StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Whiplash!]

Yeah they need to make the Mothership a powerful support unit to an air force with abilities that would benefit other air units (like time bomb for example), and a decent damage attack (maybe slow 40 atg only or something). Yes the blizzard people who were playing weren't the best but that's fine because its just an alpha and they were just showcasing some of the game.  They aren't playing in a proleague. Also I love the casters, after SC2 finishes I better hear more casting from Dustin "Terrible Terrible Damage" Browder!

[Maglok]

Beta opt in on blizzard.com

[Marco]

Opt'd in!  Heh, the fact that they are asking for this is a good sign.  If they start the beta in summer, we could see a fall or winter release with some luck.

[coko]

Yeah, just signed up!

[Lavarinth]

Interview Released For Fansites via Karune of Blizzard Entertainment:

Questions Answered by
Chris Sigaty, StarCraft II Lead Producer

Q. StarCraft II opt-ins are now available through Battle.net. Does the opt-in process mean that the start of the StarCraft II beta is imminent?
A. We’re getting closer and closer to the start of our closed beta with each week that passes. Several months ago, we expanded our internal testing of the game to the entire company, and we’ve made significant progress since then. We’re looking forward to inviting external testers into the process soon, which is why we’re starting sign-ups now.

Q. What aspects of the game will be available for testing in this beta?
A. As with previous betas for our real-time strategy games, the StarCraft II beta test will be multiplayer only, and players will have access to all three races -- terrans, protoss, and zerg -- and all of their units. We’ll include a selection of multiplayer maps, but they won’t necessarily include all of the maps that will be in the final version of the game. We’re making some great progress on the single-player campaign, but we don’t plan to do a public beta since we want to keep the story under wraps until the game’s out.

Q. Will we be able to try the new Battle.net during this beta?
A. You’ll be connecting to and playing on the new Battle.net in the StarCraft II beta, and you’ll definitely have a chance to play around with a few of the new features -- but what you’ll see in the beta is really only a taste of what’s to come.

Q. What updates and changes have you made to the game recently?
A. We’re constantly tweaking the gameplay and balance, and we will be all throughout the beta process, but perhaps the most visible changes have been made to the zerg. Our art team has done a polishing and iteration pass on many of the zerg unit models and structures, so players can look forward to seeing a lot more detail there. Compared to the versions you’ve seen before, the zerg units and bases now look a lot slimier and more sinister.
We’re also really looking forward to seeing testers try out the new gameplay mechanics we’ve introduced to each race, like the proton charge for the protoss and the MULE for the terrans that allow them to harvest minerals faster. The zerg also have a spawn larvae ability that gives them a new way to expand their production. We’re hoping these abilities increase the strategic tension for players and force some tough tactical decisions when managing economies and micromanaging battles.

Q. Which regions can join the StarCraft II beta test?
A. Our plan is to include multiple regions and countries in the StarCraft II beta-testing process. We’ll be starting with a North American beta, where testers from the United States and Canada, as well as Australia and New Zealand will be able to join. We’ll then phase in testers in other regions such as Korea, Taiwan, and Europe as soon as we’re able to set up in those areas.

Q. Why aren’t you running StarCraft II beta simultaneously in all regions?
A. It’s more efficient from a development standpoint to phase in each region one at a time. A big part of the beta test involves setting up new hardware and networking infrastructure, which is not a trivial process. If we set up one region at a time, we can more quickly address any issues we run into at the start, and take the lessons we learn from that experience to establish a smoother setup experience for the next region.
We can also implement all sorts of gameplay and balance changes, view the results, and react to what we’ve observed much more quickly in a single test environment, as opposed to getting bogged down trying to push those changes out across several test environments. Once the major issues are ironed out, we can expand the testing to additional regions. Going region by region will also put us in a better position to test localized versions of the beta.

Q. Will testers be allowed to write about the beta? Take screenshots and videos?
A. Yes! Beta testers will be free to write about their experiences playing the beta as well as take screenshots or videos. We’re really looking forward to getting the game into players’ hands so we can hear their feedback, since that will help propel us into the final stages of development and balancing. We’ve been working hard on StarCraft II, and we can’t wait to finally be able to hear what everyone has to say about it.

[IskatuMesk]

Opt'd in!  Heh, the fact that they are asking for this is a good sign.  If they start the beta in summer, we could see a fall or winter release with some luck.

I'm betting pretty strongly on blizzcon's announcement being the release date, since Blizzcon is in August and it seems like the beta should start up in about 2-3 months. Presumably.

[Maglok]

Europe will be added later, so good luck to you americans first.

[Zilla-]

/opted

[SaintKerrigan]

Can't wait for beta! And SC2.

[coko]

Q. Will testers be allowed to write about the beta? Take screenshots and videos?
A. Yes! Beta testers will be free to write about their experiences playing the beta as well as take screenshots or videos. We’re really looking forward to getting the game into players’ hands so we can hear their feedback, since that will help propel us into the final stages of development and balancing. We’ve been working hard on StarCraft II, and we can’t wait to finally be able to hear what everyone has to say about it.

I like this part a lot! Enables lots of information for non-players, though I wonder if they will mind replays?!

[Ricky_Honejasi]

/opted

[Marco]

Even if I'm not selected for the beta, the fact that it will be released is a wonderful thing.  There will be nothing to stop some opportunistic pirates from putting the beta on a torrent site.  And once that happens, the MPQ will be available, and details will finally be available on models, textures, sounds, all sorts of juicy information that can help those of us working on projects for SC2 to better prepare.

[IskatuMesk]

That's assuming they are using the same MPQ filestructure. Burning Crusade and Lick King changed the formats a bit, and they're really big, so winmpq can't actually open them despite me harassing shadowflare about it on numerous occassions. As WoW is basically wc3 with some extras tacked on, and SC2 is supposedly an entirely new engine, it might be possible for them to change the archive structure as well.

Though I don't really see why they would do that, it's Blizzard, and they do weirder and more backwards things then that.

In any case I expect the mpqs to get plundered a day after release of the beta.

[Lavarinth]

Beware.. THE PLUNDER!

[Maglok]

Shame the single player sets won't be in there. That'd help.