This document was created to highlight points not immediately apparent in the creation of Prophecy.
I believe one of the most sought-after goals in the world of Starcraft Mods is the successful creation of a new, fourth race to challenge the existing three. Such was the original premise of Prophecy-- to design and implement a powerful, fourth race, that would not only bring the players awe and excitement, but also challenge them against an enemy totally unknown which they will have to learn to defeat on their own. The Zeji Armada is the result of this scheme, and I am proud of the way they turned out, even if I was unable to implement them to the fullest I envisioned.
The Zeji are directly based off of the Nephilim from Wing Commander: Prophecy. I had already given them tribute in my campaigns by naming an entire Zerg Brood after them, but once I found these ship models in my possession I knew I could give them the props they deserve. The Nephilim possess the numbers of the Zerg and the firepower of the Protoss-- a deadly combination which I used to create the Zeji Armada. They are essentially what Duran's Hybrids may most be like, but that is neither here nor there. These guys are mine.
Now, considering I had nearly every model in my possession (minus the Stellar Accretion Device), I had to determine which modesl I wanted to use. The Nephilim utilize a number of unique ships, some of which cannot be accurately recreated in Starcraft. Not only that, but I wished to maintain all existing units in Starcraft, which limited the amount of units I could replace. With that in mind, I selected a good sample of fighters and capital ships from which to build from... but, even after I had the models selected, not all of those would be implemented.
Moray. One of two ships I was having particular difficulty in creating a sprite for. This was intended to be similar to Interceptors on Carriers-- small, weak, yet annoying as locusts. The sprite issues I had with them forced me to cut them from production early on. However, when I was drawing toward the close of production I had an extra GRP left over, and nothing to do with it. Unfortunately, I also used up all available unit slots I was willing to take up. Since I could not create the locust ship I envisioned, I did the next best thing-- I turned it into a missile for the Zeji carrier hero unit, Magnus.
Manta. This is the other ship cut from production, and it never reappeared. Sprite issues forced me to cut this one early on, and it was probably for the best. Since it's function is as a standard fighter, it wouldn't have been too much different from Scouts, with no discernable extra functions like the Stingray or Squid had. In fact, it would essentially be a weaker Devilray.
Squid. For the Nephilim this is their finest class of Interceptor, and for good reason-- it is perhaps the fastest ship, as well as very heavily armed with four cannons. It is, I found, the most difficult Nephilim fighter to fly against, and thus it earns my respect. As such, this was one ship which I required myself to use in Prophecy, as tribute to such a worthy foe. As befitted its interceptor status I made certain that the Squid would be able to outfly every unit in the game-- not only making it one of the most useful units ever created, but also one of the most dangerous foes in existance. Anyone can attest to how annoyingly quick these guys are, and it is their strength.
Stingray. The Nephilim used unity ships in their fleets; this was entirely impossible to do in Starcraft. The Stingray was one of a handful of ships (which includes certain configurations of Mantas-- the infamous Red Mantas) that could easily take out a capital ship, serving function as the best Capship Interdictor (the other would be the Skate Cluster; the Skate is a light interceptor that was basically just as good as the Moray, save for its dangerous clustering ability). Of course, I believe it wasn't possible to create a good Capship killer ship over the Devilray, so I changed its function to the same role as the Corsair-- fleet decimator. The Stingray underwent the most changes, in this respect; its original weapon was the same as the Squid, but only much slower. I decided that, if I wanted to use it, it better be useful on its own merits.
Devilray. This is a Space Superiority Fighter, which basically means it outclasses every other fighter possible in every way. Its missiles are so powerful that they can eat capital ships for breakfast, and fighters for lunch, with anything else for dinner. In a sense, it is like the Devourer, save slower, and without the special attack, but the ability to attack anything. And it attacks a whole lot faster.
Hydra. The Nephilim capital ships didn't really have a large distinguishment from one another as far as flying against them in a fighter was concerned. Therefore, I had more creative freedom to work with the Zeji capital ships than the fighters. For the Hydra I created a massive blast cannon which I was originally going to reserve for the Kraken dreadnaught, but the Kraken was cut before sprites were made simply because I couldn't figure out how to open its ship killer cannon. Since this ship is a cruiser I wanted it to be menacing on the battlefield, and able to handle multiple enemies at a time-- therefore its weapon deals splash damage.
Leviathan. This is a carrier ship; originally it was going to replace the Protoss Carrier Gantrithor, and launch Morays (at one point it was Skates) as Interceptors, but that was nixxed early on when I implemented the Fenix. In effect, it lost its carrier attack, and thus I turned it into a Battlecruiser with its laser shots. When I reintroduced the Moray, however, I changed the Leviathan Hero unit to launch fighters instead of fire lasers, just to maintain the carrier theme. Both variations are used after the Magnus is destroyed.
Tiamat. The Nephilim command dreadnaught. It's large and in charge, and there's only one of them. And, considering the Black Dream, I wanted it to possess a massive Ship Killer cannon that could eat capships for breakfast. Originally, it did only 700 damage, but, as testing went along, I increased its power to over 1200 damage, putting it in the position to annihilate any fighter and destroy most capships in 2-3 shots. In a sense it's exactly the same as Legacy of the Confederation's battle platform.
Mechalisk. This is a cheap concept of recreating a Goliath with a Hydralisk as its turret; the idea was obviously inspired by the mechanical Hunter Killer Mod from Infoceptor. Although not one of the original Zeji, this is one of those dastardly experiments of Arestes turned to his advantage. Its ability to fly allows it to roll over any terrain, making its visual appearance misleading. It also uses the portrait of the infamous 'Piercer,' which I thought was more suitable than the bland Hunter Killer portrait.
Warriors. These are cheap Dark Templar without the cloaking ability; in fact, they are just like Dark Templar in every way beside that, and three times more hit points. I wasn't originally going to use specialized Zeji Warriors; Arestes' foot soldiers simply would have been regular Protoss units. However, regular Protoss units don't pose much of a challenge to the Scantid Fleet.
Stardock. Stardocks serve their purpose well-- they provide control points, and serve the same role as the Zeji Cloning Cylinders-- they periodically spawn insanely-powerful units. That's all.
Spire of Eyes. For most of production this was simply labelled 'Zeji Communications Station;' this all changed during production of the map 'The Catalyst.' It is technically a building, but for Starcraft's purposes it's a unit-- and it can be shielded by a cloaking field. It also won't show up on the minimap unless you were within line of sight, too. This fact would make an interesting hunt if I deigned to force the player to look for the Spire on their own....
Circle of Bone. The stargate was mostly generically called 'Zeji Stargate,' as previously noted above. The unit display that appears when you click on it was altered so it changed colors throughout the mission; this wasn't possible to do with the gate itself without altering Starcraft's pallete. I thought it would be interesting if I could recreat the swirl of color for it, but I don't possess the technical know-how in order to complete it.
I also note that one of the Zeji units was causing a lot of crashing in the game; I am uncertain as to which unit was doing this, but I believe it was either the Stingray or the Leviathan. With that in mind I disallowed the control of Leviathans throughout the entire campaign, and haven't suffered a crash since. They work fine when the computer uses them, however.
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