Campaign Creations

Hello CC-Community!
I would like to open here with pleasure a subject which provides in the German-speaking forums for big protests.

A row of reporters from Germany are currently in the Blizzard-HQ in Irvine, and Rob Pardo let go an absolute bomb: StarCraft II will get no LAN mode. Blizzard would like to reach with the fact that the people play primarily only about the Battlenet 2.0.

The wave of the indignation already sloshes metre-high and me would already interest of course what the CC'ler have to say in addition.

Source

Yeah it has already been mentioned in the SC2 thread.

Is LAN still pretty popular these days?  I don't see the point of those 'LAN parties' anymore (besides playing the game in the same room) when you can just connect to a chat room and create your own private games.  It's a little less interpersonal, but a lot more convenient.  And I suppose, if you really wanted to, you could just setup a high speed connection and have everyone connect through a router to Battle.net through the same room.

LAN was a good concept when gaming was in its infancy, but I don't think it's really relevant today.  It's an old technology whose time has come, much like the computer to the typewriter.

The only thing that would bother me is will battle.net 2.0 allow all the files being edited in a new MPQ etc, technically the modding we do with SC1 isn't allowed but it is at the same time.

I play LAN all the time.  Battle.net is nothing compared to it, Desler.  You haven't played Starcraft 'til you've played it LAN.   Being able to be in the same room as your friends and hear their cries out outrage and laugh at a hilarious move makes it 1000000x better.

You can get < 1ms ping times on a local network and plenty of bandwidth, so basically no latency in the game.  Also, not all routers allow connecting to your internet IP address from inside the network, which could be required for more than one person from the same network to get into the same game with another person on the network, depending on whether the game tries to see if players are on the same network before trying to connect to the player over the internet.

By the way, it could also be to make sure that each purchased copy is only used on one computer at a time.

We must complain! I never play Battle.net, the only multiplayer I play is LAN with YamiShadow! I shall be ruined! I won't be able to play multiplayer SC2!!!!

@Shadowflare: Proper IPv6 will ruin Routers anyways. The rest? You make good points.

If SC2 is made to detect when multiple players are behind the same router, try to communicate with them directly over the LAN, and consolidate communications over the internet when players on the network are in the same game, it would make the LAN game experience over Battle.net much better than it currently is.  Of course, with consolidating communication it would need some way for the other computer to take over if one person is out of the game for any reason.

SC2 isn't the first game to disable LAN.  A bunch of Microsoft's recent games don't have LAN, specifically so people can't circumvent CD Key checks and play via Hamachi or GG E-Client.

Most developers have given up in the software piracy wars but they're still trying to keep them off official multiplayer services, and obviously, legitimate LAN players get caught in the middle.  However, they might do a "Direct Cable Connection" mode or maybe retain some kind of TCP/IP which I'm sure someone (maybe Shadowflare) will reengineer into a LAN-like mode.

ShadowFlare wrote: If SC2 is made to detect when multiple players are behind the same router, try to communicate with them directly over the LAN, and consolidate communications over the internet when players on the network are in the same game, it would make the LAN game experience over Battle.net much better than it currently is.  Of course, with consolidating communication it would need some way for the other computer to take over if one person is out of the game for any reason.

Point is with IPv6 and properly implemented software adhering to the 7 layers (which I am sure Blizz is doing) once IPv6 comes up some more, you will not need routers anymore (if you dont want them). In that case you will be able to 'talk' 1 on 1 instead of going through all kinds of tricks. We do know IP adresses are said to run out january 2011. IPv6 is supposed to be transparant to applications, it is going to really help out the head to head options here. It's a long story.

Thank you Blizzard for being absolutely idiotic! This kinda kills all version dependent mods as it prevents you from ever playing multiplayer with them... Diablo 3 will be like this too most likely and that is gay in unprecedented levels... Also this does absolutely nothing to stop illegal multiplayer. Private battle net services have always existed and will continue to exist this only hurts players that need LAN.

Not entirely true. They stated you don't ever need a mod, you can embed anything in the map editor. New models, new sound, music, menu art, etc. Hence you will never need a mod.

There will probably be illegal b.nets eventually though yes.

I'd say with a bigger legal team and a multiplayer coding that may be vastly different from previous Blizzard games, it might be several years.    Personally, I think they can mollify the outcry about the lack of a LAN feature if they make a console version for the Xbox 360 with the ability to play over system link, which is essentially a 360 LAN connection which requires all participants to be physically in the same place.  (Not the same thing, but since the loudest fans are the ones with the most money to spend on multiple gaming platforms, it might work.)

Maglok wrote: Not entirely true. They stated you don't ever need a mod, you can embed anything in the map editor. New models, new sound, music, menu art, etc. Hence you will never need a mod.

There will probably be illegal b.nets eventually though yes.

D3 and changing more than what constitutes a map, aka a mod.

Don't forget the online map size limit unless they do away with it which would still only fix a few things, theres either going a be an internal mod loader or they are going to screw everyone by calling maps mods and bnet 2.0 banning people with modified files because of their new e-sports deal.


EDIT: As an example LoL's model data was over 100mb's in size, good luck sticking that in a bnet compatible map.