Starcraft 2 - A Mesk Perspective
The RTS genre is dying. A true, honest-to-god RTS hasn't come out since Starcraft 1. Supreme Commander, a total failure. Total Annihilation, a laughable disaster. Earth 2150, strong but secluded. Earth 2160, complete and total fuckup. Conquest: Frontier Wars, cockblocked by microsoft. Command & Conquer... enough said.
Starcraft has defined Esports, along with Counter-strike. Halo kind of tagged along but FPS' on a console are horrible, especially for progaming.
Starcraft is in many ways a pillar of my life. It is because of Starcraft that I was introduced to computers, and was able to steer myself away from society and become what I am now. I have confided within the machine. And with Starcraft, I carved out my own future. Eleven years have passed since I started modding this game.
With warcraft 3, we saw the next evolution of Blizzard's RTS style. An evolution in the wrong direction. Although Wc3 had progaming it was largely because Blizzard
forced it to have progaming. Wc3's gameplay is so stale and bad that Koreans are somehow able to lose to foreigners. Modding was virtually killed by wc3. Mapping wasn't much better, but that was because no one in the Blizzard community has any creativity.
If you wanted to mod a game, Blizzard was not the place for you to look. Blizzard has always refused to acknowledge that modders even exist, much less encourage them. Their only interaction with us has been shutting us down when we step a little too close to their toes.
Is Starcraft 2 to change this? Will Starcraft 2 bring the RTS genre back to life? I'm going to address this in the harshest way I possibly can.
Quick summary
squishy noises
Map size limit - To my knowledge it's still 256x256 - very bad.
Model format - m3, m3h (physics most likely)
Texture format - dds
Data format - xml
Interface UI format - Flash, PNG, .gfx (renamed flash), GFX is also used for ingame billboards
Sound format - VBR ogg, wav
AI files, triggers, game-related constants - Galaxy, based on C
Texture system - Hybrid Brush and Tile based from what I've seen
Model texture limits - None. looks like models can call as many as they want like wc3.
Animation structure - There's an ActorData.xml that seems to be controlling animation cues in some way or another. It's very complicated and far too technical for me to understand. The file simply seems to just call certain animations from the models at certain cues.
Ability structure - Seems to function very similar to sins in that you can mix and match attributes and settings. I have doubts you can totally create new abilities without triggers, but if there's more functions than sins you'll have a lot more power than wc3.
File structure;
Starcraft 2 has a "Mods" folder in the base directory. This here is something Blizzard has never done before - call something a mod and actually use the term
correctly. Browder doesn't know what a mod is, but whoever programmed the game does.
This folder contains 3 directories named *sc2mod.
This suggests a similar structure to Supreme Commander and Sins in which mod data can be stored in a folder and loaded in sequential form. Right now the game has a Base directory, containing the absolute basic files including backups of the dll's and exe. The Liberty folder contains a ton of data including all models and all of the xml files, often listing stuff related to the campaign and other unreleased game types.
The libertymulti folder contains data specific to multiplayer and is probably what the beta loads.
Overview
Long have we waited for Starcraft 2. Years before the announcement, years after. Hype has died a lot since Blizzard's failure to communicate with its fans, total negligence of their site, and overall little information at all. I am of the opinion that they announced both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 far too early.
But such is the past. The time is indeed coming - Starcraft 2 is here, in my hands. I am amongst the honored few to taste Blizzard's new masterpiece and see how it scales to the hype, my expectations, and the expectations of the esports community.
Prose
If you are worried about SC2 being Starcraft 1.5, don't be. It's different. A lot different. In some ways it's better, in many ways it's worse. But it's different. When you first run sc2 you are met with Blizzard's insanely overhyped battle.net 2.0, the "Premiere online service".
Battle.net 2.0 is the greatest disappointment in all of Starcraft 2. Clunky, bulky, unintuitive,
ugly, this steam clone lacks some of the most basic features that every online service has had since the dawn of Westwood Online and the first battle.net. The friends system and profile system are completely ass backwards. To see the profile of someone you just played, you have to add him to your friends, wait for him to accept, view his profile, then remove him, because all you wanted was his profile.
