Ok, let the rant begin. This is gonna be a long one, please read it all tho before arguing. The Point: Since watching the very first announcment gameplay video a number of things came to mind, namely the very good use of the new physics engine that was incorporated into starcraft 2. To be specific, various units, eg the warp rays, would blow up into recognisable pieces then proceed to slide and bounce off of the terrain. This occured with all mechanical units shown in the trailer, aswell as various infantry. Blizzard then comes out, further along in their development with various articles and interviews saying how such effects supposedly obscure and distract from the gameplay, i can agree with this to some degree in the multiplayer but in singleplayer this is surely not the case. And now, presently we are shown gameplay examples, both in and out of singleplayer which show NO use of their physics engine, with piss poor almost amature looking death effects. This didnt worry me at first cause i thought its np they're still making the game, its not in beta. But no, the effects were in, they were polished and they looked brilliant around the announcment, they were SPECIFICLY removed at the same time blizzard talked of them distracting from gameplay. I was very sad to see this as its basicly a sprint backward in how their game was looking. When people buy and play the game one of the first things they see is the art, such effects not only provide more immersion, but they make the player go: 'Oh wow! that battlecruiser just exploded into 3 massive parts of its hull and engine, which now come crashing to the floor!'. It looks brilliant, and it adds even more flavour and gravity to the unit. Blizzards latest gameplay trailers show the typical old fashioned use of pre-set death animations, no eye candy, just piss poor poofs of blood. The Argument: Blizzard claims they distract from the gameplay, this is the case.. for noobs who play the game and cant tell the difference between a damn hydra and a ling (generally kids or people above 50). Said effects can be changed to toggleable sliders on a high setting, to prevent engine problems, aswell as the time taken for the pieces to dissipate, preventing unit cover up. Here is a new video of the upcoming Red Alert game, as you can see it takes advantage of such explosive deaths of units, of which is even present in their multiplayer: http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41624.html 1. Does it distract from the gameplay? No 2. Does it cost too much, engine wise? No - Sliders can cater to any supposed high engine effects. 3. Does it cover units? No, dissipate effects can be changed and monitered to allow a high visibility. 4. Does it look bad? Hell no. Such excuses are terrible, blizzard need to take notice of various other RTS's and stop being so paranoid about people not being able to see 50% of a unit for 1 second. Not having such awsome effects would be a really big letdown. I hope im not the only one who thinks those deaths effects should be re-introduced! /Babmer
I thought the single-player and mutliplayer had different levels of effects (i.e. single-player had all or most, and multiplayer had the bare minimum)
I agree whole-heartedly... keep the death effects and pieces blowing up and sliding down ramps, etc. even in multiplayer, cause SENIOR to not being able to see a marine that is temporarily blocked from site by a piece of a building that just got blown up is the awesome look of what just happened!!! Even in potential pro games, let the pro deal with it, it's part of the game cause it looks outrageously awesome and it's the absolute opposite without! I mean for all the potential people watching the pro matches, do you not think they'll love seeing that stuff? I think the concern is that pros notice the occasional difficulty of seeing some of their units in this situation but I don't really think that's truly a legitimate reason to scrap the mechanic. Again, it just adds a tiny additional level of difficulty (and only in some circumstances) which all-in-all, I feel add to the game's improved dynamic. SO WHAT IF YOU LOST ONE OR EVEN TWO UNITS BECAUSE THEY WERE TEMPORARILY HIDDEN BEHIND A GIANT PIECE OF A BARRACKS THAT WENT ROLLING BY. IT WAS WORTH IT TO BE ABLE TO SEE THAT HAPPEN!!!
Indeed The game should come out as "realistic" as possible. And last time I checked, things don't just puff into oblivion when destroyed or disabled. Starcraft Two seems unique and all, but I'm not going to buy it to substitute Brood Wars because there is just so much being left out of SC II in terms of realistic rendering and what not.
I thought this too until i saw the latest gameplay. Besides, the current bare minimum in multiplayer consists of roaches blowing up in plumes of blood.. when shot... gg.. Frankly, the pro's should shove it up their uptight asses, i cant believe blizzard is going to cater to such a ridiculous excuse and leave the effects like that out of multiplayer. Just throw in a hardcore mode with no effects or put in a DAMN SLIDER to compensate for everyone ffs blizzard, dont down tone the awsomeness of the game on such a small whim. To sum up: Add a damn slider if you're reading this blizz.
haha.. I admire the pros, they are savages!!! I just think this new debri mechanic is overall aesthetically pleasing enough to make it an official update to the general look of the game... and it's something new that "the pros" have to get accustomed to like everyone else. Let's not forget "pros", you guys are PROS, you should be able to manage excellently, even with subtle distractions like these!!! The more realistic look and feel of the game is improved upon so much with this mechanic, it's rather petty/boring to not implement it, and quite honestly, I say don't have the amount of debri end up being ridiculous, but keep it something similar to in the original gameplay trailor, that was AWESOME, no change necessary! Peace
Units' deaths will still be dependant on the way they die. As in, it's not going to be like StarCraft1 where all lings popped, all Marines were cut in half, all Lurkers exploded into concentric rings or blood and all Firebats combusted. I know that doesn't necessarily mean that the same will happen with larger mechanical units in StarCraft2 by having physic-based deaths, but bid they actually physically announce that they'd be removing all that? It could just be that they're not bothering at the moment due to effects like that being final touches.
It should stay, but it should be toggable. When i think about this particular issue, I think about a very old game called theme hospital, it was a sim game where you create a hospital, but the diseases were funny, like bloaty head was a guy with a huge head and to cure him you needed a doctor to pop his head and then reinflate it to normal. it was nice, it was funny and looked sweet, for the first few days, then it was just the same thing over and over again, it didn't matter no more and thats what i think will happen with this physics engine issue, people want it cause it looks good, but thats just for a short time, after that people would toggle it off.
Yes I agree. On of the things that impressed me on the Protoss demo was the battlecruiser crashing down and sliding down the ramp. I reckon they should reintroduce the effects. Though does the debris get in the way of units physically on the gameplay?
To say debris or dead bodies obstruct gameplay is to say special effects or doodads obstruct gameplay. Here is the course Blizz should take. Allow a slider bar in the graphics options to increase or decrease the amount of extra graphical effects. So each player on b.net can choose exactly what he/she does/does not want to see. Let the user find their own level of preferred eye candy. Allow each of us to play either in high end pretty mode or bare bones kick your a$$ mode. Such options already occur in most (Blizzard included) games. Work with them to make the best show piece and tourny games out of SC2. Most of all, give the player the choice.
Indeed. I would love to hear the official word from blizzard on this subject... anyone who can post on the b-net forums?
Ah yes but in multiplayer give the players the choice and more often then not the least laggy option will be chosen. Even if it's a 1 millisecond difference. They'll go for it. Personally I'd like to see if this would create much more lag or less unit visibility. If not then just have it on max for multiplayer.
i'd love to see a overlord falling on fire as one. Oh the humanity! i think it should be toggleable, most people would turn it down for multiplayer but i think it wold be nice for singleplayer.
