StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Meta]

Nice info.  It's nifty to see them alude to a fourth race or the Xel'Naga.  While I don't think SC2 will have more than 3 playable races (the core game anyways, expansions who knows), I'm certain that with the events of Brood War, we'll be seeing some sort of outside influence from some new power.

Well, given Zeratul's words in the announcement movie, it is certain that the Xel'naga are returning, and even Blizzard confirmed that we'll "have fun with Xel'Naga units" (almost certain that they used this expression) during the campaign. I wonder if the Xel'Naga and Duran's "Hybrid" will be the same force, though... 

Btw, SCLegacy has some neat new pictures, including new info on a Terran high-security prison and the new Protoss homeworld of Shakuras itself.

[IskatuMesk]

The short vespene geyser life explains the BGH-like resource proportions we saw.

[WB]

lol

[Marco]

A giant load of information and screenshots:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/06/28/news- ... itational/

[omega20]

lol

[Lavarinth]

Nice info.  It's nifty to see them alude to a fourth race or the Xel'Naga.  While I don't think SC2 will have more than 3 playable races (the core game anyways, expansions who knows), I'm certain that with the events of Brood War, we'll be seeing some sort of outside influence from some new power.

Well, given Zeratul's words in the announcement movie, it is certain that the Xel'naga are returning, and even Blizzard confirmed that we'll "have fun with Xel'Naga units" (almost certain that they used this expression) during the campaign. I wonder if the Xel'Naga and Duran's "Hybrid" will be the same force, though... 

Btw, SCLegacy has some neat new pictures, including new info on a Terran high-security prison and the new Protoss homeworld of Shakuras itself.

I highly doubt Hybrids and Xel'Naga would be the same force.

[omega20]

Remember: the Hybrids are the culmination of the Xel'Naga experiment. They don't have to be the same force. However, they are interrelated.

[Meta]

From Starcraft.org

StarCraft II Panel - Evolving Design

We've got some interesting feedback from the StarCraft II panel. Initially, the team discussed new strategies and their thoughts on how far they should go with the innovation present in StarCraft II. It seems the team want to 're-imagine' StarCraft, but at the same time keep its trademark pace and feeling.

New Units are one part of this innovation, enhancing the inherent differences between the Terrans, the Protoss and the Zerg. Part and parcel of this comes new tactics and strategies, as well as familiar facets of the game such as skill distribution.

At the moment, the Zerg are seeing the most work. They are definitely playable, and they are reportedly 'looking great'. However, the team is trying new things every day. One such thing is there being three different ways to create creep! These are the 'Creep Tumor' (some of you may have seen this on the recently released Zerg Tech Tree at SC legacy), the Hatchery and the Overlord. It should no be possible to 'invade the map' with creep, which very much matches the insidious Zerg ethos of infestation.

The Nydus Worm too is a well liked unit. It allows mass drops with little risk to your units, but is apparently less flexible and more expensive than the transports of other races. It also sounds like it requires Overlords to drop creep for it. Apparently the Nydus Worm is also fundamental in planning pincer attacks.

Then there are 'Spine' and 'Spore' Crawlers, which it can be presumed are the equivalents to the earlier colonies. They have limitations though, since although they are mobile, they rely on creep.

Another key unit that relies on the creep is the Zerg Queen. The team have gone so far as to say without it she's simply not worthwhile. Her main role is a base defender. She can heal buildings via 'Transfusion', use 'Deep Tunnel' to port to any other Zerg structure and is able to infest any building within a radius. Another base related ability is that you can also store Larva by turning them into 'Mutant Larva'

The Corrupter is a strong anti-air unit that can actually infest dead enemies. It also does not require the Spire. The Baneling is strong against collections of small units, but has received a nerf against armoured units, no longer dealing extra bonus damage. The Baneling is now better used in surprise attacks.

Of course, it would be unfair to neglect the Protoss. Much like the Zerg creep, it seems psionics is the key to Protoss success. They have fewer units, but they are much more powerful. It seems the Protoss race are all about carefully planning your resources before heading into combat. They also have access to early game casters, such as the Nullifier. This unit has a force field ability, allowing you to create your own chokes. Using this in tandem with blinking Stalkers seems to be a successful strategy, highlighting the careful planning required. Anti-gravity is also another useful Protoss ability, allowing you to control the enemy.

The Mothership has also seen further work, with its Summon ability, much like the Arbiter's Recall as well as the 'Time Bomb' ability, which seems to have remained with the Mothership throughout its life. This ability still allows you to stop attacks and protect your units.

Terrans, on the other hand are quite direct: guns, guns and more guns!

The Jackal is a great offensive and defensive unit, but needs to be placed carefully to avoid harming your own units with splash damage. The Thor is now built from the factory and has Anti-Air Flak Cannons. Self-repair systems augment the Terrans, allowing wreckage (that now remains) to be built back up again into a usable unit. Of course, to balance this, wreckage can be destroyed, so it should be interesting to see little skirmishes break out over a tank graveyard.

But what are Blizzard working on now in terms of mechanics? Macro vs Micro seems one dominating point of contention, as well as the determination to build the best balance into the game from the start. There has also been a focus on adding special abilities and upgrade systems.

with regards to Battle.Net, we are supposedly seeing the leap in StarCraft II to be 'as big a leap forward as WarCraft III was.' We should expect lots of cool and great new updates.

