Editor's Note: Happymint, a former World of WarCraft pro gamer, attended the WarCraft III finals in Cologne, Germany. The following are his impressions of the StarCraft II build playable there:
Hey everyone,
I initially came back to StarCraft: Legacy after about 9 years not visiting the site. I remember when StarCraft came out this was the place to be for StarCraft info, strategies, etc. and I am sure it still is. The thread I created in the forum for StarCraft II Question and Answer seems to have taken off since there is still a lot of ambiguity about the game at the moment. Many people have seen some specific aspects of StarCraft II that are intriguing, but don’t really understand the full picture. After all, Blizzard does want to hide certain aspects of it to keep the fans interested.
On June 24 of this year I was shipped off to Cologne, Germany by Blizzard to compete in their World of Warcraft regional finals. I was at the tournament (all expenses paid by Blizzard, thank you!) to compete for prize money and a shot at a trip to BlizzCon. Unfortunately my team didn’t quite make it but I did have lots of time to play StarCraft II. Blizzard had about twelve StarCraft II PCs set up down stairs for the pros and the general public to play whenever they so desired. It was generally pretty packed so I often had to rotate with friends, but the days were long and since we lost the tourney we had nothing better to do than release our frustration on others in the best RTS I’ve ever touched. I got to play the game for 3-4 hours a day (of actual play time) for about five days straight.
I also got to hang out with a lot of the StarCraft II Blizzard staff who were there and talk to them about previous builds, the current build, and future build changes. The Blizzard team is absolutely awesome to hang out with and are really down-to-earth guys. They were passionate about the game and making it the best RTS ever. I will say even at its current stage it is the best RTS I’ve ever played. Perhaps there are a few balance tweaks, but that is to be expected. The game is still in an experimental phase. They are still designing new elements to add - meanwhile removing or tweaking others. Despite my sincerest efforts I could not get a general date on when beta was supposed to come out. The reality is that it is supposed to be out this summer, but from what I could tell from them I personally expect a September beta. Keep in mind they didn’t say anything about September, that’s just my estimated guess from playing the game and my interactions with them. I believe they didn’t know the date themselves, they just knew it wasn’t yet. They’re dedicated to releasing a game that’s incredibly well polished and ready for the world - even for Beta.
The Basics:
The first thing you notice when you sit down to play a new RTS is the user interface and the smoothness and pace of play. From the Battle Reports, I was worried that the game would be slower paced than the original StarCraft - something like in between StarCraft and WarCraft III in terms of speed. The released Battle Reports seem slower-paced than the original game, but I can tell you with 100% certainty that the game is every bit as fast as the original, or faster. In fact, Speedlings are so fast it’s almost unbearable to deal with them. The Battle Reports were not played on the fastest speed according to the Blizzard staff.
As for the UI, there are a few changes all of which are immensely welcome. First of all, the player can select infinite units in the current build. If the player selects, say, 100 units and presses "A", then clicks on a base, all the units neatly march off in formation to attack. No more single file lines – ever. Moreover, each page of the selection can display 36 units. Beyond that your selection screen will create tabs along the left side in which you can actually tab through your units. When selecting multiple types of units, each type will get its own tab. Suppose five Siege Tanks and three Ravens are selected. The player can keep them all selected and micro them, while tabbing back and forth in between the pages and using abilities. You no longer have to deselect the Tanks to cast Raven abilities and vice versa. Same with Marines/Reapers/Ghosts/whatever. One selection can Stim your marines, EMP your enemy, and cloak your Ghosts – just simply tab through.
Rally points can be done by selecting as many builds as you want and right clicking. Command Centers and Nexii can rally to minerals or gas and SCVs and Probes will automatically mine. It is absolutely amazing how convenient it is. In WarCraft III you have five guys mining gold, you don’t even NEED that mechanic. In Starcraft you think you’ve about died and gone to RTS heaven. Zerg have two rallies on Hatcheries, one is a worker rally, the other is an "everything else" rally. Right clicking on the Mineral line will automatically set the worker rally to it (as will using the hot key “W”), and right clicking anywhere else will set the normal rally. Spamming Hatcheries is a thing of the past. Queens inject larva into Hatcheries using energy (which quickly regenerates and allows you to use only one Hatchery in a situation where you might have previously used three. The Larvae count you can get from one Queen and one Hatchery is huge.
Unit production is easier also, suppose for a moment I have a group of four Barracks selected and I want to make two Marauders and four Marines. Well, if two have Tech Labs, and two have Reactors, I can actually make all six at once. Nevertheless, with them all selected I just press DD MMM and they will be queued up. After pressing D the first time one of the Barracks will have a little square dot beneath it queue up - basically showing that it’s got something in queue or being made. After each subsequent D or M the other ones light up with dots showing how many of them are currently being used. Each little Barracks icon can have up to five dots below it showing the queue of that specific Barracks.
