A "starter mission pack"?

[Professor Paul1290]

How might you feel about adding more missions by default in addition to St. Lucia or maybe offering them together in some kind of "starting mission pack".

 

I'm not entirely sure what would be appropriate for such a thing.

 

Perhaps a sampler each mission "type" though I guess that's very vague. Maybe one more open-ended "heist" FM, a more linear and story-heavy FM, a good puzzle or unusual FM, and so on.

 

Either that or stick with adding a couple "core" missions that represent what would be "normal" TDM play to get the player better started.

[Springheel]

Well, that's sort of the point of St. Lucia. Once players have played that, they'll have a basis for comparison.

[jaxa]

If any more missions were included they should be both small and old: http://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/?sort=size ... under 5 MB maybe. But as long as the training mission, St. Lucia, and maybe the blackjack trainer are included, players have somewhere to start.

[Professor Paul1290]

Is the Blackjack Trainer included by default? (it's been a while since I've had a completely "empty" mission list)

[Springheel]

Is the Blackjack Trainer included by default?

 

No. Only the Training Mission and St. Lucia, at the moment.

[Professor Paul1290]

I guess that would probably be an obvious choice then if nothing else.

[zergrush]

Wait for Crucible of Omens. My guess is that it will likely end up being picked as the first official campaign.

[Springheel]

I guess that would probably be an obvious choice then if nothing else.

 

I'm not so sure. That map is more of a developer tool...it doesn't really have very good production values. And the training mission already includes a section for blackjacking. I'd be interested to hear people's opinions.

 

Wait for Crucible of Omens. My guess is that it will likely end up being picked as the first official campaign.

 

The reason that St. Lucia was picked for inclusion was because it was a team-created map. Everyone on the team (at the time) had input into the story and gameplay, and lots of people contributed mapping, models, textures, vocals, etc, to put it together. Same thing with the Training map.

 

I think it's important that the maps picked to represent TDM have gone through a process where the team has had input into developing the main character, the storyline, etc, and that the missions are designed to showcase the TDM setting. Otherwise, it becomes hard to avoid the questions of "why that campaign and not this one?" Why Omens and not William Steele, or No Honour Among Thieves, or the Thomas Porter series? There is potential for resentment there that I would like to avoid.

 

That said, if the team wanted to get together and produce one or two missions that intertwined with St. Lucia to create a short campaign, I'd be interested in hearing ideas.

[Obsttorte]

There is potential for resentment there that I would like to avoid.

I agree on that. Stay with the training mission and St. Lucia, the rest can be downloaded by the players later on.

[Sotha]

No point in making starter map pack, st lucia is enough. Reasons mentioned by SH already.

 

I'd also say no for addition of blackjack trainer. It is an ugly tool, not a real mission. We don't want people to confuse the bj trainer as The Main Thing and be disappointed. We must give something of high quality and st Lucia and training mission are exactly those.

[SeriousToni]

We've had a discussion on rating the current missions with a 5 star system and nothing really came out of these conversations, so I guess starting a discussion on which maps should be packed with the 2.0 release is needless.

 

Stick with St. lucia and the Training mission and everything will be okay