2008’s First Q&A has just been posted by Karune - the 25th installment includes a new Gameplay Blog section that covers “‘hands-on’ feedback of the current builds of StarCraft II at the office”.

The Chat with devs section is brief, but includes a very important statement regarding the adjustments being made to the StarCraft 2 graphics:

Chat with Devs: This week I got a chance to talk to Sam Didier, our StarCraft II Art Director, about some of the feedback weve gotten from our most recent monthly discussion. Over the next few weeks we will be trying out a few things on the upcoming screenshots, including a reduced saturation which will increase the realism of the units and environment. This is just a test, so we will see how it goes afterwards, but we look forward to getting everyones feedback.

Remember the “Does StarCraft 2 look too cartoonish?” question in our last monthly discussion? Well, we have submitted quite a bit of feedback to Blizzard, and are glad to see Sam Didier is addressing exactly that problem, and aiming in the direction of increasing realism by reducing saturation. That means we can expect the game to have a darker, slightly techno-metallic look and feel - not the lively colors presented up to this point.

Gameplay Blog: With the new year, I thought everyone might enjoy a small new section to the Q&As that will happen periodically, featuring some hands-on feedback of the current builds of StarCraft II at the office. This past week Ive been able to play a few 1 versus 1 skirmish games with our new balance designer, David Kim. Even at this early stage, StarCraft II is shaping up to be an incredibly diverse game in terms of strategy. In addition to many of the original StarCraft strategies (which Ive been tending to stick with), there are several new strategies based on both the newly introduced units, as well as hybrid combinations of legacy and new units. One of the most interesting strategies in our current build is the Nomad rush. Nomads are both effective at supporting an ongoing battle with Auto Turrets (which have building armor) and defending against a raid with rapid deployment, but are surprisingly very effective at raiding as well. Im not talking about minor harassment, kill a probe or two, type of thing. Get four of these Nomads into a mineral line and you can deploy 8 Auto Turrets in no time, wreaking havoc to even a moderately defended position. Each Auto Turret is like having an instant Marine, with rapid fire, and building armor. Could this replace Siege Tank drops? Probably not, but these Auto Turrets dont cost minerals or supply.

The strategy being described in the Gameplay Blog should not surprise any RTS veteran - almost every early build or even a final yet immature version of an RTS game will usually include strong strategies based on units which are usually intended for support or spell casting.

1. Does the Nomad have all the abilities an SCV has? (Of course it has its own abilities, but it would be interesting to know if you can at least temporarily replace lost SCVs with Nomads in a game.)(broodwar.de)

No, Nomads will not have the abilities of a SCV. The buildings a Nomad will be able to build, will be unique to the Nomad unit. And you cant gather resources with a Nomad.

That’s quite an interesting and daring decision - the implementation of a support unit with its own array of buildings which cannot be constructed by regular workers. At this point, it is safe to speculate that these buildings are not part of the Terran tech tree, but support structures such as the Auto Turret.

2. How will damage against Protoss Shields be calculated with the new damage bonus system?(Starcraft-Source.com)

Protoss shields will take up the characteristics of their normal armor type. For example, if a Protoss Zealot with light armor gets shot by a Terran Ghost with plus light armor damage, the Zealots shields will also take that light armor bonus damage. On the same note, if a Protoss Colossus were to be hit by a Protoss Stalker with bonus damage towards armored unit, the shields would also take that additional damage.

In StarCraft 1, all Protoss shields were treated equally, and enjoyed neither bonuses nor penalties when facing any damage type. Such implementation was logical, due to the nature of the shield - be it a machine, a building or an organic unit, its shield is effectively unrelated to what is inside. StarCraft 2’s new armor mechanics have changed all that, and the shield’s defensive qualities depend on the unit it protects.

3. Artwork and rumors about SCII have shown Terran cities like Augustgrad. Will Starcraft 2 contain building doodads as seen in the original artwork (ie. skysc#@!&rs, homes, etc)? (starcraft.org)

Yes, many of the original iconic doodads will be recreated for StarCraft II.

