Starcraft 2 Armory

Beta pushed to 2010, release expected at Q2

Tom Phoenix — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:54:48 -0800

Two days ago, the biggest Russian gaming expo IgroMir began, which was also attended by Blizzard representatives. During the event, StarCraft II was available to the public and a panel by Chris Sigaty, lead producer on StarCraft II, was held. The Russian gaming website Goha.ru wrote a summary of the panel. Currently, there is no official translation of the information and the majority of it is merely a recap of what was said during BlizzCon earlier this year. However, Sigaty has confirmed that the StarCraft II beta has been pushed back to 2010.

An official recap of the information from IgroMir will be revealed on Blizzard`s official IgroMir website at a later date.

Source: Goha.ru

In other news, Morhaime revealed to the Activision Blizzard investors that the game was still set to be released in 2010, expect it towards the end of the second quarter. Furthmore, Morhaime said that the bulk of the work on the game has been completed and that the project was still going according to the intended timeline.

Special thanks to Arangarx (and his wife) for the translation!

Source: Compulenta.ru

New posts from Cydra

AzraelBlack — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:24:04 -0800

Here are three new Blue posts from Cydra on the Starcraft 2 General Discussion Forum. They concern the current state of the Terran Sensor Tower, the Vespene Laughs Comic Contest and whether pressing Alt will have similar uses to WC3.

1. Is the proper name Radar Tower or Sensor Tower?
Sensor Tower

2. What model is being used: Radar Tower, Sensor Tower, or a completely new one?
Sensor Tower has a passive Radar ability which expose enemy movements within its radar capacity.

3. What are the stats? (mineral cost, gas cost, build time, HP, armor)
It costs 125 mineral and 100 geyser gas and it takes 25 build time. Sensor Tower has 200 hp and 0 default armor. You can upgrade the armor of buildings by 2 at Engineering Bay.

4. What is the range of the radar?
N/A

5. Do cloaked and burrowed units appear as blips within the radar's range?
No. Cloaked and burrowed units don't appear.

6. If yes for #5, will a unit be able to see cloaked and burrowed units that are within its visual range as well as the radar's range?
N/A

7. Does the Tower have any other special abilities besides its radar function?
No.

8. Is the Tower salvageable?
Yes. you can salvage it for 100% fund.

9. Is there anything else you can tell us about the Tower that I've missed?
N/A

Source: Battle.net

We're pleased to announce the return of the monthly StarCraft "Vespene Laughs" Comic Contest on October 29! We received a ton of funny and creative entries in our previous contest; now we're inviting you to make the galaxy laugh once more.

To participate in each month's contest, simply submit your entries here (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/starcraftcomic/index.html) by the 28th of the following month. The first-place winner each month will win keys to the upcoming StarCraft II beta. Check out the official rules for more information here (http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/starcraftcomic/rules.html).

Source: Battle.net

Will holding the Alt button show unit/building hit points overhead as they did in Warcraft 3?
Yes. And you can change the option on the menu for this.
Normal: Only show when holding Alt
Selected: Selected units only
Always: Show all unit status bars

Source: Battle.net

Info from the SC2 Korean Blues

Knee of Justice — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:07:17 -0800

Seems the Koren forums are receiving more blue answers; following info from Team Liquid. Sounds like they scrapped the super fast regeneration of the protoss units and that snipe is looking really powerful as a way of just insti-killing weak casters like high templars. EMP still un-nerfed Im sad to say.

Since late September there has been a fair amount of blue posts over on the Korean SC2GDF. One of our staff members over at SC:Legacy had posted an article providing translations of these posts as well as some thoughts about the information. The full article can be found here. The following is a summary of the info in the main article.

GHOST ABILITIES:
Nuclear Launch
- Area-based large area of effect.
- Launches a nuke from a Silo to the painted target or area.
- Takes a few seconds to hit.

Snipe
- Target-based single unit effect.
- Costs 25 energy.
- Deals 45 damage to selected biological unit.
- Ignores armor.
- Has virtually no cooldown.

EMP Shot
- Area-based (medium?) area of effect.
- Costs 100 energy.
- Removes energy from all units within an area.
- Deals a fixed amount of damage to shields within an area.
- Decloaks all cloaked units for 5 seconds including passive cloaks like DT.

Cloak
- Switched-based single unit effect (Ghost).
- Costs initial 25 energy.
- Removes fixed amount of energy each second.

PROTOSS SHIELD REGENERATION:
The out-of-combat "super-regen" has been removed, and shield regeneration has returned to the same slow rate found similarly in SC1. The rate is the same for all shielded units.

