Starcraft 2 Armory

SC2GG's Q&A Podcast

deahtjester014 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:58:38 -0700

This is a podcast created by the ambassadors from SC2GG who went to the press release last monday. It is their method of answering the public's questions about their visit and everything about the build they got to play. Tons of info and its a good listen. Check it out!

http://www.sc2gg.com/upload/media/sc2ggqandapodcast.mp3

- You can only pass through your own units with workers with mineral locking now. So your enemy can block that.
- High Templar may have a weak attack now the guy wasn't really sure if it was from last year.
- Raven has the point target defense thing and it can block attacks (like the Predator).
- Nukes cost less resources, no supply, and are a lot faster building time now.
- Thors are very effective against Hydralisk.
- One of the guys used Phoenixes to get rid of Ultralisks with Graviton. He said it was relatively easy.
- It is still relatively easy to stack Mutalisks.
- Battlecruiser's defensive matrix is pretty powerful.
- Probe's hot key is 'E'.
- Temporal Rift is very effective for catching enemies that are fleeing or fleeing an enemy's base. It slows enemies and allies also I guess by like 75%. Your units may pass through normally.
- Building Phoenixes basically forces your Zerg opponent to build Hydralisks which you can counter also.
- Banelings not very effective.
- Lurker has a much better targeting system. It will be much harder to dodge with Marines now.
- Some of you know that Overseer have kind of an ability like Dark Swarm (Defiler).
- Obelisk, Mules, and Spawn Larva are things that will be very useful if you constantly check back at them. For people with better APM. Constant use of the Spawn Larva is very useful.
- Nydus Worm is pretty easy with Overlord.
- Overlord Creep recedes slowly like if your Hatchery is killed.
- Most hot keys are on the left side of keyboard like with Probe moved to 'E'.
- Hot keys are may be possible to be editable (may be customizable for Battle.net profile).
- Not sure about voice chat yet.
- Ideas implemented from community (replay rewind was from community).
- Haven't decided about new units in expansions yet (balance reasons).
- 12 hatch not so good anymore
- Warp Gate is micro, Gateway is Macro.
- Protoss are easier to power down with 200 shields and health with the Pylon.
- SemiOldGuy from TeamLiquid kept teching to Medivacs. You just need to build a baracks, a factory then a stargate can build them from the getgo (if you build a fusion reactor on the factory you can lift off and land your stargate there and instantly start producing 2 at a time)
- Every building kinda walls perfectly now.
- Rofl one guy apparently built 5 spawning pools and asked why they weren't spawning any Zerglings rofl.
- They put a pylon in a blocked view zone, and then started warping in units on top on their ramp.
- Psi Storm has amazing effects.
- Psi Storm cannot kill a roach in one go but will be weak enough for mopping.
- No 'Fastest' right now but 'Faster' moved just as fast.
- Widescreen gives you a little bit more playing field to view over normal.
- Pro teams are already starting team planning.
- Pros are nervous that SC1 is going to die.
- Korea not too excited about beta/SC2.
- Korea had the least amount of opt-in requests for SC2 beta.
- Battle.net 2.0 was what the press conference was going to be about, but they found a bug and they didn't want to show people yet.
- Corruptors are a very powerful air unit.
- In case anyone didn't know, Ultralisks are fucking strong.
- The surrounding system works very nicely in certain cases.
- Beta is supposed to include the map editor.
- One Medivac easily supports a dozen Marines.
- Xel'Naga Watchtowers strategically reveals map.
- LAN OPTION MAY BE ON BATTLE.NET or lets you play people on the same IP server.
- Blizzard will be supporting Esports more.
- Salvage may be imbalanced as said by Dustin (Bunker Rush).

SCLegacy - Starcraft: First Contact

gearvOsh — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:00:05 -0700

The fansite, StarcraftLegacy.com, associated with Tractor Media, has created a fan video (HD animation) based on a story theme of the site's community. The video features a space battle between Tassadar's Flagship, Gantrithor and three Terran battlecruisers as well as footage of Chau Sara. The voice over of Tassadar in the video was voiced by the original actor of Tassadar.

For more information, click on the link below to visit the homepage and see interviews, development and mission briefings of the video. Make sure to watch it in HD!

