Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3

Source: http://sc2tv.ru/starcraft-2/sc2-articles/1114-my-igrali-v-starcraft-2-otchet-s-igromira-den-1..html

The following is an article provided by imba.Adolf [RA] at www.sc2tv.ru.   He's spent large amounts of time testing and playing StarCraft II at IgroMir 2009.   While the google translation leaves one desiring better information, a member stepped forward and provided the article in english.  Thank you Pure.Wasted for the translation, the English community as a whole and StarCraft: Legacy appreciates your help providing this for us.

For Day 1, he provides in depth information relating to his testing and impressions on each race's strengths, weaknesses and thoughts on how they interact against computer opponents.

Index

Impressions

• Introduction
• Terrans
• Protoss
• Zerg
• Conclusion

Of course the ending of that sentence isn't coming, that's a tease. Conclusions we'll draw at the end, but for now -- concrete details, facts, and first-hand information!

Conditions under which the game was tested weren't exactly ideal (except, perhaps, that Blizzard reps were very friendly). Firstly, the computers were set to disgusting sensitivity. As most SCers play under low sensitivity (myself included), playing was very difficult, but in the end I persevered. The keyboard was also unsual -- but, again, I managed. No, the real problem was that there was no multiplayer, so we could play only against comps... in addition to the fact that the games were artificially limited to very annoying lengths, either 15 or 20 minutes. Taking my time with things proved difficult.

And this was unfortunate. We know all about all of the units, we've seen them, and now we wanted to try different BOs, test out the game speed, the macro, the micro -- all that is near and dear to our hearts from StarCraft. Well, good news -- the game speed is nicely tuned and not overwhelmingly fast, basically normal. When I got accustomed to the sensitivity, playing became a lot more intuitive -- selecting, ordering, clicking. Near the end of the two hour game-a-thon minerals moved almost faster than they could come in and troops moved fluidly (with a few exceptions, noted later).

From here, the conclusion that will elicit cheers from some and tears from others -- tricks and skills learned in the original will be a TREMENDOUS help. Former B/B+, in SC2, will most likely beat former D+/C-. Multitasking is in place, the ability to play fast is a must, micro is needed, [заказ никуда не делся, хоть и стал легче], perfecting a BO is important, and timing, memory, attention, the ability to improvize -- all will come in handy. You get used to the game surprisingly fast, your hands start to do whatever needs doing, and your head is already working on churning out available strategies, calculating resources, out-thinking your opponent, etc. As an example I'll recount one game, played today. Scouting over to the Toss with an SCV, I saw the Core, the Twilight [Citadel], ran around for a long while, saw a Dark Obelisk, gathered that DTs were coming went. Simultaneously, I arranged a drop at his expansion and started upgrading my own CC into an Orbital Command. My suspicions were confirmed -- the Toss couldn't put any pressure on me and died quickly when he attempted to stop my Marauder+Thor+Viking+Hellion assault.

Yep, SCVs have rally-mine. Yep, rally-mine is hugely convenient, and saves a ton of time. But Blizz came up with an artificial replacement -- Larvae Injection, MULEs, and Dark Pylon. If you don't want to lag behind in economy, you have to use them all the time (approximately once per 40 seconds). With the added amount of locales [TN: battlefields, expansions, etc?], it follows that you have to click more, and so a lot more time is spent clicking. When you've got three expansions as a Toss, you're already starting to kindly remember the good ol' days when all you had to do was order Probes around, instead of tediously clicking on Dark Pylons. But you can't not click -- your opponent is clicking away! But what are you going to do? It's too impactful on the economy to ignore.

Another key moment -- setting up Refineries. This another added area to manage that distracts with building, ordering of SCVs, re-counting them after a harss, sending them back to gas. Balancing gas gathering isn't so straight-forward anymore -- sometimes you get a build up of excess, but more often than not, it's MADLY lacking. Now you begin to understand why there's two -- everything costs heaps of gas, but retrieving it is a slow process.

As for general impressions of game balance -- each race has terribly interesting characteristics. Of course you can't find everything in two hours, let alone that the Comp, on Hard difficulty, is mostly a push-over and runs out of steam fairly quick. This wasn't a game against live opponents that awaited us in the upcoming days. And even so, there's already a lot to tell.

