Starcraft Junkie

Sorry, due to an error the poll closed. It’s been reopened until January 1st.

Hey everyone,

Looking for something to do with StarCraft today? We updated our mods page so there’s more than double what we had before for mods. We also put up about 20 mod making tools. So give some a shot.

And if you have a file you would like posted on the site, just register on the forums and read the thread about it in the Site Related Section.

Enjoy!

Dustin Browder, StarCraft 2 Game Director, gave a lengthy and interesting interview to TeamLiquid, focusing on key StarCraft 2 issues such as the balance and development process, the patching strategy planned for the game, E-Sports, and, of course, the major goals Blizzard has set for itself with StarCraft 2. We bring you the important highlights.

Dustin begins by describing the early influences which led him to be interested in games, citing Dungeons and Dragons as a main one. He goes on to talk about movies and how they affect both StarCraft’s story and actual game scenarios.

We’ve got a mission in game now that’s largely inspired by 300, which obviously is not a science fiction movie but has those core dramatic moments that we really really enjoy. And that is one of the great things about being a geek and being in this business – it’s something that comes naturally.

Dustin comments about how different making games for Blizzard is:

After I got here I sort of saw the difference in quality level but also depth of the gameplay and the detailed experience the players have while playing it…and all the fine control that goes into a ‘craft experience as opposed to games made by other studios. And so it was really, really challenging to relearn – I think the hardest part was learning that I HAD to relearn it.

Would you like some WoW in your StarCraft? Dustin Browder is in a unique position, having access to the brains behind today’s most highly regarded games in different genres.

I’m surrounded by a group of guys who are so talented, who ultimately just by osmosis you can pick up so much from. One of our great strengths at this point is that we’ve been able to attract, really, really AAA talent to the studio – guys that really know their stuff. Then we are able to just teach each other as we go. I’m able to have lunch with Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton [game directors for WoW] whenever I want and I tell you, I learn something new everyday from those guys.

How ideas are born at Blizzard:

I’ll get an idea and I’ll take it to a designer and we’ll talk about it and say “that’s kind of cool, we’ll see how we feel about it tomorrow”. We go back the next day and say “you know what, I like it but maybe we should change this from protoss to zerg and maybe it should be plus armor instead of % damage lost”. It will slowly get tuned and it goes through me talking with the designers, talking with Rob Pardo, talking with the lore guys, the artists, the balance guys. At that point it’s changed so much that was it really my idea (laughs)?

Truly a dream job. Talking about StarCraft balance and unit design for a living, getting payed well and making immortal gaming history in the process. Not an easy job, though:

The real challenge is making it easy to learn and difficult to master, which makes everybody happy. The casual gamer has learned it easily, the hardcore guy is finding it very difficult to master. And like I’ve said before, and you see this in World of Warcraft all the time – there’s not a hardcore gamer and a casual gamer, there’s a continuum. Casual gamers can and will become hardcore gamers if you let them.

Indeed. The hardcore gamers, then, turn back and influence the game:

The other possibility of course is that we’re wrong, and you guys are correct. And because we haven’t gone to beta yet, maybe we are seeing the wrong thing. Now while you guys don’t have enough time with it, we have a lot of time but we have a very limited player pool.

… we’ve already been in discussion with some of the high ranking players around the world. We talked to people at Blizzcon and I think we sent a professional build overseas so some of the high ranking players could take a look at it and I’ve gotten the feedback from them on that.

I really do feel like using map balance as a method of racial balance is something that the community has quite correctly evolved because we aren’t doing a lot of patches. And so you guys have taken over the balance for us in many ways by doing the map balance which I think is glorious and I think you do a great job. But initially we won’t be doing that because we know we can patch and will be patching frequently.

… some people said that and I didn’t agree with that – but that we were missing the difference between a macro player and a micro player. That we were destroying the sense of style of the player. I could be playing a micro game and you could be playing a macro game with both the same race, and we are still playing a very different game from one another. And when I saw that I was like “Ohh!” I was opening my eyes like “Thanks! THERE IT IS! That’s great! That’s genius! That’s exactly what we need to try to accomplish”.

Few companies in any industry, including software, can openly admit and even take pride in being dependent on:

• Public beta testing
• Constant user feedback and community modifications
• Frequent patching and improvements regardless of expansions

As Dustin put it earlier, the methods of development and implementation are so inherently different from the industry, you have got to relearn the key aspects of development and deployment to be a product director for Blizzard.

