All right people, liven up, BlizzCon 2014's approaching and LotV's reveal is near!

[DemolitionSquid]

Was talking MP. SP I won't watch for the reason you mentioned plus its not worth getting excited over something that is surely going to be disappointed. Pre-release material always makes the games look as epic as they should be but they never actually are.

This thread is so depressing. No wonder I'm finally posting again.

I just can't get it up for this. SC2, hell Blizzard as a whole, has been so... ugh.

They've said several times they don't plan to even add new units to MP. I mean, seriously, what kind of things are you even expecting them to add?

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Was talking MP. SP I won't watch for the reason you mentioned plus its not worth getting excited over something that is surely going to be disappointed. Pre-release material always makes the games look as epic as they should be but they never actually are.

This thread is so depressing. No wonder I'm finally posting again.

I just can't get it up for this. SC2, hell Blizzard as a whole, has been so... ugh.

They've said several times they don't plan to even add new units to MP. I mean, seriously, what kind of things are you even expecting them to add?

[ragnarok]

Nah, Blizzard would still reveal just as much.

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Nah, Blizzard would still reveal just as much.

That I doubt. Metzen already said it'll mirror the 300 film. But that's still vague in my book.

[TheEconomist]

They've said several times they don't plan to even add new units to MP.

Is this true? I've been methodically avoiding anything related to the StarCraft fan base (other than SCL, of course) for close to a year now so I'm extremely out of the loop.

[DemolitionSquid]

Is this true? I've been methodically avoiding anything related to the StarCraft fan base (other than SCL, of course) for close to a year now so I'm extremely out of the loop.

It's been stated multiple times. They have, as far as we know, no plans at all to add new units to the multiplayer. Which is unheard of, perhaps even sacrilegious, for an expansion. They're saying what I've said for a long time: too many units waters down the strategy and purpose of each. I just wish they had realized it sooner and saved the units I suggested for just this occasion.

If they had held back the Reaper, Banshee, Roach, Corrupter, Phoenix and Sentry from WoL, we wouldn't have this awkward situation. I forsaw the Reaper, Roach, Corrupter and Sentry being broken long long ago, and everyone agreed they needed changes in HotS and thus were. Hell, the Roach is still a fucking mess. The Banshee and Phoenix are both solid units but had no need to be added in so soon due to their niches, especially the Phoenix. Why Blizzard didn't just keep the Corsair as a Dark Templar unit is beyond me, or if they had simply reconfigured the Carrier to fill the anti-muta ball role the Phoenix now does everything would be magical.

[Alex06]

Oh, they'll still have new units. Don't take Chris Sigaty's out of context words from that one interview around the HotS release as any kind of confirmation. I'm not even sure he's in charge of MP content for the next expansion. Not to mention new units can replace (Tempest and Warhound, originally) or modify old ones (Mothership Core, Hellbat) or even fill in new "niches" or roles. They could just give Terrans a support unit, like a mobile bridge, for example, or a unit that can block paths by building destructible rocks and what not. And don't think they won't risk breaking racial differences to add new units. They did it in WoW, giving Alliance races Warlocks and giving Druids to Horde races, which means they might do that for SC2, as well.

And heck, they might even...*shudder*...Announce a new race. But then, that would allow us to have a new expansion, afterwards...Perhaps. But I doubt it, unless it's a campaign-only race, like the Xel'Naga, or Hybrids, then it probably won't happen. Or will it? New race - Energy Beings. Akin to Archons, but they are a third Xel'Naga creation, and are the last piece of the puzzle for the Xel'Naga's rebirth. They are the reincarnation of the Xel'Naga. This is why the Hybrids are an abomination to the cycle and why the Xel'Naga's rebrith do not require either the Zerg and Protoss to sacrifice themselves and merge into the new Xel'Naga. Rather, much like the Hybrids, they absorb Protoss and Zerg DNA, to turn into the Xel'Naga. Perhaps those energy beings are the "reincarnated souls" of ancient Xel'Naga, lacking DNA and thus, lacking form/essence. The Energy beings sacrifice their current form by absorbing the DNA they lack from the other two races, to become the new Xel'Naga. That's why Amon also looks like an Archon, while looking like he is a Protoss with Zerg elements. He really IS a Xel'Naga. Perhaps he is that Energy being that escaped during StarCraft : Xel'Naga...Perhaps that's why that was the name of the novel...Ok, ok, I'll stop giving them more bad ideas, I promise. Oh! I know, that's also why Tassadar isn't dead. He turned into an Energy being, needing to acquire new form and essence. Yeah, all right, that was the last of it. I swear.

