The role and functionality of the Changeling, a shape-shifting spy unit that can be spawned by Overseers for an energy cost, has been clarified by Avarius.

The changeling’s transformation is permanent. Once it is within range of opposing forces, it will transform to that race’s basic tier 1 unit (marine, zealot, or zergling) and remain so for its duration. In the case of a team game or FFA where there are multiple races, the changeling will transform to the race it encounters first and not change again.

When questioned about the viability of the ability in high-level 1 on 1 matches, Avarius made it clear that he considers the Changeling a worthy addition to the Zerg unit roster.

I definitely think you will see them used effectively, even in high level 1v1 play. Who wouldn’t want an essentially free scout (only costs energy) to use to gather intel on their opponent? With the potential that you opponent might not kill it immediately, it can provide you with a sustained scouting advantage. Even high level players can get caught up in harassment, or base management and may miss this little guy sneaking into their base.

The next blue posts were translated by a SC:L staff member, and come from the Korean side of the Battle.net forums:

When more supply is required, and when I have to quickly build three Supply Depots at the same time, this is usually the method that I use.

1) I select some mining SCVs by drag selection or Ctrl + Left Click. It’s good to select at least three.

2) After pressing ‘B’ (building hotkey) then ‘S’ (Supply Depot hotkey), while holding Shift, consecutively left click at the locations you want to build at before right clicking a mineral patch.

3) Out of the selected SCVs, only three of them go to the selected locations and each build a Supply Depot, and once construction is complete they return to mining minerals.

That’s how automated things have become in StarCraft 2: building multiple supply depots and sending the workers back to harvest minerals is easily achieved by issuing one concentrated and short batch of commands, eliminating many of the repetitive actions otherwise required in the original game.

Another bit of info from Korea details the unit classification system, which has received a major overhaul in StarCraft 2. The new system is much more streamlined and simple, following clear rules that make hard unit counters very apparent.

Light armor, heavy armor, biological, mechanical, giant, psionic, etc. are some attributes that units can have.

For example, the Ultralisk has heavy armor biological giant attributes, whereas the Archon has the psionic attribute. You can probably tell from looking at the Archon, but not all units are divided into [light armor/heavy armor]. Damage calculation is also different from the previous game. Units attacks always do at least 100% of the damage value shown on the screen. And then, depending on the attacks property, additional damage may be dealt when attacking units with specific attributes.

For example the Archons base damage is 25, and deals an additional 10 damage against biological targets. Therefore, Zerg units (which are usually biological) take 35 damage when attacked by Archons. And in the case of the Siege Tank, its Siege Mode deals 60 damage, so it deals 60 damage to all ground units. If the old system of explosive, concussive and small, medium, large was used, then Marines would take reduced damage from a Siege Tank.

On the topic of friendly damage, Zhydaris explains which explosion is ally-friendly and which should be more carefully handled:

… exploding Banelings do not damage allied units: both your units and those of your allies are not affected at all by the acid explosion.

Reaper’s explosive charge does actually damage allies, as well as your own units and buildings, so be careful when playing with those flashing packages.

The official StarCraft 2 website has been updated with a brand new 6-page Mothership story, including a short, action packed clip of a Mothership-backed Protoss force decimating a Zerg army. The Mothership sports a slightly altered design and a new attack animation.

StarCraft 2′s community team has also revealed a new doodad screenshot via Twitter. The art is high-detail and worth a closer look – make sure you click on the image for the full-size screenshot.

The following concrete and un-speculative bit of info is bound to make quite a few people happy, as it serves as real evidence that StarCraft 2 is indeed being tested live on Battle.net or, at least, that it is about to be in the immediate future. The Blizzard official support page now includes lengthy support articles for StarCraft 2!

The guide gets quite specific and even includes a detailed StarCraft 2 Mac Version Video troubleshooting article!

There’s also some hype about the the recently announced Activision-Blizzard public conference call that will be broadcast on the internet, as it might include a clear plan of action for the upcoming months.

Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) intends to release its fourth quarter and calendar year 2009 results after the close of the market on Wednesday, February 10, 2010. In conjunction with this release, Activision Blizzard will host a conference call that will be broadcast over the Internet.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
1:30 pm Pacific Time (4:30 pm Eastern Time)

To listen to the call, please log onto:

http://investor.activision.com/events.cfm

The 2v2 StarCraft 2 exhibition matches were prime example of the fast-paced, unforgiving RTS action that gamers are bound to experience when StarCraft 2 is released. The three videos, totaling just under 30 minutes, contain two full 2v2 matches, from the very beginning to the inevitable GGs. While the videos were available on YouTube during the event, Blizzard have only recently uploaded them to their official exhibition match page. Unfortunately, the quality stayed the same – we won’t be seeing these in HD.

Key quote of the match: “Nerf David Kim“.

Blizzard has also recently sanctioned the release of a five part interview with Dustin Browder, Lead Designer of StarCraft 2. The interview covers little, if any, unknown ground now that BlizzCon is behind us, as it mostly deals with issues which were revealed and analyzed during or immediately after the convention.

Here’s the first video of the 5:

In case you have no intentions of going through this hour-long 5 video interview, check out the following exhaustive summary, courtesy of TeamLiquid:

For BlizzCon 2007′s story-mode build, most players would just click through Raynor’s dialog lines, ignoring them. Blizzard wanted the player to choose how they want to play the game based on the missions they chose, not based on something they said in a bar, because that doesn’t feel appropriate for a game about commanding armies and smashing empires. Choices that gave more meaning were; “Where do I send my army next?” and “How do I upgrade my technology?” The choices you were given when speaking to other characters looked like they were important and meaningful, though they really weren’t, that’s why Blizzard removed it from the game. Some people would probably have enjoyed this part of the game, but that’s not most people. Blizzard cut content because they want to keep the best stuff, and overall this makes it a better game.

