StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Marco]

StarCraft 2 battle report!  Pretty high resolution with some normal flowing gameplay.  Pretty fun to watch since the game isn't out yet:

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/battlereports/1.xml

[tipereth]

OHSHITOHSHIT WILL THE PROBE SURVIVE OH FUCK OH FUCK OH SHIT THE PROBE THE MARINE OH SHIT oh okay

EDIT: I wonder why the toss didnt use immortals against the marauders, from my understanding they're supposed to wreck anti-armor units.

[wibod]

That video was stupid and terrible and stupid.

[Thalraxal]

It's nice to see the game in action, although it would have been nice to see some of the late-game stuff in there (although that might have dragged on for too long).  From the video, I get the impression that Colossi are made of glass, and Marauders kill everything.

Seriously, did the Terran player actually bother to build anything other than Marauders?  I saw a handful of marines, and six or so Hellions and three Banshees near the end.  But everything else was all Marauders.

[wibod]

It's nice to see the game in action, although it would have been nice to see some of the late-game stuff in there (although that might have dragged on for too long).  From the video, I get the impression that Colossi are made of glass, and Marauders kill everything.

Seriously, did the Terran player actually bother to build anything other than Marauders?  I saw a handful of marines, and six or so Hellions and three Banshees near the end.  But everything else was all Marauders.

Terran player was pretty much terrible and I for one am very unhappy about the current death animations.

[Maglok]

On the subject of what units are included in SCUMedit:

Since the SCUMedit is supposed to pwn Warcraft 3's world editor on all levels, are you planning on including Creeps as custom SCUMedit units. Even with the units of SC1 and a few special units, there is no way you could have as many models/unit choices as the Warcraft III editor does unless you designed many creeps/special units for custom maps. So is it expected that there will be a lot of new sci-fi models or will there be some models from WC3 to increase the units in the world editor?

No, there won’t be any “extra” models beyond what are used in the regular game. This however doesn't mean there won't be 'easter egg' units in the regular game. Though to clarify, there are no plans to add additional units to the game that won't be seen in the actual game.

That sounds to me like don't be to sure all SC1 units show up.

[Marco]

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure the guy playing the Terran was ahead in resources.  Eventually any unit is going to win a battle of attrition given superior numbers.  I was just surprised how quick they slaughtered those probes.  Puts the old school reavers to shame.

[AA7Dragoon]

At the end the Colossus were doing major damage.  I wish they attacked like that all the time.  You could tell the entire game was choreographed and then narrated to what they wanted to show the public.  I wish there was some more advanced teching.  It was still a fun watch even though the narrators took the game a little too seriously lol!

[Meta]

My thoughts:
- It's pretty cool to see Terran going for Barracks instead of Factory early on, a major change;
- The Hellions look interesting, and Marauders look like the mainstay unit in TvP. It's weird (and cool) to see no Tanks at all in a TvP;
- The CC loading SCVs is awesome;
- Warp in and much improved shield regen rate are very nice;
- It's also nice to see a powerful air-to-ground terran unit. The huge range and damage on the Banshees remind me of a cloaked Guardian;
- Colossus seem to perform horribly and don't look too fun at the moment;
- Death animations for Stalkers and Colossi are very, very bad. They just vanish. -.-

Overall the game looks very good and fun to play. I wish Protoss had used the Twilight Council for DTs and/or Psi Storm to counter those masses of units. The Colossus seems very bad in action and is currently not a good AoE unit.

Looking forward to seeing Zerg in action. 

Edit: The Stalker's attack animation looks bad too - the SCV was moving when the Stalker was shooting at it, and graphically it looked like the Stalker missed all the beams, but it was actually hitting. If it is 100% hit all the time (unlike Lurkers in BW, for example) the laser beams should go all the way to the target.

[Rocco]

Those narrators need to calm down, it's not that serious.

[Marco]

In case you guys missed this important information - the multiplayer game is different from the singleplayer.  Death animations and such will be present in the singleplayer whereas the flashy animations might make multiplayer gameplay difficult due to clutter are removed from the multiplayer.  Essentially multiplayer is an optimized version for competition.

[Thalraxal]

In case you guys missed this important information - the multiplayer game is different from the singleplayer.  Death animations and such will be present in the singleplayer whereas the flashy animations might make multiplayer gameplay difficult due to clutter are removed from the multiplayer.  Essentially multiplayer is an optimized version for competition.

Because complex and cool death animations are apparently too confusing for professional gamers! 

Those narrators need to calm down, it's not that serious.

I dunno, it sounded to me that they were having fun being over-dramatic.  "Oh, noes!  Will the probe survive!?!??!" and all that.