You have no way to strike a game up with someone you don't know. You have no way to find matches you want to observe. The decision to remove chat channels, at least from this stage of beta, is a crippling blow to online gaming as a whole.
This system needs a total revamp and the UI needs to be largely redone for it to even come close to being any kind of respectable service. The only thing that Battle.net 2.0 can boast is wanton wastage of space. No, I don't care about minimalism, but at least for 1920x1200 the system needs to make much better use of my tremendous screen space, not leaving the game lobby's chat to remain in this tiny little box.
Graphics
Perhaps the largest and most debated feature of Starcraft 2 is the graphics. People have bitched about readability left and right and constantly pushed to reduce the graphics intensity.
Those people can
shut the fuck up. You want readability? Turn it on minimum settings. Problem solved. I can read the game perfectly fine in a clusterfuck of battlecruisers, carriers, zerg on creep, you name it. On max settings. Just fuck right off. You'll get use to it or you can play on low settings. If you can't read it get your eyes checked or get a better monitor. 14" crt's are not gonna work on a game
designed for 1920x1200. Oh, and most of the people bitching are watching 320p livestreams that are fuzzy as shit. Yeah. No. Not gonna work. I hope Blizzard doesn't listen to these morons.
I want Blizzard to make the game
more shiny. I want higher rez textures. I want more particles. More glow.
That said, Sc2's graphics exceed my expectations. Other than the terrain being just as blurry as it was in the screenshots, all of the units look flawless. My only gripe right now is with the zerg building animation; it's too bland. Needs more slimey, more tentacles, more throbbing. The super low-poly defiler doesn't even make any sense. No, the game doesn't currently support AA, but I don't use AA anyway; my res is high enough that I don't notice it.
I wish Zerg had more purple and red, though. They're all fucking brown, and brown is a very boring color. I don't want them bright, I just want them to look like sc1.
Animations
For the most part, sc2's animations are great but are far too cartoony. Factories fucking BOUNCE when building units. No, I hate that. It's stupid looking. The lights are more than enough. Same with the starport. I can live with that, though. Zerg animations are fucking awesome. Marines and Marauders have /dance animations.
What irks me the most is the Zealot's attack animation. Very silly, confusing, and stupid looking. Not nearly as aggressive as the sc1 zealots.
Performance
The game currently has performance issues with i7's. I can be encoding a 1920x1200 video and still fraps the game fullscreen at an unshakable 20fps. Without fraps I get an unshakable 45 fps. Battles cause no impact. It takes 400 roaches moving underground for particles to effect me - while recording. It takes 5000 burrow decals for textures to impact me. Again, this is with performance issues.
But this game WILL kill low-end systems. Guaranteed. Just like wc3 can kill this computer, just like WoW can. Never play at minimum spec.
Battle.net 2.0 maxes out GPU and CPU usage when idle because it doesn't have vsync. Makes my room a living inferno after a half-hour.
Sounds
SFX is where SC2 really starts to fall apart.
The zerg voices, which I had such great anticipation for... are boring as fuck. They all sound the same, they all sound dull and weak. The advisor is truly awful.
Terrans are better. The Thor is absolutely amazing. Battlecruisers say "It's a trap!" when they get attacked. Great use of lines for about 50% of the units. The other 50% are dreadfully bad, especially the Raven.
Protoss are worse. They have a few redeeming qualities but I swear the same guy voiced every single unit and their editor is picked up off of some radio show. Very bad voices for the most part. Some are great, like the mothership and Zealot. Most are awful. Immortal in particular is disappointingly poorly edited. Very flat sounding voice because of pitch change, a 2-second fix.
The actual SFX is fairly decent but a lot of weapons follow the trope of "It's small, so it has to sound weak". Units following this trope are vikings, marines, and every single zerg unit. Seriously. The zerg SFX is high quality and decent, but they are so unimposing and insignificant sounding. The Hydra's little spatter, the Mutalisks's barely-audible attack sound, the Corrupter hardly makes a noise at all! They all need to be redone.
