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Starcraft 2 Interface Ideas to Develop The Community
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Outline:
Background
In Game Rewards
Clan Play
Sponsorship and Tournaments
Possible Implementation Examples
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2kOK6CF.png)
I'm reminded of a song by Crown the Empire called Machines. The lyrics say "If all we are is just machines, then we must be the cogs,Inside the wheels of change." In other words if you want something different do somthing. I feel that I should make a post about the biggest current weaknesses in LOTV which is the rewards system, commmunity development, and connection to tournaments. I've spent almost 40 hours writing this post, making images, and videos. I spent a lot of my effort particularly on the tech diversity model as an in game reward. Please feel free to comment on any specifics that grab your attention.
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Background:
Starcraft has come a long way since its beginning. A lot of it stemming from the needs of the community. We have seen resume from replay support, decreased game duration, decreased dead time, increased balance, and skill cap. More versatile and interesting units. Archon modes to help casual players learn the game. That being said, I still feel there some major items yet to be addressed. Despite all the balance changes and accessibilty options, there are still aspects missing.
Most of the threads about LOTV are about balance concerns, individual units, or small insights, but do not address the general player experience. Other games have excelled building a more user friendly environment offering in-game rewards, building a stronger community, and having a strong tournament support backbone. These are the three issues that I want to address here. More specifically, how to reward the player better for playing starcraft 2, increasing user interaction, and allowing users to contribute to the tournament backbone (take for example dota having a 15 million dollar prize pool from microtransactions). Surprisingly enough, i think a lot of these items could be addressed simply by very small changes to the interface.
How do I accomplish these items? Well I decided to step back and get several ideas, and try to assess which ones were most feasible, highest return, and have the highest chance of making it into LOTV. Whether this actually happens i have no control over, but hopefully even if I fail on these aspects this thread will help lead to better ideas.
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In Game Rewards:
The first item I feel that is hard with Starcraft 2 is the rewards system. Getting 105 means almost nothing and literally the only real reward for playing is ladder rank. A lot of casual players will never spend the time needed to have a high rank. I feel that they should still be rewarded for playing. The way things current are, the game is very elitest only focused on ladder rank.
How else can you reward a player if not by rank. There are plenty of options. Look at other games. They offer skins, heroes, runes, weapons, and new tech options. I also think custom missions could help significantly for rewarding players. So in game paraphernalia is one option.
A second option, would be more for rewarding a certain aspect of a players style. This idea comes from NeuroStarcraft, where a player has a smaller objective to try and complete, such as not getting supply blocked, or keeping money below a certain number. Day 9 had a similar idea with offering a different tech style play, monobattles, or funday monday. Someone else in the post mentioned that this is also done in a town brawl by hearthstone.
A third option, being my person favorite is having specific tech options opened either through leveling or purchasable. These would be part of a casual ladder. Not designed necessarily to be the best but to enjoy the game. In addition to a tech casual ladder a ladder rank for major arcade items could be helpful so maybe you are the best at nexus wars. These auxillary ladder ranks do help to show you are improving at something.
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Clan Play:
Another aspect that could use work is clans. The game does not have a community hub. Its lacking severely. I think it should be the biggest focus in all of LOTV. It should be easier to interact with people and have more options to do so.
Also, currently, even if you join a group, Clans themselves have little meaning. There is no real way to know much about your clan or really see how stacks against other clans. This is the biggest change i propose. I personally think there need to be much fewer clans with much more clan vs clan interaction. This way playing as a community is a much more rewarding experience.
This was abundantly better in other RTS as according to several pro gamers. Most often the example of warcraft 3 comes up, such as the monologue by Vibe about this. The main page you see is mostly focused on clan play. Why doesn't starcraft throw you into the mix quickly for clan pages. The main page every player should see every day is their clan page. The community. Not some empty screen.
As far as clans interacting, there definitely needs to be a clan ladder. Your clan vs their clan in a similar class. You play to help your friends. You improve for you clan and help each other. This is almost non-existent in starcraft. Why?
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Sponsorship and Tournaments:
Aside from clans, there are plenty of streams and most people seem to form communities around streamers. Winter, Livibee, Avilo, Desrow. They have their groupies. Their people. But the community still is not connected truly to the tournaments and organizers.
I would love to hear that root is competing in TSC and i could join a lobby with friends to watch and chat in game. Why not be able to watch a tournament game as a group? The group interaction while rooting for your team is so harsh in twitch. Why not join the game and support a player. A virtual game ticket to tournaments would be dank.
