Ah, Braid.
I hate Braid.
Well, that's not fair. I used to like it, you know. I actually got all the puzzle pieces for level 1 and 2. It was at the world called "Hesitance" [the world with the ring] that I gave up on the game.
Oh, I finished it (that is to say, passed it but didn't get all the puzzle pieces) and I almost finished the last world, but what really pissed me off about said level/world was the time mechanic.
Placing the ring slowed down time in a fixed radius around the ring. The rest of the level went at normal speed, but whatever was close to the ring was slowed down.
That's fine. nothing wrong with that. It's actually pretty clever, because you can think of all sorts of interesting puzzles to go around it. And they probably thought they were.
I would seriously like to know who playtested Braid. I wouldn't be surprised if they got a few guys (presumably friends) in to do it for them instead of an actual team, because (being an indie game) they didn't exactly have that much money. Except that's a lie, because Jonathan Blow sank $200,000 dollars into Braid, most of which included hiring the artist and, according to Wikipedia, "living expenses".
Several of the levels in this world (hell, in the entire game) are complicated at best. The game does everything it can to keep clues on how you're supposed to finish the level as far away from you as possible.
Yeah, I know that's the point of a puzzle game and you don't need to point it out, but Braid seems to take it a step further.
My favourite level in the whole game is the Boss level in the last world. Not the last-last world, the shadow mechanic world.
Get this - two shandeliers. Both shaneliers have a shadow each. This equals (essentially) 4 shandeliers. Boss has 5 health.
That last fact just blew my mind. How the hell was I supposed to chip away the last health bar? What's worse is the bastard keeps moving all the time - he never stops, not even for a second, to give you a chance at hitting him. That's fine, you think, I'll predict his path. No you can't, I say, because the boss in intelligent and will walk away from whatever shanelier you happen to be waiting under, and all the while he's lobbing fireballs at you.
What I think your supposed to do is get it so the shandelier hits the boss, then rewind time so it hits the boss again, but this time it hits him a microsecond before his health comes back, so essentially you get three hits in one, but I'm not even sure about that.
All the walkthroughs I've read about it word the information in strange ways, so you have to decipher what they're saying.
The Braid website even gave you a page called "walkthrough" or "cheats", where it explained how to complete the first level (which is about as easy as explaining to someone how to click something with a mouse) and then went on to say how you should figure it out for yourself and you'll feel totally smart because you did and if you use a walkthrough you won't. (I'm paraphrasing here.)
A valid point Mr. Blow, but that goes out the window when I've spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to do a level.
And there's one which you have to execute perfectly, and I'm talking right down to the last PIXEL, if you want to get the puzzle piece.
But, with a heavy sigh, I have to say that Braid is worth whatever the XBLA (XBox Live Arcade) or Steam is selling it to you for, because its oh so unique. And it does feel cool when you do master a certain level, no matter which one it is.
So yeah, I guess Braid is worth it. But don't be all that surprised if you never see the "brillaint" end of the game. I know I probably won't.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Intermission: 'Sydney Shark'
Newgrounds disappointed me with Coil the other day, a game that's main feature is not telling you how to play the bloody thing or giving any hints as to your motivation for wanting to play, which is pretty high up on the list of stupid game design decisions.
But Sydney Shark is a pretty damn good game. For one, unlike Coil, it's, you know, an actual game. And it tells you how to play it.
Sydney Shark is based on Miami Shark, a game made by the same guys. Both games had you play a shark (literally), cruising down one of the beaches or an extremely long dock in Miami causing all sorts of mayhem.
At first, the game was too fast paced for me. The shark screamed through the water very quickly, so it was hard to do any of the mayhem the game wanted me too.
But the antithesis of the game for me was when I discovered the best way to get points.
If you dive to the very bottom of the screen, you can rocket up out of the water. This is useful for taking out some of the larger boats, but it's main porpose is to (and I hope your ready for this) let you grab onto the wheel of a Boeing 747 and, through sheer strength and willpower along (plus the rapid tapping of the down arrow key) pull it into the water.
yeah you heard me. And that's just one of the 10 aircraft you can do this with. You can bring ruin to great vehicles such as the Concorde, the Space Shuttle, and an Apache just to name a few.
And Sydney Shark expands on that. You get a new selection of planes to destroy, including an Airbus A380, a Zeppelin, a 'Crocodile Jet' and a UFO. Plus, you can eat the heads of horses that pass by occasionally in big boxes (presumably to annoy the local mafia) and best of all, you can latch onto a Soviet nuke and blow the place to smithereens, where it cuts to an astronaut watching that part of Australia be obscured by a nuclear mushroom cloud.
It's high octane, pure liquid fun from start to finish.
You can find the game here.
But Sydney Shark is a pretty damn good game. For one, unlike Coil, it's, you know, an actual game. And it tells you how to play it.
Sydney Shark is based on Miami Shark, a game made by the same guys. Both games had you play a shark (literally), cruising down one of the beaches or an extremely long dock in Miami causing all sorts of mayhem.
At first, the game was too fast paced for me. The shark screamed through the water very quickly, so it was hard to do any of the mayhem the game wanted me too.
But the antithesis of the game for me was when I discovered the best way to get points.
If you dive to the very bottom of the screen, you can rocket up out of the water. This is useful for taking out some of the larger boats, but it's main porpose is to (and I hope your ready for this) let you grab onto the wheel of a Boeing 747 and, through sheer strength and willpower along (plus the rapid tapping of the down arrow key) pull it into the water.
yeah you heard me. And that's just one of the 10 aircraft you can do this with. You can bring ruin to great vehicles such as the Concorde, the Space Shuttle, and an Apache just to name a few.
And Sydney Shark expands on that. You get a new selection of planes to destroy, including an Airbus A380, a Zeppelin, a 'Crocodile Jet' and a UFO. Plus, you can eat the heads of horses that pass by occasionally in big boxes (presumably to annoy the local mafia) and best of all, you can latch onto a Soviet nuke and blow the place to smithereens, where it cuts to an astronaut watching that part of Australia be obscured by a nuclear mushroom cloud.
It's high octane, pure liquid fun from start to finish.
You can find the game here.
Starcraft II Beta, part 8
I made a shocking discovery today - Protoss players actually have two other strategies!
Protoss Strategy #1: Void Rays
Protoss Strategy #2: Stalkers
Protoss Strategy #3: Both of the above
It's a little sad that no other strategy exists for Protoss players other than the ones listed above. Blizzard might as well have not bothered making any other Protoss unit apart from the ones I mentioned and saved themselves some time.
No, seriously. Protoss players are that predictable. If your fighting against a Protoss player, air superiority is vital. Also, it helps to have a strong anti-ground force for the guys that use Strategy #3.
If your Terran, build a lot of Vikings and Banshees. Zerg, build a lot of Corruptors and upgrade some of those Corruptors into Brood Lords. Protoss? Void Rays. Carriers if your feeling lucky. And Phoenix's aren't a bad idea either.
I don't really know where to go from this point. I've played a lot of multiplayer, and there doesn't seem to be much else until Blizzard roll out the AI patch so I can critique the difficulties in order of "Babies first RTS" to "How did he rush me with Battlecruisers in the first two minutes?", which should be a fun little exercise.
Actually, there are two things I can still do. First, give an overall review of each race, primarily talking about what's changed (for better and worse). And I can get into the Galaxy Editor, so I'll see if I can make something. I've been thinking of this enormous mod already, making a few delicate changes to the game (such as taking out the entire $#%&ing Protoss race).
Oh yeah, the obscenity filter doesn't filter "god", but (I may have mentioned this before, but it still bewilders me) it filters "damn". That just doesn't make any sense - it's possibly one of the tamest "swear words" in the English language without making one up, unless you wanted to go full on silly and say things like "Blast! The little blighters have infested my base!" or, god forbid "Oh fiddlesticks! Well, good game and all that, old chum."