4.Can the shadow ops contain “one nuke and one drop pod” or “any 2 of nukes and drop pods”? (thewarcenter.net)

Currently, the Shadow Ops can contain both a nuke and a drop pod at the same time, but will not be able to contain two of one type within a single Shadow Ops building. Drop pods can be loaded with 12 infantry units of the players choosing. On certain maps, a fast expanding SCV drop pod strategy may prove highly effective.

Despite the fact that Shadow Ops (along with the Ghost’s abilities) will undergo many changes prior to StarCraft 2’s release, such an implementation does make sense - the Terran Ghost can launch a Nuclear strike and call for a Drop pod, but not launch two consecutive nukes or summon 24 units to the battlefield.

5. Will the native resolution of Starcraft 2 be widescreen or 4:3? (gamereplays.org)

The plan is to have both of those resolutions supported, along with everything between 5:4 and 16:9. Larger screens will have slightly more viewable range than a smaller screen, but from our tests, the differences will be very minor.

Nowadays there is little reason to limit a game to certain ratios or resolutions - but how about dual-screen support? This feature has been implemented successfully in two leading RTS titles - Supreme Commander and World in Conflict, but considering Blizzard’s popularity in Internet cafes and among casual gamers, StarCraft 2 should focus on maximizing single-screen UI.

One of the major issues people have with StarCraft 2, at this stage of development, is the updated control scheme. The new User Interface (UI) constitutes a major overhaul to the now-outdated, almost-10 year old system of the original game. Among the obvious improvements, some changes are the cause of many arguments that are raging all over StarCraft 2 fan sites and forums.

The changes all deal with automation. The new UI will require less attention from the player and will not force him to micro-manage his game as much as the old one did. Some people argue that this represents a cheapening of the game and the skill it requires to play, while others claim that this is a logical progression and a clearly warranted update to the outdated control scheme.

In this post, we will review the proposed changes:

1) Auto-Mining Peons

In StarCraft 1, every peon (Drone, Probe or SCV) a player built out of his headquarters building would idle near its selected rally point. Unlike other, more modern games of this type (including Blizzard’s WarCraft 3), it was impossible to rally the workers to the resources by right clicking them. Instead, a player had to manually select each and every one of his peons and send them to the a mineral patch or to the Vespene Gas extractor. When selecting a group of workers, high level players would still send them to the minerals individually, since they tended to clump together trying to mine one patch, slightly reducing efficiency.

This proved to be a major hindrance to slower players - having to focus on one’s base to keep the economy going every time a new peon popped out meant having less time to focus on the battle itself.

This system would be replaced with something that already exists in WarCraft 3. All the player has to do is select the HQ building, right click on the resource location, and the built workers would get to work right as they came out.

SC2Blog Verdict: This should have been patched into StarCraft 1 by now.

2) Multiple Building Selection

Many recent RTS games have reduced the focus on building multiple buildings with the exact same purpose, like StarCraft does to increase the potential rate of unit production. StarCraft 2 still keeps to this formula, though, but an improvement in this scheme is proposed: Instead of having to select each building individually and issuing the unit production order, multiple buildings of the same type could be selected. That way, a player with 4 Gateways would be able to click once to produce 4 Stalkers (assuming he has sufficient resources for them).

This would streamline the often-tedious procedure of keeping unit production going, especially considering StarCraft’s 5 unit queue limit for each building and the need to churn out units like mad in some matches. Again, this reduces the player’s need to focus on his base and allows him to manage his units in exploration, battle or positioning on the field. Will this really reduce the gap between newbies and professional players?

SC2Blog Verdict: Another logical improvement.

3) Automatic Unit Formation

In StarCraft, and more than likely, in StarCraft 2 as well, unit positioning plays a very important role. The brilliantly executed meld of melee and ranged attacking units lives and dies on the starting position of each unit as it enters the battle. A group of properly positioned Marines, helped by a handful of Firebats, could repel a much larger number of attacking melee units like Zealots or Zerglings. The same attacking group would annihilate those Terrans if they managed to surround and/or separate them, taking few losses.

