of the century!
-Nora

September 25th, 2504
Dear Diary:
I did it! I did it I did it I did it! It took me five months, but I actually managed to find Raynor’s Raiders! My boss thinks I’m on medical leave, heehee. Nope, I ran myself off a set of fake documents and headed out to the fringe, pretending to be a reporter from Kel-Moria. It took a while, but I finally got in touch with someone who knew someone who knew how to find Jim Raynor and his terrorists. Told them I was looking to write a report on Raynor’s fight against the Emperor and, well, now I’ve got my own little cabin on his flying tin can of a flagship around Mar Sara. I guess they’re so desperate for someone to be a voice in their favor that they don’t care who it is anymore. I even got to meet Mr. Raynor himself when they brought me aboard, and to be honest, Diary, I don’t know how he’s even still alive. He smells like he takes a bath in cheap whiskey every morning, I can’t imagine how much he drinks. What a gentleman, though! Called me “Miss Colby” and everything, and that captain of his, he’s sooooo dreamy!
-Nora

October 2nd, 2504:
Ooh, ooh, here we go! Mr. Raynor’s leading a bunch of his soldiers on an actual terrorist thingymajig, and I get to follow along! Apparently they don’t like the Dominion setting up shop here – Raynor used to live here or something; so they’re going to some dinky little town called Backwater Station and trashing the Dominion HQ there.

Here’s me, don’t I look great? They were nice enough to give me a spare suit of armor they had lying around…I didn’t ask what happened to its old owner. Kinda drab though, I’ll have to spruce it up, maybe paint it pink if I can find some paint.

I followed Mr. Raynor and his men down the road a bit, and we ran into a couple of Dominion guards at a roadblock. They tried to arrest him, of course, and the Raiders just started shooting them! Genuine war crimes right in front of my camera! I’m going to be rich.

Every house we passed was all closed up and dark, though, kinda creepy almost. I did meet one guy sitting on the street, but he could only babble about his ‘friends and family’. I guess all the rest of them ran away because they knew the Raiders were coming, but he was too stupid to run.

After murdering loyal Dominion troopers, common vandalism seems kinda petty for terrorists. But Raynor’s still ordering his men to blow up every one of Emperor Mengsk’s holo-projectors they can find. Must be jealous of the Emperor’s good looks.

We caught up with the civilians at last – some guards were protecting them as they piled onto a transport truck, probably to get them to safety. One of them spotted Raynor and, well, I’m not sure what happened next, cause a bug flew into my helmet…I guess keeping the visor open so I don’t sweat too much isn’t good. But when I looked up again, all the guards were dead, along with one of the civilians. He must have gotten caught in the crossfire, poor guy.

The townsfolk were all happy to see Raynor, for some reason – maybe they don’t watch UNN out here? Only ignorant hicks without decent TV wouldn’t know the man is a dangerous lunatic terrorist. Or maybe they’re lunatics too – all he did was talk to them, and the next thing you know, they’re forming a riot mob and storming the Dominion base! I got footage of it too, more proof that Jim Raynor is a monster for using innocent civilians as decoys and bullet shields against the base’s defenders. They didn’t seem bothered by it, though. Maybe it’s something in the water.


Party Time!

[Gullara]

Bubbly is one word to describe her. She fits the role of the story perfectly though.

I really like it. Can't wait for the next one.

I should play the campaign. Haven't got around to it yet.

[Zarah]

I've been hanging around the Something Awful forums lately, so I feel the need to critique your LP. Your writing is good, but that's not so much the problem:

• We came to this thread to see screenshots of a video game. You don't need to hide them. Use one spoiler, put the entire update in it and put the screenshots in between the text where they are now. People are lazy and would much rather click once rather than seven times in a single update. Trust me, it will really improve the flow.
• Your screenshots themselves need some work. This is a game that runs at a very high resolution, and simply shrinking full-screen shots makes everything too small. Crop out anything that the reader shouldn't be immediately looking at, like the HUD. The two shots you have from the in-game cutscenes are probably the best, because they are clear and focused. Try to make all your screenshots look like that. If you crop your pictures, then you might not have to resize them at all, so you're not necessarily doing more work all the time. It's more of a trade-off.
• What exactly happened at the end there? Was that the end of the mission? Or did you just end the update there? Assume you are showing this game to people who have never played the game (such as me). I realize you're doing this in-character, but it's kind of hard to tell what's going on. Maybe some OOC comments end of the update would be helpful.
• Seven screenshots isn't much for an update. There's no real rule of thumb for it, but if I'm running an LP that isn't directly dependent on the reader's actions, then I try to fit at least 20 screenshots per update.

