StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[IskatuMesk]

It's a problem because the moddability of the game is going to be impacted by their inability to discern what a mod actually is, and features games have been providing for years won't be recognized.

[Marco]

It's a problem because the moddability of the game is going to be impacted by their inability to discern what a mod actually is, and features games have been providing for years won't be recognized.

Ah, but when they do present these features, they are usually on a level that we can all understand without a whole lot of work.  That is definitely something I can appreciate.  WorldEdit for instance is so easy to work with compared to some FPS editors I have tried (and failed) to comprehend.

[IskatuMesk]

Most of the FPS editors are catered to game developers and stuff. Hammer ect drives me nuts. Worldedit could have been a LOT more user friendly though. Its layout made things very time-consuming.

[WB]

I don't understand why people complain about hammer so much, but this is a SC2 topic...sooooo

Mesk! You are the chief in this area, submit a whole bunch of questions regarding the separation of maps and mods, who knows, it might steer you back to SC2 modding. It couldn't hurt to try. 

[IskatuMesk]

Not even going to bother.

[Meta]

GRAWWWWWWWWRAAAAR it's the Ultralisk! Found it on SC Legacy(top news).

[imgwh 333x322]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i141/ ... ralisk.jpg[/imgwh]

Holy shit, 4 scythes. That Ultra would better be a kickass unit in SC2. 

[chris]

Those minor distinctions do seem to tug at your brain, knawing on the savory grey matter within, spilling the neuro filled nectar that is sanity and reason.  For the sake of all of our sanity, I do hope they correct their erroneous ways before we all suffer the horrid fate of having to endure the psychological punishment of these unforgivable mistakes.

Best. Sentence. Ever.

BTW, Doack is right about hammer, I couldn't make any sense out of it myself.

Anyway, to get back on-topic.
.... still no update on the SC2 website -.-

[Lavarinth]

GRAWWWWWWWWRAAAAR it's the Ultralisk! Found it on SC Legacy(top news).

[imgwh 333x322]http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i141/ ... ralisk.jpg[/imgwh]

Holy shit, 4 scythes. That Ultra would better be a kickass unit in SC2. 

Supahlisk?

... I don't like it, but it's probably cause it's that team color instead of a brown or green.

[Marco]

The ultralisk was always a good unit in theory, a giant Zerg tank to distract your enemy while your other units got off free shots.  In practice, it just lacks any sort of ability to make it that.  Perhaps the new ultralisk can have an ability like a roar that would scare other units in a certain range into focusing its attacks on them.

Also, anyone else think that units like the Thor, the Collossus, and the Ultralisk should be attackable with air-to-air attacks as well?  Would seem to make sense that a jet could hit a huge unit like that even if its speciality is air to air.  Units that have both air and ground attacks would default to ground.

[Meta]

I used to think the same about the Ultra - a badly balanced cannon-fodder unit - until I saw some progamer matches involving them. Those psychotic Zerg players with 6+ expansions easily make the Ultralisk one of the most feared units in the game. An army of 3/5 Ultralisks escorted by Adrenal Zerglings and Defilers is a force to be reckoned with.

I'm all for an even mightier Ultralisk though - of course, with the appropriate balance changes. A special ability of sorts would be really interesting. Maybe a knockback charge (but then, Zealots have Charge already) or a stun-type attack, similar to the Maelstrom(the Ultra would step on the ground with fierce strength and stun organic units close to it for a few seconds). I know those are really generic abilities, but an unit as huge as this new Ultra deserves all the power it can get, IMO. 

[Lavarinth]

I'd have to agree with the ability to attack ground units with air-to-air. That also bugged me with buildings. Then again, I'm sure it's all for "balance" that they don't.

[Thalraxal]

Ultralisk is lookin' mean, even if his colour scheme is abit weird.

Also, anyone else think that units like the Thor, the Collossus, and the Ultralisk should be attackable with air-to-air attacks as well?  Would seem to make sense that a jet could hit a huge unit like that even if its speciality is air to air.  Units that have both air and ground attacks would default to ground.

The Collossus was vulnerable to anti-air attacks, because of its height.  Not sure if it still is or not though.  Either way, the 'ground unit vulnerable to air and ground attacks' (dis)ability should still be avaliable in the game.

[Marco]

What I really like is that hover tank that can fire while moving.  Actually, I don't really like the unit itself, I just like the fact that the ability is being included.  With that, you'll probably be able to have the same ability on just about any unit in the game, which in my opinion might make for some better cutscenes.  One of the things that I always wanted when I was doing stuff like that was a unit that could fire while moving.  The goliath kind of had this ability but it wasn't reliable and only seemed to be a bug more than a feature.  Now that it'll be hard coded into the ability set, I'm sure it'll only be a matter of making very minor modifications in the unit editor to get it functional on other units.

Good to hear they included the air to Colossus attack, even if its an abandoned ability, it'll likely still be hard coded into the editor.  That also opens up possibilities for some very nifty cutscenes and gameplay.

[Meta]

What I really like is that hover tank that can fire while moving.  Actually, I don't really like the unit itself, I just like the fact that the ability is being included.  With that, you'll probably be able to have the same ability on just about any unit in the game, which in my opinion might make for some better cutscenes.  One of the things that I always wanted when I was doing stuff like that was a unit that could fire while moving.  The goliath kind of had this ability but it wasn't reliable and only seemed to be a bug more than a feature.  Now that it'll be hard coded into the ability set, I'm sure it'll only be a matter of making very minor modifications in the unit editor to get it functional on other units.

Good to hear they included the air to Colossus attack, even if its an abandoned ability, it'll likely still be hard coded into the editor.  That also opens up possibilities for some very nifty cutscenes and gameplay.

Yeah, the Cobra is the unit's name. I don't know if it's still in the game, but the entire fire-while-moving feature was amazing. The unit itself is somewhat generic, but this ability is really interesting... if it were not hardcoded, we could transfer it to the Siege Tank, the Stalker, the Immortal, the Battlecruiser and other assault units. The image of a scaled-up Battlecruiser moving and firing turbolasers everywhere would be as close to a "true" sci-fi capital ship as it could be.

If it's hardcoded... well, still worth featuring in a few hit-and-fade missions anyway.

[IskatuMesk]

Can't say I'm impressed by the Ultralisk, but the screenshot is really bad quality, so meh.