Hey there, I have been away for quite some time now, but now I'm back. I want to start of with a new discussion which is related to various speculations about the possibility that E-sports players will "skip" StarCraft 2. The general story behind my idea: With the launch of StarCraft and the expansion set Brood Wars, the game set the new standard for multiplayer RTS games. People keep playing the original StarCraft, even while lots of other great strategy games were released over the years. Then Warcarft 3 was released. It was expected that Warcraft 3 would replace StarCraft as the number one competition RTS, but that didn't happen, especially in Korea. Now StarCraft 2 is coming. Can we expect the same to happen again? Perhaps not, but the changes in balance, graphics and overal gameplay are so big that the E-sports players might once again turn their backs on this new game after a couple of weeks and concentrate on Brood Wars again. Especially since the new game won't be bug free right from the start. It took years to create a good defence against people using game hacks on battle.net regarding SC:BW. With the new "open" style of programming, which is needed to support modders and stuff, the secuirity of the game will possibly result in even bigger problems this time. I highly doubt that the World Cyber Games and sponsors would continue to support StarCraft 2 if that seems to be the case. This could result in battle.net no longer being for free (as was discussed before), less tournaments for Stacraft 2 etc. (since every serious player sticks to SC:BW and/or W3:TFT) My idea: In SC:BW, players could choose between the original game or the expansion after launching the game and choosing a profile. How about implementing the same option in StarCraft 2? Players can choose bewteen the original StarCraft gameplay that they are familiar with, but with the new visuals, or choose for an entirely new experience when they choose for the new (StarCraft 2) style. This, quite simple, option could be the thing that lures the pro-players and sponsors to StarCraft 2, and that would result in more support from the old communities, Blizzard itself and more tournaments. And then I'm not even mentioning that it would simply be awesome to finally delete all of those mods for other games that desperately try to imitate the original game with next-gen graphics. (No offence to the project revolution mod, but it was just to big of a project for such a small team.) And last but not least: do we really want to mod the game ourselves to create a classic StarCraft mode with the new look? I don't think so, since it would be unofficial and online play would be HELL, since everyone would create their own mods, and you would have dozens of "original" mods on your hard-drive, since there is no official standard. If you made it this far without falling into a coma, thank you for reading. I am waiting for your opinions. Greetz, Fo®Saken
Well, it would be fun to be able to have some new graphics for the old SC, but it seems more like a fun extra then a way to get people to play SC2. I don't see the change in graphic style being the big hurdle to getting people to play SC2 as opposed to SC:BW, or other RTS games. Starcraft is remarkably well balanced, and well designed, with many options on how to play each race. So until a game comes along that is even better in balance and/or strategy options then SC people will continue to play the original. Giving people the option to play SC with SC2 visuals isn't going to make SC2 any better of a game in and of itself, so I guess I don't see how it would make people more likely to play SC2 over SC:BW. That being said I could be missing something.
It will be done in the form of UMS maps, where you can have custom units and tech trees. The question is not whether we need it or not, but whether these UMS maps start popping up right after release or not. I'd say the former.
We already have a Classic mode, it's called Starcraft Brood War. I don't see much of a point in being redundant just for visuals. If Blizzard is going to be worried about the Koreans skipping over StarCraft 2, they need to work a little harder to appease them. Although, that is what they are mainly looking at right now when developing the game, so I have a feeling they will get it right.
Yes yes yes! I would love to see this idea implemented by Blizzard in SC2, as although I realise it's somewhat superficial to judge a game by it's graphical prowess, I find the appearance of a game has a HUGE impact on my enjoyment of it. If the graphics of a game are simply ugly I just find it really hard to keep playing it... Although SC:BW has (thanks to the nature of 2D graphics) managed to stay OK visuals-wise, I would love to see all the old units brought back exactly as they were, because I really loved every single unit in that game, but in a beautiful new shiny 3D world. However I highly doubt that Blizzard will do this, and I also highly doubt that a mod that could be user created could quite achieve the same thing Blizzard could if they did it themselves (not doubting the skill of the modders out there, just because they developers would be able to integrate this much more seamlessly into the game). Although I'll be honest, it's probably just my nostalgia talking.
Don't forget the actual physics engine. I don't think Blizzard needs to spend any time doing this. They said they will include all of the orig. units in the map editor, then we could put together the original sides as they were in SCI. I prefer they steer their efforts into SCII's other contents.