Protoss Strategy #1: Void Rays
Protoss Strategy #2: Stalkers
Protoss Strategy #3: Both of the above
It's a little sad that no other strategy exists for Protoss players other than the ones listed above. Blizzard might as well have not bothered making any other Protoss unit apart from the ones I mentioned and saved themselves some time.
No, seriously. Protoss players are that predictable. If your fighting against a Protoss player, air superiority is vital. Also, it helps to have a strong anti-ground force for the guys that use Strategy #3.
If your Terran, build a lot of Vikings and Banshees. Zerg, build a lot of Corruptors and upgrade some of those Corruptors into Brood Lords. Protoss? Void Rays. Carriers if your feeling lucky. And Phoenix's aren't a bad idea either.
I don't really know where to go from this point. I've played a lot of multiplayer, and there doesn't seem to be much else until Blizzard roll out the AI patch so I can critique the difficulties in order of "Babies first RTS" to "How did he rush me with Battlecruisers in the first two minutes?", which should be a fun little exercise.
Actually, there are two things I can still do. First, give an overall review of each race, primarily talking about what's changed (for better and worse). And I can get into the Galaxy Editor, so I'll see if I can make something. I've been thinking of this enormous mod already, making a few delicate changes to the game (such as taking out the entire $#%&ing Protoss race).
Oh yeah, the obscenity filter doesn't filter "god", but (I may have mentioned this before, but it still bewilders me) it filters "damn". That just doesn't make any sense - it's possibly one of the tamest "swear words" in the English language without making one up, unless you wanted to go full on silly and say things like "Blast! The little blighters have infested my base!" or, god forbid "Oh fiddlesticks! Well, good game and all that, old chum."
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Intermission: 'Coil'; level by level
Game here: Coil
Coil is advertised as "an experimental flash game with no instruction or clear direction", and players are told to "Please keep an open mind while playing".
It's an interesting sort of game. It has no sense of direction whatsoever and no instructions, which is a little annoying, but it's reasonably simple.
Level one starts you off as a sperm and you have to move the mouse left and right to make it swim. Your looking for an egg.
Second level is difficult, but essentially you need to make it so all the coloured blobs are in seperate clusters and then let them drift together.
In between each level, you get a small piece of the story, which is fascinating to read by itself.
I hope you brought a book though, because the load times are biblical. I've been writing this whole thing ever since completing level two and I've spent 5 minutes doing it.
There's nothing to say how you get past the story screen, or anything telling you to proceed.
Clicking rapidly doesn't work, although- wait, lemme try that.
The third level just loaded. Outstanding.
So, the thrid level your controling this thing. I presume it has an embryo inside it.
Again, no instruction. You move left to right by rapidly circling the little embryo with the mouse, making him sort of spin.
There are these little bastards that make your life hell by pushing you up. There are a small group of them every 'level' (your aim here is to reach the bottom) and they are hard to break out of.
Still, enventually you'll pass.
Level four has you using a thin tentacle thing to draw food into the very small thing your trying to keep alive, however the players motivations for doing so are unexplained.
You don't even need to play that level, just wait for a minute or so for it to do the work for you, becuase the food will sometimes spawn directly over where you need to bring it via tentacle.
Level five is wierd. No instruction means you have no bloody idea what your supposed to do. I figured out that I could make the various parts of the body or organs or whatever we're dealing with here do stuff by using the mouse, but that's all I could be certain of. Never fear though, because after a prolounged period of time it just moved on as if I had finished the level. I'm not sure what I did. Seriously.
Level six. Apparently I'm flying.
Flying up I suppose. The no instructions thing is starting to piss me off - there's not even a hint as to what we're doing. Level one and two were sort of explanitory, but the rest of them.
I finished level six by bumping into one of the other flying bulbs and letting it spray tiny arrows from itself so eventually it made them both change slightly.
I figured out that rapidly clicking the mouse does indeed make the damn thing move on when your stuck on the story screen. Not that they tell you that.
Level seven is similar to six, but at night. You make him float up by holding him steady with the mouse, a task which isn't exactly easy.
Especially since you don't know what your supposed to be doing or how.
Then that's it. It's all over. With another two story screens, the game ends and it catapults you to the starting screen.
What did I just play? No, seriously, what the hell did I just play? What was the point of it? If you just going to say "screw it" half-way through making the game and not give the player a proper ending, which he or she deserves because you made him or her sit through your stupid, badly designed game. I wouldn't be so harsh if you made the slightest attempt to give the player something, anything, but you didn't.
In summary, Coil is confusing and unsatisfying. The story doesn't make up for it, and niether does the art.
Worst of all, it ends too early. It's missing at least three levels, at most five or six.
Although, I'm forced to say you should play it just because it's so unique. As I may have said before, I've never seen a game like it, and probably never will again.
It's worth checking out, but only once.
Coil is advertised as "an experimental flash game with no instruction or clear direction", and players are told to "Please keep an open mind while playing".
It's an interesting sort of game. It has no sense of direction whatsoever and no instructions, which is a little annoying, but it's reasonably simple.
Level one starts you off as a sperm and you have to move the mouse left and right to make it swim. Your looking for an egg.
Second level is difficult, but essentially you need to make it so all the coloured blobs are in seperate clusters and then let them drift together.
In between each level, you get a small piece of the story, which is fascinating to read by itself.
I hope you brought a book though, because the load times are biblical. I've been writing this whole thing ever since completing level two and I've spent 5 minutes doing it.
There's nothing to say how you get past the story screen, or anything telling you to proceed.
Clicking rapidly doesn't work, although- wait, lemme try that.
The third level just loaded. Outstanding.
So, the thrid level your controling this thing. I presume it has an embryo inside it.
Again, no instruction. You move left to right by rapidly circling the little embryo with the mouse, making him sort of spin.
There are these little bastards that make your life hell by pushing you up. There are a small group of them every 'level' (your aim here is to reach the bottom) and they are hard to break out of.
Still, enventually you'll pass.
Level four has you using a thin tentacle thing to draw food into the very small thing your trying to keep alive, however the players motivations for doing so are unexplained.
You don't even need to play that level, just wait for a minute or so for it to do the work for you, becuase the food will sometimes spawn directly over where you need to bring it via tentacle.
Level five is wierd. No instruction means you have no bloody idea what your supposed to do. I figured out that I could make the various parts of the body or organs or whatever we're dealing with here do stuff by using the mouse, but that's all I could be certain of. Never fear though, because after a prolounged period of time it just moved on as if I had finished the level. I'm not sure what I did. Seriously.
Level six. Apparently I'm flying.
Flying up I suppose. The no instructions thing is starting to piss me off - there's not even a hint as to what we're doing. Level one and two were sort of explanitory, but the rest of them.
I finished level six by bumping into one of the other flying bulbs and letting it spray tiny arrows from itself so eventually it made them both change slightly.
I figured out that rapidly clicking the mouse does indeed make the damn thing move on when your stuck on the story screen. Not that they tell you that.
Level seven is similar to six, but at night. You make him float up by holding him steady with the mouse, a task which isn't exactly easy.
Especially since you don't know what your supposed to be doing or how.
Then that's it. It's all over. With another two story screens, the game ends and it catapults you to the starting screen.
What did I just play? No, seriously, what the hell did I just play? What was the point of it? If you just going to say "screw it" half-way through making the game and not give the player a proper ending, which he or she deserves because you made him or her sit through your stupid, badly designed game. I wouldn't be so harsh if you made the slightest attempt to give the player something, anything, but you didn't.
In summary, Coil is confusing and unsatisfying. The story doesn't make up for it, and niether does the art.
Worst of all, it ends too early. It's missing at least three levels, at most five or six.
