Starcraft II Catch-All

Devmani wrote:

I can tell you that the AI plays like a Korean Pro gamer on it's hardest setting...

Whoa. Korean Pro gamers have settings?

BadKen wrote:
Devmani wrote:

I can tell you that the AI plays like a Korean Pro gamer on it's hardest setting...

Whoa. Korean Pro gamers have settings?

Sure! Gosu and not-gosu.

PyromanFO wrote:
AnimeJ wrote:
PyromanFO wrote:

He's saying that in an RTS it's impossible to tell a story with the gameplay, unlike say FPS games. While I disagree, I think RTS games are less suited to it. I feel it's still possible in single player.

Yep, which is why I bring up the point of all the in-engine cutscenes from SC1 and Warcraft 3, along with the missions where you have limited resources to achieve objectives.

In engine cutscenes are not using the gameplay however. He's not saying in the game he's saying with the game.

Which is why I also bring up the specific objective missions with specific units and you pick up extras along the way. In those, you're definitely advancing the story, with the engine. For example, the missions to steal the psi emitter from SC.

I think at the end of it, we're making the same point from different angles in that it's very possible to tell story in the game, and not all missions are about resource management and destroying your enemies.

20 minuets of Multiplayer footage. It's a APLHA build match with commentators. Very fun to watch and shows you the very small details that separates these guys from the rest of the world.

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/battlereports/1.xml

Neat.

Key word being ALPHA. I won't believe anything I see until I have it in hand.

Rat Boy wrote:

Key word being ALPHA. I won't believe anything I see until I have it in hand.

Believe it.

Lead developer Dustin "Cavez" Browder posted an update on the official forums:

Cavez wrote:

Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet.[...]

Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time.[...]

We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know.

Hang in there. We're in the final stretch.

(via Blue's News)

Battle Report #2 is up now. 20 minute gameplay video of Zerg vs Terran.

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/b...
Mirror: http://starcraft2.net.pl/portal/sc2/...

Latrine wrote:

Battle Report #2 is up now. 20 minute gameplay video of Zerg vs Terran.

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/b...
Mirror: http://starcraft2.net.pl/portal/sc2/...

These really are fun to watch. I will never ever play a RTS at that level of micro, but I can appreciate the skill in much the same way I appreciate pro football even though I last played in high school.

man the videos being released just solidify my day 1 purchase. I can't wait to get online and get my butt kicked by people like this.

p.s. I'd love to play with GWJ people who suck as much as I

mrwynd wrote:

p.s. I'd love to play with GWJ people who suck as much as I :)

Ditto that. I thought I sucked as it was, but then I played Starcraft with the goodjer crew during a Starcraft "revival" night last fall, and geez... they were all commenting on how badly they were doing, and compared to me they were AWESOME.

I'm just crappy at RTS games, but I like some of them in spite of that.

I'm amazed at how entertaining the Battle Reports are. If you know your Starcraft, then it's actually pretty entertaining.

mrwynd wrote:

man the videos being released just solidify my day 1 purchase. I can't wait to get online and get my butt kicked by people like this.

p.s. I'd love to play with GWJ people who suck as much as I :)

Friend me up at Steam until Blizzard's BNet v2.0 includes friends of some sort!

I'm rather terrible at RTS (last time I played was maybe 8 years ago, and yes, it was Starcraft) and drooling at the graphics, sound, tech-tree and unit animation won't help!

mrwynd wrote:

man the videos being released just solidify my day 1 purchase. I can't wait to get online and get my butt kicked by people like this.

Yeah, the first rule of playing Starcraft matches is to never join a game where the names sound Korean in origin.

Oh God. This is going to EAT my life.

I keep wanting to get excited for this, but the prospect of buying three full games and getting my ass kicked by people who have been playing SC multiplayer nonstop since the late '90s is leaving me cold.

- God, Blizzard really screwed up their announcement about SC2 having two planned expansions. Although I certainly wouldn't say no to three full games worth at launch.
- RTSes generally have rank based matchmaking now so it's less likely you'll always be dominated. I wonder why people have a greater fear of loss in RTSes than other games.

Latrine wrote:

- RTSes generally have rank based matchmaking now so it's less likely you'll always be dominated. I wonder why people have a greater fear of loss in RTSes than other games.

Most RTSs take longer than other multiplayer games. It's annoying to spend some time only to get your ass kicked.

Makes me wonder if Blizzard isn't trying to generate some excitement for professional play here in the states.

