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StarCraft II Beta available by pre-order

#1

R

Raemon777

I don't think I saw this announced here yet. If you pre-order from Amazon or GameStop you get into the Beta (Gamestop seems to deliver in 24 hours as opposed to Amazon taking about a week). I just got mine a day ago. Pretty fun so far. I'm not very good at it though.

Other things of note:

Beta now comes with the map editor
Mac Beta is coming out soon, supposedly
You CAN create a custom game with AI opponents, and if it is your first time playing, you probably should.
Reapers are FUN!


#2

Dei

Dei

If you pre-order from the store directly instead of through Gamestop.com, you get it right away.


#3

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Ever since I got my key I have played off and on. The game is really fun to play and reminds me so much of the original.


#4



Rubicon

I was thinking about this but once you pre-order you cannot cancel after you receive your key (so if I dislike the game I am forced into buying it...)


#5

R

Raemon777

>>I was thinking about this but once you pre-order you cannot cancel after you receive your key (so if I dislike the game I am forced into buying it...)

Seriously? It's StarCraft. If you liked StarCraft you will like StarCraft II. If you didn't, you won't. Pretty much end of story. I guess if you somehow managed to be on the fence about StarCraft I don't really know what to tell you. (You'll probably be on the fence about StarCraft II as well).


#6

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Hey we were speaking about this in the other thread. Here is the video. Be aware this is a spoiler for the SC2 Single Player campaign, and has a crucial revelation.



#7

R

Raemon777

Oh, I had seen that. Forgot about that.


#8



Chibibar

Raemon777 said:
>>I was thinking about this but once you pre-order you cannot cancel after you receive your key (so if I dislike the game I am forced into buying it...)

Seriously? It's StarCraft. If you liked StarCraft you will like StarCraft II. If you didn't, you won't. Pretty much end of story. I guess if you somehow managed to be on the fence about StarCraft I don't really know what to tell you. (You'll probably be on the fence about StarCraft II as well).
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Mav, if you are on the fence on it, might as well don't pre-order. Why risk it?


#9

R

Raemon777

Random StarCraft question (probably to be answered by ScytheRexx):

At the end of Rebel Yell (and Liberty's Crusade), Mengsk seems to have control of the Hyperion. Later on we see Raynor in command of the Hyperion. Is there a novel or something that showcases Raynor taking control of it? Or did I just miss something?


#10

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Raemon777 said:
At the end of Rebel Yell (and Liberty's Crusade), Mengsk seems to have control of the Hyperion. Later on we see Raynor in command of the Hyperion. Is there a novel or something that showcases Raynor taking control of it? Or did I just miss something?
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It is explained in the novel Queen of Blades, at the very beginning of the novel in a retrospective manor by Jim. Jim and his Raynor's Raiders attack a space dock for supplies, and since Mengsk is busy setting up the Dominion, he sends Duke with the Hyperion to stop the attack. Jim Raynor outsmarts Duke however and traps the cruiser using the docks crane system, and his forces storm and take the ship as the ultimate prize, the biggest "screw you" to Mengsk. He has owned the ship ever since.


#11



Chazwozel

You know what would be awesome? If they stopped with the beta shit and finally release a fucking game this century.


#12

R

Raemon777

Beta crashes for me once every 3 games, so I am perfectly happy with them NOT selling me a finished game yet.


#13



Chazwozel

Raemon777 said:
Beta crashes for me once every 3 games, so I am perfectly happy with them NOT selling me a finished game yet.
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No. I don't mean it's not good that they're testing everything. I mean that Blizzard likes to stretch out every last lunch break. In other words, they're lazy as fuck. Fucking Californians.


#14

R

Raemon777

I'm not sure how your conclusion follows from any particular actual evidence.

In other news, I am experiencing a strange, twisted emotion as I come to terms with the fact that have suddenly become a player who rushes. Instead of feeling lame I find it actually fun both to rush and to be rushed. But as a proud member of the, um, copper league, I keep having to watch sad players go "oh screw you hackers, fuck you ruining the game" when I build a barracks inside their base within the first few minutes of play. And I have to resist the urge to say "learn to play, newb." (BTW, does that strategy actually work when you're playing against actual good players?)


#15



Rubicon

Raemon777 said:
>>I was thinking about this but once you pre-order you cannot cancel after you receive your key (so if I dislike the game I am forced into buying it...)

Seriously? It's StarCraft. If you liked StarCraft you will like StarCraft II. If you didn't, you won't. Pretty much end of story. I guess if you somehow managed to be on the fence about StarCraft I don't really know what to tell you. (You'll probably be on the fence about StarCraft II as well).
Click to expand...
I loved SC1.

I am on the fence about SC2

- no lan play
- milked into 3 parts (which means "part 3" of SC2 should be SC4..)
- the not so subtle hints that they'd start doing microtransactions on bnet for things like custom maps

etc


#16

R

Raemon777

I think it was confirmed that the two follow up games will be "expansion priced," so I really don't see that as an issue. And even if they weren't, I'd only be on the fence about the second two games, depending on whether the quality was truly worth an extra 20 bucks.

I haven't heard anything about microtransactions for Blizzard approved maps yet. What I HAVE heard is that players who develop custom maps will have the option to sell them (although they'll have to wait until a year later, from what I recall). This is a huge GOOD thing for me, as a game developer. I'd love StarCraft II to be an engine I can actually make a high quality product with. As a game player, it seems similarly good to me: there will be a lot of high quality content because talented developers can afford to spend more time working on stuff. This isn't just me repeating Blizz's schpiel (sp?), it really is common sense. On top of that, the people developing stuff in their free time will most likely either be doing it for free or making 99 cent apps similar to iPhone. And if Blizzard DOES produce their own maps to sell on top of this... honestly how is any of that a bad thing? It's extra content, which wouldn't have existed otherwise (and you certainly wouldn't have "deserved" for free), which you have the option of paying for or not.