On the balance front, the Zerg are still lagging behind:

… we’ve certainly found specifically at tier 2, the Zerg lack legitimate ways to really push an advantage. The Mutalisk has been running into a little bit more trouble with stalkers than say it would against dragoons. Where using Blink and Warp In are fundamentally game changing kinds of moments that suddenly change the relationship between these old units.

Zerg forces being slaughtered in the amazing 3rd Battle Report

Moving on, some E-Sports talk from Bob Colayco, Blizzard PR Manager for StarCraft 2:

Bob: You know, we have an E-Sports team for a reason and I think you’re going to see some 3rd party stuff as well, but we definitely like to get hands on with our own things. If you look at what we’ve done with WoW Arena, we do have the tournament realms and we do regional finals that we run and we sponsor. And then there’s the grand finals which we have at Blizzcon, so I think you’re going to see a mix of things. I can’t say anything specific.

Blizzard is currently in great position to reap the rewards for creating a perfect E-Sports RTS 10 years ago. However, while user-created game servers are taboo, 3rd party competitions are certainly encouraged:

I think the important message for the community with this one would be, that we love the 3rd party tournaments as well. We love watching those, going to them and seeing them live etc. So we want to do stuff as well, and we want to promote E-Sports overall. We want E-Sports to grow and grow and grow – ideally with our game of course, but even in the wider world of everybody’s games. We think E-Sports is an important component of what video games could become, and we want to take this opportunity with Starcraft 2 to push E-Sports forward.

We are trying to make this game complete – like if nobody buys any other product, this game needs to be awesome. Like if Blizzard gets hit by a meteor tomorrow and we all die, at least StarCraft II was awesome – that’s what it needs to be.

Quite a fascinating way to work and live by – if you get hit by a meteor tomorrow, make sure the last thing you did was biblically awesome.

Teamliquid had an opportunity to interview StarCraft II lead designer Dustin Browder. This long interview features some really cool information about the development of the game and about Dustin Browder himself. Be sure to take a look by clicking here.

Hello everyone.

Straight off the top I wanted to bring attention to the fact there is on Screen Shot this month. I haven’t received any submissions and I don’t have the time right now . If I come up with one soon I’ll update this post with it.

So last month’s poll asked what is your favorite game type in StarCraft. We had a ton of choices and over 500 votes.

Here are the results:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Use Map Settings took a big victory with 52%. Top vs Bottom came in second. I was expecting Melee/FFA, so I’m surprised.

This month’s poll asks a question that seems to be holding up the SCII beta.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Don’t forget to post your screen shots in the thread on the forums. You’ll get yours posted and credited on the site.

The CreepColony staff hopes you enjoy your holiday season!

Blizzard’s StarCraft 2 team has been busy lately, with both community managers and web content creators unleashing updates simultaneously. StarCraft 2’s official StarCraft2.com wesbsite has not undergone any major changes since its launch two and a half years ago. Indeed, this update brings some freshness to the familiar.

The site’s front page has received the most noticeable update. It now features a massive top Flash “cover” with a glowing, pulsating logo and a smoking Tychus Findlay standing between the Queen of Blades and Zeratul. The cover, however, is the least interesting part of this book; the site’s updates include multiple detailed pages with new screenshots, short videos and artwork by Blizzard’s art and development teams.

The site now offers great information for StarCraft fans who have not been following StarCraft 2’s progress since its announcement and need some catching up to do. The new site portions include:

• SinglePlayer Storytelling – a highly detailed article about StarCraft’s lore, characters, and the importance of the StarCraft universe and plot.
• Legacy of War - an article about StarCraft 2’s 1v1 multiplayer map design with insight into the process of creating a competitive map from scratch.
• Tychus Findlay – dedicated to the character who had the honor of introducing StarCraft 2 to the world in South Korea two and a half years ago.
• Jim Raynor – detailed Jim Raynor bio.
• Zeratul - detailed Zeratul bio.
• Changeling - a short fiction story.

The new “Single Player Storytelling” page is extremely informative and caters straightforwardly to people interested in or considering buying StarCraft 2 when it comes out. Now that Blizzard has already unveiled its plans for the trilogy and the epic scale of the single player campaign, this article provides a much welcome summary.

Rather than offering a strictly linear campaign, StarCraft II lets players get involved more directly in the game’s story with branching, non-linear missions. Sometimes, players will face major decisions that could change the fate of certain characters or worlds. Other times, players can set aside specific missions for a while in favor of other jobs.

