A conversation with my friend, Jack Doe

[Gifted]

I have a friend some of you have heard me mention/talk about. Yes, he works at Blizzard. When I started talking to him tonight on AIM, with the obvious curiousity about tomorrow's NDA theories and whatnot, he started to avoid the subject.

Normally I drop the subject, but he's in a playful mood tonight and outright said that he'd open up some interesting conversation with some of the people of this forum. He said he'll see about answering questions that I pass on as long as it's about anything, not just about SC2, but anything you want to know.

So, ask away, I'll be refreshing this page often. This is obviously a limited time until he goes to bed. His wife and kids are off to a movie.

[DemolitionSquid]

Why are the Baneling Nest and Spawning Pool two separate buildings?

Just to get ArcherOfAuir to shut up.

[supersonic]

I have a friend some of you have heard me mention/talk about. Yes, he works at Blizzard. When I started talking to him tonight on AIM, with the obvious curiousity about tomorrow's NDA theories and whatnot, he started to avoid the subject.

Normally I drop the subject, but he's in a playful mood tonight and outright said that he'd open up some interesting conversation with some of the people of this forum. He said he'll see about answering questions that I pass on as long as it's about anything, not just about SC2, but anything you want to know.

So, ask away, I'll be refreshing this page often. This is obviously a limited time until he goes to bed. His wife and kids are off to a movie.

Excellent! =D!! And to answer his question I'm 19 and I've only completed high school (was that his question)?

NOT relating to SC2 Squid..

[Gifted]

Asking questions from super/demo

EDIT1: Demo got his answer first:

(9:46:05 PM) Jack Doe: I can't remember the conversation clearly. LONG time ago. Good point came up that we wanted tech decision to be more visible. This makes scouting more important and more responsive.
(9:46:53 PM) Jack Doe: You can also counter the tech and delay it by destroying the building. It opened options instead of limited them.

EDIT2: Super, your reply:

(9:51:57 PM) Jack Doe: He needs to scout a few colleges for game design. Be sure to ask a lot of questions when you visit them. Check what type of positions they open up for and ask what are the activities of those positions. Learn! Learn! Learn! Does he want to be in the guts of the game itself, coding and testing quality? Does he want to be part of the management of the project as a producer? These are things he should find out by the end of his college career. That's advice for any job and education, not just the gaming industry. If you want to work my job, expect to sacrifice life for your passion. I work 80-90 hours a week, even if I'm only required to work 60. That's common in this industry.

I'm going to ask tha

[DemolitionSquid]

Excellent! =D!! And to answer his question I'm 19 and I've only completed high school (was that his question)?

NOT relating to SC2 Squid..

Sry, I'm tired. But its not like its a question about any updates that may or may not occur in the next few days.

[Gifted]

He's ok to ask about SC2, "Jack" just didn't want to limit it to SC2. Sometimes it's good to ask other aspects about Blizzard, not just the game itself.

[supersonic]

He's ok to ask about SC2, "Jack" just didn't want to limit it to SC2. Sometimes it's good to ask other aspects about Blizzard, not just the game itself.

oic ^^ I'm getting really excited!! How long has he been working at Blizzard and how does he like it? Dream job???

lol I'm sure he gets asked that allllll the time =P

[DemolitionSquid]

I'd be careful with personal questions like that.

[ArcherofAiur]

Asking questions from super/demo

EDIT1: Demo got his answer first:

(9:46:05 PM) Jack Doe: I can't remember the conversation clearly. LONG time ago. Good point came up that we wanted tech decision to be more visible. This makes scouting more important and more responsive.
(9:46:53 PM) Jack Doe: You can also counter the tech and delay it by destroying the building. It opened options instead of limited them.




LOL

ok demo you won this round. He did mention destroying tech so ill give it to you.

Of course this leaves allot of questions like why you wouldnt seperate the hydralisk and lurker buildings or the spire ones. And how its easier to destroy a 850 building than a 750 building. And of course why a morphing spawning pool is any less visible than a morphing baneling nest.

[DemolitionSquid]

Mmm, the sweet taste of LOGIC.

And with that I sadly must go to bed. Thx for the answer Mr. Doe.

[Gifted]

doing a bump as I edited the last post, I believe I should just reply to flag this as "new posts" though... hrm. Any other questions for him?

Archer, got any questions for him?