Lastly, I would love to see ways to get tournament packages with in game rewards. Why not have a tournament pass that gives rewards. I want an eg icon. I want a premium package that gives me a prime t-shirt. I want a gsl icon. I want to hear total biscuit telling me "smackdown!!" These little things could really be big for supporting the backbone of tournaments and bringing in revenue.
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Possible Implementation Examples: (high resolution versions on my Imgur)
In Game Rewards-
+ Show Spoiler +One possible idea is a tech diversity model to make the game more fun  Tech Diversity as a robust microtransaction system+ Show Spoiler +The base of this idea comes from counterstrike where the casual ladder has more maps/guns/other options. Other RTS have more tech ladder store options as well such as Company of Heroes, or civilization. Expanded units in casual games-![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ewDkOLA.jpg) Hunter-Killer Doge- Has cleave damage. Kamikaze Doge- Has explosive damage Ruse Doge- Has half health, but cannot be damaged unless targeted individually. Also each one of these actually deals with a playstyle in the game. (I'll give you 3 hints. David slayed who? Going with Grills- What is a female support unit? Jackson's revenge was in the nova mission.) Casual Ladders Play Detailed Physical implementation ideas: (I'll keep adding images as i make them over the next few days, also on my Imgur) ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/qY9S2Qf.png) I know voting play is a bit vague but i picture it more like observer mode/archon mode style to the games. I could imagine there being a variety of possible mods as well. Most notably, the starcrafts mod. Veto Play in the expanded casual model![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/7soJBXS.png) Vetoe'd play. Notice that the custom map is not in the current map pool. Also, there are many more tech options due to the different tech trees that open. I also like the idea of displaying your personal notes about a player or clan notes about a player so you have a better idea what to think when doing vetoes. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CeOYcJv.png) I would really like to see a mission that you do that has a custom aspect to it. The examples I'll use are god mode, and the 30 second or less supply block challenge. These come from Redbull Seattle where day 9 and husky could alter the game as a third person observer or the Snute vs. Bunny best of 69 Series games where Bunny tried to end it with mass viking. This could be as simple as merely highlighting some mod, arcade element, or custom melee map and giving a small clan reward for completing it. It could be as complex as playing games on a new map pool to see which ones should be included into the next season. Portraits,skins, custom missions, seem pretty obvious and have been mentioned in detail so I won't elucidate much, but it is important to have these options also in competitive games the ability to make custom units not show.
Clan Interface
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/IwyJ7yf.png) The strengths of my interface is the ease of finding open games. Its a little harder to find chat channels than the other interfaces i feel but not enough that i think its a big issue. The Quick info box is the best asset of my interface. you can quickly click on profiles of players but do not have to re-navigate back or go through multiple tabs for the most relevant information. Also, for the same reason, I think mine is better to find out match or tournament info with a quick info box. I imagine the play interface would be in the next screen after choosing to enter through the quick info box. Comparison of interfaces- + Show Spoiler +My interface- The strengths of my interface is the ease of finding open games. Its a little harder to find chat channels than the other interfaces i feel but not enough that i think its a big issue. The Quick info box is the best asset of my interface. you can quickly click on profiles of players but do not have to re-navigate back or go through multiple tabs for the most relevant information. Also, for the same reason, I think mine is better to find out match or tournament info with a quick info box. I imagine the play interface would be in the next screen after choosing to enter through the quick info box. Warcraft 3 ![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/FrozenArbiter/SC2/wc3_resized.png) The best part of this interface is it has buttons to see the ladder and quick play as well as a play button which opens a standard window. The interface does not have a listing of other chats. The character profiles are great in terms of their organization. Starcraft 2 refined. ![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rx7A5ta.jpg) I like the ability to search the chat channels easily on this interface. The open games tab is abou the arcade, which gets away from the competitive clan idea, but is better for casual play for sure. This does not give any idea about the standing of the clan and the information about the players requires leaving and coming back. Since it takes the full screen its a little cleaner. I really like having the play box as they have in this interface with drop down menus for race and match type really saves a lot of space. ICCUP Clan Still working on getting screenshots for this.
Sponsorship and tournaments
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/V64QRt7.png) The Professional Tab. I think i'd need to add a search options button, but its fine for the concept. I like the idea of having an in game chat as well while watching an event, or even twitch embedding with clan chat.
