StarCraft II – Chat channels and cross region play coming in later patches

June 17th, 2010

Blizzard posters recently responded to community questions about chat channels and cross region play.

These have been the same answers they have been giving, but at least they are directly replying to their fans.
Expect these features to come down the line after release.

There will definitely be “chat channels” coming in one of the patches after the release. The system will be based around groups, where you will be able to join public channels that are based around your interests, which can be virtually anything. Also the system will include private chat channels (in plans for release in the first few months after the release), where you will be able to meet with your friends.

As for identifiers they are returning for the second phase of the beta. The previous system did not work as intended to some degree and based on feedback received the developers decided to implement a variation of this, which is going to attach character codes. These will be three digit numbers added to your nickname and they will be seen in the UI screens. Thanks to this you will be able to add friends manually, just like previously with identifiers. On top of that you can still add friends using all other methods (using the score screen or RealID).

I’ll pause with that.

Getting people online, playing and interacting is obviously the overall goal for the Battle.net platform, and that includes allowing people to play across regional boundaries as they have in the past.

Unfortunately, there are a multitude of challenges we have to overcome due to the unique regional account and billing options that didn’t exist in the past. But those hurdles aren’t insurmountable, and we are looking into solutions that will allow interested players to obtain access to other regional versions without having to buy another full copy of the game. Those solutions are something we’re currently planning to have available through Battle.net Account Management within the first few months of StarCraft II’s release.

BlizzChat Twitter Questions 4/30

May 1st, 2010

Forum thread here.

Some choice questions:

Q: Do you think you will add any new units (or take any out) before release or is the current unit roster definite?
A: I doubt we will cut units but I expect that we will make some changes to current units. The Phoenix and Corruptor are currently being evaluated and may see some changes in the next few weeks.

Q. Do you plan to implement 3v3 and 4v4 match-ups at some point during the beta? If so, when?
A. We do intend to release 3v3 and 4v4 matchmaking in the beta around the middle of May. We will likely limit the number of maps because we still want players to primarily focus on 1v1 games to continue to help test balance.

Q: With the large discussion on Zerg changes, is there any planned? Or do you believe that they’re not being used fully?

A: We are looking at changes to the Corruptor. We are looking at the balance on Ultralisk and Infestor. We are not planning to introduce new units at this time, though we shall see as Beta progresses. =)


Q: Do you feel that micro needs to play more of a role in SC2? Will moving shot be re-introduced?

A: I don’t that we need MORE micro in SC2. We have a ton of it. But we are always looking to make the game more fun. A large number of units do drift in SC2 as they shoot (I assume that is what you are asking about). However our engine is a lot more precise than the original StarCraft so when you tell a unit to do something, it does it. We did find a few units this week that we felt were less responsive than we wanted (Hellion for example) and we will be making some changes to make them more responsive in a future patch.

Q: Do you plan on rework/rebalance of the Forcefield or are you already statisfied with it.

A: We are never “happy” about anything in the game.=) We are always looking at everything and trying to see if it works or it is broken. We think Force Field is a fun ability that has a lot of great uses that introduces a ton of new strategy into the game. We worry that it might be a little powerful. We are looking at some nerfs to the Sentry to create a higher cost for Protoss players who choose to bring too many Sentrys to a fight.

Q. Will multiple building selection for Terran stay like it is now and why is it so? (e.g. 2 barracks with different add-ons in one control group requiring the Tab key to switch between them seems odd)

A. We are changing the way Terrans build from their buildings with different add-ons. I get confused about what is live and what is in the version I played at the office today. =)


Q: How far in the ‘long term’ are those plans which allow for swapping to U.S. servers on an E.U. account – or a global account?

A: Jumping to the region you want is definitely in the long term plan for Battle.net, although we do have some concerns about communicating properly to the player what’s happening if they choose this because it WILL affect the latency of the game. As far as a date on when, I don’t have one yet. There are a number of features that we want to make sure get out their first and jumping to different servers is lower on the priority list at the moment.

Q: Are there any plans to change the current high ground advantage to the Wacraft III/StarCraft mechanic or other alternatives?