Although, I'm forced to say you should play it just because it's so unique. As I may have said before, I've never seen a game like it, and probably never will again.
It's worth checking out, but only once.
Intermission: Death Knight class changes
Blizzard - what are you doing to the Blood tree?
For those who don't know, the Blood talent tree is the DPS [damage per second] tree for Death Knights in WoW. Essentially, it gives the Death Knight increased damage output with it's various talents.
At the moment. Come Cataclysm, that may all change.
I can sort of see Blizzard's thinking, but turning it into a full on Tanking tree?
Let me take a step back. There are three trees - Unholy (improving the DK's various diseases and magical attacks), Frost (improving the DK's various Frost spells and tanking ability) and Blood (improving the DK's damage output and giving him the ability to heal himself).
It's only logical to make Blood the new tanking tree, what with the ability to heal him or herself.
My only problem is what's going to happen with my DPS tree?
I don't do tanking. It's just not my style. And Unholy makes little sense to me - I'm supposed to be War, or Death. Not Famine or Pestilence.
I don't wanna dual-wield either, not unless I get to dual-wield two-handed swords like Fury spec'd Warriors do.
I can't say goodbye to self healing. But I can't say goodbye to my precious damage increases.
Damn you, Blizzard! Why?! Why do you make me choose?!
For those who don't know, the Blood talent tree is the DPS [damage per second] tree for Death Knights in WoW. Essentially, it gives the Death Knight increased damage output with it's various talents.
At the moment. Come Cataclysm, that may all change.
I can sort of see Blizzard's thinking, but turning it into a full on Tanking tree?
Let me take a step back. There are three trees - Unholy (improving the DK's various diseases and magical attacks), Frost (improving the DK's various Frost spells and tanking ability) and Blood (improving the DK's damage output and giving him the ability to heal himself).
It's only logical to make Blood the new tanking tree, what with the ability to heal him or herself.
My only problem is what's going to happen with my DPS tree?
I don't do tanking. It's just not my style. And Unholy makes little sense to me - I'm supposed to be War, or Death. Not Famine or Pestilence.
I don't wanna dual-wield either, not unless I get to dual-wield two-handed swords like Fury spec'd Warriors do.
I can't say goodbye to self healing. But I can't say goodbye to my precious damage increases.
Damn you, Blizzard! Why?! Why do you make me choose?!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Starcraft II Beta, part 7
Sportsmanship.
I'll say it again; Sportsmanship.
Most of the players on Battle.net are now running to their parents and asking "mummy, what's that word mean?".
Recently, most of the people I go up against on Starcraft II don't have the decency to say something as utterly simple as "gg" before it's all over.
"gg" stands for "good game". Even if it wasn't, it's generally a decent thing to say before either crushing the other guy or being crushed yourself.
Of course, being Battle.net, most of the players online (certainly the ones I've faced) are at least teenagers. They're also under a alias, meaning there is no retaliation apart from verbal, and that's only before the match is over. Thus, most of them don't know what the first word of this post is.
It's funny how the defeated say "gg". Does it imply that they accept defeat? I think so. It's the case with me - the other guy was simply better.
It's also funny how the winners almost never. It's not as if they need to take their eyes off the battlefield for a second - they aren't going to lose. They already have a million Void Rays launched at your base; there's no way they can lose.
So why don't they say it? Maybe it's the sense of inflated self-worth. Perhaps their enemies they've just defeated are peseants in their eyes, and do not deserve the satisfaction of knowing that they will 'stoop to their level' and waste their time on something as trivial as that.
Perhaps they think that it wasn't a good game because (for example) there was little challange, and will not choose to comment. For people who do think this way, spare a thought for the poor bastard your Void Ray-ing to death.
But then there are the sore winners. These guys mock and, sometimes, insult you before they destroy you. They suck.
But usually there are sore losers. The same guys who don't say "gg" are the same here. They leave before you've even destroyed them, and I'm not talking about after you rip apart their economy or their biggest assault force.
A while ago, I played against some guy in 1v1. He was Protoss. I was Zerg.
He had Zealots. Quite a few, actually, and he had Photon Cannons to defend his base. He had the goddamn match.
I sent about 8 Zerglings his way. After shredding them up on his Zealot's Psi blades and Photon Cannons, I sent another 6. And another. While I was doing this, I was upgrading to a Lair and building Hydralisks. The Zerglings were to keep him on the defensive, and they were.
And it wasn't like they posed any sort of threat. He was just cutting them to ribbons and chewing them up afterwards.
I'm not sure what was going through his head that match, but after about the third wave of 6 Zerglings he left the match, giving me an un-earned and un-deserved win.
That's it. He just left. No "&%#$ this", no "I see where this is going", just rage-quit. And for no good reason, too.
But even worse than the above bastards are the sore losers who happen to be on your team in a 2v2.
Why, just a moment ago I was playing with someone who teched (that is, put all his resources into getting the best units) all the way to the top.
I, meanwhile, sent a force of Zerglings to the other player's base. Taken unaware, the other player was soon crippled by my attack. 16 Zerglings later, he was gone.
"nice", my ally said.
My rushes almost never work, so it wasn't just "nice" to me. But still, I took down an enemy all on my own, without any help from Mr. tech.
So, he got a few Overlords and sent them over to the other enemies base, where a Nydas Canal popped up in front of the player's workers and Ultralisks poured out.
And by poured I mean poured.
Unfortunately, I was too budy building Spires when my ally decided to attack. We were fighting two Protoss players, and we all know the Protoss's only strategy.
His Ultralisks were shredded by a thousand Void Rays. I had only built a few air units when he started yelling at me to build them. So I did, but there wern't nearly enough.
So, having had his ground forced ahnialated by predictable Protoss air units, he then started blaming me and only me (because god knows it wasn't even slightly his fault) for our inevitable failiure.
There are a few things wrong with his argument.
1. I had took out the other player single handedly, a fact he seemed to forget. And even if he didn't, it didn't matter now.
2. He used ground units that can't attack air against a race that I can gaurantee, with absolute certainty, to be a strong air race late in game.
3. He didn't warn me to be ready when he attacked, so it was impossible to be ready for such a retaliation.
4. He didn't have any air units of his own to protect himself from such a retaliation, despite having collected much more resources than me.
I even pointed out to him that if he had teched air, we would have easily won. Void Rays aren't, by any stretch of the word invincible, and against a swarm of collectors that are focusing their fire, they would have been shredded. And Brood Lords would have tore apart the enemies other base.
But no. It was my fault for "not being ready" and "not having any AA units", something that was very hard for me to do becuase of the aformentioned reasons.
Yeah, I probably should have made some air units. In fact, that would have helped quite a lot. But, I shift some of the blame onto my ally for why we lost.
Getting away from all that, there has been another thing that's really bugging me about multiplayer; the obsenity filter.
I don't know who did it, but they went way too far. Things that are completely reasonable words when used in certain contexts are bleeped out.
Things like "suck(s)", "damn", "prick(s)" and "bastard(s)" are all turned into a rnadom combonation of "$#@%&*^". So your words come out like "Aww man, that #$@%s" or "#@$%, those guys are tough" or "The $#@%s! I hate it when they rush" or even "#$@% [damn]!. Those &%*^&@#$ [bastards] really hit us hard."
But you the funny thing is? "Christ" isn't an obsenity. Nope. I would never dream of using that word out of religeous context or saying said name in vain. Pretty sure "God" isn't either.
So it's pretty obvious to me - the obsenity filter for Starcraft II was made by a bunch of christians.
I'll say it again; Sportsmanship.
Most of the players on Battle.net are now running to their parents and asking "mummy, what's that word mean?".
Recently, most of the people I go up against on Starcraft II don't have the decency to say something as utterly simple as "gg" before it's all over.
"gg" stands for "good game". Even if it wasn't, it's generally a decent thing to say before either crushing the other guy or being crushed yourself.