Not to discourage you or anything, but like I said, I've been lurking around Something Awful for the past couple weeks. These kinds of rules are becoming ingrained into my mind. There have a harsh quality control on their LPs down there, but it pays off. There's a lot of good threads. I'm just trying to help, even if it seems like I'm picking on you. You're a moderator. That wouldn't be very smart.


Also, I realized as I was writing this: Perhaps we should have a "Let's Play Rules" thread for this forum? We do tend to have quite a few of them and it might be a useful tool for people considering them.

[Gullara]

^ As for there not being many pictures, this is the first mission. There isn't a lot going on.

[factotum]

I imagine the POV character's total cluelessness could get grating after a time, but interesting first instalment. (Haven't actually played SC2 myself so I have no idea what's going on--therefore I don't actually know what Raynor said to those civilians to make them attack the Dominion base. Am I going to miss a lot of the jokes if that's the case?).

[Draconi Redfir]

i beleive if you use the mouse wheel you can scroll the camera to a veiw that matches that of the units. is it possible to rotate the camera this way? if so it might ba a good way of showing whats happening as if it was on an actual vidio camera.

[The Dark Fiddler]

Seven screenshots isn't much for an update. There's no real rule of thumb for it, but if I'm running an LP that isn't directly dependent on the reader's actions, then I try to fit at least 20 screenshots per update.

I agree with the rest of what you said, but not this. There's not really any rule of thumb for this. Some games have more text and less screenshots, and it works better that ways (see: PhoeKun's Let's Play of Pokemon LeafGreen) will others have more screenshots and more text (see: my Let's Play of Yellow, not to be an attention whore or anything ). And then some people do video. Point is, everyone has their own style, much the same as writing stories, or comics, or paintings, or anything really.

Also, I realized as I was writing this: Perhaps we should have a "Let's Play Rules" thread for this forum? We do tend to have quite a few of them and it might be a useful tool for people considering them.

I don't think we need that. Most of the "rules" are incredibly common sense and obvious that you'd have to be an idiot not to realize it as you start/within the first update or three. Not to mention, as I said before, there's not really many rules at all, since most people have their own style and all that. The only real rules are "don't include so much unnecessary stuff that it gets boring", "don't shrink things so much we can't see", and "don't make things so big it stretches the screen insanely".

Though I suppose if we need to post rules somewhere, we could use *coughs, points to sig* that Let's Play Index that one guy is trying to keep

[Starbuck_II]

Are we going to get to choose your research/spending?

[The Glyphstone]

Okay, in order:

@Zarah:

We came to this thread to see screenshots of a video game. You don't need to hide them. Use one spoiler, put the entire update in it and put the screenshots in between the text where they are now. People are lazy and would much rather click once rather than seven times in a single update. Trust me, it will really improve the flow.

-If I post the screenshots unspoilered, I'll be breaking the forum rules on image size, and like you said, I'm a moderator, that wouldn't be smart for me to do that. I can try posting the entire update inside one spoiler, though, that might help the flow a bit?

Your screenshots themselves need some work. This is a game that runs at a very high resolution, and simply shrinking full-screen shots makes everything too small. Crop out anything that the reader shouldn't be immediately looking at, like the HUD. The two shots you have from the in-game cutscenes are probably the best, because they are clear and focused. Try to make all your screenshots look like that. If you crop your pictures, then you might not have to resize them at all, so you're not necessarily doing more work all the time. It's more of a trade-off.

-I'll see how cropping out the HUD looks - the resolution you do see though is pretty close to the best it gets, my computer can't handle the seriously top-end graphics without slowing to a crawl. This is Medium setting. None of them are actually resized though, they're taken and uploaded right off my (laptop) screen, so it will be more work. If it makes the images better, though, it's worth it.

What exactly happened at the end there? Was that the end of the mission? Or did you just end the update there? Assume you are showing this game to people who have never played the game (such as me). I realize you're doing this in-character, but it's kind of hard to tell what's going on. Maybe some OOC comments end of the update would be helpful.

-The abrupt ending, yeah, was sloppy re-reading it. I'll edit in something there, but that was the end of the mission.

