StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Marco]

Whoa, huge news to absorb.  Right now though I'm really glad I planned a Terran-based story since they'll be first in line.

[Thalraxal]

Slashdot says it's Legacy.

I hope it's "Legacy of the Void".  That's a definite step up from "Legend of the Void".

Hmm...  I was planning on doing a Protoss campaign first... not sure how that'll work out.

[mAc Chaos]

So how is multiplayer going to work?  Is each game going to have all 3 races?  So basically the other two are just buying one player maps?

[Meta]

Same. Good thing I have ideas for Protoss and Terran campaigns, so I can pick which I'll work on first.

Some gosu screenshots:

Prison world, check the guys in the cages.  ;D
[imgwh 640x480]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... Folsom.jpg[/imgwh]

Some sort of mountain range tileset?
[imgwh 640x480]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... nHaven.jpg[/imgwh]

Twilight looking better and creepier than ever.
[imgwh 640x453]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... akuras.jpg[/imgwh]

Shallow water again:
[imgwh 640x480]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... Haven2.jpg[/imgwh]

Scorched earth policy, it seems.  :P
[imgwh 640x453]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... Albion.jpg[/imgwh]

Great-looking pine trees:
[imgwh 640x480]http://www.starcraftwire.net/gallery/da ... aven01.jpg[/imgwh]

[IskatuMesk]

Videos, including new CGI

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55266

[Marco]

That sort of level of extensive 'in-game cutscene' seems way too complex to be 'simplified' for editor use.  Most of that stuff is probably motion captured.  It's good for StarCraft, although it looks less and less likely that the average joe making a campaign will no longer be able to keep up with 'Blizzard Quality' any longer.

[Meta]

My thoughts exactly. Even if the editor is capable of editing such movie-like events, the amount of work and testing required will probably be astronomical and very intimidating. I wonder if, campaign-wise, we're looking at another Warcraft 3 here... 

With Blizzard giving extra focus on their own campaigns, I wonder if a potential high-quality level would set the bar too high for most mapmakers, who might end up not making anything at all for SC2.

[Anonymous]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55261

Ingame stuff ^

About the ingame CGI;

Yes, it's motion captured, just like the majority of all cinematics nowadays. Don't think about making that kind of quality yourself unless you're very handy with 3ds max. The editor will not be able to animate for you.

I can't say I like the marauder at all.

Also the debris is pretty much completely gone now.

[Meta]

Yes, it's motion captured, just like the majority of all cinematics nowadays. Don't think about making that kind of quality yourself unless you're very handy with 3ds max. The editor will not be able to animate for you.

Yay.

I can't say I like the marauder at all.

Also the debris is pretty much completely gone now.

Agreed. There are some cool new doodads and tilesets, but the lack of debris is disappointing. And the marauder is basically a huge anime mecha mixed with a marine.

[Marco]

My thoughts exactly. Even if the editor is capable of editing such movie-like events, the amount of work and testing required will probably be astronomical and very intimidating. I wonder if, campaign-wise, we're looking at another Warcraft 3 here... 

With Blizzard giving extra focus on their own campaigns, I wonder if a potential high-quality level would set the bar too high for most mapmakers, who might end up not making anything at all for SC2.

LOL, well I wouldn't worry about that.  "Its too hard to catch up to them.  FUCK IT!  Just not gonna make a campaign at all!"  Nah, just don't see that happening.  It's just going to be up to the individual campaign maker not to go apeshit over all the features and try to do everything.  We'll see a lot more 'team begging' for sure.

[UntamedLoli]

keep up with 'Blizzard Quality'

Here's the problem with half the campaign makers design philosophy.

Just don't be Mantits.

[Marco]

keep up with 'Blizzard Quality'

Here's the problem with half the campaign makers design philosophy.

Just don't be Mantits.

It was a realistic goal during the original StarCraft and Brood War, because being Blizzard quality meant you had good voice actors, good audio editing skills, and decent map making skills.  A single person could do this on their own potentially.  It was the same with WarCraft 3, Blizzard did very little that the individual campaign maker couldn't do in the editor themselves.  Now that you have all this other stuff that takes professional teams months or work to accomplish, it just isn't realistic to shoot for that 'Blizzard quality' standard any longer.

[Meta]

LOL, well I wouldn't worry about that.  "Its too hard to catch up to them.  FUCK IT!  Just not gonna make a campaign at all!"  Nah, just don't see that happening.  It's just going to be up to the individual campaign maker not to go apeshit over all the features and try to do everything.  We'll see a lot more 'team begging' for sure.

Well, remember how many campaigns got cancelled back then due to people being too ambitious. I think some potential mapmakers might not even bother this time around, but yeah, rethinking the entire issue, I think it will depend mostly on how user-friendly the editor will be.

[IskatuMesk]

I don't make campaigns, so it's not much of a problem for me. I know all of my stories are way too ridiculous for any game to handle. So I just stick to mods. In SC2's case, that'll only be AO2, if I find me a very dedicated character modeler/skinner/ect.

So yeah, no hope for me. Carry on, men!

[Taeradun]

If the "in-game cutscenes" mean they're done as a map with terrain/doodad/unit objects then hopefully we'll have access to edit things like that. If that's the case then modders could make decent cutscenes by ordering units to move around etc. Plus if we're able to do that they'd probably also provide a number of other basic pre-set animations for the models as well (probably motion captured themselves). Obviously that still wouldn't be quite as good as the Blizzard cinematics, and then there's that whole lip synching issue (which really only matters for terrans & infested), but I don't think it would be a big deal.

One other thing the Blizzard campaigns in SC and WC3 had that was rare for modders to use was the pre-rendered cinematics. People didn't seem to care as much in Warcraft III though since like SC2 it was a 3D engine that you were still able to make cool cutscenes (which the Blizzard campaigns themselves obviously made a lot of use of as well).