A: No. We like the high ground rules and we think they are cool for StarCraft II. The random high ground from StarCraft just didn’t seem right for a such a skill based game. The clarity of “if you can see, you can shoot” makes a lot more sense to us.


Q: For several Australian players at a LAN, who have logged into a custom Battle.net game, will the game be local once initiated?

A: You’ll be connected through Battle.net. However, we’re locating game servers more strategically to allow the best possible game experience from where you play. For Australia we are by default routing games through the Oceanic region which should provide a much lower latency experience.

Q: Please clarify response: Has the 125ms latency update been in effect since the last update or will it be available with the next?
A: We put this in a while ago in the US to see what the community response was. We did not announce it (even internally) to see who noticed. There was suprisingly little response to such a huge change. But some of us noticed and we thought it felt better.

Q: Please please please let us, excited mac users, know when we can expect the client to be available on the EU realm.
A: We’re targeting next Monday to release the European English, French, and German versions of the StarCraft II Mac beta. :)

Q. After the beta has commenced, how many CPU cores will StarCraft II be optimized for upon final release?

A. For launch, StarCraft II will be optimized for dual-core only. In the future we will definitely be looking into other optimizations to support additional cores, but do not have specific dates yet.

Arstechnica Single Player Preview

April 23rd, 2010

Arstechnica gets the goods on StarCraft II’s impressive Single Player campaign with a look at 3 missions.

Jim Raynor’s mercenary work (Which involves old favorite units like the Firebat, Goliath, and Medic), a few steps as a Dark Templar (Yes there’s Protoss gameplay in Wings of Liberty), and blasting a Protoss tower with a mining laser.

Since units are also not constrained by multi-player balance so expect a lot more crazy in single player this time around with upgrades for units, mercenaries, and possibly even hero inventories and items. Video footage here

StarCraft 2 Interview: Lead Producer Chris Sigaty

April 23rd, 2010

Shacknews has put up an interview with Lead Producer Chris Sigaty who talks about the Single Player Campaign along with some other features that might be making it into the game.

Some things to note are that chat channels are not going to be in the release and that group chats (Think Steam groups) will be implemented after launch. Expected expansion time is 18 months.

Blizzard is working with the South Korean ratings board to rectify the Adult-Only rating Starcraft II has gotten (a possible KeSPA intervention for broadcasting rights and power like they had for the original StarCraft).

Play Starcraft II without a beta key… in Korea

March 30th, 2010

incgamers has unearthed a Blizzard conspiracy to let thousands of Korean Starcraft fans get their hands on the Starcraft II Beta.

While not that popular in the US, Net Cafes or PC Rooms are the place to do all your gaming. You pay dirt cheap rates (Think <$0.50 an hour) to play any game you want on a decent machine, get all your buddies there, eat some $1.00 ramen and egg, play Starcraft (or DotA whatever floats your boat).

While obviously good to influence Starcraft II's reception in Korea the plan to let people play the Beta without a key comes from something far more complex.

KeSPA (Korean e-Sports Players Association) is at odds with Blizzard over who should be running the SC II show. Starcraft in Korea was an almost entirely KeSPA driven event with very little official support from Blizzard. Only in season 3 of GOMTV’s Invitational did Blizzard actually get involved. Blizzard looks to be seeking more attention from the masses towards Starcraft II to help pressure KeSPA from just sticking with Starcraft I.

For foreigners not in Korea the chances of an open beta still look slim, but hopefully Blizzard can send some more keys our way.

Interview with Dustin Browder on SC II

March 9th, 2010

For the uninformed Dustin Browder is StarCraft II’s lead designer. A lot of fantastic stuff in this article, a must read.

VG247: Are you seeing any specific trends from the beta?

Dustin Browder: We’re seeing all kinds of feedback. Some of the feedback we’re taking very seriously; quite a lot of it, of course, we’re not. Players are still learning the game and they’re going through a lot of the stages we went through in development, when we learned the game. What we’re definitely seeing right now is a general weakness in Terrans versus Protoss and Zerg, and this is from stats we have internally.