Seven screenshots isn't much for an update. There's no real rule of thumb for it, but if I'm running an LP that isn't directly dependent on the reader's actions, then I try to fit at least 20 screenshots per update.

-Unfortunately, as RPGz4me did say, the entire mission took me about 10min, maybe less. It's a tiny map, with 4 total fights, I'd have been taking unnecessary pics just for the sake of screenshots. Mission 2 will at least give me a base, so I can have some more freedom with what I look at, though the map is still small.


@Factotum:

I imagine the POV character's total cluelessness could get grating after a time, but interesting first instalment. (Haven't actually played SC2 myself so I have no idea what's going on--therefore I don't actually know what Raynor said to those civilians to make them attack the Dominion base. Am I going to miss a lot of the jokes if that's the case?).

Maybe, though I'll try to gradually let her grow some brains as she hangs around the Raiders long enough - the trick will be balancing the personality between funny and irritating. What actually happened here, though, was that the Dominion is rounding up civilians to go be forced labor at a mining site nearby (Mission 2). Raynor freed them, though the Dominion guards executed one man for trying to run away, and they formed an impromptu mob and started firebombing Dominion property.

@gicko:

i beleive if you use the mouse wheel you can scroll the camera to a veiw that matches that of the units. is it possible to rotate the camera this way? if so it might ba a good way of showing whats happening as if it was on an actual vidio camera.

That's how I took screenshot #1, I'll take a look at doing all of them that way, it's a good idea.

@StarbuckII:

Are we going to get to choose your research/spending?

Most definitely yes. As soon as the Research Bay gets unlocked, I'll start posting what the potential upgrades are to buy, and ditto for whenever the Tech Lab opens. When we have a mission split, I'll let popular vote decide where to go first, though I'm not trying for Hurry Up, It's Raid Night, there's no need to skip anything.

Going to work on the next mission now, and I'll take the advice given into mind.

[Zarah]

-If I post the screenshots unspoilered, I'll be breaking the forum rules on image size, and like you said, I'm a moderator, that wouldn't be smart for me to do that. I can try posting the entire update inside one spoiler, though, that might help the flow a bit?

Yeah, that's what I meant. It'll help a lot.

-I'll see how cropping out the HUD looks - the resolution you do see though is pretty close to the best it gets, my computer can't handle the seriously top-end graphics without slowing to a crawl. This is Medium setting. None of them are actually resized though, they're taken and uploaded right off my (laptop) screen, so it will be more work. If it makes the images better, though, it's worth it.

Wow, I thought for sure you were just resizing them... That must be a tiny laptop if that's the resolution it runs at. Graphics quality isn't a huge deal, though, so do what you can. That's kind of the problem with running an in-character LP. When the screenshots don't look cinematic enough, it clashes with the writing.

-Unfortunately, as RPGz4me did say, the entire mission took me about 10min, maybe less. It's a tiny map, with 4 total fights, I'd have been taking unnecessary pics just for the sake of screenshots. Mission 2 will at least give me a base, so I can have some more freedom with what I look at, though the map is still small.

You could have just put both missions into one update to give us some more to chew on. If an update feels like it's coming up too short, then just keep going.


Anyway, looking forward to the update!

[The Glyphstone]

I'm still feeling out this whole thing - the other LP I did was a turn-based space 4X similar to Masters of Orion...capturing good screenshots is a lot harder in a RTS. This update's about twice as long, though, or at least 2x the screens, so maybe it'll be better.

(The laptop's a 14-inch diagonal screen, btw - 1280x800 pixels. If the cropped pics look too small still, I'll experiment with blowing them up in Update 3 to see if they're still viewable quality.)

-----------------------------------------------------

Update 2: In Which Interviews Are Attempted And War Crimes Not Committed

Outlaws

Spoiler

Show

October 3rd, 2504
Dear Diary:

There’s a new…person…on the ship here. I went up to the bridge to try and get a glimpse of Captain Horner, and Mr. Raynor was talking to this guy all done up in full battle armor. I think his name was Tycho or Tychus something, but he gave me the willies! Every time I looked in his direction, he was just staring at me, the way my cat back home would stare at birds on the front lawn…and now that I think of it, Fuzzball liked to play with the birds he caught before eating them. I’ve got a strange desire to go write depressing poetry in my cabin now, but it’ll have to wait. Whoever this Tychus character is, he must be an old friend of Mr. Raynor, or else he’s offering Raynor a lot of money, cause they’re going to raid an excavation site not far from the ruined base – I heard something about an alien artifact that’s being dug up there.