The screenshot collection has been updated with several gameplay shots, as well as stunning single-player cinematic frames. Here are some interesting new shots from this update:

The second part of the update focuses on the 55th Q&A batch, spanning 7 questions in total, most dealing with advanced, meta-games questions such as DirectX 11 support, Battle.net 2.0 stat tracking and StarCraft/StarCraft 2 map conversions.

1. Not all potential players of StarCraft II have played the original StarCraft before, thus they might encounter problems with the understanding of the story. Is it possible to play the campaign of StarCraft II without knowing anything? Will you come up with some things that happened in the original StarCraft and Brood War again – just so that people not familiar to the story get more information?

We plan on having story elements that will bring players up to speed on the most recent plot developments and prepare them for the StarCraft II storyline. We also plan on having a plot summary of what transpired in the original StarCraft and Brood War during the installation process. However we feel that regardless of your familiarity with the original story, all players will be able to enjoy the story developments in StarCraft II.

2. You have already announced that you are going to record various stats when playing StarCraft II with the new Battle.net 2.0 – but how detailed will those statistics be? Will one be able to see how many units of a certain kind (for example Marines) one have build or even killed so far?

We will be recording a large amount of stats for StarCraft II, but we are still in discussion as to which stats will ultimately be tracked. We will determine how detailed the stat-tracking will be based on what information we think will benefit our players the most to help improve their game.

Be it E-Sports considerations, the search for self improvement, or just the human “ooh-shiny!” attitude towards self-inflicted statistics, Battle.net 2.0 will likely statisfy the aforementioned needs for detailed game statistics for all.

3. You have already stated that you will support DirectX 10, but what about DirectX 11?

We currently do not have any plans on supporting DirectX11-specific features, but the game will be compatible with DirectX11.

4. How many stats will a Hero unit be able to take? Three like in Warcraft 3 or is there even a limit?

If you create a user-map with heroes, you can outfit them with a large number of stats. However, currently only three stats will be able to be displayed on the UI due to limited space.

Despite Blizzard’s character stats UI limitations, map modders are certain to come up with plenty of workarounds to a bump as small as “limited space”. The tools showcased during BlizzCon (if you’ve missed it, watch the next video) allow developers to break, customize and bend virtually every aspect of StarCraft 2’s capable engine.

5. In lore Protoss warp in their units and buildings from some far planet. Will there be any mechanic that reflects this such as a “warp out” that could act as a refund?

We do not have any plans to include a “warp out” game mechanic. We have discussed the possibility of this in the past, but it felt too similar to the Terran mechanics of being able to salvage the structures.


6. Will there be a converter to convert our favorite original StarCraft maps to StarCraft II maps? I don’t want to lose all of my favorite maps from the original StarCraft when I get StarCraft II.

There will not be a map converter for StarCraft II. Map-makers will have to manually rebuild any of their maps using the new StarCraft II map editor.


7. I’m just going to assume that you will have some sort of window mode in StarCraft II. But I was wondering if you’re going to implement a windowed mode like the one that World of Warcraft has? You know where you can maximize the window, removing the borders and enabling fullscreen mode yet providing easy access to the desktop.

You will be able to select both windowed and full-screen windowed modes from the options menu.

The new site update represents a turning point for StarCraft 2’s development. It clearly targets the mainstream audience, much more so than the updates we’ve been used to, which deal with more specific things that us dedicated fans care about. This is a good sign that Blizzard feels that the game is mature enough to be presented as a product rather than an unfinished project.

We’re still working on a lot of updates ourselves, but we wanted to give you a heads up on the latest news from the StarCraft II team. They’ve put up a lot more content over at www.StarCraft2.com , so take a peek you SC fans.

Cidra just released Batch 55 over at Battle.net

5. In lore Protoss warp in their units and buildings from some far planet. Will there be any mechanic that reflects this such as a “warp out” that could act as a refund?
We do not have any plans to include a warp out game mechanic. We have discussed the possibility of this in the past, but it felt too similar to the Terran mechanics of being able to salvage the structures.

Be sure to read the rest and tell us what you think at the forums.

Like an early Thanksgiving treat, Blizzard Entertainment’s given us all a “Content Drop” on the official product site for StarCraft 2,…

Though it’s not quite the same as a journalist’s objective eye for those actually debating their purchase, you’ll find a detailed and…