Blizzard does have interest in exporting replays to a video format, but will probably not get around to it soon due to time constraints. Dustin Browder claims “We’re hugely interested in supporting e-sports and this is one of those things we want to do. I don’t know what the status on this is, but we will have patches after ship and expansions yet to come.”

The map editor will be released on beta, but not on day 1. Probably somewhere mid beta. Blizzard wants to beta test the editor itself first and see how it interacts with Battle.net. Also Blizzard wants to let modders try it, so when release comes we will see some cool mods pretty early.

Some RPG-style quests in StarCraft II take hours to create, others could take weeks or months, depending on how difficult it was to put together. Blizzard wants some of the quests to have multiple solutions. They did not want an RPG system that implies that there will be hundreds of quests. They want it to be more about the starmap and tech purchase.

StarCraft II has a lot of unit models that are no longer in the multiplayer, and some who were made specifically for single player. Dustin didn’t have a number, but claimed we will probably have to wait until the expansions to reach the same amount of models that were in WarCraft III.

The BlizzCon demo takes place at the middle of the beginning part of the campaign, there are three missions previous to the mission branch playable at BlizzCon. The Zerg are making their move into Terran space, but Jim Raynor at the time is leader of a relatively small and helpless faction.

Blizzard has put equal emphasis on the importance of single-player and multiplayer. Many fans of the series that are still active in the community are focused mostly on multiplayer, but much of StarCraft’s popularity is based on its campaign modes.

Dustin’s biggest hope for the game is racial balance and living up to StarCraft’s expectations and legacy.

The campaign has a full tutorial system, with videos and interactive missions. Skirmish mode also includes starting tutorials for the non campaign races. The campaign also includes multiplayer oriented challenge modes that help practice skills and tactics used for multi-player battles.

Internally, Blizzard feels the Zerg are vastly underpowered, namely in tier 2. Beta will be the period where they direct the game’s balance.

Racial identities and playstyles are being treated as self-emerging through development. Terrans have developed into a much more mobile race, but this is not the final decision for their overall playstyle feel.

Unit upgrades and unique ability upgrades are not segregated in order to make the building choices more varied and interesting.

Macro mechanics are still being reworked, overall they are happy with spawn larvae and MULE calldown, while Proton Charge is still being looked at for big changes.

Dustin feels that Zerg and Terran are close to equal difficulty, with Protoss being the easiest to use.

The Raven is close to how they want it designed, with some changes possibly needed for the point-defense turret to make its role more clearly understood.

Infestor’s spells are currently being re-worked.

Burrowed Banelings contain Terrans until they acquire mobile detection (Ravens).

Some Protoss missions are playable in WoL for storytelling purposes.

The campaign currently has approximately 15 tilesets.

Multiple tilesets can be used in single maps.

The basic idea for the Protoss campaign is the ultimate shattering and re-unification of the Protoss factions. The basic gameplay idea is to utilize the strengths and weaknesses of different Protoss factions to create your own new Protoss unification.

The Protoss campaign will be more focused on the Star Map and planet exploration than the Terran campaign.

The DLC plan includes additional challenges more geared to the evolution on the current meta game. Other DLC plans are still not decided.

Map editor features not necessary for StarCraft II (such as an inventory and hero system for DOTA clones) are included.

Models and graphics from the campaign can be used in custom maps, animations can not.

The Zerg have more “iconic” units that they feel could not be removed (Zergling, Hydralisk, Mutalisk), so it is more difficult to make the Zerg fresh and interesting.

The campaign will feature a lot of super high powered unit upgrades and abilities that won’t be in multiplayer.

That’s the last of it for this year’s BlizzCon. To celebrate the final ending of the event, here’s a video of a real StarCraft party!

The first video shows a Protoss base, as it is being built, up close. Nothing majorly interesting happens, but one can’t help but notice how pretty it all looks.

The next one is the most interesting of the bunch. It features a Terran attack on a minimally-defended Zerg base.

The two defensive buildings in place, the Spine Crawlers, are quickly taken out by Siege Tanks in siege mode, and the reinforcements being hatched come too little and too late. The Swarm units are making their first appearance – these can be seen when the Terran army destroys the Spawning Pool at 0:47.

The Swarm are the same units that emerge from the Swarm Guardian‘s new attack, and are basically StarCraft 2′s Broodling units. They are very fragile, deal little damage – 4 points at melee range, and die off by themselves after a few seconds. However, they serve to keep an attacking enemy busy for a short time, which can be precious under some circumstances. In this video, we can see another great benefit – they close the distance to the attacking Marines quickly, drawing Siege Tank fire to them, and this greatly damages the friendly Marines themselves.

The Swarm are only created when major buildings are destroyed – the more important the building is, the more of them will come out. This is very reminiscent of the Command & Conquer games, where basic, wounded infantry units have a chance of popping out of destroyed buildings.

The rest of the video shows the slow and painful death of the Zerg base by the remaining Terran Siege Tanks. Two Reapers make an appearance before the end, moving in on the mineral line, quickly mowing down Drones with their dual guns. It’s clear that these units were designed with devastating the enemy economy in mind, as evident by the amazing speed in which two of them completely obliterate all the workers.

The last video is another short one, with a few brief, interesting bits. A few seconds of the living, breathing Zerg base are seen, and the video quickly jumps to show Protoss units abusing an unhatched Zerg egg. Later, a group of Zealots and a Stalker are captured at the moment when they destroy a neutral barrier, moving on to attack another Zerg base.

