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My Questions
General Game Engine Questions..
a) Starcraft had a set resolution of 640x480 which every player had to play as and provided the same view and screensize for every player. With today's Video Cards capable of displaying several different resolutions (both widescreen and fullscreen) what is the team's stance on dealing with different display resolutions? Are players with Widescreen monitors and beefer Video Cards going to have an advantage of "seeing more of the action" than those with fullscreens and lower resolutions? While LAN tournaments can govern which resolution settings are used, what about online tournaments? While we are discussing resolutions, what about multiple monitors?
b) Do air units fly on the same axis as they do in normal Starcraft? I remember on one of the early Protoss videos, Air units would kinda "dip" into the space whenever they were traveling over islands or mountains.
c) In Starcraft, LAN games had a faster mouseclick response time than BNET games (even with low lactency). Are the plans for Starcraft2 to use the same response time in both LAN games and BNET games?
Balance / Race specific Questions..
a) Queen ; Alot of the Zerg design seems to focus on or around the Queen unit. By defining the term "hero or commander unit" as used in other games (Warcraft 3, Dawn of War) if the player did not build or factor in the "hero unit" into their gameplay, they were put at a serious disadvantage, thus meaning that every optimal build order or strategy had to include building the hero/commander unit. Is the Queen intended to be this type of unit meaning that if the zerg does not incorporate her then they are put at a disadvantage in the matchup?
b) Defensive weapons used offensively ; Every game seems to have one or two defensively designs units/weapons that are switched and used offensively that can create a break in game balance. How does the team balance good defensive performance vs non-gamebreaking offensive performance? For example, you would want your bunker or cannon to generally kill its cost of Tier1 units when used defensively in your base, but you would also not want a single cannon to disable or kill a player if build in their base.
c) Medivac ; The reasoning behind nixing the Medic was because the Medic cannot heal Reapers when they jump up a cliff. The solution was to give the dropship the healing ability so it can follow the reaper up the cliff to heal. While this provided the healing solution for the reaper created a situation where the player could just ferry his marines up the cliff since he now has a dropship to do so negating the reaper main ability of cliff jumping in the first place. What are your thoughts about giving the Medic another shot by giving them a "jumppack" ability to solve the healing issue for reapers and also placing them at the same tech location as Ghosts?
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On June 26 2008 17:19 FrozenArbiter wrote:...
In WC3 they have automated tournaments, have they ever considered having these types of tournaments but with a buy-in fee and prize money, a la Sit'n'Gos/tournaments in poker? Don't know how the legality of it would work out but it's not gambling at least.
Oh my god, awesome automated tournament suggestion! I don't know how revolutionary people realize this is, but it is! I don't think people really grasps the impact this would have on competitive RTS gaming.. or just any kind of gaming in general! Holy crap!
Here's a good compromise.. have automated tournaments every other day like they do in WC3, for fun/prestigue/rankings or whatever... for free. Then once a month.. or every other month have a special grand buy-in event tournament like you said. I think this was a great way to do it. And.. not kidding this will SIGNIFICANTLY boost the pro/competitive scene like nothing before. My god this would be crazy good! Have the event advertized on the Battle.net/Blizzard website and whatever too.
AND like you briefly mentioned, this would be a great way for Blizzard to make some money, the kind of continuous money flow they get from WoW. It'd be like a volunteer subscription!
The only problem is there would be an overlap and perhaps a conflict of interest with pro leagues and whatnot.....
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Sweden33719 Posts
Well, online leagues aren't really gonna overlap that much with offline leagues. Also if you look at how poker sites do it, they have these tournaments just continuously going 24 hours of the day, starting as soon as they fill up (or starting at set times, depends on the format).
You could have the free ones running in their own tab, have - let's say - 10$ ones run continuously then maybe a weekend 50$ tournament or something like that. Then every month or so you could run a really big (perhaps with some sponsored prizes as well) tournament, perhaps a 50-100$ buyin or something like that BUT with several (free or small buyin) qualifying tournaments leading up to it throughout the month.
And yeah, I think it would be completely awesome =] I'd like 1v1s for money too but that would be approaching gambling I guess (it's different when you pay for a tournament and when it's just 2 people putting up X$ to play).
