Q&A Batch 44 Released!

First off, StarCraft2Forum.org would like to extend a heart and warm welcome to Blizzard's new Assistant RTS Community Manager Cydra. He made his inaugural post today on Battle.net and we'd like to welcome him to the team. Cydra is an employee from Blizzard Korea and has been brought in to assist in the US market. Now, on to the Q&A!


This week's Q&A is a bit shorter than usual but this time it has some meaty information. Karune discusses the Creep Tumor and shows a change in that the Creep Tumor is now burrowed and apparently even cheaper than before. He also mentions that the Observer has been moved to tier 2.5 which gives the Protoss a quicker mobile detector. Overall a pretty good Q&A for the week considering the lack of changes! Chat with Devs: Something I noticed during our recent shows at Games Convention in Leipzig and PAX in Seattle is that many new players trying out the game who played Zerg built several creep tumors, thinking they were either defenses or going to morph into defenses. This eventually lead into a conversation with Dustin about why Creep Tumors no longer morph into base defenses. For those who dont know, a Creep Tumor is a building which expands creep around it significantly. Building this building is an excellent way to cover additional ground with creep, allowing for many new strategies, including aggressive Spine Crawler pushes (the mobile Sunken Colony).

Dustin brought up two scenarios to why Creep Tumors no longer morph into other Zerg defenses:

1) You would be able to creep across the map by moving your creep-spawning base defenses.

2) It would be easier to accidentally end up with buildings off of creep because the creep-generator moved away.

Thus, since the development team definitely wanted to give Zerg mobile defenses, they decided to split the roles of the Creep Tumor and the other Zerg defenses. This also allows for the team to make these Creep Tumors burrowed and very cheap in the latest build.

As always, feel free to give the Devs and I a w00t if your enjoying these Q&As!

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 44---

1) Is it possible for replays to contain more in depth player statistics such as average clicks per minute, number of hotkeys used, etc.. ? (starcraft2.com.au)

Replays will have much more info available in them that will include more detailed stat tracking, as well as other useful eSports related features.

2) Terrans currently appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of troop mobility, (as compared to 'Warp-in' and 'Nydus Worm') are there any plans to bring back the, 'drop-pod' or other new transport mechanic? (sclegacy.com)

Actually, the Terrans have many units and mechanics that empower them with more mobility than the original StarCraft. The Reaper and Viking is a good example of new units that extend the Terrans raiding capabilities. Furthermore, Medivac Dropships offer more incentive to build lots of Dropships, which translate to more mobility for their entire army. Salvage is also another mechanic that helps in terms of rebuilding and moving a Terran base to new locations. Lastly, the Terrans are still the only side that can pick up and move their whole entire base, as well as being able to load SCVs in their Command Center now, allowing for quicker fast expanding strategies.

3) With the new high ground mechanic in place, an army can't fight units that are on higher ground anymore until they get a spotter up the ledge. Both Zerg and Terran have the possibility to spot units on high ground with Overlords and floating buildings right from the start of the game, but the first Protoss unit to fly up there would be the Phase Prism. Could it be that Protoss players have a significant disadvantage on some maps because of this?(GameReplays.org)

In the latest builds of StarCraft II, the Protoss no longer need an Observatory to build Observers. Observers will be able to be built straight from the Robotics Facility, allowing earlier eyes on the battlefield.

We definitely saw that especially on certain maps, Terrans were able to block their choke point early, taking away much of the scouting portion of the game from Protoss, and are trying out this new solution for it. Additionally, we felt that Observers were too a crucial to the Protoss army to have them that far up the tech tree.

4) Will the Unit Portraits in SC2 be pre-rendered high quality video clips like in SC1 ? willygundersen (Battle.net)

The unit portraits will be shown in much higher quality than the actual units on the screen, similar to the original StarCraft and Warcraft III. They will not be video clips, but will be animations rendered in game. There will be several examples of their unit portraits in the next BlizzCast, where we have Dustin and Sammy discussing the process of creating a unit.