Of course, being Battle.net, most of the players online (certainly the ones I've faced) are at least teenagers. They're also under a alias, meaning there is no retaliation apart from verbal, and that's only before the match is over. Thus, most of them don't know what the first word of this post is.
It's funny how the defeated say "gg". Does it imply that they accept defeat? I think so. It's the case with me - the other guy was simply better.
It's also funny how the winners almost never. It's not as if they need to take their eyes off the battlefield for a second - they aren't going to lose. They already have a million Void Rays launched at your base; there's no way they can lose.
So why don't they say it? Maybe it's the sense of inflated self-worth. Perhaps their enemies they've just defeated are peseants in their eyes, and do not deserve the satisfaction of knowing that they will 'stoop to their level' and waste their time on something as trivial as that.
Perhaps they think that it wasn't a good game because (for example) there was little challange, and will not choose to comment. For people who do think this way, spare a thought for the poor bastard your Void Ray-ing to death.
But then there are the sore winners. These guys mock and, sometimes, insult you before they destroy you. They suck.
But usually there are sore losers. The same guys who don't say "gg" are the same here. They leave before you've even destroyed them, and I'm not talking about after you rip apart their economy or their biggest assault force.
A while ago, I played against some guy in 1v1. He was Protoss. I was Zerg.
He had Zealots. Quite a few, actually, and he had Photon Cannons to defend his base. He had the goddamn match.
I sent about 8 Zerglings his way. After shredding them up on his Zealot's Psi blades and Photon Cannons, I sent another 6. And another. While I was doing this, I was upgrading to a Lair and building Hydralisks. The Zerglings were to keep him on the defensive, and they were.
And it wasn't like they posed any sort of threat. He was just cutting them to ribbons and chewing them up afterwards.
I'm not sure what was going through his head that match, but after about the third wave of 6 Zerglings he left the match, giving me an un-earned and un-deserved win.
That's it. He just left. No "&%#$ this", no "I see where this is going", just rage-quit. And for no good reason, too.
But even worse than the above bastards are the sore losers who happen to be on your team in a 2v2.
Why, just a moment ago I was playing with someone who teched (that is, put all his resources into getting the best units) all the way to the top.
I, meanwhile, sent a force of Zerglings to the other player's base. Taken unaware, the other player was soon crippled by my attack. 16 Zerglings later, he was gone.
"nice", my ally said.
My rushes almost never work, so it wasn't just "nice" to me. But still, I took down an enemy all on my own, without any help from Mr. tech.
So, he got a few Overlords and sent them over to the other enemies base, where a Nydas Canal popped up in front of the player's workers and Ultralisks poured out.
And by poured I mean poured.
Unfortunately, I was too budy building Spires when my ally decided to attack. We were fighting two Protoss players, and we all know the Protoss's only strategy.
His Ultralisks were shredded by a thousand Void Rays. I had only built a few air units when he started yelling at me to build them. So I did, but there wern't nearly enough.
So, having had his ground forced ahnialated by predictable Protoss air units, he then started blaming me and only me (because god knows it wasn't even slightly his fault) for our inevitable failiure.
There are a few things wrong with his argument.
1. I had took out the other player single handedly, a fact he seemed to forget. And even if he didn't, it didn't matter now.
2. He used ground units that can't attack air against a race that I can gaurantee, with absolute certainty, to be a strong air race late in game.
3. He didn't warn me to be ready when he attacked, so it was impossible to be ready for such a retaliation.
4. He didn't have any air units of his own to protect himself from such a retaliation, despite having collected much more resources than me.
I even pointed out to him that if he had teched air, we would have easily won. Void Rays aren't, by any stretch of the word invincible, and against a swarm of collectors that are focusing their fire, they would have been shredded. And Brood Lords would have tore apart the enemies other base.
But no. It was my fault for "not being ready" and "not having any AA units", something that was very hard for me to do becuase of the aformentioned reasons.
Yeah, I probably should have made some air units. In fact, that would have helped quite a lot. But, I shift some of the blame onto my ally for why we lost.
Getting away from all that, there has been another thing that's really bugging me about multiplayer; the obsenity filter.
I don't know who did it, but they went way too far. Things that are completely reasonable words when used in certain contexts are bleeped out.
Things like "suck(s)", "damn", "prick(s)" and "bastard(s)" are all turned into a rnadom combonation of "$#@%&*^". So your words come out like "Aww man, that #$@%s" or "#@$%, those guys are tough" or "The $#@%s! I hate it when they rush" or even "#$@% [damn]!. Those &%*^&@#$ [bastards] really hit us hard."
But you the funny thing is? "Christ" isn't an obsenity. Nope. I would never dream of using that word out of religeous context or saying said name in vain. Pretty sure "God" isn't either.
So it's pretty obvious to me - the obsenity filter for Starcraft II was made by a bunch of christians.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Starcraft Beta, part 6
First off, full apologies to Blizzard about the Hydralisk thing - they will use their claws in melee range.
I've been playing a lot more of Multiplayer (because you can't really do much else) recently, and I'm proud to say I've gotten better at it.
There are some things I've picked up along the way, too;
1. The Protoss
I hate the Protoss. If they don't run up and build a little mini-base right outside or, even worse, inside your own, they amass Void Rays.
I'm not sure who you got to do the Protoss, Blizzard, but they only have one strategy.
I'm serious. The only strategy I've seen Protoss players use is "Stalkers and Void Rays", and sometimes it's just "Void Rays".
Zealot Rush? Bah. While effective, most Protoss players don't much care for it. Carrier Swarm? Nope. I can't recall a single match where I saw a Carrier. Colossi? Get out of here. They're big, slow and don't actually do all that much. Plus, they can be targeted by air units last time I checked, meaning they can die very fast.
That leaves Void Rays, which are very nasty. Their damage output is phenomenal, and when grouped they can make your entire base into their little quivering b#@%&.
Fortunately, they are quite fragile, and 8 Marines, un-upgraded, can take one on quite happily without serious losses. Unfortunately, most players don't realise this.
Since most Protoss players go for air you had better do so as well. The most evil combination of races I've faced in a Multiplayer match is Zerg (ground, early rush) and Protoss (air, mid-late annihilation). So your praying at least one of them is incompetent, otherwise you'll prepare for one and get slaughtered by the other.
2. Terran Ghosts
One of my biggest complaints with the Terrans is the Ghost. Not the actual unit, no - that's fine. I'm talking about the voice actor.
In StarCraft, the Ghost's voice was growly without being incomprehensible. It was a cool voice, the kind you tried to imitate while following a group of strangers.
*ahem* Uh, but the Ghost's voice in Starcraft II is clearly someone who's voice is not growly trying to pull off a growly voice, and it sounds terrible.
And it's not like you have to start again from scratch - the Ghost is wearing a helmet (for want of a better word) so there's no fine tuning for the speaking animation needed in the unit portrait.
Actually, the model is also a little weird. Why are his visor and scope colours controlled by the team colours? They shouldn't be - they should have always been green.
3. Zerg
I've gotten used to the Zerg sounds now, Blizzard. I still don't love them, but they don't irritate me as much.
However, one thing that really gets on my nerves about the Zerg is the Brood Lord.
Now, I love the Brood Lord to bits. It's my favourite unit in the entire game. But there are several things wrong with them.
A) they are just out of reach from the wrath of every defence structure - missile turrets, photon cannons and spore whatevers, meaning that the only way you could take them out is with air units, since they can't attack air. Forget ground units; they'll rip them to shreds.
B) they are a tad slow the same way that Santa is a tad imaginary. Any attempt at giving them a fighter escort will end up in you micromanaging them all the way to the enemy base because, and this is guaranteed, the escort will be faster.
