1:32 hour runtime, 1.3gb, 1920x1200 x264/aac.
I forgot to re-enable my cursor for recording a portion of this (I had it disabled for Retribution recordings), but hopefully my ui rant is not too hard to follow.
http://www.gameproc.com/meskstuff/LP/HM ... eSwarm.mkv
If you're lazy, here's a condensed text of my thoughts.
Spoiler
- The battle.net interface hasn't improved since WoL was first revealed. Its performance is appalling. They re-organized some things but basic features are still missing.
- Very large attempts to cater to some kind of subhuman casuals with their experience system and a ton of really over the top casual-oriented default settings.
- Massive performance problems left and right ingame. Large maps with AI are unplayable on my i7 920/12gb ram/6870. HKS has a significantly more powerful system and still has performance troubles. Widespread complaints on TL. You can recall the massive W&M games gave me a slowdown with sc2's single-threaded glory, but here we're talking 1 frame every 10-20 sec with virtually nothing going on in comparison.
- Uninteresting new units. Flabbergasted that the Hellbat still exists. Expecting game to remain stale as the main problems behind sc2's unit designs remain.
- AI command sort of system. With good AI scripts this could be kind of neat. I liked it, but it feels extremely unfinished. Was pushed out to WoL I think.
- Ragdolls, though I didn't really notice them a lot during gameplay.
- Skin unlock system means more assets for custom content producers.
- The goofiest looking terran splash screen ever made.
AI-specific observations
I doubt these are unique to WoL, but may as well note them.
- AI can't build its main base on alternating cliff levels, a massive bug not new to Blizzard games.
- However, the AI can shift its "main base" fairly easily once it expands somewhere. Wc3 was similar, but not quite as effective.
- AI pathfinding is far less effective than default pathfinding. For campaigns this is moot - use waypoints for trouble spots.
- For the first time in sc2 history the zerg didn't spam roaches to fight my void rays. Maybe coincidence.
Extra
- The art tools are much bigger news than hots. Hots, other than its assets, offers nothing to custom content producers. Getting those assets is trivial business.
- Expressed desire to potentially rebuild Apex post-Retribution, but only because of the art tools.
- Very large attempts to cater to some kind of subhuman casuals with their experience system and a ton of really over the top casual-oriented default settings.
- Massive performance problems left and right ingame. Large maps with AI are unplayable on my i7 920/12gb ram/6870. HKS has a significantly more powerful system and still has performance troubles. Widespread complaints on TL. You can recall the massive W&M games gave me a slowdown with sc2's single-threaded glory, but here we're talking 1 frame every 10-20 sec with virtually nothing going on in comparison.
- Uninteresting new units. Flabbergasted that the Hellbat still exists. Expecting game to remain stale as the main problems behind sc2's unit designs remain.
- AI command sort of system. With good AI scripts this could be kind of neat. I liked it, but it feels extremely unfinished. Was pushed out to WoL I think.
- Ragdolls, though I didn't really notice them a lot during gameplay.
- Skin unlock system means more assets for custom content producers.
- The goofiest looking terran splash screen ever made.
AI-specific observations
I doubt these are unique to WoL, but may as well note them.
- AI can't build its main base on alternating cliff levels, a massive bug not new to Blizzard games.
- However, the AI can shift its "main base" fairly easily once it expands somewhere. Wc3 was similar, but not quite as effective.
- AI pathfinding is far less effective than default pathfinding. For campaigns this is moot - use waypoints for trouble spots.
- For the first time in sc2 history the zerg didn't spam roaches to fight my void rays. Maybe coincidence.
Extra
- The art tools are much bigger news than hots. Hots, other than its assets, offers nothing to custom content producers. Getting those assets is trivial business.
- Expressed desire to potentially rebuild Apex post-Retribution, but only because of the art tools.