Terrans:

The race of contrasts. On the one hand, incredibly similar to the original game; on the other -- with profound, marked differences. I'll try to explain again, in better detail. On some maps (chosen for play randomly) you can wall-in with a Barracks and two Supplies. Soundly -- no Ling will get through. But the Comp's gotten smarter and doesn't get stuck in these areas. Walling-in seems to be something of an acquired skill, even if it appears to be easier in general. How one is supposed to wall-in wider entrances, which do crop up, remains a mystery; maybe you'd need a whole row of Supplies. By the way, breaking old habits is tough, like submerging a Depot instead of lifting a Barracks out of familiarity. But man is it convenient! Now, no matter how badly designed the layout of your base, you can solve all your problems by hiding Depots underground.

Well, you're walled-in, what are you going to do? Say, the classical tech route against Toss? It's not likely that the old strategies still hold up, and it's not for nothing the Battle Reports keep showing new ones. Yes, Hellions now replace Vultures in the early game, burning to a crisp Lings and Zealots; but it's an awkward and uncomfortable unit. It's not that it's difficult to control, it's that he just sits in place, somehow, while attacking -- either gets stuck [TN:?] or stops awkwardly. Even with the +10 attack upgrade they get against light units, this is a poor man's Vulture. You're forced to use them in drops, of course, but it's not the same... and as they don't have access to mines, they lose a lot of mid-game usefulness. Working miracles does not come standard for these guys -- if, even, at all possible.

Siege Tanks are, naturally, all pretty and nice... but confused. Mass tanks against Toss is useless; both the tried-and-true Zealot and the new Immortal handle this tech fine. So you don't see any Immortals... because you don't see any Tanks. Closed circuit. Besides, Terrans now have plenty more interesting and versatile ways of breaking down defenses than Tanks. Tanks are expensive, require a Techlab and upgrade -- why not send in a thundering and ever-so-slightly more expensive Thor instead? The interface shows a Siege Tank's attack radius. It's convenient, but it also makes you feel a bit like an idiot. Couldn't we leave the pros to their own trained eye, sizing things up? But let's not grumble. The upgrade to Siege Mode is now trained through hotkey E instead of S? Why? In general, most buildings and upgrades were left on their original bindings, except the Probe, now on E, and the Ovie, which is unfortunately STILL on O. Oh well, moving on.

For a long time now, ever since SC2's original vids on the Terrans, I've been terribly fond of the Viking. Today was my chance to give them a whirl. I tried an improv build vs. Zerg -- [перекрытие], Factory, Hellion for harass, 2 Starports and mass Vikings. When I had about 8, I flew over the Zerg, killed his Ovies, sat down, killed his Drones. This was absolutely delightful! After this came a pre-planned turn to mass infantry and mass Medivacs from Starports (by the way, neither Medivacs nor Vikings need a Techlab, and a Reactor allows two to build at the same time). One problem -- the Zerg, having decided to fight toe-to-toe, came knocking at my main. The thing is, Inject Larvae allows the Zerg to raise a huge army very quickly, and the Hydra massacres anything with wings (including my Vikings). Old strategies and timings did not avail me.

I'm not really sure that mech builds will be generally effective against Zerg, primarily because of the threat of early attacks of UNGODLY masses of hydras. Lings will at least burn to Hellions, but the Hydra is a more swift and deadly beast. But, I digress. I remembered that I was playing a brand new game and had nothing to feel bad about. The build simply needed perfecting. When I played Toss, I lead with Hellion drops, one Starport with Reactor, a few Vikings, Marauders and Thors for support -- a two-legged robot army =). This was more like it, but again, against a Comp. it's hard to tell what the results would really be like.

In practice I couldn't try my hand at Reapers -- I'll try to spend some time on them tomorrow, if I get a chance to play (word is, there's a lot more people coming). But I did get some impressions of the Ghost -- that's to say, the Bombs. Of the Nuclear variety. Easy to see why David Kim was throwing them around left and right -- it's easy as pie. Moreover, this is basically replaces Tanks, nullifying ANY defenses. All you have to do is order one in from the Ghost Academy -- they're priced reasonably. Teching to them isn't hard, and neither is hiding a Cloaked Ghost behind the mass of your main army. And if we take into account the Ghost's EMP, which comes equipped free of charge, even Storms don't seem quite so menacing. It's only the Snipe ability that raises doubts. Hard to imagine in what situations it might be found useful. And on that note, one of SC2's great improvements is that many of the most powerful abilities come without the need of upgrades -- the Thor's artillery, the Ghost's EMP, the Raven's Turret, and so on.