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1: What made you keep the Thor after several changes to it and still many people think its absolutely unnecessary and uninspired?
2: What is the Marauder role apart from the obvious of slowing down units, is it really cost-effective and useful and aren't you afraid it might turn out to be as the queen and ghost in starcraft, barely used.
3: How did you came to the idea of the Immortal, since everyone likes it and think it fits perfectly into starcraft 2, with no or very little exceptions.
4: What is the main idea behind the Overseer, there are some thoughts that it may turn out to be a huge disadvantage to the Zerg as its the only mobile detection for Zerg.
5: Can you tell us more specifics and details about the worm, for example can it move through uneven terrain and natural blocks like rocks and stuff or will it circle around them, how are units shown when inside the worm, for example is their some new graphical interface that will show up and so on...
6: What was the idea of moving the hydralisk into higher tier, since there is the fear of zerg not having early ground to air unit and thus being extremely vurnable to air to ground units. Also how will hydralisk's higher tier and more supply be compensated for considering the roach seems much more stronger unit yet lower tier?
7: Will you be looking to make Zerg single player campaign much different than the protoss and terran one, since Zerg is the most unique race in starcraft. Obviously they won't be flying in battle cruiser but would it be the same type just zerg flying in overlord or something instead of battle cruiser !?
8: Will battle.net support huge number of observers and live broadcasting from within battle.net?
9: There was a suggestion go give the lurker an upgrade that would improve its spikes so they can attack in 4 ways "+"; What do you think about this and has there been similar ideas in the development team and if so why hasn't such ones been utilized?
10: Can a unit be stuck between buildings when spawning or will there be some kind of better mechanic that will make the unit spawn from a side where there is place to move?
11: Will the damn ugly infestor model change?
12: Will they consider removing auto-mine if it helps macro a lot, and it should help macro a lot!?
13: Is smart-cast still in the game and if yes, why?
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On June 26 2008 22:33 FrozenArbiter wrote:
Having pay to play tournaments where the money goes to the prize pool (the majority of it, blizzard should take some % in rake) is the best and simplest way of sustaining worthwhile tournaments.
Then the money stream goes away from the players. You cannibalize your own player base.
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Sweden33719 Posts
Wat?
Blizzard has to make a living + you could argue that without the rake (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about) there wouldn't be any tournaments in the first place...
I really don't get your argument at all. Yes blizzard would turn a profit, people pay for entertainment. And yes, some people will be good enough to finish in the money at a high enough rate to yield them a positive return on their investment (buyin).
Honestly what the hell do you mean!??
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CnC3 had a feature where every ladder game replay could be automatically saved into the 'EA Database', which was connected to a website where players could view the replays. Is Starcraft 2 going to have features like this? If yes, how are they going to improve on the EA interface (which was nice in concept, but barely usable).
If No, hold their heads under water until they agree to it  I really REALLY want to have some official central location where you have a TLPD-style database of all ladder games ever played, especially one that gives a lot of power to query stuff. IE: 'Give me 100 ZvT on X map by the top 50 people on ladder played in the last 2 weeks', 'Give me all the PvZ that player X has played on map Y in the last month'. Just imagine how this would revolutionize the strategy forum.. T_T "here go check out this replay" or "go check out Stork's games, here is a link"
Gah. Want this feature so badly
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Will they add customizable Allied Colors (so far its just yours are Blue enemy is Red and ally is Teal), example: My units are Green, Ally is Yellow, and enemy Purple. An option to play with this would be really nice.
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Either there would be an option to disallow replays being posted or top players would simply practice amonst themselves instead of ladder. ;;
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ask them what new things they put in bnet and chat. suggest, if not already said, to put in "friend-follow", "clan/group chat", "friend invite", etc
will the size of the screen resolution affect the area of vision for the player?
are they going to use blu-ray or dvd?
the colors in sc2 look a little too bright compared to sc1. will they or can they change it to have a darker theme? is there going to be a setting for it?
will we be able to customize the bnet skin or the unit icons on the bottom right or the unit pics?
