StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Meta]

I just saw the gameplay trailer(8 hour download, but worth it), and about the lings: The banelings are an awesome addition, I think. I've always loved using infested Terrans, because they're a great way to insult the terran player in the game.(how could you let a CC fall into my hands?!) Now I can turn the most awesome Zerg unit into a terrorist!

I must say though, I absolutely love the new zergling look. I did download and watch the hi-res video. The lings look awesome as they move, they truly do look like the swarm they are. Their movement however is even better. As many noticed, they have what look like wings on their backs, and indeed they are wings! you can see them flap as they move. I don't think they can fly above cliffs like the reapers can (that would be massive imbalance if lings are still the first offensive unit the Zerg have.

Also....nydus worm? It just......makes SENSE.I mean, the canals have always been great, but making it a worm just makes it that much better. Now that the protoss can create whole armies basically anywhere, and zerg can move underground, I can't help but wonder what the terrans have.

This is four years after BW, everyone has "advanced" The protoss got so pwned that they have to adapt (ie, dragoons turned into immortals). The zerg have evolved into more efficient killers. I have to ask, what are the chances the terrans have shields now? (like protoss, not the marines). I remember the manual mentioning that the sci vessel's shield ability was an early terran attempt, and perhaps theyve gotten better at it now?

I'll have to agree completely with the comments on the Zerg. In fact, I'm so hyped and spoiled by the Zergling look and swarm-like movement, as well as by the Nydus Worm, that Zerg is the race I'm currently more interested in seeing. Just wondering what abominations Blizzard will throw at us.

I loved the Space Platform design as well. It has a very neat dark sci-fi look.

Lav: the official timeline according to Blizzard staff is 4 years after BW. It's available on IGN.com. 

[WB]

source: http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/stor ... bj=6171178

When asked about the status of the Terrans (who were decimated at the end of the Brood War expansion pack for the original Starcraft), creative designer Andy Chambers explained that "the UED terran forces were destroyed by Kerrigan's Zerg armies (though a few surviving companies may still be around somewhere)," and that the Terran faction in Starcraft II will primarily consist of the "evil empire" of the Terran Dominion. When asked about the status of lead character Jim Raynor, Chambers replied that since Starcraft II takes place four years after Brood War, "Raynor has been having some adventures for sure," but he declined to comment further.

also:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171176.html

[Xenon]

Dilling explains that because Starcraft II is being developed with professional competition in mind, the sequel's special effects will be "tight, fast, and quick" such that they don't obscure the action or slow down your computer.

That might explain what looks like it might be Psionic Storm in the artwork video. At first I thought it was some sort of bomb, since it appears and disappears within about 2 seconds, but then I noticed some hovering Protoss guys nearby that looked like templars. Hmm...

Berggren also introduces Braxis Alpha, the Terran settlement that appeared in yesterday's video presentation. Braxis Alpha will be a combination of industrial wasteland and mountainous regions, covered in craggy rock formations and factory-like debris, such as loose gears and turbines that jut out from mountain faces.

Not to mention it's floating in SPACE? I'm not sure he has his facts right on this one.

[Taeradun]

I'm hoping they don't fall into the memory restrictions stuff that SC and even War3 had where you have to base a map off a particular "tileset" rather than being able to stick them all in one map.

It would seem to me then that with that space platform map there would be a "hole" "tile" that shows through the space & planet etc in the background, but obviously you wouldn't use that when making a wholly planet-based map, instead only having ground terrain and water etc. It seems pretty clear that the planet background is part of a 3D wrap-around sky/environment object based on the player's viewpoint "camera" (doesn't move at all when panning across the battlefield but staying at the same angle, but looks pretty cool in the gameplay vid when they lower the camera angle) as used by many other games such as Half Life - or that you could get as a sky in War3 that you'd see with low camera angles (cutscenes etc) and that could be changed to a different one at any time using triggers etc.

[WB]

perhaps braxis alpha is the planet in the background? Or perhaps its a platform/asteroid orbiting.

Also, some more things I took notice of:

I think a terran CC can carry SCVs and perhaps other units now, and that might mean terran buildings in general can do so. As the terrans buildings float in, 4 SCVs seem to exit the CC as a dropship passes overhead, however, the dropship later lands and unloads marines, so the SCVs came from the CC.

After the speaker introduces the protoss immortals, you can see the a hologram doing the night elf dance from WoW. The platform/asteroid might be property of the kel-morian combine as well (you can see a sign as the zeals leave the protoss base)

At the very least, players will have up to 200 control. This isn't an official blizzard statement i found somewhere, just what I am seeing. The protoss player has 153 control, and 200 seems like the obvious cap. Of course, it might be more/adjustable (that would kick ass)

Multiple death animations:
At least, for some units. Just take a look at how the reapers die, and you'll see what I mean. (when theyre going against the Stalkers)

Glave wurms still bounce! huzzah! This has put a damper on my studies....back to work!

[Taeradun]

yeah I read somewhere (I think IGN's article on art development) that most animations would have at least 2 versions for some variety

[Hercanic]

Speaking of multiple deaths, notice how Marines get chopped in half from Zealots? Pretty sweet...

For those that haven't seen the 22-minute Developer Walkthrough, and don't have 8 hours to download from Blizzard's site, try here. Go for HD if you're on cable internet, otherwise stick to the regular version to avoid computer implosion.