MAP SIZE AND CAMERA LIMITS:
Available map dimensions start from 32 and move all the way up to 256 at intervals of 8 (32, 40, 48, ......, 240, 248, 256). Also, camera limits may be set up so that there is terrain outside of the playable map area for the sake of aesthetics. A map with the dimensions 256x96 and the camera limit of 240x80 will have terrain for all 24576 squares of the map but will only allow units to move and buildings to be built on the inner 19200.

MISCELLANEOUS INFO:
Comic Contest prize package always includes beta invitation. In game help is set to F11. Not sure about minimum computer spec requirements, but multiple quality levels for graphics and audio will be available for adjustment. Please tell us about your ideas for contests or polls and we'll send them to the proper staff. Computer AI difficulties will vary from those that will make noobs rofl all the way to those that will make Boxer sit in a corner and cry.

And as always, all things are subject to balance and/or change

Source: TeamLiquid.net

Blizzcast #11 - New Screenshots

gearvOsh — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:03:33 -0700

We have a new Blizzcast, #11, which mainly talks about Blizzcon. However, there are 2 new screenshots related to SC2, and we get to see the new Zeratul in-game model.

In our eleventh episode of BlizzCast, we have a roundtable discussion with members of the community team to recap the major happenings, announcements, and other highlights of this year's BlizzCon. Join our discussion as we relive some of our favorite moments from the show.

Source: Blizzcast

GamaSutra interview with Dustin Browder

gearvOsh — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:03:17 -0700

Its been quite a while since we have seen an official interview, but it seems GamaSutra has snagged one with Dustin Browder, lead developer of Sc2. Read more in the 3 page long interview. Additionally, here are a few excerpts from the interview.

Even between the single-player and the multiplayer, there have been design differences that mean there are discrepancies in terms of what units are available.
DB: Totally.

For the multiplayer, I think you were the one who said you were being so stringent that whenever you add a new unit, you must remove an old one.
DB: Yup. Keeping it tight.

Are there any specific RTS games you've played recently that you've liked?
DB: I certainly found [Relic's Warhammer 40,000:] Dawn of War II to be interesting, and I learned a lot about RTSes by playing that game because they've done some interesting things.

Source: GamaSutra.com

Official Battle Report 4 Release

gearvOsh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:51:09 -0700

Even though the BR was leaked a few days ago, it has now officially been uploaded onto the Starcraft 2 site. You may now view and download the high quality, as well as view the transcript.

Source: Starcraft2.com

StarCraft II Q&A [Batch 54]

Tom Phoenix — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:40:57 -0700

After slightly more then two weeks, we have received yet another Q&A batch. However, unlike usually, this one was posted by Cydra.

---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 54 ---

[SC2 Forum]
1. Does the Zergling vs. Zealot ratio remain at 4:1 or has it changed in the latest builds?
One zealot can usually take out two, and sometimes three zerglings. However, the ratio is mainly based on positioning and micro-controlling. As the number of zealots grows, it will take more zerglings to win the fight since the zealots can clump up and reduce the attacking surface area. Smart use of terrain, such as a choke or backing up against a wall, will also help a protoss player reduce this attack area. Zerglings have to secure a good surround around the zealots to keep the ratio close.

[SC Legacy]
2. In World of Warcraft pvp they found an issue over time that it was "very unsatisfying" to the player when they lost control of their character as it limited their ability to do their job or role. There is a noticeable increase in stuns and immobilization in Starcraft 2, which was barely present in Starcraft 1. From your experience in testing, do you feel abilities, which limit unit control, provide more dynamic game play so far or are you noticing more concern?
First of all, there were actually some abilities in the original StarCraft that could cause players to lose control of units. These abilities include the ghost`s lockdown, the corsair`s disruption web, and the dark archon`s mind control. It may be premature to suggest at this point that there`s a "noticeable increase" in stuns and immobilization in StarCraft II.
To address the comparison anyway, in World of Warcraft, you control a single character, unlike RTS games where you manage multiple units and bases. The difference in the World of Warcraft is when you lose control of your character you simply have to wait it out, assuming you don`t have any control breaks. However in StarCraft, when units in your army are being controlled, you can still issue orders to the rest of your army, manage your base, build new units, etc. There are a lot of options and we happy with the diversity it brings to gameplay at this point.

3. What is the current status of the Mothership? What niche does it fill at this time, and if the unit were removed, would there be a reason to fill that niche with a different unit or would protoss still be fine?
Currently the mothership has a passive cloaking field for nearby units and buildings, wormhole transit, temporal rift, and vortex as its abilities. We are happy with the state of the mothership at this time, and would like to hear feedback from the players once beta starts.