StarCraft had a very unforgiving unit formation/pathing system. Often, units (un)managed by less skillful players would march to battle in a single file and die before firing a single shot. Players had to make sure each and every one of their units were positioned smartly to make the best use of them, according to the threat they faced and the conditions of the battlefield.

The StarCraft 2 developers are now entertaining the idea of creating automatic unit formations. We do not yet know the nature of these formations, but can speculate as to how they will be implemented. Other RTS games have several formations you can choose from (e.g. box formation, arrow, straight line) while some do as much as make sure your melee units are positioned at the front while weaker, ranged units are protected in the back. How far will StarCraft 2 take automatic unit formation?

SC2Blog Verdict: Properly positioning units and “formatting” them to best take advantage of their strengths while hiding their weaknesses is one of the most important and skill demanding features of every RTS game - with StarCraft being no exception. We hope Blizzard doesn’t take this too far. We would like to see improvements to general pathing, however.

4) Context-Dependent Unit Behavior

Issuing an attack-move order? In StarCraft 1, Medics grouped with Marines who were given this order would run head first into the enemy while the marines paused to attack from a safe distance. In StarCraft 2, the dev team promised, the Terran Medics will receive additional training, allowing them to interpret their commands in a smarter way. We don’t yet know of other examples for more educated unit behavior, but with this precedent, others are sure to come.

SC2Blog Verdict: While we’re usually proponents of streamlining the game and increasing automation, this might be taking it too far. The player should be the one deciding what units do - even at the cost of them performing stupid moves when he doesn’t notice. If there’s anything that differentiates the pros from the noobs, it’s their ability to control all their units quickly and skillfully at all times.

5) Smart Casting

Another improvement to the normal (as of StarCraft 1) behavior of units. Previously, a group of the same units with a special ability who were given a command to use the ability would all activate it together. This would result in 12 Ghosts all locking down a single Carrier, a group of Templars Psi-Storming a single spot on the field, or Queens using up valuable energy by casting ensnare on a single position.

In StarCraft 2, “Smart Casting” would allow the player to use abilities when selecting a group - only this time, only one of the units (the closest one, no less) would use it. A smart player would select a group of Templars, shift click a few locations on the field, and cover a huge area with a devastating super Psi-Storm.

SC2Blog Verdict: We approve. The end result of this is the same, only less mouse clicks are required. Careful planning will still be needed to execute a good move, just like in StarCraft 1 - but this time, it won’t require superhuman dexterity.

Any changes to the winning formula that is StarCraft would obviously lead to many arguments among fans, and probably among the developers themselves. We will all have to decide which update is essential to the game and will allow all players to enjoy it better, while making sure they do not detract from the skill required to master StarCraft 2.

The current build being presented at BlizzCon has changed many facets of the game that we’ve already come to know. While the game is still far from becoming finalized, and the end result might turn out to be completely different, it’s always interesting to follow these changes and developments, and see how the game is shaping up.

The Official Unofficial StarCraft 2 Blog has gathered up a list of changes, additions and new interesting pieces of information about the game, as it was presented at the event.

Protoss:

* The Carrier is back, and will replace the Tempest. The Carrier will look bigger than all other Protoss aerial units, except for the Mothership. The Carriers will carry Interceptors, which will have a normal laser attack. The Carrier will also have an “auto-build” option for its Interceptors - great automation, we approve.

* The Colossus can not be transported. Its mobility is limited to its walking speed. The Colossus also has an upgrade that increases its shields.

* The Reaver has been removed from the game. Developers say that it was overlapping with the Colossus in the “kill a lot of small units” department, and that it was no longer necessary.

* The Warp Ray has changed its theme to a Dark Templar one - it’s darker, and also smaller, to allow the Carrier to become the distinctive capital Protoss ship.

* The Star Relic has been changed to a “Statis Orb“, which will now be a land based unit. It has an attack that slows down the movement and rate of fire of its enemies.

