starcraft 2
 

it's official, and im surprised not posted yet

SC2 is in the works!

www.blizzard.com

it's kind of posted in the "blizzard is announcing a new game" thread.

The video looks pretty snazzy, and I know for sure my current setup can't run it. I'm a little disappointed that they showed so little of the zerg of the video. And to be honest, they didn't really show me any new units/races.

So while the video was quite attractive, what they really showed me was a prettier version of starcraft 1

we should do all the SC2 talk in here. the other thread was just the waiting part.

If you check in the other thread(yes i know), you'll see 2 vids from the protoss which show a ton of new units and new abilities. it's fucking awesome! (not just from the protoss but a few from terrans and zergs.)

Is there anywhere else to DL this trailer? I mean, come on, the Blizzard DLer never worked for WoW patches, and it's certainly not working for this video!

use YOUTUBE! you can find most starcraft vids on there.

Blizzard are pretty keen on having it scaleable. You might not be able to run it pretty, but with a semi-modern computer you should be able to run it ;)

This game should be pretty neat. I didn't get into the first StarCraft in time (still have the box!) but would give it a go.

I think I may reinstall SC: BW and start playing it again. I had been thinking about reinstalling it anyway since I no longer play WoW.

I'm gonna be pretty pissed if SC2 has a hero system in it. I fucking hated that about WC3.

really? i got the d/l just fine from it, not to mention i now never have problems with my WoW patches. I blamed Blizzard for about a year for their crappy downloader. Turned out that my router was to blame, it eventually crapped out.... new router, no problems, fast downloads.

I'm playing WC3 again, and I must say I did not like it either when I first played it. But after WoW I must say it really gives it much more storyline depth to have the Hero system in place.

I'm playing C&C again now, along with Generals and eh, it's an RTS with little much than blowing shit up.

Thank you! WC3 did it, and a boatload of other RTS tried to follow the trend. I fucking hate the "hero systems." I'm not playing an RPG, damnit.. I'm playing a strategy game@!

Totally agreed. I cannot stand the idea that the rts isn't enough for people. Can you imagine having heros in a simulator like sim city? Garbage. If Starcraft 2 has heroes (which I doubt will happen), I don't know if I'll buy it.

I like the hero system in WC3 only for DotA. I can't stand it if I'm just trying to play a regular skirmish though.

I don't mind the hero system too much, after all it's just another unit, another very crappy unit until it levels up a decent amount.

So do you guys favor the Hero system of Starcraft compared to WC III? I.E. they have a static strength that doesn't level up at all?

I found that it distracted from the strategic strengths of WC3. It makes for a slightly more engaging single player mode....but who buys Starcraft for the single player mode?

In what ways did you think it distracted from the strategic strengths of wc3? Personally, I found that it added an interesting element. You get 1 unit who can perform abilities no other unit in your force can (and which you assume are pretty good abilities.)

Especially when you consider that heroes at level 1-5 were practically useless outside of their abilities.

I think a lot of people wanted StarCraft in WC3. I played it for what it was - and had an absolute blast. Many late nights with my buddy on a LAN, racing to get the best mobs and level our heroes. Added a whole other element; to send out your forces to assist the hero, or keep them ready in case there's a sneak attack? Split the forces? Disrupt his production or focus on experience and equipment? Not to mention keeping items in reserve that would turn the tide of a decisive battle. Fantastic stuff.

I, personally, felt that heroes took away from the strategic importance of the rest of the board. All the hippographs or frost wyrms the map can take have trouble standing up to a few decent heroes. It was an effective way to bring imbalance to the units. One of the best thing for me on Starcraft was that I knew that I could match myself blow for blow with any military because I knew how to match units. They mass goons, I've already got a massive zergling army ready to go. They send over guards and devourers, I've got scouts and cors. When a new type of element altogether is introduced, it takes away from the wonderful comparability between the strategy on SC and the strategy of real military combat. The real world has heroes, but none of them can spin in a circle really fast with blades and make a tornado. Other than Jack Bauer, obviously.