C) they take a lot to make. You need a Hive before you can even think about making one, then you need a Greater Spire, and then you need cash to evolve the bloody things from Devourers. I understand that it's kind of the point to make the player work for the super unit, but I'm damn sure a Terran player can get Thors/Battlecruisers faster and a Protoss player can get a Mothership faster, or at least a Carrier.
4. Terran Strategy
Terran is my favourite race to play. The Zerg require someone with a fast, rushing sort of brain and the Protoss take too long and are too expensive for me to properly get my head around.
The 'Marine Swarm' is my favourite tactic. I can't thank you enough for Reactors, Blizzard, because without them I would be useless.
Reactors let you build two Marines at once. Enough Barracks with Reactors and you have a lot of Marines.
Some players don't realise the true potential behind these brave little soldiers. Even un-upgraded, they can still hold off even the toughest of enemies.
I remember one match where a player decided to throw about 10 Battlecruisers at me. He wasn't expecting the intense resistance of my 60 Marines, all firing on one ship at a time. All Battlecruisers down, and at least 20 Marines left. And they weren't fully upgraded either. Nor did they use Stim Packs (drugs are for losers).
I would recommend backing up your Marines with Thors though, especially if you plan on attacking the enemies base. Without Thors, the Marines have a chance of being outgunned by the likes of a group of Ultralisks (which are rare in multiplayer) or a lot of air units. Thors also do more damage verses buildings.
5. Zerg Strategies
First, the Zergling Rush. While it's still a viable strategy, I think Blizzard have nerfed it just a bit.
The Spawning Pool requires 200 minerals, whereas in the original StarCraft, it only needs 150. And the collection rate of those minerals has dropped so you won't be building them as fast.
Still, it's a vicious and "rage quit"-inducing strategy, but it's only truly effective against a slow player.
I don't quite know how the Zerg player does it, but I keep getting shunted with the 'Not enough minerals' message when trying to build my Supply Depot to shut up the 'Not enough supply' message. And when I've built, if I'm lucky, 1 Marine, the bastard already has 6 Zerglings en route to my base.
I would not recommend such a strategy against Protoss. A Zealot can take on 2 Zerglings, and Photon Cannons make quick work of them.
The second strategy I use as often as possible for the Zerg is the Brood Lord rush. Getting them as quickly as possible means my opponent is in for a world of hurt. Slow and unprotected yes, but utterly devastating.
6. ProtossStrategies Strategy
Void Rays. As quickly and as many as possible.
7. Units you will almost never see in Multiplayer
Ultralisks - they need a Hive to build and Brood Lords are better. Cost quite a bit, too.
Mutalisks - Strangely enough, these guys are pretty rare. (At least, I almost never see them.)
Banelings - Slow and easily slaughtered wholesale. If they could actually get to the enemy in time they would be devastating.
Changelings - Never seen one of these either. Only useful against AI or extremely thick Multiplayer opponents.
Carriers - Who needs 'em when you got Void Rays?
High Templars - I've never seen one. Ever.
Archons - These guys are extremely rare, too.
Raven - A rare sight.
Ghost - I've only ever had one used against me.
Medivac Dropship - As shocking as this may be, I've only ever seen it used twice.
Finally,
8. The Terran Predator.
Originally, Blizzard was going to use a unit called a Predator to replace the Valkyrie from Brood War as an air-to-air fighter, presumably similar to the Protoss Phoenix. However, it was taken out during an early release in favour of the Terran Viking, an air unit that could go from air-to-air fighter and ground-to-ground assault unit.
So, it had an adequate replacement. So who cared?
Well, I care. The Predator looks way too cool to leave out. At least make it a hero unit, there's no need to throw it away.
I've been playing a lot more of Multiplayer (because you can't really do much else) recently, and I'm proud to say I've gotten better at it.
There are some things I've picked up along the way, too;
1. The Protoss
I hate the Protoss. If they don't run up and build a little mini-base right outside or, even worse, inside your own, they amass Void Rays.
I'm not sure who you got to do the Protoss, Blizzard, but they only have one strategy.
I'm serious. The only strategy I've seen Protoss players use is "Stalkers and Void Rays", and sometimes it's just "Void Rays".
Zealot Rush? Bah. While effective, most Protoss players don't much care for it. Carrier Swarm? Nope. I can't recall a single match where I saw a Carrier. Colossi? Get out of here. They're big, slow and don't actually do all that much. Plus, they can be targeted by air units last time I checked, meaning they can die very fast.
That leaves Void Rays, which are very nasty. Their damage output is phenomenal, and when grouped they can make your entire base into their little quivering b#@%&.
Fortunately, they are quite fragile, and 8 Marines, un-upgraded, can take one on quite happily without serious losses. Unfortunately, most players don't realise this.
Since most Protoss players go for air you had better do so as well. The most evil combination of races I've faced in a Multiplayer match is Zerg (ground, early rush) and Protoss (air, mid-late annihilation). So your praying at least one of them is incompetent, otherwise you'll prepare for one and get slaughtered by the other.
2. Terran Ghosts
One of my biggest complaints with the Terrans is the Ghost. Not the actual unit, no - that's fine. I'm talking about the voice actor.
In StarCraft, the Ghost's voice was growly without being incomprehensible. It was a cool voice, the kind you tried to imitate while following a group of strangers.
*ahem* Uh, but the Ghost's voice in Starcraft II is clearly someone who's voice is not growly trying to pull off a growly voice, and it sounds terrible.
And it's not like you have to start again from scratch - the Ghost is wearing a helmet (for want of a better word) so there's no fine tuning for the speaking animation needed in the unit portrait.
Actually, the model is also a little weird. Why are his visor and scope colours controlled by the team colours? They shouldn't be - they should have always been green.
3. Zerg
I've gotten used to the Zerg sounds now, Blizzard. I still don't love them, but they don't irritate me as much.
However, one thing that really gets on my nerves about the Zerg is the Brood Lord.
Now, I love the Brood Lord to bits. It's my favourite unit in the entire game. But there are several things wrong with them.
A) they are just out of reach from the wrath of every defence structure - missile turrets, photon cannons and spore whatevers, meaning that the only way you could take them out is with air units, since they can't attack air. Forget ground units; they'll rip them to shreds.
B) they are a tad slow the same way that Santa is a tad imaginary. Any attempt at giving them a fighter escort will end up in you micromanaging them all the way to the enemy base because, and this is guaranteed, the escort will be faster.
C) they take a lot to make. You need a Hive before you can even think about making one, then you need a Greater Spire, and then you need cash to evolve the bloody things from Devourers. I understand that it's kind of the point to make the player work for the super unit, but I'm damn sure a Terran player can get Thors/Battlecruisers faster and a Protoss player can get a Mothership faster, or at least a Carrier.
4. Terran Strategy
Terran is my favourite race to play. The Zerg require someone with a fast, rushing sort of brain and the Protoss take too long and are too expensive for me to properly get my head around.
The 'Marine Swarm' is my favourite tactic. I can't thank you enough for Reactors, Blizzard, because without them I would be useless.
Reactors let you build two Marines at once. Enough Barracks with Reactors and you have a lot of Marines.
Some players don't realise the true potential behind these brave little soldiers. Even un-upgraded, they can still hold off even the toughest of enemies.
I remember one match where a player decided to throw about 10 Battlecruisers at me. He wasn't expecting the intense resistance of my 60 Marines, all firing on one ship at a time. All Battlecruisers down, and at least 20 Marines left. And they weren't fully upgraded either. Nor did they use Stim Packs (drugs are for losers).
I would recommend backing up your Marines with Thors though, especially if you plan on attacking the enemies base. Without Thors, the Marines have a chance of being outgunned by the likes of a group of Ultralisks (which are rare in multiplayer) or a lot of air units. Thors also do more damage verses buildings.
5. Zerg Strategies
First, the Zergling Rush. While it's still a viable strategy, I think Blizzard have nerfed it just a bit.
