StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Marine]

Her control seems powerful, but it did say in game that she controls all the Zerg brood in the sector, like when she destroyed the New Overmind and Psi Disrupter how Duran says "All of the Zerg in this sector have diverted under your direct control" yet he could be lieing or just exxagerating, who knows? StarCraft 2 may shed some light onto her powers.

[WB]

Well, does that include the ones on Aiur?

[Marine]

I read somewhere, I believe, probably a wiki for StarCraft that Aiur has become abandoned, or less Zerg inhabit the planet now, there are a lot of Zerg still there but not as much after the death of the Overmind.

[Marine]

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 17---

1. Will the defensive matrix of the Terran Nomad apply to enemy units within its AoE (Area of Effect)? (www.starcraft2forum.org)

Yes, the Terran Nomads Defense Matrix ability will affect both friendly and enemy units, thus using this ability on a position that the player can hold will be wise.


2. What helps to delineate the Thor and Battlecruiser as both being high-tier support units? Lots of concern over this duality? (www.starcraft.org)

Currently, the Thor has splash damage, whereas the Battlecruiser has direct damage in its attack. We definitely agree with most of the community that the Thors role overlaps with various other roles on the Terran Faction, thus we may modify that role or possibly cut the unit.

3. Will there be any consideration of having an oceanic battle.net server? (www.starcraft2.com.au)

Unfortunately, this has not been decided yet, as many aspects of Battle.net has still yet to be implemented.

4. Will the Protoss Colossus be able to walk over Supply Depots like over cliffs? (www.broodwar.de)

This is an issue that is still being discussed quite a bit. We like how when enemy units enter your base, they are forced to deal with the layout of your base, but at the same time we are also dealing with the realism factor, where cliff climbing Colossuses ought to be able to step over Supply Depots. Many issues we face are similar to those debated amongst the community, and for this particular topic we dont yet have a final answer.

5. An obvious goal (among many) for Starcraft2 is to maintain the profile of being an E-Sport. What facet do you consider more integral to the growth of that ideal: An extremely high skill ceiling that demands years upon years to achieve mastery, or an extraordinarily large base of interested players to provide the attention that such a sport needs in order to succeed and grow? Obviously both are important, but when it comes to design ideals, what has more pull? Accessibility or Longevity? Mora (www.teamliquid.net)

I think for e-sport we need the high skill ceiling. Though really as you say, both are very important. As designers we have spent years focusing on accessibility. Ideas must be accessible to even be put into the game. So we are just not as worried about making the game accessible. That will happen. What we are focused on, what is the more challenging problem is making the game last for years and years and years. So in our development cycle at the moment, longevity definitely has the larger pull. Longevity is the harder problem to solve, so we put way more effort into making the game as challenging as possible to master. Dustin Browder, Lead Designer of StarCraft II

6. How will unit collision and stacking be handled ? Can flying units pass on top the Colossus or is it blocking ? (www.sc2blog.com)

No, the Colossus will not block a flying unit.

In terms of collision and stacking, units first always follow your order, and when it completes your order, they will stop and spread out. The area in which those units spread out will be slightly less than in the original StarCraft.

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 18: Map Maker Series---

1) Will doodad placement values increase? (ie, more than 256)

[Brett Wood] We expect the doodad placement value will be on the same order as Warcraft III, which I believe was something like 10,000, so definitely way more than 256.


2) Will the number of available locations/triggers increase? The current limit on locations really cramps some ideas.

[Brett Wood] Any limits on both regions and triggers will be at least in the thousands.


3) Will the new map editor include ALL the triggers in the program unlike Staredit?

[Brett Wood] Yes, even moreso than Warcraft IIIs WorldEdit. Weve been making a point of ensuring that ALL script functionality is also exposed in the Trigger Editor UI.


4) Will max unit limits increase? The current unit limit on maps is quite a crimper, and nobody likes CCMU (cannot create more units).

[Brett Wood] I dont recall the exact unit limit in the original StarCraft, but the StarCraft II limit will likely be a healthy boost over the limit in Warcraft III. The exact value hasnt been nailed down yet and will depend on optimizations near the end of the project (i.e. shortly before release).


5) Will the new map editor include unused units such as the crashed scouts, turrets, eggs, nukes, scarabs, crash command center, etc? Third party programs were needed to use these.

[Brett Wood] All units defined in the data files will be usable in the editor. I believe this was true in Warcraft III as well.

---End of Transmission---
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Karune
RTS Community Manager | Blizzard Entertainment

[AA7Dragoon]

Wow, they're thinking of elminating the Thor?  That would be sadness. 