Throughout the videos, and especially in the Zerg portions, it’s very easy to see how alive everything looks. The creep is constantly shifting underneathe its purple skin, buildings have protruding, constantly undulating tenctacles, and everything seems to breath. Everything in StarCraft 2 is always in motion, enhancing the sense of immersion,  yet such high level of passive activity might impede the player’s ability to focus on meaningful animations. Either way, it’s highly apparent, with each new demonstration, that the graphical aspects of StarCraft 2 are being constantly honed and adjusted, just like the gameplay.

This Q&A batch is composed of a long, comprehensive “Chat with Devs” introduction, dealing with the new Vespene Gas mechanics, and six new answers to fan-submitted questions.

Chat with Devs: Since the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, the topic of the new Vespene Gas mechanic has come up a lot across many different fansites and message boards. Thus far, this is one of the biggest changes which will affect the macro management of bases in StarCraft II. To shed some more light on this new mechanic, I have gotten a chance to talk to Dustin Browder, our Lead Designer for StarCraft II, about the progress thus far of the new mechanic, as well as the objectives this new mechanic is designed to achieve.

  

To start, the new Vespene Gas mechanic is to further distinguish the play style in which players gather minerals versus gathering gas. In the original StarCraft, the gathering of gas was very linear in the rate in which gas is gathered. Often, players would put 3-4 workers on the gas, and the players would forget about it until the geyser was depleted. Minerals on the other hand, were much more exponential in the rate of growth and were also often played differently amongst different races. Zerg would likely expand rapidly with less drones in each expansion and Protoss/Terran could sustain a sizeable force with higher numbers of workers on a smaller number of expansions.

 

How the New Vespene Gas Mechanic Works
For StarCraft II, with the new Vespene Gas mechanic, players will have 2 gas geysers at their starting position. These geysers will start with X amount of gas (currently 600 and subject to balance) and at any time players can purchase additional gas in their geysers for X minerals (currently 100 and subject to balance). With each purchase of additional gas for your geyser, the geyser increases with X gas (currently 600 and subject to balance) and the geyser shuts down for 45 seconds. When a geyser is depleted, workers will still be able to gather gas at a low rate of 2 per round (subject to balance).

 

How the New Vespene Gas Mechanic Plays
With this new gas mechanic, players have a wider variety of strategies in developing and maintaining their refineries, as well as additional attention needed to make sure they are collecting gas at the most efficient rate. On the production side, players now also have to decide between sticking to Tier 1 units longer, or to play it balanced with one geyser, or even max out on gas to invest heavily on teching and higher tech units. Additional, the relationship between minerals and gas have an added layer of depth since investing in additional gas will actually cost the player minerals as well. How often a player invests in gas will also not necessarily be consistent through the game too and will depend upon what units that player is currently choosing to mass. Scouting too has an added layer of depth as well, as a players gas collecting play style may determine if the player is teching to a higher tier mineral heavy unit (like a Dark Templar) or a higher tech gas heavy unit (like a High Templar).

 

Overall, players will have to build the appropriate buildings as well as gather resources in a particular method in order to execute a certain strategy at a professional level. It is the hope of the development team that this new mechanic will not only make gas collecting more interesting, but also increase the amount of macro management skill needed to compete in StarCraft II at the top levels while at the same time making the game playable for mid level players without using some of these more advanced techniques.

Aside from an adjustment to the numbers involved, the system described is the same as the one revealed during the WWI event, which we have already covered:

All these major changes have been implemented to StarCraft 2 for one purpose: complicate the “macro” portion of the game, which has been downsized severely with the introduction of new and improved user interface aspects, and mainly, Multiple Building Selection (MBS) – which allows players to select all their similar unit producing buildings together and deliver a single command to construct units out of all of them.

These changes will steal some of the added focus to the micromanagement portion of StarCraft 2, which pro-gamers, who’ve had a chance to play the game extensively, have reported about, and divert it back to base and economy management. Other such changes, meant to give players more macromanagement decisions to play with without dumbing down the UI, are being considered by Blizzard.

Check out our post about the subject here.

Moving on, the Q&A portion has interesting new tidbits and clarifications:

1. How exactly does the Corruptors attack work? Is it a stacking debuff that takes effect after a certain number of stacks? And if so can the debuff time out? Would you be able to hit and run kill for example Battlecruisers with a few Corruptors over a couple of minutes?

 

The attack is technically a debuff, but does not do damage over time. Every time the Corruptor attacks a unit, it’ll leave a debuff on it for a couple seconds. If the unit dies within those couple seconds, the unit will be corrupted.

This description of the Corruptor is incomplete, as evident by the Zerg reveal video, where a group of Corruptors corrupted a few Terran fliers on their own. The Corruptors likely cause damage themselves, or at least damage that goes towards Corrupting a unit which does not actually lower its physical hitpoints. Aside from this, the Corruptor also leaves a “Corrupting debuff” on the attacked unit, which causes it to become Corrupt should it die while under the effect.

2. What are the current stats and build times for the Queen defensive buildings?

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To catch us up, Zerg defensive buildings arent built by the queen anymore. Instead, they are built from the drone once again.

 

Spine crawler:
- Only hits ground
- Health is 300 (uprooted health 100)
- Movement speed is 2.25 (1 off of creep)
- Damage is 20 +20 armored
- Range is 7
- Attack speed is 1.5 sec

 

Spore Crawler:
- Only hits air
- Health is 300 (uprooted health 100)
- Movement speed is 2.25 (1 off of creep)
- Damage is 15
- Range is 7
- Attack speed is .8608

The developers have decided that the Zerg deserve means to create defenses that don’t rely on the Queen, which can’t be everywhere at once. The new defensive colonies, aside from being granted mobility, are almost identical to their StarCraft 1 versions. However, the Queen likely still possesses her “Swarm Infestation” ability, allowing her to turn any building into a defensive structure temporarily.