I didn't bother building Banshees or BCs, and mass infantry didn't get too much use. But I did spend some time with the Raven, the Sci Vessel's replacement. I didn't get to rockets -- ran out of time -- but the turret... this is really a very cheap and useful cast. For only 50 energy you get a pretty powerful and speedy turret. Yes, it disappears with time, but that takes a long while -- at least two minutes, if not longer. A whole bunch of Ravens is basically a self-sufficient force that can not only roast Drones and all manner of Zerg with rockets, but destroy the base with turrets, too. They're mobile and powerful, and this versatility makes them just as useful in TvT and TvP match-ups.

The Thors are the bread-and-butter of your ground forces. Finally, the Terrans can feel safe and sound on the ground =). By the way, the Thor is transported by a Medivac... but with a cool twist. The Thor is hooked up underneath, visibly, and flies along with the transport. Very reasonable and practical! Their artillery is very useful for taking down buildings. They do turn rather quickly, but in-game, this isn't annoying -- in fact, it's pretty nice. All in all, the Terran forces move around pretty well, react quickly, and put the 'Attack' command to great use -- which is welcome! Hellions are the unfortunate exception, and I hope someone will come up with something as far as they're concerned.

Protoss:

Probably the StarCraft 2 race most welcoming to newbies. Not a lot seems to have changed, and playing them might even be a little easier than before -- but this might be a false impression. The best early unit is the Stalker. It's fast (chases down Medivacs), mobile, and has good defense and offense. You can chse Marines and Zerglings around this way and that, racking up kills all the while. The Stalker attacks while harassing and retreating and the micro is smooth; he reacts well to commands and almost never gets stuck. And Blink opens up a whole world of new possibilities -- you can stupidly chase down any enemy, focus-firing specific units, and Blink out of harm's way the moment the ugly beast rears its head. There's no mana to burn, just a cooldown. There's difficulties too, of course. For instance, I was chasing down some enemy Reapers, jumped down from a cliff into his base, and there a whole mass of Marauders lay in wait. And there's no going back -- high-ground. You're gonna get tired of following around with an Observer very quickly, which means it's very convenient to use Stalkers with Colossi -- these giants have absolutely no problem overcoming geographical obstacles. And, thanks to their friends, your Stalkers can now make good their escape.

Generally, the Stalker+Colossus combination is very straight-forward and comfortable to use. Mass Zealots in the early game are good only against Marines or Zerglings, and die to both Hellions and speedy Hydras. Stalkers, in the early-game, destroy basically everything, and in later-game serve as excellent defenses against Mutas, Reapers, Hellion drops, and so on. When they get Blink, adequately countering them becomes pretty much impossible. They can always use Blink to get a high ground positioning advantage. And if you bring along for the ride a Disruptor (former Nullifier), which is dirt cheap and comes with Force-Field, you can beat back ANY early attacks, creating a wall-in secured by high-grounded Stalkers.

Where the Stalkers start to falter is frontal assaults against an enemy; there just isn't enough damage output. This role is taken up by the Colossi, replacing Reavers. Except now you don't have to purchase any Shuttles, as they are fairly mobile, being not terribly slow OR terribly expensive. In effect, the age-old Dragoon+Reaver combination seems to have gotten a second wind, and is pretty much the standard. And if your coffers are overflowing with minerals after the second expand, warping in a few extra Gates for Zealots and researching Charge can be the icing on the cake. They do a decent job at tanking in front of Colossi and Stalkers. By the by, don't make the mistake of sending your Colossi in alone -- they get torn up quickly, and do their best work behind a front line that can take some hits.