As for the Lan thing... yeah I agree with you on that. It's not something I particularly care about but I don't know why they felt it was necessary.

All in all though, the thing that ultimately matters is "is the initial game going to be worth paying 60 bucks for?" And again, I honestly don't think there's any more information you'll find that will sway your opinion on that. The gameplay is pretty much the same (except better in a lot of ways). Single player, from all indications, is going to be at LEAST as good if not better than the original. If Lan (or a Zerg or Protoss campaign) are really that important to you, well, then you should already know that too.


#17

Shannow

Shannow

I guess the lan thing is an issue for some folks, but in this day and age, I look at it as a "meh." My roomate, my brother,a nd another friend all play fine together right over bnet with no issues.


Heh, jsut got a firend invite for the beta in an email too. Too bad it didnt come a few weeks ago and I could have sold it.


#18



Chazwozel

How is no lan support an issue?


#19



Chibibar

Chazwozel said:
How is no lan support an issue?
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usually you can play local game without having to use Battle.Net now you have to use battle.Net for all games

This can cause problem for some people of "questionable" legal copies ;) with LAN games it is not verified via Battle.net, now all SCII will be accounted for and play. If you want multiplayer, you better get a legit copy and register to your battle.net account.


#20

@Li3n

@Li3n

Chibibar said:
This can cause problem for some people of "questionable" legal copies ;) with LAN games it is not verified via Battle.net, now all SCII will be accounted for and play. If you want multiplayer, you better get a legit copy and register to your battle.net account.
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:lol:

There are already alternatives to bnet for all Blizz games... the only difference being that the ones using LAN might be legal because they don't modify the game at all...


#21



Chibibar

@Li3n;378995][QUOTE=Chibibar said:
This can cause problem for some people of "questionable" legal copies ;) with LAN games it is not verified via Battle.net, now all SCII will be accounted for and play. If you want multiplayer, you better get a legit copy and register to your battle.net account.
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:lol:

There are already alternatives to bnet for all Blizz games... the only difference being that the ones using LAN might be legal because they don't modify the game at all...[/QUOTE]
There might be, but that method will probably be use for their local LAN game if they don't want to use legit copy.

The only draw back of not having the LAN party is that you are dependent on internet connection instead of just having a local fun game.


#22



Rubicon

Shannow said:
I guess the lan thing is an issue for some folks, but in this day and age, I look at it as a "meh." My roomate, my brother,a nd another friend all play fine together right over bnet with no issues.


Heh, jsut got a firend invite for the beta in an email too. Too bad it didnt come a few weeks ago and I could have sold it.
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I used to play tournaments in SC, and while I was never any good at it I had fun. Without a LAN option, this severely hinders any kind of professional level playing of the game (note, I am not qualifying myself as a pro, I'm a n00b like most people), or at the very least forces non-Blizzard tournaments and ladders to have go to through Bnet and deal with lag/ping etc.

This.. is just Blizzard milking money. Did you see the news this past week about how Blizzard is pulling their affiliation with the largest pro gaming company in Korea? Even though the Koreans kept the game alive for 12 years, they are being snubbed, since Korea is where like 80-90% of all pro SC tournaments, ladders and players come from. As a result, Blizzard has chosen to go with other gaming organizations, prompting certain pro players and pro teams to NOT play in those tournaments and organizations since Blizzard decided to jump ship from one company to another. They just want even more money, want a SC2 tournament? it has to go through bnet. Ladder? bnet. Sure you can organize an unofficial of either of those but you still end up playing the game online, dealing with online gaming issues (ping, lag, location) in an environment that was built around lan play.

And yea custom maps costing money is bad, in several ways. One, remember back in the day, the first couple years of SC1, Blizz had a Map of the Week they made, every week, completely for free. Why all of a sudden is an RTS map, something to be considered DLC? DLC is exactly one chief reason why I am not a console gamer. My generation of gaming, you never paid for extra maps or little tiny additions to the game. Occasionally there might be an expansion pack to a game but those usually have a ton of content or major additions, worthy of the price. However with most PC games you could get free content, stuff that should never have cost money in the first place. Two, what types of maps will they allow players to make and charge for? Regular gameplay maps? Campaigns? Custom Use Map Setting style maps? If they allow you to charge for UMS, then they have just opened the flood gates for not only legal ramifications but spam. Ever play a UMS map in SC1? There's always like several games of the same type running, all running the exact same map except some jerk has slightly modded it to basically just include his / her name. Imagine having to navigate your way through some Bnet Store for custom maps to be purchased and there's 2000 copies of Sunken Defense or OMGNAZIZOMBIE or DragonBallZ RPG AttackX...

Basically, I can't stand to see Bnet destroyed like this. Nickel and diming us, forcing us to use it for a competitive function. This is the same type of shit console gamers deal with for multiplayer games. The most recent being Halo 2 on Xbox 1. You paid for the game, and the ability to play it online, but its up to someone else when you can play it, how long you can play it and when you may not play it again. With no LAN function, Blizzard has basically just put a kill switch in the game, if they no longer want you to play it, they can just remove it from Bnet, and no more multiplayer (unless there is some rudimentary 1v1 via tcp/ip).

Call it a rant if you wish, but I loved SC1. Loved it. It was one of the first few PC games that I got hooked into playing online the week it was released back in 98'. I have so many fond memories of playing SC1, Quake2, etc online around that time period, and it just saddens me to see how they've already ruined SC2 :(


#23

Baerdog

Baerdog

If you're getting your knickers so twisted up about it vote with your wallet and don't buy the damn game.