* The Twilight Archon no longer has feet - it hovers, just like in StarCraft 1. Also, it has received the “Feedback” ability, which was previously used by SC1’s Dark Archons:

Feedback is a targeted spell that when cast on a unit, that unit lose all of its mana and will take an amount of damage equal to the mana lost. Example:

If a Science Vessel with 150 Energy Points is within the range of the spell and Feedback is cast on it, the Science Vessel will lose all 150 Energy Points as well as lose 150 HP instantaneously.

If the unit has more Energy Points than HP when Feedback is used on it, the unit will instantly die.

* The Mothership has lost the Timebomb and Black Hole ability (though we suspect that at least the Black hole ability will return in some form). Instead, it now has a cloaking ability, similar to that of the SC1 Arbiter - it cloaks all ground units in a surrounding radius, while staying visible itself. Currently, it’s possible to build more than one Mothership. Their air-to-air attack has also been nerfed considerably.

Terran:

* New unit: Nomad. This is a Science Vessel redux, featuring EMP, which drains all shields and energy from units in an area, and Defense Matrix, which is now an area of effect ability, defending all units in the area it’s set up in. The Nomad can also auto-repair close flying units.

* New unit: Predator. This is an updated Wraith, with an air-to-air attack only. Also, it can transform into an Interceptor that can block enemy missiles. Unlike the SC1 Wraith, the Predator doesn’t have a Cloaking ability anymore - it passed that along to the Banshee.

* Banshee: Anti-ground attack only. It fires a volley of missiles that deal splash damage in a relatively large radius. Its rate of fire is slow, however. Since it has cloak, we are bound to see packs of Banshees performing hit and run attacks on unsuspecting enemy forces.

* Salvage: This unique Terran ability allows them to “sell off” a building for a full refund of its resources. The process takes some time, and can not be reversed. Very similar to the Command and Conquer method of selling off buildings, which deconstructs them step by step for a nice, instant wad of cash.

* A Command Center, when upgraded, cannot be lifted off the ground. This means its function as an offensive weapon will be very limited.

* New Siege Tank design! Verdict: Awesome.

* Missile Turrets no longer serve as detectors, a role which has been assigned to the Sensor Dome.

* The Starport can now be upgraded to a Starbase. The Starbase can produce units while airborne.

* Battlecruisers come in two flavors: Plasma Turret and Yamato Cannon. The Battlecruiser will look different depending on which version the player chooses. The Plasma Turret is an AoE ground bombardment ability, which deals heavy damage in a large radius, while looking very impressive. The Yamato Cannon is unchanged from its previous incarnations.

* Click for Big (it’s worth it!)

* Snipe, the Ghost ability, deals 150 damage points to organic units. I’m betting the Ghost will soon take a new name - given to it by pleased Terran players - “High Templar Hunter“.

* The Thor’s long range bombardment ability requires it to dig its feet down into the ground, giving it the stability it needs to fire off all four cannons on its back. It appears that the Terrans have really gone to lengths to ensure that the success of the Siege Tank is replicated in their new unit designs.

* Reapers: These are recruited at the “Merc Haven” building. The reapers aren’t produced like normal units. Instead, the building slowly “recharges” up to 4 of them, which can then be quickly recruited.

* The initial Viking form is the ground assault form. An upgrade is required for it to transform to fighter mode.

* The Cobra is especially strong against armored units, such as the Siege Tank or Colossus. It is relatively weak against small targets, though.

* The Radar Dome shows exclamation points for units under the fog of war.

General:

* Building queues are five unit deep.

* Unit selection is limitless.

* an idle worker button has been added to the UI.

* The Xel’Naga Observatories are not capturable per se. They are activated and work for your benefit when you have a ground unit near one.

* The game starts with six workers, instead of four in SC1.

* Start of game fog of war is no longer black - you can now see a grayed out layout of the map, just like you would normally have after revealing an area and not having a unit present in it, in SC1.

