It's been barely 2 months since Starcraft 2 Beta was revealed and Blizzard has already released Patch 5 for their much anticipated game. This new patch weakens the Zerg in certain areas as well as once again reducing the Protoss build times for their warp gate technology.
March 13th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
So Blizzard has confirmed that they are planning on getting the Galaxy Editor for SCII out during the Beta, and are hoping to get it out before the end of April.
“Yes. We’re still working on the Map Editor and currently working on the publishing system. We intend to release an early version of the editor during the beta so the map-making community can get a head start creating their own maps. This is going to be a stretch for us to pull off, but our hope is to get it out before the end of April.” – Blizz Tech Chat forum post
That link above will lead to a Q&A on the SCII Beta. You can learn lots of interesting facts about Blizzard’s plans for SCII.
- Warp Gate research time increased from 60 seconds to 140 seconds.
- Burrow research time increased from 50 seconds to 100 seconds.
- Burrow research cost increased from 50 Minerals and 50 Vespene Gas to 100 Minerals and 100 Vespene Gas.
- Nydus Worm build time increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds.
- The delay between attacks has been increased from 0.75 seconds to 0.83 seconds.
- Neural Parasite has been redesigned:
- The limited duration of 10 seconds has been removed.
- Can no longer target air units.
- Cast range decreased from 9 to 7.
- Burrowed Infestor move speed decreased from 1.5 to 1.
- Infestor life decreased from 120 to 90.
- Infestors that are burrowed now have the same threat level as above-ground units for the purposes of automatically acquiring targets.
- Fixed an issue with High graphics settings that could cause particles not to render.
March 12th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
Robert Bridenbecker, Blizzard’s VP of online technology, has taken the time to provide some revealing details as well as answer a short Q&A in a session hosted in Samsung City Hyatt Hotel. The original articles have been released in Korean, and are available here and here. A kind soul has posted the full translation on Battle.net’s forums soon after the articles went live.
According to the information released today, Battle.net 2.0 will immensely improve community features. It will create a better competitive environment that players can enjoy and also will make changes to ladder and league.
Also, Blizzard is currently setting the new battle.net release date to around April and here are the scheduled contents:
- Achievements
- Community related contents
- Player’s detailed connection info
- Player’s detailed game history
- Friend’s friend invite contents
It’ll be surprising to see features like Achievements go live during the beta, mainly because of the huge sign that states “Disabled for Beta” on that part of Battle.net’s interface. More detailed game histories and the ability to see information about your opponents and allies will also be welcomed features.
The most controversial decision reported about in the Q&A is the confirmation of the lack of chat channels – the heart and soul of Battle.net. This is how many gamers have met their allies and rivals on the gaming service throughout the years, starting new friendships and gaining arch-enemies. It’s the way the team behind this blog originally met 12 years ago! Unsurprisingly, many have already expressed their disappointment with this change and are urging Blizzard to reconsider.
Instead of the normal chat features, Blizzard will implement something more akin to the popular social sites flooding the Internet nowadays:
Especially about friend’s friend related contents, blizzard will implement in battle.net 2.0 as the main community system. According to blizzard, the new battle.net 2.0 system with friend’s friend invite will enable users to be more active in the community.
This is similar to facebook and twitter with micro-blogs and blizzard is also following this trend. Blizzard also states that since battle.net 2.0 does not have open chat channels, they will have to shoot for an even better community system as the ultimate goal.
Gamers are not Twitter social-media type simpletons. Most do not need another Facebook to interact with the people they already know. Chats and Forums are the natural habitats of gamers, and Blizzard is taking away the ability to randomly meet people to chat, play and discuss the game with. Despite the fact that this is in line with most recent gaming platforms, we, among many others, would love to see Blizzard reconsider the removal of chat channels.
The update, which is due in April, will not include the following:
Single Player Contents
- There are contents that will be locked at the beginning and will only be unlocked as you clear specific objectives. When you unlock these contents, you will be given some awards.
- Unlocking achievements will give players decals(distinct patterns) or portrait pictures.
Result screen revamp
- Currently, when you finish a match, you only see scores but the revampt will include all the details.
