Q&A Batch 50 Released!

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Blizzard has released Q&A Batch 50 into the mix. It's a great read though I don't think you'll be quite as blown away as we all were by Batch 49. What is by far the most impressive release is discussion about the new replay UI to be included with Battle.net. It's rather impressive though clearly in the early stages of testing. The batch also covers the usual round of questions including Lurker control and single player missions. Enjoy!

Chat with Devs: StarCraft II from its conception has been designed to be an eSport and one of the backbone features to helping players learn more about their own gameplay as well as their opponents is through replays. In our chat with Dustin this week, he highlighted various features that will be available to players while viewing replays. These features are designed both to help players improve in StarCraft II as well as serve as a platform of statistics for eSports commentary.

• How much damage did that Reaper raid do on the enemy economy?
• Does it look like the enemy is going to be able to make a comeback?
• Is that player walking into a losing battle?

These are all questions that are raised in exciting competitive games and replays. With the new replay system, players and eSports casters will be able to follow these games in much more depth, as well as understand the repercussions of players’ major decisions on the battlefield. Players will be able to easily compare statistics of opposing players in real time as well as make their own predictions based on stats comparing army size, resource collection rate, resource allocations, and tech research in progress.

Reapers Raiding Zerg’s Economy
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI%20_Resources_1.jpg
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI _Resources_2.jpg

Comparing Army Sizes
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI _Units_1.jpg
** Replay UI is still very much work in progress
*** Shown are two tabs of various info tabs the player will be able to view while viewing a replay

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

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 50---

1. Overlord can be upgraded to carry units, and spawn creep, and Overseer can detect, spawn changeling, and has a longer line of sight. Why not just have the Overlord upgraded with these abilities, rather than have him transform? – Mooiki (Lordaeron)

We want each race’s detection ability to be well balanced. We don’t want to see every Overlord with detection after upgrading the ability once at Lair. Separating detection capability into two units creates important choices for Zerg players, to ensure their army has enough support of each type available.

2. Any support for stereoscopic play? - Ylleks (Azeroth)

Stereoscopic vision can be an interesting feature, as we’ve seen with the recently added support in World of Warcraft and other games. For now however, the team is concentrating on the core aspects of StarCraft II and making sure the core features of the game that will be used by everyone are as good as can be. Later on down the road we can evaluate more features like this and see if they make sense to support in StarCraft II.

3. At previous events with playable StarCraft II stations we often saw players doing classic Brood War build orders and tactics. Taking all the new things into account, how far do you get with playing just like in Brood War? Is it a clear disadvantage or a good way to start? - instarcraft.de

It will depend on the player’s play type and creativity. The experience and skills from the original StarCraft will definitely help players get familiar with StarCraft II. However, there are a lot more units, abilities, and buildings in StarCraft II than the original StarCraft. Players can always start out playing in the way that they used to play in the original StarCraft. As they grow more comfortable with the game they can begin exploring the new units and abilities and discover lots of new strategies. It’s not a matter of advantage or disadvantage, it depends more on the players’ play styles and preferences.

4. Will it be possible to use characters to colour ingame text like in SC1? – StarCraftWire.net

No, currently there is no in-game colored text support. Colored text was a neat trick in the original game, but we wanted to ensure that all in-game communication is clear and easily-readable, so we’re only supporting default text style.

5. In the single player, you said we can choose from the missions and the way we want to go forward. Will it be like we definitely will play all the missions and we can choose the order, or does it mean that probably we will miss some missions? – StarCraft II Hungary

In most cases, you’ll be able to go back and explore a mission branch that you skipped earlier in the campaign, so you can experience almost all of the missions in a single play-through of the campaign. There may be a couple of rare cases where a choice you make closes off a mission, however.

6. Will campaign decisions in the Terran portion affect campaign outcomes/branches in the Zerg and Protoss portions? - TheWarCenter

We looked into this possibility, but after some debate, we decided it was most important that each campaign delivers a self-contained, yet epic storyline. Giving each campaign a single start and ending was the best way to ensure a coherent plot.

7. In the original StarCraft, you could make the Lurker (through bug use), while burrowed, hold fire until told to attack, something which led to many exciting situations. Are there any plans to include a “hold fire” command for the Lurker in SC2? In addition, worker units lacked Hold and Patrol commands in SC, will this be the case in SC2 as well? – Team Liquid (Zanric)

There is no hold fire command for Lurker in the current build. However we will look into every possibility that encourages more tactical, exciting gameplay and keeps the game balanced.


---End of Transmission---
Source: Battle.net

Discuss this article in the Forum!

 

Just because i beat you to it.....

mohohoh

 

He's only officially announcing it on sc2forums... but awesome update either way :>

 

Damn, comeon blizzard...


Overall not much information, a bit disappointing :/

EDIT: team coloured psiblades again/still?

