EPT1. The Patches
Remember when the Spawning Pool cost 150 minerals? A turret 100? A Hatchery 350? Remember when people debated who was faster, a Terran Dropship or upgraded Overlords? (shit, I never found out the answer)? Remember when Disruption Web lasted forever and a half?
I mean, there's been at least 20 patches to the game, and I'm not saying it's for the worst. Especially after 1.08, the game's been nicely balanced. BUT it's sterile now. When you achieve perfection, it becomes a bit bland. It's at the point where, aside from bug fixes, changing the Siege Tank's health from 150 to 151 would receive a chorus of IMBA from the masses (And had Psionic Storm's damage not been reduced from 150 to 112, it WOULD truly be imba.)
Also, the patches kinda fuck up the campaign. Especially the cutscenes. Especially a single cutscene: Brood War Terran Mission 6.
In said mission, you begin with an arrowhead formation of Valkyries, who go in, rape all the mutalisks above a Zerg base and then you get dropships, buildings, and you build shit, and win. Just like normal. However, now that Dropships are relatively fast (FUCKERS) the tanks they drop die to the mutalisks. Instead of a well-executed invasion by the UED, it's a player with bad micromanagement. And you can't even save the tanks. I tried.
And the campaign is where it all begins.
2. The Campaign
Many on iCCup have not played campaign. I am well aware and assured that many, if not most of us on TL.net, can play through Campaign and win, because the AI doesn't compare anything to the real-life players we play each day.
On the other hand, I'd like to compare an IRL example: TV. We don't watch cartoons past a certain age because, we've grown up. Now we move on to Lost, South Park, and whatnot. But cartoons had a whole experience that makes you remember the good old days. And although we've grown up from the AI of Campaign, the nostalgic experience remains for those of us who played through it years ago.
3. The Maps
Also brimming in sterility is the maps. Remember when we all used StarEdit?
Take a look at some of the older maps. Even the tournament-grade ones (Lost Temple in particular) AREN'T SYMMETRICAL. That is, one can argue, people will have a greater advantage on one side than the other.
But on the other hand, this looks more natural, because, after all, StarCraft is a game of war. Even if Rommel's forces and Patton's forces met in the sands of Africa, each having a single prefab camp and four military builders, I don't think their battlefield is copy-cut-pasted to be exactly symmetrical so Hitler doesn't whine about how Rommel's ramp gave him an advantage.
Just take out some of the obvious imbalances (Again, LT, tankable ramps wtf), put in a good deal of symmetry, but don't have to resort to upside down ramps to make it so symmetrical (by the way, due to the way the camera is positioned, the upside down ramps AREN'T symmetrical)
that you can't spot imbalance.
![[image loading]](http://i558.photobucket.com/albums/ss26/SentineL-EX/snowbound.jpg)
This is a ladder map. Can you tell?
But this isn't a rant thread about how shitty the balance is. Balance is good. But the thoughts about the glory days remain. You can't expect a baby to be contented if you gave it a grape lollipop, and then tore it out and gave it a strawberry lollipop instead. The baby might prefer the strawberry, but thoughts about the grape remain.
So, I encourage you all, if you can, DL StarCraft: Brood War on another computer, and don't patch it. Consider it a parting gift from Brood War for those of you going on to StarCraft II.
EDIT: As for myself, I have a Russian version of StarCraft (no BW) that is still at 1.00. I'm going to play that all day on July 26.
