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.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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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