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this is brilliant. I don´t mind the clan ideas or your godmode stuff, but the "either" "or" idea on the upgrades instead of just adding them in is quite slick. Off the top of my head i only see a couple of things that need to be adressed to give your idea some viability. A problem is that the techpaths you propose are quite drastic, which I like, and change the flow of the game quite a bit. So imagine you are a 2 base Terran against a 3 base Zerg in your average early game. You know that you are going to be attacked soon, what do you prepare for? Banelings, or Reaperlings? if you prepare for both you are behind, if you prepare for the wrong one you lose which is why you need to be able to scout your opponents precise tech path. It needs a unique animation on the Tech building.
Secondly, there shouldn´t be too many of these choices per race, maybe 2-3. Imagine if you had to make a choice for every unit in the game, you would go from the wished for diversity straight into godless randomness.
Overall I really like the idea, its fresh (atleast in starcraft) and a great way to introduce gamechanging (and game breaking) upgrades since they always come at an opportunity cost. I wish the concept would be officially tested in the beta.
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On June 26 2015 04:58 alpenrahm wrote:
this is brilliant. I don´t mind the clan ideas or your godmode stuff, but the "either" "or" idea on the upgrades instead of just adding them in is quite slick. Off the top of my head i only see a couple of things that need to be adressed to give your idea some viability. A problem is that the techpaths you propose are quite drastic, which I like, and change the flow of the game quite a bit. So imagine you are a 2 base Terran against a 3 base Zerg in your average early game. You know that you are going to be attacked soon, what do you prepare for? Banelings, or Reaperlings? if you prepare for both you are behind, if you prepare for the wrong one you lose which is why you need to be able to scout your opponents precise tech path. It needs a unique animation on the Tech building.
Secondly, there shouldn´t be too many of these choices per race, maybe 2-3. Imagine if you had to make a choice for every unit in the game, you would go from the wished for diversity straight into godless randomness.
Overall I really like the idea, its fresh (atleast in starcraft) and a great way to introduce gamechanging (and game breaking) upgrades since they always come at an opportunity cost. I wish the concept would be officially tested in the beta.
Yeah, I was going for a fresh idea. It seems like most of my friends who have stopped playing, say it gets boring. There isn't that much diversity. I was hoping that its a clan customization ladder to play with friends and just mess around with a lot of things. Something like a clan vs clan match with the game starting with each player picking race, then players vetoing tech options. Then players choose tech options, so there are no surprises. Tech trees are chosen before the game so only very small differences happen in the game.
Mostly its just for fun games with more diversity. I was not thinking it would be a big balanced thing, but rather something to just mess around with. The competitive stuff still would not feature all of these options. It appears from the 5 votes people are more interested in playing the same units and styles over and over, no pregame vetoes, or clan ladders towards having the highest levels of balance. These responses seem to be in contrast to what i hear, which is Blizzard should try more drastic changes . I tried to dream of having more options and a fun clan ladder mode designed less for competitive play and more for diversity that would bring my friends back. Like i love how counterstrike has a casual ladder with more options and competitive ladder. I wish starcraft had the same thing.
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On June 26 2015 04:22 tokinho wrote:
From the hints it seems Blizzard is bringing an observer mode to watch tournament games live in game. (very similar to what is done in dota) and a clan chat system.
This alone would be huge!
EDIT: but what is your source?
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On June 26 2015 06:36 wUndertUnge wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2015 04:22 tokinho wrote:
From the hints it seems Blizzard is bringing an observer mode to watch tournament games live in game. (very similar to what is done in dota) and a clan chat system.
This alone would be huge! EDIT: but what is your source?
Yeah sorry, Being hinted at, is
Observer mode, is being developed primarily for heroes of the storm. The games run off of similar game engines.
http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/16218929/coming-soon-custom-games-observer-mode-and-replays-10-7-2014
The capability is capable of being added to both games due to the nature of the system. Also in the patch notes for
They said huge improvements are being made to the chat system and observer systems..
On June 21 2015 22:43 BisuDagger wrote:
These list post are common for people wanting a reward system. No one puts in effort to really detail the system in an effective way. If you want something from blizzard, actually think it out and write your idea in full detail. Describe why people would like a feature and how it can be implemented. I'm not going to jump and say "omg Color Changes yes!" cause stuff like that has grown old.
As far as being much more specific, i definitely agree. I'll work on this next. I'll add more pictures oh how feasibly this all would be implemented in practice. I'll work on the descriptions of the features as well. Its true the video is not specific enough about the details.