5) We all know how important it is that tier 1 units be effective at later tiers, which has prompted different unit abilities like the Zealots Charge. But it seems that the Protoss have a leg up in that they have Charge while the Zerglings have only their traditional speed boost without any AI enhancements. Is anything being planned for the Zergling? (starcraft2forum.org)

Due to the new game engine, Zerglings have much better pathing in StarCraft II, meaning they move much more efficiently. Zerglings are able to both surround enemy units easier and are more easily selectable as well, being able to control more than 12 at a time. Furthermore, Zerglings are also slightly smaller than their original StarCraft counterparts, and able to be morphed into Banelings, which are extremely effective against Zealots. Lastly, Zealots have also had their shield hit points reduced by 10, as compared to the original StarCraft Zealots.

---End of Transmission---

 

 

 

I really hope they allow some kind of replay parsing for sites.

 

I'd like to see the replays in a more useable format like mpeg or mov or something that allows the videos to be played outside of the SC 2 game.

 

Interesting, alright Q&A. I like the how they gonna implement alot of stuff in the replay section and such.

 

Why not just use a recorder and record the videos yourself? Otherwise, the game will be choosing where you focus in, and were your attention is.

 

I am really looking forward to the next blizzcast now. Samwise and Dustin discussing the creating of units? Epic win.

 

uugh, yawn, give screenshots of latest build unit art.

i wanna see new stalker, new nomad, and new lurker!

I dont really care about the gameplay enough to pay attention to all that stat change and ability change crap most Q/A's have, tbh i have perfect faith that the gameplay and balance will be perfect.

The art however is more based towards opinion, hence why im following it ;<.

 

Yes, indeed. I heard that more unit portraits and possibly voices (I doubt it.) will be relreased then

 

Not going to happen. One reason is that it would require lots of resources to encode a video and run SC2 at the same time. The second reason is that the whole point of a replay is to allow viewers almost unlimited freedom in what the individual wants to see, that is, you can watch a replay once and focus on a palyer's macro, then the second time you watch it you pay attention to his micro. The third reason is that replays would no longer be easily transferrable.

As for the batch, I don't know whether to repeat myself for the tenth or so time or not, but here goes.
I WANT SCREENS!

 

Besides, that would take effort on Blizzard's part in something that can ALREADY be easily done.

 

i like the new zerg defence change, and the lower zealot shielding. Much easier for my marines to shoot through em.

 

I like the new Zealot shield hitpoints. It sounds like they're using the shields slightly differently now.

 

i wanna know if a new patch comes out will the old replays be F***ed up. I hate loosing the good matches i played in...

and will SC2 need a CD to play??

 

i dont believe Blizzard would do something like intentionaly. its not their style.

 

The drop pod is cut for Starcraft 2, but will maybe get back for the official expansion set

 

In the past, these problems have been solved by using a .exe from the patch that created the replay.

 

Nice! I like the idea of burrowed creep tumors. You could just prevent an enemy of different race from building somewhere. I also like the idea of how they will help the spine crawler rush strategy.

 

I'm surprised at the question about how zerglings will measure up late game. There seemed no doubt to me that they would be useful early game and late game; the unit I'm worried about is the marine. So it can upgrade it's Hp by 40(is it still 40?), big deal. By the time battlecruisers, ultralisks, and carriers come into play, what good would marines be?
And yes, I realize that by my way of thinking, zerglings wouldn't be useful either because battlecruisers and carriers fly. My logic isn't flawless, but you get my point.

 

I think a late game ling rush will be real powerful with the new UI and them being smaller etc.
You'll see a sea of Zerglings at the end of all my games. A sea of destruction and mayhem...

PS. I love reading about the current StarCraft balance and stuff. I would like some more screens though, so I can vasten(probably isn't a word) my compendium of screens... Man I wanna play this sooooo baddddd.... :twitcy:

 

I just liked how Blizzard picked my question from like 8 months ago.