The Spawning Pool requires 200 minerals, whereas in the original StarCraft, it only needs 150. And the collection rate of those minerals has dropped so you won't be building them as fast.
Still, it's a vicious and "rage quit"-inducing strategy, but it's only truly effective against a slow player.
I don't quite know how the Zerg player does it, but I keep getting shunted with the 'Not enough minerals' message when trying to build my Supply Depot to shut up the 'Not enough supply' message. And when I've built, if I'm lucky, 1 Marine, the bastard already has 6 Zerglings en route to my base.
I would not recommend such a strategy against Protoss. A Zealot can take on 2 Zerglings, and Photon Cannons make quick work of them.
The second strategy I use as often as possible for the Zerg is the Brood Lord rush. Getting them as quickly as possible means my opponent is in for a world of hurt. Slow and unprotected yes, but utterly devastating.
6. Protoss
Void Rays. As quickly and as many as possible.
7. Units you will almost never see in Multiplayer
Ultralisks - they need a Hive to build and Brood Lords are better. Cost quite a bit, too.
Mutalisks - Strangely enough, these guys are pretty rare. (At least, I almost never see them.)
Banelings - Slow and easily slaughtered wholesale. If they could actually get to the enemy in time they would be devastating.
Changelings - Never seen one of these either. Only useful against AI or extremely thick Multiplayer opponents.
Carriers - Who needs 'em when you got Void Rays?
High Templars - I've never seen one. Ever.
Archons - These guys are extremely rare, too.
Raven - A rare sight.
Ghost - I've only ever had one used against me.
Medivac Dropship - As shocking as this may be, I've only ever seen it used twice.
Finally,
8. The Terran Predator.
Originally, Blizzard was going to use a unit called a Predator to replace the Valkyrie from Brood War as an air-to-air fighter, presumably similar to the Protoss Phoenix. However, it was taken out during an early release in favour of the Terran Viking, an air unit that could go from air-to-air fighter and ground-to-ground assault unit.
So, it had an adequate replacement. So who cared?
Well, I care. The Predator looks way too cool to leave out. At least make it a hero unit, there's no need to throw it away.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Starcraft II Beta, part 5
I'm getting sick of loosing.
It's either win against an AI that can only have 5 units on the battlefield at once [which is not a win], or loose against a player that clearly has far more experience than me and knows what strategy to use.
Or get Zergling rushed.
I'd like to access the help file located on the bar on the top of the screen for help, specifically 'help, why is the only available AI Very Easy', but Blizzard [in a very rare act such epic stupidity] decided to disable the Help button for the beta.
After looking around the internet, It seems that the only AI you can play against is Very Easy, unless you want to risk downloading an AI pack.
And according to an unreliable source (some user at Gamespot) the improved AI is a few patches away.
Speaking of which, I just ran down the list of all the patches recently released. Almost every single one of them has nerfed (reduced in effectiveness) the Viking (a Terran air unit) in one way or another.
I do realize that all of the above might be a little mean. I just can't fathom why they didn't release the AI with one of the earlier patches, or at least #10. It only fixes two minor bugs, both of which could be described in one line.
I guess we must wait for proper AI. And that means getting churned up in multiplayer.
It's either win against an AI that can only have 5 units on the battlefield at once [which is not a win], or loose against a player that clearly has far more experience than me and knows what strategy to use.
Or get Zergling rushed.
I'd like to access the help file located on the bar on the top of the screen for help, specifically 'help, why is the only available AI Very Easy', but Blizzard [in a very rare act such epic stupidity] decided to disable the Help button for the beta.
After looking around the internet, It seems that the only AI you can play against is Very Easy, unless you want to risk downloading an AI pack.
And according to an unreliable source (some user at Gamespot) the improved AI is a few patches away.
Speaking of which, I just ran down the list of all the patches recently released. Almost every single one of them has nerfed (reduced in effectiveness) the Viking (a Terran air unit) in one way or another.
I do realize that all of the above might be a little mean. I just can't fathom why they didn't release the AI with one of the earlier patches, or at least #10. It only fixes two minor bugs, both of which could be described in one line.
I guess we must wait for proper AI. And that means getting churned up in multiplayer.
Starcraft II Beta, part 4
I made the stupid, stupid mistake of going with 'new player' when I started up the game. I'm not entirely sure what it did, but I'm blaming it for the fact that the only AI opponent I can face is a 'very easy' one.
Now, I didn't like playing against opponents in Starcraft because they were too damn hard - always meeting my group of units with a much bigger group of units and slaughtering me.
Now, it seems, Blizzard aimed to make my experiance a little easier. But it seems they missed the 'little easier' target and instead hit the 'easy for grandma' target.
You can beat a Very Easy opponent with only Zerglings, Zealots or Marines (depending on race) and that means base expansion or collecting Vespene gas or actually improving your skills on an enemy AI that can tie it's goddamn shoelaces is completely unnessesary - you know, everything required for multiplayer.
What I have been messing around with recently is the Galaxy Editor, Starcraft II's map editor.
After failing to find where Vista put all the SC II maps, I thought 'Screw it, I'll run before I can walk.'
I was impressed by the fact that Blizzard kept it simple - grid based maps, so terraining isn't a nightmare. The brush could be modified in many different ways, making it feel a little like Photoshop.
But I do have one complaint with the GE, Blizzard - where the bloody hell is everything?
In Warcraft III's editor (i.e. the best editor ever made) you had access to almost everything you needed via the bar on the top of the screen, and you had a big toolbar on the right hand side giving you units, terrain, regions, cameras and doodads.
The Galaxy Editor puts all that on the left hand side and only has a few buttons up the top which don't do a great job of telling you what they're about but the worst thing about the Galaxy Editor is the interface.
Not letting me change what 'Layer' (units, terrain, doodads etc) I'm on through the toolbar itself is not good design, and it means I have to find Layer at the very top of the window to change it. Not that I new what Layer meant when I saw it.
Another thing was there was no 'Click here to change to selection box' button. Just like in Warcraft III it's the space bar, but it didn't tell me that.
In fact, I'm certain the only reason I already sort-of know my way around the difficult interface is because I'm used to messing around with the Warcraft III editor and the Galaxy Editor is similar.
One last complaint - the 'data' screen. Essentially, the Data screen is Units, Upgrades, Stats and a few other random nick-nacks all in one enormous basket. I'd reccomend hitting the button that says 'Display Object List as Tree', otherwise you'll be treated to a massive list of blue and occasionally grey words with no real seperation between them.
Apart from being difficult to navigate by someone who's never used an editor before, the Galaxy Editor is reasonably good. The terrain looks nice and is easy to manipulate and the Data screen is sort of easy to understand, provided you hit that button I mentioned and you can understand what any of the words on the big box to the left means.
So the Galaxy Editor can use some refinement, primarily by making it easier to reach everything instead of making us go out and find it.
Now, I didn't like playing against opponents in Starcraft because they were too damn hard - always meeting my group of units with a much bigger group of units and slaughtering me.
Now, it seems, Blizzard aimed to make my experiance a little easier. But it seems they missed the 'little easier' target and instead hit the 'easy for grandma' target.
You can beat a Very Easy opponent with only Zerglings, Zealots or Marines (depending on race) and that means base expansion or collecting Vespene gas or actually improving your skills on an enemy AI that can tie it's goddamn shoelaces is completely unnessesary - you know, everything required for multiplayer.
What I have been messing around with recently is the Galaxy Editor, Starcraft II's map editor.
After failing to find where Vista put all the SC II maps, I thought 'Screw it, I'll run before I can walk.'
I was impressed by the fact that Blizzard kept it simple - grid based maps, so terraining isn't a nightmare. The brush could be modified in many different ways, making it feel a little like Photoshop.