3. The Queen seems to be a very potent unit, although its tasks are more defensive ones, it can be used in crazy rush strategies, according to Karunes experiences. Well, if the Nydus Worm was able to transport even queens, she would get even more potent. You could easily think of crazy rushes using your opponents creep to just overwhelm him with your units AND your defensive structures. So here is the simple question: Can the Nydusworm transport queens among all the other units?

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Defensive structures will not be able to enter the Nydus tunnel network, but the Queen will be able to. Furthermore, the Queen will no longer be able to build defensive structures. Drones will morph into defensive structures, similar to the original StarCraft.

 

4. When the Zerg Sunken Colony is uprooted and on the move is it more vulnerable to enemy attack?

 

Yes, the Spine and Spore Crawlers will have less hit points while they are uprooted. The actual number of hit points will be determined through balance testing.

 

5. In many cases, the micromanagement of units in StarCraft revolved around gameplay mechanics (Dragoon dance, Mutalisk stacking, Reaver/Shuttle micro, etc.), rather than special abilities with cooldown/charges (Stalker’s Blink, Phoenix’s Overload, etc.).

 

Is the amount of this kind of special abilities in SC2 a concern of Blizzard, and how would this affect the overall gameplay?

 

Players will still have dependence on both gameplay mechanics as well as special abilities. For instance, Stalkers will have the basic dancing mechanic as Dragoons had in the original StarCraft. Marauders are another unit highly dependent on micromanagement to get the most effectiveness out of the unit, making sure you use their attacks slowing effect at opportune times.

 

Though for StarCraft II, we are introducing much more positional micromanagement, which will amplify units damage significantly. A Colossus will fire in a line and lining up that radius with the enemy units will be crucial in battles. Flanking Jackals from multiple angles will surely add to its potency as well.

 

Overall, we definitely want to balance the game with both plenty of gameplay mechanics as well as special abilities that create opportunities for the players to initiate clever strategies as well as innovative maneuvers on the battlefield.

Unlike what many people may think, Blizzard’s developers know what made StarCraft 1 the great game that it is, and are not likely to forget to implement one of the most important and fun aspects of battle in their new game.

6. Terrans currently appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of troop mobility, (as compared to ‘Warp-in’ and ‘Nydus Worm’) are there any plans to bring back the, ‘drop-pod’ or other new transport mechanic?

 

Actually, we consider the Terran side to be quite mobile. Let us first look at the Reapers. This unit is the fastest ground unit in the game which traverses terrain without even having a spotter. In addition, the Medivac Dropships, allow added mobility to all Terran ground units. With the addition of the Dropship being able to heal, it has become even more of a staple in Terran strategies, giving even more increased incentive for players to build Dropships than the original StarCraft. On top of this, Vikings providing both ground and air support at a click of a button, gives that added support of mobility and options when moving a Terran army around.

 

The method in which Terran will be mobile is indeed different than Warp-in and Nydus Worm, though they are not considered less mobile than the other races.

Also worth mentioning is the Terran’s ability to relocate their buildings by lifting them into the air and repositioning them on the ground. Aside from that, the Salvage ability makes it easy for Terrans to create impromptu production bases, knowing that the investment will not be lost.

In accordance with the StarCraft tradition, one race lacks a distinct ability that is available to the other two races, while still managing to function in a balanced way. While the Terran race may lack a point-and-click transportation method which the Protoss and Zerg now have, they will not be at a disadvantage on the whole.

Char currently serves as the primary hive planet of the Zerg. It’s a volcanic hell, with temperatures that shoot right up to 800c when its orbit brings it close to the sun. It also has a Terran-constructed space platform, termed “Char Aleph”, which now serves as an orbital nesting site and hatchery.

There has been a great deal of speculation over the zerg choice to occupy Char, given its harsh environment and total lack of any organic life forms to exploit. Theorists are evenly split among the ideas that Char forms a useful jump-off point to the core worlds of terran and protoss space, that its inhospitable nature makes it easier for the zerg to defend it, or that Char’s high radiation levels promote an increased rate of mutation in zerg organisms to enable forced evolution of specialist strains.

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Regardless of the reasoning, the zerg presence on Char has ensured that the planet has remained a cauldron of battle. Protoss and terran forces have attempted infiltration missions on the planet with varying degrees of success. Huge and bloody battles were fought there amongst the zerg themselves as the Queen of Blades overthrew the cerebrates controlling the Swarm. Four years ago three entire fleets met their demise when they confronted the Queen of Blades on Char. The Queen of Blades emerged as the dominant power in the sector after an apocalyptic battle that destroyed a Terran Dominion fleet, a protoss armada, and finally the UED expeditionary force. Since then the zerg have remained curiously quiescent, apparently content to remain on the worlds they infested so rapidly during the initial invasion.

The screenshot that was coupled to the update reveals a few new Zerg structures and a new design for the Terran Jackal.

* Click for Big

• The new Baneling Nest, the prerequisite building for morphing Zerglings into Banelings.
• The new Jackals have 2 front wheels, providing them with a buggy look, distancing them from the old Vulture design.
• The Infestor Pit is the prerequisite building for Infestors, and also serves as the place for Infestor upgrades.

That’s it for this planetary update.

First up, a video showing the Jackal and Nullifier in action.

Unlike the previous Vulture replacement, the Cobra, the Jackal is unable to attack while moving and has to stop before firing off its weapon. This allows the engaging Zealots to catch up with the Jackal and put in a few hits from time to time.