#24

R

Raemon777

If you're getting your knickers so twisted up about it vote with your wallet and don't buy the damn game.
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The whole discussion is about him not being sure whether to pre-order the game. I think being unsure whether to get it or not is perfectly reasonable depending on various circumstances. It's just that all the factors ARE pretty much known, so there's not a lot of point in waiting to decide.

That said:

One, remember back in the day, the first couple years of SC1, Blizz had a Map of the Week they made, every week, completely for free.
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And is there any reason you particularly think Blizzard is OBLIGATED to do that for free? In the past Blizzard HAS been extremely good about providing a way array of free updates (such as a patch converting StarCraft to Mac OS X, which would involve a lot of rewriting). And that is great. And I hope (and expect) that Blizzard will continue to do a variety of things for free. But making maps, adding features and rewriting programs for new operating systems all take time, all require people to be paid. There is nothing unreasonable about them deciding to charge for any of that. They're not "forcing" you to pay for anything. If a map costs money and you want it, you pay for it. If the price is unreasonable, you don't. Complaining that content someone else spent time making "should have been free" is simply greedy.

I don't know anything about Blizzard-made stuff (except for a rumor there would be DLC for an official Brood War Mod), but the user made content won't be sell-able for a year (I am frankly annoyed at this) so the likelihood of people suddenly being willing to pay for random simply maps they've been getting for free is pretty minimal. I expect there will probably be packs of good maps on sale for a dollar or two tops, with the more extensive mods (such as third person RPGs) costing 5-10 bucks, which is perfectly reasonable. People might TRY to sell the rest of the chaff, but it's unlikely to make a lot of money in the long term and after an initial gold rush it'll probably be mostly free or ludicrously cheap pricing for most stuff.

With no LAN function, Blizzard has basically just put a kill switch in the game, if they no longer want you to play it, they can just remove it from Bnet
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Are you seriously worried about that? I can see that if Blizzard was a struggling company that might go out of business, but I just can't fathom that being an issue. The only real legitimate concerns I've seen are that battle.net might go down for an hour or two to fix server issues, and that sometimes the internet might be more laggy than a direct connection. While I understand the concerns, neither seems worth boycotting a game over.


#25

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

I have to say, Mav, I don't understand your points at all.

First of all, if Blizzard is having an IP-rights argument with a company they work with, they're under no obligation to renew their contract with that company. They clearly don't consider their previous association with that company to be worth the trouble. Also, I was under the impression that they're looking for another Korean-based company to fulfill that market, so I don't see how Koreans as some kind of cohesive whole are getting the shaft.

Second of all, no gamer is ever owed extra content. That we got it before was Blizzard's way of saying, "keep playing and buying our games, we give you stuff". It was marketing. That's all it ever was, and Blizzard really doesn't need to do it anymore if they don't want to (they haven't been clear on this topic one way or the other). If you don't want to spend money on official maps or player-created maps...then just don't. If people are willing to buy DLC, then by all means, Blizzard should sell some. If you feel like some of those maps would be fun, then buy them. If Blizzard offers them for free, then cool for Blizzard, that must be one of the reasons why people like them.

EDIT: If you're so concerned about this stuff, non-issues as they are, just don't pre-order it. Wait until it comes out and gets fully-reviewed and/or friends buy it so you can try it out, then make up your mind.


#26

Shannow

Shannow

I, for one, have no problem with the way it is going.


#27

R

Raemon777

EDIT: If you're so concerned about this stuff, non-issues as they are, just don't pre-order it. Wait until it comes out and gets fully-reviewed and/or friends buy it so you can try it out, then make up your mind.
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Again, this is what he WAS doing. My argument is that "reviews" are largely irrelevant, because the game itself is pretty much the same thing as StarCraft except for a few places where it's unquestionably better and a few places that might be a little unbalanced but will will surely be fixed. It's not like WarCraf III where the game changed radically. If you liked StarCraft you should like StarCraft II. It's just a matter of "are these particular things worth boycotting over" (or at least waiting till it's $30 instead of $60)

The only thing I can see swinging Mav's opinion firmly to one side or the other is watching how the market forces play out with the DLC. (if it turns out nobody is willing to pay for maps, nobody will charge for them). But that's not something that's going to happen in the near future. If official Blizzard DLC does come out it probably won't be for a few months and the user generated content won't be for even longer. But that's a rather excessive amount of time to wait to buy a game you know you're going to enjoy the core version of. If you're saying that you think the core version of StarCraft simply won't be worth $60, but the core version + some arbitrary amount of free content would be, well, the argument is at least consistent, but I think that's a rather inflated view of how much the free content adds to the game.


#28

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Raemon777 said:
But that's a rather excessive amount of time to wait to buy a game you know you're going to enjoy the core version of.
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I absolutely agree. This is why I find Mav's "already ruined SC2" talk to be somewhat strange, because his issue (so far anyway), doesn't seem to have anything to do with the changes (or lack thereof, debatably) in gameplay, but more around the "extras".

Also, granted, I find the whole "anti-DLC" mindset annoying. If a particular DLC isn't worth the cost, don't buy it. If enough people don't buy it, either the developer will stop putting out DLC, or work hard on making the next one better. If a DLC is worth the cost, then why get upset about it?


#29

R

Raemon777

I think the anti-DLC mindset comes a lot from DLC that was worth SOME money but not quite enough so you continuously feel like you're missing out or are being ripped off. For example, the DLC for Dragon Age where you get the golem character. I have not played it, but it sounds like it's probably "technically" worth the 15 bucks for the extra adventure, new character, new equipment, etc. But I honestly don't care about the whole new adventure and equipment. I care about getting a golem character. And I'm not willing to shell out $15 for just that. That's fine, technically, but it does make me feel a little sad whenever I think about it.