But I do have one complaint with the GE, Blizzard - where the bloody hell is everything?
In Warcraft III's editor (i.e. the best editor ever made) you had access to almost everything you needed via the bar on the top of the screen, and you had a big toolbar on the right hand side giving you units, terrain, regions, cameras and doodads.
The Galaxy Editor puts all that on the left hand side and only has a few buttons up the top which don't do a great job of telling you what they're about but the worst thing about the Galaxy Editor is the interface.
Not letting me change what 'Layer' (units, terrain, doodads etc) I'm on through the toolbar itself is not good design, and it means I have to find Layer at the very top of the window to change it. Not that I new what Layer meant when I saw it.
Another thing was there was no 'Click here to change to selection box' button. Just like in Warcraft III it's the space bar, but it didn't tell me that.
In fact, I'm certain the only reason I already sort-of know my way around the difficult interface is because I'm used to messing around with the Warcraft III editor and the Galaxy Editor is similar.
One last complaint - the 'data' screen. Essentially, the Data screen is Units, Upgrades, Stats and a few other random nick-nacks all in one enormous basket. I'd reccomend hitting the button that says 'Display Object List as Tree', otherwise you'll be treated to a massive list of blue and occasionally grey words with no real seperation between them.
Apart from being difficult to navigate by someone who's never used an editor before, the Galaxy Editor is reasonably good. The terrain looks nice and is easy to manipulate and the Data screen is sort of easy to understand, provided you hit that button I mentioned and you can understand what any of the words on the big box to the left means.
So the Galaxy Editor can use some refinement, primarily by making it easier to reach everything instead of making us go out and find it.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Starcraft II Beta, part 3
There's a reason I never play multiplayer.
In campaigns, the AI is reasonably easy to predict. You go defensive, start stockpiling resources, and build up your offensive force while the enemy concentrates on throwing money into your defensive line.
That doesn't - and never will - work in multiplayer.
The four matches I've played online I've won none of them. I try - I expand to nearby mineral fields and start tearing those up as fast as possible. The last one I even got so far as to build a bunch of Thors but the bastard on the other end got to the Battlecruisers first. And no matter how optimistic you are, air will triumph over ground.
And the gas issue is still pissing me off. I remember once having 4000+ minerals and only 300 gas. It's outrageous, considering all of the late unit games - the game winning units - need a lot of gas, it's weird that you get so little of it.
I research a lot, yes, but 4 gas a hit is still not a lot, especially when the max number of workers you can reasonably have without the problem of an SCV sitting there with nothing to do is 2, whereas there's 10 mineral fields per base location. And with 10 workers hammering away at them (1 worker per field) and returning 5 minerals every 5 seconds, you can get a lot of minerals very fast, especially if you have two bases.
Moving away from that for a second, I've fallen in love with the soundtrack. The Terran is by far my favourite, which has gone down the 'space cowboy' path which, in my mind, is the best direction for it.
The Firefly feeling the music brings across paints a very different picture than the original Starcraft did. Listening to it again, the original Starcraft Terran music was more 'space', while the Starcraft 2 is more 'space western'.
I would complain about how I died all four times during my multiplayer experience and how this particular feature was the cause but in reality it's my strategy. It's been so long since I've played an RTS I've lost my touch.
In campaigns, the AI is reasonably easy to predict. You go defensive, start stockpiling resources, and build up your offensive force while the enemy concentrates on throwing money into your defensive line.
That doesn't - and never will - work in multiplayer.
The four matches I've played online I've won none of them. I try - I expand to nearby mineral fields and start tearing those up as fast as possible. The last one I even got so far as to build a bunch of Thors but the bastard on the other end got to the Battlecruisers first. And no matter how optimistic you are, air will triumph over ground.
And the gas issue is still pissing me off. I remember once having 4000+ minerals and only 300 gas. It's outrageous, considering all of the late unit games - the game winning units - need a lot of gas, it's weird that you get so little of it.
I research a lot, yes, but 4 gas a hit is still not a lot, especially when the max number of workers you can reasonably have without the problem of an SCV sitting there with nothing to do is 2, whereas there's 10 mineral fields per base location. And with 10 workers hammering away at them (1 worker per field) and returning 5 minerals every 5 seconds, you can get a lot of minerals very fast, especially if you have two bases.
Moving away from that for a second, I've fallen in love with the soundtrack. The Terran is by far my favourite, which has gone down the 'space cowboy' path which, in my mind, is the best direction for it.
The Firefly feeling the music brings across paints a very different picture than the original Starcraft did. Listening to it again, the original Starcraft Terran music was more 'space', while the Starcraft 2 is more 'space western'.
I would complain about how I died all four times during my multiplayer experience and how this particular feature was the cause but in reality it's my strategy. It's been so long since I've played an RTS I've lost my touch.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Starcraft II Beta, part 2
After playing with all the races, I can say that the Terrans are my favourite race.
The Protoss never really appealed to me, and the Zerg are unfinished.
I mean, I know it's a beta, but I would have expected the Zerg to be a bit more refined.
For example, almost all their units don't have any speaking portrait animations, the creep is this thin grey sheet rather than the purple we remember (which makes it hard to tell at a glance the difference between it and space floor),
Another big problem I have with the Zerg is the fact that they are not Zerg.
They sound different. They look different. They have new, different units that don't feel very Zerg to me.
I feel that Blizzard has taken a lot of pointers from Tyranids from Warhammer 40'000, and playing the Zerg felt like playing a strange new race that masqurades as the Zerg.
All the original units from Starcraft have been altered, in some ways for the worse. The Hydralisks have lost their awesome scythe-blade arms in favour of three giant fangs, which is completely unnessesary because they still can't bloody use them.
And their head crest has been modified to not be a bony crest anymore, rather a long, thin bony crest with two 'mandables' with a large flap of skin connecting the two which gives the impression of a large crest but clearly isn't after you look at it.
The Queen has been revamped entirely. First, they made it a ground unit and gave it a melee and ranged attack. Second, they made it so that they were the only thing that could expand creep. Last, they messed with her model so it looks like she's part Protoss (which looks great, by the way).
The Ultralisk looks better, and it now has two enormous blades and two smaller ones. It also sort of looks like an elephant grew jagged rocks instead of skin.
The Zergling has been made better, in my opinion. It still looks like the original one, and the wings it gets with Metabolic Boost make it look even better.
But that doesn't change the fact that the Zerg sound totally, totally different.
They got a bunch of incests, really pissed them off, recorded them and messed with them in a sound editor. Almost every Zerg (the clear exception being the Ultralisk, which sort of sounds like an elephant) sounds like this.
Since they sound like a completely different race, it's hard for me to feel like I'm back playing the good ol' Zerg again.
Moving aside from all that, there is one really annoying feature - resource collection. Specifically, Vespene Gas.
I don;t care if the AI has better pathing, Blizzard. The fact is you can only pick up 1 unit at a time per worker, and only 1 worker is allowed inside the refinery, and it's worth 4 gas. It's too damn low, especially for the Protoss who need a lot of it.
This could be worked around by giving the refinery an upgrade that costs, say, 250 minerals that increases the amount of gas workers can carry by 2. Thats a little more acceptable, and for only the cost of 5 Marines the player can get a decent gas income early on.
I think that's about it for now.
So, Reccomended Changes:
- Vespene Gas carry capacity upgrade
- Zerg unit speech animations
- Zerg speech changed to sound less like insects and more like the original Zerg
The Protoss never really appealed to me, and the Zerg are unfinished.
I mean, I know it's a beta, but I would have expected the Zerg to be a bit more refined.
For example, almost all their units don't have any speaking portrait animations, the creep is this thin grey sheet rather than the purple we remember (which makes it hard to tell at a glance the difference between it and space floor),
Another big problem I have with the Zerg is the fact that they are not Zerg.