The Jackal, at first glance, operates exactly like a Vulture that’s been equipped with a Flame Thrower instead of Concussion Grenades. The Jackal in the video is eventually overwhelmed by the two Zealots, but a similar battle between a group of Zealots against a greater force of Jackals would obviously end differently. When taking the Jackals’ AoE attack and great speed advantage into account, a micro-capable player would scorch the Zealots and leave the battle relatively unharmed.

The next couple of videos are a longer cut of the Terran versus Terran match we’ve reviewed a short while ago. This video shows the surrounding gameplay, and also features some more action:

* A Medivac Dropship dropping two Jackals and a Siege Tank right on top of the enemy’s mineral line, followed by another dual Tank drop.

* Near the end of the game, a Terran force, composed of Battlecrusiers, Thors, Siege Tanks and Jackals completely decimates the enemy’s main base.

Next up is a short video of a Terran versus Zerg match. Notably, at minute two, the Zerg player futilely attempts to engage a large group of Marines with Mutalisks. A bit later, Swarm Guardians make an appearance when they come under attack of a Battlecruiser. (This is where the picture we discussed a while ago was taken from)

The most interesting thing happens at 2:54, where a group of Ultralisks get hit by a Nuke head on and survive.

The last video is a long one, at 22 minutes. It’s a fight between a human Zerg player and an AI Terran, with the Zerg player experimenting with the abilities of the race.

Not a lot of action in this one, but a few interesting highlights are:

• Near the end of the 8th minute, an Overlord can be seen evolving to an Overseer.
• A small group of Ultralisks walk over entire Terran forces at the end of the 10th minute, and then proceed to raise their base to the ground a bit later. It’s clear that the Ultralisks have a hard time navigating through the clumped base.
• At 12:30, a group of Overlords extend the base’s Creep using their Excrete Creep ability. This takes a while for the Overlord, which remains in positions and drops purple goo to the ground for some time.
• Infestors use their Infest ability on a Terran Command Center that’s under construction at 16:00. The Command Center becomes infested despite not being complete, and Infested Marines pop up immediately.
• A short while later, the Infestor feasts on a nearby Ultralisk, consuming his hitpoints for energy until it’s eventually eaten up entirely.

Thors are used as all-rounded units and are produced in relatively large numbers. Although they were recently relegated to an anti-air role, they are clearly capable in most battlefield situations. The Thors have massive amounts of hitpoints and long range attacks for both ground and air targets, making them valuable for just about any situation. In the video, they can even be seen functioning as damage tanks – even for Siege Tanks themselves!

As has previously been mentioned, the Thors aren’t destroyed immediately when taking enough damage, but instead become wreckages – which stay immobilized on the battlefield, stuck until the player repairs them. It’s not clear whether the repairs are undertaken by SCVs or if the Thor can be “revived” by a click of a button (and some resources). At the 3:57 time point, A Thor wreckage can clearly be seen coming back to life without an SCV working on it.

Siege Tanks, on the other hand, seem somewhat inadequate when facing Thors. The relatively large amount of artillery damage, which usually stops most attackers in their tracks, isn’t enough to deter even a small force of Thors. Do the Terran possess any other means of stopping Thors, aside from even more Thors?

The answer is yes. Like the Thor, the Battlecruiser is an all-rounded unit – possessing the same qualities of the Thor, but in flying form, and with additional powerful offensive abilities. The videoed game seems to revolve around just these two units – a bit disappointing for a game of StarCraft. Hopefully, this battle doesn’t represent the typical Terran versus Terran endgame in StarCraft 2.

Other notable things in the video are the harassing Banshee, which tries to hunt down enemy SCVs, new voices for it and a few other units, and a couple of Medivac Dropships that are aimlessly flying around, as no infantry units are present. The Banshee is seen firing its new focused, non-AoE attack for the first time. At the moment, it seems a bit feeble.

This game likely doesn’t represent the full gamut of effective play styles for the Terran race, focusing solely on the two heavy hitters. Hopefully, even though the Battlecruiser and Thor appear to be extremely well-rounded and powerful, they are not the only late game options available for Terran players.

The Mothership seems like an extremely powerful unit, are there any counters to it?

 

Sure! It has been changed significantly since BlizzCon. You can use Corruptors, Hydras, Vikings or Phoenixes, depending on your race. It is a unit that you only should build if you have air superiority, as it can relatively easily be defeated if you can’t defend it. It is not a unit you make unless you have air superiority as it will be run over. You wouldn’t choose to make a Mothership without backup.

The Mothership has clearly not been designed to be cost-effective in battle, unless it is able to survive long enough to make good use of its powerful abilities. The Mothership will probably not be used by smart players unless the player is confident of his air superiority or in his the ability to repel direct attacks against the Mothership. Such problematic design might condemn it to the role of a mere coup de grace unit, a common fault in RTS games.

Are there any changes to Creep as such?

 

Creep has the same functionality as before, besides the new graphics, and how it spreads.

Creep, unlike in StarCraft 1, can now spread through ramps between different height levels.

The Queen seems very much like a Hero Unit, like in WarCraft III, is that the meaning of the Queen?

 

The Queen can die just like any other unit, and isn’t “resurrected” like Heroes of WarCraft III. If she dies you need to make a new Queen and upgrade her again, to the former unit’s strength. While she definitely isn’t invincible, she can easily take on an Ultralisk for example. She is mainly a really good base defence as she can heal a building for 100 HP very fast early on, and do it several times. What can happen is that your opponent start hammering your building, taking the HP all the way down, and then it’s up all of a sudden, so they might have to beat it down several times. During this time, they could possibly already be dead from the other base defences, or that the Queen’s player have time to do some other action.