4. What is your overall goal for the Infestor? The units have had and removed so many abilities, are you trying to focus into a support role, or disruption and harassment, or just to have a wide variety of spells so it can be a quick response unit?
It is intended to play more of the disruption/harassment role. They are meant to burrow and move up ahead of the swarm to soften up their opponent`s forces.

5. Is EMP dodgeable, or there`s some sort of indication that it's going to be launched? And does this cause a problem with Immortals?
It`s possible to dodge EMP, but it is difficult to do. Your options include anticipating your opponent will be casting an EMP by seeing the ghost or its shimmer and predicting it; being near the edge of the EMP range and moving out quickly; or using the stalker`s blink ability.

[Vile Gaming]
6. Map/mod to site communication - Will there be support for map/mod makers to bridge a connection between their map/mod to their site? For example, if a person wanted their map/mod to submit scores/results to the site, and vice-versa the map/mod could pull the highest scores from the site and display it in the game.
It is possible for players to make their own custom score screens but there are no specific plans to bridge map data to web sites via Battle.net.

7. Launcher support - Will maps/mods be able to have their own "launcher" (ala WoW`s launcher), as in shortcut or start icon from the computer outside of StarCraft, and have their own screens, after a Battle.net authenticating screen (ala Twitter`s, or Facebook`s, application authentication).
There are no plans to allow maps and mods to have their own launcher. However, making a loading screen or launch screen is still possible.

Source: Battle.net

StarCraft II Q&A [Batch 53]

Tom Phoenix — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:26:34 -0700

After a couple of months, Karune has finally graced us with another Q&A batch. While it contains nothing particularly earthshattering, some of the question choices were quite interesting.

Hope everyone has enjoyed all the BlizzCon news and got a chance at our Twitter beta key giveaway! Everything has settled here in the office after various shows and events we've been at, but we are back in the swing of things. If you haven't been following us on Twitter, don't forget to do so too, as we will consistently be adding more spotlights, development info, and fun contests on there as we approach beta and throughout the development of StarCraft II.

Check us out here:
http://www.twitter.com/StarCraft

1. Computer AI - Does the computers online AI vary from its offline counterpart?
No. They are the same.

2. Have you considered allowing a post-game lobby for users to discuss the last game, collectively watch replays, or immediately enter into a rematch?
Yes, we have a plan for a post game lobby. However the details are not finalized yet.

3. Is there any update on additional map features other than the Xel'Naga watch towers, destructible rocks and tall grass?
No. Currently there is no update on additional map features.

4. How many different voice actors are needed for StarCraft II, including the unit sounds and campaign heroes?
There are 58 unique voice actors participating, with some voicing multiple roles, and the number may increase as the game gets closer to release.

5. The terrain types in StarCraft II we have seen so far had names like "Bel'Shir (Jungle)". Does this mean that "Bel'Shir" is just an alias for jungle and every terrain is just named after a typical planet using it or are there - to stick with this example - other jungle maps with a different terrain set, something like "Aiur (Jungle)"?
We named our terrain sets based on the planets. There are a lot more terrain sets than in the original StarCraft and you will have huge flexibility in modifying the terrain sets (including adjusting textures, doodads, lighting) allowing you to create your own variations of the default maps. There may be other jungle-themed default maps named after other planets.

6. Will there be any chance to have more options on pausing the game? In StarCraft: Brood War every player can pause the game three times, but every other player can unpause it. How about a (user editable) time limit before other players can unpause the game?
We recommend that players communicate with each other in the game to agree on when to pause and unpause during the game. We feel that pausing the game interrupts the game flow and it would be inconvenient for players to be forced to wait for a certain amount of time before being able to unpause. The pausing feature is mainly meant to allow for pausing of the game when all players are in agreement and for which duration.

7. I already knew the map editor would be available to beta testers a while after Beta was released, but this is why I'm asking the bland question, will it also be available to non-participating people?
No, the map editor will only be available during the beta for beta testers.

8. When a unit comes out from a building will there be only 4 exits from the building like in Warcraft 3 or will there be "infinite"?
It is not infinite, but your units will come out from a building at the closest point on the building to where your rally point is set.

Source: Battle.net

Blizzard Official Website Revamped

PsiWarp — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:09:59 -0700

There comes a time when the fruits of our laborious wait would pay off, and this is one of the lesser rewards. Welcome to the Future of Activision Blizzard!!

Once again Blizzard proves that they are an amazing company, with talented artists and staff. Just take a look at all the individual game landing pages as well as the 404 error page!

