My Thoughts on the Trilogy

I think visom is trippin... no doubt you are entitled to your own opinion... we heard it, now it's time to wrap it up.

Thanks

 

No-one's saying that. You were asked a question. Were you or were you not happy with the StarCraft1 expansion, the WarCraftII and WarCraftIII expansion, etc, etc, or did feel that all of these expansions were just attempts to milk their customers' money?

Did you even read what GMG wrote? I'll requote some of it for your convenience:

About the Zerg and Protoss parts supposedly not being an expansion because they don't feature all races, that's completely irrelevant. The Protoss and Zerg parts are expansions, they've said so themselves, and there's nothing to say that to be an expansion it needs to feature campaigns for all three races.

I'll explain it in simpler terms.

Just say that StarCraft1 had another expansion after BroodWar. For the same of clarity, and so that it's not confused with anything else, I'll just call it SecondComing for now. So, there's StarCraft1, BroodWar, and SecondComing. Agreed? Good, as there's nothing to disagree with as of yet. In StarCraft1, the campaigns will be made up of all three races. In other words, in StarCraft1, a third of the campaigns will be for Terran, a third will be for Zerg and a third will be for Protoss. For now, let's call each of these components Terran1, Zerg1 and Protoss1. Now, in BroodWar, again, the campaigns were for all races. Again, there's a third for Terran, a third for Zerg and a third for Protoss. Again, for now, let's call these components Terran2, Zerg2 and Protoss2. Lastly, in the proposed SecondComing, being the second expansion, there will, again, be a third of the campaigns dedicated to each race. Lastly, let's call these Terran3, Zerg3 and Protoss3.

Now, StarCraft2 has the exact same setup as StarCraft1 and the hypothetical second expansion, the only different being that instead of grouping the campaigns in terms of their number, as in Terran1, Zerg1 and Protoss1 for the first release, Terran2, Zerg2 and Protoss2 for the expansion and Terran3, Zerg3 and Protoss3 for the second expansion, what've done is grouped them in terms of their races, as in Terran1, Terran2 and Terran3 for the original release, Zerg1, Zerg2 and Zerg3 for the expansion and Protoss1, Protoss2 and Protoss3 for the second expansion. That's the only difference. The Zerg and Protoss components are the first and second expansions, just like BroodWar and 'SecondComing' in StarCraft1.

That's fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting each component to have campaigns for each race, and no-one's trying to correct you on that. The thing we are trying to correct you on is the fact that the Zerg and Protoss components are expansions. StarCraft2 has two expansions.

Well you're free to think that, but in doing so you'd have to think that any company that's ever released an expansion is doing the exact same thing. If you don't think that's the case, then you've got a double standard for StarCraft2.

 

I am a bit disappointed that I won't get all 3 races with the initial release of SC2

however, I want to get my hands on the game asap, so I guess if that's what it takes...

 

Firstly, that doesn't really answer the question. Secondly, milking is an act, so they're either trying to milk us or they're not trying to milk us.

Firstly, that could be because a heck of a lot of forum members don't understand what's actually happening with the trilogy, and secondly it's half true. It's true in the same way that buying StarCraft1 will give you the full multiplayer game on that one disc, but it's wrong in the sense that the expansion will add to the multiplayer, so someone with the original won't be able to play against someone with the expansion. It's a very loose-ended statement.

Yes, in the exact same way as you need to buy both StarCraft1 and BroodWar to fully play online. There's absolutely no difference in this case. You'll still be able to play online with just the Terran component, just as you were able to play online with just StarCraft1, but if when the expansions are released, well, yes, you'll have to buy the expansions in order to play the expansions.

I can understand you wanting shorter campaigns for each race and getting them all at once, as opposed to having longer campaigns for each race but having to wait for the other two, but the campaigns will be more enjoyable set out like this. They'll be more enjoyable because Blizzard is able to do a heck of a lot more with them now. If they were each cut into thirds, they'd lose a heck of a lot of content and a heck of a lot of the storyline.

Remember you're not 'missing out' on the other two races. They're just coming out when the BroodWar missions would have come out.

Yeah, basically it's an extension to the series, or something that adds new content to a pre-existing game. For example, BroodWar added new campaigns, and it also added new units to all the races. The Zerg and Protoss components will add new campaigns, and they will also add new units to all the races. All the Zerg and Protoss expansions are doing is adding new content. They're no different to any other expansions, BroodWar included.