[Gifted]

@DemoSquid

(9:55:59 PM) Jack Doe: Tell him he's welcome, even if he doesn't support my rights. Alien scum.

[supersonic]

How does he like working at Blizzard? Is it like a dream job?? and because he prob plays SC2 so much is he kind of bored of the game? or sick of it?

[ArcherofAiur]

doing a bump as I edited the last post, I believe I should just reply to flag this as "new posts" though... hrm. Any other questions for him?

Archer, got any questions for him?

Can you ask him what he thinks of the obelisk? Does it bother the dev team that certain obelisks are used only for casting PC and others for only shield and energy recharge? Does it bother the dev team that PC requires your to target a mienral field when there is only one mineral field you would want to target?


Also what is the explaination for Infested Terrans in a PvZ battle?

Oh and did he ever read any of my Thesis :p

[Gifted]

@super
(10:01:01 PM) Jack Doe: Every company in the industry I've worked for is different. Blizzard moreso. Many places are very vocal about the monetary aspect of creating a game. Deadlines and the needs to make them no matter what.
(10:02:05 PM) Jack Doe: Blizzard's flexibility and creative atmosphere is fantastic. But that's because of the people we work with, not the company or it's credibility. I enjoy aspects of both styles of companies and feel the dream job is just working on games doing what I love, no matter the corp.

[Gifted]

I can tell you he did not read the thesis, asking the rest.

[Gifted]

@Archer:

(10:07:11 PM) Jack Doe: hahahaha, a lot of things bug the dev team! I'm a strong believer that the obelisk looks bad on paper, but works in experience. Whether you believe it or not, it's been a constant conversation in meetings between peers off and on. A lot like salvage. Both of those have the potential to show unbalance in so many ways, but we can't see it in the games. We're really looking forward to a larger pool of data from the beta test. I know I didn't answer his f*****ng question right, ask him to elaborate on the last part.

(10:09:07 PM) Jack Doe: Terran s*** showing up on a Protoss versus Zerg battle involves it being pulled from previous battles with Terrans. An interesting thought was from all the chaos between the Zerg and the Terrans during SC1 and the BW... Zerg were able to grab that and "assimilate" it into their resources to show up later. Do I agree with it? No, but I'm also not fully up to date on the lore of the game. Only in discussions around the watercooler.

Little note: I edited the swearwords

[Gifted]

Further at Super, and yes, I'm laughing out loud.


(10:11:29 PM) Kevin: You never answered the portion of Super's question: because he prob plays SC2 so much is he kind of bored of the game? or sick of it?
(10:13:00 PM) Jack Doe: I love the game. If I wasn't married, I'd marry the game and name it Sue. We would have little mutant babies which I would then program into Starcraft 3 and play that too. Was that too graphic?

[ArcherofAiur]

@Archer:


Little note: I edited the swearwords

A big complaint from the fanbase here at SCLegacy is that a obelisk that just casts Proton Charge doesnt require any decision making. For instance there is alot of decision making that goes into when to make a worker. Likewise their is allot of decision making that goes into deciding where you cast psi storm.

Proton Charge requires no decision making for when you cast it since you have to cast it every X seconds for every "Proton Charge" Obelisk.

Proton Charge also requires no decision making for where you cast it since there is only one mineral field near the obelisk. If I always want to cast it in the same place why is the game asking me to choose a location?

We were wondering if the dev team shares any of these concerns. I cant tell you how many threads weve had on this subject and if he could give us the developers thoughts it would be greatly appreciated :D

[Gifted]

Holy crap Archer, you struck a chord :) I'll post it in a second, he's elaborating on what parts are his points and what parts I shouldn't really post.

[ArcherofAiur]

What kind of chord?

[Gifted]

Archer, this is more a cut and paste of parts of the full conversation I had with him.

----------------------

This is all my opinion and not the "public" opinion. It "feels" like the mule or the queen's abilities. You go to a "unit" select an ability and select a target. You may feel it's obvious to put it over the probes, but the mule and queen have obvious targets as well. On paper it can be a lot more "ezmode", but in gameplay it feels the same in use.

About "when", that's one of the fears I have about imbalance. In one way of testing it, it feels as spammable as zerg queens, make more and you get more use out of the abilities. On another point of testing, it feels like the decision of making too many gateways without building enough units from the gateways. You can see repercussions in late game when you wish you had those extra minerals.