We landed a short distance from the dig site, and the raiders started harvesting mineral crystals. It looked like dirty work, so I went and tried to strike up a conversation with one of the guys doing the mining, maybe do an interview segment. They were rude, though, and I got bored quick.



No one was paying me any attention – they were all loading their guns and double-checking their armor and stuff. Boooooring. So I went exploring, and ended up finding some big crates all loaded up with crystals and a couple big barrels of natural gas. Probably some locals who got scared away when the Raiders landed, but finders keepers! No one even thanked me for the find, just sent a couple of construction suits to haul the stuff in.



I’d make them have to thank me for helping out, so I kept looking around. A bit further north, I found a crystal mine, with more boxed-up supplies and a couple of Dominion guards lounging around. Now, any good reporter knows that every story has two sides, even if one of them is completely wrong. It’d be nice to hear what the local garrison thought of personally fighting the dread Raynor’s Raiders, so I headed over to ask them. I was just out of shouting range…and they started shooting at me! How mean….I knew I should have repainted my armor, I must look just like one of those icky Raiders from a distance.



Mr. Raynor and his men heard the noises, though, and came investigating. Serves those mean guards right, really, even if it is technically murdering Dominion troops. They shot at me, Diary, and I didn’t even do anything! I still didn’t get a thank-you for finding more minerals; instead, I got a lecture to not go wandering off where I might be shot at…thank you very much, Private Genius, I’ve figured that out already!



Right about then, that creeper Tychus broke in on the com channel, pointing out a camp of local militia that were under attack by the dig site’s defenders. He wanted to leave them there, but I guess guerillas and terrorists must stick together, because Raynor decided to go help them instead. They were mighty appreciative for the rescue, which makes sense.



For some reason, so were the civilians in the area. Raynor hadn’t even talked to them, and they were all anti-Dominion already. No wonder he’s such a wanted man, if he turns loyal citizens into propaganda-driven traitors just by being on the same planet. It must be my journalistic integrity that’s keeping me focused. That, and my razor-sharp wit.



As soon as the Raiders broke though the perimeter of the dig site, the camp commander sent a squad of armored buggies to attack, and they had flamethrowers on top! It’s a real good thing that the Korhal Conventions don’t apply to convicted terrorists, otherwise he’s be in real trouble for using napalm weaponry on infantry.





On the other hand, it’s hard to prosecute a corpse, and the Raiders seem to have skimmed over the “taking prisoners” page of their training guides. Even reinforced command bunkers don’t stand long against that many guns.





Defenseless bases don’t either, and the Raiders were gleefully committing gross property damage all over the place. All I could think of was how many tax dollars – some of which came out of my paycheck – were being wasted here.



I guess even arson gets monotonous, since they eventually fired up the mining crane and hauled up the artifact that the Dominion had found. It didn’t look like much, just a big lump of blue crystal, but standing too close made the hair on my arms stand up, and I still had my armor on. Tychus plans to sell it to someone – they’re welcome to it, and him too.

[Forbiddenwar]

what might be good is rotating the camera for some more interesting angles. Through I've played through the campaign 3 times already (and working on the brutal replay) I look forward to more updates

[The Glyphstone]

I've tried...I only have about a 90-degree cone of camera angles to pick from, 45 degrees on either side of the default angle. I'll have to rebind the hotkey that sweeps left, since it is currently the same as my Print Screen button.

[Izual6764]

I'm loving it so far, though I think I shouldn't read it if I'm planning to get Starcraft 2 soon. Keep up the good work!

[GolemsVoice]

It's really great, keep up the good work! I#m loving the contrast between the reporter and the marines. Maybe you can add a bit more dialogue, detailing what goes on between the missions?

It's a pity, though, that you can't handle higher graphics quality, Starcraft 2 looks quite ugly, and it can look so beautiful. But there's little short of buying a new PC that you can do about this.

[The Glyphstone]

It's really great, keep up the good work! I#m loving the contrast between the reporter and the marines. Maybe you can add a bit more dialogue, detailing what goes on between the missions?

It's a pity, though, that you can't handle higher graphics quality, Starcraft 2 looks quite ugly, and it can look so beautiful. But there's little short of buying a new PC that you can do about this.