#30

Shannow

Shannow

I just think he doesnt want to pay for the game. :)


#31

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Raemon777 said:
I think the anti-DLC mindset comes a lot from DLC that was worth SOME money but not quite enough so you continuously feel like you're missing out or are being ripped off. For example, the DLC for Dragon Age where you get the golem character. I have not played it, but it sounds like it's probably "technically" worth the 15 bucks for the extra adventure, new character, new equipment, etc. But I honestly don't care about the whole new adventure and equipment. I care about getting a golem character. And I'm not willing to shell out $15 for just that. That's fine, technically, but it does make me feel a little sad whenever I think about it.
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That golem character is free DLC though. At least if you buy the game new.


#32

Baerdog

Baerdog

And the golem character is awesome.


#33

Bowielee

Bowielee

FYI, for those saying LAN is only for people who want to play pirated copies of the game, you can kindly kiss my ass.

My best friend and I still play LAN games on a regular basis because we don't have to rely on slow ass servers or our sometimes lately iffy internet connection to play. I have no problem with them authenticating or whatever, but I still want the ability to go through my router and not a server.

I have yet to download a pirated new release for games. Yes, I have pirated abandon-ware because there's was no other legal way to get it.


#34



Chibibar

Bowielee said:
FYI, for those saying LAN is only for people who want to play pirated copies of the game, you can kindly kiss my ass.

My best friend and I still play LAN games on a regular basis because we don't have to rely on slow ass servers or our sometimes lately iffy internet connection to play. I have no problem with them authenticating or whatever, but I still want the ability to go through my router and not a server.

I have yet to download a pirated new release for games. Yes, I have pirated abandon-ware because there's was no other legal way to get it.
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I say BLIZZARD remove the LAN game so they can try to deal with pirated copies.

I personally play tons of LAN games at my house and friends house (I personally bought over 20 copies) of SC1 and broodwars EACH!! That is the only thing I can think of when Bliz remove the LAN features.


#35

R

Raemon777

I say BLIZZARD remove the LAN game so they can try to deal with pirated copies.
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Ah, that's a fair statement. And now that I think about it... frankly, I don't blame them. Well, whether I blame them or not depends on how hard that actually succeeds at cutting into piracy. But piracy is a big enough issue that I honestly don't blame companies for taking measures to prevent it. Authenticating for multiplayer games isn't the most draconian of DRM methods (I honestly have less of an issue with that than CD keys, since I've lost numerous CD keys over the years. I can't play WarCraft III anymore for that reason).


#36

Bowielee

Bowielee

As I said in my post, I have ZERO problem with authenticating, I just want to use my router to play with my friend without having to play via the Bnet servers.


#37

R

Raemon777

Fair enough. I agree with you there.


#38

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Bowielee said:
As I said in my post, I have ZERO problem with authenticating, I just want to use my router to play with my friend without having to play via the Bnet servers.
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Then you are in luck.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60156

I asked Canessa whether the solution his team is working on might include a pseudo-LAN connection, where the game would only check in with Battle.net to authenticate before reverting to typical LAN behavior.

\"Something like that,\" he replied. \"Maintaining a connection with Battle.net, I don't know if it's once or periodically, but then also having a peer-to-peer connection between players to facilitate a very low-ping, high-bandwidth connection.. those are the things that we're working on.\"
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#39

@Li3n

@Li3n

Then you are in luck.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/60156
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It's not really luck if they started only mentioning that after a few weeks of massive backlash...


Chibibar said:
I personally play tons of LAN games at my house and friends house (I personally bought over 20 copies) of SC1 and broodwars EACH!! That is the only thing I can think of when Bliz remove the LAN features.
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Doesn't SC1 has a spawn copy option that lets you play MP as long as the host has the CD in the computer?!


#40

R

Raemon777

Something that's been bugging me, cross posted from the Blizzard forums:

My issue with Void Rays has nothing to do with their power level. I've seen enough evidence that if you actually know what you're doing you can deal with them just like any other unit. My issue is about a more elusive "fun balance" issue that's been bugging me. I believe a game should strive to be as fun as possible for as many different players as possible, and while they may not be unbalanced at the highest tiers of competitive play, there are issues in how players of other demographics use them.

Void Rays have all the coolness of a huge capital ship. And they spawn a lot faster and cheaper than a lot of huge capital ships do (Motherships and Carriers being the ones that actually matter in this context). There's a pretty sizable contingent of players who love to build big fleets of ships and swing in for a glorious kill. Ignore for a moment whether this is a viable strategy or not.

For such a player playing protoss, Void Rays are the first such ship that is available, and it is available as soon as you build your first Stargate. And it is cheaper and faster than the ships that come afterwards. And in low to mid level player, at least, it is a versatile enough ship that there's not a whole lot of reason to add other ships to the fleet. When I'm in the mood for a gloriously awesome protoss game... I honestly feel that there is only one "optimum build." I can try other builds if I want, to get variety, but whenever I do there's a nagging feeling that the game will either be less gloriously awesome or that I'll have to be waiting longer for something that isn't any more fun.

I actually have a somewhat similar issue regarding Battlecruisers (I've had this since StarCraft 1), which is that they are supposed to be this huge, awesome capital unit, but their attack is incredible slow and weak for what the unit is supposed to represent. Sure, you can do a Yamato blast, but then the unit goes back to slowly poking at the enemy in a manner highly ineffective considering how much you spent on the unit.