Source: Sclegacy.com, HD YouTube

Official SC2A gearvOsh Q&A

gearvOsh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:07:48 -0700

So this week I had many of you ask me questions about the current build of the game. Honestly, most of these questions were either impossible to answer, takes common sense to figure out, was found in the guide, or already been answered. I also didn't want to answer any questions along the lines of "How did you think the races matched up" or "What were your opinions on x", simply because my opinion doesn't matter seeing as how I ain't a large SC1 player, so my input wouldn't be consistent. But anyways, I tried answering mostly gameplay questions, so here they are.

1) Since we know nothing about it currently, how does the Nydus Worm mechanic work?
First you build a Nydus Network, and load the Network with all your ground units. You can then spawn the Worm at any location as long as its on top of creep (including enemy creep). Once the worm emerges, you can either unload or load units.

2) How effective did you find the viking and reaper when playing terran?
I found the Viking extremely effective. Such an amazing unit at destroying resource lines and air units. You can easily dodge ATA units by turning into a ground unit, and on top of that you can go to air to dodge GTG units. The Reaper I only found useful with D8 charges, but it requires an upgrade and is late tech, so I think it needs work.

3) Have there been any changes to the ultralisk, and did you get to play them and test how effective they are?
Unbelievably effective. For fun I massed 15 Archons (I have a screenshot) against my friends 4 Ultralisks. He nearly took out half of my army, and that was without the Cleave ability. They are deadly unless you have high damage output units or disablers like Graviton Beam.

4) What happens when you merge different templars together?
Nothing. You get the same basic Archon no matter what combo of templars you use.

5) Did the two Dark Templar models bother you during gameplay?
Not at all. You dont even notice it in the least bit unless you literally stare at the screen and zoom in. It doesn't affect gameplay at all, I mean seriously, how can you NOT TELL its a DT.

6) Was the prediction that ZvZ is primarily "Roach vs. Roach" combat correct?
Rarely did I see a Roach vs Roach match up. You would see Roaches, but I would see more people tech up to Mutalisks more so.

7) What do you think about Xel'Naga Watch Towers? Do they make that much difference, since we heard Dustin Browder saying that controlling them can be a key to victory in BR3.
I believe they do. Every game I played I would secure at least one tower using a Marine. This extended site can help you determine where the enemy army is heading, or where there expansion will be.

8) What do you think of the new resourcing mechanics? Is it annoying to have to reclick the proton charge for probes and remember to call down new mules etc?
Annoying? You mean you'd rather have the game play for you? No its not annoying, it keeps you on your toes and attempts to increase some macro. But no I find it great, especially the Proton Charge. Its one of those abilities that I would usually try and tech to as fast as possible because the extra income is helpful.

9) How do you think spawn larva compared to the Protoss and Terran macro mechanics?
Some say its "weak" and "uninspired" compared to the other races, but I would have to disagree. The larva are permanent, which is basically like 4 extra drones each time its used, and on top of that its also helpful if you need extra drones to build structures.

10) Are destructible rocks passable by any other means than air or destroying them, example pylon next to them so you can warp in units on the other side?
Yes you would be able to warp in on the other side, but thats about it. Even Colossus and burrowed Infestors are unable to pass under/over destructible rocks.

Interviews with Dustin Browder and Chris Sigaty

chrisy08 — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:40:33 -0700

Recently, the television station G4TV and Joystiq held interviews with two seperate Blizzard employees. G4TV interviewed Dustin Browder, the lead designer of StarCraft II, where he reveals the current state of the game. The following is a summary of the interview:

Source: G4TV

The videogaming website Joystiq, on the other hand, interviewed StarCraft II`s lead producer Chris Sigaty. While the interview was less informative, it still included some new pieces of information. Here is a summary:

Source: Joystiq

New screenshots, renders and gameplay footage!

gearvOsh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:10:29 -0700

Im a bit late on updating with this, but better late then never! We now have 13 new screenshots, 3 of which are the new racial tech-trees. Alongside the new screenshots, we have an 8 min b-roll video of new Starcraft 2 gameplay, so check it out! And lastly, check out all the new Zerg renders.

My day at Blizzard and the NDA

gearvOsh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:41:49 -0700

If you don't know by now, on Monday I was invited to Blizzard HQ for a private press event to showcase us some major announcement. The event was supposed to be private but some site blabbed and the public found out and on top of that the information Blizzard wanted to showcase was not ready, so the event itself was postponed. BUT since many fansites and press sites already had plane tickets and their plans ready, Blizzard still allowed people to come out, and instead of the announcement we did the following.

