Starcraft Junkie

This month's PC Powerplay has an article up on Battle.net. While unfortunately not revealing any new information, it's still an interesting read: As I have found a few more sources of Battle.net 2.0 info on my roaming of the net, I'll make a feature article on it in a bit, but it does indeed seem like Battle.net 2.0 will be very very cool. Thanks pR0gR4m3R for the tip. Team Liquid did the transcript from the mag.

A report has been compiled and released on the official starcraft 2 site containing the most important characteristics of the planet "Mar Sara":

• Population: 80,000+ terrans, unknown zerg
• Allegiance: Kel-Morian
• Diameter/Gravity: 9265 km, 1.09 standard
• Axial Tilt/Climate: 13.5 degrees, +/- 34 Centigrade, very low humidity
• Geography/Major Settlements: 18 small dust seas, 28 upland regions (17 volcanic), 12 major settlements (destroyed), 86 mining outposts, 12 refineries
• Moon(s): 2 -- Pyramus, Thisby (gray, medium size, >2000 km dia)
• Dominant Terrain Classification: Wasteland/mountain/desert
• Dominant Life Forms: Human -- Kel-Morian Combine/Terran Dominion Indigenous Life Forms: None/zerg infestation (minor)
• Imports: Mining equipment, personnel, food, water
• Exports: Refined minerals, unrefined ore, vespene gas, terrazine gas, scrap salvage

Background story: Blizzard have also posted a total of 5 new screenshots and 2 new pieces of concept art!

• Screenshots: Shot 1, Shot 2 Shot 3, Shot 4, Shot 5
• Concept Art: Art 1, Art 2

Karune also answered a question regarding the screenshots:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	Nice screenshots, but why does everything look so pale and faded? - willygundersen These screenshots depict more of what single player elements would have rather than multiplayer. In multiplayer, contrast is very important, to easily identify a players units, whereas in single player, realism and immersion will be a higher priority.

I went to BlizzCon in 07 specifically for the inevitable beta key to be given to us. I assumed that it would be for the newly announced SCII at the time. But now it's for the new WoW expansion. LAME! In any case, I guess this means I'll have to get rid of it at WoW fanboy value, similar to the Murloc costume (that things payed back the cost of BlizzCon and then some, lol). Just thought I'd share it with anyone else who held out hope like I did.

Karune has just posted an interesting new change on the Zerg Hydralisk on the Battle.net forums:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	As an extra bonus, unrelated to this, but also would help is that Hydralisks have been moved back down to tier 1.5. More details about this move will be included in the next Q&A batch.

You can be sure we will keep you all updated as soon as the new Q&A Batch arrives. You can see this change, and more in Troglodyte's huge Collection of Blizzard Comments.

My newfound Spanish StarCraft friend pR0gR4m3R of StarCraft-ESP sent me a heads-up that they released a StarCraft WWI Preview a while back. Unfortunately just after I left for my holiday to Sweden. He talks about the impressions they got during the Blizzard WWI in Paris, and has written quite a bit about it. Unfortunately for us, all in Spanish. If you can read Spanish, you can grab it here, and if you cant there is a Google Translation below:

The guys over at TeamLiquid have made a compilation of all Starcraft 2 information released at the recent WWI in Paris. It contains a lot of good information, Q&As, a few gameplay vids, some in fairly good quality, and much more, including links to ourselves here at StarCraftWire.net. TeamLiquid WWI SC2 Compilation

DevelopMag.com has an interview with Activision CFO Thomas Tippl, discussing the impact of their recent merger with Blizzard. It sounds like some of the Blizzard sales force is going to be laid off due to redundancies, but they don't have any game-related intrusions planned into Blizzard's operations. Thanks diii.net.

The makers of the popular online gaming (MMO, MMORPG & Console) magazine, Thirteen1 have launched a special edition magazine exclusively covering Blizzards World Wide Invitational event. Packed with giveways, Q&A’s, announcements and more the magazine is bursting at the seams with features on all of the main Blizzard titles. (World of Warcraft -Wrath of the Lich King, Diablo and Starcraft 2). Make sure you read the magazine to find out how you could win an amazing bundle of Blizzard gifts including the Collectors edition of the Burning Crusade and a WoW Battle Chest. What is Thirteen1? Thirteen1 is a free to read online gaming e-magazine that requires no downloads to read. With features on games of all sizes from smaller MMORPG’s to MMO’s to console games Thirteen1 covers every corner of the gaming world. Launching at 1PM on the 13th of every month it is quickly become world re-owned for being the best monthly fix a gamer can get. Issue#4 of the magazine is still available to read online with titles reviewed and previewed such as Jumpgate Evolution, Battlefield Heroes, Habbo Hotel, Metal Gear Solid plus prize giveaways and more.

Kalos Chronicles >> Wreaking Havok with Starcraft II The second article from the technical expert Kalos has been released, this time focusing on the Havok physics engine and the role it plays within the games of today. In this article, Kalos' talks about what the Havok engine is about and how Blizzard might use it to create some stunning interaction with the Starcraft II environment: We also get a glimpse of how several video cards support this engine and what we could expect in the future. You can read his full analysis here, and be sure to check out his other articles as part of the Kalos' Chronicles. If you have any questions about this article, or any other technical difficulties, hardware specifications or internet connection queries you should visit our StarCraft Technical Support Forum and ask Kalos the Tech Guru for help!

Dustin Browder, StarCraft 2’s lead game designer, has given an interview to IncGamers’s brand new StarCraftWire.net. He discusses everything from the map editor to super units in length and provides some insight into the gameplay design process.

Highlights:

So when will the Starcraft II editor become available to modders?

 

I don’t know yet, it’ll certainly be shipped with the game but I don’t know the answer to whether it will be earlier. That would be cool though.

