When you glance at this Q&A you will notice there are 7 questions however, after you are done reading it you will realize there are only 2 questions that actually had you interested; or at least that's how it was with me. Surprisingly enough that doesn't make this Q&A a flop, not by a long shot and I'll explain why after you breeze through the them.
--StarCraft II Q&A Batch 40---
1. By the current look of the game with spectacular death animations you could worry that you can get slightly distracted by dead units while playing. You could for example waste precious APMs (Actions per minute) trying to click on a spliced Space Marine that you thought was still alive. The wrecks of some larger units or deaths for some others could block your sight in-game too. Could this fear be a real issue and will there be the option to toggle down these model details in the settings? (gamereplays.org)
Yes, this is an issue we are looking into. For multiplayer, we want to make absolutely sure that players can clearly see visually what is happening on the battlefield. Currently, we are looking to have different types of death animations available for multiplayer than will be present for the single player campaign. A lot of people do still love watching intricate death animations when not in a competitive scene.
There has been a ton of questions and fan feedback in the last week or so regarding Karune's exclusive Q&A and both Karune as well as another Blizzard rep, Cavez, have taken some time to address the more well thought-out questions about the Ghost, the Thor and the Nydus Worm. I think you will find the answers worth reading.
Question regarding Ghost:
Ok so I had been hearing that drop pods were removed from the ghosts for some time now. Did they ever say why? I was really looking for to using those things. What was the balancing reasons behind removing it?
Cavez:
Drop Pods were "one more thing" on the Ghost. The Ghost had a TON of powers for a while and when we were looking at it we decided we had to be simpler/cleaner with the unit design so cuts had to be made.
More importantly, when we played with them in-game we really struggled to find a good use for them in a lot of situations. They had some narrow-use cases of course, but just weren't that fun. They were balance-able.
As our unit mix changes we may find a use for them again, but today they are out.
The third iteration of Blizzard's podcast, Blizzcast, is chuck full of great questions and even better answers that are definitely worth your time. The first 15 minutes or so are spent with Karune and Blizzard's developer, Dustin Browder. Browder answers lots of great questions about the Zerg and the general state of the game as of today. Also, the last 7 minutes or so are spent directly answering fans questions from the Battle.net boards, so that is certainly worth your time. Everything in the middle of the podcast discusses WoW: Wrath of the Litch King, so if that interests you then you'll be pumped to listen to that as well.
I'll try here to quickly make some bullet points of the things I thought were key in the podcast. If you rather just skip them and start listening to Blizzcast #3 feel free to scroll to the link below them.
Important things of note about the Zerg:
- The devs want to keep the feel of aggression, speed, and adaptability the true definition of the race. How quickly they can expand across a map will be their signature.
- Infestation will be a bigger focus in SC2 to keep the "Zerg feel" the devs are going for.
www.starcraftcz.com had a great turn out for Blizzard's I <3 SC2 mosaic contest and thus were given an exclusive Q&A session with RTS Community Manager Kevin Yu, aka Karune. Here is what he had to say.
1) How many units can Nydus Worm and Phase Prism transport (does it depend to number of units or population)? Is it possible to load Zerg defensive buildings to Nydus Worm? That means loading Sunken Colony to Nydus Worm, burrowing and getting into enemy Zerg base, unloading and taking roots in enemy creep.
The Nydus will be able to transport as many as can be selectable (which is currently 255). Phase Prisms will be able to transport the same amount of units as the transport from the original StarCraft. Zerg defensive buildings will not be able to be transported in a Nydus Worm.
2) Does the terrain in the game affect damage which deal shooting units? E.g. shooting down of cliff, hiding behind the trees...
Terrain will not affect damage, but will affect line of sight. Without LOS (line of sight), you will not be able to fire back at enemy units with LOS on your units.
3) Can Baneling explode at command? (for the best using damage radius, for killing cloaked units) Does a killed Baneling explode? Can it be activated like a mine? (it'll automatically explode when enemy unit gets closer) How can (immobile) Baneling hurt air units while they're lifted up by Nullifier's Anti-Gravity ability?
