StarCraft 2

[brocko]

Looks like the Tauren Marine will be showing up after all in the map editor as confirmed by teh lastest Q&A batch released a few days ago.

Spoiler for for page space:

Chat with the Devs: The Dev team has been working hard to find the best defense mechanic that works for the Zerg. The latest builds have brought back Sunken and Spore Colonies, with a new twist. Sunken and Spore Colonies can now uproot and crawl to a more advantageous position. Incidentally, Protoss Phase Cannons no longer have the ability to change positions.

Giving the Zerg mobile defensive structures feels a lot more right as this ability opens up many more aggressive strategies in both Zerg mirrors as well as combined with Overlords generating creep to push these defenses up towards the front lines. Furthermore, there definitely is something about watching defenses crawling around that just seems very Zerg-like. Its worth noting that Zerg defenses while in mobile form have fewer hit points and are more vulnerable to attack.

Gameplay Blog: Over the past few weeks Ive really been practicing up with the Terran faction, as it is probably the one that I am weakest at playing with. After getting beat about three or four times and finally getting my build order up to speed, I realized Terrans actually have a huge advantage in StarCraft II with being able to block off choke points to your base with ease.

Currently, on most maps a Terran player is able to block off their base entry point before the enemy is able to scout, making it nearly impossible for the enemy to find out what the Terran player is doing behind that wall. With only a few Marines and a couple SCVs, the Terran player can fend off most early attacks, especially since they usually also have a higher elevation sight advantage.

Three popular options amongst the staff playing at Blizzard include:

1) Tech straight to Banshees, which have a very powerful single target attack, and can be researched to cloak. This unit devastates if the opponent is not prepared with both anti- air units as well as detectors.

2) Tech straight to Reapers, which can jump up and down hills without a spotter, and get an added bonus damage versus light units. What this means is that the Reapers are able to quickly get in an enemys resource line to annihilate workers at an astounding rate, as well as get out before the enemy can react. This works great if you can scout/scan to see if their main base is defended well with static defenses. On top of that, did I forget to mention that they can drop mines that do significant damage towards buildings? Yes, that means with a handful of these guys, you can drop enough mines to take out whole Hatcheries/ Nexuses, or strategically use them to take out Pylons or tech buildings. After you drop the mines, jump back out of combat and let the mine cooldown reset for another round of raids.

3) If a Terran player bunkers up as mentioned above and no attacks are made by this player, one way an opponent may respond is to expand and build a stronger economy, as they do not feel threatened. In this case, a Terran player can simply build up a huge force of Marines and Marauders behind the wall without the opponent knowing, and then strike when their opponent drops their guard.

Luckily, the Dev Team is well on top of balance, as they have introduced new abilities such as the Nullifiers Anti Gravity ability to lift up buildings blocking choke points and Nydus Worms to bypass such defenses to keep those Terran players honest. Maps will likely have larger choke points in the future to offer a little more chance for opponents to get a Probe or Drone in early to scout early teching Terran players.

As always, feel free to give the Devs and I a w00t if you are enjoying the batches.

---StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 35---

1. Do Banelings damage nearby friendly units when they explode onto an enemy target? (www.starcraft2.com.au)

No, in the current build the Banelings do not damage friendly units caught in the splash. The splash damage does cover its area of effect range evenly, doing the same damage to enemy units throughout the whole area.

2. When a Nydus Worm is detected, is it possible to shoot it down while it is traveling? (www.starcraftcz.com)

Yes, having detectors in strategic places will keep you from being surprised by an unexpected Nydus Worm showing up in your base.

3. Does the Nydus Worm, a ground unit, move through open space? (battle.net) pop.helo

Yes. We dont know how we are going to make this look yet. When we come up with a visual solution we are happy with we will show it to the community.

4. Can Zerg buildings be infested, and if so, what units are produced? (starcraft2forum.org)

Zerg buildings cannot be infested. It is planned that infested Protoss buildings will produce an infested Protoss unit that will play differently than the infested Marine.

5. Will be there such doodads like customizable light or shader? (battle.net) Dagguh

Yes.