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Yeah, I'm not convinced that it's coming then. We already have an observer mode in SC2 similiar to what they're proposing in the HOTS (not even SC2) patch notes. Not to mention, those (again, not SC2) patch notes are from October
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Holy shit I would LOVE a clan ladder!
HALO 2. The clan function basically made the experience of that game complete for me, and I made a bunch of really good friends I still talk to today from playing it. It's an amazing function that I can't understand why people don't make in newer games.
I think balance wouldn't be that hard. Make an mmr for the entire clan, match that first then match against individual mmr within the match. It would make this more of a community game as well, idk, even if its tough to do I think it's an awesome idea.
Nice post.
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Agreed - Clan Ladder would actually give people a reason to have clans
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On June 26 2015 04:22 tokinho wrote:
Recently, a Blizzard says big changes are coming.
Citation needed.
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So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it.
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I like the idea of a "clan ladder"... I also like the idea of more in-depth/specialized upgrade paths. However, I don't like the idea of combining the two (if I understood correctly?).
Also, since T and Z already have different forms of units (Z can morph units from A > B and T can change unit modes) this is probably something that would just make the races more similar...
The clan ladder idea has a lot of potential though (anything that adds more social interaction is needed).
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On June 27 2015 19:26 paralleluniverse wrote:Show nested quote +On June 26 2015 04:22 tokinho wrote:
Recently, a Blizzard says big changes are coming. Citation needed.
I asked for the same thing, and OP cited a Heroes of the Storm update from last October
#confused
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On June 27 2015 23:01 wUndertUnge wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2015 19:26 paralleluniverse wrote:On June 26 2015 04:22 tokinho wrote:
Recently, a Blizzard says big changes are coming. Citation needed. I asked for the same thing, and OP cited a Heroes of the Storm update from last October #confused
No, that's a different reference.
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/legacy-of-the-void/487612-lotv-beta-balance-update-preview-june-9
This is the one that hints at big changes coming.
I do want to reemphasize. The point of this post is to talk about reworking clan ladders and ways to introduce elements worth paying money for that would make the game more fun. Not about hints dropped in forums or general posts. I do apologize if I read the hints wrong, or if I'm presenting my ideas unclearly. I do appreciate your continued discussion on these topics though.
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On June 27 2015 20:43 y0su wrote:
I like the idea of a "clan ladder"... I also like the idea of more in-depth/specialized upgrade paths. However, I don't like the idea of combining the two (if I understood correctly?).
Also, since T and Z already have different forms of units (Z can morph units from A > B and T can change unit modes) this is probably something that would just make the races more similar...
The clan ladder idea has a lot of potential though (anything that adds more social interaction is needed).
Um.. so yeah. I kind of feel that what i'm more going for is a casual ladder. Something just to offer more ways to interact. Moreover, you have the standard ladders still. They still give ladder points and help to give your clan rank.
To improve the general public interaction, I feel that a lot of the community are not pros. I wanted to have a more casual system that helps clan rank, is fun, and brings in revenue. Ideally it would be as low work on blizzards end as possible while giving the highest return. I'll be updating some more of the tech tree diversity types when i do the vetoes, shop items, etc.
The more detailed i get, I think the more clearer the discussions about the diversity ideas will be.
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On June 27 2015 20:09 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it.
Syz-Adrenaline, Could you be more explicit what you mean? Could you clarify what specific aspects of iccup you are referring too? Additionally, I've heard there are warcraft 3 clan options as well that were not included into sc2. If someone could explain i would be very interested in learning more.
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On June 28 2015 08:25 tokinho wrote:Show nested quote +On June 27 2015 20:09 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it. Syz-Adrenaline, Could you be more explicit what you mean? Could you clarify what specific aspects of iccup you are referring too? Additionally, I've heard there are warcraft 3 clan options as well that were not included into sc2. If someone could explain i would be very interested in learning more.
iCCup used to have (and still kind of do) a fantastic clan league system. Division A where the top 10 clans battled it out against each other over 9 weeks (playing each other all once) and the top 4 would play a playoffs and win cash prizes. Then you have Divison B1/B2. Same system except the top 4 of both B1/B2 divisions would battle it out to advance to Division A over cash prizes. The bottom 4 of Division A would have to fight to stay in division A against the top Division B teams.Then you also had C Divisions where they battled to get into Division B due to the immense popularity of the clan league system. It was really nice and highly popular. But that was the gist.
edit: words.
