Starcraft 2 News and Interviews

The occurence of Starcraft 2 news is like a beautiful rainbow that only appears when the right conditions come together. Ok maybe not, but it is still pretty hard to come by, so when we do get a glimpse of new footage or a line on some new info about the latest build of the game it is pretty exciting, and this is one of those times.

There have been a couple new multiplayer gameplay movies and developer interviews that have hit the web lately as well as some hands on journalist accounts of the multiplayer as it stands right now and I wanted to bring all the new info I could find into one convenient source for all the Starcraft fans out there so here we go.

Battle.net

Starcraft 2 is going to be a huge game, and as such there will be a wide variety of players that are going to be playing it, whether they be casual players picking it up for the first time, fans of the series that have been waiting patiently, and the die hard and eSports fans out there that are going to putting their life blood into this game when it finally ships, and the developers are going to have the unenviable task of trying to cater to everyone.

One of the ways that they will be doing this is by introducing a matchmaking system that will match players based on skill level, similar to XBOX Live. You will no longer have to worry about getting matched with some guy (or girl) from Korea that literally has the game plugged into their brain with a 1000 APM’s leading you to getting your ass handed to you, or be matched with grandma who decided to put her WoW account on hold for ten minutes so she could try out the game. If they can get this system up and running the way that it should be, it will be a huge step forward for making the SC2 experience a much easier transition for those who suck, but still like the game (i.e. Me).

In the same vein as the aforementioned news, there is also talk of creating leagues based around casual, hardcore and eSport players for the purposes of multiplayer gaming. These leagues will not only separate play styles and preferences but will also have different attributes in game. The casual league for example will use simpler maps that will be designed against anti-rush tactics and slower game speeds in order to get people used to the game.

But they aren’t through yet, Blizzard will also be incorporating new stat tracking and spectator modes that will allow players to analyze how they play, see the mistakes they make and improve their performance. Spectators will be able to see a match from players perspectives, which will be interesting but maybe a little disorienting when you switch to a pro gamer perspective while they move around the map at lightning speed. You will be able to track how efficient they are in combat, how many resources they’ve mined, used, and how many went unused on the map. There will be a ton of overlays you can place on the screen to monitor each players performance. These features are a no brainer considering the popularity of eSports overseas, and the posibility of it taking off in North America.

All the news is not happy however. Starcraft 2 will not support LAN play. You will need to be connected to Battle.net if you want your RTS fix. Apparently this is a measure that is being implemented to curb piracy, along the same lines as Valve’s Steam service. This type of announcement would seem counter-intuitive to the legacy of the Starcraft name, as its popularity sprung out of the multiplayer greatness and the ability to get together with friends and play the game while yo mamma jokes, pizza and beer flew through the air without a care…mon frere…But hopefully there will be some kind of workaround for this in the future.

One final note about the online is that the game will support up to 8 players per game and 4 players spectating for a total of 12 “players”.

Gameplay

These features will directly affect the way that you play the game and have been taken from various sources including gametrailers.com, ign.com and 1up.com so I assume they are legit for now. Who knows what will change and what will stay the same, but as the final release gets closer, I’d think that the number of changes will continue to fall until we get a finalized feature set.

One of the best pieces of news I gathered from the video interview with Chris Sigaty was that there will be unlimited unit selection in the new game as well as multi building selection. I always thought this was a no brainer for the game and I’m glad to actually see it make it into the final build.

Each race is going to have powerups that will either boost their economy or army in some way and a few of those have been outlined more specifically. The Terrans for example will have the trusty Radar Sweep, but in addition they may instead call in a Mule which will increase the rate at which they gather minerals. The zerg Queen can either repair buildings or boost larvae production to increase your population and the Protoss Obelisk can use the Proton Charge ability to increase the rate that probes collect resources.

In terms of units, there are a couple notable additions to the Terran arsenal which include a new fast moving buggy unit with an attached flamethrower called the Hellion. It’s essentially a Vulture and Firebat mashed together. There is also a Medivac Dropship which will heal infantry units while it transports them, Medic + Dropship = Medivac Dropship.

The Banelings, or suicidal little zergling mutations are now less effective against buildings as well, which in my opinion is a great move because in most of  the footage I’ve seen of them, they basically rape whatever they target in large numbers. The Hellion also seems to be an effective counter against the Banelings in the new footage, so keep note of that.

Each unit type now has a unique death animation based on the weapon used on it, which isn’t really a big addition, but its the little things, the small details like this that help separate the just ok games from the AAA titles.

The Protoss Mothership seems to have a couple new abilities as well. From the footage shown, it looks as if the Mothership can teleport to any pylon location on the map which I’m sure is at the will of a timer of some kind, but its still pretty sweet for planning a surprise attack behind enemy lines. It also remains to be seen if the Mothership can warp in on the Phase Prism location (which is the mobile pylon unit) which may be a balance issue, we’ll have to wait and see I suppose. The Motherships black hole ability has also seen a bit of a tweak. Whereas it was an uber powerful super weapon that was totally unbalanced when we first saw it, now instead of totally destroying whatever it sucks in, it merely holds it in limbo for a short time. The units in the black hole dont seem to take any damage however, and the weapon can affect friendly as well as enemy units, so beware.

And lastly from the Gameplay standpoint, there will not be any upgrading or leveling up mechanic for units in multiplayer. Dustin Browder stated that such an element in their game would be, “totally against everything that we are doing” and that the game will reward your skill in being able to command your units effectively and intelligently and not just how long you’ve been playing it. This also means that there will be no hero elements in the game, vis a vis Warcraft 3. The ability to purchase upgrades for your units will of course be a core gameplay mecahnic, but each player will start out at the same level at the beginning of every match.

Pricing

While there are still no official press releases for the price of the game, Chris Sigaty has gone on record saying that they view Starcraft 2 in much the same way as Warcraft 3, where they will be releasing the full game initially as Wings of Liberty, and having the other two races be more like expansion packs. What this leads me to believe is that all three games will not come out at the same price, but will have more of a full game/expansion price structure. Although no specifics were given, this gives us an idea as to what we can expect, maybe $59.99 for the first game and $39.99 for the expansions? He also noted that they are not sure what additional multiplayer content they will be packaging with the expansions.

If they were to add two new units per expansion, that would mean four new units total for both. What this creates is a possible fracturing of the community between those that may have the expansion and those that dont. The expansion group may end up with an unfair advantage over the rest which would cause major balance issues in a game that prides itself on providing a level playing field for everyone, but only time will tell how this particular issue will be resolved.

And there you have it! All the news that’s fit to print about Starcraft 2. I hope you found it interesting and I’m looking forward to any new developments in the near future (please God I hope I get into the Beta!!)

The end.