Is it worth trying out the custom scenarios/campaigns?

[vindahl]

Hi - I am still fighting my way through the official campaigns. So far I have completed Pacific, Rising Sun and Morning Sun, and I am now a good deal into the US Marines. I have bought all DLC's/campaigns, so I am planning to complete them all, but of course there is many hours ahead of me.

I have noticed that there are many custom scenarios and campaigns, and though I by no mean are talking them down (I really respect the huge amount of work in them) are they then worth playing, compared to the original stuff, there seem to be so much of? I mean, there could be some hidden gems, but I am afraid of starting on something that is buggy, and doesn't bring the best of the game forward, and of course, I don't want to spoil anything for myself, if there are custom scenarios that takes you to the same scenarios and places as the ones in the original games.

And there seem to be so many, so I would not know where to begin, and which are good, and which are... less good...
Would it be better if I just finished the original campaigns first, before even starting to think about these custom scenarios/campaigns?

Hope I have explained myself ok, sorry if I have offended anyone, was not the meaning...

[kondi754]

The level of these custom campaigns and scenarios is high.
Some of them are as good or even better than the original ones.

[Skylar27]

I've only tried 2 of the player made campaigns and they are really well done and I would recommend them ...

The first one is erik2's German Grand Campaign http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=80969
and next I would suggest JCE's 7th PzD Ghost Division 1940-41 Campaign http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=83322

Both are fun, challenging and created really well !

[PoorOldSpike]

..Would it be better if I just finished the original campaigns first, before even starting to think about these custom scenarios/campaigns?
Hope I have explained myself ok..

My advice to newcomers is to just play the stock scenarios at first to learn the game, then play the Campaigns and community-made scens later, because campaigns are far more complex. In fact, although I've had OOB for 6 months I haven't played any Campaigns yet because I actually prefer scenarios..
Here's a small newcomers navigation guide I made-
Click 'Single Player', then 'Scenarios'-




And this list below will come up showing all the DLC titles (I've red-boxed them for clarity).
(The stuff underneath it is just extra test scens I've made and other stuff that I've got in my OOB folder)-
I've also blue-circled the two settings that most people prefer.




Click a DLC title to see what scens are in it, then click the scen you want to play.
(To exit each screen click on its title at top).
Here are all the stock DLC's and scens that come with the game-



I've played most of the scens, some I like more than others, below are written notes I make for each scen.
To newcomers I'd say play small fast-moving scens to start with, it depends which DLC's you own.
If you don't like a scen, abandon it after a few turns and try another..

[13obo]

Your middle drawing from the bottom pic looks like a... Banana!

P. S. So bored atm.

[terminator]

Your middle drawing from the bottom pic looks like a... Banana!

P. S. So bored atm.

The Banana must be mature, it looks like there are tasks on the Banana

[PoorOldSpike]

P. S. So bored atm.

If you're in Britain you've got a choice of watching at least 2 good films that have just started on TV, "Peter O'Toole in 'Murphy's War', and Bronson in 'Breakheart Pass"..

[conboy]

I strongly recommend taking a shot at them. They are usually very good because the originators get a lot of comments from users and integrate them into the scenarios. I haven't played any custom campaigns yet, but I'm sure they're good for the same reason. When you select a scenario, the newest version is usually the best. I have played custom scenarios from Erik2 and Bru888 and they are extremely interesting and entertaining. I imagine the other folks' are just as good.

conboy

[GabeKnight]

You should definitely try some. But be warned, many (if not most) of them are quite harder than the official campaigns or scenarios. But that's about it with the differences. Most of the custom content I've played is very well designed with diverse objectives and missions, plausible with historic background and good overall balance.

Besides the above mentioned campaigns from JCE and Erik (who BTW has a TON of single scenarios on the side, that you can't possibly have missed ) there are some excellent scenarios from Bruce, terminator and Duplex that I've played already:

Bru's Scenarios
Duplex's Scenarios
OoB Soviet Corps
LSSAH Campaign
Beaches of Normandy

And believe me, in general, none of those scenarios are better or worse when it comes to bugs and errors than the official ones. I've played all the stock scenarios multiple times on multiple difficulty levels with multiple versions of the game throughout the years. There will always be scenarios with some objectives not completing or failing correctly or some units remaining static or behaving erratically.

[PoorOldSpike]

..You should definitely try some. But be warned, many (if not most) of them are quite harder than the official campaigns or scenarios..

And newcomers should remember that all the official stock scenarios that come with the game have no 'Specialisations' in them and are therefore pure uncluttered vanilla, much easier to understand and play.
Some community-built scens are so overloaded with 20 or more Specialisations that they make OOB completely different to what we're used to, so I tend to avoid such scens. Just a few Specialisations in a scen would be fine, but not too many.
You can see what Specs a community scen has got by looking at the ingame screen like this one below, and cursor over each one to get a readout of how it affects the game, for example the one on the right in this screenshot is the 'Scrambling' Spec and we have to consult the manual to find out what it means, and if there are too many Specs it becomes a chore having to look up and remember what they all do and which ones are in the game.

[Shards]

*cough*

http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=81032

[PoorOldSpike]

*cough*
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/viewtop ... 74&t=81032

Thanks Shards, I just downloaded your Tallinn 1.0.0 and was delighted to see that you haven't cluttered it up with any Specialisations and will post a review in your thread later today..