6. The first screenshot listed in Karune's 33rd Q&A shows what looks like the Mothership's Black Hole ability. However, it was said that the Black Hole was removed. Does this mean the ability has returned in the current build? (Starcraft.org)

As mentioned before, the state of many of these units are always changing. In the current build, the Mothership has become more of a support unit with increased hit points and decreased speed. The Mothership now allows Protoss Gateways that have converted to Warp Gates to be able to warp units straight to the Mothership. The warp-in mechanic (which cannot be queued) has also been tweaked to allow Protoss players who use it to get a slight time decrease in unit production as opposed to queuing units traditionally at the Gateways. In other words, the cooldown timer on warp-in doesnt take as long as the build time for units at a Gateway.

Furthermore, the Mothership will also have the ability to transfer energy down to casters below it, such as Templars. Both the Time Bomb and Black Hole abilities have been removed

7. Will Phase Cannons be able to rematerialize on an allys Pylon Power, or an enemys Pylon Power for that matter? (sclegacy.com)

Phase Cannons are no longer able to move in the current build.

8. Is the Tauren Marine going to be included in the StarCraft II map editor? (battle.net) scorpionbrood

Yes.

---End of Transmission---

Sauce: http://www.battle.net/forums/thread....1&#post1015863

[brocko]

Bump!

New Gameplay Vid! Seems to me like SC pro-gamers Bisu and Savior are battling head to head Terran vs Terran style, with Savior walking all over Bisu with buttloads of BC's, Thors and Tanks, if only he could do the same in the actual proleagues
http://www.starcraft.org/news/comments/570


Also specs/system requirements for the current build are out too
http://www.starcraft.org/news/comments/571

[Ledgem]

Wow, those requirements seem kind of steep. For those who don't want to wade through the news page for them:

Minumum Requirements
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: ADSL 1 Mbit

Recommended Requirements
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512 MB RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2.
RAM: 2 GB
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

Optimal Requirements
GFX: Geforce 9000er or Radeon 3000er Series
CPU: Core 2 Duo 3 GHz or Athlon X2
RAM: 2GB with DualChannel mode

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Wow, those requirements seem kind of steep. For those who don't want to wade through the news page for them:

i am going to need a whole new comp just to play this

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Wow, those requirements seem kind of steep. For those who don't want to wade through the news page for them:

By the time the game comes out though...

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Skane

By the time the game comes out though...

My thoughts exactly. The game's performance hasn't been optimised yet, the requirements by the time the game comes will be much lower.

[krisslanza]

I think I just meet the minimum...

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Tokkan

My thoughts exactly. The game's performance hasn't been optimised yet, the requirements by the time the game comes will be much lower.

I think what he meant was that those requirements sound steep now, but that by the time the game comes out there'll be much faster, more powerful technology available. The requirements will seem pretty low by then

[Skane]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

I think what he meant was that those requirements sound steep now, but that by the time the game comes out there'll be much faster, more powerful technology available. The requirements will seem pretty low by then

Exactly. And cheaper too. This is Blizzard we're talking about here, after all.

Cheers.

[ACSephiroth]

I wonder if the UED (the terran villains from Brood War) are going to make an appearance. After all, the ones that were defeated in Brood War were only an expeditionary force. And do you think that Blizzard will find an excuse to bring the Protoss into yet another civil war? I hope not as I thought those were the hardest missions in the single player game.

[blitz1/2]

Originally Posted by ACSephiroth

I wonder if the UED (the terran villains from Brood War) are going to make an appearance. After all, the ones that were defeated in Brood War were only an expeditionary force. And do you think that Blizzard will find an excuse to bring the Protoss into yet another civil war? I hope not as I thought those were the hardest missions in the single player game.

I luved the protoss missions.

But what attracts the players is multiplayer. Single player is not fun, people only play it because they want to know what happens.

[brocko]

Hey, I still play the single player campaign from time to time and i can you that it never gets old for me, especially those blood hard enslavers campaign (first part is in your campaign folder, while 2nd part, Enslavers : Dark Vengence you can get from Blizzard). But then again, I'm more of a single player gamer myself lol =P And plus Blizzard mentioned a while ago that they'll be including multi-player campaigns in SC2, which has me anticipating the game even more

[radioIzzy]

Boy, I wonder how the multiplayer is gonna fare among the intense players.
The single player missions look-like a lot of fun.