The more anticipated contents such as professional leagues and use-map marketplace will be included in future updates after release and will include watching replays of the players in professional league. Also, the players in pro-league will be able to advertise his career history and others.
The Q&A session spans 7 questions in total:
Q : There are currently hacks out there for single player and multiplayer is in danger too. Are you guys working on more security measures?
A : Hacking is something that we did not want to see. It is very unfortunate. The current hacked clients may contain virus and we would like to encourage our users to avoid downloading them. In the case of multiplayer, we will be working to make sure that it is not hacked but since you will be able to play any multiplayer without battle.net, I think the system is pretty secure from hacking.
Q : Will the April content release include 3v3 or 4v4?
A : 3v3 and 4v4 team plays will not be released in April but will be in the official release.
Q : Is there plans to release public chat channels? Also, if you do release it, how will you fight against spams and profanity?
A : Battle.net 2.0 will not support open chat channels. We will take actions to the reported spams, profanity and rude behaviors with the new Report Player functionality.
Q : Then, how will clan system work? If there is no open chat channel, then wouldn’t that impede clan system?
A : We will be announcing clan system at (after?) release so we cannot discuss that right now.
Apparently, there is a distinct, separate clan system planned, which will not depend on open chat channels and is not limited to the social features that have been implemented or announced up until now.
Q : Unlike Warcraft 3 battle.net, will you be able to see your rankings and match history in the website?
A : Of course. Just like WoW armory, you will be able to see those in the new battle.net community site. You can expect some great things since it will be a whole new innovative web service.
Q : Even if you divide realm servers by continents, if you look at Asia, there are many different spoken languages. Will you provide real-time translation system?
A : We have no plans to support realtime translation system right now but we are looking into it and considering it.
Q : The currentl battle.net supported games include Starcraft 1, Diablo, Warcraft 3. Will you keep supporting this? Are you concerned about merging them with battle.net 2.0?
A : The current battle.net will continue being supported. I would like to see it being supported continuously and we are discussing how we will go about. The merging details have not been completely decided in terms of technical aspect so it is hard to answer that. We will be discussing that later.
In case you have forgotten (it’s been a while!), Battle.net was launched with the release of Diablo in 1997, 13 years ago. It is a live platform that serves Diablo, Diablo 2, StarCraft, WarCraft 2, WarCraft 3, and all the expansions of the aforementioned games. Adjusting the platform across so many games would require a huge amount of patching, and it’s not suprising Blizzard has not declared its official stance on the issue.
A significantly more lengthy interview was given by Dustin Browder to VG247, going into the gory details of the expectations and numbers emerging from StarCraft 2’s beta testing. Many of the things Dustin mentions, like the possibility of adding and removing units, have been talked about extensively in the latest Blizzcast, but there’s certainly some meat in this one.
Here are some interesting excerpts from the interview:
Dustin Browder: So far, the beta numbers we’ve been looking at have been very, very positive. We’re close to a 50 percent win ratio for almost every race. What we’re really doing right now is waiting to see, as the community learns more, to see if something changes in the meta-game that causes this not to be the case. And, of course, we’re still dealing with issues of unit diversity, particularly on the Zerg side.
What level of concurrency to you want to get to before the end of the beta?
Dustin Browder: I think we want to maintain about 10,000. It’s sort of our goal, and we’ve just about hit that at this point. I can see we’re at 9,000-something right now, and 10,000 is the goal.
The number of online players has certainly been growing steadily as Blizzard sends out more and more keys.
While some StarCraft 2 Beta testers have been hacking at the world’s fastest RTS for 12 years, a significant portion of the gamers are… noobs that are overwhelmed by StarCraft’s ruthless pace and macro-oriented mechanics.
Dustin Browder: We’re seeing two types of players. We’re seeing the hardcore who’ve been with us for the past 12 years, who are just totally loving it and having a great time. We’re seeing newer players get into the beta and struggling a bit with the speed, with the rushes, with the style of gameplay we’re presenting them with. We’ve seen a lot of feedback from the newer players saying, ‘Oh my God, this is really rough. What the hell are you guys doing?’
Are you seeing clicks-per-minute generally increase as you run the beta over time?
