They're extremely obvious hahaha... in the last transmission (5 minutes before) the civilians say something like "this is taking too long! I'm getting tired of waiting!" and then a display message says "hurry up, the civilians will start crossing very soon."

That's why I thought it wasn't necessary to put a timer in the first place. Besides, as you said before, the timer indicates that it's already predetermined when the civilians are going to get tired of waiting, which is a bit strange since there shouldn't be any way to know that, only hints that that moment is approaching... but several people told me they wanted a timer so I gave in, I added it.

There's a lot of static defense along with reinforcements from the main bases. The map is also very big so just getting to certain points take a lot of time, both for travel distance and clearing. Most of the dialogue indicating the civilian movement is vague except for the last one which says they will move out "soon". Because civilians move at more or less the same speed as any other Terran unit it's impossible to escort them to the top left of the map. Instead the player needs to do several steps beforehand which includes clearing the main path and securing the entrances to it.

Well... saying that three transmissions over the course of an hour showing the civilians' growing state of impatience with display messages telling you to hurry up, and the mission objectives literally telling you that you must clear the path so civilians can cross safely, are only "vague" indications of what will eventually happen... feels to me like having very little faith in the players' intellect. I think it's quite obvious...

But since the goal of the map, the campaign, and the game itself is to have fun and not to argue fiercely defending a point of view, I added the timer my friend. This way, there will be no doubt about anything. I'd like to know your opinion on the current version, have you tried it yet?

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Jan 18 2026, 1:32 pm by Nuralldin.

I don't wanna argue, but I have another idea. Maybe make a sidequest that enables the timer (adjust difficulty of the rest accordingly). That would have the benefit of having an in-universe explanation why you know so precisely when they will head out. Of course you could just make the civs tell the player outright, but that feels boring. It would be cooler if you had to send a spy/diplomat that acquires the intel. Maybe bring a unit somewhere undetected where it overhears a conversion. Could even flesh it out more by having to bring a dropship, scv and a couple of units to a location to extract a data disc from a computer. Just some random ideas, could be something else entirely.

Those are really interesting ideas. btw... maps 10 and 11 will be published today, I'm almost finished translating them.

This is a debate I often have when mapping, should I lean more towards making it 'realistic' (as much as one can in a game anyway) or just I lean more towards increasing the quality of life for players since it is in fact a game. I have the best results when I focus on quality of life. We're all just trying to have fun, having to guess at some game information isn't really most people's idea of fun for better or worse.

I think just implementing the timer was a good call, though I do also think Nude's ideas are cool.