If I would like to play a game of classic old SC:BW after playing SC2 with the new units, mechanics, sounds and graphics for some time, I would prefer to play the real original just because of the overall image of the game with the 2D graphics and the other stuff. I think it would be a different feeling ... I don't think its necessary to put such a mode into the game right after the release (if at all), because at that point most people want to play SC2 and not SC:BW with SC2 graphics. Maybe later, if there are enough people who really wants that.
Good questions. My opinion: 1°) Blizzard will not develop a "starcraft classic" game mode within Starcraft 2: I think they are way enough busy with the campaigns universe and stories (videos, dialogs, triggers etc), and the multiplayer balancing. 2°) The community will develop a "starcraft classic" game mode, that is pretty obvious and unevitable, and they already did with WC3. The level editing tool will enable such mod. 3°) You will have tens of mods installed on your computer, and you will have to struggle to advertise your mod so the players will play it more than the ones of other teams, and you will have at some stage to make some cleaning in your hard drive. 4°) A part of the koreans will switch to SC2, and another will remain on SC1, the only question is to know if this will be more 80%/20%, or rather 20%/80%. Blizzard is not Valve: they will surely not screw up Starcraft as those nubs at Valve did with Counter-strike, and I think the Koreans are just waiting for a new game that really worths to switch on. On another hand, do we really need the koreans to have fun on our end? I am working at the moment in a project that will enable the mappers, the modders, the clan leaders, the tournament organisers etc to recruit each other, and to advertise their projects, their websites and their releases, and perform live tests and possibly tournaments. I will need your opinion very soon regarding the site structure and the forum layout. EDIT: by the way, the poll question is just stupid: "Classic mode?" yes/no k...
I see that the opinions are somewhat divided. But like I said, it's easy to understand StarCraft, but it isn't easy to master. No one here can probably say that they have a high skill level at the game, it takes a lot of time to master. I would rather continue to play StarCraft competitively in the old style rather then having to start all over again. It was hard enough as it was. Then again, everybody will start "fresh" again when they start playing with the new game. Perhaps the addition of a classic mode will only widen the gap between the (semi-)pro players and the casual gamers. Hmm, this isn't such a good after all. Oh well, at least we have gained some more insight in my weird brain and the way (a part of) the community thinks about the new StarCraft compared to the original. By the way, why are almost only new members responding to this topic? Am I lacking my former inventive style of setting up discussions?
Do people still buy SC 1. I think they do. And for me what I'd do is have an option to play SC 1 right out of SC 2. As in no need for the SC 1 disc or app anymore. It'll all be in one. Then people could play SC 2 or SC 1 multiplayer games whenever they wanted to. Mind you the SC 1 would be the BW edition. Nothing SC 2 about it. I think the best course of action is watch the battle.net activity once SC 2 is out. And after a month or two what the SC1/SC2 games ratio is there. And act accordingly. I voted no because my idea requires SC 1 to play it. It'd be like a retro add on pack for SC 1.
No for some reasons. Economic, Blizzard wants to introduce people to a NEW game. By having BW inside SC2 will give another good reason for Pro not to port over SC2 and stay with BW with better graphics. Gameplay : Pathing was changed from BW which makes a big difference on unit movements and micro. GUI changed for users, mbs, auto-mine. Damage table was changed from previous "penalities VS" to "bonus VS" Blizzard will not loose it's time (I hope so) to mimic another game and loose it's SC2 audience to it. The community will create UMS for Broodwar, let them deal with damage table and gui difference to make it as balanced as BW Maybe a project that Blizzard has once SC2 is out. Creating a perfect port once SC2 E-sport flourishes a little.
no because it wouldn't get progamers to switch anyway. they are not going to play something that has even the slightest bit more lag, just for better graphics. considering support for custom races on b.net and all the original units included in the editor, i predict that "zerg classic" would appear but i don't think its worth copying all the damage/terrain/pathing etc.
True. Besides, there would be tons of people out there who'll immediately get to work remaking the SC and BW games once editors for StarCraft II come out. Just look at what they did to WC3. :O
:O that was supposed to say 'wouldn't'. well making a BW mod won't be hard considering all the units are included in the editor, supposedly in the same state i just hope you can change stuff like the terrain bonus's without having to actually edit the usual game data(i.e. "mod" ).