Upon arriving at HQ, we signed some NDAs stating that we were not allowed to talk about anything we see or hear at Blizzard without their consent. After signing the NDAs, we waited out front in front of the Raider statue. Once everyone was ready, we went into a press room and then watched David Kim and Matt Cooper battle it live (as I stated on my twitter). They played 3 games total, all while Dustin and Rob narrated it for us. After the games were over, Dustin showed us the new replay and observer features, which were badass (more info later on).

After that we went off to lunch at Blizzards very own cafeteria. Once everyone was finished eating, we headed off an a tour of their 3 new buildings. We visited many areas including the wow dev team, wow art team, wow production team, marketing and business areas, cafeteria, gym, library, volleyball courts, the web and server team and lastly the Starcraft 2 development area. It pretty much looked the same as every area, except with Starcraft 2 crap everywhere. We really didn't see anything new in that room. And finally when we were done with the tour, we got to play Starcraft 2 for like the next 4+ hours, haha.

The game is amazing, and the art is coming out beautifully. I got to play and test every race multiple times and I still enjoy Terran the best. Once everyone played the game for a good hour, we started a 2v2 tournament between the fansites. Me and my friend (who is a horrible RTS player, lol) lost the first game against SC2GG, then won 2 games against another fansite, and finally lost again to Team Liquid. I was able to destroy one of the TLers main base, but later got overwhelmed because my teammate sucked, lol. During the tournament, we took a quick break and sat down with Dustin Browder and bombarded him with questions. I asked like 75% of the questions, simply because it got too quiet because no one had any questions! Once the Q&A was up, I played a little bit more then headed home, because I was starving. All in all I had a fun time, and thank Blizzard for every moment of it!

About the NDA
As everyone knows, we had to sign an NDA so that we couldn't post any information. Before the event was postponed, we were told that we can talk about the event and any info that day, so everyone still assumed we could. After the live battle reports were over, Blizzard mentioned that they decided we cant say anything, so we had to delete any posts/tweets we made. But I talked to Karune and was allowed to mention the live BRs and that we were playing the game. The only reason we weren't allowed to mention anything again till Monday, was simply because they gave us a week to return home, write the articles and get ready to update our sites. NOT BECAUSE OF BETA, lol.

Guide Updated & Tech-Trees! 6/29/09

gearvOsh — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:51:19 -0700

Well since I recently visited Blizzard Entertainment and played Starcraft 2, I had the chance to note down the new abilities, upgrades and tech tree. So with this new information, I finally updated the guide with the correct information, so check it out! Also The Zerg buildings have all new images and art, its beautiful, take a look!

Lastly I will list all the new abilities and upgrades for each race!

Terran
Abilities: 250mm Strike Cannons (Thor), Deploy Point Defense Drone (Raven)
Upgrades: Jotun Boosters (Viking), Durable Materials (Drone/Turret), Neosteel Frames (Bunker), Hisec Auto Tracking (Missile Turret)

Protoss
Abilities: Shield Recharge (Obelisk), Graviton Beam (Phoenix)
Upgrades: Graviton Catapult (Carrier), Flux Vanes (Void Ray)

Zerg
Abilities: Plague (Infestor)
Upgrades: Cleave (Ultralisk), Peristalsis (Infestor), Seismic Spines (Lurker), Glial Reconstitution (Roach)

gearvOsh Q&A Session

gearvOsh — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:51:01 -0700

Since I had the opportunity this week to play the game, pretty extensively, I thought it would be a good idea to do a Q&A batch. All you need to do is ask me any questions regarding SC2's gameplay within this topic. I will pick the top questions and will answer them the best I can. I will post the Q&A batch on Monday or Tuesday.

Only ask questions about the current gameplay build, nothing about beta, battle.net, the campaign, etc, because I do not know anything relating to those.

Also dont ask how much HP a unit has, or how much range an ability has, or how much energy an ability takes, because I didn't take notes.

Battle Report #3 - Official

kazzumd — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:28:22 -0700

So Battle Report #3 has been official released. All leaked information can be found at the end of this post. You may also view the two parts in the WeGame below.

Welcome to the latest installment of Blizzard Entertainment's official shoutcast for StarCraft II, currently in the alpha phase of development. This match features David Kim, one of the StarCraft II team's associate game balance designers, and Blizzard's Yeon-Ho Lee.