Dustin Browder: I’m sorry, I’m able to see it on a game-by-game basis; I’m not able to see it globally. But that’s a great question, and certainly a stat we’d love to have. We have a ton of stats right now, and we’re having a trouble getting at them a little bit. There’s a large volume of data that our business intelligence guys are working very hard to give us access to. What I have access to now is fairly limited. I have access to maps, I have access to win-loss by race and by skill, I have access to certain unit stats, but no, I don’t have access to action-per-minute on a global scale. I’m not able to see it increasing as we go. I imagine that it would.
Some more interesting quotes:
- Our internal stats show us that Terrans are down in 1v1 versus Protoss and Zerg, and our internal stats also show us that Terran-Terran teams are also taking a hit in almost every match-up. This we believe to be largely because of map design. The Terrans lack some of the mobility to come rescue their allies in the early game…
- We’re going to change the maps a little bit and see if we get different results, but the Terrans being down is something we’ve started to address and we’re going to continue to address in the coming weeks.
- In addition, we view Battle.net this time around a little more as we do WoW. We hope to be doing constant content development going forward…
- There are also going to be some changes to how we do match-making. I know this for sure. But I’m not exactly sure of everything that’s going to happen. We develop these features and some of them will make the content patch, and some of them will not.
March 9th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
Hey guys,
Just to let you know, we’ve had added a little bit more content to the site in the past couple of days.
The new Screen Shots page has slide shows of the Screen Shots of the Month and Screen Shots from StarCraft II taken by Puppet Master and I.
The Blizzard Battle Report Videos for StarCraft II have been collected and put into one page.
A collection of StarCraft themed Wallpaper is now up on a page for download.
The Tech Tree listings from the in game Help are now up at the Tech Trees page.
And finally the StarCraft II Terran Units Page is complete.
The Zerg StarCraft II Units Page will be up soon too.
March 9th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
Hey guys,
The poll for February ended a week ago. Finally starting a new one. Here are the results!
Zeratul and the Protoss in general seem to have more fans so far. Poor Kerrigan being there in 3rd place.
The new poll for March starts now:
Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.And below is the Screen Shot of the Month and this time it’s from StarCraft II’s Beta. And because it’s hard to make out the details, this and any others I put up will be in 1094 x 819, just click on the image to see it enlarged. Don’t forget, you can post your submission in the thread on the forums and we’ll put it up and credit you. Here are some Battle Cruisers (and a Yamato blast) finishing up an enemy Terran base on Twilight Fortress.
March 7th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
The SC2Blog team has been having a blast playing the beta over the last two weeks, raking in hundreds of games as well as watching many high-level replays, video commentaries and live streams. After gaining some insight into the workings of the game as it is currently played, we have decided to present you with a few of the commonly used strategies in mid to high level of play for all three races. Since there’s a lot to say, we’ll separate the races into three posts, the first of which is dedicated to StarCraft 2’s psionic, photosynthesizing, warp (ab)using Protoss.
This strategy dominated the early days of the beta and can still be seen quite often. It is simple to execute, fast to achieve and quite devastating – especially before the Chrono Boost nerf, the 10 point reduction in Zealot shields, and the 30% increase in Gateway build time made it a little less quick and easy. This strategy involves quickly getting 3 gates up while building one assimilator for gas. While constantly pumping out Zealots and Chrono Boosting the gates, a large group of them could be amassed rather quickly. The attack is best timed with the completion of Charge research, which greatly enhances the effectiveness of Zealots. Not only does it become impossible to dance around them, they also surround enemies very quickly since the added distance already attacking Zealots add is negated by the superspeed. The toughness and relatively high attack damage of Zealots make this one of the first winning strategies for the Protoss in the StarCraft 2 beta. Evolutions of this strategy involve adding a Sentry or two, helping the Zealots take less damage from ranged attacks or trapping enemies with the Force Field ability.
