Blizzard Gameplay & Graphics Chat

So am I really the only one who care about this? :

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Q. Any plans to allow allies to see one another's resource and supply totals as was possible in past Blizzard RTS games? If not, why?
A. We had talked about this and felt that the additional complexity was not worth it in our current UI. It was also a tool that was largely used by players in random games to give grief to their less-skilled allies. But we don't hate the feature and could get enthusiastic about if we saw a need while playing.

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Yeah, that's pretty gay. Added complexity my ass.

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Originally Posted by newcomplex

I don't understand this statement. You may not like it, but how is it bad "By there standards"?

The quality of the voices are fine. You may disagree with the thematic direction they have taken, but that doesn't make them "bad", and certainly not by their standards.

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Compared to Warcraft 2, Starcraft, Warcraft 3, and all of the related expansions, many Starcraft 2 unit voices and responses are bland, lackluster, lack inspiration, and lack that old Blizzard sense of humor.

Now, you can say they're "fine," and I might agree with you, but the difference between the old games and other game developers is that in the old games, the unit responses were awesome, as were the audio effects for the units that had them. That's supposed to be the grand difference between Blizzard and everybody else; when you play their games, it's not just fine, it's one of the best gaming experiences of your life, down to the tiniest detail.

So, my issue with them isn't that they're "fine," it's that they just don't hold up to Blizzard's past and reputation. Maybe that's going to be a problem for Blizzard, where people like me will start to hold them to possibly impossibly high standards, and I recognize that, but so many units voices and responses feel really bland. Examples: The Warp Ray, the High Templar, the Dark Templar, the Battlecruiser. The Protoss even have the benefit of having a number of robotic units that really have no lines needed at all.

I can't really say much about the Zerg, because, well, it's not easy to make up a bunch of animal noises for a fictional creature and make them be memorable.

On the bright side, I love most of the Terran responses, and I think they're absolutely in line with Blizzard's high sense of quality and, most importantly, humor :D

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Originally Posted by Centipede

The old Phoenix had that awful lisp going on. :p

The models are probably final and I'd be very surprised to see any changes. A lot of people were holding out for a new Carrier in vain, it seems... funny the Battlecruiser got changed and updated a lot though. Figures.

It'd also be nice to see some touch-ups to other models, too.

The Dark Templar's warp blades look like plastic, for example. This is likely due to the cloaking, but still I'm sure there's a way they could make them look a lot better.

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There are so many problems wrong aesthetically that I cannot believe they won't address them. I really feel ever since beta hit, Blizzard has taken a very backseat approach to the development process. Granted that is suppose to happen somewhat, to allow the beta to go through. But that only applies towards balance. During that balance/dev slowdown, they should be discussing if everything looks, sounds, and appears the way they want it to. Instead of being apathetic about units we will be having to build/listen to for the next year(+)

I'm really concerned about the Sentry nerf. Nerf Force Field, fine. But not the whole damn unit.

I wouldn't say that the voices are bad, but there are a lot of lines that definitely need a re-take (mineralzzzzzzz), and the lack of quality voice effects is rather disappointing.

I don't know if it's just me, but a lot of the voices sound extremely quiet in this game. Maybe it's because Blizzard took the bass off, but I definitely hear something missing in the voices for this game. Some notable examples of this are the voices for the Marauder and Carrier. Both very good voices in my opinion, but they also sound "muffled out", where it seems like they aren't as clear as the voices in SC1. Just compare the Marauder and SC2 Carrier with the Firebat and SC1 Carrier and you can definitely hear a massive difference in bass and clearness. Even with the static effect, you could still hear the Firebat's voice almost perfectly.

The Zerg on the other hand have a problem with variety. If I were to hear the roar of a Hydralisk, Corrupter, and Brood Lord, I would not be able to tell the difference between them at all. Almost all of the Zerg units sound the same outside of very minor differences, and that's pretty bad when you consider how different many of them were in SC1 (compare the Defiler with a Lurker for example). I also miss the massive roars the Ultralisk used to have when you compare it to these silly little growls they have now.

It's a shame to hear that Blizzard is sticking to almost all of the ones that the community has been concerned about. The Zerg Adjutant seems to be the only thing they're willing to change.

My updated, "Lived with it for 2+ months" list of opinions on unit sounds:

Perfection -- up to Blizz's standards of old
Terran
SCV
Marine
Marauder
Thor
Protoss
Stalker

Decent lines, decent voice -- unremarkable but fitting; even WC3 had plenty
Terran
Hellion
Siege Tank
Medivac
Viking

Voice OK, lines need work -- FAR too many reused jokes, not enough original material
Terran
Reaper
Ghost

Lines OK, voice needs work -- Mostly effects/volume work needed
Terran
Raven
Protoss
Zerg

Lines and voice both subpar -- unit requires different sound direction.
Terran
Banshee -- absolutely 0 personality atm. Neither the lines nor the voice give her one.

Kill it with fire -- seriously, it's that bad. Start over.
Terran
Battlecruiser
Protoss
High Templar
Dark Templar
Zerg
Advisor

But over-all, the SCV is definitely, without a doubt, my favorite voice of SC2. If they'd been as inspired with other units as they were with the SCV, we wouldn't be having this conversation now.

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Originally Posted by Crazy_Jonny

These stats look good. I'm curious as to why the Terrans are loosing to Protoss exactly. Is it the cheese? Or is it because the ghost is pricey (ghosts are vital against protoss pretty much)? One of those would be my guess.

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Probably because they continue to mass Marauders until they see Void Rays raping their bases, and then it's too late. They should be massing Marines and/or Vikings like crazy when they see a Stargate.

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Originally Posted by Norfindel

Probably because they continue to mass Marauders until they see Void Rays raping their bases, and then it's too late. They should be massing Marines and/or Vikings like crazy when they see a Stargate.

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I agree. I think that it's because Terrans have such a delicate balance between being able to scout their opponent and keeping up with production. Terran unit production is the slowest of the three races, which means they can't simply react to their opponents the minute they see what's up. This is somewhat mitigated by scanner sweep, but the problem is that this takes energy that is needed by the MULE, especially early game, since Terran players have the slowest gathering due to slow, 1-by-1 scv production and the fact that scvs must be away from minerals for the full building duration.

It's not as big a problem for the top terran players, who are constantly harassing/seeing what their opponent is up to, but for terrans who base camp while massing, they'll often see some stalkers/zealots and be like "ooh ground+immortal" and build marauders, without seeing the stargate in the corner of the map that's secretly building void rays. again, it's not a fundamental fault, just that terrans really need to be aware of their opponent all game long, esp in the first 5 minutes or so.

That's my experience anyway...dunno how some of the higher plat players feel about this.

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The Zerg Adjutant seems to be the only thing they're willing to change.

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They're not actually going to change the voice.

They're not going to change any of the voices because it would cost them a lot of money to re-record all of the dialogue. (Especially for the Queen, who actually has a TON of dialogue. She narrates all of the challenge modes and guides the player through them. Same goes for the Adjutant/'Executor'.)

What they might change are some of the vocal effects.