ironpham

StarCraft | Facebook

They are giving away keys every Thursday now (I think. I can't actually view the page since it's blocked at work, but I heard this from a friend.) They have already given away 10 keys earlier today and will do so again in a couple of hours (1PM PST or 4PM EST).

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Jozrael

An Extensive Interview With StarCraft II's Design Director - Features - GameInformer.com

A lot of you mentioned how multiplayer was overwhelming. While reading this article, I was very happy to see they went over this exact attribute:

How do you plan to introduce newer players to hardcore competitive play?

I'll say two things about that. One is that I would definitely encourage the players out there who got lucky enough to get a [beta] key who are thinking of it as a demo not to think of it as a demo. What we've done with the beta is fundamentally very similar to putting out a beta of level 80 World of Warcraft arena with no buildup before that. That would be the most difficult thing to learn. This is really a chance for us to test our play balance with players of all skill levels, but players who are already committed to learning and playing the multiplayer experience and don't feel too bad if they lose a game. For the final game, we've got twenty-plus hours of campaign, which will get players familiar with and comfortable with the controls, familiar with and comfortable with resourcing, give them a basic understanding of some of the counters in the game, but just give them 20 hours of sort of comfortableness with the game, much as you would when you're playing through 20 hours of questing in WoW. It doesn't teach you how to do high-end raiding, but it gets you comfortable with the UI and it gets you comfortable with your character. So we've got that.

Then we've got our challenges. Our challenges are about ten maps that teach you the fundamentals of online competitive play. They teach you how to defend against rushes. They teach you how to build up your economy. They teach you some of the basic counters for the three races. They teach you how to block your choke. They teach you all kinds of stuff that you will need to understand on some basic level to play in the competitive environment. Then we have five different difficulties of AI that you can play against to learn your race. Obviously the race in solo play for Terrans is a little bit different from the race in multiplayer. If you want to learn Zerg or Protoss, you can go to those AIs and battle it out against them. We've also got an auto-matchmaker for cooperative against the AI that will hopefully get you to a position where you're more comfortable playing online and more comfortable playing in a team environment.

We're definitely going to be looking at Achievements and other tools to encourage our players, once they graduate from cooperative vs. AI to move into team play before they move into 1v1. We're going to offer 4v4 and 3v3 to encourage them to get into a team play environment, get with a team. It's a much more casual environment than the 1v1; you've got somebody to help you play with, you've got allies who can come to your rescue if you get into a little bit of trouble. We really consider the 1v1 the final endgame arena-style gameplay that we hope players will only get to after 30, 40, 50, 60 hours played depending on their enthusiasm for it. That's my hope as a designer, but whether any of that works out is anyone's guess. We're going to try to do anything we can with the UI and with the Achievements to encourage players to follow some kind of arc like that so that by the time they get to 1v1 hopefully they're feeling very comfortable with the game and they're ready for it -- they're not just thrown into the deep end.

ironpham

I have just been informed via text that you can now preorder this at game stop and get a beta key.

GameStop Offering Starcraft 2 Beta Keys for Pre-Orders

I won't actually be able to play until later next week, but I'm sure I will be preordering for the beta soon.

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Lasereth

Yeah I'll be preording it for the beta.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Shauk

I'm disappointed, they announced the CE a while back (which *sigh* i'll probably get) but it's still only the single campaign. I was hoping for a CE that included all 3 campaigns. They're bound and determined to rape the playerbase for every cent if they don't release a 3 pack of some sort.

Lasereth

Of course it's only the single campaign. The other campaigns are nowhere close to being done. They even said it would be another full year for the 2nd one to come out, and a year after that for the 3rd. They'll probably release a combo pack in 2012 or whenever it's all wrapped up.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Reese

Got my Beta key today, Installing the patches now. Can't wait to... play with the map editor...

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Jozrael

Yea this latest patch is a monster, Reese. Gonna be another hour before I can start my delicious tinkering.

@Shauk: It's not a matter of raping the playerbase, but what content is finished, as Lasereth said. They could've delayed sc2 by an additional year to create the other two campaigns plus other goodies, but chose to release it earlier. It's both more profitable for them, and better customer service. I for one 110% endorse their decision, and will be purchasing all three without a second thought. I'll also be getting great value in terms of $s per hour of enjoyment.

Lasereth

Blizzard said that the Terran campaign is as long as all 3 campaigns in SC1 combined. There's really no arguing that it's not a ripoff.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Reese

I've only got in a couple of games today. My micro is so much better than my macro. I think that'll get better when I've really memorized what upgrades I need for each strategy and stop having to read the damn description on everything.

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Jozrael

Yo. Enough with people NOT LISTING THEIR TAGS.

Skystriker.joz

Add meh, list yours, and lets setup some times when we can play or somethin

Lasereth

Lasereth.beta

I suck donkey dick. I did win my first 2 matches in the practice league though.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

ironpham

Doomtrain.mlm

I added the two of you already. I haven't played any yet, but I will be able to tonight.

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YaWhateva

thejuanald.sanctu

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"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Reese

Kaji.kahee

I won a placement game last night! Totally going to get stuck in the platinum league now.

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ironpham

Maybe we can get a friendly 2v2 later tonight? (So, whoever my teammate may be can teach me a few things about the game since I've never played it.)

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Orchrist

wtb a teammate to play with

requirements:

1.not suck donkey balls(like all the random 2v2 teammates I get matched up with)
2.must actually want to play the game with me(unlike all of my RL friends who have beta keys)


apply at pm or Olarin.orchrist

ironpham

Well, I was going to play my first game tonight, but I got stuck trying to finish my project. I didn't expect to be working on this for 8 hours....

