StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[IskatuMesk]

Beta got pushed to 2010.

I called it.


http://sclegacy.com/news/23-sc2/529-igromir-2009-starcraft-ii-coverage-day-1

[thebrowncloud]

Beta got pushed to 2010.

I called it.


http://sclegacy.com/news/23-sc2/529-igromir-2009-starcraft-ii-coverage-day-1

That gives Lav and Dread some extra time to finish their judging for the contest. 

[Falchion]

IIMO, it's good for me.  Also better they get some longer.  It's not like the rashly EA people that release everything by the clock and too bitched.

[UntamedLoli]

It is as I figured it was, Blizzard knows smooth beta tests make or break a game nowadays.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=20861002638&sid=3000&pageNo=2#21

[Falchion]

Brutalisk revealed.

[imgwh 640x480]http://sclegacy.com/images/uploaded/sta ... talisk.jpg[/imgwh]

Oh god, he's got a penis-cannon, that's how Marines are getting killed!!!  That's why it's feared!!! 

[AA7Dragoon]

lol!  It does look like he's exposing himself, and the marines are desperately trying to shoot it!

[Falchion]

Yea, well, you know the Zerg.  Always got a fetish for flashers...

[UntamedLoli]

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 55---

1. Not all potential players of StarCraft II have played the original StarCraft before, thus they might encounter problems with the understanding of the story. Is it possible to play the campaign of StarCraft II without knowing anything? Will you come up with some things that happened in the original StarCraft and Brood War again – just so that people not familiar to the story get more information?
We plan on having story elements that will bring players up to speed on the most recent plot developments and prepare them for the StarCraft II storyline. We also plan on having a plot summary of what transpired in the original StarCraft and Brood War during the installation process. However we feel that regardless of your familiarity with the original story, all players will be able to enjoy the story developments in StarCraft II.

2. You have already announced that you are going to record various stats when playing StarCraft II with the new Battle.net 2.0 – but how detailed will those statistics be? Will one be able to see how many units of a certain kind (for example Marines) one have build or even killed so far?
We will be recording a large amount of stats for StarCraft II, but we are still in discussion as to which stats will ultimately be tracked. We will determine how detailed the stat-tracking will be based on what information we think will benefit our players the most to help improve their game.

3. You have already stated that you will support DirectX 10, but what about DirectX 11?
We currently do not have any plans on supporting DirectX11-specific features, but the game will be compatible with DirectX11.

4. How many stats will a Hero unit be able to take? Three like in Warcraft 3 or is there even a limit?
If you create a user-amp with heroes, you can outfit them with a large number of stats. However, currently only three stats will be able to be displayed on the UI due to limited space.

5. In lore Protoss warp in their units and buildings from some far planet. Will there be any mechanic that reflects this such as a "warp out" that could act as a refund?
We do not have any plans to include a “warp out” game mechanic. We have discussed the possibility of this in the past, but it felt too similar to the Terran mechanics of being able to salvage the structures.

6. Will there be a converter to convert our favorite original StarCraft maps to StarCraft II maps? I don’t want to lose all of my favorite maps from the original StarCraft when I get StarCraft II.
There will not be a map converter for StarCraft II. Map-makers will have to manually rebuild any of their maps using the new StarCraft II map editor.

7. I'm just going to assume that you will have some sort of window mode in StarCraft II. But I was wondering if you're going to implement a windowed mode like the one that World of Warcraft has? You know where you can maximize the window, removing the borders and enabling fullscreen mode yet providing easy access to the desktop.
You will be able to select both windowed and full-screen windowed modes from the options menu.

---End of Transmission---

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=21043889722&pageNo=1#0

[Falchion]

On the map thing, many may protest, but me, I have only the following:  I think of SC I map as reference to SC II, sort of like 2D pics for 3D modeling.

[IskatuMesk]

There is no remotely easy way to turn a 2d sprite-based map into a 3d mesh. No surprise at all. You'd just end up with the disaster that is supreme commander's map editor which is exclusively limited to height maps.

[Thalraxal]

I'm not surprised at all about not transfering maps from SC1 to SC2.  You're pretty much going to have to redesign a good sized chunk of the terrain anyway when converting from 2-D to 3-D to make them look half decent anyway (unless you like huge blank areas on the north side of cliffs).  That's also not taking in gameplay changes into account, what was fun and worked well in SC1 might not work well at all in SC2 (the increased mobility from Reapers, Stalkers and Colossi come to mind).  Not too mention the stunning innovation of north-facing ramps from WC3.  You're better off remaking the map from scratch.

[WB]

You guys have no idea what you are talking about. SC1 and SC2 use a grid system. All they have to do is translate pathable grids across the map types, its the same way we were able to convert SC1 to WC3 maps back when I modded WC3. There is no reason they cant do it if we could do it.

[IskatuMesk]

There sure is. There's several good reasons, actually.

1.) Laziness.
2.) Not something they would benefit from.
3.) Small team already crunched for time.

[Lavarinth]

According to Quantam, this would easily be done.

[IskatuMesk]

[imgwh 530x440]http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/Zer ... lowers.jpg[/imgwh]

Blizzard finally added some stuff to their website, which doesn't work for me for some reason.