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On June 28 2015 18:24 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:Show nested quote +On June 28 2015 08:25 tokinho wrote:On June 27 2015 20:09 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it. Syz-Adrenaline, Could you be more explicit what you mean? Could you clarify what specific aspects of iccup you are referring too? Additionally, I've heard there are warcraft 3 clan options as well that were not included into sc2. If someone could explain i would be very interested in learning more. iCCup used to have (and still kind of do) a fantastic clan league system. Division A where the top 10 clans battled it out against each other over 9 weeks (playing each other all once) and the top 4 would play a playoffs and win cash prizes. Then you have Divison B1/B2. Same system except the top 4 of both B1/B2 divisions would battle it out to advance to Division A over cash prizes. The bottom 4 of Division A would have to fight to stay in division A against the top Division B teams.Then you also had C Divisions where they battled to get into Division B due to the immense popularity of the clan league system. It was really nice and highly popular. But that was the gist. edit: words.
This all sounds great...except any kind of clan war would have to be easier to set up on B.net. We have to remember that even though SCII is a hardcore game, many of the players we'd want to participate are casuals with jobs, kids, other games.
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On June 28 2015 18:24 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:Show nested quote +On June 28 2015 08:25 tokinho wrote:On June 27 2015 20:09 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it. Syz-Adrenaline, Could you be more explicit what you mean? Could you clarify what specific aspects of iccup you are referring too? Additionally, I've heard there are warcraft 3 clan options as well that were not included into sc2. If someone could explain i would be very interested in learning more. iCCup used to have (and still kind of do) a fantastic clan league system. Division A where the top 10 clans battled it out against each other over 9 weeks (playing each other all once) and the top 4 would play a playoffs and win cash prizes. Then you have Divison B1/B2. Same system except the top 4 of both B1/B2 divisions would battle it out to advance to Division A over cash prizes. The bottom 4 of Division A would have to fight to stay in division A against the top Division B teams.Then you also had C Divisions where they battled to get into Division B due to the immense popularity of the clan league system. It was really nice and highly popular. But that was the gist. edit: words.
I agree. I would really like to have a more developed version of the clan league play. I especially like having a tiered system. So imagine there are 24 clans on all of starcraft. Than rank 1-8 all play each other, then 7 and 8 drop to tier 2 while 9 and 10 jump to tier 1. Also, I really like the idea of having sponsorship which is promoted through the Interface. I need to think a bit more on how that is easily integrated. This is in general what i'm thinking so far for format. I think it helps on how to develop weekly tournaments and have the matches available.
+ Show Spoiler +
Any comments about how to include better clan develoment are appreciated on this.
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On June 28 2015 20:38 wUndertUnge wrote:Show nested quote +On June 28 2015 18:24 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:On June 28 2015 08:25 tokinho wrote:On June 27 2015 20:09 sYz-Adrenaline wrote:
So iCCup style?
edit: I've been meaning to sponsor something like this but I need to find the person to organize it. Syz-Adrenaline, Could you be more explicit what you mean? Could you clarify what specific aspects of iccup you are referring too? Additionally, I've heard there are warcraft 3 clan options as well that were not included into sc2. If someone could explain i would be very interested in learning more. iCCup used to have (and still kind of do) a fantastic clan league system. Division A where the top 10 clans battled it out against each other over 9 weeks (playing each other all once) and the top 4 would play a playoffs and win cash prizes. Then you have Divison B1/B2. Same system except the top 4 of both B1/B2 divisions would battle it out to advance to Division A over cash prizes. The bottom 4 of Division A would have to fight to stay in division A against the top Division B teams.Then you also had C Divisions where they battled to get into Division B due to the immense popularity of the clan league system. It was really nice and highly popular. But that was the gist. edit: words. This all sounds great...except any kind of clan war would have to be easier to set up on B.net. We have to remember that even though SCII is a hardcore game, many of the players we'd want to participate are casuals with jobs, kids, other games.
That's why you conduct the league over a Saturday/Sunday when most people students/workers/parents have the time to play. You would just go to a preassigned channel for all to meet up in. You can't accommodate for everyone but you can accommodate for the masses. I believe most players are still between the ages of >16 - 28. While of course you still have your broodwar veterans that have been around for the 15 years+ in the 30 age range.
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The multiple tech paths/more unit upgrade idea is ridiculous. And the further suggestion that it's paid is abhorrent.