* The GUI now displays a list of attributes for every unit. Since the damage units deal to each other depends on these attributes, this will greatly help players understand the advantages and disadvantages of these units, and will allow them to make the most out of their forces.

We have compiled a list of the top changes we’d like to see in StarCraft 2. We think they would make for a faster paced, more interesting game where battles are constantly fought, and no moment is spent on trivial, boring actions. Obviously, these are just ideas; ones we won’t be able to test ourselves. We do hope Blizzard take these things into account, and perhaps incorporate a few of the suggestions they deem worthy into the game.

1) Interface and automation

The first, and perhaps most important change, is to the user interface and command automation. In StarCraft 1, the player had to constantly look after and manage his base: Send individual peons to mine; build supply providing buildings (without being able to queue them); click on each unit creating building, one at a time, to create an army; click on each building or unit, one at a time, to fix them; and so on. It is important to remember that these were mostly technological limitations, which made players spend time on useless, unfun actions which do not contribute to the game at all.

By allowing a greater degree of automation and by streamlining the tedious management portions of the game, it will be possible to focus on what makes the game interesting: Large scale strategic decisions, tactical maneuvers, and intense battles. Don’t get me wrong - some of the most interesting and skill demanding aspects of the game involved managing your base: choosing what to build, where, and when; deciding when to tech up, and when to build more unit producing buildings; when to create an expansion, and how to defend it. These things have their place in the game. However, they should NOT require a lot of time, many actions or too much focus from the player.

The obvious way to ameliorate these issues is to allow buildings queues, smart unit responses to commands, and overall automation of things that do not require any skill, aside from an agile hand and a good mouse.

Now that we’ve freed up a lot of our time and can focus on the game more, lets see how we can speed up the pace:

2) Health regeneration:

The Protoss should now be able to recharge their shields faster inside Pylon range. This could either be a natural perk, or an upgrade, designed to replace the shield batteries (which weren’t very easy to properly use, and did not see a lot of play in the original game). In general, shields, which are vulnerable to all damage types, should regenerate fast, even on the field. Since it would be easy to build new Pylons on the field and benefit from the faster recharge, a new limitation would be placed: Pylons that are not built within pylon range themselves would either cost more, take longer to be built, or a combination of both. The Protoss, unlike the Terrans, should be less capable of using their structures offensively on the battlefield. This also works well in conjunction with the new warp in ability and the Phase Prisms.

Similarly, Zerg units should regenerate health at a faster pace (but not as fast as the Protoss shields) while on creep. To offset this huge advantage, they should only regenerate their health to 66.6% of the maximum value while on the battlefield. This would not apply to air units, to prevent hit and run attacks from becoming too cheesy. A late game upgrade (from the upgraded hatchery) could provide the Zerg with the ability to regenerate all the way, even while not on creep, albeit at a slower pace.

The Terran, being masters of mobility and deployment on the battlefield, should not suffer from a prolonged stay away from the base. SCVs should acquire an “auto-fix” toggle - allowing them to automatically fix units in a specified range, thus strengthening the presence of the Terran forces on the battlefield. This advantage is offset by the fact that repairs cost resources, and are not free, like for the Protoss and Zerg.

These changes would increase the pace of the game, while adding to the uniqueness of the 3 factions: The Terran, masters of the siege. The Zerg, with their never ending, disposable units, which were not meant to be strategically placed on the field, but swarm the enemy. And the Protoss, somewhere in the middle, but not quite.

All regeneration should only take place when the unit is not actively participating in battle. This includes taking damage, but also attacking. This, apparently, is a feature already present in the game - note the Colossus and the Mothership in the high quality, original gameplay video.

3) Each race should acquire a mid to late game method of fast travel:

The Protoss have already been seen warping units in directly to the battlefield, using the Phase Prism. This should, of course, be limited to certain fighting units - it would be too easy, and too advantageous, to warp in a few Reavers or Colossi to strategic locations.

The Zerg have their new, and apparently improved, Nydus worms. These seem to be able to pop out everywhere (supposedly, while originating from creep) and supply a direct, fast route for Zerg units.