An entire third of the campaign is now playable. The cinematics and structure are under heavy work at the moment, and we should anticipate more later in the year.

Finally, Blizzard answered some questions.

Q:How will the StarMap work for other races? what will its importance be?
A:The StarMap in the Story Campaign is a mission selector, primarily. You can get up to 7 different choices at any time. In each campaign, there will be large differences on how things work. For example, in the Terran campaign, there's a strong money-earning element that isn't present in others.

Q:What are the roles of Heroes and characters in the Single Player and the Multiplayer game?
A:StarCraft II is de-emphasising heroes. Some missions, where you get to play as characters are different from the ones seen in StarCraft I.

Q:Are there design problems with the StarMap? Will the multiple choices available have an impact?
A:The core storyline will have a set start and end. It will be 'football' (as in American Football) shaped. There will be a main ending but lots of sub-plots that are optional to explore. There will be opportunities for multiple iterations of the game.

Q:Will the Zerg be able to infest Protoss structures?
A:Yes [It was later stated that they were still experimenting with this feature.]

Q:Will it be for both Mac and PC?
A:Yes

Q:Do the Terrans have an equivalent 'super unit' to the Mothership and the Queen?
A:No, there is no real Terran equivalent. It is not expected that the Terrans wil have the same equivalent to the other two races, and the Zerg Queen is the only real unit of that type left.

Q:The Roach can regenerate quickly but does not have many hit points. What is its role?
A:It is strong against units that can't focus large amounts of individual damage.

Q:Is the Black Hole still present?
A:It is hoped that ability can be put back in somewhere. It currently, however, has no home.

Q:What is the role of the Merc Haven?
A:There are 5 or 6 design reasons for it. It will be changed continually until a better purpose is found.

Q:Has there been much outside influence on the Ghost, such as the novel?
A:Ghosts have changed a lot, and there has been a lot of experimentation on this. There is a lot of outside influence.

Q:Will a co-op campaign be possible?
A:Unfortunately, that would not work.

Thanks to Rylin and AJ for the notes from this meeting.

[Falchion]

Well, Meta, my dear brazilian companion, I feel the needs of making my own comments.  Such are as they follow:

1:  Yes, it seems they're putting more work on assembling the Zerg (no surprise this far).  "Creep Tumor" is gonna become a player's favorite in multiplayer.  Expect me to try it as well... next year or so later until SCII is released, of course.    Corrupter's still the same, showing it was a waste of time, since they've shown it on the Zerg launch trailer months ago.  Queen is impressive, though.  As for the Spine and Spore crawlers, let's hope someone won't make a Starship Troopers mod using it. 

2:  Loved the Protoss, specially the Nullifier (I'm expecting someone will release a 300 map using it as a Spartan support unit.  ).  Anti-Gravity is something I didn't see, but I bet the Protoss will be the favorite in matches.  It was also a good idea to bring the Recall back, it was my favorite.  Ahh, the old times when you held long enough to build a troupe of Reavers and some Arbiters, then Recalling them on the middle of the enemy base...  so much chaos...

3:  Terrans seemed a little disappointing, though.  They're more relationed to some units in C&C 3, most likely examples are the Jackal and the Thor.  Jackal reminds me of the Nod Attack Bike, players will rush to get the Factory and some Jackals to harass the workers early.  Thor and it's wreckage is a Starcrafted version of the Juggernaught, Behemoth, Avatar, Purifier, Annihilator and Devastator Tripods, with the only exception you don't need an Engineer to get it back online.

4:  The only concern I have with game is the campaign.  Will StarEdit allow us to make a linear campaign, then allow us, the "innocent modders" to replace the original campaigns, just like we do in SC I?  Will there ever be a linear campaign in Single-Player?  Will they keep de-emphasing heroes until they're no units, just single-player models?  I'll never know... 

5:  As for the super-unit thing, the Terrans won't have a super-unit like the Mothership or the Queen, cause they don't need it!!!  A group of Thors can own them!

That all said, buh bye.

[Marco]

In my opinion, WarCraft III's 'Custom Campaign' option was good enough for homemade campaigns.  No need to get all fancy replacing the single player any longer.

[Lavarinth]

In my opinion, WarCraft III's 'Custom Campaign' option was good enough for homemade campaigns.  No need to get all fancy replacing the single player any longer.

I somewhat have to agree. They did well with this feature.

[Meta]

In my opinion, WarCraft III's 'Custom Campaign' option was good enough for homemade campaigns.  No need to get all fancy replacing the single player any longer.

Definitely. I only hope the editor is more user-friendly.

I think the Terran Jackal actually looks pretty good - at least, better than the Vulture-wannabe design. I really like it's role as well... it's a fast-moving, mechanical Firebat. The new models and textures as a whole are a big improvement over the older versions.

[tipereth]

lol object data

[Marine]

They released the biography of Zeratul finally.
http://www.starcraft2.com/features/heroes/zeratul.xml

[Marco]

Glad they mentioned the Duran storyline, I was beginning to think they weren't going to use it much.  Hehe, I remember when people used Duran and the hybrid storyline they were called newbs when really all they wanted to do was continue a somewhat interesting thread that Blizzard left out there.  Now we get to see what it'll really be all about.