Starcraft 2 Battle Report (Specs Not Released)

[arus2001]

I LOLed at the third-person Ghost custom map. Vaporware lives!

[Waef]

Holy....fuck...

That's all I can say about the map editor.

[Kaylia]

The fps control looked a bit awkward, but it's going to be interesting for sure to see the game from this perspective. I wouldn't be surprised if indoor scenario will be handled like this in the campaign.

The last part of the video was amazing as well. Its running smoothly compared to any WoW/SC custom map.

[Rulke]

Just some random info to add for SC2. Art panel said to exptect a lot of cutom and unique doodads for the single player. They are allowed a lot more freedom in making things for missions than multiplayer (gameplay is always first for multiplayer) So some mission maps will see civilans running for cover and buildings exploding etc and multiplayer will be left more for the heat and focus of battle. The Battlenet delay for the game has allowed the art team extra time to go in and add more things, finess others etc. As was said earlier, the game is ready to play in all means of that sense, but they'll keep polishing it as long as they have allowed time.

Single player stuff has been changed drastically. In the demo after an opening cutscene you start off inside bridge of the Hyperion (battle crusier) with options to talk to several NPCs (Raynor etc) or wander around the ship. In different parts of the ship you can do things like research tech and learn info about enemy units. Blizzard wanted to take a few steps back from a real linear feel and has left a lot of choices to the player that will influence how they advance through the game. The mission side of the game wont just be a series of battle after battle like in SC, but allows the player more time to get to know the new cast and make changes in their setup inbetween. Feels more RPGish in that sense.

I tried out 2 skirmish matches vs the compter on my other sessions. You can now choose a difficulty of AI to go up against. "Easy" was retarted, the computer just sat and defended its base, I never saw them out and about. This wasnt so bad for a demo, because I wanted to tech as much as possible to try and learn new build trees, but 20 minutes seems to go by so fast. A lot of tech trees are the same, but plenty of new things (need a whole seperate building to make Dark Templar now for example). As I did Protoss 1st, I tried Terran 2nd with the "medium" setting. Definatly a better feel, the computer hit me with a decent wave of forces just about the time I had my defenses up. I went straight for making a Thor though, so I was a little sloppy but still nothing serious. Thors, btw, are slow as hell, even marines run like twice as fast, but they are cool units. They sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Siege tanks have a visible range circle now, if you click them you seen a green circle representing the area they can hit. Rather nice for placement. Also, I cant be sure if this is default reguardless of what unit you have, or if its with marines only, or even how I got this to happen. But when I was inside the enemy base (zerg) and was away doing things in my base, a marine shouted "we need support here!" and I went over to see lurkers attacking my units. Might be that the comp can tell the player they are under attack from cloaked units as a warning. Not sure. Also, the computer in SC2 will "surender" if you do enough damage to their main base, where as in SC you had to destroy every building for a win.

Anyway, in my opinion you can just snap your SC discs in half when you get ahold of SC2. Its that good. It looks fantastic and is very fun to play. You'll never go back.

[Correction]

And in regard to the premium maps thing:

I was pretty disappointed hearing that at first as well. I'm not AS against it now though after seeing this video: YouTube - BlizzCon 2009 - StarCraft II Custom Map Preview

My primary beef is not whether or not premium maps/mods/whatever will be good, but whether or not they will be durable. Will premium content be guaranteed to work with new revs of SCII or am I simply at my own risk with maps I paid for? Furthermore, if an author ceases all support for his paid creation, does b.net II have the mechanics in place to notice and remove the content, or does it open it up to the public for free?

When you start nickel & diming your playerbase the quality of the content is paramount for sure, but supporting a good relationship with your consumers is the only reason they'll come back. I'm merely worried that Blizz won't have the manpower to QC or provide long-term support for the content they didn't author and that costs money on b.net II.

[geno]

My primary beef is not whether or not premium maps/mods/whatever will be good, but whether or not they will be durable. Will premium content be guaranteed to work with new revs of SCII or am I simply at my own risk with maps I paid for? Furthermore, if an author ceases all support for his paid creation, does b.net II have the mechanics in place to notice and remove the content, or does it open it up to the public for free?

When you start nickel & diming your playerbase the quality of the content is paramount for sure, but supporting a good relatiohttp://www.bluegartr.com/forum/search.php?do=getnewnship with your consumers is the only reason they'll come back. I'm merely worried that Blizz won't have the manpower to QC or provide long-term support for the content they didn't author and that costs money on b.net II.

I'm not going to pretend I know how the Marketplace is going to play out, but I'm certain backwards map compatibility is going to be a fairly big concern down there. They had a huge problem with the issue in Starcraft with replays becoming useless after patches and received tons of complaints for it. I'm hopeful they will handle backwards compatibility in a smarter way this time around (for UMS maps and replays at least designed to work with a specific patch, roll back to that patch info for the playthrough or something similar if they could manage it would be nice).

As for QCing the stuff, I'm really not sure how they will handle it. Like I said earlier, I think about the marketplace very similarly to how Apple's appstore works, but Apple goes through a pretty lengthy and thorough approval process on apps submitted to them before they let them get up. I'm not sure if Blizzard will have the resources to do this for all the premium maps created, but even if they don't, any form of quality control would be better than SC1. There was nothing stopping people from editing and creating maps at their own discretion and hosting games with them on B.net. Even worse, they could name them similarly to existing maps and hide exploits or advantages in the map (ex. always favoring a certain race or position) without the other players knowing at all. Hopefully all the additional barriers to doing this in SC2 will certainly cut down on the frequency of these annoyances.