In some cases, it feels like you built too many expensive shield batteries, if you get what I mean. For that, I think that the decision of "when" you create it can be viewed differently on the different scopes of the game.

Direct quote he wanted to say: "We can't wait for beta, we want people to butcher the mechanics and show us how good they truly are. I can personally say that they all "feel" good right now. I hope that's reassuring"
--------------------------

EDIT: To explain Chord, it seems this discussion is still fresh in his mind, They've looked at it from multiple sides overall and have ways of looking at it from different points. A lot of his conversation is "if you look at it from A, then B, if you look at it from C, then D, if you look at it from E, then F" Rather confusing to be honest, He recapped and the information above was a good edit about it which he agrees is a good one to explain his thoughts.

[ArcherofAiur]

Its very reassuring. I have no doubt that they all feel really good to use. I ask because we have debated this for a long time.

He has a good point about the queen and MULE having obvious targets but both of these units can target different hatcheries/mineral lines. For instance you might want to switch to dropping MULEs on your new yellow mineral expansion or cast spawn larva at your nat. The obelisk can only target one.

For the when part there is definatly a point at which it becomes like gateways and having too many. But what about when you just have one obelisk in every mineral field casting PC over and over.

[Gifted]

Its very reassuring. He has a good point about the queen and MULE having obvious targets but both of these units can target different hatcheries/mineral lines.He's getting into this little "share info" bit, he's asking for more questions, he's prepared with pizza and beer.

[ArcherofAiur]

He's getting into this little "share info" bit, he's asking for more questions, he's prepared with pizza and beer.

LOL thank him anyway for the questions he did answer. Tell him we are all psyched for blizzcon.

[Pandonetho]

Hm, interesting. What's his opinion on the Carrier?

Has he seen some of those "third person shooters" that the devs have made as side projects? Is he at liberty to detail some of it?

[Gifted]

Immediate responce: "The third person game is great when you consider the new lighting effects you can pull off. I hear that they're going to showcase that project at Blizzcon but that's only hearsay. "

[Sheliek]

Hm, interesting. What's his opinion on the Carrier?

...

For that matter, has the art changed from the 'goatskull', as it's known?

[Gifted]

(10:40:23 PM) Jack Doe: The Carrier is hard to change. Every time we tried to change it, it felt unnatural. We found solutions to those problems, but eventually found it easier and more satisfying to revert to the original. That happened multiple times. "Let's try something new, doesn't feel right, try changing it this way to simplify it... might as well return to the original. Let's try something new..."

(10:40:49 PM) Jack Doe: If something new does happen in beta that seems to fit, we're more than able to try new ideas out that seem like it would fit naturally with it.

[Pandonetho]

Thanks Gifted. Tell him we really appreciate his time, I can't wait till Blizzcon.

Also, I think it's fine to have this thread in the SC2 main discussion forum, it'll generate more traffic if he's really in the "share info" mood.

Can you ask him what the current state of the "slightly deeper colossus only" water is? While it'll undoubtedly remain in the editor for custom maps, has Blizzard scrapped any intention of incorporating it into their ladder maps?

[Gifted]

(10:44:26 PM) Jack Doe:The f***ing goatskull? That's classic. I can't speak about specific art changes. There are changes that will be recongized at Blizzcon. I can't say more than that to them.

EDIT: I didn't put the "Jack" in front, wanted to be sure that it was understood that it was him.

[Gifted]

(10:45:21 PM) Jack Doe: Nothing can move through "water" unless it's flagged for flight.

Since all the questions are SC2 related, I think I'll make an obvious quote there. I hate making duplicate threads though. Man I suck :P

[Gifted]

Moving this conversation to the SC2 thread, http://sclegacy.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1

[supersonic]

Sorry I'm back!! Parents wanted to chat lol..

Gifted you and your friend are my best friends!! XD

ask him if they have experimented with making it so the Colossus can't be hit by anti air. I realize they are strong in "critical mass" numbers but I really feel they get PWNED too easily because of the fact everything can faceroll them.

[Aldrius]

Okay, couple of dumb questions:

What was wrong with Null Shield?
What was wrong with Spider-mines?
What was wrong with Armory-tech Vikings? (oh, this is going back a ways)
What was wrong with repair on Mules?

Sorry if that's too many, don't want to bombard him. hehe.

[Gifted]

Requesting Admin thread lock :)

[Zero]

I'm not an admin, but I can lock this anyway.

New thread:
http://sclegacy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1132