#41



Rubicon

TeKeo;379308][QUOTE=Raemon777 said:
But that's a rather excessive amount of time to wait to buy a game you know you're going to enjoy the core version of.
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I absolutely agree. This is why I find Mav's "already ruined SC2" talk to be somewhat strange, because his issue (so far anyway), doesn't seem to have anything to do with the changes (or lack thereof, debatably) in gameplay, but more around the "extras".

Also, granted, I find the whole "anti-DLC" mindset annoying. If a particular DLC isn't worth the cost, don't buy it. If enough people don't buy it, either the developer will stop putting out DLC, or work hard on making the next one better. If a DLC is worth the cost, then why get upset about it?[/QUOTE]

Lan play is considered an extra? That's the real big one for me, no lan play. Theyve effectively destroyed the competitive scene for SC2. Sure, they can be played out over bnet but its not just a problem of "a little laggy next to lan play" as Raemon says. Lan play offers a 0 ping environment. While not as extreme as a FPS game, its still a huge point of lan play, to have that low connection speed. And even if Blizzard held their own sanctioned tournaments or events, we'd still have to connect to bnet to play.. This has effectively put small LAN centers or parties etc who don't have big broadband connections out from playing SC2.. Combating piracy is one thing, completely throwing aspects of the game under the bus is another..

I really had wanted to try the game before making a choice. As much as I hate and loathe DLC (cause games should not be nickeled and dimed over time), I could live with it. But I'd like to check the game out before deciding if being split into 3 parts is worth it, not being able to realistically play in a lan setting is worth it, etc


#42

R

Raemon777

I really had wanted to try the game before making a choice. As much as I hate and loathe DLC (cause games should not be nickeled and dimed over time), I could live with it. But I'd like to check the game out before deciding if being split into 3 parts is worth it, not being able to realistically play in a lan setting is worth it, etc
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As far as lan goes, see ScytheRexx's link above. It addresses all the concerns I have. As for checking the game to see if "splitting it up into three parts," well, the only way that works is you play the entire game before deciding to pay for it, which isn't a reasonable request at all. I still don't get why DLC is "nickle and diming you," so long as the things DLC offer do not give some players a competitive edge over others.


#43

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Mav said:
Lan play is considered an extra? That's the real big one for me, no lan play. Theyve effectively destroyed the competitive scene for SC2. Sure, they can be played out over bnet but its not just a problem of "a little laggy next to lan play" as Raemon says. Lan play offers a 0 ping environment. While not as extreme as a FPS game, its still a huge point of lan play, to have that low connection speed. And even if Blizzard held their own sanctioned tournaments or events, we'd still have to connect to bnet to play.. This has effectively put small LAN centers or parties etc who don't have big broadband connections out from playing SC2.. Combating piracy is one thing, completely throwing aspects of the game under the bus is another.
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One thing to be aware, is that Blizzard knows how big the pro scene is with a game like StarCraft. While I can't say for certain, and this may not help you individually, I am pretty sure Blizzard is going to make a "pro-scene" version of the game that will run without Battle.net for Tournaments and approved LAN centers. The authentication and requirement for Battle.net is mostly being designed for individual copies, and is mostly there to prevent other online services from using the game, as they often go through the LAN. Yes, it does suck that the group of friends hanging out at home have to get an internet connection established for pseudo-LAN play, but it's not nearly as bad as you are making it out to be.

But I'd like to check the game out before deciding if being split into 3 parts is worth it, not being able to realistically play in a lan setting is worth it, etc
Click to expand...
Not sure why people still keep saying "split into 3 parts" We are still getting a whole game at least twice as expansive as the first StarCraft for the first one, the only difference is Terran have more single player missions then Protoss and Zerg. The two expansions after that carry on the story from a dominate point of view of the other races, but still act just like Brood War in that they push the story forward after the first one. All we get is one extra expansion, which is welcome to me since we might not see StarCraft 3 for another 10 years.


#44

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Because that's not good enough, dammit!


#45

Bowielee

Bowielee

I got the beta from pre-order today, and lo and behold it yields the best argument for LAN reliability. We're having issues with our DSL right now and our connection is bouncing back and forth between fast and slow. The pings can land anywhere from 23 to 7000 MS. So, my best friend and I have the game all loaded and updated, but can't play the game due to having to use Bnet as a dedicated server.

The lag even happens when I create a 1v1 game with a PC opponent.


#46

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Have to realize though that this is beta, and the first game to be utilizing the new Battle.net 2.0

I have had my own connection issues here and there, but the majority of my games work just fine. It will be better once they get that persudo-LAN into the game, but for now the whole reason you Beta it to stress the servers and test balance, and it's hard to stress the servers if it already allowed you to peer-to-peer connect.


#47

R

Raemon777

Help if I'm missing something obvious. A lot of times after a match I'll want to talk to someone I just played with (or against), but I have no idea how to do that. Friending them requires the identifier, and for some reason my match history only includes their first names. I can't believe they missed something this obvious. What am I overlooking?


#48

@Li3n

@Li3n

ScytheRexx said:
Not sure why people still keep saying "split into 3 parts" We are still getting a whole game at least twice as expansive as the first StarCraft for the first one, the only difference is Terran have more single player missions then Protoss and Zerg. The two expansions after that carry on the story from a dominate point of view of the other races, but still act just like Brood War in that they push the story forward after the first one. All we get is one extra expansion, which is welcome to me since we might not see StarCraft 3 for another 10 years.
Click to expand...
I think you mean the Zerg get no missions and the Protoss have their buildings and units playable in some Raynor/Terran missions... while the story will move forward about as much as it did in SC1, which had an actual full story with some remainind plot hooks for the expansion. We certainly won't be seeing any UED-type story insertions in any of the expansions.

