Rainmakers: Standalone campaign survival

[Jip]

Rainmakers Survival
A standalone campaign mission designed as a challenging survival unlike before.
Please feel free to provide feedback and as a reaction to this post .

Download
You can find the map in the map vault of FAF. Search for 'Rainmakers Survival' and download the latest version! No further mods are required to get it to work.
You can also download it manually through the git, however, if you have access to the map vault than that is the recommended approach. The version in the git may not be in sync with the one in the map vault.

Trailers
A trailer made by myself, with music by Blodir:


A trailer made by Wassermelon, a frequent tester of the campaign:


Again, thank you Wassermelon for the pleasant surprise .

Story
Two high quality artillery installations provide support fire for a decisive operation in the south east. The enemy will start to triangulate the artillery installations the moment the first shells hit the ground. Their forces are upon them right after.

You warp in to protect the artillery installations until the operation is complete.



Quotes
Tripsandclips: thats just ridiculous, but good
Ryfun: Made me love faf again beyond setons
Dante-: The best survival

Difficulty settings
The campaign has an intended experience: the idea that you cannot sustain and have to withdraw to the point where you cannot further withdraw. To be able to deliver this experience the difficulty has to be just right. You can use these settings to make the difficulty appropriate for your rating.

Average rating: rating < 1000
- Objectives: normal
- Startup time: easy
- Initial defenses: many
- Stream artillery: few
- Stream direct: moderate (default)
- Platoons: few
- Mobile Stealth Field Generators: no (default)
- Mobile Shield Generators: no (default)

Average rating: 1000 < rating < 1400
- Objectives: normal (default)
- Startup time: normal (default)
- Initial defenses: many (default)
- Stream artillery: moderate (default)
- Stream direct: moderate (default)
- Platoons: moderate (default)
- Mobile Stealth Field Generators: no (default)
- Mobile Shield Generators: no (default)

Average rating: 1400< rating < 1600
- Objectives: heroic
- Startup time: normal (default)
- Initial defenses: many (default)
- Stream artillery: moderate (default)
- Stream direct: many
- Platoons: moderate (default)
- Mobile Stealth Field Generators: no (default)
- Mobile Shield Generators: yes

Average rating: rating > 1600
- Objectives: heroic
- Startup time: heroic
- Initial defenses: many (default)
- Stream artillery: moderate (default)
- Stream direct: many
- Platoons: moderate (default)
- Mobile Stealth Field Generators: no (default)
- Mobile Shield Generators: yes

Feel free to adjust the settings to your likings. You can see how the settings impact the campaign through these files:
- https://gitlab.com/w.b.wijnia/rainmaker ... Config.lua
- https://gitlab.com/w.b.wijnia/rainmaker ... Config.lua

Other information
View the full source and latest version on Gitlab:
- https://gitlab.com/w.b.wijnia/rainmakers

Special thanks
Thanks to Alex and Kyle for the relentless initial testing of the project. Thanks to Wassermelon for the unexpected additional trailer. And thanks to Ryfun for showing me unexpected techniques / approaches to the map .

[Gruffman]

I'm constantly sleep deprived atm and can't think how to actually launch this in the client. I believe I have the files in the right location. Help me obi-wan etc etc

[lldaedalusll]

Dont search that map in the COOP section. Open a custom game and search for rainmaker in the map pool ... you will find it there if everything is according to the instruction on the gitlab page. You can install that map as well from the vault.

[lldaedalusll]

@author(s):

Is this mission designed to be done by less then 3 people? I tried it yesterday with a friend and we tried to fill the 3rd slot with various AIs. But either the AI totally fails by building a factory, some t1 power and no mexes and so being useless (happened with some non-sorian AIs) or in the other case will be the first commander who dies fairly early (~15 - 10 minutes left) and so fails the mission as well.

Without an AI the empty area is hard to cover as it was always the area where units came in and destroyed one of the artys.

Any comments on that?


Thx.

[Jip]

I'm constantly sleep deprived atm and can't think how to actually launch this in the client. I believe I have the files in the right location. Help me obi-wan etc etc

It is in the map vault. Search for 'Rainmakers' and it should be the first and only hit! I am going to add in a section that it is in the map vault.
May I ask what it is that you tried? Did you try the instructions on the git? Or something else? Then I can clarify them where needed .

@author(s):

Is this mission designed to be done by less then 3 people? I tried it yesterday with a friend and we tried to fill the 3rd slot with various AIs. But either the AI totally fails by building a factory, some t1 power and no mexes and so being useless (happened with some non-sorian AIs) or in the other case will be the first commander who dies fairly early (~15 - 10 minutes left) and so fails the mission as well.

Without an AI the empty area is hard to cover as it was always the area where units came in and destroyed one of the artys.

Any comments on that?


Thx.

Yes, it is designed to be done by three people. The AIs react very harshly against the idea that air is restricted and they tend to 'get stuck', which is exactly what you are describing. I also noticed their behavior is changed when you start with only 3 mass extractor spots instead of the typical 4. Either how, it is better to leave the spot empty and make the survival easier / give yourself a bonus through some mod (1.5x resources, for example).

Would it be interesting if there were some defenses on an empty player spot?

[lldaedalusll]

Would it be interesting if there were some defenses on an empty player spot?

That sounds like a good idea. We will retry tomorrow without AIs.

[lldaedalusll]

We played it again last week without any AI and with 1,5x resource bonus. After realizing how to play it correctly we could beat it and it was great fun. Well made map.

After we realized how we can win it the 1,5 resource bonus might not have been required any longer. During the early eco phase we wasted mass as the income increased much faster then we could spent it. That bonus is a great help but not required. We are both 1100 (global) players and played the map on that level as well.

Thx for the map .

[Jip]

Cheers for letting me know! Glad to hear it!