No, you won't be able to use the Zerg and Protoss expansions units in the original Terran campaigns, just as you're not able to use the new BroodWar units in the original StarCraft1 campaigns. Also, it's not that you're unable to use certain features in the original Terran component, it's just that more are added in the expansions, again, just like the new units with BroodWar.

If you think StarCraft2 is an incomplete game, do you also think that StarCraft1 was an incomplete game?

That's all correct. Although you'll be playing from Kerrigan's, Raynor's and Zeratul's point of view, it won't just be a different perspective of the exact same thing that happened in the original StarCraft2. When you finish playing Terran and start playing Zerg, the storyline will be continuing. It's exactly the same as in the original StarCraft, or in BroodWar. All three races had campaigns, but it wasn't just each one of their perspectives, the plot simply continued with another race.

I think GMG's already said that would be the case. From Blizzard's other games, they usually release the expansion within a year or so. You'll still have plenty of time to play the original online before you have to buy the Zerg expansions, and you'll have plenty of time to play the Zerg expansion before you have to buy the Protoss expansion, just like you had plenty of time to play StarCraft1 before you had to buy BroodWar.

That's not the case. These're expansions, so they're be released in the same way that BroodWar was, that Beyond the Dark Portal was, and that the Frozen Throne was.

 

Wow you guys are all ****in' nutz. (read my sig!)


About HAVING to buy all 3 games; I don't know how many people have asked after this was already answered. You only need one game to play bnet or skirmish with all 3 races. Play as them or against them.
Blizz has even already said there will be a short toss mini-campaign in WoL to shake things up if you choose to.

I've even heard (I can never find the source, it was an interview with some blizz bigdog) that it is very likely Blizz will add expansion units via patches for those who do not buy the next 2 games. So they may still play over bnet no problem.
Those people will however miss out on (from what we know of the Terran Star map and Armory) 2 full complex and incredibly fresh campaigns. Even if you watch all the in game and CGI cinematics on you tube, it's nowhere near close to being immersed in the SC universe via actual play and navigating around your ship.

I really don't understand all this lack of faith in Blizz. They are not going to kill the base of one of the biggest games since pong to make a little bit more money. It's not even just the precedent of their extreme fan service (What other company hires people as community managers, reads what people write in forums about their games, or holds a big ass party every year?), but also blizz is not stupid. It's always a big mistake to piss off loyal customers. They are not trying to milk the player. They are trying to give us the best possible experience for this highly anticipated game(s). IMEO. The e stands for educated.

 

That's pretty sweet, but at the same time it's pretty weird. That's like released BroodWar as a patch and the BroodWar campaigns separately. Still, here's hoping that this will mean the Zerg and Protoss components will now be cheaper, as people would merely be buying the campaign. In fact, thinking about it, it's still a bit more complicated than that, as the Zerg and Protoss campaigns are still complete games in themselves...

In my opinion, I think it would be simpler to release them as expansions. I guess they're doing this to play down the money milking angle.

 

Will the multiplayer be fully useable for all 3 races on installments 2 and 3 should a person not buy the Terran box?

 

It will take at least a year. They managed to release Frozen Throne in a year, but remember that the Zerg and Protoss campaigns will have new metaplay (Terran metaplay being when you're walking around as Raynor interacting with people and things), longer and visually better cinematics than those Frozen Throne had (I'd like to note that the final fight between Arthas and Illidan was not made an actual cinematic because of the time it would have taken to do it, thus delaying the release. This is another reason it was released so fast), unit updates, lots of new campaign units, a few new multiplayer units as well as possible updates to bnet.
All these things will add up.

I am thinking a 20 month production time per expansion.

 

wow. 20 months? no way. im more on the positive side, i expect a max of a year and a minimum of 8 months.

8 - 12 months ftw. xp

remember the game(mulitplayer) is already done. no more units to think of and stuff to balance. There will be new units that will be added and some fixes on few bugs and imbalances. Their main priority would be only creating the story, campaign gameplay, cinematics, cutscense which i think can all be done in a year.

the hardest and longest part to make is creating the skirmish or multiplayer aspects of the game like creating all units from scratch. all of those are done, so i doubt it will be more than 15 months at max to release the ext campaign.

 

Well, let's hear out Bob on this one.

Your worst case scenario, being 12 months, is already out of the question.

Yeah, he said that it is possible it will take years between the releases. So in reality, I am the optimistic one.

