No online replays by launch! - Pardo Interview

[GRUNT]

Essential? Think u might be exaggerating a bit? I agree its a bit silly its not available, but if you want to watch a replay with friends just upload it to youtube or something, like everyone does with good (or really bad) replays anyway.

To be fair, uploading a replay onto youtube is a lot more hassle than just watching it over battlenet, like what you'd do in Brood War.

Also, keep in mind that being able to watch replays online with buddies is especially useful when you want to go over a game right after one was played.

I didn't check out that interview, but I must say that I'm quite surprised that being able to watch replays online isn't built into the functionality of Bnet 2.0. Considering that we can already do it in BW, I would have thought that it would be a simple matter to include it in Bnet 2.0, without much work needing to be spent to implement it.

Like the casual audience's stance towards automining, it's something which one would just 'expect' in games these days. While I can live without the online replay-viewing functionality, I really don't understand why Blizzard decided not to include it in SC2 at launch. =/

[FrozenArbiter]

I dislike you, your site, and its members. Its like you think only people who compete for money should play the game. Trying to re-add features that were caused from limited UI just so you can have pointless APM sinks. Screw the casuals, right? Everyone should want to click mindlessly and pretend to have skill.

You elitist posers make me sick.

But that's beside the point. Being able to view replays with other people in-game is not a game-breaking feature. And, as per Blizzard, they'll try to patch it in asap anyway.



You're right, its not, and I never said it was. What I said, was that it was possible, and that in many cases good (or bad) games will be uploaded to the net anyway for thousands of people to view and learn from, which is pretty damn good.



I'm not defending them. Again, I agree it sucks they won't have it. But its a MINOR feature they will be working on. Cry wolf more.

Sigh. I have done nothing to you, I think your attitude is ridiculous. I have nothing against MBS (I realized I was wrong), I have nothing against smartcast (never have, well almost never). Most people on TL have moved past the issue of MBS, especially once they announced new macro mechanics.

Yes, the attitude on TL can suck, but so does yours.

I don't know what you mean by "crying wolf" - to me this is a huge omission, why shouldn't I complain? Watching replays online is one of my favorite parts of SC.

Whatever, have a good day I guess.

EDIT: As GRUNT said - most people expect MBS and Automining in new games, this is something everyone had ASSUMED was going to be in. You see people complain about MBS and think "what the fuck?", I see the lack of online replays and think the same.

[Pandonetho]

Hmm, I think partially the reason for excluding online replays may have to do with the rewind ability. It might not be possible with other people in the replay. I don't know anything about it though, so don't quote me on it I'm just speculating.

Then again, I agree, the lack of online replays is quite disappointing. It's always fun to show friends when you've done something amazing or happen to win a 2v1 or something.

Hopefully they manage to put it in soon after launch then.

Also, DemoSquid, calm down man. He's here posting this on SCL, I'm sure he feels it's an important aspect overall to everyone.

[FrozenArbiter]

Pandonetho, I agree - that might be why. But if so, why not just remove rewind if you have more than 1 player in the game o_O?

[Pandonetho]

I really have no clue. I am totally clueless when it comes to decisions like this.

Maybe it's possible they didn't want to "water down" the replay viewing experience when having multiple viewers?

Could be just like their reason for removing LAN, they have a much better substitute planned for b.net. But in the case of replays this is quite different, so then again, I don't know.

[DemolitionSquid]

Also, DemoSquid, calm down man. He's here posting this on SCL, I'm sure he feels it's an important aspect overall to everyone.

It is an important aspect. But when Blizzard has said they don't think it is/don't have time/will try to patch it in later... well the discussion is m00t.

I'll admit I was too harsh to FA, and I appologize. My hatred for TL and everything it stands for runs as deep as a Nydus Worm.

[Gradius]

Perhaps they're not including online replays because it's too hard to program? Things like rewinding, etc. have to be synced via. all the observers in the game.

[Nicol Bolas]

I really don't understand why Blizzard decided not to include it in SC2 at launch.

They already said why they're not including it at launch. You can basically assume that any feature that is stated as being "post-launch" means "we cut it so that we could get the rest of the game out sooner."

I think partially the reason for excluding online replays may have to do with the rewind ability.

Except they're not excluding them. They're saying that they're perfectly doable; it would simply push the release schedule back.

[Pandonetho]

Er yeah, maybe I should reiterate. It would take a longer time to do them with the new included stuff (rewind) than it would normally take to include just regular replay viewing.

So they decided to include it later in a patch or w/e to get the game out faster.

[Edfishy]

"Rewind" works under a 'chapter' system as far as I recall, where there are a set of segmented sections of the replay file that you can zoom back to. So for example you can't do 0.5X speed in rewind, but rather can choose a certain portion of the game to jump to. I might be wrong about how they're going about it in SC2 (just remembering off-hand from interviews), but it makes sense due to the complexity of rewinding an RTS.

Now, considering SC2 will use a "chapter" system, and because a replay is just a sequence of events, when the host rewinds you'd simply send a message to all players to clear the playing field and reset according to the data and unit positions of the specified chapter. Once all players send a message back saying they're ready, the host sends a message back to tell them to resume.

Should be as simple as that.