But yeah, a longer campaign for each race, with more variation between how it plays for each faction does sweeten the pill considerably... and it's all Relic's fault anyway...


#49



Chazwozel

Mav;379247][QUOTE=Shannow said:
I guess the lan thing is an issue for some folks, but in this day and age, I look at it as a "meh." My roomate, my brother,a nd another friend all play fine together right over bnet with no issues.


Heh, jsut got a firend invite for the beta in an email too. Too bad it didnt come a few weeks ago and I could have sold it.
Click to expand...
I used to play tournaments in SC, and while I was never any good at it I had fun. Without a LAN option, this severely hinders any kind of professional level playing of the game (note, I am not qualifying myself as a pro, I'm a n00b like most people), or at the very least forces non-Blizzard tournaments and ladders to have go to through Bnet and deal with lag/ping etc.

This.. is just Blizzard milking money. Did you see the news this past week about how Blizzard is pulling their affiliation with the largest pro gaming company in Korea? Even though the Koreans kept the game alive for 12 years, they are being snubbed, since Korea is where like 80-90% of all pro SC tournaments, ladders and players come from. As a result, Blizzard has chosen to go with other gaming organizations, prompting certain pro players and pro teams to NOT play in those tournaments and organizations since Blizzard decided to jump ship from one company to another. They just want even more money, want a SC2 tournament? it has to go through bnet. Ladder? bnet. Sure you can organize an unofficial of either of those but you still end up playing the game online, dealing with online gaming issues (ping, lag, location) in an environment that was built around lan play.

And yea custom maps costing money is bad, in several ways. One, remember back in the day, the first couple years of SC1, Blizz had a Map of the Week they made, every week, completely for free. Why all of a sudden is an RTS map, something to be considered DLC? DLC is exactly one chief reason why I am not a console gamer. My generation of gaming, you never paid for extra maps or little tiny additions to the game. Occasionally there might be an expansion pack to a game but those usually have a ton of content or major additions, worthy of the price. However with most PC games you could get free content, stuff that should never have cost money in the first place. Two, what types of maps will they allow players to make and charge for? Regular gameplay maps? Campaigns? Custom Use Map Setting style maps? If they allow you to charge for UMS, then they have just opened the flood gates for not only legal ramifications but spam. Ever play a UMS map in SC1? There's always like several games of the same type running, all running the exact same map except some jerk has slightly modded it to basically just include his / her name. Imagine having to navigate your way through some Bnet Store for custom maps to be purchased and there's 2000 copies of Sunken Defense or OMGNAZIZOMBIE or DragonBallZ RPG AttackX...

Basically, I can't stand to see Bnet destroyed like this. Nickel and diming us, forcing us to use it for a competitive function. This is the same type of shit console gamers deal with for multiplayer games. The most recent being Halo 2 on Xbox 1. You paid for the game, and the ability to play it online, but its up to someone else when you can play it, how long you can play it and when you may not play it again. With no LAN function, Blizzard has basically just put a kill switch in the game, if they no longer want you to play it, they can just remove it from Bnet, and no more multiplayer (unless there is some rudimentary 1v1 via tcp/ip).

Call it a rant if you wish, but I loved SC1. Loved it. It was one of the first few PC games that I got hooked into playing online the week it was released back in 98'. I have so many fond memories of playing SC1, Quake2, etc online around that time period, and it just saddens me to see how they've already ruined SC2 :([/QUOTE]

You are literally The KING of griping over the most irrelevant bullshit on the planet.


#50



Chazwozel

Shannow said:
I just think he doesnt want to pay for the game. :)
Click to expand...
.


#51

Dave

Dave

Chazwozel;379872][QUOTE=Shannow said:
I just think he doesnt want to pay for the game. :)
Click to expand...
.[/QUOTE]

That's not necessarily true. For example, with Diablo, (IIRC) if you wanted to play with obviously altered characters or cheat codes you had to go LAN. Could this be maybe why? Or because LAN can be much faster? Or because he wants to have LAN parties where a group of people get together with their gear and have fun. Now these options have been taken away.

I fucking LOVE LAN parties but no why bother? It won't help the speed, it's a pain in the ass to lug the equipment around and who cares about getting together in real life instead of just being in the basement?

In the end it's their product, but there are other uses for a LAN than pirating.


#52



Chazwozel

So how is telling Mav that he's full of shit trolling and infraction worthy if I'm not looking to incite a response from him but merely recounting the truth about the original statement. Gee golly, we can't have opinions with them being considering a trolling remark?

---------- Post added at 12:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:16 PM ----------
Dave;379905][QUOTE=Chazwozel;379872][QUOTE=Shannow said:
I just think he doesnt want to pay for the game. :)
Click to expand...
.[/QUOTE]

That's not necessarily true. For example, with Diablo, (IIRC) if you wanted to play with obviously altered characters or cheat codes you had to go LAN. Could this be maybe why? Or because LAN can be much faster? Or because he wants to have LAN parties where a group of people get together with their gear and have fun. Now these options have been taken away.

I fucking LOVE LAN parties but no why bother? It won't help the speed, it's a pain in the ass to lug the equipment around and who cares about getting together in real life instead of just being in the basement?

In the end it's their product, but there are other uses for a LAN than pirating.[/QUOTE]

DOTA comes to mind. Highly customized games over B-net.


#53

Dave

Dave

DOTA? I'm not familiar.


#54



Chazwozel

Dave said:
DOTA? I'm not familiar.
Click to expand...