Source: Starcraft2.com

Leaked Info
Recently, several Korean websites released the third Battle Report. Among them is Game Chosun, which uploaded the video onto the video website Viddler. The report shows a match between Yeon-Ho Lee (Zerg) and David Kim (Protoss) on the new map Scrapyard.

As of currently, Blizzard has not yet published the Battle Report itself.

Source: Game Chosun (source website)
Viddler (video)
Eurogamer.pt (HD video)

Starcraft2.com Official download

Exclusive Starcraft 2 interview!

joup — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:55:23 -0700

Swedish internet-tv site Press2Play made an world-exclusive interview with two of the Starcraft 2 creators live from Dreamhack in Sweden. The site and beginning of the show is in Swedish, but the interview itself is of course in English (with Swedish subs).

Source: Press2Play

Blizzcon winners announced!

gearvOsh — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:14:10 -0700

After 3 long weeks of submissions, the winners have finally been picked. Congratulations to Stephanie West, Dominic Renaud and Edmond K for winning the grand prize of a free ticket to Blizzcon. You can view the full list of runner-ups by going to the contest page.

If one of the grand prize winners cannot go, their ticket will be given to a runner-up, so theres still hoping!

Source: Blizzcon Contest

Blizzard beta e-mail?

Darcey — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:00:59 -0700

Recently, several news sites have reported that Blizzard has sent an e-mail to several game writer, notifying them to register a Battle.net account by June 19th. One of the sources of this news is the gaming website Kotaku which had this to say:

Quote by Kotaku
Blizzard is starting to gear up for the StarCraft II Beta, the company said recently in an email sent out to game writers.

The email, which asks game writers to make sure they have a Battle.Net account set up and a request in, says that Blizzard has no date yet to announce for the start of the beta. The email ends, however, by saying that all Battle.net account login info for game writers needs to be sent to Blizzard by June 19.

Sounds like reason enough for me to start getting excited.

Other websites that have notified the public of the same thing are CNET and Gaming Shogun. However, due to a lack of an official confirmation, the possibility remains that the e-mail is an elaborate hoax. We will keep you updated on the matter.

Special thanks to Mr.Edgeworth, Darcy and Oin for discovering the news. Thanks also goes to Perfecttear for providing additional sources.

Source: Kotaku.com

Blizzcon Contest, 2 days left!

gearvOsh — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:04:51 -0700

If you haven't already, go enter our Blizzcon raffle! There is only 2 days left to enter, any submissions after the due date will not be counted. The winners will be drawn at 1pm (-8 GMT) on the 15th, and all entrants will receive an email notifying them of the contest conclusion.

If you do win, and are unable to go, please tell me asap so that I may give your ticket to the next runner-up.

StarCraft II Q&A [Batch 52]

gearvOsh — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:12:54 -0700

It's been a while since we got a Q&A batch, and its been even longer since we got a map editor based one!

1. Does it still use the JASS language, or perhaps an upgraded version of JASS?
StarCraft II uses an entirely new scripting language, which we've called Galaxy. This language is very similar to C, and anyone familiar with programming in C will have no trouble picking it up.

2. Is the language event-driven or object-oriented?
The language itself is not object-oriented, although most of the native functionality is based around operating on game objects.

3. In comparison to the Warcraft III Editor, how much more, if any, can the GUI of the game be edited (it was extremely limited in Warcraft III)?
The in-game UI layout is externalized in data files to a large extent, however there is no editor support for working with these files. So it will be possible to customize the game UI, it just won't be a user-friendly process.

4. Are there new noteworthy functionality in the Starcraft II Editor, or will the new editor just have general improvements?
I can't think of a single editor feature from WarCraft III, large or small, which has not been improved in at least some way for StarCraft II.

5. Will the ability to communicate among triggers, for instance via actions or conditions, be improved in the new language?
One significant new feature of the Trigger Editor is support for custom function definitions, including actions and conditions. This means you can create your own actions that are built up from other actions (or custom script code), then use those in triggers just as you would any other action.

6. How does "Hero" support differ from the Warcraft III Editor? Or is it practically identical?
We've been working hard to create a hero system that is even more flexible than WarCraft III's. For example, map makers will have the ability to define any number of custom attributes that modify a hero based on its level.

7. Will there be a public API for the programming language?
As with WarCraft III, there is a large set of "native" functions representing game functionality that can be accessed through scripts. If this is what you mean by "public API", then yes.