Counters:
After players began exploring the game some more, many have found the awesome power of the Colossus to be too good to pass up in just about every match. Soon enough, Protoss players understood that the Colossus literally wipes the floor with just about any ground unit, and so, many now rush to get one out as soon as possible. The most common strategy involves getting a Zealot wall to be used as fodder along with a handful of Stalkers and Sentries, with the Colossus laying back and lasering everything in sight with its huge, sweeping beams of scorching death. The upgrade found in the Robotic Bay is a critical one, increasing the Colossus’ range of attack from 6 to 9. Most players seem to understand that despite its cost (200/200), this upgrade is more important than getting a second Colossus out. Indeed, upgraded Colossi are a mainstay unit for the Protoss: not only are they easy to use effectively, but with a little micro, positioning the Colossus so that the the beams inflict maximum damage or dancing with it up and down cliffs is extremely rewarding.
Counters:
The Void Ray is a very unique unit with a distinct Protoss feel. Few tier 2 units in the game can inflict so much damage in such little time, and so it did not take long for Protoss players to abuse the potential of this unit. Requiring only the Cybernetic Core as a prerequisite and the Stargate to manufacture, the first 200/150 Void Ray can be brought to the field very quickly – especially with some help from Chrono Boost. Protoss players would quickly block off the entrance to their base, hopefully prohibiting the enemy from knowing what they’re up to, and then send 2-4 Void Rays to attack their unsuspecting enemy right inside their home.
The usual harassment at this point of the game focuses on the mineral line, but Void Ray rushers do not compromise for such petty means and go straight for the Town Hall. Players who lack any sort of anti-air will lose immediately, while others who can defend will spend the next few minutes losing various units and buildings to hit and run attacks while the Protoss player solidifies his economy and expands. Players who wish to use this strategy must make sure they possess the ability to micromanage these attention-requiring units, which are quite slow and not heavily armored, while also taking the time to take care of their economy and production.
Counters:
Still alive for the most part, and as effective as ever, or more so – now that Overlords are not detectors anymore. StarCraft 2’s Warp-in mechanic allows Dark Templars to be summoned directly to expansions, proxy pylons and to the occasional Warp Prism, hitting where detection is lacking and where the dark ones are least expected. Players lacking detection or an observant eye on the battlefield will take heavy damage before stopping the sneaky, hard-hitting Templar.
Before Yo Mommaship got so fat, it was quite the unit to aspire to and get out to the field as soon as possible. Not only did its devastating Vortex ability cost 75 energy units, allowing it to be cast in every battle easily – it was also quite the fighting beast itself. With 400/400 hp/shields, a powerful, rapid attack that could take down workers (sans SCVs) and Marines in a single shot, a base armor of two, and an insta Town Portal button, the Mothership was often seen patrolling the skies all by itself, looking for prey. What was the risk?
Later in the game, the Mothership carried the entire Protoss army (or just cruised around with an air force) under its cloaking veil, vortexing everything in its path and destroying the remnants. Fortunately for the enemies of the Protoss, the wide range of nerfs to the Mothership have reduced it to something resembling more of a powerful Arbiter than anything else.
Counters:
If one could point out a “solid” strategy, which does not either over-commit the player to a certain route nor expose him to a hard counter, it would be the standard Gateway/Robotics build.
Zealots, Stalkers and Sentries are all availiable practically from the very beginning, and Immortals coupled with Observers provide the early-mid game Protoss player with enough tools to deal with most normal threats. Healthy scouting and pressure that can be applied via the early attainable army would often counter most cheese tactics and allow the Protoss player to force an end to the game right away or comfortably segue into late-game play.
March 6th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
Hey there everyone. I just noticed that Blizzard has released 2 new patches for the SC2 beta, so here are the changes:
Patch 3:
Balance Changes
Bug Fixes
Patch 4:
General
All of this information came directly off of blizzard’s site and can be viewed here:
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=23094049316&sid=5000
March 6th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
Blizzard sent out another batch of Beta Keys to players today. So keep on checking your emails. You may be getting one today or possibly this weekend if you’re lucky. They seem to be sending them frequently so that is good news on the progress of the game.
And we are still working on the SCII Terran and Zerg unit pages. They should be up by the end of this coming week. I’ll be updating the screen shot/poll of the month soon too.
March 5th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
March 4th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
March 4th, 2010Starcraft NewsRead More >No Comments