On the contrary, the zerg death sounds are very satisfying. I love killing overlords. Such a great sound. Gives me an hard-on every time I hear it.
Terran SFX has been fixed up for the most part. BC laser's are awesome. Yamato charge sound needs redoing, but hit is great. Thors are awesome. Tanks are awesome. Missile sounds are great.
Protoss SFX is the best out of them all except for the Zealot who makes a very unsatisfying bzzt noise when he attacks.
Gameplay
Gameplay is truly the crutch of sc2.
It's not nearly as good as SC1's. It's decent, but a far cry from what we hold true and remember.
First off, the game is fast as fuck. Too fast. This comes from several factors;
- The economy is twice as fast, but gas is more like gold mines now. Workers mine faster, you start with more, worker AI is so fucking smart you need 2/3 the workers of sc1 to fully saturate a mineral patch.
- Macro mechanics; I wasn't fond of them at first but they've grown on me. MULE's are very boring and uninspired, though.
- Most units do 2x-3x the damage of their counterparts in sc1 in addition to attacking much faster, often twice as fast. I absolutely detest this change the most. It has totally taken away the need to micro for the most part. Almost every battle is just an attack-move into each other and watching 200 food armies melt in 5 seconds. It differs per matchup, but most battles are like that. Very boring. Very unlike Starcraft. But at this stage into development, with Browder constantly pushing for "Faster, more intense!", I don't ever see this changing.
- Autosurround AI. This is fucking retarded. Workers can surround an intrusive zealot instantly. No way out. 6 zerglings will demolish 2 zealots. Zealots in particular are practically worthless against zerglings because autosurround makes them so powerful. This totally changes the way the game works in ways I can't even describe. Watch the videos. I lose a lot of zealots because I keep thinking this is sc1 and zealots can kill zerglings. Autosurround also makes marines worthless against zerglings as well.
- Damage bonuses are INSANE. Immortal does 20+
30 unupgraded to armored. Armored means roaches, colossi, ect. The Immortal 2shots roaches when upgraded.
Speaking of upgrades, the game doesn't display the bonus you get from upgrades, only the total damage, nor the supply you get from overlords/pylons. Why it is this way I have no idea but this is a horrible and stupid change.
Fast Expanding is much less viable in sc2 than it is in sc1. You will often 1base most games. This makes engagements much smaller. Starcraft 2 is overall a much smaller scale game than sc1. The fast economy doesn't change this; it just makes it faster. Too fast.
Blizzard's way of compensating for MBS is fucking stupid and annoying just like I thought it would be. Pressing E 30 times for 30 banelings? STUPID! IDIOTIC! I have carpel tunnel syndrome from modeling and MBS is making it that much fucking worse. What the fuck is going through Browder's head? I
hate MBS the most of all in SC2's gameplay. Make it like SC1 or fucking remove MBS altogether. This is stupid.
Starcraft 2, despite the speed and insane damage values, is actually significantly easier to play than sc1 and I imagine the skill cap is much lower on behalf of the damage values and attack speeds. You don't really need to worry about unit control. Just flank the guy and he's dead. Have this unit when he has that unit, he's dead. Starcraft isn't about control and strategy anymore. It's about macro and counters. Face it - SC2 has become what
Supreme Commander and total annihilation should have been. It has the same skin and coat of Starcraft, but as a game it is very different. This isn't just my opinion but the opinion of many players who are posting about it on TL. I don't expect it to change.
I'll address the game per unit now.
Terran
Terran is my second strongest race, much like sc1. Overall, I like Terran, but some of their units need some tweaking.
Marine
Practically useless until you get stim and shields. Even then, the marine's damage is paltry in comparison to the massively buffed damage of new units. I only get marines to push a zerg who is fast expanding right in front of me (Ladder game 3) or to bunker rush. Other than that I rarely touch them unless I have resources. Roaches make a joke out of marines. Zerglings and autosurround are instant death. Ultralisks... don't even try it. Air? Not really.
Marauders
Marauders are infantry with a slowing attack and
120 fucking health. Since when did SC fly around values so rapidly? This is stupid. Marauders are basically your counter to stalkers and roaches. A hard counter. They are fucked if you get these guys. But they can't attack air, so watch out for mutas.
