Battle Report #4 is OUT!!!

[supersonic]

Indeed. Units just pop out underneath the dropship without any animation or anything, they just randomly spawn below. It would be nice to at least have some sort of quick animation where you see the units fall down or something like that. I mean it's ok for Protoss since they do get teleported but not for Terrans or Zerg.

I thought it looked a little odd too but I was glad they were thinking of gameplay first.

Dustin Browder ALWAYS states the obvious: he's like the John Madden of Starcraft 2 commentary

IMHO all the BR commentaries are PAINFULLY obvious and over explaining on what is happening and what might happen. Not only do they explain everything, they do it with way too many words and it takes them way to long to get across what they are trying to explain to you.

I find the commentaries very hard and even painful to listen to, especially when the other guy (not Dustin) was talking so mono tone and lifeless that it made me almost lose the will to live.

[Pandonetho]

Yeah, the Protoss one is really easy to connect because there's a blue beam of light that goes from the Prism to the ground.

[emikochan]

I find the commentaries very hard and even painful to listen to, especially when the other guy (not Dustin) was talking so mono tone and lifeless that it made me almost lose the will to live.

Well a tonne of people were complaining when they were excited, just can't win =p

Storm and nukes = win, they really feel powerful, though lee really shouldn't have just a-moved all his templars into the enemy, at least archon them...

I sense someone thinking they had it in the bag and getting cocky.

It's a shame all those zealots died on that PF, they'd have been vital if he was a little more reserved imo.

Fantastic BR anyway, [arbritrary beta request]

[Aldrius]

IMHO all the BR commentaries are PAINFULLY obvious and over explaining on what is happening and what might happen.

Not everyone is an expert on StarCraft. The main point to these battle reports is to introduce new people to the idea of e-sports, I feel.

Is it a good idea? Probably not. A simple demo showing off new units is probably enough for a casual fan, and these games aren't really great examples of what exciting e-sports can be.

[FrozenArbiter]

I fix'd it for you, no need to thank me.



I think it's a great idea, and I personally can't wait to see Terran more looking like a "Moving Fortress" type race, as in bringing SCVs out with mech and building turrets and what not when needed, kind of like sc1 but with auto-cast repair.

Although looking at BR4 I am a little worried that the game looks a little too fast and that careful micro and planning for heating battles, other than spells, will be faded out a lot by the mid-late game. Someone else think it's just me? Because I would love to be reassured that it is.

Here's a post you might find interesting:

On October 19 2009 20:06 Polyphasic wrote:
Man, TvP really isn't the same without mines.

I really wish they would keep mines in the game somehow. That way, battles would require more strategy in setup, and more strategy in attacking a terran position. Unit combos are interesting, but still seems that in SC2, most larger battles are just attack click. That's really not so fun.

Like my previous threat, SC2 needs more mobile static defense. Mobile static defense defined as:
- A unit that does more damage when not moving than when moving
- A unit that takes time to switch from its moving form to its static form.
- The unit must do splash damage. Splash damage allows for strategic positioning to allow for more damage.
- SC1 examples: mines, siege tanks, lurkers.

Mobile Static Defense allows for strategic positioning in both defensive and offensive situations. It also requires strategic ways for opponents to break the formation. That adds another layer of strategy to the game. SC2 so far has very few Mobile Static Defense, making most battles just an attack-A fest, ending very quickly.

Anyway, while I agree with this assesment based purely on this battle report, I don't want to jump to conclusions - I mean, people didn't even use mech TvP for the first couple of years of SC1...

[unentschieden]

I think Polyphasic is halfright. But it´s not Mines that make Terrans so positional but Tanks.

What keept the Terran mobile in BR4 were the Thors, they often could smash the Protoss without having to Siege the Tanks. That failed once Psistorms came up but the big mistake was losing all units to the Planetary Fortress and then failing to stop the nukes.

[Crota]

The battle reports are doing their job and reaching out to many people who have never heard of esports before. Dustin stated he wants to get the beta out to players so the community can start to do commentaries of their own. Until we get high level replays and the deveopment of a meta game, the commentaries will just be painfully obvious.

In terms of game speed, the speed did seem faster then a StarCraft:Broodwar game but upon a second glance, there was a lot of pressure with smaller tactial plays. The Warp Prism with 3 zealots and the Reapers are a good example of when down time would normally occur during a Broodwar game.

[sandwich_bird]

Anyway, while I agree with this assesment based purely on this battle report, I don't want to jump to conclusions - I mean, people didn't even use mech TvP for the first couple of years of SC1...

While this is all true, Terran was pretty much the race stuck with those static defenses. Protoss and Zerg were much more mobile and didn't only rely on this as much. In fact, Protoss don't even have a unit like this (reaver is as close as it gets but since you can use a shuttle...) and Zerg only had the lurker. While this is ok to diversify the races I believe that a Terran player should also be able to fight decently with A move in noob games because even though some races can be a little harder to play with, I don't believe that the difficulty gap should be as big as it was in Starcraft 1 for noob players.

In any cases, there's actually more moving static defenses in SC2. Here's the list:

-Lurker
-Siege tank
-Spine crawler (overlord spawning creep + moving sunken colony?
-Bunker (with salvation)
-Photon cannon (or are they call phase cannon now? well they can move right? plus you can also use that other air unit to creat a psi field to build them)
-Banelings to some extent
-The raven auto turrets (if he still have the ability)

Compared to SC1:

-Lurker
-Siege tank
-Vulture + mines

[unentschieden]

Photon Cannons no longer move but I´d count "Proxypylons" and Warpprisms due to Warp-in.

[ArcherofAiur]

While this is all true, Terran was pretty much the race stuck with those static defenses. Protoss and Zerg were much more mobile and didn't only rely on this as much. In fact, Protoss don't even have a unit like this (reaver is as close as it gets but since you can use a shuttle...) and Zerg only had the lurker. While this is ok to diversify the races I believe that a Terran player should also be able to fight decently with A move in noob games because even though some races can be a little harder to play with, I don't believe that the difficulty gap should be as big as it was in Starcraft 1 for noob players.

In any cases, there's actually more moving static defenses in SC2. Here's the list:

-Lurker
-Siege tank
-Spine crawler (overlord spawning creep + moving sunken colony?
-Bunker (with salvation)
-Photon cannon (or are they call phase cannon now? well they can move right? plus you can also use that other air unit to creat a psi field to build them)
-Banelings to some extent
-The raven auto turrets (if he still have the ability)

Compared to SC1:

-Lurker
-Siege tank
-Vulture + mines

Its not a question of how many static defences there are. Its a question of how powerful they are.