StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 23

[img width=420 height=429]http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/images/sc2_marine.gif[/img]​

Starcraft II Q&A​

It has been an exciting week of business related headlines about the new company 'Activision Blizzard.' Many have asked me about how this would affect products like StarCraft II, and the answer is that it won't. We still have our extremely talented development team on this task, working exactly like they have been over the past years. Furthermore, StarCraft II will still be branded as Blizzard Entertainment, meaning you will not see Activision Blizzard logos on the product or introduction. StarCraft II is still set to rock the PC gaming stage!

If you have more questions about the proposed merger, please visit our FAQ at:
http://blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml

Chat with Devs: After my chat with Dustin this past week, he wanted me to remind everyone that there are still several new units being created and tested for all three factions. What you have seen of the Protoss and Terran factions are in no way finished and more new units will be introduced, as well as the likeliness of current units being replaced.

---StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 23---

(chat with devs) Reminder that fans havent seen everything and there are still several new units in development for all three factions.

1. Will the Campaign have as many videos as the original Starcraft? (www.starcraft2.hu)

There will be several more in-game cutscenes, which are at a much higher quality than the original StarCraft pre-rendered movies. And while StarCraft II s single player will likely feature a few less pre-rendered movies, they will be much longer and more epic than anything seen in the original StarCraft.

2.Is the ghost unit going to be able to use the EMP Shockwave and -within short time interval- the Nuclear Strike as well? (www.starcraft2.4players.de)

Currently, there is no restriction to when you can follow up a special ability with another, as long as there are available energy points.

3. Will the Ghost's EMP affect building shields and energy? (www.TheWarCenter.net)

Yes, the Ghosts EMP ability currently affects both building and unit shields, as well as casters energy. It is important to note that there is a possibility the Ghost may lose its EMP ability due to balance.

4. Will there be some sort of wall structure in StarCraft, for any of the races? (www.vilegaming.com)

Aside from building current structures close to each other to form walls, such as a line of Terran Supply Depots, no, there will not be walls that can be built. On the other hand, there will be some new wall structures in the single player mode and these doodads can also be accessed in the map editor.

5. Will the game feature a mechanic similar to Warcraft 3 where if a selection of units contains more than one unit type then the whole selection will move at the speed of the slowest unit to maintain cohesion? (www.sclegacy.com)

No, units in the same selection will not move at the same speeds. The slower units will need to be micromanaged by the players to keep up with the larger group.

--- End of Transmission ---

 

Well, that killed the millipede idea thread in the zerg section, and the idea seemed so good too..... So the terrans are going the be the only ones with an wall than can be traversed over.

This is disappointing, having all the units move together was one reason I loved Age of Empires 2 & 3 so much. Whats the point of selecting 150 units to move at once if they won't stay together? Might as well have each group selected separately so they are easier to coordinate with eachother.

 

That is one of the ways that they are going to keep the APM rates high.

Not much info here, but it is nice to see a formal Q&A. I thought it was pretty funny the ghost EMP questions ended with a "this might not actually be relevant" statement. Basically they were all just space fillers.

 

Pretty useless info other than the fact is that it not going the direction of wc3

still waiting for that 800 mineral bonus for finding the Q&A

 

I guess this answer a lot of questions about the updates. Many of the units are so far from finished that they wouldn't dare put up something new on the official site. It might get changed, and we would wine about it getting cut . I personally belive that this was the case with the thor. They where actually considerating to cut it, but it had allready been released on the site, and then people got attached to it. So now they just simply can't remove it, without having to go through polls from the community. I think that they just want to avoid this scenario from happening again..

 

nice info about the cut-scenes

 

Because you can employ different strategies with which units you want in the group, for example 40 Marines (faster movement, and takes away the fire from the main units), 10 Vikings, 3 BCs (by the time they have reached the action they will decimate everything since its all been attacked by Marines and Vikings.

Not an actual solid grouping strategy but something to get my point across.

Everything moving at the same time throws away strategies you could use to make the forces better rather than limiting them to moving slow if you include large units.

 

Good to see a new Q & A, even if it isn't as information filled.

I also agree with PreatorTengil - I had a feeling that the reason units are not really being revealed online lately has to do with the fact that they are creating and scrapping units. I'm sure that even though the units on the official website are not necessarily final, they are much closer to 100% probability of being in the game than the unreleased ones.

Also good to hear that the movies are going to be baller - but that was expected haha. And the lack of walls - also a plus. This makes the Terran Supply Depot ability unique to the Terrans.

 

but better quality than movies from sc? I don't see that on the graphics from the screen. Unless they mean something like the quality of Jim in his BC from campaign trailer, that could do it

 

Actually the question about walls is pretty interesting. In games like Civ4 you can build walls, specifically for defense, yet in SC if you want a wall, you have to build it with buildings, that if you lose, you lose something significant, ie supply depots.

 

Blizzard ditched walls with Warcraft 2. And roads too, though they weren't fun to begin with

 

well it was kinda no skill having all 150 units from even different units, working on the same unit selection

i mean you gotta put a learning curve and dont oversimplify things

as this is right now is perfect because you can just put togheter all slow units like hhm, high templars on one grp, zealots in others, stalkers in the other, and just having 3 grps instead of like 6 grps as sometimes happen on SC

 

But having them all move together makes it more reasonable to have them all selected and would make it more realistic. I do see how it could oversimplify things, it was just something I was expecting would be implemented into sc2 since many recent RTS games are beginning to do it too.

 

Blizzard is moving along just fine. I think there doin a wonderful job, i just cant undertand why so many people are still complaining. Dose any one know if Blizzard has begun the alpha test yet?? or are they still in the pre-stages of the game???

 

@ aol, I'm not complaining. I was just surprised that they don't move as a group, something that many others games are adding into thier mechanics. It doesn't do anything to my opinion of the game, it's still the one game I want above all else. I hope the zerg are introduced this holiday season.

 

well lets add in the factor that this is a RTC game. meaning in real life if a man falls behind the group and is jumped and killed you just lost a man. The wonderful people at blizzard want people to still have an alert feeling while playing the game and not become babyed by the mechanics witch in turn would make a person lazy and bore them faster. They would fool them selfs into thinking there too good when there not good at all. Everyone cant get there way, thats how the world is and thats how its ganna be.

 

The units should have two movement mode.

The default being move at the speed of the slowest unit and ten an additional mode where all units move at their top speed.

For regular speed the player could right click a location and for full speed double click

 

I would quite like to have it if units all moved at the same speed. I'm no good at constant micro-ing.

Plus if there was this mechanism in place, then if your not a great player (like myself) than you just select your army and send them on they're way, knowing that some units aren't going to get ahead of themselves.

However if your a more experienced player than you can still micro, have co-ordinated attacks, rather than just stuffing units in.

All it would mean is that units could properly support each other, without players having to constantly micro.

 

what type of colours could we choose from?

 

It´s a matter of attention distribution. Wc3 allowed formations because microing fights was essential and each unit counted - loosing it to a poor moving order would have been to harsh.

SC2s units are a bit more expendable and numerous, so even if you choose not to pay attention to your convoi you don´t instaloose the game if the enemy takes advantage of it - equal skill assumed of course.