Reapers
I've seen little of the reaper and, when I've seen him, I've soundly stomped him. Reapers do ludicrous amounts of damage to light units. Another hard counter. They also throw det packs at buildings - easily capable of killing cannons or bunkers very fast. Can jump cliffs, but few maps let you take real advantage of that. Any smart player has a crawler or stalker by his workers, anyway; you won't do any damage. I use them for support.
Ghost
A nuke rush is somewhat viable but don't expect to do much damage. Nukes only do 300+200 to buildings but, more importantly, the dot is HUGE and anyone without down syndrome will be long gone by the time the nuke hits. Ghosts themselves are ludicrously gas expensive. Using EMP against Toss is a difficult gamble; if the ghosts die, it's a huge loss. Be careful with them. Cloaking takes a long time to research.
Hellions
If you loved vulture micro like me the Hellion will disappoint you. Yes, it plays like a vulture and a firebat, but it has some kind of delay between stopping and firing. Not animation-related, I don't think. Just a delay. In my 0.5-1sec lag from battle.net, that delay makes Hellions extremely difficult to micro effectively. Also, you NEED the expensive upgrade to do ANY damage at all. The game says Hellions counter Hydras but don't even try it. Hydras eat Hellions. Hydras eat almost everything you can throw at them as Terran.
Siege Tanks
The expensive cost and 3 food might make the tank look like he's out of the game now, but actually he's very powerful. He fires much faster than in sc1, both in tank and siege mode. I fucking LOVE the new tank, but the siege mode gun looks stupid and very un-terranlike. His sounds have been fixed. Fucking love him. Tank mode attack is like 15+10 to armored, attacks VERY fast. Faster than hydras I think. Curbstomp roaches and stalkers with him. Siege mode obliterates everything besides thors and immortals and ultras. Don't let lings get close.
Thor
Fucking LOVE the Thor. Amongst my favorite units in sc2. He does 45x2 - NINETY FUCKING DAMAGE - unupgraded. His air attack is not too impressive but really no Terran AA is that great. The Thor's is probably the best of the lot, though. If you can, get him. Especially vs toss. Immortals can be tough, so keep vikings with you. Murders low-tech zerg, murders other terran. No reason not to get a few Thors in any matchup in late-game. Their voice is fucking AWESOME. Favorite voice in sc2. <3 Arnold.
Fun fact - Thors will attack colossi with their AA weapon if the colossi is out of range of the guns.
Don't even try to kill Mustache lords with Thors. They do not have the balls to withstand the might of the 70's.
250mm cannons - fucking INSANE. 6 second stun? Hello, dead ultralisk! It's a situational ability. Use it on buildings or big units. 6 second stun in a game as DPS intensive as this is certain death for anything it hits.
Viking
In my ladder games I ran into a guy who secretly rushed vikings when I tried to pressure him with Hellions. Well, Hellions are fucking useless against marauders so I started getting tanks. Vikings absolutely destroyed me. This made me realize that Vikings are actually a lot more powerful than I first gave them credit for.
For starters, vikings are dirt cheap. Like 100/100, I think. No need to research transform. Their damage is paltry in both forms but it's easy to throw down two starports and get a handful of them in a short amount of time. Since I didn't scout the guy and used my energy for MULES for tanks, I didn't know he had them until they were already coming. Tanks are not very good against them without siege mode and are considerably more expensive.
Viking anti-air is practically useless against mutas and other light air. Save them for Void Rays, Carriers, and BC's. Vikings make great units to support your ally when making a push in a 2v2. Pop onto the ground to help him kill buildings or ultralisks, take to the sky should a mothership or carriers show up. You absolutely need these guys if you're making a land army, even if you have Thors.
Orca
The Orca is a great anti-ground unit but a bit pricy to invest in. In some games I was able to get a few Orcas before anyone had any detection or AA - detection is significantly more difficult to get for Terran in particular if they don't get an engy bay, and most don't because they're dumb, and for zerg as well since you need Lair and an Overseer - and they do a LOT of damage. Think wraiths, but totally helpless against anti-air. Unfortunately cloaking tech requires a FUSION CORE iirc. But that building is pretty cheap. If you're going air you're gonna get it anyway.