 

Her Deep Tunnel ability makes it possible to escape most dangerous attacks, by just tunnelling to another building, or tunnel between bases. Still, you should be careful with that, as it will be 15 seconds before she can use that ability after it has been activated. In worst case you might find yourself loosing the Queen as you got attacked at a bad time. You’ll find that the Queen can be used in offensive action, but she is better designed for defence, as she walks slowly, and her abilities require creep or buildings, like making poisonous creep.

The Queen is tough enough to fight small forces and even powerful units, like the Ultralisk, but due to her cost and the fact that the Zerg rely on her for some of their most important abilities, it’s better to quickly tunnel away from battle rather than try to engage anything more than a minor enemy company.

What is the Overlord’s new role in StarCraft as it doesn’t transport or detect?

 

The Overlord can also be mutated into an Overseer, to give you detection. They currently have the ability to slowly increase their sight radius as long as they remain stationary, so you can see more. If you move with the Overseer, you will loose the sight you got by staying stationary, and will have to regain it slowly when it stops again. The main reason the Overlord/Overseer was split is to make cloak more useful, as the Zerg are somewhat “detectorific” if they just send a bunch of Overlords with their units. This way it matters a bit more with cloaking and detection.

The Zerg of StarCraft 1 had what amounted to free detection. Since Overlords were abundant, cloaked attacks were rare (compared to the other races) unless a specific effort was made to get rid of the Overlords first. The Overseer, especially with the new sight radius increase mechanic, provides both a fairer and a more interesting approach to detection for the Zerg.

Can Corruptors corrupt any unit on the field? For instance, can they corrupt a Mothership?

 

Yes, they can corrupt any flying unit. It depends on the unit’s HP regarding on how long it takes to corrupt it, but all units can be corrupted.

Which race do you feel has changed the most since the original?

 

The Protoss maby? That is the race we feel has had the most success in development, and currently feel the most developed and most “crisp”. It is really hard to say. You guys are the ones that really should tell us about these things!

That’s how we at the SC2Blog feel as well. The Protoss have been by far the most “stable” race, and we can safely expect that Blizzard is doing all it can to bring the Terran and Zerg to the same level of “crispness” prior to releasing the beta…

Next up, three GameTrailers interviews with Chris Sigaty [1|2|3]. Here are the highlights:

• Blizzard is experimenting with even faster game speeds than the StarCraft 1 “Fastest” setting.
• When the Blizzard strategy team started making StarCraft 2, they decided to remove the hero system of WarCraft III and other mechanics that were added to that game in order to keep franchises separate. They wanted to go back to the “micro heavy, huge army fighting of StarCraft, with more base management“.
• The team did learn a lot from WarCraft III, and added a plenty of UI and battle.net features into StarCraft 2.
• “The ability for players to easily get into matches is key”
• “We have a beta coming up and we look forward to seeing feedback“

And we are looking forward to showing it to you, Chris.

Ending a long period of Rumors and leaks, Blizzard has once again chosen an event held in Korea to announce the latest major development in the StarCraft Universe. On March 10th, 2008, Blizzard has unleashed a true Zerg Rush of information dealing with the long awaited third race.

The large amount of screenshots, concept art pictures, videos and game data provide an in-depth view of the last playable race of StarCraft 2.

The information rush includes:

• 13 confirmed Zerg units.
• 24 new action-packed Zerg screenshots
• A 15-Question FAQ covering key Zerg aspects
• A StarCraft2.com update, featuring Zerg lore, new Zerg unit pages and brand new concept art pictures
• Three videos, featuring a cinematic introduction to the Zerg and a gameplay exhibition, along with footage of a pro-gamer playing as Zerg
• Two interviews with Sam Didier, Blizzard’s art director, and Dustin Browder, lead game designer

The late arrival has only benefited the Zerg, both feature and graphics wise. Well thought-out abilities such as burrowed unit movement and the complex role of the Queen are clear indicators that the Zerg is a far more mature race than the Protoss and Terran were during their initial presentations.

Here’s all the information we have gathered since the announcement. First up, the new pictures:

Two official videos have been published. One is an introduction to the Zerg race, narrated by Kerrigan, and the other a long gameplay exhibition video. A third camera movie follows sAviOr, a Korean Pro-Gamer, playing StarCraft 2 as the Zerg.

• High quality gameplay video (542mb)
• High quality Cinematic video (88mb)
  
• sAviOr playing as the Zerg
• Medium quality gameplay video (346mb)
• Low quality gameplay video (116mb)
• Low quality cinematic video (30mb)

Thirteen Zerg units have been announced so far:

* Drone: Unchanged from StarCraft 1.

These remain the Zerg’s peons – able to harvest minerals and mutate into structures.

* Zergling: Mostly unchanged from StarCraft 1.

Fast and relatively weak, best used in large numbers. In StarCraft 2, Zerglings can morph into Banelings. For more details, check out our Zergling focus article. The Zerglings have changed since their last appearance, and now no longer have accented wings.

* Baneling: New unit.

This previously revealed unit is new to StarCraft 2. The Baneling is not much more than a mobile suicide bomb, replacing the Infested Terran of StarCraft 1.

* Overlord: Somewhat changed from StarCraft 1.

Overlords grant control points which allow the Zerg to field more units. The Overlords are no longer detectors and can no longer transport units. However, they receive two new abilities:

1) Slime: allows the Overlord to disable resource nodes and neutral observatories.

2) Create Creep: allows the overlord to generate a temporary patch of creep on the ground. This will allow the Zerg to easily expand their influence on the battlefield without expanding and creating additional Hatcheries.

The Overlords can also morph into Overseers.

* Overseer: New unit.

Overseers lose the Overlord’s new abilities. They gain the ability to detect cloaked and burrowed units and also receive a larger sight radius.

No word has been given regarding the missing transportation ability for the Zerg.

* Queen: Completely changed from StarCraft 1.