Well it's good to know that they're making a game with way more depth than I'll ever be able to absorb. You are not just purchasing a game; you are purchasing a never-ending fountain of complexity and nuanced twitch-reflex thinking.

Vector wrote:
Latrine wrote:

- RTSes generally have rank based matchmaking now so it's less likely you'll always be dominated. I wonder why people have a greater fear of loss in RTSes than other games.

Most RTSs take longer than other multiplayer games. It's annoying to spend some time only to get your ass kicked.

Seconded! Although if you are really going to get your ass kicked, it should be over rather quickly. If a game lasts several hours, then it must've been a pretty good and even match. Right?

No, losing always sucks!

Let me rephrase that. Losing 10 games in a row, each 10-15 minutes a piece, to 10 different strategies would be the suck to which I am referring.

Thirteenth wrote:

Makes me wonder if Blizzard isn't trying to generate some excitement for professional play here in the states.

That's EXACTLY what they're trying to do. ^^

I hope it happens just because I enjoy watching it. I've watched a lot of english dubbed Starcraft matches and would love more.

Rat Boy wrote:

I keep wanting to get excited for this, but the prospect of buying three full games and getting my ass kicked by people who have been playing SC multiplayer nonstop since the late '90s is leaving me cold.

That's why you restrict your play to GWJ folk.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

I keep wanting to get excited for this, but the prospect of buying three full games and getting my ass kicked by people who have been playing SC multiplayer nonstop since the late '90s is leaving me cold.

That's why you restrict your play to GWJ folk. :)

This, this, and this. I only play RTSs online with friends or GWJ crew. Randoms or pubs or whathaveyou annoy me.

Badferret wrote:
Latrine wrote:

Battle Report #2 is up now. 20 minute gameplay video of Zerg vs Terran.

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/b...
Mirror: http://starcraft2.net.pl/portal/sc2/...

These really are fun to watch. I will never ever play a RTS at that level of micro, but I can appreciate the skill in much the same way I appreciate pro football even though I last played in high school.

Wow. I'm surprisingly entertained watching these too, but I'll never be even close to that level of gameplay in an rts.

Asz wrote:

I'm amazed at how entertaining the Battle Reports are. If you know your Starcraft, then it's actually pretty entertaining.

I've enjoyed watching them, and I'm not very familiar with StarCraft. I played the single-player campaign of the first when it was released, but I haven't played the game since. It still looks like a reskinned StarCraft to me, but I've already made it clear that I'm not an expert.

Alright, fanboi status assumed, here are some things I noticed straight off:

There is now foliage that serves only to block line of site in small patches.
Zerg queens come into play early as a ground unit, apparently boosting larva at base (which allows more units to spawn).
There was some kind of air drop of what looked like a new kind of Terran scv into an expansion base. This was not commented on by the announcers so who knows.

These may seem like cosmetic additions to the casual viewer, but each actually adds a new dimension of play not present in the original. Lots of new thinking to be done here, at the very least.

Dax wrote:

Alright, fanboi status assumed, here are some things I noticed straight off:

There is now foliage that serves only to block line of site in small patches.
Zerg queens come into play early as a ground unit, apparently boosting larva at base (which allows more units to spawn).
There was some kind of air drop of what looked like a new kind of Terran scv into an expansion base. This was not commented on by the announcers so who knows.

These may seem like cosmetic additions to the casual viewer, but each actually adds a new dimension of play not present in the original. Lots of new thinking to be done here, at the very least.

It looks like an upgraded command center can air drop drone type units before going down. If you notice in the video, the units it dropped were not SCVs they were some sort of drone that presumably only harvest minerals (maybe gas too).

To the layman it may look a lot like the original, but the units are vastly different. They're trying a lot more angles to the strategy from the foliage blocking line of site, to the various units that can move from higher to lower ground, etc. The general gameplay style hasn't changed, though it does seem to be smaller armies than the original, though that may be because of the different people playing.

As a side note, I really like the look of the Zerg units. They move in a realistic sort of bounding step that wasn't captured in the original.

Dax wrote:

There was some kind of air drop of what looked like a new kind of Terran scv into an expansion base. This was not commented on by the announcers so who knows.

I thought he mentioned something about the command center (or maybe all terran buildings) being able to carry units now. I would imagine it's a tech you have to buy at some point.

mrwynd wrote:

The general gameplay style hasn't changed, though it does seem to be smaller armies than the original.

I think even in the original StarCraft, games between experienced users typically had low unit counts. It is only in novice games that you see people build up until they reach a critical mass and attack.