Medivac
To be honest, I think the idea of giving the dropship of all units a healing ability is a retarded idea. Everyone who's tried to use it against me has failed miserably. They're easier to kill than medics, their healing rate isn't too great, and you can't get that many of them that quickly. On the plus side, if it's a strictly GG battle, then they can't attack it. It can also lift units around, which can be handy for small raids. It can also heal flying units - mutalisks, corruptors, mustache lords, ect.
Raven
If you've watched my game vs Lav, you'll know I love the raven. The problem with the Raven, other than its horrible voice, is that it's expensive. You'll need it for detection - trust me - but detection isn't that necessary anymore, at least it hasn't been for me. Only once has someone gone DT's against me - quite effectively, too - but I was zerg and solved that with overseers. If you do invest in them, however, Ravens are fucking awesome.
They can pop a turret on the ground that shoots at dudes. Doesn't do a lot of damage, but does last a while. Can use it to pick off workers, or add to existing ground DPS, even block movement.
The point defense drone is AMAZING. I've never had the chance to use it again since our FFA, but I proved that it had some serious use potential. It is, however, very expensive. It's basically defensive matrix but for EVERYTHING. It does have a cooldown between volleys, so throw up like 3-4 of them for total protection and no chance of leaks that dribble down your legs and all over your new carpet.
Yes, hunter-seeker missile is still insane. It seems to have less of an AoE. I tried to use it to kill Lav's ghost when he nucked me but it travels very slowly. Other times I used it to snipe workers, but the turret would have probably been the better choice.
Battlecruiser
The Battlecruiser has great difficulty against light air now. Actually, the battlecruiser overall seems weaker in relative to other units than it does in sc1. Yes, its burst does do a lot of damage (9x6 to air and 12x6 to land iirc, something like that), but keep in mind every shot gets armor reduction, a HUGE loss compared to sc1. Also, the bursts take a while to fire. In sc1, a small group of bcs could massacre a large number of mutalisks. In sc2, they're very vulnerable. I take out BC masses relatively easily with corruptors. They seem to need a significant buff for how expensive they are. I miss plasma torpedoes.
Zerg
Zerg have always been my worst race in sc1 post-2002 because of the macro demands. In sc1 I think I'm doing pretty decently with them. Here's my thoughts;
Zergling
Zerglings are
insane now. Their stats haven't changed much - except for their speed - but their collision size is microscopic. Making ling-proof walls or really any kind of sim city to stop lings is futile unless it's PERFECT and uses specific buildings. Zealots, marines, units the zergling feared previously are all meaty giblets now. Speedlings move at the speed of Chuck Norris' fist straight into the vagina of your opponent.
Roach
Roaches are also fucking insane. They have 145 health. A tier 1 unit, whose building only costs 150 minerals, and the unit itself costing 75/25/1 iirc, with
145 health.
And 16 base damage! Holy shit! It's no wonder why everyone masses roaches. Unfortunately, I know the way to counter roaches for every race. In most cases, though, a big roach rush is fatal. Stalkers are only moderately effective, largely on behalf of stalkers not being quite as insanely overpowered, but it's when Immortals show up that you need to switch if you haven't already. Marauders are pretty much a hard counter, too, so avoid roaches against terran if you see a tech lab - go air or hydra.
Queen
She's the bread and butter of your macro. I've seen a few different builds that change when you get your queen. So far my current standard build against an opponent who gets gas is this,
13hatch
~15 pool
Get queen when pool is done, manage both hatcheries with that 1 queen, make creep highway, go on as desired.
Some people say get a queen for every hatchery but I've found it unnecessary to get 2 queens so quickly. I get my second queen at my third when it pops up, but with creep tumors your one queen can handle the two hatcheries and still have mana left over.