I'll see what I can do about dialogue. As for the graphics...tell me about it. I was running it on top-end when I first got it, and wow, it was amazing. But it was also moving at the speed of an anemic snail, so I had to turn it down. :(

[Gullara]

Nice second update. Heh heh, doesn't apply to terrorists

I'll see what I can do about dialogue. As for the graphics...tell me about it. I was running it on top-end when I first got it, and wow, it was amazing. But it was also moving at the speed of an anemic snail, so I had to turn it down. :(

It is nice. I'd let you borrow my computer if I could

[Starbuck_II]

It looked great on mine when I used the demo (freind pass thing), but those run out and I'm in college (can't afford monthly fees).

I like the reporter: it was cool that civilians love Raynor.

[Gullara]

It looked great on mine when I used the demo (freind pass thing), but those run out and I'm in college (can't afford monthly fees).

I like the reporter: it was cool that civilians love Raynor.

What do you mean monthly fees? There are no fees for Starcraft 2.

[Starbuck_II]

Really? I thought Starcraft 2 required a fee to use since you needed to login to use campaing character.

[The Glyphstone]

Really? I thought Starcraft 2 required a fee to use since you needed to login to use campaing character.

Battle.net doesn't have a fee to use (for now). WoW has a monthly fee, and requires a Battle.net account, but the online login itself is free.

[The Glyphstone]

Update 3: In Which The Phrase "Bug Out" Takes On An Entirely New Meaning

Zero Hour

Spoiler

Show

October 3rd, 2504
Dear Diary:
This was not a good day at all, this was a very bad day indeed…I think I’m lucky to be sitting here writing to you now.

Of course it started out just fine, like I said earlier. Everyone was relaxing, waiting for Raynor’s battleship to come pick us up. Raynor himself went off somewhere with that weirdo Tychus, probably to drink, but I couldn’t have cared. We were finally leaving this ball of dirt, and I even got some of the soldiers to flirt with me! I almost didn’t notice something land on my foot, but it smelled really bad – it looked like a chunk of meat someone had burned on the grill. A few more bits of charred steak fell out of the sky, and we all looked up.

I screamed. There was a meteor falling down, a big ball of fire headed right towards us! We all started running, but it didn’t land on top of us, and it didn’t crunch, it splattered. That was weird enough, and then the thing split open like some giant egg and these things climbed out. Like big, purple-green lizards the size of dogs, with big curved blades growing out of their back. I knew what they were, everyone did…Zerg. Emperor Mengsk had fought them off years ago, at the same time he had broken the Confederacy and forced the Protoss to retreat out from our territory. But what were they doing here? Not that it mattered, really. They were here, our battleship (and Captain Horner) weren’t. Hopefully he got here in time, because I really didn’t want to die without seeing him again.



We had a good place to defend, at least. Two bridges were the only way to get into our base, and they set up some fortified bunkers to hide in. The situation must have been really desperate, because they even gave me a gun! Not a lot of ammo, but it took me five minutes to find the safety, so that wasn’t a big problem.


The defenses went up just in time, though…the sensors showed Zerg falling from the sky and landing all around us, and they finally got their act together enough to attack. The Raiders drove them back easily enough, but that was only the beginning. They attacked again, and again, like they had an infinite amount of creatures to throw away just so we’d run out of ammo eventually. For all I know, maybe that was their plan, if things like the Zerg can plan at all.





Apparently we weren’t the only survivors left on the planet, either – there was a group of local militia not far from our base, pinned down by a bunch of Zerg. Raynor led a squad himself to rescue him – I was impressed. For all that he’s a drunkard and the most wanted man, like, ever, he’s really brave. Where was I? Panicking and waiting to die, mostly.



Of course, the aliens proved me wrong about the whole “only two ways to get us” thing…but you can’t blame me, no one told me the Zerg could fly. Big ugly serpent-things that puked acid everywhere; I think they’re technically called mutalisks, but the squad I was tagging along behind insisted on calling them “trogdors” for some reason, I didn’t try to ask why.



The critters were hammering us from all sides, so Mr. Raynor decided to try and let some of the pressure off by sending our reserve force to attack one of their “hatchery clusters” that was breeding their attack troops. I was sure he was crazy, sending half our troops out from behind the defensive perimeter on what was probably a suicide mission…so I followed, camera out and trying my best not to look like Zerg food. That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever experienced, Diary…walking on the gooey stuff they called “creep”, trying not to let it grow up over your boots. The hatcheries were well-defended, I watched five men skewered and eaten in one bite by these giant fanged tentacles growing out of the ground – but we made it out, half of us at least, after laying explosive bombs all over the hatcheries and their egg deposits. No one waited to see if they would rebuild, the com channel was full of too much screaming from the main base.