Our internal stats show us that Terrans are down in 1v1 versus Protoss and Zerg, and our internal stats also show us that Terran-Terran teams are also taking a hit in almost every match-up. This we believe to be largely because of map design. The Terrans lack some of the mobility to come rescue their allies in the early game, and we do have fortress maps in the beta, but we have several maps that aren’t fortress-style maps. We’re going to change the maps a little bit and see if we get different results, but the Terrans being down is something we’ve started to address and we’re going to continue to address in the coming weeks.

So far, the beta numbers we’ve been looking at have been very, very positive. We’re close to a 50 percent win ratio for almost every race.

What level of concurrency to you want to get to before the end of the beta?

Dustin Browder: I think we want to maintain about 10,000. It’s sort of our goal, and we’ve just about hit that at this point. I can see we’re at 9,000-something right now, and 10,000 is the goal.

How are you seeing people responding to the general speed of the game? Most modern RTS is much slower than StarCraft. How are you seeing people cope with the speed?

Dustin Browder: For the casual players we have a 20-plus-hour campaign that we want them to play before they get into online play, to get used to the gameplay experience. We have a wide selection of AI opponents, five different difficulty levels of AI opponents, which we encourage people to try out their chosen race with before they get into online play. We have our Challenge mode, which has a bunch of maps that teach you some of the fundamentals of competitive online play, that we encourage you to play before you get into online play.

Are you actually going to be removing or adding any units before you launch?

Dustin Browder: I don’t know if we’ll add or remove. We could very easily add or remove. I certainly hope not to. I don’t foresee removing. I could see changing or adding significantly if it came to that.

Is the Campaign actually finished yet?

Dustin Browder: It’s not finished. I’m doing a play-through right now on Hard difficulty, and I have pages of notes. But yes, all the missions are in, all of the game mechanics are in and working, and all the audio is recorded.

Glad to know that Blizzard is keeping extensive tracking of stats in SC II, not so happy about the possibility of less Beta keys going out however…

Starcraft II Calendar

November 23rd, 2009

Oh, this looks tasty:

Starcraft® II 2010 Wall Calendar $14.00

The StarCraft® II twelve month calendar features some of the best and most visually stunning imagery from the highly anticipated StarCraft® II RTS. [1]

Starcraft 2 Nominated for Spike’s VGA

November 21st, 2009

Starcraft 2 was nomiated for Spike TV’s Video Game Awards for Most Anticipated Game. Check it out here. We heard about this from Twitter, Blizzard seems pretty happy [1] with being on the list, but we all know that they belong there!

New 3v3 and 4v4 maps

November 21st, 2009

SCIIMap-(8)BulkenBlizzard has shared with us a little twitter regarding new maps:

The #StarCraft2 map team has been working on some new 3v3 and 4v4 fortress maps with shared chokes. [1]

It’s a little small to see the details, but an exciting new battlefield never the less.

Starcraft2.com Released

November 19th, 2009

Starcraft2.comBlizzard has released Starcraft2.com, and now we can all bask in it’s Starcraft-ness.

We are still parsing through the new information, but have a look at the Characters and Planets page!

We’ve just uploaded new intel to the StarCraft II website, http://www.starcraft2.com/.
This latest transmission sheds new light on the goings-on in the Koprulu sector and highlights key persons of interest associated with recent anti-Dominion activity.
In particular, this content drop includes:

Short Story: Changeling – Just because the years following the Brood War have so far been relatively uneventful, that doesn’t mean it’s safe out there in the cold vastness of space. Zeta Squad is about to find this out, the hard way.

Singleplayer Storytelling – Discover the ways in which StarCraft II will build on and expand the storytelling techniques of previous Blizzard titles, awaits you in this article.

Multiplayer Mapmaking – Ever wonder what design considerations and decisions go into the many multiplayer maps of StarCraft II? Check out this article to learn more!

Character Biographies: Tychus, Zeratul, Raynor – The character biographies for Raynor and Zeratul have been updated with new art and additional info, and you can now also read up on Tychus Findlay, one of Jim Raynor’s old comrade-in-arms.

New Art and Screenshots – Check out more than 20 new screenshots and pieces of concept artwork! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks… check out all the new info now! [1]