I didn't get a chance to try out the Protoss air and remain hopeful for tomorrow. Teching into DTs isn't very convenient (you have to build the out-of-the-way Dark Obelisk) or effective. Terrans get the Orbital Command anyway (who doesn't need MULEs?). Usually after a Cybernetics Core, you get a Robotics (faster Colossi) or Twilight (faster Blink or Charge, not very reasonable, IMHO [unclear if just Charge or both]). But if you happen to have the Twilight, not getting Templar Archives is a sin. High Templar aren't just here for pretty Storms anymore, now they can cast Fade on themselves or any other units. Faded units can't attack or take hits, but they can run. Saving Colossi this way is a must!

As for the Dark Pylon, well, it's a very useful building that you need to get as soon as possible. And it's more than a little imba, since it can improve Probes' gathering speed, works as a Shield Battery AND restores mana! A High Templar in the mineral lines can take out a Mega-Drop's worth of units. Most mana-related upgrades now typically increase not the max amount of mana, but his starting amount. Which, you agree, is a lot more useful. Finish the upgrade and your High Templars plop out ready to unleash hell at a moment's notice, and Ravens with a hull-full of rockets to unload on someone's head.

Archons will most likely see most of their use against Zerglings and Ultralisks. Given the loss of Mutastack, alternatives seem limited. [TN:?] There is, however, one difficulty in upgrading Gateways. Obviously it's very cool that your units appear IMMEDIATELY after you ask for them, WHERE you ask for them -- and then all you have to do is wait out the cooldown... but you don't get a rally for these Gates! You have to cast it in Pylon range every time, and this can become inconvenient. I think it makes more sense to upgrade only some Gateways for reinforcements in the heat of battle (if you grabbed a Warp Prism along), or for diversions. In any case, this is a tough question that calls for some thinking... I've yet to find the solution that works for me, as it's pretty hard to say good-bye to those conveniences that you've already gotten accustomed to.

Zerg:

Feels like not much has really changed for the Zerg since SC1. Maybe it's because the fundamentals of Zerg hotkeys, mobility, and Hatcheries, are largely the same as before. 5sh6sh7sh -- and presto! Masses of Hydras spew forth to whomever's doom. Of course, then it turns out that the order didn't quite go through as planned -- but more on that later. But there are changes. Very significant ones. Of course, you all remember the wonderful article Inject Larvae. Yes, it really is true -- this thing is a BEAST. Keep in mind, the original game worked on the principle that an early second Hatchery will yield more Larvae. Well, now the dynamic is completely different -- an early Pool means an early Queen, and THAT means more Larvae.

Put down the Pool before the Hatch and the moment it's finished IMMEDIATELY get to work on the Queen. She builds from the Hatch without taking up a Larva. With the press of a button -- in this case, W -- you select the Hatchery and watch as no less than FOUR extra Larvae pop out. The cost is a measely 25 mana. If you have a second Hatchery, take your Queen for a walk and rinse, repeat. Back and forth the whole game through. From two Hatcheries I easily beat a Hard Terran Comp. with nothing but Lings. If you prefer, you might mass Hydras instead. Or whatever strikes your fancy -- don't worry, you've got Larvae to spare! I wouldn't dare call this imba before facing down some human opponents, but safe to say that any Zerg fan is gonna get a kick out of this.

And, now, well... don't yawn, just don't forget to macro and micro. Lings dance around very nicely, if a little differently. With the Speed upgrade, they run like crazy, and gobble Marines for breakfast. Marauders, too. Hellions are a different matter. Another cool unit is the Baneling, but I had trouble getting any actual effectiveness out of them. The Queen can heal up attacking Sunkens and packs a punch herself. Along with hopping Zerglings, she can beat back a Zealot rush (especially if you remember that she just did two Injections, which means you've got 8 new Zerglings about to join the fray). It even seems like regular Larvae come back faster this time around.

What the Roaches are all about I can't tell you. They've been thrown into the Lair, and their ridiculous regeneration's been pushed up all the way to the Hive. What role they're intended to fulfill is uncertain, and in micro they're no different from Hydras. Hydras look gorgeous, absolutely destroy air, are useless without their Speed, and have ugly attack animations. It used to be a lot better. I can't say anything for sounds -- the comps didn't have them. Lurkers are in Hive now, and I didn't bother with them either. But I was very pleased with Infestors. For a pretty low mana cost you get 4 Infested Marines shooting guns. Being a fan of zombie films and all, I nearly drooled. If we consider that the Infestor can move around underground, then all it takes is one hidden in your opponent's base to successfully harass his economy for a long, long time. Let alone that this is a MAGNIFICENT counter to Thors and Colossi. Take control of either behemoth and fire away at the enemy's own forces. The best part is you don't need to research ANY of this stuff! Sure, you can upgrade the underground movement speed and something else, but the good stuff is all standard.

