I'll have to try that tonight.

I'm in the middle of creating a custom campaign. It's basically going to be like Desert Strike if anyone remembers it. I went with a 3rd person behind the back camera instead of the isometric camera though. It's still early yet. All I've really done is fix the camera, Hide the default UI, and give my Banshee the ability to carry passengers. I'm hoping that It'll be a fun little game. It will be if I can translate my ideas.

Good luck! I have dozens of ideas in the works, but starting siiimple :3

We'll have to make a TFP repository of customs.

I'd definitely be interested in seeing what kind of customs you guys are making.

I've played around a little today and added some weapon/armor/HP upgrades along with the ability to change my unit's color. Guess I'll work out a score/point system next and start charging for the upgrades. I can't wait to actually start designing the map. :)

I know this sounds like heresy, buy I won't buy SC2. I'd probably buy the paperback though, just to see how the story pans out. As brilliant a game as starcraft was - (and the campaign plot is one of the best of any game I've played), my dislike for the level of micromanagement and the multiplayer metagame made me lose interest. It basically degenerated into a mad rush of perfected efficiency. It was no longer a game, and no longer really required responsive strategy. Just perfect the formula and roll it out.

I would consider buying Starcraft 2 if the multiplayer community delivers something better than DotA. Otherwise, I'll wait for Diablo 3.

surprising that none of you came in here to announce the release date.

Say goodbye to your summer, July isn't that far off.

Yea I knowww xD. I'm excited.

@Vault: The campaign plot is going to BLOW away sc1's. Blizz is spending something on the order of 500x the resources on their campaigns this time around.

As to multiplayer, it's a lot more complex than that. Are you a fighter (think street fighter) fan? How about sports? Let's take baseball.

I was bored to tears by baseball most of my life. 4 hour games for 20 minutes of action...seriously? Since my whole family loves it, though, I've allowed myself to be subjected to it and understand it a bit more now. When the pitcher is sitting there before the pitch, instead of being bored I'm wondering which pitch he'll throw. It hasn't made me LIKE baseball, but I can at least tolerate watching it.

Street Fighter. At the competitive level, it is very very refined. I direct you to Sirlin for an indepth review of playing to win at that. StarCraft is similar: there is an entire RICH metagame of play above the casual level, that allows for virtually any strategy, executed properly with the proper scouting of the opponent and room to adapt.

Just walking into the melee you're going to get rolled because you don't have a grasp of these mechanics. I don't mean to be condescending here, sorry if it's coming across that way. But the more I play and learn about starcraft melee (and I'm really quite bad), the MORE I enjoy it as it requires more focused play, not less.

As for DotA, there's no contest. The map editor is orders of magnitude more powerful than warcraft III's. Most simple games have already been recreated, from Tetris to FPS to Sonic. A quote from TL the other day: "I wouldn't be surprised if the WCG (World Cyber Games) in a decade are composed entirely of StarCraft II and customs built from its engine."

I don't think he's far off, either.

I got placed in Copper in Division 150 or something. At least I've won a match since being placed ha ha ha ha ha

Grats :D. Division count means nothing, it's just a method of separating people. Division 1 is as good as division 9001 - league is all that 'matters' (and it doesn't do all that much atm).

So the #1 ranked person in each Division of each League are essentially tied?

So lately, I've mostly been playing with my old grade school buddy that I used to play SC1 with. And, by mostly playing, I mean I've really only had time to squeeze a few games in here and there. But, I finally finished up my 1v1 placement matches. I got into Platinum. I think this is absolutely ludicrous. I can't compete in Platinum. My APM barely averages 60. I might've been okay in Gold, but in the last placement match (the only guy that stood a chance since everyone else was copper/bronze level type players) the dude disconnected.

So, yeah I can say "I'm a Platinum level player," but in actuality I'm going to get dominated in this league.

Yes Lasereth, but mobility is pretty high so top rated players generally rank up in divisions. Rank 1 plat is really the only rank of meaning at the moment. As time goes on league will matter more: right now it's mostly an indicator of how many of your starting 5 games you won rather than your real skill level.

@ironpham: lose. Lose a handful of games and you should be bumped down right quick. As I said to Lasereth, league doesn't mean all that much right now; there are PLENTY of people in exactly your situation (which is platinum competition...isn't really that fierce). You might meet the roving great white shark of a nigh pro gamer, or someone who's been playing for 2 hours. It's beta, they're working on it :3.

annnnnd you will be able to add your FB friends to battle net 2.0

this is madness!

Rraaaafh this thread is making me jealous. I just preordered last weekend from amazon- longest "up to 5 business days" ever. :(

:< <3

On the light side: first friend invite! Hurrah. Now my RL friend that I played sc with when we were like 11 years old can join :3

I've been playing the shit out of this beta the past 2 weeks. I think I have over 60 wins in 2v2s already and my record can't be good, so I don't know how many games that translates to. haha. I think I have been ranked as high as 3rd in 2v2 random though.