The game play is pretty much seamless. It ran incredibly smooth on the PCs there and the graphics are well, you’ve seen them. There was never a point the entire time there were I became frustrated with unit pathing. I never had an SCV get stuck or cursed at one floating around unresponsively on top of my Command Center or mineral line (my biggest peeve of StarCraft I). Units always move perfectly in formation and have multiple death animations each. I think there are three death animations per unit at the moment.
General Race Specifics + Ramblings
Terran:
Terran is the race I consistently play on StarCraft I and is the race I played almost exclusively in Cologne. I played perhaps 3-4 games as Zerg and Protoss and about 30 as Terran. So my knowledge of the specifics of the race is much higher in terms of this one in comparison to the others. One really interesting thing about Terran is that it has transformed into a do it all type of race. What I mean is that, you can now run Marines and Infantry against Protoss unlike in StarCraft I. Marauders really fill the huge hole that Terran infantry had in StarCraft against heavy armor, HP, or high damage units. Marauders are like little unsieged Tanks running around that snare whatever they hit. Moreover, Marines can have shields now which give them 10 bonus HP, which is really strong against Protoss. You can still play mech against Protoss too; Hellions are great against Zealots, though the effectiveness of the Terran Siege Tank is greatly diminished.
Tanks cost more than before, do less damage, are still highly immobile and slow, and get hard countered by new units like Immortals. I personally felt like a Bio + Mech combination was the strongest overall build you could run against Protoss. Tanks are still great to have, but there is no need to have 20 of them in a single large scale battle like what is common in StarCraft I. Ghosts are also really great to have against Protoss too since they are the new EMP machines and aren’t hard to tech to at all. There is no needed Science Facility or anything like that. You can get Ghosts about the same time you would be able to get Tanks; so needless to say, they’re a great deal stronger and easier to get. Cloaked units that fire off EMP rounds? Yes please.
Terran seems to be the race that still requires the most Micro and APM at the moment. There are more casters that are absolutely vital for Terran to be effective. Ravens are in my opinion 100% necessary against Zerg, likewise with Ghosts against Protoss. Fortunately all the extra things you have to do as Terran (Stim, Seige, Raven casts ,Ghost casts, Thor Stun) are all made much easier to perform in comparison to before. The new UI makes casting less of a nightmare.
Currently, Terrans can salvage some buildings to get 100% of the resources used back. Bunkers are like this so you can even progressively Bunker push forward and just keep salvaging the ones behind it. The opportunities that open via this option are pretty insane. Moreover, Bunkers are stronger than ever because you can put Marauders in them now which have really long range and do extremely good damage to the types of units Marines were most vulnerable to in StarCraft I. You can also upgrade the number of units you can put in a single Bunker and the armor on all Terran buildings (including Bunkers) to make them even stronger both defensively and offensively.
The Thor is like having three Goliaths in one. It costs 300 minerals and 150 gas (maybe 100 gas) and currently has an ability that does not have to be researched that does instant high damage and a five second stun to a single unit. The Thor is a bit of a Tank but it is quite slow and its overall damage output is not extremely impressive for the cost. Nevertheless, the Thor is a very impressive anti-air unit. It fires off volleys of six or maybe eight rockets at a time at air units that do eight damage each (I think). This makes them great for fending off early Mutalisk harassment. However since each rocket is low damage, armor upgrades on air are very effective against the Thor.
Zerg:
Zerg is the race that in my personal opinion needs the most love. Zerg isn’t bad to say, but it’s missing the special ingredient at the moment to bring it back to the spot where I feel it should be. The Zerg is still a gas heavy race and the current game design is two Vespene Geysers that yield four gas per trip per worker. This effectively doubles the amount of workers races must contribute to mine gas. The problem is that Zerg is the one race with the most delicate early game economy so losing four drones to get the same amount of gas as is required in StarCraft I is quite a feat, especially considering most Zerg players want to get an early expansion and multiple gases going to facilitate quick teching, Mutalisks, etc. The problem is that the loss of eight Drones that could otherwise be mining minerals puts the Zerg in a bad position which makes it difficult for Zerg to actually tech quickly without being super vulnerable to attack.
From the build that I played there was one thing that made Zerg really strong, and that was quite simply the wonder that is Banelings. In the newest build (not this build), they are slightly nerfed in damage, increased in AOE range and are still going to be extremely powerful. Banelings are what make Zerg at the moment. Without them Zerg players would have 10 times as much trouble early, mid, and I dare say late game as they currently do. They are incredibly fun to use, do ridiculous damage, and are absolutely devastating to Zealots and Terran infantry.
Roaches on the other hand are a new unit I have mixed feelings about. The greatness of them is that they are ranged (though cannot hit air) but cost no gas at all. They’re like replacement for zerglings in a way. They also regenerate very quickly as soon as they are created, and with Hive tech can get increased regen which makes them regen about 10hp/second. However I wonder how good they will be even with the increased regen late game after the opponent has units of higher tech levels.