Not all choices are equal. Thus, the feature would be pay for advantage.
But even if it was not paid it would still be a bad idea because it would be extremely difficult to balance.
A better idea along these lines is Hearthstone's Tavern Brawl feature: Every week there are new rules (e.g. zerglings can leap over cliffs, all units explode on death dealing damage nearby, capital ships have their costs reduce and damaged increased, basic units (marine, zealot, zergling) are removed, vikings are replaced with goliaths, etc.). There would be a separate ladder for games with these special rules, and the rankings (percentiles) are revealed at the end of each week, including separately for each race to account for balance concerns.
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On June 30 2015 00:38 paralleluniverse wrote:The multiple tech paths/more unit upgrade idea is ridiculous. And the further suggestion that it's paid is abhorrent. Not all choices are equal. Thus, the feature would be pay for advantage. But even if it was not paid it would still be a bad idea because it would be extremely difficult to balance. A better idea along these lines is Hearthstone's Tavern Brawl feature: Every week there are new rules (e.g. zerglings can leap over cliffs, all units explode on death dealing damage nearby, capital ships have their costs reduce and damaged increased, basic units (marine, zealot, zergling) are removed, vikings are replaced with goliaths, etc.). There would be a separate ladder for games with these special rules, and the rankings (percentiles) are revealed at the end of each week, including separately for each race to account for balance concerns.
So like the paid items, you may be against, but i'd be for it. I don't really care as much about balance for a casual ladder.
As far as the tavern brawl idea, i'm not familiar with it, so maybe that could me something you could elucidate more. My idea does seem a bit cumbersome and maybe yours would be better in the long run.
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My wish list!:
1. WOW Style Factions:
- Race War and Faction War Seasons on ladder! Add all normal ladder win/loss points to the Race or Faction total pool, display total pool prominently in hub screen for Race and Faction pride! i.e this week the Overmind zergs are have more points than the Kerrigan zergs Clans can exist within or across factions/races. People can role play they want, recruit for Raynor's Rebels! Take down the Dominion!
- Faction Ideas:
Protoss: Khala vs Shakuras
Terran: Dominion vs Raynor's Rebels vs UED
Zerg: Kerrigan vs Overmind
- Faction Based Skin Rewards: As you level up within a faction, (just the normal 105 levels will do, no need for new system), you can unlock faction specific skins, such as a cooler hydralisk skin for the Kerrigan faction!
- Faction Based Login Screen Background: i.e. If you belong to the Khala, your login screen background is golden themed, vs Shakuras faction login screen is dark/void themed.
- Faction Based News Delivery: Same News delivered to you by your Faction specific leader portrait. i.e. The Overmind tells you all about the new patch coming through.
- Zero impact to game balance, but creates a sense of belonging to something bigger, like Alliance vs Horde, or within the Horde, Forsaken vs Orcs. I would love to join the Kerrigan faction and show those Overmind zergs how "real" zergs play ZvZ lol.
2. Diablo Style Loot (skin) Generator:
- Armor System (purely cosmetic): Each unit get a few pieces of armor slot, (i.e. new Spikes on the head of a Roach, new Rifle for a marine). Have a armory screen like the Campaign, where you can go in and add cosmetic armor for each unit.
- Loot can be generated randomly on any ladder win, or with restrictions: i.e. may be you can only get that badass new Sniper Rifle for your Ghost through TvZ victories.
- Zero impact to game balance, but creates a whole new level of incentives to grind the ladder. Show off your better looking units to your friends and enemies! A Legendary Psy-Blade drop for your Zealots anyone??
- Potential in-game micro transactions for unique cosmetic armor pieces? MOBAS all have it, why not add to Starcraft 2. I bought the Collector's Edition HOTS purely for the Ultralisk skin
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Hey Tokinho,
I agree that there needs to be more discussion on the interface and that the game can definitely be more social and have us connect with others, whether that be progamers, tournaments or regular joes.
Warcraft 3 had a pretty good interface but even that can be tempered to be much more social. League of Legends and Dota are more up to date versions of games that really get the players immersed in the whole game culture.