[Thalraxal]

The Thor's an awesome unit, but they seem to really want to avoid the unused units they had in SC1 (like the poor Scout).  Mind you, the Thor seems more geared for ripping apart buildings, defences and supporting ground troops, while the BC is more of a general heavy combat unit.

In other news: new building!  It's the Sensor Tower! http://eu.starcraft2.com/features/terran/sensortower.xml

EDIT: fixed a tyop.

[Lavarinth]

I never liked Thor. Then again, I don't like knowing one huge ass unit massed could wipe out a base. What's are infantry without a base to protect?

[Maglok]

I never liked Thor.

[WB]

They need to give it retardedly long range for it to occupy a specific niche, like massively powerful long range artillary, thats what I always thought it was up until the videos showcasing it - something with longer range than a siege tank, meant for blowing the shit out of enemy defenses with the use of spotter units. If the siege tank wasn't already bad enough for turtlers, the thor would blow the crap out of them.

Then again, I love using artillery in RTS games. Kinda of like a surprise FUCK YOU, ya know?

[Zilla-]

They need to give it retardedly long range for it to occupy a specific niche, like massively powerful long range artillary, thats what I always thought it was up until the videos showcasing it - something with longer range than a siege tank, meant for blowing the shit out of enemy defenses with the use of spotter units. If the siege tank wasn't already bad enough for turtlers, the thor would blow the crap out of them.

Then again, I love using artillery in RTS games. Kinda of like a surprise FUCK YOU, ya know?

But if they made it a super long range unit wouldn't that kinda screw over the seige tank?

[Thalraxal]

I like the Thor, but I've always had a thing for giant killer mechs of doom.

They need to give it retardedly long range for it to occupy a specific niche, like massively powerful long range artillary, thats what I always thought it was up until the videos showcasing it - something with longer range than a siege tank, meant for blowing the shit out of enemy defenses with the use of spotter units. If the siege tank wasn't already bad enough for turtlers, the thor would blow the crap out of them.

Then again, I love using artillery in RTS games. Kinda of like a surprise FUCK YOU, ya know?

But if they made it a super long range unit wouldn't that kinda screw over the seige tank?

The Siege Tank would still be cheaper, available earlier and easier to transport then the Thor would be.  I don't think that the Thor would run them out of business any time soon.

[IskatuMesk]

The Thor is the best addition to the game yet save the BC upgrades. I am definitely not happy to see it on the chopping table. As a whole, I am not really impressed by the direction SC2 has been taking lately. I really hoped they would restore the gritty, seriousness of the game, and the voices at Blizzcon, although no doubt certainly not final, were amongst the worst Blizzard has ever made. Their voice acting and sound editing has been spiraling downhill ever since d2. Wc3 was acceptible, but WoW was mediocore, and Blizzcon made me think, "If these stay in the game... what the hell then?"

The Thor is the one original unit the Terran have right now. It helped define them as a race and a playstyle. It doesn't even begin to overlap with the siege tank. Both fill different roles and both have different gameplay styles. Although I really questioned why they allowed it to attack air... that just seemed really stupid. The addition of the Banshee was a really crappy move, though. Now that's when shit began to become ridiculous. I'm not sure what Browder was thinking, adding yet another aoe unit. SC2 has way too many aoe units right now. The banshee should become either a high-damage single-strike unit, or an all-around combat unit with some other characteristic - and NOT a anti-ground only. That's just dumb.

Leave the AoE's to bcs, tanks, and thors.

[Lavarinth]

The Thor just seems too unrealistic for me. I also don't like the Colossus, I hope their troubles as to whether or not it can walk over Supply Depots and other buildings causes them to drop the unit, honestly. It does NOT remind me of Protoss at all. I also thought the Banshee is ridiculous and unrelated to Terrans. What's wrong with Wraiths? They were a trademark unit to the Terrans. "I feel the need.. The need. For speed." Now that's a good game quote from a movie quote. Hah.

[Thalraxal]

I would love to see the Wraith restored.  The Banshee is just... bleh.  Sure a cloaked AoE would be cool, but I'd rather be ripping apart unprotected BCs and Carriers apart than marines.

Besides, you can't get more iconic then the Wraith!  It IS the StarCraft icon!

[IskatuMesk]

The Thor just seems too unrealistic for me. I also don't like the Colossus, I hope their troubles as to whether or not it can walk over Supply Depots and other buildings causes them to drop the unit, honestly. It does NOT remind me of Protoss at all. I also thought the Banshee is ridiculous and unrelated to Terrans. What's wrong with Wraiths? They were a trademark unit to the Terrans. "I feel the need.. The need. For speed." Now that's a good game quote from a movie quote. Hah.

Thor is fine. It fits the Terrans well. The colossus is just a blatant WotW ripoff like every other fucking walker in games right now.