Getting the queen super early is what you'd want to do if you want to go for a super fast speedling rush. But other than that, you will starve yourself quickly and lose steam if you don't opt for more economy first. The queen is expensive at 150 minerals, a big price to pay that early in the game. But if you see your opponent going 2 gate then yes, you need her faster. If your ol or drone sees a refinery/assim/ect you know they're teching so you can safely expand.
It's worth noting to ALWAYS PUT CRAWLERS BEHIND YOUR DRONES. Always. Especially against terran going bio. Even one crawler is great, two is best.
ZvZ, keep an eye out for an opponent idiotic enough to leave his OL above your base. Queen can outrun him and will kill him.
Void Ray will kill queen 1v1. If you see a protoss going stargate, get tier2 IMMEDIATELY or you WILL die. In fact, you should be going tier2 when you see the cybercore, anyway, or make a timing push.
Overlord
The Overlard's voice is so unimpressive and uninspiring in sc2. Very boring. Loved the sc1 voice. Keep your fresh overlords in a string around your perimeter to keep an eye out for worms, reapers, and prisms. Ols are extremely durable to Phoenixes as opposed to Corsairs, so don't freak out if a Phoenix shows up and starts shooting you.
Hydralisk
Oooh boy. The Hydralisk is surely in line for a nerf, and from what I've heard he's already been nerfed since Blizzcon.
The Hydra is the bread and butter of your army. He is insane.
Insane. There are few things in the game that can stop a swarm of hydralisks, being Colossi which need zealot meatshields, carriers which need a critical mass of carriers (10 or more), Storm, but storm has been massively nerfed and isn't nearly as effective anymore), and siege tanks. Everything else is fair game if you have the numbers.
What is there to say? They do cost 2 food, but they're cheap enough to build your first batches off of 1 geyser (definitely get 2-3 more as soon as you hit t2 though, preferably earlier), they do more damage than sc1, don't do explosive damage aka full damage to everything, and attack twice as fast. They are the strongest unit in the game for cost-effectiveness. If you're not sure what to build, get hydralisks. Nydus hydralisks are even more deadly.
If you start having trouble with major bio armies or colossi, use a shitload of zerglings, or even roaches if you have the cash, and flank them.
Infestor
Seems like the Infestor is due for a huge change or even replacement right now. He's kind of useless. Neural parasite got rightly nerfed, and it can't infect mechanical units now. Which greatly limits your choices and makes the ability rather useless for its cost. The slowing DoT doesn't seem to be too great, either. Possibly can use it to slow enemies at a key point, but the dot is so insigificant that it takes 3-4 casts to kill a single probe, and you have to time them perfectly or the shield overcomes the damage.
Dunno. Maybe I just haven't seen them used properly yet. I want my Defiler back.
Mutalisk
The Mutalisk is like a triple-edged blade. It's pointy and using it could poke you something fierce. First of all, Mutalisks are the same price as sc1, but in sc2 gas is considerably more difficult to acquire. Mutalisks absolutely demand two fully saturated bases if not more, and that's just for a handful. Since you can't micro them anymore, their usage is limited and greatly reduced in effectiveness.
But right now, most players are caught in the stage of stalker/roach/marauder spam. In these instances, Mutalisks are extremely deadly. Zerg don't get anti-air until tier 2 - fast mutas can and will kill them, especially in a 2v2. In one game, HKS put a mere three mutalisks to incredible effectiveness throughout the game. Fast air is still viable in the right situations but you rarely see zerg take this route, instead option for Hydras. Don't even
try to fight hydras with Mutas, you need more hydras and lings. Battlecruisers are fair game for mutas now, but stay the fuck away from carriers.
Corrupter
These guys are interesting. They blow testicles against anything smaller than a Battlecruiser, and you need a fuckton of them to take out carriers because they only have 200hp and upgraded carriers will chew through them like Ropar through lard, or a black man through a cheap blonde.
However, other than Hydralisks, Corrupters are really your only anti-air option. Without scourge, the incredible threat of Carriers can really only be dealt with using Corrupters. If the protoss reaches critical mass you will require an insane number of Corrupters - a very expensive number - to deal with him. Luckily they're easy to get and fast to build. Corrupters can also morph into the devastating MUSTACHE LORD.