I feel like Zerg struggles most with its Tier 2 Lair units. A Lair opens up Mutalisks, but with all the improved anti-air in the game Mutalisks have lost their effectiveness. Moreover, Hydralisks have been buffed and moved to tier 2, but they are still just Hydralisks and get eaten away by quite a few counters. If you can make your way to Hive tech, Zerg simply explodes with options and becomes a powerhouse again. Ultralisks are phenomenal at the moment. Expensive but well worth the money, they have tons more health, just as much armor, and a powerful attack. A player can run Ultralisks into just about anything and they’ll leave a huge dent or just kill everything in the way.
Overall I feel like the best change to help the Zerg would be to simply make each base only one gas again instead of multiple. The fragile economy of early game Zerg seems to get taken advantage of by the multiple gas requirement; meanwhile, it seems unnecessary for other races as I could not find a single game where I didn’t get both gases as quickly as I could afford to. Almost no build I ran could manage off of a single gas in StarCraft II. I think double gas is unnecessary.
Protoss:
My experience with Protoss is less than with other races, so I cannot speak too clearly about them with utmost confidence. Nevertheless the power of Protoss at the moment is the same as it always has been - very strong, very dangerous, durable ground units. Zealots with charge are very comparable to Speedlots. The speed is no longer necessary as most units move in formation with Stalkers, etc. So it’s actually better to have burst speed when a Zealot engages and a bit less speed overall. Stalkers with Blink are perhaps the best units in the game at kiting and microing efficiently. They are really difficult to kill when microed well and likewise are great at chasing down other units and harassing in general. These units are neat, but nothing truly special.
Most of you should know that the Reaver has been Scrapped and is not in StarCraft II. Its replacement is the Colossus, perhaps the overall most devastating unit in the Protoss arsenal. I know you all have seen the videos and to be honest I was never really that impressed with it. The thin red line that AOE burns units didn’t seem all that powerful to me. Well my friends, that is because the video doesn’t show Colossus in "critical mass". The "critical mass" of any one unit is once when you get X number of this unit, it passes a certain threshold of deadliness - like Carriers and Battlecruisers in StarCraft I for example. One Colossus, mediocre. Two Colossi,pretty good. Three Colossi, getting warmer. Four Colossi, absolute morbid destruction. If a player accumulates four Colossus or god forbid five, nearby ground units absolutely melt away. They sit behind your wall of Zealots and Stalkers and absolutely do devastating damage to enemy ground, Zerg, Terran, or Protoss. They are strong enough to take quite a few hits, they have strong escape options by being able to walk up cliffs and out of line of sight, but most importantly, they can literally one-shot nearly everything once when in critical mass. Psionic Storm? Yeah it’s still amazing, but why bother when you can press "A," click on their base, and watch the bloody mess your Colossi leave behind.
Which brings me to my next point, Psionic Storm is still a great spell and a must have for Protoss in nearly any matchup. The new casting system makes it easier to use, more precise than before, and thus more deadly. Templars are still around in full force in StarCraft II and will certainly be a core part of any high level player’s army. Dark Templar are pretty much the same as before and need no real introduction.
Finally, last but not least, we have the newest amazing addition to the Protoss arsenal, the Immortal. The Immortal cannot take more than 10 damage in any single attack. Due to this they are most vulnerable to Zerglings, stimmed Marines etc (although they’re still so good they aren’t *that* vulnerable) but amazing against Mech like Thors or Siege tanks. They’re quite expensive but well worth the cost. I don’t think I played a single game against a Protoss player who didn’t tech to Immortals quickly and use them throughout the entire game. They’re extremely durable and do excellent damage. Once where Protoss was very vulnerable to Terran Mech, this is no longer the case due to this one unit. It single handedly annihilates any Terran attempt to spam Siege against the Protoss player.
Overall, I feel like Protoss is extremely well polished, though the ability to warp units in with Warp gates is borderline too powerful and I can see, and have seen, a lot of amazing uses of this ability in games. Protoss is more so than any other race a stronger version than the race in the previous game. Where Terran has changed more towards Bio, and out of, Mech spam, in games against Protoss I almost always saw the players stick with ground units all the way through. Once I saw Carriers introduced and a Mothership just for fun, but the reality is mass capital ships appears to still be a relatively ineffective strategy overall for any race. I feel like late game StarCraft II will likely be similar to the first game. I personally am grateful for this because I am not a big fan of watching Carriers and Battlecruisers duke it out; I much prefer intricate ground battles.
The computers have 4 different difficulty settings, and you can set it to insane. This is not like StarCraft I where the “insane computer” simply got infinite money. Instead it’s just a really good computer that’s a pain to deal with. Even computers on hard setting were no joke to beat. I usually played against other people but it was quite fun to play against computers a couple of times.
This is a StarCraft: Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/) feature event article.