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On June 26 2008 22:05 Scorch wrote:
Please explain the exact reasoning behind including the Medivac over the Medic concerning the roles of Reapers and Marines. Doesn't the Medivac defeat the Reaper's distinguishing advantage of being a mobile harasser? Why would you use Reapers with Medivac healing when you can ferry Marines behind the enemy lines and have them healed by the dropship just as well? Wouldn't a Medic with jetpacks be suited better to differentiate the Reaper from the Marine?
you people who keep asking that question obviously don't seem to care if your dropship full of marines dies...with reapers and medivacs you can get most of your units away but if someone takes down the dropship with marines in it, you lose it all.
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On June 27 2008 03:49 FrozenArbiter wrote:
Wat?
Blizzard has to make a living + you could argue that without the rake (I'm assuming that's what you're talking about) there wouldn't be any tournaments in the first place...
I really don't get your argument at all. Yes blizzard would turn a profit, people pay for entertainment. And yes, some people will be good enough to finish in the money at a high enough rate to yield them a positive return on their investment (buyin).
Honestly what the hell do you mean!??
QFT it can be small enough, buying a game alone could give few free tickets to such tournaments, both ones for fun and prestige only and for money could be held and many tournaments matching skill of at least half of players on BN can be held... why not?
Naming would be the only problem I can see
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On June 27 2008 07:52 sqwert wrote:
ask them what new things they put in bnet and chat. suggest, if not already said, to put in "friend-follow", "clan/group chat", "friend invite", etc
will the size of the screen resolution affect the area of vision for the player?
are they going to use blu-ray or dvd?
the colors in sc2 look a little too bright compared to sc1. will they or can they change it to have a darker theme? is there going to be a setting for it?
will we be able to customize the bnet skin or the unit icons on the bottom right or the unit pics?
why on earth would they use blu-ray?
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On June 26 2008 22:33 FrozenArbiter wrote:
That's dumb.
You had to pay to play in TLTour
You have to pay to play in Courage
You have to pay to play in many Go-tournaments
You have to pay to participate in BJJ/submission wrestling tournaments (perhaps not all but wever)
Having pay to play tournaments where the money goes to the prize pool (the majority of it, blizzard should take some % in rake) is the best and simplest way of sustaining worthwhile tournaments.
Everything in life benefits those at the top, regardless of what field (well fine, taxes don't).
Courage grants pro-gamers a license. Having to pay for a license so you can get into bigger tournament / leagues (which cost no money) is not the same as players seeding the money to a tournament. You calling someone dumb and not seeing the difference is hilarious.
You mention BJJ/submission wrestling and TLTour like it somehow backs up your claims. You can find small tournaments ran in basements that have any structure / fee / payout you'd like, but they don't represent the sport. TLTour was a failure and a one time thing, using it to support your argument is ridiculous. You should be using the Korean leagues because they're what represent StarCraft, and they're what's successful. It's the same with submission wrestling. You know the ADCC World Championships charge no entrance fee right? Probably not.
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Sweden33719 Posts
On June 27 2008 21:51 byron wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2008 22:33 FrozenArbiter wrote:
That's dumb.
You had to pay to play in TLTour
You have to pay to play in Courage
You have to pay to play in many Go-tournaments
You have to pay to participate in BJJ/submission wrestling tournaments (perhaps not all but wever)
Having pay to play tournaments where the money goes to the prize pool (the majority of it, blizzard should take some % in rake) is the best and simplest way of sustaining worthwhile tournaments.
Everything in life benefits those at the top, regardless of what field (well fine, taxes don't).
Courage grants pro-gamers a license. Having to pay for a license so you can get into bigger tournament / leagues (which cost no money) is not the same as players seeding the money to a tournament. You calling someone dumb and not seeing the difference is hilarious. You mention BJJ/submission wrestling and TLTour like it somehow backs up your claims. You can find small tournaments ran in basements that have any structure / fee / payout you'd like, but they don't represent the sport. TLTour was a failure and a one time thing, using it to support your argument is ridiculous. You should be using the Korean leagues because they're what represent StarCraft, and they're what's successful. It's the same with submission wrestling. You know the ADCC World Championships charge no entrance fee right? Probably not.