Air, as usual, I didn't check out, but with Ultralisks I just couldn't resist. These guys are unbelievable! Huge, 600 HP, upgrade for splash damage, awesome, Burrow-able, seemingly invincible... they destroy anything and everything in their path, like a bulldozer or hurricane. Any battle with them becomes 100 times more entertaining. I promise -- you're gonna love them!

Now, rally-points for Zerg Drones are set-up independently. That's gonna take some re-learning, and all day today I sat and fumed, thinking this was a bug. "Right-click rally for Drones doesn't work!" Turns out it's working as intended. Now you can order in Drones and reinforcements simultaneously, boosting your economy... just like the other races.

The Nydus Worm works without a hitch. Create the worm, place the exit, throw in whatever you like -- just like a drop. Then exit them wherever needed. You can build a network around the entire map, anywhere you like. Taking a Zerg expo is now an accomplishment to be proud of. [Или нюка. Решайте, что вам ближе =)] You won't ever have to worry about Overlords dropping armies from the air. Why bother? Just press your ear to the ground and listen for the sound of teeth grinding through the rock underfoot.

Conclusions:

Some more critical comments I left off for the end. First of all, you're going to have to re-train yourself. Used to going through your Hatcheries 5sh6sh7sh? Tough luck. Every Hydra now needs to be called for individually, and this is going to look like "5shhh6shhh7shhh." On the one hand this is versatile (you can order 10 Hydras, one Ovie and one Drone), but on the other hand, not very convenient. In retrospect, you ought to put all your Hatches on a single hotkey.

Protoss and Terrans, don't look quite so happy -- you're getting the same treatment. You're gonna be jamming the same button as quickly as possible. Select 10 Gates and 10 times press Z. There may be a way to select from all simultaneously, ie. Shift+Z, but I haven't found it. From upgraded Gateways you won't get any sort of rally at all, because those units don't undertake epic journeys in order to reach their destinations. They just warp-to!

A lot of the micro seems to have been lost in translation. This is a serious problem, albeit possibly an intentional one. The only units I felt had micro to them were Zerglings and all Stalker-tech equivalents (Hydra, Stalker, Roach, Marauder). And micro-ing around individual Zerglings when you can just select 60-some at the same time... well, it's a nice touch, but something feels a bit out of place. Units come together in stacks more nicely and don't bump into each other quite so much. Only the Zealots get in each others' way. [?] Say good-bye to your favorite micro from Vultures, Reavers, Mutas, M&M -- there's no way around the loss. But maybe there will be plenty of exciting new micro from the new units -- a lot remains, after all, undiscovered.

It's quite difficult to see the minimap with peripheral vision... it seems less easy to read. When an expo has Sunkens, Roaches, Hydras, Lings, and Drones, telling anything apart via the minimap becomes tricky to say the least. But this is just lack of familiarity speaking. There's a few other hitches -- getting a Hellion drop ready, the first Medivac seems to come out when only 3 (out of a possible 4) can be prepared. The first game was usually a lot more certain with these kind of numbers... but this could just be the result of an unperfected BO.

I want to keep grumbling about this and that, but I won't, because it feels like on the whole there's obviously more good here than bad. And essentially, the picture you got of SC2 from the Battle Reports is completely accurate. No more, no less. The game looks amazing, the dynamics are great, the units and their mechanics are interesting, and to speak of balance now would be premature. Remember the first StarCraft's Beta? Who could have thought that from that horrible mess would emerge such a successful game? StarCraft 2 is still an infant and needs time to grow. It still lacks a lot of those finishing touches and beautiful details, but it'll take years to get to know so intimately. And anyway, those final touches come only with the involvement of our hands and minds. Hopefully, soon they will have a job to do.

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