Defense of the Ancients is a custom user map for WarIII that's competitively played over B-net


#55

Dave

Dave

Right, but we're talking two different things. You are talking specific maps. But that's still on BNet. I'm talking the death of SC LAN parties as they no longer serve a real purpose.


#56



Chazwozel

Dave said:
Right, but we're talking two different things. You are talking specific maps. But that's still on BNet. I'm talking the death of SC LAN parties as they no longer serve a real purpose.
Click to expand...

Sure they do. Get together and rock out with your friends.


#57

R

Raemon777

I'm still hoping for an answer on the "how to chat with players outside of games" thing. I've asked on three different forums and haven't gotten an answer.


#58



Chibibar

I think the private LAN parties are gone (at least with current release) I don't think official Tournament will be effected by this. I'm sure the game will have local bnet server (especially since they are hosted by Bliz) for tournament purpose.


#59

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Raemon777 said:
I'm still hoping for an answer on the "how to chat with players outside of games" thing. I've asked on three different forums and haven't gotten an answer.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's been enabled yet, AFAIK.


#60



Chibibar

TeKeo;380109][QUOTE=Raemon777 said:
I'm still hoping for an answer on the "how to chat with players outside of games" thing. I've asked on three different forums and haven't gotten an answer.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's been enabled yet, AFAIK.[/QUOTE]

I must have miss that one, does the software prevent vent or skype to work while in game?


#61

R

Raemon777

I'm referring specifically to being able to talk to players I just met in a game, after the game has ended, if I didn't stop to ask them "what is your identifier?" before the game ended. Because my match history doesn't seem to tell me.


#62

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dave said:
DOTA? I'm not familiar.
Click to expand...
Hehe, oh Dave, we love you. You're so old.


#63



edzepp

http://www.destructoid.com/starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty-dated-july-27-2010-172744.phtml

In short: Starcraft 2 will hit retail on July 27.


#64

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

My birthday!


...Except I don't want it.


#65

@Li3n

@Li3n

edzepp said:
http://www.destructoid.com/starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty-dated-july-27-2010-172744.phtml

In short: Starcraft 2 will hit retail on July 27.
Click to expand...

So it will be out in september then... good to know.


#66



Chazwozel

@Li3n;380536][QUOTE=edzepp said:
http://www.destructoid.com/starcraft-ii-wings-of-liberty-dated-july-27-2010-172744.phtml

In short: Starcraft 2 will hit retail on July 27.
Click to expand...

So it will be out in september then... good to know.[/QUOTE]

Probably more like December for Christmas 2011.


#67

@Li3n

@Li3n

Chazwozel said:
Probably more like December for Christmas 2011.
Click to expand...

Sure, if you want to be a realist... i'm an optimist for this week though.


#68

R

Raemon777

I'm betting September, which means it'll likely come out on my birthday. Which will be awesome.

If by some miracle it DOES come in July, it'll probably arrive about 3 days afterwards because I pre-ordered, which means it'll show up just as I return from a week long CGI convention. Which will be almost as awesome.


#69

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Wrath of the Lich King came out on time.


#70

phil

phil

Anyone want to play a game? I'm really shitty at both this and just RTS games in general, so I a bit of practice would be nice.

If you do I'm laughingboy.philrigney


#71

Bowielee

Bowielee

My id is Darsiek.darsiek if anyone's interested in playing


#72

R

Raemon777

remember you can create a custom game with easy AI to learn each race. (My Battle.net account is Raemon.seven, not sure when I'll next be on though)


#73



Rubicon

Chazwozel said:
So how is telling Mav that he's full of shit trolling and infraction worthy if I'm not looking to incite a response from him but merely recounting the truth about the original statement. Gee golly, we can't have opinions with them being considering a trolling remark?
Click to expand...


You do realize, I only hang out in Games and Media sections of the forum because of your bullshit right? I get tired of hearing your trolling and flames in any single thread I post or reply in, in the General section.

Some of my points and opinions on this, are legitmate. Don't think so? Fucking, Google, It. Thousands of other SC1 fans agree with me.

Just like with AC2, just like with EA products, and a ton of other gaming industry bullshit, I most likely will vote with my wallet and not purchase this game. And no I don't pirate games either, between STO, WoW, etc I'm too busy. But that's ok dude, you rock on and continue to be Mr. Internet Big Shot, big fish in a small pond pouncing on smaller fish, you have fun with that.


#74

phil

phil

Bowielee kicked my ass. I thought it was kind of close and I just got outplayed, until I saw the replay. I never had a chance. He had expanded twice, one of which was to a gold mineral base before I expanded at all.


#75



Chazwozel

Mav;381035][QUOTE=Chazwozel said:
So how is telling Mav that he's full of shit trolling and infraction worthy if I'm not looking to incite a response from him but merely recounting the truth about the original statement. Gee golly, we can't have opinions with them being considering a trolling remark?
Click to expand...


You do realize, I only hang out in Games and Media sections of the forum because of your bullshit right? I get tired of hearing your trolling and flames in any single thread I post or reply in, in the General section.

Some of my points and opinions on this, are legitmate. Don't think so? Fucking, Google, It. Thousands of other SC1 fans agree with me.

Just like with AC2, just like with EA products, and a ton of other gaming industry bullshit, I most likely will vote with my wallet and not purchase this game. And no I don't pirate games either, between STO, WoW, etc I'm too busy. But that's ok dude, you rock on and continue to be Mr. Internet Big Shot, big fish in a small pond pouncing on smaller fish, you have fun with that.[/QUOTE]

Stop posting idiotic teen fantasies about forming unions and rising up against the 'evil video game' empires and I'll stop pointing out how stupid you sound.


#76

Seraphyn

Seraphyn

In less flaming news: anyone need a key? I just got an extra in the mail the other day and everyone I know already has one it seems. First come first served, just reply here.