The other concern with quality control is going to be the sheer amount of crap posted to the service if they don't have a nice approval process. Even with the categorization system they showed off at Blizzcon, its going to be difficult to find the gems amongst the maps up to purchase. The appstore has extremely limited filtering and likely a larger userbase so hopefully the problem won't be as bad with SC2, but its still an issue they are going to have to work out. I hope that they remember a good review system can go a long way, hopefully with plenty of filters and a nice letter or star grading system to help players quickly find quality maps.

[Correction]

I think about the marketplace very similarly to how Apple's appstore works, but Apple goes through a pretty lengthy and thorough approval process on apps submitted to them before they let them get up.

Not....really.... Apple bans App Store’s 3rd-most prolific developer

He was just the 3rd most prolific. Top 2 are still churning out rubbish and getting them perfectly over the hurdles of the App submission process.

Blizz is setting itself up for something very similar.

[Korietsu]

Hell fucking yes.

Tricia Helfer Is StarCraft II's Kerrigan - Blizzcon 09 - Kotaku

[geno]

Not....really.... Apple bans App Store’s 3rd-most prolific developer

He was just the 3rd most prolific. Top 2 are still churning out rubbish and getting them perfectly over the hurdles of the App submission process.

Blizz is setting itself up for something very similar.

I said lengthy and thorough, not good lol. I'm well aware of the crap out there for the iPhone but I can't even imagine what it would be like if everything got through.

No doubt the iPhone's AppStore could use some improvements. All I'm saying is that I'm hoping blizzard has been paying attention to both the Appstore and Steam and have learned from both the successes and mistakes they've made.

[yayaok]

jesus fucking christ, if i could make love to a video game, i'd totally fuck up sc2

[Minions]

Donno if it was posted yet

Slashdot | Blizzard Answers Your Questions and More

Its long as hell.

[geno]

***** UPDATE #3 *****

Starcraft II Battle Report #4
Streaming Link from gamer.nl
Direct Download link


Like its predecessor before it, Battle Report #4 has now been leaked. Or maybe done virally, who knows. Either way, it will probably show up on their main page tomorrow or in the next couple of days. In the meanwhile, this leaked version should satisfy some curiosity!

This one is a PvT between Yeon-Ho Lee and "SC2 bonjwa" David Kim, on none other than Lost Temple. As of my writing this, I haven't even had time to sit down and watch it, but from the responses I've read, it may be the best battle report yet. I'll edit in some more thoughts when I see it. So for now, links are above, and enjoy!

[Meian]

***** UPDATE #3 *****

Starcraft II Battle Report #4
Streaming Link from gamer.nl
Direct Download link


Like its predecessor before it, Battle Report #4 has now been leaked. Or maybe done virally, who knows. Either way, it will probably show up on their main page tomorrow or in the next couple of days. In the meanwhile, this leaked version should satisfy some curiosity!

This one is a PvT between Yeon-Ho Lee and "SC2 bonjwa" David Kim, on none other than Lost Temple. As of my writing this, I haven't even had time to sit down and watch it, but from the responses I've read, it may be the best battle report yet. I'll edit in some more thoughts when I see it. So for now, links are above, and enjoy!

Wow that was an amazing match. Loved how the Ghost control was XD

Can't tell if Thor was as effective as it looked. Also thought Terran could only make one but... heh

[Misuicide]

this was pretty awesome! best one i think

[Maguspk]

Good game, those nukes towards the end were awesome. Also, I was worried the huge red dot was what the enemy saw too but apparently they only see a little red dot which is much better.

[Ramor]

Psi storm looks much cooler (as does everything else), but does it still have friendly fire capabilities? I'm guessing it does, it just looked like the toss at a few points didn't really seem to want to move out of it.

also...does it still say 'nuclear launch detected' when anyone fires a nuke?

[Meian]

Good game, those nukes towards the end were awesome. Also, I was worried the huge red dot was what the enemy saw too but apparently they only see a little red dot which is much better.

I think on the SC2 wiki it says it was a dot

Psi storm looks much cooler (as does everything else), but does it still have friendly fire capabilities? I'm guessing it does, it just looked like the toss at a few points didn't really seem to want to move out of it.

also...does it still say 'nuclear launch detected' when anyone fires a nuke?

PSI Storm looks pretty broken after how it tore up Thor lol >_< The animation was a lot nicer looking as was the Nukes but I hoped for a longer duration of the explosion XD

On the left side it showed it said a nuke was being launched but I didn't hear the sound I think.

[Correction]

Did they take down the direct download or is the site just hammered? Not working for me.

[geno]

Here are the youtubes if the other links aren't working:
Battle Report #4 Part 1/2
Battle Report #4 Part 2/2

[geno]

By the way, did get some time to see it last night before going to sleep, fantastic game. We finally get a good look at Terran mech, some hot ghost action, and the power of psi storm. I did like the

I'm actually kind of liking unit composition for both sides as well. I didn't think I'd like the implementation of Thors in armies but it worked well in that game. The protoss army composition feels very similar to SC1 - its easy to see where Yeon-Ho Lee could have made some improvements to help him in the game, particularly with more templars late game and of course some zealots and maybe even immortals to soak up some damage.