I made a pretty lengthy post over in the blogs section on non-balance changes, if you want you can post there or take some ideas from there into your thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/489043-fixing-lotv-the-ultimate-guide
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United States4883 Posts
1) In game rewards:
Yes, I agree on all the points here. At the beginning of HotS, they promised skins and icons and all kinds of neat things to unlock, but they stopped supporting that area as soon as the game was actually released and they got their initial money from the game. As I've said over and over again, Blizzard really can't afford to continue on without a marketplace for micro transactions. Otherwise, LotV will follow the same footsteps as its predecessors: the game is released, Blizzard makes a big chunk of money, and then drops development because there is no incentive. The leveling system is also a joke; I reached 105 in the HotS beta. For comparison, the level system in League of Legends is very important because you have to level up to max level (30) before you're allowed to play ranked games, which takes around 80-100 games.
2) Clan Play:
I come from a WC3 background, and the strongest pull for having a clan was that we could have our own private chat channel which we could moderate. The lack of easily accessible chat channels all but kills this need, and there's simply no need to join a clan if you already have a group of people you communicate with consistently over Skype, etc. Also, the ability to see how your clan ranked in comparison to other clans based on wins/losses in WC3 was pretty neat ^^.
3) Sponsorship and Tournaments:
Yeah, SC2 could work on improving viewship by adding more to the in-game menu. Dota 2 actually does this very well by broadcasting live tournaments in the main menu and giving you a direct link to the stream. There are also several chat options that allow you to talk with other people about what's going on in the tournament at that moment. SC2 has small announcements, but having an entire page dedicated to searching for a game isolates the player and kills a lot of opportunity for Blizzard to advertise news/tournaments/etc. I mean, even looking at WC3, they moved the "searching for game" icon after the beta to the top of the screen just so it wouldn't interrupt the chat windows.
Those are just some general thoughts ^^. You wanted me to give some, so there they are!
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+ Show Spoiler +On July 02 2015 00:16 SC2John wrote:
1) In game rewards:
Yes, I agree on all the points here. At the beginning of HotS, they promised skins and icons and all kinds of neat things to unlock, but they stopped supporting that area as soon as the game was actually released and they got their initial money from the game. As I've said over and over again, Blizzard really can't afford to continue on without a marketplace for micro transactions. Otherwise, LotV will follow the same footsteps as its predecessors: the game is released, Blizzard makes a big chunk of money, and then drops development because there is no incentive. The leveling system is also a joke; I reached 105 in the HotS beta. For comparison, the level system in League of Legends is very important because you have to level up to max level (30) before you're allowed to play ranked games, which takes around 80-100 games.
2) Clan Play:
I come from a WC3 background, and the strongest pull for having a clan was that we could have our own private chat channel which we could moderate. The lack of easily accessible chat channels all but kills this need, and there's simply no need to join a clan if you already have a group of people you communicate with consistently over Skype, etc. Also, the ability to see how your clan ranked in comparison to other clans based on wins/losses in WC3 was pretty neat ^^.
3) Sponsorship and Tournaments:
Yeah, SC2 could work on improving viewership by adding more to the in-game menu. Dota 2 actually does this very well by broadcasting live tournaments in the main menu and giving you a direct link to the stream. There are also several chat options that allow you to talk with other people about what's going on in the tournament at that moment. SC2 has small announcements, but having an entire page dedicated to searching for a game isolates the player and kills a lot of opportunity for Blizzard to advertise news/tournaments/etc. I mean, even looking at WC3, they moved the "searching for game" icon after the beta to the top of the screen just so it wouldn't interrupt the chat windows.
Those are just some general thoughts ^^. You wanted me to give some, so there they are!
Thanks SC2John!!! I appreciate it. I wish i would have played wc3 to truly understand what people refer to in terms of the community model there.
My microtransaction model and casual ladder need work but thanks for taking the time to look at my 3 main opinions on how to improve community and to a lesser extent my diversity model to increase strategy and include microtransactions.
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didn't read the whole thing) I think adding micro transactions will be good to make players have a goal and play more.
This Idea is pretty much exactly the same how (Dota/CSGO) works and focused more on aesthetics.
1. Units and Buildings Skins/Themes - As a CSGO player from its early days I kinda go bored playing (casual) it after a year, the thing kept me playing it continuosly was when they introduced skins, it doesn't affect gameplay but something that keeps the game to feel/look fresh from time to time. "New contnent" . Imo collecting those are pretty fun and can somewhat lessen stress after losing when you get rewards.
How will it work: After End of a Match (from Ranked/Unranked) both/all have a small chance to get a crate or something that contains the skins (pretty much like how dota and csgo works). The drop rate is very low so to avoid quitting on purpose. You can open it by using a key that can be bought in a Blizzard Market (i will discuss it later) or trade it from other players that has it.