^ Agreed.

Heroes are okay for singleplayer mode, but I don't want any of that shit when playing multiplayer.

Anyone would think you played with no heroes of your own, will ;)

Seems to me that blizzard is concentrating more on adding special units such as that protoss mothership, and implementing a new layer of strategic possibilities via new units/abilities. For that reason, I doubt they will introduce a hero system. It just doesn't fit with what they've been doing so far with SC 2.

And for the record, I hate heros too.

I kinda think Blizzard got lucky by having so few units in Starcraft 1. It will be interesting to see how balanced they can make these new units.

Finally, another blizzard game besides WoW!!

any thoughts on SC2 leading into a WoS like WC3 was to WoW?

I don't think blizzard will do anything as far as a large scale MMO game like WoW because wow has been so sucesfull they can ride that wave and just release updates for probably another 5 or 6 years,

I trust that SC2 will be balanced properly. Providing that marines and siege tanks do their jobs properly, I'm set. C&C3 disappointed me and SC2 should fill the skirmishy RTS void nicely. Company of Heroes and Total War will take care of the rest.

Yep, it's definately something I'm looking forward too. And I suck at Starcraft :)

Here's what the guys at 1up.com have to say about the upcoming game:

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/11809

And, here's a Starcraft 2 cell phone wallpaper I made from the art the SC2 site.

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o...MarineCell.jpg

...now to take a picture of the computer screen on my camera phone....

Good idea, and you can finish off by taking a picture of your camera phone with your real camera so you can repost and show us how it looks ;)

Pac: Naw I dont think they will either, was just throwing it out there. First of all, like you said they have no reason to with WoW. Second I dont think starcraft would work so well as an MMO, with warcraft everything is humanoid based whereas in starcraft 80% of the units are vehicals.

At least this Starcraft is coming out. I had such high hopes for Starcraft Ghost only to have it postponed indefinitely. I guess I will just have to live with being above the action and not in it.

started playing one again for kicks, forgot how much I hate playing zerg.

if you guys want to play the SC2 beta and stuff you should check out www.blizzcon.com

lol nevermind, they sold out 3 days after opening the ticket sales

damn, good lord that was fast.

actually, if you wanted to try a semi beta, a few years ago when WC3 was popular, someone made a SC mod for it. it would be cool to try it!

Yea i whipped out SC1 the other day and no i am totally excited

i'll have to do that too this summer sometime!!

Did anyone see that show on gaming in Korea? They have Starcraft tournaments in arena's and the players make over $100,000 a year.

Yep that game is still huge over there. It's crazy. You can turn on the TV and see SC tournaments.

Ya, some of those guys are Nuts. I read somewhere that they can do an average of 20 moves a second with hotkeys.

It's ridiculous to play against them.

I used to go to tournaments all the time. I even entered and won a few. once upon a time, I was a Lost Temple kinda guy.

They just announced Tricia Helfer will be voicing Kerrigan in SC2. woot, BSG talent go!

Beta invites have been sent out. Anyone here get one? I didn't :(.

Beta FAQ:
StarCraft II Beta - English (NA) Forums -> StarCraft II Beta FAQ

I've got mine installed. Beta invite from Blizzcon 08.

I managed to get two invites, one from a family member who works in the industry and got an invite from his Activision rep, and one from attending Blizzcon 08. So my good buddy from SC1 days will be happy.

Good lord I just got done reinstalling SCI out of sheer boredom. Must find a way to get an invite for this

I'm pretty sure you want to give me, a practical stranger, that extra invite instead of your buddy. It's only logical. :thumbsup:

Blizzard can suck a dick. They announce their games WAY too early. Diablo 3 won't be out until MAYBE Christmas next year, and Starcraft 2 will probably be november/december of this year. Even the lead designer admitted they announce them too early. I'm tired of waiting for this crap.