 

I'll reitare if I did not say it before. Best looking creep ever, high def , brilliant color!

 

Thanks Jon!

And w00t at this pic! One more unit portrait we get to see

A few interesting questions, though I wonder why people must keep asking about stuff that's been answered already (overlords/-seers etc). This batch left me with some questions though: What is stereoscopic vision, and does pressing the "stop" hotkey repeatedly to keep units at bay work for lurkers, like it does for other units?

 

Does anyone think that the Reapers in those screenshots looks like crap? Compared to everything else in the screenshot, the Reapers lack the artistic details.

 

Maybe when the zealot hit a enemy...his blades lights up with the team colour?

overall a...alright batch, the screenshots are cool.

 

I like the nullifiers attack look.

I wanted more but I guess the picture make up for it seems SC2's look is comeing along really well.

 

Nobody's said anything about the Siege Tank portrait?

Zerg buildings look a bit forced onto the Creep, not sprouting from it.

Whatever slight Reaper editing they did looks good.

Zerg Hive looks... out of place among the other ones.

Minerals look a bit forced, but the new look is good. Looks like they're floating though...

New Zergling design looks good. Close to Starcraft 1 style, but fresh enough to be it's own representation.

Creep looks disgusting and wicked.

Drone portrait is looking very nice.

Blizzard might want to clean up some of the icons (build, build advanced), they look a bit fuzzy still.

Marines look like they were trimmed down a bit, made taller, and given some backpacks. The new Gauss Rifle is delicious.

Nullifier beam used to be that dark purple right? The new blue is very good looking.

Hellion fire's been changed! It actually looks like fire!

Medivac looks a bit altered. Bigger jets, improved healing beam, and did it always have the little lights on the front? Sweet deal.

 

Kaaraa did. It looks abs-sore-lutely awesome.

I wouldn't say that at all. Especially with the Hatchery down bottom. The only problem I have with the Zerg buildings is that the Spine Crawler seems to be stabbing itself:

http://classic.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI _Resources_1.jpg

Yeah, those two massive claws... Aren't great. It should be the same all around, especially seeing as it's got five of those claw things.

Is it just me or did they get rid of the wings?

Coulda fooled me. Doesn't look like it's changed at all.

Improved healing beam? I can't even see it in the midst of all that fire.

 

Siege Tank portrait is amazing.

:yes:

 

...Oh wow they did get rid of the wings. So I'm assuming they don't hop anymore. I bet they scurry/run.

Spine Crawler's suicidal I guess.

Mmhmm. It's the two massive claws that throws the entire Hatchery/Hive/Lair (whatever it is, looks like a Hatch) off.

Hellion fire at first was that thin orange-reddish one, now it looks like the fire's broader, and lighter. Doesn't look like a laser to me anymore.

The healing beam doesn't just go straight to the unit, it kind of arcs down and looks softer in comparison to uh... that one screenshot from a month - few months ago. Where it's healing the Marauder just standing there. God that couldn't get more obscure.

Too lazy to throw in quotes.

 

I agree the giant claws are really make the hive way too cartoonish

once again this is what i was saying building should look like there attached more (just add some outside layering of the buildings its really not that hard) and hopefully when they die they look better then a few flesh pieces that fly out but more so how the origianl look had it with some other cool effects

I also really like the seige tank look

 

I don't think that's a Hive but a Lair. The Hatchery and Lair already look too much alike - Imagine if there was a stage between those two. Blarg.
I liked the Hive in SC because it blossomed and opened up, and grew old and gray. They need to give the Hive in SC2 a similar uniqueness.

And wow, the Zerglings are wingless.
I am more than fine with that though, 4 wings per the most massable unit ever? Kinda cluttery.
They look poorly rendered on their backs, so I'd say this is a very recent change which they haven't had time to polish. Awesome though.

Siege Tank potrait looks good, but I've seen it before. The quality was lower then but the features were easily identified.

 

So this means we have to make a separate account for ourselves in our single player so we can see these few missions we can permanently miss out on if we make a certain decision in the game. I dunno if I like the idea. But it is something different.

 

Those missions aren't that important though, so you don't have to play the game over again the minute after you've finished the entire campaign (I see no reason not to, though ).

I am saying that they won't be that important because Blizzard have repeatedly said that they want a solid beginning and ending alike to all players - thus not more than a very minor character can die, etc.
There might be some juicy lore though, sure. But playing the campaign twice, making opposite decisions the second time sounds like more fun than annoying to me. Thanks to the way you buy and upgrade a custom army the second play could vary a lot in playstyle too.

 

I still can't see the Medivac's healing beam. All I can see is the end of the Hellion's flame attack going underneath it.

 

I think the Medivac beam art hasn't been done yet - it seems like just a modified Helloin attack since it's the same color...

 

It's at the same angle and everything at the moment. Does anyone actually know for sure if it's actually healing or not?