Could the StarCraft 2 map editor be released before the game? Blizzard has not done this before, but some other companies have turned to this move to increase interest in their game before it is released, especially if it has been baking in the development oven for a long while.

Concerning 3D graphics, what’s tools do you need? In StarCraft it was just using paint and opening it and just adding new units. What 3D do you consider for modders? Will you be giving your own editor for the graphics?

 

I think we may ship the art tools but you still have to have a 3D program, there’s no way around that.

 

Well, StarCraft seems very… “conservative” would be a good word I suppose. Were there any other concepts that you discussed at the beginning of the development process that you ended up scrapping because you felt; “no, we want it to be like it was”?

 

Some… By the time I started working on the project three years ago the team really wanted to make a game that was true to the legacy of the original StarCraft. So in terms of “are we being too conservative or not?” We talked about that every day. It was a constant discussion.

It’s obvious that the same debate the fans are always engaged in - is StarCraft 2 enough of a “new game”? - is shared by the developers as well. Currently, it looks like Blizzard has managed to stay true to StarCraft 1 while enhancing it in almost every possible way and while introducing new ideas that further differentiate the races, creating a new experience if not a completely new game.

When asked about the Rock-Paper-Scissor relationship between units, Dustin provides a good explanation for how unit interactions in StarCraft work:

It’s not even just that, of the relationships in StarCraft; lot of them aren’t even Rock Paper Scissors, which is one of the things that makes the game so exciting. One of the standard RTS paradigm is that we use the Rock Paper Scissors but a lot of the relationships, especially in the early tech tree of StarCraft, are positional based. It’s not so much *whether I beat you* its *where do we fight*.

 

Zerglings will crush Zealots in the open field. They’ll just overrun them completely, and these are both the core units. Whereas the Zealots, at the choke, will just kill hundreds of Zerglings based on the Zerglings getting all trapped up behind. So in addition to where you fight there are also the questions of micro that are really interesting.

 

What we are really worried about are overlapping roles, it’s a constant struggle for us, but if you go there and play it now you can find a couple:

 

Player: “What about these guys”
Dustin: “Yes, I know!! They overlap, oh my god”.

Many RTS games completely rely on unit statistics and their predictable interactions to determine the outcome of battle. It is indeed one of StarCraft’s greatest strengths that so many other factors affect the result of an engagement between units, and produces equal match ups between even the lowliest of units and the most powerful ones.

 

Which particular unit has been the most problematic one when working, balance wise, not only for the Zerg but the other races as well?

 

The Mothership - hands down.

 

What is the problem with it?

 

Well, by its size it doesn’t look like a super unit from other RTS games. The problem here with super units is we want every unit to be a decision. There’s no point in shipping a unit if the player says: “I have to build that, it’s powerful, I should always build that. If I get to this tech level, I build it.”

 

We don’t have that in StarCraft II, the games meatier then that; you have to work for everything. So we don’t like the “super units”… The Mothership visually seems to suggest that, but at the same time we don’t want that to be part of the core gameplay experience so we’re continually balancing the ship, we’re continually looking for a new spell kit for this unit to make sure there are reasons to build it, really solid reasons, and really solid reasons not to build it.

 

Today the really solid reasons not to build it, and it’s been this way for many months, is the Mothership can’t really, cost for cost, defend itself effectively in the air. This means you can’t have air superiority dumped on the Mothership. If you already have your superiority, go for it, the Mothership is a good addition, but like I say; “it’s been a big pain.” It’s not helpful that it’s located at the end of the tech tree against how fast StarCraft games can be and how brutal it can be. There is a great chance that you can die within the first three or four minutes. So even in our play test process we don’t get to see this unit as often as we like:

 

Designer: “Did you get to play with the Mothership”
Tester: “Well, no, we didn’t, we topped out at the Immortals and Stalkers/Colossus”
Designer: “Ok ok ok, play again, play real hard”
Designer: “Did you get to play with the Mothership”
Tester: “No, no, we didn’t really get that high in the tech tree”

 

So once in a while it happens and then we’ll get some data but it just makes it a lot more complicated. We get a lot more data obviously on play testing Stalkers, Zerglings, Marines and all these guys because you see them all the time.

The Mothership is one of the units which has gotten the most attention - both from fans and from the developers - and has changed a lot accordingly. The Monthly Topic initiated for its sake generated a lot of comments and ideas, and Blizzard is still trying to nail down the right formula for making this unit worthy of the StarCraft 2 Protoss.

How did you decide to change the Queen that dramatically? Like, from a flying unit to a ground unit, from a mass unit to one-only unit?

 

It started conceptionally as kind of a story hit, we felt like the Queen was an opportunity to create a creature that owns the base, that lives inside and that she somehow lays eggs maybe, she’s monstrous and evil - like a Queen that you may see in an ant hive or a film.

 

We wanted that Queen, because we felt like the old Queen didn’t really hit that vibe. For example; that Queen could be called any other name and you’d be fine with that. It wasn’t a Queen in the classic sense, so that was the core idea.

 

How could we make this unit into something that feels like the Queen and we tried it a bunch of different ways and for awhile she was laying eggs to create weak organisms, so for example, there’d be different types of Hydralisks running around. That was kind of fun but then it got confusing, like which Hydralisk could attack me in the air, and what do I counter that with, I don’t remember.

 

So it was kind of a problem, so we’ve sort of settled down on this base defender which seems pretty successful, I don’t know if it’s really good enough for StarCraft II [but] that’s what we’re going to find out. It seems pretty fun.

The Zerg Queen is another unit that has gone through many changes, but this one is more set in its role due to story considerations, unlike the numerous incarnations of the Terran Thor and the Protoss Mothership. While the current “base mother” role is not likely to change, there is still plenty of room for flexibility left in terms of implementation.