The Queen of StarCraft 2 shares nothing more than the name with its previous incarnation. The StarCraft 2 Queen is a unique unit – only one can used at a time, similar to the way the Protoss Mothership used to be. The Queen is built directly from the Hatchery, and can no longer leave the ground and fly. The Queen can be built relatively early in the game, and evolves as the Zerg progress in the game. Only the Queen can construct Zerg base defenses. The Queen has many abilities, including:

* Create structures that expand creep and act as stationary defense turrets

* Deep Tunnel: allows the queen to instantly move to any Zerg building

* Toxic Creep: makes a small area of creep harmful to enemy units

* Swarm Infestation: the Queen transforms any Zerg building into a defensive turret

* Regeneration: allows the Queen to quickly heal damaged Zerg buildings

Some of these abilities will likely cost little to no energy, allowing the Queen to use them frequently. However, aside from all these abilities, the Queen is also a formidable attacker in itself. Its attack is powerful enough to kill a Marine in one strike.

* Hydralisk: Unchanged from StarCraft 1.

The Hydralisk of StarCraft 2 is still the highly versatile foot soldier of the Zerg. It can shoot its deadly spines at both ground and air targets. Like in the Brood War expansion, Hydralisks can morph into Lurkers.

* Lurker: Unchanged from StarCraft 1.

The Lurker can only attack while burrowed. These relatively armored Zerg units, morphed from Hydralisks, have a devastating area of effect line attack which is extremely deadly to infantry.

* Roach: New unit.

The Roach is a melee ground unit. The Roach’s specialty lies in its ability to regenerate health extremely quickly. Few units will have enough fire power to actually kill a Roach single-handedly; to be effectively countered, these new Zerg menaces will have to come under concentrated fire.

This is an interesting new mechanic for StarCraft, one that creates an incredible tactical advantage for a skilled player who can “dance” with his Roaches, constantly keeping those that come under fire out of harm’s way.

* Mutalisk: Unchanged from StarCraft 1.

The Zerg’s Primary flying attacker, the dreaded Mutalisk, is back. This flying monstrosity can hit both ground and air targets. It is fast moving, fast hitting, and easy to use in large groups. Its only downside is relatively low health – the Mutalisk is too fragile to be able to face anything more than light resistance and come out on top. The Mutalisk can morph into a Swarm Guardian.

* Swarm Guardian: Mostly unchanged from StarCraft 1.

Like in StarCraft 1, the Swarm Guardian is an aerial siege weapon. In StarCraft 2, its long range, highly damaging projectile attack also spawns small broodlings that can attack the enemy for a short period of time.

* Nydus Worm: New Unit.

Another previously revealed unit, the Nydus worm is an evolution of the StarCraft 1 Nydus Canal. The Nydus Worm can tunnel to any point on the map, allowing Zerg units to funnel through. In the video, several Nydus Worms are used together to deliver units, implying that every worm can only deliver a limited amount of units (unlike the Nydus Canal).

* Infestor: New Unit.

The Infestor is the primary support unit for the Zerg, taking on the role of the Defiler. It has no attack of its own and relies on powerful abilities to bring harm to the enemies of the Zerg:

* Can move while burrowed. As we have suggested long ago in our “Suggestions for StarCraft 2” article, the Zerg race now features one unit that can move while hidden underground.

* Dark Swarm: Unchanged from StarCraft 1. This ability creates a cloud made out of small insects, making ranged attackers unable to hit units inside its cover.

* Disease: The Zerg’s Irradiate-equivalent, this ability targets a single enemy, giving it a damaging aura that slowly hurts it and other surrounding units.

* Infestation: An evolution of the old Queen ability, the Infestor no longer requires its target structure to be critically damaged. At the moment, it is unclear which buildings the Infestor can infest: Some rumors claim it can affect ALL buildings, including Protoss ones, while others only include specific Terran structures.

Infested buildings only stay infested temporarily. During that time, they automatically create Infested Marines.

* Infested Marine: Changed from StarCraft 1.

The StarCraft 2 Infested Marine is no longer a walking bomb. This time, it wields a normal marine rifle, and generally fights like a normal marine, with the only difference being a decreased movement speed.

* Corruptor: New Unit.

The Corruptor is the Zerg’s answer to the other races’ air superiority. The Corruptor is not a heavy unit like the Protoss Carrier or Terran Battlecruiser, but it is more than a match for them. Instead of destroying its target, the Corruptor transforms the enemy into an ally – after attacking a target long enough, it becomes corrupted and functions as a stationary turret in the service of the Zerg.

* Ultralisk: Somewhat changed from StarCraft 1.

The Zerg’s heaviest hitter and most durable unit, the Ultralisk returns improved in StarCraft 2: it now has an area of effect attack, inflicting damage to any unit standing in front of its huge blades, and can also burrow.

In addition to the revealed units, many familiar buildings are also making a comeback in 3D form:

* Hatchery               * Lair                        * Spawning Pool

* Hydralisk Den        * Spire                      * Ultralisk Cavern

So far, it looks like the StarCraft 2 Zerg buildings are not much more than 3D versions of the originals, similar to the Protoss and Terran races.

This long Q&A sheds some more light on the Zerg race and the state StarCraft 2 is in now:

Q: How far in development is SC2? And how much of it will be included in the final version?

A: Nothing’s for certain. It took us such a long time because we were developing other games. Because of our perfectionism we can’t say for sure when SC2 will be released.

Q: I heard there were immense changes to Battle.net. What are these changes?

A: Unfortunately we can’t give away too much on this right now. I can only tell you it’s going along well. Expect great changes!

Q: There’s no Kerrigan in the video. Is the Queen Kerrigan? If not, how is Kerrigan represented? Also the Roach looks like a… roach. People called Paladins from WoW Roaches so is that the reason?