Anyone got an extra beta key??? :) :)

When the news got out about the last Activision conference call they said SC2 should be out middle of this year, WoW: Cataclysm at the end of this year and D3 next year sometime. so it's not that bad. Wish I had keys for everyone I knew, definitely tons of interest out there. I can't wait to play it more but I'm stuck at work for a few more hours!

Earliest estimate on sc2 release was late 2008.

l o l.

I didn't get a key T_T.

Blizzard is TERRIBLE with release dates. I remember Diablo II was in the making for like 10 years. I don't mind waiting between each game, but I do get annoyed when they release content 2-3 years in advance making us think the game is almost done.

The thing with Blizzard is that they DO "finish" the games years early, but they are just so anal about not releasing any game or expansion until it is 100% bug free that they take forever to come out. I was playing both Starcraft 2 AND Diablo 3 at Blizzcon 08.

I didn't get an invite for this wave, I think this was mostly the blizzcon/industry crowd.

I've been playing starcraft broodwar for years and I cant wait for SC2. Applied for beta with no luck. ='[

Its very easy to get a hacked version of the beta right now; you won't be able to play online though. You'll have to make do with watching replays or playing against the AI (which is slightly clusterfucked on the hacked version).

Not really interested in this game as much as I thought I would be.

I guess the RTS genre has just been stagnant and dead for so long that it's hard for me to care about another "harvest/research/produce/destroy" routine based game that has remained mostly unchanged in the 10+ years since it's last incarnation.

That said, I'll play it because I know the story will be great, the voice acting cast for this will be great, and that will hook me long enough.
But I don't forsee the multiplayer holding me unless I somehow develop a fetish for being raped by asian micro reflexes.

Shauk: Please please please please please consider custom games haha. While I liked the melee scene as a diversion in sc1, the custom scene had a much lower barrier for entry, and entertained an entirely different caste of players.

I'm just sad glynnis won't be returning; aside from that the voicecasting looks amazing.

The SP will of course be ridiculously awesome (unfortunately that pretty much requires you to get all three installations).

I'm really excited for it, but I don't know how it'll fit in my gaming time with it focused on LoL and a bit of BLC on the side.

I tried the watching replays/play against AI hack, but for some reason I couldn't get it working. It kept saying I was missing some files (I assume it was talking about the maps), but I have all the maps and cache files....

People are too good at RTS games for me now. The micro management is just crazy. I still love the game though. I spent most of my later days in the editor doing custom stuff of my own.

Maybe SC2 will have a good casual following for a while so I won't feel as bad as I do when I pop in SC1 and get my face melted due to the crazy people that still play.

The matchmaking system in SC2 should make those that hate getting pwned by superior players constantly very happy. It's still very early in functionality now and there is an extremely limited pool of players to pick from but it's working very well all considering.

After 10 "placement" games in your league of choice say 1v1 the game will rate you based on your playstyle and place you in a league Bronze Silver Gold Platinum, from there each league will be split into divisions which max out around 100 players and then your division is in a constant mini tournament within itself. If you end up performing above/below your league the game will move you to a more appropriate league at the end of the current tournament. At first I thought the win/loss ratios were all it was checking but the skill evaluation seems to be a lot deeper in telling how exactly good of a player you are, but blizzard is keeping quiet on how exactly it works.

...orchrist totally beat me to it lol.

I hear ya, Reese. I remember being good at Warcraft 2, but that was only because the micro and macro management skills required were far less than those compared to Starcraft and Warcraft 3. That and the fact that the only viable competitive strategies all revolved around getting Ogre-Magi and bloodlust. There's just too much going on sometimes in WC3 and SC for me to get good.

Though, they are fun.