Anyways, did some calculations. With the following numbers, it seems like it's highly implausible they won't release any new LotV information by or at BlizzCon 2014. It takes Blizzard 15 months on average (with a very small standard deviation) after an expansion is released to showcase a new expansion.

WoW expansion, time elapsed between announcement and release : 10-16m
WoW expansion time elapsed between 2 releases : 16-24m
D3 expansion, time elapsed between announcement and release : 7m
D3 expansion, time elapsed between 2 releases : 22m
D3 expansion, time elapsed between release and announcement : 15m

Time since HotS release, May 2014 : 14m
Time since HotS release, November 2014 : 20m


May 2007 - Announce
17m
October 2008 - WoL announce
9m
July 2009 - WoL Campaign teaser
4m
October 2009 - Multiplayer update
4m
February 2010 - WoL beta
2m
April 2010 - WoL Campaign update
3m
July 2010 - WoL release

10m

May 2011 - HotS Campaign teaser
2m - July 2011 - Cinematics/voice recording (part 1) complete
November 2011 - HotS Campaign update / Multiplayer update (15m after WoL release)
8m
June 2012 - Multiplayer Update
2m
August 2012 - HotS beta
4m
December 2012 - HotS Campaign Update
4m
March 2013 - HotS release

8m

August 2013 - LotV Cinematics / Story complete / LotV Voice work started

3m

November 2013 - "Satisfied with game story, missions need more work to feel Protoss", Artanis Poster, teaser glimpse at Artanis cinematic model.

7-8m (14-15m after HotS) - here begins the speculation

May or June 2014 - LotV Campaign teaser
August 2014 - LotV minor news update, interviews, new info
November 2014 - LotV Multiplayer Update / LotV Campaign Update
Q2/Q3 2015 - LotV beta
Q4 2015/Q1 2016 - LotV release

[DemolitionSquid]

They're gonna release info about LotV at Blizzcon, that was never the question. What I was asking specifically to TF is what he could possibly see them adding to MP, after they've stated they weren't going to create new units, and especially never add new races. That is all. I would LOVE for bridge/ramp/rock creating units to be included but we all know Blizzard isn't capable of doing anything that inspired. Recall they ignored the Terralisk.

[TheEconomist]

Oh, they'll still have new units. Don't take Chris Sigaty's out of context words from that one interview around the HotS release as any kind of confirmation.

That was the only quote I remember ever hearing too, but like Alex said you can't take these too seriously because, based on one off quotes from Blizzard, StarCraft 2 could either be the most feature rich game ever conceived or could have had even less features than it does now. Them saying one or twice that it's possible they won't include new units in the MP is far from the end of the discussion.

Either way, with the spiritual successor to Alpha Centauri, Beyond Earth, possibly coming out later this year, and the current trend of my gaming to gravitate towards the more complex strategy game as opposed to StarCraft 2, means that my interest in the MP is waning along with my interest in the SP, which was brutally murdered the first time I read a decent sci fi book shortly after WoL.

Q4 2015/Q1 2016 - LotV release

For what its worth, I personally expect LotV to be released sooner than Heart of the Swarm, for some of the same reasons that I expect the second Diablo 3 expansion to be released sooner than RoS.

[Alex06]

For what its worth, I personally expect LotV to be released sooner than Heart of the Swarm, for some of the same reasons that I expect the second Diablo 3 expansion to be released sooner than RoS.

And what are those reasons?

Because we can't really take Dustin Browder's hopes and expectations for fact. He did say "We want to release this one faster" and "I hope we can get this one out much faster than Swarm" or something along those lines, but he did say in March 2011 that he was expecting Swarm to release within the next year...It took 2 more years since that statement, for Swarm to release. "Less than a year" became two full years.

[ragnarok]

And what are those reasons?

Because we can't really take Dustin Browder's hopes and expectations for fact. He did say "We want to release this one faster" and "I hope we can get this one out much faster than Swarm" or something along those lines, but he did say in March 2011 that he was expecting Swarm to release within the next year...It took 2 more years since that statement, for Swarm to release. "Less than a year" became two full years.

This is why you shouldn't trust their release dates. That being said Alex, your estimate is by around now, we should be receiving our first LotV campaign info by now...

[Alex06]

This is why you shouldn't trust their release dates. That being said Alex, your estimate is by around now, we should be receiving our first LotV campaign info by now...

Yeah, I suspect we'll hear something by the end of June. Hopefully. Otherwise, it'd be pretty disappointing, given that it took 15 months for most of their games, but more for this one.