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08
Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has posted the weekly batch of answers, this time answering questions submitted by different StarCraft 2 Communities, and includes a “Chat with the Devs” section.
Opening with “Chat with the Devs”, Karune tells of the challenges in correctly automating the Medic’s Attack-move command, that will allow the Medic to heal injured infantry on its path.
Chat with the Devs: The StarCraft II Team is working hard on making Terran Medics ‘smarter’ so they do not run up to the enemy when you give a move order to a group of Marines and Medics. Medics, if given an attack move order, will scan the area on its path for injured infantry, then break off its limited path to heal those soldiers.
The Medic is somewhat unique in that aspect, being a support spellcaster with almost permanent auto-cast and the need to be grouped with other units, its AI could differ drastically from other spellcasters and Terran infantry.
1. How useful will tier 1 units be in the late game?
As a staple of the original StarCraft, which we intend to carry over to StarCraft II, is that every unit has a specific role in that factions army. Every unit will fulfill a unique role, which complements the other units, some better than others of course. In subscribing to that idea, tier 1 units will be quite useful in late game as well as early. Many of the tier 1 units will be able to be upgraded to keep up with the later game units as well.
For example, the Terran Marine currently has 3 upgrades available to it, as well as its standard attack and armor upgrades. New upgrades such as the combat shields, increasing the Marines health will be important in having the Marine deal with later game units.
None of StarCraft’s so called “tier 1″ units became obsolete as the game progressed, and Zerglings, Marines and Zealots often found themselves battling alongside Carriers and Battle Cruisers. This obviously isn’t going to change in StarCraft 2.
2. Can we expect units to replace the Reaver and the Soul Hunter?
Yes, we are always testing the addition of new units as well as the removal of older units. For instance, in our current build, the Terran Firebat is back in the game, as we test how he interacts with the new additions into StarCraft II. Of course, nothing is final though
This is the most interesting answer in today’s batch. The Firebat, while being a somewhat neglected unit in the original StarCraft due to its narrow tactical role, is still loved by many and could greatly benefit from StarCraft 2′s beautiful graphics engine.
3. What was the reasoning behind axing spell X (lockdown, mind control etc)?
As mentioned above in question 2, much like with units, we are also testing several new abilities for StarCraft II. If these abilities do not work as we would intend, it is always possible for a reintroduction of original abilities from the original StarCraft. We are constantly striving to improve and complement what has already been very successful with StarCraft for StarCraft II.
4. Will there be a black player color?
We have tried using black, but it was too difficult to differentiate units on the mini-map from the fog of war.
Two very unexciting answers – no specific information about any spells or abilities or even balance considerations, and Black is obviously an impossible color with Blizzard’s current implementation of fog of war.
5. Will you be able to use custom army colors in the game?
In custom maps created through the Map Editor, players will be able to select any color for their factions. In multiplayer games, players will be able to choose between approximately 12-18 colors.
The fifth answer actually means more than immediately meets the eye – the amount of official multiplayer colors has to be equal to or greater than the amount of players in the game. Taking StarCraft 2′s graphics and the high maximum unit count into consideration, an eighteen player multiplayer game will bring any PC to a crawl.
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14 Comments to “StarCraft 2 Q&A 12 : Colors, Unit Roles and Firebat Testing”
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18 Players, 200 unit cap…
3600 units in 3D .
Maybe in 9 years, it will be playable…
18 players ?
good
i wish to see boxer against 17 hard zerg computer
i belive that he can do it
Why not give the Reaper a firebat ability. Maybe make it so it can use the pistols for range, then convert/deploy into fire bat mode and you loose the jump pack ability. The idea of advanced infantry units armed with pistols never sat well with me. It shouldnt be that hard or farfetched as we already have terran units with similar play styles (seige tank, viking)
Or just give fire arms to Marines.
and they get to toggle which to use.
@# Chucky : I think thats a pretty good idea, after all marines and firebats aren’t so different after all, Marine could be used in both roles.
I think giving Marines such an ability would certainly alter the concept of this unit too much. A Marine is a Marine and he has his machine gun and that’s what he’s good for. The image of a Marine would just not allow for such an option.
But I could certainly imagine the reaper occasionally using a flamethrower. He should already have a lot of gas in his jump packs that he could burn this way – with the help of a flamethrower that would otherwise be too heavy a machine to carry it with him – so make it a switch, an upgrade and deactivate the jump ability while he’s throwing flames since he’s carrying a flamethrower and is using up his fuel already.
Giving the firefun to the Marine or Reaper is the same.
but if the more core ‘marine’ has it, they can toggle it for zergling or hydralisk raids. will sure make the marines a lot more useful in mid to late game.
Quoting Bunny:
“18 Players, 200 unit cap…
3600 units in 3D .
Maybe in 9 years, it will be playable…”
Bunny is right. If it requires a supercomputer to play this game, then not toom many gamers can play it at all. I wish you guys can lessen the system reqts. because we need this game to be practical too besides being impressive with graphics and all. Let’s not compromise beauty over value!
I don’t think there’s any chance of it being an 18-player game. I am thinking it will be 12 player max (two more than in WC3), and maybe 14-16 at the absolute max. Either way, throughout the development process they noted that the engine is capable of rendering thousands of units without bringing computers to a crawl, so I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. They’ll get it right.
the 3 upgrades of the Marine are not mysteries anymore, we already know what they are. The shield upgrade, Stimpacks and U238 shells, in addition to the Attack/Armor Upgrades.
y not make a firebat unit with a option of an upgrade for a shotgun…. the flame thrower can be used for melee light armored units while the shotgun can be used for short range heavily armored units?
Because shotguns are weak-ass to use in a futuristic, outer space scenario such as Starcraft 2. This ain’t a cops-and-robbers game, it just doesn’t fit, you ‘tard!
Yes a lot of colors and your able to choose!
it better have a campaign editor with trigger capabilities remember all those hours of custom UMS games the community always know what they want more than the dev team
i love games with free dev tools.
youtube.com/augmentedopaque for new AR tech