That's pretty much how I feel about SC2. I'm sure I'll buy it and I'm sure I'll play through it, but I just don't have the energy or interest to learn how to play a game like SC at the competitive multiplayer levels a lot of people do. In a lot of ways, it's a solo experience for me, which may be missing a big part of the game, but I'm cool with that.

i just got invited to the beta! weeeeee!

Dorm neighbours just downloaded a crack to play the beta offline (single player only, so far...!) There goes the week!

But what if you were only paired up with other players of your general level of expertise?

And only ranked against them? (You could be in silver division 8, and be competing with only 100 other players worldwide for the #1 spot!)

That's what SC2 is geared for: people of ALL skill levels.

I'm mostly looking forward to the SP campaign for my part, I spent far too much time being amateur competitive in Warcraft III without any progression or anything to show for it :( (don't handle losing very well in RTS, a bad streak could really ruin my day) Casual gaming with friends should be good, though :D

So for those of you that don't know, you can play the cracked version of the beta in an offline vs AI mode.

I've been playing for about a week.

The link for the instructions to DL and such is here:

Starcraft 2 Beta Cracked & Available for Download

The new updated AI StarCrack AI Official Thread (Latest Version: 6.1)

I can personally attest that it is 100% clean. I'll play a game, and post a few screenshots :)

Just a few quick screen's of the Terrans!

I got in to the beta yesterday.

I gotta say, the textures they use aren't very flattering. I know it's a lot better looking than the old SC but it's really easy to lose visual track of some units (the dreadnaught cruiser for example) if it's sitting over one of the terran buildings since they seem to share that same "earth metal" texture.

The lack of campaign mode really leaves the newcomers out in the cold. I had a match against this guy who never played the original and didn't really know what was going on. I took him out with literally one unit.

Ghost / Nuke combo over and over.

they need to increase the amount of time it takes to build a nuke I think. I felt like a cuban missile base.

IMO the beta isn't really for newcomers :P. That's what release will be for, and they will be dazzled with awesometastic campaign goodness then :p

Well that's what beta is for to weed out the tactics that are too overpowered. I've used zealot rushes to ridiculous amounts of success... chrono boost ftw... Waiting for that to get nerfed like the mothership did.

Too much complaining about lack of campaign and better ai though, it's a beta they're testing what needs to be tested!

pshhh zealot rushes get raped by my roach rush

Thanks for the screenshots.. I am SOOOOO looking forward to this... Re-live some of my youth when I'd spend all night playing the original with guys from work and then spend the next day at work talking about the awesome gaming from the night before.. Ahh good times..

It's sad that protoss have to tech to tier 2 to counter zerg's tier 1 roach. They should make stalkers or sentries a little more even with them I think.

stalkers are pretty okay at defending roaches. Roaches really shine when you get burrow.

man after my 10 entrance games I was placed in the gold league and I've just been getting murdered left and right. :(

sigh, my battle.net account was hacked, I called all day long yesterday to the blizzard billing and customer service department to get "we're sorry all of our operators are busy we have are experiencing a high call volume. please call back another time." And when I finally got through I had to wait on hold for 50 minutes. The lady said my WoW account was reopened after like a year of being closed. I could care less about that. I want to play SC2. So the lady closed that email and put my other email...but she got the address wrong. Mixed an 'n' with an 'm'...so I tried calling today several times and got the same high volume, call us back later bullshit. Man, blizzard customer service is fucking awful.

I just want to play SC2...

Damn, dude that sucks. Hope you get it back soon.

Anyone know of any cracks out there which can support LAN? I'm still waiting for my invite through Blizzard.

I'm pretty sure there's no LAN in SC2.

First in my copper league division xD.

Ok so NO ONE in this thread so far has posted their tags. I'm playing on Shared.jessep atm, and will let you know when I get my own key (few days hopefully).

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).

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.

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.

Yeah I'll be preording it for the beta.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 :o

Lasereth.beta

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

Doomtrain.mlm

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

thejuanald.sanctu

Kaji.kahee

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

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.)

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

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....

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

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.