Low Settings and Cloaked Units

I play with all low graphic settings, and notice that enemy cloaked units to not create a wavering affect when moving. I've seen replays on youtube with Ultra settings and could clearly see a wavering when an enemy DT/obs/banshee was moving around.

This leads me to believe that on low you have no way to tell if a cloaked unit is nearby unless you have detection, as low settings do not allow the affect to be shown. So, even if there were a bunch of DTs walking around my base, I would not know they are there until they attack, no matter how good my eyesight is.

 

an interesting point you have there eon, though the only solutions i see are to upgrade your machine or always have some detectors around.

 

I would argue that feature sould be taken out of the game if low settings don't get it. Cause it's a real advatange if you get it and can use it.

 

Just how low do your settings have to be?

edit.....

What are your system specs?

Normal settings are normal settings for a reason.

 

I also have all low settings, and I had an entire base filled with dark temps... and couldn't see a thing. I've got a Pentium D 3.20GHz with 3.00gigs of RAM. Think I should go higher?

 

I recommend they use a stippled alpha effect for low setting.

 

Sony VAIO
1.6 GHz
2GB RAM

Dont recall other info atm. My laptop's chip is so old that even on low settings my fps drops with even a small amount of units onscreen. It's over 3.5 years old, and even when I bought it, it was only about average in terms of graphics for a laptop.

Let's just say that when people did graphics card tests for sc2 to see how older cards would compare, they didnt test anything as weak as my built-in card. And with it being a laptop, I cant replace it without replacing the entire motherboard since it's all fused together.

I repeatedly get that message "your computer is slowing down the game, blah blah blah"

EDIT: my card is a Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family

 

To be fair, i dont think you can ask for them to remove this feature for all the people who has computers good enough to display the effect just so that you can play the game on a computer that can barely launch the game without any disadvantage.

 

People who think like thwe above posterforget one thing. People with low end computers are revenue to Blizzard as well as the people with high end computers. And you need to make sure that people on the lower spec are just as competitive as people in the higher spec. That is what makes a game great and generates a lot of revenue for the company.

And for that reason I say the feature needs to be removed or edited somehow so no one is at a disadvantage.

 

Yeah but you are talking about people who must have no indespensiable income at all.

My comp is nine years old. I upgraded ram to 2gigs awhile agoe for maybe 60 bucks, I can get some very nice vid cards on new egg for less than $200. I currently have a 4 year old vid card in it I got for 50 bucks. I can run SC2 on just below medium graphics. Cloak effect and all.

I feel for any young people out there that only get their money from birthdays... but I imagine that Blizz's average consumer is making at least 150 bucks a week working a **** part time job.

Anyone I know into Blizzard is around my age (23) and was captured by their games ten years ago. The newer kids don't seem to give two ****s about computer games outside from wow... a blizz game that you can ask about SC2 in trade chat and most noone knows wtf you are talking about.

 

It doesn't matter. You don't balance a game around the poorest player's financial limitations anymore than you do the crappiest player's skill limitations.

Nor is the ability to see cloak distortion effects the only advantage player's using better hardware have.

 

What, You want to remove a great feature from the game because someone doesn't have a good enough computer to run it properly? That's completely naive and ridiculous. Cloaking has been in Starcraft since the classic game was released. Maybe this guy should update his computer or push his graphics up a level. I have played only Zerg since the first Starcraft and I despise cloak so much but it's really one of those qualities that the Protoss and Terran need and it's what make them the races that they are. Back on subject, I suggest that Eon updates his graphic cards and drivers.

 

I am a 17 year old high school student with no income. My computer used to be a high end gaming desktop.. five years ago. At this point, I can barely play SC2 at lowest settings. Probably average 25 fps, but in high action scenes that reduces to maybe 10-15 fps.

It's my CPU that is the worst, but the GPU isn't great either. Even if I could find a compatible processor for my old motherboard, find the money, and correctly install it, the fps would likely not increase much. I'd need to replace the GPU as well. I have an AGP 8x Video card.. not many of them around anymore.. I'm not even sure if there are any that are better than what I've got now. So I could either try and find one which is slightly better, or replace my whole motherboard. Then I have a whole list of other expenses.

The other computers I have around don't even support SC2 whatsoever - lack of Vertex Shader 2.0.

What should I do? Spend hundreds of dollars just so I can gain the ability to indirectly detect cloaked units? That's just not fair.

This needs to be updated so that the shimmering effect is visible on all graphics settings levels. Or at the VERY least, have it be an option all to itself - "Shimmering On" or "Shimmering Off".

By the way, if I increase the graphics settings from the lowest level, my computer lags so much I get dropped.. let alone having ANY possibility of micro.

 

I have a low end system as well. However, I don't see a problem with the cloaked feature. You'll be able to tell if the enemy has any cloaked units when the attack starts. Even if you didn't, the shimmer is still difficult to notice. I've played a few games on a system with ultra high everything. I still got demolished by some banshees because I forgot the detection and I couldn't see the shimmer effect.

As everyone else said, Eon should update his system in some way, shape, or form. I plan to update once I find a job.....however long that takes.

 

I didnt create this thread to suggest that higher lvl's lose the ability to see the affect, but to point out that lower lvls are at a disadvantage and that Blizzard should add the affect for low levels as well.

Also, updating is out of the question as I use a laptop, which would require me to replace the entire board just to update a single card since everything is fused together. The only thing I can upgrade without practically replacing the whole system is the RAM cards, which I already have two 1GB cards in it.

Sure I have a part-time job, but my parents wont let me use that for something like a new computer since I really need to be saving up for next semester.

 

Do what i do eon, take a small part of your funds and stow it away in a secret place. Then when you have enough for the build you so desire, buy, assemble, and then display showing them theres nothing they can do to stop you, because you did it 35 minutes ago.

 

hahaha, that would work if I knew a thing about computers and how they work.

My plan atm is just wait another year or so til I'm out of college then buy a new computer. I've waited 3 years for sc2, I can wait another year while playing on low before I get to play it on high settings.

 

Don't quote more than you type.

No. Learn to read. The feature I want removed is this said in the first post:

I want cloaked units in the game as we all do. I just want the wavering effect removed for all players. Then all players on all graphics settings would be on an equal footing.

 

He doesn't want to remove the cloak ability, but the graphics effects for it (the shimmering). You know, the effect that lets you tail around some fleeing Banshees until their detection wears off .

As I previously stated, it is a completely absurd notion to balance a game around the limitations of low-end computers. He probably wants bigger hitboxes in FPS games too so people with more expensive and higher DPI mice won't have an unfair targeting/aiming advantage. Or to limit the distance you can see so people who can turn up their render distances don't have an advantage. Or........ :wacko:

 

Learn to write what you're talking about correctly then, You weren't too clear when you typed. Why remove the wavering affect instead of adding it to all graphics settings? The wavering affect gives the opponent or you a chance to react to any sort of attack or cloaked detection unit.

He probably has already posted that on some other forums already. Beat you to it I guess.