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

-Psi (P.S. The US Site is now online!)

Official Blizzcon 2v2 Vids Up

Kraziliak — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:58:54 -0700

After much waiting and anticipation, the 2v2 exhibition matches from Blizzcon have officially been uploaded by Blizzard to the Blizzcon website. If you missed these match ups during the event, you really missed out so I suggest you go and watch them now!

You can view the video by visiting the link below and clicking the SC2 Exhibition Match.

Source: http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/video/archive.xml

New Dustin Browder Interview

Knee of Justice — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:42:09 -0700

A video from Blizzcon has finally be posted with an interview from all the fansites. We had a chance to ask Dustin many questions personally and hopefully answered most unanswered questions. I personally asked a ton myself so you best watch it!

View the whole transcript on SC: Legacy

- gearvOsh

1v1 Ladder - Season 3

Bloodwolf — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:44:30 -0700

I'm happy to announce all details regarding the new SC2 Armory 1v1 Ladder!

This ladder is hosted at www.fraggednation.com

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Ladder Basic Information:

Season Starts: 9/21/09
Season Ends: 11/30/09
Game Mode: 1v1
Game Speed: Fastest
Ladder Mode: ELO point-based
Version: BroodWar 1.16.1

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Map Information:

Official Ladder Maps:
- Andromeda 1.0: 4 player space map with power stations
- Arcadia II: 4 player badlands map with easy-to-defend natural
- BlueStorm 1.2: 2 player twilight map with tight choke points
- Carthage III 2.0: 2 player jungle map with temples blocking the middle passage
- ColosseumII 2.0: 4 player desert map with a neutral sunken at your main's choke
- Destination 1.1: 2 player badlands map with many bridges and a mineral-blocked backdoor
- Gods Garden: 4 player jungle map with a far natural and a 2nd natural inside your own base
- Heartbreak Ridge 1.1: 2 player jungle map with a double expansion in the middle, and 2 back-door entrances
- Neo Medusa 2.1: 3 player twilight map, with back-doors blocked by stacked min/temples and build-able terrain in the middle
- Outsider: 3 player ash map, with a somewhat near natural, and 2 min only back-door/inside expas, that can be min-hopped to a double gas expansion
- Python 1.3: 4 player jungle map with 2 open corner expansions and 2 low ground island expansions
- Return of the King: 4 player twilight map with a platform middle and a back corridor

Official Map-Pack: Download (1.3mb)
Last Updated: 9-15-09

Maps per Match: 3
- challenger's map
- challenged's map
- random map chosen by the system

Map Pool Selection:
- New maps were picked based on balance, diversity and the input done by experienced armory members. Thanks to Dreadwave, Tom Phoenix, Raspy & nbtnbt5 for your contribution.
- 5 out of 10 maps used during Season 2 will be used for this Season.
- Neo Medusa 2.1 has replaced Medusa 1.1: it's basically the same map, but it lets you build a bit in the middle, which balances it a bit more.
- Outsider has 2 entrances at the main, one which leads to an expansion blocked by minerals. If you can mineral-jump/mineral-hop it will definitely help. Here's how.
- Runner-Up: Ride of Valkyries.

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Eligibility:

Requirements to Join the Ladder:
- Have an account in the SC2Armory.com site.
- Have 50 or more quality posts.
- Behave! Assholes, hackers, trolls, flamers, etc will be removed immediately!

This intends to protect the Armory members from outsiders who might join just to cause problems in the ladder. Exceptions to this rule will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

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Challenge Information:

How to Join & Play:
- Create an account at Fragged Nation
- Join by following this link.
- Select "View All Ladders".
- Select "Private".
- Select "SC2 Armory 1v1 Ladder - Season 3" and enter the password.
- Password will be given to eligible players after being approved by Bloodwolf (send a PM)
- Challenge someone
- Play your game
- Report results
- Challenge again (or be challenged)

Regarding Timezones:
- Remember that the armory has members all over the world.
- Timezone to use is standard GMT (London). Make sure you talk to your opponent and agree on a proper time for both.
- Bear in mind the time differences so you don't miss your match. Example: if you live in the US East Coast (GMT -4), and the match is setup at GMT 4:00pm, that means that your match would be at 12:00pm your time. If you, however, live in France (GMT plus1), then the match would be at 5:00pm your time.

Communicating with your Opponent:
If you wish to communicate with your opponent, go ahead and use the Match Comm tab under "Challenge" to send messages, or you can just PM him through the Armory or Hamachi.

Scheduling Games:
- Games can be scheduled at any time.
- You can challenge several people simultaneously, even if you already have a pending match.