They sound different. They look different. They have new, different units that don't feel very Zerg to me.
I feel that Blizzard has taken a lot of pointers from Tyranids from Warhammer 40'000, and playing the Zerg felt like playing a strange new race that masqurades as the Zerg.
All the original units from Starcraft have been altered, in some ways for the worse. The Hydralisks have lost their awesome scythe-blade arms in favour of three giant fangs, which is completely unnessesary because they still can't bloody use them.
And their head crest has been modified to not be a bony crest anymore, rather a long, thin bony crest with two 'mandables' with a large flap of skin connecting the two which gives the impression of a large crest but clearly isn't after you look at it.
The Queen has been revamped entirely. First, they made it a ground unit and gave it a melee and ranged attack. Second, they made it so that they were the only thing that could expand creep. Last, they messed with her model so it looks like she's part Protoss (which looks great, by the way).
The Ultralisk looks better, and it now has two enormous blades and two smaller ones. It also sort of looks like an elephant grew jagged rocks instead of skin.
The Zergling has been made better, in my opinion. It still looks like the original one, and the wings it gets with Metabolic Boost make it look even better.
But that doesn't change the fact that the Zerg sound totally, totally different.
They got a bunch of incests, really pissed them off, recorded them and messed with them in a sound editor. Almost every Zerg (the clear exception being the Ultralisk, which sort of sounds like an elephant) sounds like this.
Since they sound like a completely different race, it's hard for me to feel like I'm back playing the good ol' Zerg again.
Moving aside from all that, there is one really annoying feature - resource collection. Specifically, Vespene Gas.
I don;t care if the AI has better pathing, Blizzard. The fact is you can only pick up 1 unit at a time per worker, and only 1 worker is allowed inside the refinery, and it's worth 4 gas. It's too damn low, especially for the Protoss who need a lot of it.
This could be worked around by giving the refinery an upgrade that costs, say, 250 minerals that increases the amount of gas workers can carry by 2. Thats a little more acceptable, and for only the cost of 5 Marines the player can get a decent gas income early on.
I think that's about it for now.
So, Reccomended Changes:
- Vespene Gas carry capacity upgrade
- Zerg unit speech animations
- Zerg speech changed to sound less like insects and more like the original Zerg
Starcraft II Beta, part 1
About half an hour ago I finally laid my hands on the SC II [I insist on calling it 'II' rather than '2'] Beta for the first time (as I was sick, I couldn't go on the good computer due to it being dad's work machine as well).
I fired it up, went through the bizarre character creation process, and was set loose into the Mass Effect 2 style Welcome screen.
The first thing I noticed was the 'Single Player' button was unclickable. Bugger, I thought, I have to actually play with other people.
They don't make this obvious, but to play against an AI you need to create a multiplayer game and simply add an AI enemy. No problem.
10.
9.
8. Why the hell do I need a countdown against an AI enemy?
7.
6. There's no good bloody reason for it.
5.
4. I guess it builds drama.
3. I suppose.
2.
1.
Loading map...
Thrust into the game world, the first thing I noticed were the amazing graphics. Blizzard put a lot of effort and money into their new graphics engine. It still has a cartoon-y feel to it, but I don't think they wanted super realistic graphics. It looks damn good as it is.
The second thing I noticed was the soundtrack. There's a browncoat in Blizzard somewhere because one of the Terran tracks is very reminiscent of Firefly and Serenity. For me, it gave them a bit of a space cowboy feel.
After sending my SCVs out to mine crystals and bring back what look like enormous beer steins of vespene gas from my recently built refinery, I got one of them to make me a Supply Depot.
The problem with the Supply Depots in the original Starcraft is they were a waste of space. You needed them, but you didn't want them. Starcraft II gave them a well needed improvement.
Say you wanted to send your units around to the back of your base, but you stupidly blocked it off with Supply Depots. Never fear, because now they can be shoved into the ground with a click of a button, giving you a smooth surface to move over.
These can also be used to make traps for particularly thick zerglings or a wall with inbuilt gates.
Another cool thing that I noticed was right after I finished researching an upgrade for my marines.
The upgrade was essentially a riot shield. Once finished, a riot shield appeared on the marine's shoulder.
In retrospect, I probably should have seen it coming, but at the time it was a pleasant surprise. The only other game I remember ever doing something like that was the spectacularly disappointing C&C3.
The units in Starcraft II seem to have a bit more personality than other games I've played. Marines are a little rougher this time round, but Marauders are huge black guys that kinda sound like Chef from South Park.
Although, the game isn't a flawless diamond with the power to cure all the world's diseases.
They claim the Reapers, the Terran jump pack armed troops, are from the nastiest prisons for psychotic murderers. You know, at their worst they're the kind of people who run around shooting kittens for fun and laughing with child-like glee.
So you can forgive me for being a bit surprised when they came out sounding very much sane. After clicking them a few times, they still sounded un-psychotic.
And I'm a little pissed off that there isn't even a tutorial and first mission or so of the campaign. At least that'll give everyone something to amuse themselves if they aren't interested in multiplayer.
Well, I need to get back to it and play some more. So far I've only clocked about half an hour, and I haven't even won my first match yet.
I fired it up, went through the bizarre character creation process, and was set loose into the Mass Effect 2 style Welcome screen.
The first thing I noticed was the 'Single Player' button was unclickable. Bugger, I thought, I have to actually play with other people.
They don't make this obvious, but to play against an AI you need to create a multiplayer game and simply add an AI enemy. No problem.
10.
9.
8. Why the hell do I need a countdown against an AI enemy?
7.
6. There's no good bloody reason for it.
5.
4. I guess it builds drama.
3. I suppose.
2.
1.
Loading map...
Thrust into the game world, the first thing I noticed were the amazing graphics. Blizzard put a lot of effort and money into their new graphics engine. It still has a cartoon-y feel to it, but I don't think they wanted super realistic graphics. It looks damn good as it is.
The second thing I noticed was the soundtrack. There's a browncoat in Blizzard somewhere because one of the Terran tracks is very reminiscent of Firefly and Serenity. For me, it gave them a bit of a space cowboy feel.
After sending my SCVs out to mine crystals and bring back what look like enormous beer steins of vespene gas from my recently built refinery, I got one of them to make me a Supply Depot.
The problem with the Supply Depots in the original Starcraft is they were a waste of space. You needed them, but you didn't want them. Starcraft II gave them a well needed improvement.
Say you wanted to send your units around to the back of your base, but you stupidly blocked it off with Supply Depots. Never fear, because now they can be shoved into the ground with a click of a button, giving you a smooth surface to move over.
These can also be used to make traps for particularly thick zerglings or a wall with inbuilt gates.
Another cool thing that I noticed was right after I finished researching an upgrade for my marines.
The upgrade was essentially a riot shield. Once finished, a riot shield appeared on the marine's shoulder.
In retrospect, I probably should have seen it coming, but at the time it was a pleasant surprise. The only other game I remember ever doing something like that was the spectacularly disappointing C&C3.
The units in Starcraft II seem to have a bit more personality than other games I've played. Marines are a little rougher this time round, but Marauders are huge black guys that kinda sound like Chef from South Park.
Although, the game isn't a flawless diamond with the power to cure all the world's diseases.
They claim the Reapers, the Terran jump pack armed troops, are from the nastiest prisons for psychotic murderers. You know, at their worst they're the kind of people who run around shooting kittens for fun and laughing with child-like glee.
So you can forgive me for being a bit surprised when they came out sounding very much sane. After clicking them a few times, they still sounded un-psychotic.
And I'm a little pissed off that there isn't even a tutorial and first mission or so of the campaign. At least that'll give everyone something to amuse themselves if they aren't interested in multiplayer.
Well, I need to get back to it and play some more. So far I've only clocked about half an hour, and I haven't even won my first match yet.
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