Source: http://www.giantbomb.com/news/qa-the-starcraft-ii-brain-trust/388/

So? The multiplayer for Reign of Chaos was already done when the production of The Frozen Throne started. Even then they had to cancel a cinematic to get a release, and I can't imagine them doing that with any of the Zerg or Protoss cinematics since they want every box to be really really epic and complete.

Are you kidding me? Per expansion, there will be a couple of new multiplayer units, multiplayer abilities and upgrades, heaps of campaign units, new metaplay... So there will obviously be both numbers and models to tweak.

Didn't you just say the opposite?

 

Blizz just needs to fess up to their money making scam! Before we know it they will be charging for each level as episodic content, at 4 dollars alevel, and charging pay to play online on Bnet, at 50 cents a game!!!

 

What makes you so sure? They're definitely still balancing all the races, and judging by their new polls on the StarCraft2 Battle.Net forum, they're still developing it.

 

But in the end he said its closer to months. Like blizzard im the one who is optimistic. xp

well, at least most of it is complete which allows them to concentrate more on the single player aspect of the game like creating the single player gameplay, making cutscenes, cinematics which i think all are possible to be finish in a year timeframe.

when i said no more units to think of balance, what i was saying is that most or if not all are already perfect in wings of liberty. If not, ofcourse there will be "some" abilities that will be added, 1 or 2 new units for each race, etc. but the thing is its not going to take that long to do this additional stuff compared to initial production of sc2(wings of liberty, creating all units, balancing every units, creating the right graphics, physics, etc <- this is the one that would take 2 or more years to finish).

Some errors on my sentence composition.

This is what i was really saying:

In wings of liberty most if not all are done since ofcourse it was already released. in the next campaign there will be some add-ons on the multiplayer aspect of the game like adding new untis, abilities, changing stats and fixing bugs and errors from wings of liberty.

The most time consuming part would be creating the next expansion campaign including cinematics and the single player campaign gameplay. And as far as i can tell just like frozen throne which is also a long campaign, i can see them releasing the next campaign in just months or a year.

because they already released the first game which is ofcourse apparently should be more likely balanced. i was talking about the first expansion being 99%-100% or 80%-100% balanced and perfect going to the next expansion. but if not then ofcourse they are going to balance "some" things, like i said some few errors and bugs fixes during the development of the next campaign. Just like it was in sc1 to scbw, there were just some stuffs that needed to redo. but its not like its going to take years to do it. so my take is about a year time to finish all needed tweaks and the overall new campaign.

 

They already released what first game? They haven't released anything yet, the races are still largely unbalanced, many skills are incomplete and they're looking as though they're considering redoing the Warp In, Medivac and Nydus Wyrm mechanics and units.

 

No he didn't. He said that they hoped it would be closer to months. There's a huge difference between the two.
And even so, he didn't say how many months. Usually, you'd think that a person using the word "months" instead of "years" is talking about 11 months or less, but they said that it would take a year, minimum. So when Dustin said that they were hoping for the expansion production times to be closer to months, he might have meant 15, or 20 months.
I think what he meant was that they hope it won't take 2 years or longer.

Of course everything in Wings of Liberty will be complete when it's released... But how does that speed up the prodution of the expansion(s)? WC3 was in the same spot. But when Frozen Throne was complete, more than a year had passed. And I bet that the cinematics in HotS or LotV will take more time to produce than those in Frozen Throne.

Also, Frozen Throne had the same kind of campaign as RoC. HotS and LotV will have new, totally unique meta play, as well as dozens of campaign only units that Frozen Throne didn't have as many of.

 

Srsly, dont blizzard get that a lot people is just gonna buy the first and then download the other two?
You can still play on b.net whit only cdkey to the first so there is accually no need for buying the other two if you dont wanna give blizzard some xtra money...

but still I will buy them all...
:]

 

Ummm... Yes, they would get that. That's why they're making the new content of the Zerg and Protoss downloadable via a patch. It's their intention.

The Zerg and Protoss components are most likely just the campaign, which are most likely going to be extremely popular, especially after everyone's got a taste of the first one.

 

I am a bit mad that i have to buy 3 separate disks to play campaign so i will buy only 1 and play online.>=\
If i need to buy all 3 disks to play 3 factions online i will get very mad and don't buy the game
I bought the first Starcraft btw

 

Then you'll have a hard time finding a game after the second release because no sane person would stick with the previous one, especially seeing as how there'll be about a year in between the releases - a long period that is more than enough to get tired of the same content.