A: The Roach has nothing to do with the Paladin. Kerrigan is a unique unit and will only be playable in the single-player campaign.

Q: How many Starcraft 1 developers are involved in SC2 right now? I heard some developers of C&C were brought over and therefore was not a real sequel to SC1.

A: There are about 12 original developers. It also sticks to the original and is therefore a sequel! We’ve worked hard to make this a fun game and tried to satisfy picky players on multiplayer.

Q: How is the balancing process going?

A: The balancing process is very complicated! That’s why us devs are always playing and balancing the game. Fortunately we have great talents here. We’re planning on getting feedback from this demonstration. We will also balance through patches. Map developers from WC2 are participating in SC2. We can’t tell you much now but you will be able to experience it soon.

Q: I heard SC2 uses a new graphics engine. Can you tell us the specifics?

A: I’m not a graphics expert, but I can tell you we have several advanced graphics techniques being used.

Q: The Zerg scenario ended with the Protoss attacking, but the Terran were conquered for the Protoss assault. Is the sequel loyal to the original storyline? The Queen seems to be used like a hero. Do we have to tech to use it?

A: The storyline is still under development. We can’t give you any details on it yet. The Queen is usable from the beginning and is specialized towards defense. More to come later.

Q: In WWI the Mothership was a super unit and was changed to a normal unit in Blizzcon. Queen has become a superunit so what’s become of the Mothership? Do terrans have a superunit as well? The graphics look great and the system requirements look pretty steep.

A: We can’t tell you anything for certain in the game right now. The Queen’s not really a superunit but really a specialized unit. It’s weak when not defended! It’s not a hero. The sys reqs are low enough so many more users can play. A graphics card with Pixel Shader 2.0 is required.

Q: How will the testing take place? Pro gamers say SC2 feels similar to SC1 and was that a main focus? Or was the focus more on new content?

A: We’re still discussing the best approach to testing. Because SC1 was so loved we’re trying to capture the feel of SC1. However we are adding new content.

Q: Zerg’s Infestor. In SC1 Infestation wasn’t used much. How much will this be used in SC1? Do the infested units count toward population?

A: Infestation is still being tested. We’ve only shown our work in progress. We’re trying to make Infestation a valid tactic in SC2. Supply depots can be infested as well. This will be a useful ability this time around. Currently you can only produce infested marines but that’s subject to change.

Q: SC1’s AI was a bit weak. How’s pathfinding and singleplayer? The Protoss have a cliff walker unit but the Zerg don’t seem to have one. Is there a unit made with this ability? Recently user-made maps are popular but there are some restrictions with licensing. For example making a map unusable is downloaded then changed. Is there a way to secure maps?

A: The devs are working to resolve this issue (AI and pathfinding). But this is still under construction! We can’t tell you anything about what the final build will look like. The Zerg do not have a cliff walker but use Nydus Worms. We’re aware of the problem with securing user-made maps and are considering options to resolve this issue.

Q: You said the development process takes a long time but Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bruce Hack (spelling?) said it’ll be out soon. About when will SC2 be released? And what will happen to SC1’s sales and marketing once SC2 is released?

A: We can’t say when we’ll release. We’ll be going for perfection. Also we have differences with Bruce Hack. However we both want to release this game ASAP. And because we have SC2 it doesn’t mean we’ll forget about SC1. If there’s one user that loves SC1 we’ll keep it going.

Q: As of today, all 3 races have been announced. Each race has strengths and weaknesses. What do you think, as a developer, are the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three races?

A: Us developers don’t focus too much upon strengths and weaknesses. That’s why we don’t add so many unnecessary features. The player is left to decide what the strengths and weaknesses are.

Q: SC1 is more popular in Korea than anywhere else. Will there be any plans to be made with Korea in mind?

A: We know about the popularity in Korea. Because Koreans love competitive gaming we’re trying to make this an e-Sport game. Just revealing the game in Seoul should tell you how much we love the Korean market.

Q: Will there be an event where people can play SC2 in Korea? Also the Observer mode in SC1 was rather lacking. Will SC2 have new features? For other RTS’es the game’s site hosts tournaments and leagues. Will this be done for SC2?

A: It was very important for us to announce the game through WWI and Blizzcon. Therefore we’re planning on having more such conventions. The e-Sports department is doing all that they can to create the best multiplayer experience. This can change depending on the players’ opinions, however. On a side note we’re preparing a WC3 tournament and are expecting to host similar leagues for SC2. However this doesn’t seem like the right time to talk about leagues or tournaments just yet.

Other notable bits of information from the rush:

* Two new hidden Raynors. In the first picture, Raynor is sitting with his good friends, Zeratul, and both are watching the ensuing Zerg versus Terran battle. In the other, Raynor is watching another battle behind the safety of a giant cactus. Click on the pictures for the full screenshot.

* A new attack for the Colossus, which has recently been revealed, is shown for the first time:

The StarCraft 2 universe has expanded greatly with the introduction of the third race. New unit and building pages will appear regularly, and Q&As will be full of Zerg goodness. Now that all races look great and are almost fully playable, how far away can the beta be?

Warning: not for the weak of stomach. May contain awful lyrics, unintelligible accents and an Eminem tune.





Karune, touched by the dedication of his fan, filmed a video response of himself. The featured song follows the format of another infamous Eminem track, Stan – where Eminem replies to an obsessive fan. Nice touch, Karune!





Another nice touch that’s worth a mention is the girl that’s taking the place of Dido in this song. Karune’s girlfriend(?) laments his demanding job (it must be hard to play StarCraft 2 all day) and explains that he hardly has time for her.

Karune has really shown that being a community manager is serious business.