On the way back, another bunch of militia turned out to be hiding in a building, and they joined up as we bravely ran away. I think even Dominion troops would have been welcome at that point, because the Zerg just weren’t letting up.



We made it back behind the bunkers just in time. The Zerg had started dropping more egg-meteor things, smack in the middle of us. They were in our base and killing our dudes, and Raynor had sent the reserves out on attack. Luckily, nothing critical was smashed or eaten before we squashed them, but the perimeter was crumbling.



There were just too many of them, though – Captain Tychus Obvious suggested that we retreat to the high ground…thankfully Mr. Raynor was a bit ahead of him, already ordering our second line of defense.





Now only a single ramp and some bunkers were keeping me and everyone else from becoming alien munchies. It’s not a fun feeling, Diary, knowing you’re going to die, probably screaming as rabid Zerglings tear your limbs off. I was wishing that Kate was here too…it wouldn’t make dying any less painful, but I wouldn’t have minded so much if I got to watch her eaten first. She wasn’t though, it was just me, Mr. Raynor, and his Raiders. Everyone was manning the walls, crammed inside the bunkers or standing behind them with welding torches and acid-neutralizing spray hoses.



I killed a Zerg, Diary! Well, I shot a Zerg at least. Or pulled the trigger while my gun was pointed in the direction of the Zerg, which should totally count. It probably did, there were so many it seemed like I was looking at the tide coming in. Except thetide is made of water, not chitin and teeth and claws and acid, so it wasn’t actually like the tide at all. Then, the most glorious sight in the world appeared above us – Captain Horner had managed to fight though the swarm blockading Mar Sara and was dropping down from orbit. His laser batteries flattened every Zerg in the base, and all of us loaded up aboard as fast as we could.

Notes: This was miserable. I had to replay it three or four times to get enough good screenshots. I'm also not sure why the game decided to throw on that ugly blue color filter for everything except the cutscene and that one shot of the swarm crossing the bridge.

In other news, though, it's Audience Participation Time!

First, the Armory is unlocked. I have 100,000 credits to spend, and can buy:
-Marine Stimpacks (50,000, take damage for bonus speed/damage)
-Marine Combat Shields (60,000, +10 Marine HP)
-Advanced Medical Facilities (60,000, build Medics without a Tech Lab)
-Or save my cash for later.

I'd love to get those Advanced Medical Facilities, but I am at the whims of you all.

Also, do I:
-Go to help Dr. Ariel Hanson's farming colony (potential +3 Zerg Research)
-Collect the next artifact fragment (potential +4 Protoss Research)

[Gullara]

Great update. Finally some real action

I vote for Marine Combat Shields, because shields are awesome.

Let's go with helping Dr. Ariel Hanson's farming colony.

[factotum]

Marine Combat Shields, and get the next fragment! I thought the blue filter was supposed to show that it was night-time or something, which just makes it even odder the cutscenes are in broad daylight...

[GolemsVoice]

You're waiting the whole night, and Matt Horner arrives at dawn. That's why everything is blueish (and, if you've enabled them, the lights are on).

Get the shields and possibly stimpacks, and the advanced medical facilities next. And go help poor Dr. Hansom.

[Edge]

Never played Starcraft, but I'm debating getting Starcraft 2, so this is relevant to my interests.

As for the vote...

Advanced Medical Facilities first, followed by Marine Stimpacks. Go and help Dr. Ariel Hanson, as I presume the first artifact got you some protoss research points. Best to try keep them balanced.

[Izual6764]

Get those Advanced Medical Facilites and later Stimpacks. And then go help Dr. Hanson.

[The Glyphstone]

Actually, I don't have any research points yet, only money. This branching path opens up the Laboratory.

That's 2 for Combat Shields and 2 for Advanced Medicine, argh. It looks to be unanimous for helping out Dr. Hanson though (which, incidentally, gets me Firebats, bleh).

[Caustic Soda]

Get those Advanced Medical Facilites and later Stimpacks. And then go help Dr. Hanson.

I third this. +HP doesn't seem as helpful without a way to replenish them. Same goes for stim packs. Taking damage for a temporary boost is not nearly as good without healing.