TLTour a failure? What the fuck?
TLTour was a success, and there were 2 editions of it, just FYI.
Then we had WGTour speed ladder - 1 week ladders with a small entrance fee, with the fee going towards prizes - another huge success.
ADCC has no entrance fee and do you know why? BECAUSE YOU HAVE TO QUALIFY TO GET THERE. The qualifiers, however, DO have an entrance fee (at least the ones we have here in scandinavia do, last I checked)!!
You don't pay for the courage license, you pay to play in the tournament - slightly different but not by much. Oh and I didn't call him dumb, I said his comment was dumb. I don't think he is, he's a quality poster as far as I can remember.
And if you wanna talk korean leagues I'm pretty sure almost all the minor ones have an entrance fee. Online leagues/tournaments too. So please, find out the facts before you speak.
And instead of saying "oh but we don't do it that way" can you actually make an argument for why we shouldn't? So far I've not seen a single reason against it other than it "cannibalizing the players" which I don't even know what he meant by it.
What's the difference if the money comes from the players directly or is blizzard sponsored as a result of, say, a monthly WoW fee/sales? You pay for entertainment/a chance to win.
And besides, can you think of any other way to have constantly running tournaments with prize money? What incentive would there be to sponsor non-stop automated tournaments where you get no exposure? None!! You can sponsor bigger ones, with coverage and hype etc but the only way to have regular, worthwile tournaments is with an entrance fee that goes towards the prize pool.
I don't see the resistance to this, they could still run free tournaments just as often.
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If you win other people's money because of pay in fee then what are you going to do?
You are going to try to play tournaments with weak opponents that are stupid enough to enter a pay tournament in which they are outclassed.
People are going to be sandbagging. People are only going to play for money.
The strongest people should play vs each other and they should win the money from a third party.
There is going to be so much abuse. The top players are going to form a cartel. They enter one at a time into one of those tournaments so they have a free win and don't steal money from each other. Stuff like that.
It's so obvious. Do you want Starcraft 2 to be a sport or not? It's not entertainment which you pay for. It's not supposed to be gambling either.
Do you want it to be like Formula 1 where people have to buy a seat in a car?
Otherwise, it's not just a zero sum game. You mention a rake. People are going to lose money overall from playing Starcraft 2. That's bad. There should be money to be won. Not money to be lost.
Esports should copy chess, not poker.
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"Cannibalize the players" should be an obvious argument. If you don't get that then obviously you lack foresight of how it's going to be turning out. Again, Starcraft players overall are going to be losing money through this. It doesn't encourage competition. Just think about how the money is going to flow. It's going from lesser players to the stronger ones. And it's going from the players to Blizzard.
Money should flow from sponsors to the players. Also, in Korea they have teams so that changes stuff up quite a bit anyway.
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Sweden33719 Posts
WoW players overall are losing money from WoW.
Your point is what? It's not a finite resource.
Again, please present me with an alternative business model that allows for constant, around the clock, automated tournaments to be run?
Fwiw I'd happily pay 10$ every now and then to play in a tournament like this, even if I knew I'd be playing against a lineup of jaedong, flash and Best. It would be for fun/competition, I don't mind being a dog in terms of my chances to win...
Sandbagging can be stopped by not having a list of players available for the tournament (I dunno what size tournaments you'd want to run, but let's say 32 man tournaments with another one starting as soon as one fills up).
In addition, for the more expensive tournaments you'll just have a ton of qualifiers where the winners are bought into the tournament by blizzard (adding to the prizepool).
I don't think, say, 5$ tournaments are really gonna kill anyones budget =.=
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If they need money to run stuff they should just charge everyone for the service.
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Katowice25012 Posts
Esports should copy chess, not poker.
I've paid to enter every amateur chess event I've played in.
Magic Online has been running tournaments for years that you pay to enter and then win prizes, and it increases the skill level of players at all levels quite a bit as well as makes games exciting even for people at an amateur level. It does wonders to increase the playerbase too.
Obviously money flows from lesser players to stronger ones. Not really an issue.
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EPT