Now, if I could ask any question to be included in the FAQ of the site, it would have to be:

"What plans, if any, does Blizzard have for user-made modifications to Starcraft II? Historically, Blizzard has been unsupportive toward the modding efforts of its community; meanwhile games such as Half-Life have shown how beneficial such support can be to the longevity of a game."

[Lavarinth]

What's the problem? I get the high quality one in about an hour at most, haha.

Anyone else notice the mining devices at 10 seconds that look like Terran structures? I was thinking they would be a new mining device for them, but later as the Terran appear, you see another firing the laser at nothing specific, canceling that possibility, most likely.

[WB]

i think all of it is terran, but more along the lines of neutral passive buildings that you can use to make a map prettier. The platform is property of the kel morians, so id think that theyd have mining equipment everywhere.

I think blizzard is planning something special, i think SC2 will be the most moddable and mod friendly game ever released by blizzard.

I think that programs like WinMPQ/Stardraft are going to become obsolete, in the same way they developed the warcraft 3 campaign files, we might have full blown executables for mods. If quantum and shadowflare could do it, I think blizzard is more than capable (not that what those two did wasn't amazing).

I also think they might make a move towards LUA scripting instead of JASS, which would I would be more than happy with. GUI triggers aren't leaving though, and thats a good thing.

Once again, i have to say it, the lings look pwnz0r. 

[Taeradun]

Yeah Blizzard seem to be realising the value of modding and embracing the modding community - they eventually released the War3 modelling tools, and plan to do the same with StarTools:

Rob McNaughton then took the stage to speak briefly about creating units. Blizzard is using Photoshop for texturing, 3D Studio Max, and StarTools to integrate custom art into the game. StarTools is planned to be made available to the public along with ScummEdit for map creation. McNaughton went on to say the map editor will feature new scripting and trigger mechanics, and be a more powerful version than that found in WarCraft 3.

But having full-blown executables for mods sounds a bit weird to me. It was necessary for SC and War3 mods because SC1 had no built-in official way of loading a custom MPQ, requiring use of 3rd party software, and SEMPQs were useful to distribute instead of just the MPQ because the audience didn't also need a copy of MPQDraft to run it.

But if it's officially supported, it'd be easy enough just to have an official feature in SC2 where you load an MPQ file (perhaps with a different file extension) after having launched the standard SC2 EXE. It seems to me it'd be safer that way so there's less unscrupulous people distributing trojans etc. After all, they kind of already have a feature like that with TFT's campaign files; just those don't cover multiplayer.

It'd be nice if they did expand it to multiplayer though They'd likely have to have some sort of version-checking system (CRC check etc) to make sure everyone has the same mod, and treat mod games separately from official un-modded SC (this would tie in well with the third party tournaments thing for SC1 - and I have to wonder whether that, being MPQ-based, will allow other modded files in it...)

Standalone EXEs are really only required if Blizzard were to endorse a mod (likely commercially sold with Blizzard getting royalties) using the SC2 engine to be sold as a stand-alone product.

[JoelS]

I just watched that 22min developer walkthrough video in HD, and I'm going to go back to my original assertion that the portraits and transmissions (at least as presented there in that video) are not pre-rendered.  Or, if they are, they used awfully low-poly models to do them.  You can see the polygon edges where there should be smooth curves, especially on the Admiral's hat and the Protoss's headpiece.

Of course, that all could just be because those were placeholders specifically made for that demo and they will be replaced when the cinematic team makes high quality ones.  It still does seem unlikely given the route they went in War3.  If this game is even a year off, hardware will easily be able to handle some modestly high-poly portraits.  In fact, current hardware can handle it just fine, too.  Unless you are still using the same computer you used to run the original SC, I don't see where performance with portrait models of that quality would be a big issue.

[IskatuMesk]

What's the problem? I get the high quality one in about an hour at most, haha.

Anyone else notice the mining devices at 10 seconds that look like Terran structures? I was thinking they would be a new mining device for them, but later as the Terran appear, you see another firing the laser at nothing specific, canceling that possibility, most likely.

The doodads are obviously just that, doodads. They are probably terran in origin, though.


I think the marines are using randomized death sequences. After watching the fight video in HD several thousand times, a lot of the time they don't get bisected.

[Meta]

Did you guys notice that Battlecruisers and the Mothership can attack ground and air targets simultaneously? Makes sense as they're multi-crewed units. 

[IskatuMesk]

Their air weapons and ground weapons function independantly. In the big fight, you see the BC's shooting at air units when they get close enough, and at ground units. Both weapons are working at once. On top of that, Yamato seems to have a really short cooldown (Maybe just for the demo).

Do you even read the thread, meta?

[edo]

Hey all.  I used to haunt these forums a lot back when starcraft modding was in its prime (albeit under a different alias).  It's good to see so many familiar avatars so to speak.  I'm glad that Starcraft 2 has brought so many people back and excited to make some cool creations for it.

From the interview that gamespot posted with the leader of the design team, it seems to me that Starcraft is fairly far along in development.  He says they're at alpha right now, and suggested that Blizzard would be a little more ambitious about the deadline this time around that it has been before.  Whether that means they'd like to take their time or stick to a tighter schedule, who knows, but I'd bet good money that means we might see a finished product by Christmas '08 or Q1 '09