There have been quite a few blue posts over on the StarCraft II boards over the past couple days, so I wanted to put together a recap of everything posted, included a few updates from Dustin "Cavez" Browder, the game's Lead Designer. As always, you can find all StarCraft II blue posts on the World of Raids Blue Tracker.
Quote from: Cavez (Source)
I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ.
Question: "Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta?" or "WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done!"
Answer: Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year.
Question: "Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates."
Answer: Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them.
Question: When can we have the next Battle Report?
Answer: We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up.
Question: "I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates...."
Answer: Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know.
Hang in there. We're in the final stretch.
Multiple Game Type Search Functionality (Source)
We have talked about allowing multiple searches at once. We are currently saying "no" because you will always end up in the smallest template. For example, if you search 3v3 and 4v4 you will almost always end up in a 3v3 game since those will fill quicker. In that scenario the 4v4 template might very well die because people who want to play 4v4 are also searching in 3v3 and never get into a 4v4 game.
Though again, Beta will be a good testing ground for any issues that will occur here.
We have not done a lot of testing in FFA. You make good points. I will discuss them with the BNet team.
Cliff Climber Vision (Source)
Colossus can have a vision of the upper ground just like the air units, while Reaper can't as a ground unit.
Colossi and Reapers can't climb up a cliff of 2 level at one time.
Waypointing Abilities (Source)
You can waypoint casting ability. For example, High Templar will move to the first location, cast the Psi Storm and will return to the last designated location. You can waypoint Zerg's Burrow ability as well.
The most recent waypoints will be displayed that you can see, and you can waypoint with Patrol command too.
Will it be possible to queue buildings to be built by workers? (Source)
Yup - this is possible in StarCraft II.
Battle Report #2 (Source)
I don't believe the Battle Report was ever scheduled to be out at the same time as Q&A 49, but it is still in the works. We really do want to find the perfect battle to show off the new features.
Resource Costs for Spawning Larva (Source)
Spawning larva also costs energy (currently 25) and time.
Ghost Psi Rounds Clarification (Source)
You can't target mechanical units with Ghost's Psi Round, like Battlecruiser, Mothership and Nullifier.
How does Rally work for Zerg? (Source)
You can do both. You can set a rally for your hatchery, but can then override it with manual orders per egg as well. Also don't forget, you can set a worker rally point for your hatchery, as well as a unit rally point.
Shield Recharge Mechanic (Source)
Currently it's set to be a number of shield points recovered per second. Thus Archons do take longer to regain all their shields when compared to other units. Units the shield recharge is used for the most currently include:
- Probes (recharge really helps them as scouts)
- Stalkers
- Flyers
Obviously all units benefit to some degree, but these guys do the most hit-and-run style attacks. When we get into Beta we'll learn more about how this mechanic really works.