A Terran mode of fast travel has still not been revealed. However, the Terran are already a very mobile race, with flying buildings, jump jet infantry, and drop ships. A late game upgrade could perhaps grant them an ability similar to the one the Human forces have in the Warhammer RTS games, also a late game upgrade - drop pods that hit the ground and deploy units anywhere on the battlefield, launched from orbital positions. A Ghost would be required here to signal the drop, adding to its role (which was quite limited in StarCraft 1), since an ability like this should still be range-limited.

These changes would change the game for the better, and make it become ever more fast paced, while staying constantly interesting and fun.

Moving on, here are some more changes we’d like to see in StarCraft 2. Some of these are things that are already present in many other RTS games, and the other suggestions would just make the game more fun, in our opinion.

4) Attack while moving:

Aside from the Carrier (and now, the Tempest), no units in StarCraft are able to move while firing! This is very unnatural. All recent RTS games have units that are able to fire while moving, and it adds a great depth to the game. Not all units should be able to fire while moving, of course, which would already makes some of them more distinctive and different. Some units can suffer accuracy, range, or damage penalties when firing on the move, and some units lose accuracy when shooting at moving targets. This brings more depth to the micromanaged, tactical game. It requires skill and knowledge of the gameplay mechanics. Above all, it looks better. Marines should not move to range, stand still, and shoot. They should storm the target, guns blazing!

5) Terrain levels: Make more than 3.

Different terrain levels, as implemented in StarCraft 1, already contributed to the depth of the game. Units on higher ground have offensive and defensive advantages. In StarCraft 2, with the addition of ground units that can quickly traverse heights, this feature is already extended even further. However, 3 terrain levels only are not enough - especially not in a 3D environment. We’d like to see more natural levels and height gradients in StarCraft 2, a game that should not be bound by old 2D limitations.

6) Moving while burrowed:

The Zerg should be allowed to move, very slowly, while burrowed underground. This should be a mid game upgrade (before the Nydus Worm) that would allow the Zerg to burrow outside of view, move in slowly, and pop out for a surprise attack on an unsuspecting enemy.

7) Specific attack animations:

We’d like to see units attack different units in different ways. It’s great to see Zealots tear up Zerglings with their psi blades, but it looks a bit silly when they do the same to Siege Tanks or buildings. When a game has this level of detail, it becomes a lot more immersive and believable.

8 ) Mine Laying

75 minerals for 3 mines, and you get a free Vulture? That was a good deal in StarCraft 1, but a bit of a clunky one. We’d like to see a dedicated mine laying unit (or a unit with this ability) that would be able to manufacture mines and lay them (for a cost). The old mines were great, and we want to see an improved StarCraft 2 version. Also, the banelings could function as Zerg mines, assuming you have both the burrow upgrade and the Baneling evolution research completed.

9) More deployable units

StarCraft 1’s Siege Tank was a very innovative idea at the time - a unit that has to deploy on the field to utilize its main weapon. This takes time, and therefore tactical planning. We’d like to see more units with this behavior, which adds to both tactical depth of maintaining a position and advancing it. It would work for the Terran, mostly, but it’d be great to see variations on the theme for other races (like the Zerg Lurker, which was added in the expansion).

This was perfected in Company of Heroes, where many units had to be deployed on the field before becoming useful. CoH also added an extra twist to this, limiting the firing arc of some deployed units, which the player had to position skillfully.

10) Dual screen support

We will end our wishlist with something exciting and new in the world of RTS games - multiple screen support. This has already been done nicely in Supreme Commander, where both screens are completely functional, and World in Conflict, where the second screen constantly displays the mega map. StarCraft 2 does not appear to be a demanding game, hardware wise - which means using both screens should not be a problem for most computers. Having a second screen displaying the entire game map is a great feature, and with computer monitors costing next to nothing nowadays, dual screens are getting more and more popular among gamers.

That’s it for our list. We hope the Blizzard developers, which seem keen on getting community feedback, take heed of it.