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Jozrael

You're all added, but I imagine at work. Hope to see some of you online today or tonight!

ironpham

I should be able to get on tonight. I have one more project left to do later today, but I don't expect it will take 10 hours like yesterday's project.

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ironpham

Just played and won my first game in Practice League. I went Phoenix and just harassed him to no end. Picked up the queen and killed it, killed all the overlords that I could find, and very easily defended his roach army with my immortals at my ramp (Blistering Sands I think).

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Jozrael

Haha I'm so bad at sc2; ironpham whipped me in his first few games :P

ironpham

I was actually really surprised I won those last 2. I guess I got lucky that Immortals>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Roaches in that PvZ. And, in that last one, when I scouted you, you were about 15 seconds ahead of me in the teching to immortals. If you had built an army instead of investing in the warp prism, you would have demolished me.

Extremely fun, though. Can't wait to play again.

You other beta testers need to join us. This game is so fun.

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YaWhateva

Man I want to play Stupid school getting in the way!

__________________
“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again.” - Bill O'Reilly

"This is my United States of Whateva!"

Jozrael

Yea I teched too hard, I was counting on you not being too aggressive :P. I had the polish down but just spent too much money on nonessentials, and expanded (and cancelled late) etc.

ironpham

I think that's my biggest problem right now. I'm still not sure when to do timing pushes. I guess I also need to learn more efficient build orders.....

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

By the way, Joz, our first 2v2 game should be this:
(skip to 4:20)

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Jozrael

Hahaha yea I've seen that xD.

Btw, sorry about that 2v2. Terribad timing on my part, grandma called me away for like 10 minutes lol :<.

ironpham

Don't worry about it. It was out of your control. We'll get a good game going later. Hopefully other tfpers will join?

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Jozrael

Sounds fab. I'm logging on now for a night of sc2

Jozrael

WC3 was fun, in a different way than SC.

I'm glad that SCII is back to its roots, though.

Lasereth

Anyone else think the graphics in this game are lackluster?

All of the battle reports were done in the zoomed in mega 3D mode but when you're playing from the "StarCraft 1" perspective the game simply doesn't look 10 years older than the first. I think the textures need work or something. I know it's a Blizzard game but I'm unimpressed.

In before the "graphics don't matter, gameplay does" bullshit crowd come in!

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Orchrist

Well you may call it bullshit... but there's piles of rts's sitting around that I've stopped playing within days of trying when their gameplay didn't come close to their graphics. I like the art style despite it's shortcomings but I do wish it could be a bit more detailed for the crowd with the really hardcore pc's. It's always been Blizzard's strategy to way lowball current spec's so everyone and their uncle can play their game, which considering the success appears to be a pretty effective strategy.

I'm happily dealing with the graphics not being the newest shiniest thing on the block because the game is so damn fun to play.

Lasereth

So why don't they make it look like it does now on average PCs but make it look amazing for high end PCs?

I guess it's all marketing.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

ironpham

I finally get to play some more tonight/this weekend. And, I do agree that actually playing the game looks a lot different as opposed to those battle reports. I thought it was just me though, because my graphics card is getting a little dated.

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Lasereth

My main beef is that the battle reports gave the illusion that we'd be able to control the camera and pan it however we wanted.


We can't, and I think this is why the game feels and looks dated. Plus epic battles like these never last this long. Huge firefights in SC2 last about 10 seconds before every unit is dead. Not epic at all.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Orchrist

I think one of the reasons for lack of camera control is due to the fact that we're beta testing the mp game, and full camera control is probably editable via the editor as we're been told about all of the different things it can be used to achieve. Perhaps keeping the static directional view while playing and standardizing the play perspective for all players is something they want in order to balance out everyone's experience in a mp environment.

Lasereth

Well I understand why they did it, but it still gave a false sense on what we should expect out of the game. The game in THAT video looks advanced from SC1. But let's be real, zooming in during SC2 just doesn't happen, it might as well be turned off. I feel like the zooming in is for Blizzard to show people that the game REALLY CAN look better than SC1 if you allow camera panning.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Orchrist

Meh, that game looks like sc2 to me, with a 3rd person camera rolling around in a circle. How often does zooming come into play in any game it's available to use? With the exception of Supreme Commander nearly every rts I can think of has made me want to stay as zoomed out as possible while still able to control my units effectively. Being able to view more at once is a big advantage playing this sort of game. You zoom in when you want to look what your units look like all nice and gory in awesome detail but then when you're actually playing your never playing from that perspective because it blinds you. The option to zoom in and out stays in the game to show people what the engine is capable of doing, just like with the new unit titles they added, showing the game is capable of stat tracking, even if it serves no purpose in the regular mp maps, you can certainly utilize these features to their fullest dreams using the map editor. For instance the comment from one of the dev's saying you could use the editor to make a FPS game(that zoomed in enough?)

Lasereth

Yeah exactly, the zoom in is useless. But that's not my point. My point is that the panning camera WOULD make the game look better and give an entirely new experience. It may hinder your ability to micro but I'd at least like the option to pan around and then leave it in a different place for the rest of the match. It feels like they have a great engine built here but you never get to see what it can do.

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"A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

Jozrael

The engine is retardedly powerful. It'd be very easy to edit in basic camera controls and have an otherwise melee map. Right now delete and insert give you temporary, limited panning a la WC3.