Banelings will not be able to explode on command. They will only explode on contact with an enemy unit or by a unit killing it. If Banelings are lifted up by Anti-Gravity and an air unit kills the Baneling, it will do damage to air units- which will be highly effectively against light units such as Mutalisks.
My Thoughts:
Calling all map makers and StarCraft modders, this Q&A is for you!
Awesome news was released on Battle.net today; this batch focuses solely on the map editor. First off, I'd like to say that I don't enjoy making or editing maps, frankly I don't have the patience; I do however enjoy playing on custom maps and modded maps. So with that said, the news in this Q&A is good enough to get me excited about the new possibilities on custom maps, so it should get you excited too.
I think for map makers the biggest thing you'll come away with from this batch is that all the effects, spells, attacks and abilities you can think of can now be created completely in the data files. Gone are the days when you had to create intricate scripts and triggers to accomplish these things.
For custom map fans, like me, what should get you the most excited is the prospect of map makers being able to create hybrid units effortlessly. That's right, you'll be seeing marine-zealots, battlecruiser-carriers and who the heck knows what else! The possibilities are absolutely endless and it will certainly add to the longevity of SC2.
If this Q&A is a sign of things to come as we approach Blizzard's World Wide Invitational, June is going to be a fantastic month!
One mean little sucker
News broke on the Battle.net forum that the official European StarCraft site had updated their Zerg section with a new Baneling page. This page is full of explosive new screenshots, a new gameplay video and animaton video as well as all the lore you can read.
An important thing to note as you look at these screens and videos is that it's obvious the animations for all of the units have gotten better, especially the viking's and siege tank's attacks. Also, the buildings and explosions have gotten noteable touch ups. Karune has mentioned that the devs have been working hard on improving the visuals for all three races and the environment and it's obvious by the addition of the logos stamped on the Terran buildings, and the change in the Terran bunker art, they have.
Even with their flashy new logos branded on their buildings, and a new looking bunker, these Terran still bite the dust, err, toxic ooze.
Originally reported by Micromania gaming magazine and posted to the internet by StarCraft II Source, Blizzard has released the system requirements for StarCraft II.
Can your computer case full of dorrito chips handle this RTS beast or is it time for an upgrade? Read on and find out.
NOTE: SC2 isn't even in the beta phase yet so these requirements are probably subject to change based on how the game performs throughout the beta.
My Thoughts:
Not much new here which I must say is very disappointing, Karune. Most of these questions we've already had answered, people need to start learning how to search a forum and find the answers themselves in the other thousand threads where it has been addressed.
With that said, question 1 sheds some more light on the Roach that just won't die, and question 8 gives us a little more information on how the relocating Sunken and Spore Colonies work.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!
We have a traditional Q&A Batch this time around, in which we were able to add in additional questions from the community! There are still several art changes which prevent new screenshots from being shown, but once we get them out, they will be worth the wait! The development team has also been experimenting with many upgrades for all sides, which we'll also be updating the community on as testing progresses.
---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 38---
1. If the Roach is hit by any spell like "plague" or "psi storm," something that reduces hit points per second, will this be negated by its HP regeneration, or result in fewer hit points gained per second for the duration of the spell? (sclegacy.com)
Below are two very low quality screenshots that were taken by a member of the StarCraft2forum.org community. The shots are believed to be of the Zerg Swarm Guardian, which until now, has not been seen. I want to note that these are obviously not screenshots from Blizzard or any other reputable member of the StarCraft community so it is not certain that the units in the images are actually the Swarm Guardian. That being said, they do look a lot like the old Guardian, and they don't look like any unit we've already seen.
This first screenshot shows what is believed to be the Swarm Guardian, circled in the upper right of the shot.
This second shot shows the Swarm Guardian again circled in the lower right, but also shows the old Guardian icon circled in the HUD.
Blizzard has announced today that they will indeed hold Blizzcon 2008. Blizzcon is a gaming convention that celebrates the global gaming communities that love to play WoW, StarCraft, WarCraft and Diablo. Blizzcon has become more popular than ever before and this year Blizzard will reserve three function halls for the two-day event instead of two. The event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11. Tickets will be $100 per person.
Check out the full press release here.
Keep checking back as i'll keep you updated on future details and announcements regarding Blizzcon 2008.
Matt Delman (3)