Mustache Lord
Without a doubt my favorite Zerg unit and my favorite unit overall. Mustache lords are fucking INSANE. Relatively cheap, huge health, absolutely retarded damage. Thors, stacks of marines, turrets, anything on the ground is fair game for a mustache lord. Chances are you already have a stack of Corrupters to deal with air, too. There is nothing on the ground that will scare you once you have even a handful of these guys. 39 damage on impact, PLUS spawning a hilarious broodling that will make siege tanks splash their dudes and rip apart anything they get close to? Fuck yes.
Ultralisk
What is there to say you don't know yet? Ultralisks are expensive, but get the economy and you can roflstomp anything on the ground should you not have a greater spire. Just don't forget to upgrade them like I do - you NEED the armor upgrades with the retarded numbers units are throwing around in this game. Don't try to attack hydras with these guys unless you have a lot of them - Hydras will tear them apart. Infantry will break against you like waves on shores of pain.
BC's hurt. Stay away from BC's.
Changeling
The inconspicious changeling. I've never seen anyone else use him, but I use him in FFA's. He's great. The kid sitting at his natural with his mothership and shit doesn't even notice my little zealot walk in. Too bad he had so much garbage stacked up there I couldn't get past it all. Sometimes, though, the changeling gets shot at and dies before it actually changes.
Overseer
Zerg has a harder time with detection now. Overseers are pretty expensive considering they morph from overlords, but you've always got overlords hanging around doing jack shit so why not? Vs toss and terran you should always have at least one of these guys. When you start expanding vs toss, invest in a few more. Dts hurts. They can't transport, though.
Protoss
Protoss is probably my strongest race. Chrono Trigger is a very powerful ability - one you can cast on allied structures - that lets you immediately and quickly adapt to a changing battlefield without having to use warp gates. I haven't used warp gates that much, largely because I forget to and my macro is awful, but WB made some pretty strong arguments on their behalf.
Zealot
Zealots are a lot weaker against zerg now. Both roaches and zerglings tear them apart. A 2 gate is viable if the zerg FE's, but if he gets lings or gas don't even bother. Go straight to stalkers. Same with terran. Zealots are more effective against terran, but you'll need stalkers to get rid of reapers anyways, so get early gas.
Stalker
You'll come to depend on the stalker at certain intervals, but he's kind of underpowered right now IMO. He doesn't really do a lot of damage, especially against mutas, and he's pretty squishy. Marauders, immortals, hydras, they all make short work of Stalkers. Stalkers are ineffective against mutalisks, so if you see a spire immediately plant several stargates and get phoenixes/void rays. Blink is handy for chasing dudes up cliffs and small micro battles, but otherwise lackluster. Be careful what you blink into.
Sentry
The Sentry is a niche unit. The Guardian Shield gives you -2 damage on units under the shield, even air units, which isn't exactly a lot in a game where units are throwing around 40-50 damage like candy. But it is great against small, fast attacking units like roaches and hydras.
The can also cast hallucination; haven't played with it much yet. Really, I haven't used the sentry much at all.
The Sentry's most interesting ability is the small barrier it can make. In a game with units having so small collision and such intelligent pathing like this, you need multiple barriers to make any use out of them, or a small ramp/choke. The uses are far varied, from stopping fleeing units to splitting armies to trapping them for psi storm. While sentries can attack, even air, they aren't very threatening.
High Templar
It seems that storm got a massive nerf. Its radius is tiny and the damage is not very high, though it does tick faster than sc1 still. In my major delays from battle.net I have yet to be able to use it effectively. Phase shift seems potentially very useful.
Dark Templar
The days of DT rushing are over. They require an expensive building post-archives, making them annoying to get to and not very useful. They haven't really changed since their sc1 counterparts, but both HT and DT's merge into the same kind of archon.
Twilight Archon
The Twilight Archon does bonus damage to bio but because of the huge damage values being thrown around his usefulness is very limited. I haven't really gotten the chance to use him that much, but hydras seem like a hard counter to anything big, slow, and short-ranged like this guy. Mutalisks, even without stacking and horrible control, can easily escape the Archon.
