Blizzard's Rob Simpson has hosted a very long segment on StarCraft 2 this week. Dustin Browder and Chris Sigaty sat down and discussed the fundamentals of the recently released StarCraft 2 Beta. Most of the points are over-arching and discuss the general process of the beta. However, they did confirm that Blizzard is planning on a full, 3 month beta (they were originally planning a 5 month beta) process. They are also emphasizing the role of community sites like StarCraft2Forum.org to get opinions directly to developers (basically bringing your ideas to our attention so we can pass it on rather than posting on Battle.net like 30,000 others) and via the in-game feedback function which will provide indirect beta support. Dustin also focused heavily on the Chronos Boost (he called it Time Warp) and its use for a Protoss player and its change from the BlizzCon 2009 build. He also discussed the Zerg's Fungal Growth ability and a player's ability to counter it by destroying a targeted unit very quickly and make the ability almost completely useless. Chris Sigaty also talked about the potential release of the StarCraft 2 Map Editor and confirmed that it may be released during the beta. They are also planning a major content update for beta late in the process that will include Blizzard-created modification maps and game styles. Lastly, they discussed some of the single player and mapmaking features including the achievement functions that will be available upon launch. Including the map publishing system which will allow mapmakers to upload their maps to a database to be downloaded (and purchased) by end users. Dustin also mentioned a unit called the Diamondback that will be featured in the Terran campaign. I want to reiterate that Blizzard is clearly emphasizing the community and sites like ours to provide reliable and speedy feedback to developers during the beta. Make sure to have your voice heard on our boards so we can pass on your thoughts to the developers! Get crackin'! And don't forget to check out BlizzCast 13 yourself! Source: Blizzard.com Discuss this article in the Forum!
"Blizzard is planning on a full, 3 month beta process. " So...does this...mean.. approx 3 months and then game is out? :O!!
They're confirming that the beta will last the full amount of time that was originally planned. That means it won't be over sooner than that but doesn't mean it won't be longer and has no bearing on the game's actual release.
Even if Blizzard wanted to take a stab at when the release is, that means nothing. Just look at the past delays Blizzard could come out and say "We guarantee a 3 month beta" and I would still assume about five months.
Hm, just i heard it was 4-6 months long and i thought that announcement meant it would be only 3, thus releasing the game faster, but yeah blizzard has a history of random albeit useful delays..
Thanks for posting this. Knowing how unlucky I am with things. At least I know now how long I'll have to wait without winning a beta key before I can actually play the game. I'd like to win one, but haha I'll see some people with 5 keys before that ever happens.
GIEF MOAR BETA KEYZZZZ GWWWWAAAAAHHHHHH sorry about that beta reging here oh well shorter beta faster game wait its blizzard nvm...
To be honest it's not hard to imagine a more productive site than this concerning meaningful discussion. However long the beta may be in the end, I hope they allow themselves time to make the game... well, make sense. Currently there are just way too many random things that take gameplay into account but nothing else like lore of feasibility.
Oh I agree. Things need need to fit in lore wise. But this is just multiplayer testing. I to be honest see a lot of beta playing and not much beta testing going on in the world. Still lore is only for Single Player and not the multi player they are testing now. SO for me I'm more after balance so all 3 races are as well balanced as they were in SC1.
Yes I do. Infested Terrans popping out ready to fight with marine suit still on. There's no resonable explanation for that yet. Protoss units are warped in at each building. Zerg units are born at the hatchery. But Terran units just appear from their buildings. With no real explanation of how they get there. I'll think of some more later.
I meant lore in the multiplay sense... and my examples would be: Reaper D-8 charges against buildings... what prevents him to use it against units for a massive 30 damage each? Nothing, yet it only works on buildings. The ground/air distinction works well for units with 2 types of armament. The building/unit distinction does not. Same goes for the ultralisk. Infestor, as mentioned above. The immortal is not a robot. Take it back to the gateway and move templars to the archive/obelisk/whereever needed to cut the units at the gateway. Warp-in could be balanced for the immortal separately. And just to emphasise, I'm not whining, and I know things change in the beta and that I should only complain (if I have anything for, hopefully not) about the contents of the final release. My problem is that if Blizzard even considered these things to work out then there's no telling what insane ideas they might come up with next.
Well I thought the immortal change made sense. From a lore perspective they immortals are 99% robotic to begin with so having them come from a robotics facility didn't seem to be too far a stretch. I always thought Terrans had people staying in whatever buildings were making them. For instance a barracks is a place where many troops are stored, or a starport is a place frequented with diffrent ships and people. Most of the names for the structures are names of buildings that typically house large numbers of people. (Factory excluded) So I just assumed they were producing from an inside supply. As for reapers, I think it would make sense if they had a limited supply of charges that were good against buildings. (Say 4-6 per troop depending on upgrades) They can be turned on/off as needed and have large dmg bonus against fortified structures. This would make much more sense from a lore perspective and make reaper raids less effective at destroying whole bases. The thingI really dont like atm, (though I"m sure I've meintioned it before) is how the mothership is basically a fancier looking arbiter right now. From what I've read in the lore they are supposed to be things of awe which are able to change the odds of a battle in an instant. Now for balance reasons I dont expect them to be like the origonal model. (with the black hole generator) Still there are many other ways to balance the unit without making it useless.
The description of the dragoon. In light of the below quote it is obvious that the dragoon is a cyborg: Artificial is the robotic exoskeleton while the natural system would be the crippled zealot inside. Also note that the prerequisite of the dragoon is the cybernetics core. Now, if we look at the description of the immortal: We can conclude that an immortal is just an upgraded dragoon. So it's a cyborg, not a robot, which... The immortal exoskeleton can't do tasks on its own, without a pilot. I know this is a game and gameplay comes first along with balance. But if I want to make a certain unit why do I have to create it at a building dealing with completely different things? Just say that the hardened shields (they no longer need to be researched, right?) do not make warp-in possible and there you have the balance issue solved with completely feasible lore. Which would actually make for some interesting choices, seeing as how generally warp gates are favoured over gateways - the player would need to convert their warp gates to make these insanely good tanks.