Can't wait for the full release and the campaign and then the multiplayer community to explode full force.

Loving it!

...give your name and id foo! Skystriker.joz here, to repeat :P

Same boat. Watching my email..

Avoid The Bombs! - StarCraft 2 Maps - SC2Mapster.com

I made a UMS! It's just a stupid little minigame that I made after getting tired of working on my other helicopter game. Tell me if it's too hard/easy. I'm a horrible judge of difficulty.

So, I played some 2v2 with my brother who used to be so so so so so good at sc1. Turns out, he's absolutely no good at sc2. He asked me for control of my ground units while I dominate the air (which I did for the 2 games we played). It worked out the first game because my void ray rush just demolished. The second game, I took out 1 guy's main, but my brother's macro couldn't keep up with the other guy. Since I had void rays which were pretty much all taken out after I killed the other guy, my ground army was a little lacking, but my brother's shouldn't have been.

I did switch back to ground army and kept my macro pretty good for losing so many void rays, but I couldn't get enough, and the guy I took out was able to get mass speedlings to harass my economy. I guess I'll have to teach my brother how to play Protoss because I think his biggest flaw was not being able to counter the other Protoss ground force.

I gotta try this...

lmao I saw that awhile ago, epic.

Got my beta key and installing now. Best mother's day evar. ;)

Wow one of your kids sure knows how to pick a present. Grats!

;D

Spanxxx.thespanxxx

Look me up. I often play around 11am-1pm (CST), and then 8pm-11pm(CST) most days of the week.

Sounds good; you gonna be on today?

Probably going to get on here in a few minutes for a quick game or two.

Eating lunch but then I shall join you :)

I have concluded that void rays are overpowered. Once they get to that next level of attack, they can switch targets and it'll still be on that next level (granted it will bump back down after a short period but the period is not nearly short enough). For instance, marines are supposed to be a good counter, which is true if it's just straight void rays vs. marines with no buildings in sight. But, if there are any buildings, I can just focus fire the building until the attack goes up to the next level, then switch to the marines and wipe the floor with them....I don't think I should be able to do that.

You know, that's interesting. I hadn't really noticed that, but I often start attacking someone by focusing on their building as a rally point from a distance. When the rays get there, they start attacking immediately, and then when reinforcements get there, I switch attack to general attack and usually wipe out most everything but a huddled mass of hydralisks, or a massive herd of marines with stim.

The key for terran defense against air I've noticed is to have some turrets, and have the turret upgrade. With the upgraded range and the fact the turrets are far more durable now, they will put a punishment on some void rays. Couple that with a dozen marines with stim and a med ship, and it really is lethal.


I am with you on the void rays though. I really do think they are overpowered. I suspect a balance will come before too long. Unless someone is building a counter, a 2 (or 3) void ray rush is basically a game ender against prot or zerg. I did notice today that the infestors ability makes a difference for zerg. It locks the voids in place and prevents retreat which is imperative to a successful void ray hit and run technique early game. Hit a building, fly away, come at another building, fly, etc. Until you pump out 2 more voids then join in with 4 or 5 and death becomes quick and lethal usually.

I'm not sure they're overpowered if you scout them. Stalkers take em down pretty quickly, especially with blink in areas without other targets.

Hydras destroy void rays.

Terran Vikings outrange VoidRays, Marines are good, but they have to be -enmasse-. 8 marines are not going to take down 2 void rays.

I'm starting to like the Phoenix a lot more now too. With the new shoot on the move thing, I think they are a far more capable unit in the air. With their lift ability, and super fast speed, they are a great harass unit now too. 3 Phoenix can do a far amount of harass damage to an expansion pretty quickly. Lift, kill, lift, kill, lift, kill, repeat. i can kill at least 6-10 workers in short order, then zoom away when calvary arrives.

Best part is you can get them out fast, and use them for scouting otherwise.

You know you have a problem when...

You've only been playing a few weeks and already get agitated about mandatory server maintenance downtime!

Phoenix were decent before, and now are amazing.

I actually haven't tried them out since the update. Maybe I should check it out. I think they're fantastic against zerg. Kind of reminds me of the bisu build.

Also, here's an interview with a Korean pro (supposedly one of the best, if not the best sc2 protoss player). It's pretty interesting. He says terran is the best race and even gives out an easy counter to vr rushing.

SCforall.com

Finally got the beta key and got it installed last night; turns out I'm pretty terrible at countering the new strategies.. like void ray and/or marauder rushes. Though I did successfully sneak past a terran who had blocked his choke with supply depots and bunkers and ultimately win.. it's very similar to the old, enough so that I get caught off guard by the weird behavior of the new units..

Were you been Joz? Man, I desperately need a solid 2v2 partner. What are your normal play times? I haven't seen you on again after we played the one game together.

This week has been solid RL friend time; should be clearing up for some online time very soon though :)

Old school!

Beta ending soon, the lamentations of the masses were many.