July 20, 2009 Wings of Liberty SP Coverage

[Lupino]

I'm also wondering how much of the single-player "special events" will be possible in multiplayer. The lava for one thing; is that a multiplayer function? 'Could be fun for some "dont touch the lava" kinds of UMS maps.

Personally I hope this and other features find their way into multiplayer in general. It would certainly do much to make matches much more unique than "follow build order, engage clickfest, gg kekekek."

Am I the only one who feels like having extraneous units that have nothing to do with the multiplayer just feels awkward? It's against the RTS grain, that's for sure. Can't wait to see the results of the decision!

It's been done since before SC came out, and it adds character to the game, so it gets a good mark in my book.

[trace wm]

So about the buying new units and tech in the single player campaign: When you purchase an upgrade is it automatically applied at the start of each mission, or are you purchasing the right to have it available for research in a mission?

i.e. I buy stimpacks, do my Marines/Reapers ALWAYS have stimpacks researched, or do I now just have the ability to research them?

and that's another thing, Marines and Reapers both have stims, do you have to buy them twice in SP?

[Sheliek]

So about the buying new units and tech in the single player campaign: When you purchase an upgrade is it automatically applied at the start of each mission...

That would be the most realistic method, though I doubt that's how it works.

That said, I have no idea.

...
We only got a chance to experiment with some of these upgrades. But Blizzard reps were quick to recommend the Micro-fusion Reactor for the mineral-collecting SCVs, which makes the farming units almost one-third cheaper. We opted for the Perdition Turrets and Shrike Turrets, very useful while doing much of the base defense we did during the campaign.

Similarly, having permanently researched Stimpacks and health upgrades for the Marine quickly felt indispensable. But each upgrade felt good when we got it.
...

If this is correct, then you don't need to upgrade the units every mission once you've bought it. Given the RTS genre's penchant for doing the exact opposite, this comes as a quite welcome surprise.

The other Kotaku article also mentions a new Zerg/Terran hybrid.

...
"Outbreak" features the last single-player specific unit we saw, the Centaur, a massive mutated Terran-Zerg hybrid, structured like the mythical Greek beast, only with a thorny carapace and a lower half made of pincers. Blizzard reps said that units like the Centaur and Brutalisk were just fun extras that they wanted to include in the StarCraft II campaign, some of them units that might have been left on the multiplayer cutting room floor. ...

I think I'll check through the screenshots we got earlier today and see if I can find one.