@Meta: I don't think the game lasted long enough for tanks to even come into play.

Anyway, I hope we get to see more of these battle reports.  Hopefully some with more late-game units involved and not so one-sided battles.

[Rocco]

Actually it's fairly easy to get tanks into play in under 10 minutes.

[UntamedLoli]

Those narrators need to calm down, it's not that serious.

Must never have watched any pro games then.

[Lavarinth]

StarCraft II Q&A Batch 47

1. In the original StarCraft, most air units can move and fire, vultures have fast rotating times and can shoot backwards and run forward instantaneously with enough micro. In StarCraft II, there have been some concerns from players who have played the game, that the unit movement animations are getting in the way of micro. Will such animation cancelling techniques still be possible in StarCraft II? - Team Liquid

Both macro and micro-control are very important in StarCraft II as well, and when it comes to micro-control like Vulture’s moving and shooting in the original StarCraft, it is still possible to focus on micro control with the units.

For example, Mutalisks can fire while moving, with micro. And certain ground units, like the Marauders with the slow attack or Roaches with fast regeneration, benefit greatly from moving and shooting, but they still need to stop to shoot. The Hellion is also interesting, because the Hellion is a unit that has high burst, long delay between attacks, splash damage type, as well as a fast movement speed, so it can be used for kiting purposes as well as closing in the distance after every shot to do max possible damage. Eg, shoot once, close the gap, shoot again, close the gap even more, so that you don’t waste a single shot, but with each movement, you are doing a lot more damage.
StarCraft II also has a firing on the move unit -- the Void Ray. The Void Ray can move closer to an enemy unit while continuing to fire at it, and because the damage type builds up over time, it would be more ideal to finish off that one unit that’s trying to run away or back up before engaging a brand new target.

2. Do you plan to introduce consume (cannibalism) as one of the zerg features? For example, in Starcraft I, defilers ate zerglings to gain 50 energy (it is possible to introduce consume for ultralisks which will gain 50 life after eating a zergling or another unit) - Unbreakab1e (USEast)

We don’t have the consume ability in the game now, but if consume is considered as necessary to the game, you will see this ability in StarCraft II. Currently Zerg has caster units like the Infestor, Queen, Overlord, and Overseer. Infestors can move while burrowed, which means it can regenerate energy again away from the battle. The Queen has already powerful skills and combat ability. Overlords can fly and mutate the creep without any energy. Overseers also can fly so that they can earn some time to regenerate their energy as well. If the current Zerg casters having the consume ability, it could make them too powerful and strong.

3. Will there be custom water units? For custom maps and Scumedit will players be able to make units that swim/float. Also will there be special units designed for water, but only available on the Scumedit, like a shark-like zerg or protoss water vessel. Obv. I know these won’t be in multiplayer ladder, I only mean for custom maps. - Imperial_wizard (Lordaeron)

We haven’t finalized the decision about the exact extent of support for custom maps and Scumedit yet.

4. Maps have always been important to keep SC balanced, fun and competitive. We have already seen you have some interesting new tools to help multiplayer map designers balance their maps such as tall grass that blocks vision of ground units. What other new terrain elements are we gonna see in SC2 to make interesting competitive maps? – VIB (Team Liquid)

Currently there are Xel’Naga Watch Tower, Grass, and Destructible Rocks in the map. We will be pleased to add more if we can design other features which will make the game more exciting and balanced as well.

5. The Thor was built by an SCV at first, but since quite time now it is built like a normal unit in the factory. Was this changed due to design or balance reasons? - InStarCraft.de

We changed this due to the balance reason. Before the change, you could build as many Thors as you want at the same time with your SCVs, as long as you have resources, with one Barrack and an Armory. We decided that this can be too much benefit to Terran, and we changed that Thor could be built from a Factory.

6. Zerg has cliff-scaling units? – Scumlord (USEast)

We want to keep three races different and they do not necessarily have the same ability units. Currently Zerg do not have a cliff-scaling unit, like the Reaper in Terran or Colossus in Protoss. However, Zerg still can expand very quickly and have other movement advantages like 30% additional speed on creep. They also have the combination of Overlord’s creep generating ability and Nydus Network as a very powerful tool to attack opponent’s main base or expansion. Also, Overlords are currently able to transport Zerg units like the original StarCraft.

7. I noticed that in the Protoss demo the Protoss buildings when warped in, had there surfaces visibly warped in, like in the original StarCraft. However, in recent builds and footage, Protoss buildings just appear after the building animation. Is this just a temporary thing, or is it really gone? - Ultimasx (Battle.net)

Warp-in of Protoss buildings should be one effect for all with the final frames unique showing the specific buildings structure phasing in.

--End of Transmission--