Where to Play your Games:
The recommended way to play is to PM your opponent on the official Hamachi Ladder Network, created exclusively for this:
- Name: SC2Armory.com
- Password: play
- For questions regarding Hamachi use this guide.
- Alternatively Battle.net can be used instead, but your opponent must agree to this. Chaos Launcher is recommended (LAN latency).
- You can also play on Iccup through the Iccup Launcher (LAN latency), but your opponent must agree to this as well.

Declines and Inactivity:
- Players are entitled to 3 declines per week.
- After 3 declines, the system will penalize players that don't accept challenges.
- Players with too many declines will be toggled as Inactive.
- When going inactive for personal reasons, you can deactivate yourself by clicking the "De-active button" under "Your Ladder Memberships". Alternately, you can request Bloodwolf to deactivate you through a PM.
- Inactive players deactivated by an admin can only be reactivated by one as well.

Replays:
- Replays are not required to be saved for the ladder.
- If you wish to save them, go ahead so we can have a rep-pack put together at the end of the Season.
- A good place to save your replay would be RepDepot.

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Rewards:

The Top 3 Players will get:
- Minerals and gas according to their positions, courtesy of the Armory.
- Your very own fictional trophy.
- The prestige of knowing that you are part of the best players in the Armory.

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Feel free to post your questions or comments in this thread, and hope you guys enjoy Season 3! :)

Internal Error problem

gearvOsh — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:45:55 -0700

It's unbelievable how many times people create threads about this, or message me, or don't bother reading the news when it has been answered like 10 times. The "internal error" message is an error caused by the host/server, not by this website.

It basically means I am using too many resources/memory on the server so it cannot handle the requests. The only solution to this is upgrading to a dedicated box, but that will be about triple the amount im paying right now. I will be "testing" a dedicated box for the next week to see its memory usage and how much it will cost me. If its reasonably priced ill leave it on the dedicated, else if its too much well just have to deal with the error messages, or ill setup a donation box. So if you see the site go down or is unavailable, its the site switching to the new server.

Additionally, to get rid of the error, just keep refreshing the page.

Minor Site Improvements

gearvOsh — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:15:09 -0700

I had some extra time today so I decided to fix some things and add a few minor improvements. Most of these improvements are from Raspy and others who pitched suggestions. Heres a quick list of the changes. Be sure to clear your browsers cache to see the changes.

- I have a badass new avatar :]
- Search is now fixed! So yes, the top right should work :]
- The quick reply has been fixed where it didn't show in certain forums
- I added country flags next to everyones usernames
- The videos have been removed (will be re-added with the new wegame videos)
- The guides tech-trees (sidebars) have been reorganized alphabetically instead of its tech order
- Added a "toggle all checkboxes" to the messages
- Fixed and revised search new posts
- Hid the quick reply, can be opened by clicking the "quick reply" button
- Bi-weekly polls have been changed to just "polls", since its not really bi-weekly
- The off topic forum rules have been changed
- The serious discussion has been closed since it causes too many flame wars
- The rules have been updated, READ THEM
- All "warnings" will last a month and then will be removed
- The swarm guardian collectible has been added
- Uploading avatars work (except animated images)

Things to come
- Fixing all the artwork media (yes they are messed up, my fault)
- Adding a preview post option

Internal Error
This is a big problem we are still having. My host says I use too much resources for this website so I may have to upgrade. So just stick with it for now till I can upgrade the server.

Starcraft: Frontline Discussion Panel

gearvOsh — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:05:30 -0700

UPDATE
The Starcraft: Frontline discussion will begin in a few minutes. To view the live conversation, please go to the following URL: CoverItLive SC:FL Discussion

--------------------------------------------

Blizzplanet and StarcraftWire.net will have a live chat with Tokyopop manga writers to discuss details of the upcoming Starcraft: Frontline Vol. 4 and the recent vol. 3. Many of the Starcraft 2 fansites staff will be able to interact with all six writers and the editor; this manga contains a lot of stuff that Blizzard already implemented in the Starcraft 2 single player. I, of course will be attending and the discussion is open to the public (for viewing), only certain users will be able to talk and ask questions (ala me).

If you have any questions you wish to ask the writers, be sure to let me know before hand so that I may ask them. We can't ask questions about Starcraft 2 because they do not represent Blizzard Entertainment. Focus your questions on Starcraft: Frontline Vol. 3 and the upcoming Vol. 4.

The panel will begin tomorrow (Wednesday) at 1 PM (-8GMT Pacific Time). I will post a news story about it before hand so that you all may join in.