How would you rate SC2, 7 months after release?

[Dean63]

True. And perhaps my rant is misplaced. However, I can't just give full credit to game that forces me into low settings all the time when my com has the tech to run medium and high, though high gets choppy. I will not rule out the problem is as much on the tech as the game. That would be foolish.

Let me put it another way: Blizz released as part of one of the BW patches the ability to enable CPU throttling. Furthermore, Blizz and other sources have stated SC2 is optimized for a dual core CPU, which I have. And there has been much discussion, even in these very forums, from some people who have noticed a distinct change in resource usage following each patch. Based on this and Blizzard's own desire to allow their games to run on as many setups as possible, is it too much to expect a reasonable efficiency of CPU and GPU usage? Depends on the rig. Is it too much to expect a future patch/update that further optimizes SC2's performance on the current array of minimum and recommended tech specs? No, not really. I am willing to be patient for such a thing as I know it will take time.

[Supported] CPUs and GPUs have been heavily optimized. It is impossible to truly optimize a piece of hardware, as resources are either diverted elsewhere, degraded in transfer, or software (that includes DirectX, OpenGL, drivers, kernel, and then Starcraft II itself) utilize the resources.

It -may- seem easy to simply adjust multicore support, but it's far from easy to increase the degrading values when used on other machines. Multicore was in BETA but was then removed because single core players would drop if they joined a game with players running multicore, and visa-versa, Datth went over that already.

In the future, sure, there may be adjustments. They are looking at exploring Starcraft II's full potential, that includes improving the technology, but whether it can/will be done (and with reasonable loss to gain) is still up for grabs. Developers are definitely looking into the increased network usage with each patch, and there are *tweaks made by (non-Blizzard) NEs to resolve this.

Maybe it's your hardware, or your software, maybe it's Starcraft II not utilizing your computer efficiently as it could. PM me your dxdiag and I can look.

*Not entirely Blizzard's fault, as ISPs have been a common issue. i.e. Implementing Peerapp
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Liked a lot in Starcraft II. Disliked little. Here is what I disliked:
- 2010 instead of 2008 popularity system
- Network loads
- Lack there-of dedicated programmers, with focus on customer service instead [Microsoft anybody?]

[Triceron]

So after 7 months, a ton of promises, few patches, is SC2 the amazing game you thought it would be, or is it still a screw-up?

I love how you posed that question. Still a screw up, heh.

[Twilice]

If I remember correctly starcraft 1 didn't even b.net or replays for a long time.

Why would starcraft 2 work any differently?

[0mar]

If I remember correctly starcraft 1 didn't even b.net or replays for a long time.

Why would starcraft 2 work any differently?

what? that's retarded. so if a company sells you a car without airbags/seatbelts and says that the original cars in the '20s didn't have them, would you be okay with that explanation?

The whole point of progress is that you can incorporate what you learned into future products. SC2 should have had group replay viewing from the start. The fact that it still doesn't is downright negligent.

[flak4321]

Maybe it's your hardware, or your software, maybe it's Starcraft II not utilizing your computer efficiently as it could. PM me your dxdiag and I can look.

Thanks. I'll get that to you shortly.

[Twilice]

what? that's retarded. so if a company sells you a car without airbags/seatbelts and says that the original cars in the '20s didn't have them, would you be okay with that explanation?

The whole point of progress is that you can incorporate what you learned into future products. SC2 should have had group replay viewing from the start. The fact that it still doesn't is downright negligent.

Starcraft 2 did have b.net and replays already.

[TheEconomist]

Replays came around v1.07 which was 2001 or so.

[0mar]

Starcraft 2 did have b.net and replays already.

yea, but you can't group watch replays, which was possible right out the gate when replays were introduced in SC/BW. That's a huge stepback because a lot of the fun of watching replays was watching them with your friends. Also, SC2's bnet was lacking in every way compared to SC/BW's bnet save for matchmaking. There was no sense of community at all in SC2. It's still fairly dead in most chat channels because of Blizzard's stubborness.

[dustinbrowder]

Based on scrankings there are 40% less people playing now than in the first two months of SC2 release, that must speak of how crap bnet 0.2 is surely!

[TheEconomist]

Or, you know, they lost interest in it like every other game. This happens every year to last year's shooters. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of that 40% were SPers who simply finished the campaign.

You never cease to amaze me how you can turn every minor fact into anti-Blizzard despite a more obvious, logical explanation.