[ACSephiroth]

I like the whole choose your mission for the Single Play sections, sort of like they did for Emperor Battle for Dune, which had a risk style of picking where you want to attack and stuff. I wonder if when you attack a planet, any planets adjacent to the one your attacking will send you reinforcements or not. That would greatly add to the strategic element of the game.

[Tokkan]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

I think what he meant was that those requirements sound steep now, but that by the time the game comes out there'll be much faster, more powerful technology available. The requirements will seem pretty low by then

My point still stands. Please remember that the minimum requirements for the Warcraft 3 beta version were the optimal requirements for the retail version.

[[DOT].L]

Blizzard says Micromania is full of shit: Link

[brocko]

So i guess we can all breath easy in the meantime to say the least.

Anywayz Banelings are up on the official site: http://starcraft2.com/features/zerg/baneling.xml
Nothing new really that we havn't already seen, although there is as per usual the nifty animation and a brief description for those interested. Funny that the Banelings are out before the Zerglings though, considering that Zerglings do morph into Banelings after all I guess more work was needed in the Zergling before showing it off...

[brocko]

HOLY CRAP!

I just accidentally stumbled over some very recent and new SC2 footage (never before seen by me and I'm pretty sure by the rest of us here either), surprising it was uploaded to youtube about 20 hours ago. So yea BIG TIME accidental stumble on my part, sorry if I'm coming off a bit fanboyey or whatever but I'm just so over-excited by it

I've yet to watch them myself (wanted to share it first ) but judging from the titles they apparently seem to be a game between Korean pro-gamers Savior and Hwasin along with a short 2 min Protoss demonstration.

Spoiler for for space, 4 vids in total:

Part 1 of Savior vs Hwasin

Part 2 of Savior vs Hwasin

Part 3 of Savior vs Hwasin

Protoss Super-Weapon Demo

ENJOY!

Now off i go to watch em

[Papaya]

+rep for finding those ;O

The commentator's voice is terrible though. Sounds like he's trying to sell you drugs the entire time.

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Wow, those requirements seem kind of steep. For those who don't want to wade through the news page for them:

Those are fake!

A magazine made those up from their own guesses watching gameplay videos. Blizzard has already come out to say those were pulled out of someone's ass =P

My guess is that system requirements will be very low. People in Korea don't have amazing gaming computers like the rest of us, since they don't really care about FPS. It will be highly scalable and optimized just like Blizzard's other games.

[brocko]

As we all know Blizzards WWI in Paris has just recently finished with the passing of the weekend and while Diablo III may've been the pinnacle and highlight of the whole event, rest assured Starcraft II was definitely not forgotten.

Here is a summary of the Sunday's Art Panel led by Samwise Didier, Blizzard's Senior Art Director, and Dave Bergain, Lead Environmental Artist. There are some nice comparisons between the current and inital unit models, which shows visually just how Starcraft II is coming along.
http://www.sclegacy.com/content/wwi-...-art-panel-91/

And here are a series of video covering Saturday's Design and Development Panel. If you've been keeping up fairly well with the developments of Starcraft 2 then there's probably not much that is worth watching apart for some general gameplay footage and a short bit on the Nydus Worms, revealing that they now require creep. This essentially makes the Nydus Worms kinda like an instant Nydus Canal and makes the overloads an essential transport/dropping unit again, as you will require overloads to first lay down the creep before the Nydus Worms are able to pop out and transport the units.

Spoiler for for space:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

There is also another video that i would like to share and they are in fact the first ever broadcasted Starcraft II matches! They come complete with great commentaries from both Tasteless and Manifesto7. Overall it is a very great watch and even more so if you're a Starcraft I and II junkie like me. Just from watching the video alone, I can tell that the gameply of Starcraft II will be undeniably awesome and the graphics absolutely beautiful when it does eventually come out (as if it wasn't already!).
Alternatively there are also links to the HQ version, so you can grab that if you want, in case $h!ttube ain't your style lol

To wrap up the post they are also apparently experimenting with some new gas mechanics. You can read up on and all about it here:http://www.sclegacy.com/content/wwi-...ue-updates-93/