Phoenix
With Stalkers being horrible against mutalisks, the expensive and underpowered phoenix is your only hope. The phoenix does do bonus damage to light air, but is lackluster for the most part. Their gravity lift ability is cute and can make for a devastating double stargate rush in a 2v2 or low-level 1v1.
Void Ray
A Void Ray rush against a zerg neglecting his lair is instant death 100%. They can easily solo queens and will decimate buildings and workers like 16 year old blonde virgin. You need a LOT of them to have any hope of beating carriers relatively, but battlecruisers are farier game. Corrupters and mutalisks will eat them alive. I prefer to use Void Rays against ground units, actually. If I can get carriers, carriers are the better choice.
Carrier
Without a doubt the carrier is the single most powerful unit in the game right now. Sure, the mothership can kill a carrier 1v1, but you can only get one mothership. Get a critical mass of carriers, somewhere around 10+, and they'll kill ANYTHING you throw at them. If the carrier is facing their target when the interceptors come out, they'll all get a free shot. Did I mention they do twice the damage of sc1 - in addition to firing
twice? Oh, and they don't overshoot anymore. The interceptor AI is absolutely insane. A carrier rush is viable in 2v2 if you don't carelessly lose your early carriers like I do.
Observer
They don't require an Observatory anymore. Should be the first thing you get when your robotics facility finishes. Identical to sc1, thus critical to your game. Upgrade is on the support bay.
Phase Prism
It's a shuttle, just a little bit faster (and maintains the speed upgrade on the support bay). Can deploy pylon energy - we've seen that in the battle reports. Truth is, it's actually annoying to use. The radius is pretty small now, and you need a fuckton of warp gates to make a sizable force that quickly. Still useful for backdoors, though; I spawned like 6-7 dark templar in the back of Kurosan's base and bad my way with him. Can transport colossi - I love colossi drops. No one sees 'em coming, and Colossi are like reavers on steroids that hit 100% of the time.
Immortal
He hits hard. Very, very hard. 20+30 to armored unupgraded. He fucks up everyone, but armored units feel the wrath of each of his five black dicks, throbbing and veiny. The only catch is that he takes a while to pull out of his bench pressing club and eats more fucking chipolte than lavarinth. Can't hit air, so mutalisks have free reign on him.
Colossus
The Colossus is every bit as overpowered as I said it would be. 60 damage? Really? Fast attack? Moves faster than Void Rays? Cliff scaling? Relatively beefy? Yeah. The Colossus makes short work of workers, though scvs take an extra shot. Upgrade his range and damage and you have a seriously vicious killing machine on your hand. The only weakness a Colossus has is flanking, either from the air which it can't hit, or from somewhere beyond your zealot wall. Yes, you'll be using zealots to tank for the colossus. If you're not, you're dumb and you're gonna get destroyed by hydras and tanks.
Conclusion
Sc2 is not currently living up to the hype and demand of sc1. But this is a beta. That's why I'm here. Hopefully it will improve.
But that isn't to say sc2 is not a good game. HKS and I have enjoyed ourselves in 2v2, I like the bouts with BZ and his buddies, and I don't mind getting obliterated by C+ guys on ladder. But it isn't Starcraft 1, it's not even close. Only your mechanics from sc1, being macro and game sense, will pass over to sc2, Otherwise it's an entirely new game.
The modding possibilites look promising, but the source files are exceedingly complex and confusing. The AI files in particular are several steps ahead of anything I have ever seen before, and I have no doubt that only a very few, skillful individuals will
ever be able to manipulate the files. SC2 will be powerful, but the skill and time demand will be enormous.
Ladder day 1 game 3
SC2 Beta HD - Mesk Coverage - Ladder Day 1 - Game 3 1/1
Ladder day 1 game 4
SC2 Beta HD - Mesk Coverage - Ladder Day 1 - Game 4 1/1
Ladder day 1 game 5
SC2 Beta HD - Mesk Coverage - Ladder Day 1 - Game 5 1/1
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