Blizzard has released eight new screenshots through an updated StarCraft 2 Fansite Kit, all featuring battles from the single player campaign. Accompanying these pictures are some tidbits of information from Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager.

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A Terran base is attacked by a medium-size Zerg force. The base isn’t heavily defended – but it’s enough that a few Hellion shots land well and scorch a fair share of Zerglings for the Zerg attack to fail.

Speaking of scorched units, Karune has mentioned that many of the new art updates to the game involve animations, particularly the death sequences we had recently discussed.

Many of the newest art updates have actually been made in the animations, weapon particles, and in special effects, which are much harder to show in screenshots. For instance, HellionsMarines to a crisp when they are destroyed by the flames. Dark Templars also end up eviscerating Marauders in a ruthless fashion. In our next batch we’ll see if we can emphasize on some of these new additions made.

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This screenshot is another one in the “base comes under attack by endless Zerg forces” series, which has become a favorite for Blizzard recently. In this shot, we can see the new and improved Roach attack – an Acid Spit – thicker and more menacing than before. As well, the Creep seems to be colored differently than before, having a more greish hue. This is likely a result of either the single player setting, where this shot is taking place, or perhaps a change meant to implement different Creep for different team colors.

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The Protoss attempt an attack on a Terran base, defended both by Missile Turrets and a few Vikings. Failure is imminent, and we get to see the hurt being put on the remaining units along with a Phoenix returning its pilot’s soul to the Khala. Unfortunately for the Terrans, the Protoss have also beamed down a ground attack force, and it seems that their economy is about to enter a depression.

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Another Terran base is being swarmed from all directions in this shot. Will the Zerg ever run out of units to throw at their enemies? Hopefully not.

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In this shot, Protoss and Zerg forces are fighting over what looks like a Terran settlement – implying that we will see those in the single player campaign. The Colossus’ weapon, seen here in all its might, has received a buff to its effectiveness. Here’s what Karune had to say:

The Colossus in the latest round of balance has had it’s damage increased, with its attack speed decreased a bit, giving it some more burst. With a couple of these on the field, it is quite effective at decimating armies of light armor units.

Well-aimed shots from two or three Colossi will now be able to devastate many of StarCraft 2’s smaller units in the first laser shot, increasing its usefulness and making the added attack cooldown less important.

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Colossi are seen here again, this time emerging from the sea, their legs streching all the way to the bottom while the head-turrets fire freely. Did the Colossus get another buff? Not just yet:

The Colossi, like other ground units, will be able to move through shallow waters only. In this screenshot, it shows experimentation of having Colossi move through slightly deeper waters, but there are no plans at the moment to make the Colossi traverse all water terrains.

Lastly, Karune mentions a new mechanism for the Nighthawk’s deployables, which, as we have suggested, will now be tied to resources instead of energy:

On the balance side, in the latest round of changes, the Nighthawk builds mini defenses such as the auto turret based on resources now, instead of energy. This effectively forces players to think more in how they plan to use the Nighthawk’s support functions based on their resources. Additionally, these ‘almost instant’ drops on the battlefield could easily change the tide of a battle or even wreck havoc on an unsuspecting enemy economy.

Related Posts:

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• » StarCraft 2 Beta: Protoss Strategies Overview
• » StarCraft 2 Beta: Yo Mommaship Got Nerfed
• » StarCraft 2 Beta: First Gameplay and Battle.net Impressions

16 Comments to “Karunology and New Fansite Kit Screenshots”

1. Gladiatorza — January 30, 2009 @ 6:27 am
   

   FIRST!!!!

2. John Mo — January 30, 2009 @ 6:34 am
   

   >The Colossus in the latest round of balance has had it’s damage increased, with its attack speed decreased a bit, giving it some more burst. With a couple of these on the field, it is quite effective at decimating armies of light armor units.

   wow, they took our suggestion!

3. Hank Venture — January 30, 2009 @ 7:13 am
   

   Indeed they did. Go team SC2BLOG!

4. Joe — January 30, 2009 @ 7:57 am
   

   Some of these new environment shots look rather rough. I’m sure that’ll be cleaned up at some stage though.

   “will be able to move through shallow waters only”

   I hope there will be all kinds of funky effects for blood and stuff in the water after units die in it

5. evglmg — January 30, 2009 @ 8:30 am
   

   hum nice colossus walking in the water very nice i can´t wait

6. Apharion — January 30, 2009 @ 9:11 am
   

   cool on the fact they took the suggestion we had. Which was found on this thread.

   http://www.sc2blog.com/2008/12/21/the-first-starcraft-2-battle-report-analysis/

   on the Thor now though, is it me? or is it much smaller now?
   and I suppose it hits ground units now too? So has it officially been degraded to a big goliath?

7. SikTh — January 30, 2009 @ 11:49 am
   

   Pretty sure it looks like that because of the point of view of that picture. It’s a bit flatter instead of the normal overhead view, so you see more but it’s smaller.

8. Johnner — January 30, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
   

   The protoss phoenix is still ugly as sin.

   but too late at this point to change any designs I think. pity.

9. Joe — January 31, 2009 @ 12:31 am
   

   “So has it officially been degraded to a big goliath?”

   Hmm, well one goliath was never enough in the original I am almost expecting the next version to be a giant viking, complete with transforming from ground to air. Like a giant power ranger!

   Honestly i try not to care about the Thor – it has never made sense to me.

10. Vic — January 31, 2009 @ 2:43 am
    

    yea, the phoenix is rather badly designed, i wonder why no one commented on that so far. it is almost as if it is flying backwards, and very un-protoss-like.

    and kudos to the colossus change, I dont really like the ‘horizontal sweep’ thing though, it doesn’t makes much sense. how about a twice lance instead?

11. SteelVelocity — January 31, 2009 @ 1:26 pm
    

    I noticed the turrets on the Command Centers were different. Could there be more than one version of the Planetary Fortress?

12. Joe — February 1, 2009 @ 4:10 am
    

    Different turrents? Which screenshot? The overrun zergling screenshot with nukes seems to have them all the same (at different rotations) imo…

13. SteelVelocity — February 1, 2009 @ 9:42 am
    

    Look at the gun barrels on the Planetary Fortress on the upper left, and the upper right. One is round, the other is sort of diagonally flat.

    What’s up with that?

14. Joe — February 1, 2009 @ 2:53 pm
    

    Yep – I think they are just pointing in different directions ; They all have the same design on the top, and the one closest shows both ‘barrels’ on both sides. Diagonal ones are a touch higher than the round ones. I’m assuming round ones are the actual barrels.

    It’s difficult to make out, but I’m pretty sure that’s the case here.

15. Starcraft dld — February 1, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
    

    The Protoss’s Phoenix looks fine, it’s the water effect I’m worried about.

16. . — February 5, 2009 @ 3:26 am
    

    I feel strongly that damage done to the Colossus’ lower half (legs) should be reduced by a small percentage (maybe 25%, can be more or less).

    Why?

    The idea of melee units attacking the legs of a “towering” Colossus while still dealing full damage to its hp sounds ridiculous; in what way are they damaging the control centre (head)? I suppose if the legs were badly damaged enough, the Colossus would topple over and be destroyed. However, the amount of attacks required to cause one to topple over would be far greater than that required to K.O. its head.

    Any feedback?