There are a lots of Units and Buildings x 3 race. So yeah there's a lot to collect. and that's just a for a particular theme.
2. Buyable / Customizable decals - Just like above, players can get a skin or a decal crate which can be unlocked by a key but different from the skin key.
-Customizable decals - Can be bought in the market directly and make a decal of whatever image you like. But you cannot change it once you finalized it.
3. Voice / Sound Packs - Can be only be bought directly at the Blizzard Market. and cannot be traded since its a pretty big file Ithink? And would be complicated for the system for it to be tradeable. ex: BW sound pack
4. Blizzard Market - For the above suggestions to work, ofc Blizzard needs a Market platform just like steam where players can trade / sell / buy stuff. Not limited to SC2 but all Blizzard games.
Tho this may be hard (or easy ) to implement, I think the only con for this micro transactions is a bigger game file size.
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Russian Federation93 Posts
On May 22 2015 01:48 sh1RoKen wrote:The main reasons of incredible popularity of DotA, LoL and CS:GO are social activities and the ability of non-skill ingame development. There are millions and millions of people playing DotA all day at 2k mmr with no intent of improving their skill. Starcraft need those people to survive the battle for sponsors and viewers. The main problem in SC2 in my opinion is the lack of social activity. Playing with your friends is much more interesting than playing alone. I don't want it to be 2v2 or Archon mode focused game but we totally need to interact with our friends while playing 1v1. All described below is for motivating CASUAL players to play the game. Clans are great but we need them to be active and somehow beneficial for a player (not for the best players). What I mean is that all players must be interested in joining a clan and benefit from playing better for a clan and representing that clan somehow BUT without losing the interest because they are not in top of ML. If only the best clans will be profitable, there will be no point of participating in such activities unless you are one of the best players. The number of clan members must be limited to 10-15 members so there will be point in more careful process of choosing clans/members. The main objective of playing ladder should be skill improvement FOR achieving better results in clan activities. And the ladder itself should give something besides useless points, ranks and portraits (but clan activities must be more beneficial). Player must have a motivation of casual laddering even if he doesn't want to improve himself. Show nested quote +On May 21 2015 17:26 Korakys wrote:
5. Make game easier to play.
6. Make game harder to master.
Damn right! The game must became more like "football". From the very first time you touch a ball it must be interesting and fun to play. For two bronze players the game should be like they are in GSL final. Right now it is like "swimming". Do you know how fun is to swim if you can't swim? You have to play 200-300 games very carefully and very straining until it will start to look like a starcraft. You have to freaking WORK for a month to start receiving a fun game experience! And you have to do it ALONE without getting anything but 3 portraits and 1 unit and 1 building skins. And you must pay 60$ to be able to try it.
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They need to fire whoever they have at Blizzard and hire you, immediately.
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It does blow my mind slightly that they haven't leapt on portraits more. It'd be so simple to implement e-sport related portraits right?
I always thought it'd be a really good idea to brinng in "pets". Remember the jokes Tastosis would make about the flying shark, or Automaton 2000? Kinda like those. Players could unlock slots for pets that would spawn somewhere on the map decoratively. Allowing the other player to sometimes stumble onto whatever weird creature their opponent has could be a fun addition to the game that wouldn't effect core game play. Possibility for WoW/Diablo tie ins as well. Also along these lines I believe anything to customise on the battlefield should be a potential micro transaction. Why can't the Hellions have different flame styles pre blue flame? Could do the same with Reaper jetpacks, and I'm sure there are lots of ideas to be found if you go through every unit. Giving players more meaningful rewards that allows them to put their personality into a game they join is a really good way to give players more casual creativity, and also feel more connected to other players inside the game. This is one of the biggest problem areas for casual players in my mind.
I heard this mentioned somewhere else, and am not sure if it goes with this thread, but giving the start of games a countdown. I really think this should happen as there is really no massive downside. The amount of times the loading bar has suddenly caught me by surprise, and I know I can't be alone. Now the games begin faster it would also give lower level players more time to set their hotkeys and camera locations. It might make a lot of casual players feel more comfortable.
My two pennies.
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I quite like the casual ladder idea. I wouldn't give a shit since I'm quite a competitive person and wish SC2 at the highest level was more like chess, very standardized (hell even those skins you can't disable set my teeth on edge), but that may have potential to draw people in.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/e5J2NyP.png)