8. Will there be improvements on the "Garbage Collector" for the new language? For example, in JASS all local variables need to be set to null at the end of their use, and certain data-types need to be removed from the game (such as Locations) at the end of their use to avoid memory leaks.
Galaxy features a robust garbage collection system for all native types, which is a huge improvement over WarCraft III (which technically did not have a garbage collection system at all). The script memory leak issues from WarCraft III will be a thing of the past.

Source: Battle.net

Battle.net Mini Q&A and beta update

Silent.Stalker — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:07:31 -0700

After a period of silence, Karune has once again posted on the Battle.net forums. This time, he has notified the community on a wealth of changes that have recently occured in StarCraft II`s development.

First, he touched on the topic of the Terran vs. Protoss matchup, specifically the use of EMP.

Yup, EMP is currently on the Ghost and does 100 shield damage to all units and drains all energy in that area of effect. Having a Ghost presence in any TvP match up is crucial, especially if there are casters in the opponent's army. In the original StarCraft, the EMP used to kill all shield hit points, but since in StarCraft II the ability has been added to the Ghost, which is more easily attainable unit than in the original StarCraft, we have reduced it's potency a bit.

Plus a one-click ability that reduces an opposing army to half health near instantly isn't something that we want to promote.

To combat EMP, Protoss players have huge new additions to their arsenal that can help them attack, defend, and buy time for tactical retreats (to allow shields to recharge since they recharge 2x as fast as the original StarCraft). These new additions would include but are not limited to: Force Field (Disruptor), Temporal Rift (previously known as Time Bomb) (High Templar), Colossus AoE lasers (with upgradable range), Phase Shift (Disruptor), Shield Regeneration (added to Obelisk [known previously as the Dark Pylon] replacing 'cloak').

After this was posted, a member by the name of Crazyjimlizard mentioned the possibility of using multiple Ghosts and Karune replied that, although possible, it is not very worthwhile.

True, though that would be much more costly in terms of minerals/gas as well as time needed to have enough energy for EMPs. Furthermore, it would take slightly more micromanagement as well.

When put in a difficult situation, retreating with Protoss is a strategy that often times has to be used to recharge shields and regroup after attacks. Preserving Protoss units is particularly important because they are generally more expensive than the other races, have more hit points, and have that increased shield regeneration to help them fight another day.

After that, our very own member, Psiwarp, asked Karune about Hallucination and Plasma Surge. He also asked for clarification whether Karune ment the Dark Pylon and not the Obelisk.

Time Bomb is now known as the Temporal Rift and is cast by the High Templar.

Plasma Surge is no longer in the multiplayer version of the game, but will still be in the editor.

The Dark Pylon is now known as the Obelisk - primarily because it no longer cloaks units and no longer provides pylon power/supply. This change was mostly due to balance, since it is relatively easy to spam Dark Pylons everywhere and instantly have a Psi Storm recharge point to decimate incoming forces.

Within the same thread, a member by the name of Raportmkii expressed the opinion that the balance in TvP was rather akward due to the Protoss mostly relying on casters to counter Terran casters and light infantry. Karune responded by mentioning the Colossus:

The Colossus would be the unit you are looking for. One Colossi will be able to kill a group of Marines (before shield upgrade) with one sweep of its lasers. Multiple Colossi, with upgraded laser range, will surely mess up the day of any Terran player who does mass infantry.

If Protoss players do tech towards the Colossus, they will also have access to observers very early, giving them early warning to when the Ghost is in play and where it may be shooting its EMP from.

The last remark Karune made within the thread was that Lockdown remains unavailable in multiplayer.

No lockdown in multiplayer.

Lastly, in another thread, Karune replied to a member called Terroraustralis that it will be possible to implement naval units within the map editor.

It may take a little custom coding and art, but this is indeed possible.

Source: Battle.net (first thread)
Battle.net (second thread)

Besides the official information on the Battle.net forums, TeamLiquid reported that several notable members of the StarCraft community have recently been invited to participate in the StarCraft II beta. Among them are Tyler "NonY" Wasieleski (former professional gamer), Victor "Nazgul" Goossens (former professional gamer and co-founder of TeamLiquid) and "Chill" (TeamLiquid commentator; we do not know his real name at this time).

However, the starting date of the beta still remains unknown.

Source: TeamLiquid.net