Macro Mechanics Discussion Thread

[ArcherofAiur]

"When its ready."

Your missing the point. The point is that Blizzard has consistantly shown that it will do whatever is nessisary for a game. That includeds rebuilding engines, revamping economic infrastructure, indefinatly postponing and even canceling games.

[Nicol Bolas]

Your missing the point. The point is that Blizzard has consistantly shown that it will do whatever is nessisary for a game. That includeds rebuilding engines, revamping economic infrastructure, indefinatly postponing and even canceling games.

Yes, but what they consider necessary for the game and what you consider necessary are very different things.

And again, I would point out that the first two things happened early in development. Not at the end, not in the middle, at the beginning. Until you can show me evidence of Blizzard rebuilding a game when it's near-beta, when there are 20+ single-player levels that they would substantially modify and/or redesign, then talking about the changes in SC1 are irrelevant.

[ArcherofAiur]

Yes, but what they consider necessary for the game and what you consider necessary are very different things.

Yes which is why my statement wasnt that blizzard will do this but rather that if this is a problem this is the lengths they have gone too in the past to fix it. Your observation that dev is not early is noted. However blizzard does not push games through just because theve been in development a while. SCGhost, Warcraft Adventures show just how seriously Blizzard takes getting it right.

[Nicol Bolas]

SCGhost, Warcraft Adventures show just how seriously Blizzard takes getting it right.

Or that they just don't know how to make 3rd person games. Or how to tell other people how to make 3rd person games.

[ArcherofAiur]

Or that they just don't know how to make 3rd person games. Or how to tell other people how to make 3rd person games.

Thats taking it seriously. Your basically agreeing with what im saying.

[Nicol Bolas]

Thats taking it seriously. Your basically agreeing with what im saying.

No, I'm agreeing that they recognized that they had no idea how to make 3rd person games. They tried it in house, failed, and dumped it. They tried it out of house, failed, and dumped it.

However, this is a far cry from essentially rebuilding SC2's base design at this point in time. They are clearly committed to making SC2, and to make it on the path that they're currently on.

[Aldrius]

WarCraft Adventures and SC Ghost are simple misadventures in what development hell can do.

They became far more trouble than they were worth. (Which is a shame because both games could have been REALLY outstanding.)

[ArcherofAiur]

Question: If you were too make a new mechanic/ability that allowed the Terran and Protoss to gather minerals at unoccupied expansioins what would it be like?

Ignore balance for a moment. What is the coolest (possibly overpowered) way you could get minerals that you dont "own" yet?

[Nicol Bolas]

Moving them. Build some unit that absorbs minerals onto its "back", and it can later drop these minerals off at some other location (they can't add to a mineral patch; they simply create new ones.

The unit can be attacked much more easily than an expansion, but being a unit it can flee. It can also be used in your own base to help break apart mineral patches, so that you can effectively mine faster (at the cost of running out of minerals sooner).

But why should it be limited to Terrans and Protoss?

[ArcherofAiur]

Ferrying minerals to and from the base doesnt sound particularly fun. Its also prone to automation. Id rather have a quick ability that allows me to grab some minerals all the way across the map.

It doesnt have to be limited to Protoss or Terran. Just has to be cool and fun.