#77

Snuffleupagus

Snuffleupagus

ill take it if nobody else wants it.


#78

Seraphyn

Seraphyn

And sent, enjoy!


#79



Rubicon

If anyone has a spare key, I'm still willing to try the game.

I'll even pay a little money for it.


#80

@Li3n

@Li3n

Mav said:
If anyone has a spare key, I'm still willing to try the game.

I'll even pay a little money for it.
Click to expand...
WHORE....


Too bad you didn't post during the weekend, i still had 2 keys then (and i did check the forum once then), now they're both gone. Also, they're probably european keys, so you'd have to play with mucho lag (although when i got a key for some reason it was a US one, and i had to contact support to give me a EU one).


#81

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

How demanding is this game as far as video card goes? I know Blizzard is almost always pretty good about letting their games be taken down visually enough for older computers to handle them, but I'd like to know.


#82

@Li3n

@Li3n

escushion said:
How demanding is this game as far as video card goes? I know Blizzard is almost always pretty good about letting their games be taken down visually enough for older computers to handle them, but I'd like to know.
Click to expand...
At min my brother ran it on a p4 with a GeForce 6600 and it ran pretty fine (of course that PC is giving out, so sometimes it stuttered, but that's probably just the PC), but it looked almost like WC3...


#83

Timmus

Timmus

I just got the game as well.

If anyone wants to play me my id is:

Deaner.chakowitz


#84

Bowielee

Bowielee

Well, it appears that zerg rushes are as popular as ever.


#85

phil

phil

I've lost two of my 5 practice league matches. I'm guessing I'm going to end up in the lowest division.

What bugs me too is that I saw the early starport, so I knew he was going to go with a heavy air force late game. I still only had one viking out and no missile turrets when the banshees came. My orbital command didn't have enough energy for more than one scanner sweep too.


Those poor SCVs didn't know what hit 'em. We lost a lot of good men today.


#86

@Li3n

@Li3n

Bowielee said:
Well, it appears that zerg rushes are as popular as ever.
Click to expand...
And Zealot rushed have been working pretty good for me so far.

Of course i'm still playing low level players like myself, once i even stopped a Zergling rush by having them run after 2 Zealots until my cannon finished building so it didn't even disrupt my mineral gathering. The game is pretty enjoyable when playing against people near your own level. Of course for some reason in 2v2 i almost always get partnered with the guy that's the worse out of the 4 in play.


#87

R

Raemon777

Fun strategy (as long as you're in, like, copper league...) is to immediately pack your SCVs into your command center and fly away to an island. Then the enemy comes in, guns blazing, only to find... an empty plateau. You'll probably lose, but the "WTF, where'd you go?" is worth it.

If you use the last SCV (only 5 fit in the command center) to start a new base as soon as possible, you may even stand a chance. While the enemy is hunting for you, you'll have time to focus initially on your economy and then jump up to mass starports.

Again, as long as your in, like, copper or bronze.


#88

Timmus

Timmus

Oh man I'm in copper. I was hoping it wasn't the lowest tier but it appears it is so.

My pride hurts.


#89

Bowielee

Bowielee

I'm totally getting my ass whupped on a regular basis. I've finally figured out that early SCV harassment is the only way I can win a game, because most people will send a bunch of their workers after my SCV or ignore it completely while it kills off a few of their workers. Of course, that doesn't work in games where there are rocks blocking the base. In which case I try to do a raptor rush.


#90



Rubicon

So I'm playing the beta, and I notice this new universal Battle.net buddy list.

Is there a way to disable people seeing your real name? Since WoW requires a bnet account now, and your bnet account must have an actual name on it, pretty much anyone on my SC2 buddy list can see this. While its not too hard to find out who people are online, any means to keep privacy is always nice


#91

@Li3n

@Li3n

The bnet friends list has 2 sections, one if for RealID friends, and those guys are supposed to be people you want to see your real name (of course i for one don't have my real name there anyway).

The other is the regular type friends list, where you only see their in-game name. You should probably just use this one with people that you're not actual friends with IRL.


#92

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

That's a pretty cool system. WoW could certainly use something like that--people you want to see you online, and people you don't :p.


#93

Bowielee

Bowielee

It would appear that as of the last update, they removed the ability to add friends based on their usernames, only their real ID. This seems like an extremely stupid move. I'm only giving my battlenet account id to one person.


#94

Dei

Dei

Welcome to making your b.net account easier to get stolen. Let everyone in the world know your login name! Oh and you can't use caps in your password (aka not case sensitive) or special characters (unless that changed recently), so I hope to hell everyone has a secure password using letters and numbers that can't be brute forced easily. :p (Oh, and an authenticator!)


#95

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

^Yeah, I imagine fencing more authenticators is a big Blizzard agenda. They seem so eager to sell them, I sometimes wonder if a few accounts' worth of info leak now and then just to keep people scared.


#96

@Li3n

@Li3n

Latest patch bugged the game worse then it ever was... and the beta is ending in a few days... maybe we'll get lucky and they'll keep the beta a bit longer until they patch it again.


#97

Dei

Dei

Didn't they say that the beta is going to come back after they shut it down on the 31st?


#98

phil

phil

It says that my play expires June 25

Did everyone keep the same name? I'm laughingboy again. laughingboy.philrigney

I need to practice with Zerg more.

And terran and protoss


#99

@Li3n

@Li3n

And the beta is still on until the 7th...

@Dei

They said it might... but getting in a few more games is always welcomed.


#100



Chibibar

I suck at PvP. I play against the CPU with my friends. I did pre-order, but going to wait for release :)


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