With the Heart of the Swarm release right around the corner, GHOSTCLAW and I (shindigs) were invited to Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California for a new preview session on the expansion. The preview focused mainly on the single-player campaign elements, with lots changes made new information released since the last preview. We were also able to preview some new features for multiplayer, but it was unclear if they would be patched into Wings of Liberty, or if they would have to wait until the release of Heart of the Swarm.
After making our way past the huge bronze Thrall statue, signing NDAs, and meeting up with other press, we were led in the theater room. We were treated to a viewing of the Heart of the Swarm opening cinematic, and the preview was on its way.
Opening cinematic for Heart of the Swarm
New Features
Dustin Browder’s presentation went over some of the new elements of the campaign and multiplayer, though much of it was information that had already been released. In the campaign, Kerrigan is out for revenge against Mengsk, and looks to regain her powers and control over the Zerg swarm. In multiplayer, there was an outline of new features such as global play, multi-language support, resume from replay, and groups/clans. There were still notable tidbits of new information to be gleaned, and a new video demo showcased some features not yet seen in the multiplayer beta.
Campaign and gameplay trailer
Training mode In an effort to assist players in transitioning from the campaign experience to the ladder experience, a series of training missions and tutorials attempt to outline the fundamentals of competitive online play. The training mode includes tips that remind players to utilize their race macro mechanic, build workers, and follow a structured build order.
Tooltips and objectives help guide new ladder players in training mode
“Matchmaking” with AI Playing against AI opponents can be done through an automated ‘matchmaking’ system very similar to ladder, where you will be matched against AI deemed to be near your skill level. Browder elaborated that this feature was to provide a more fulfilling experience for those training with AI, who did not have to experiment with switching between selections such as “medium” or “hard” to determine which computer opponent would best match their skill level. Players can now click a button similar to find match to be immediately matched against an AI that correlates with their skill level.
Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Customizable observer UI We were treated to a video demo of how a customized observer UI would like in-game. The new UI introduced the ability to have the production tab and an upgrades tab to be on the screen simultaneously, on opposite sides of the screen. The bottom control panel was phased out in favor of more tabs for resource and supply count. Player names and supply were also displayed in a new way at the top of a transparent board. Overall, the demo really drove the idea home that the observer UI can be tweaked to the user’s content.
Physics engine While the new unit physics were announced at Blizzcon 2011 and are present in the current beta, the demo showcased a few new elements in the engine. The physics can be manipulated in the data editor of the Galaxy Editor, giving map makers control over how units can physically interact with the world. The demo video we were shown had two groups of ghosts shooting at one another, with bodies flying extravagantly across the screen.
Other video demos showcased dead units sliding across the terrain, off cliffs and into lakes. Massive units were shown to be able to kick around dead units and debris.
Campaign Demo
After the presentation, we were lead to demo three missions from the middle of the campaign. Similar to Raynor’s Hyperion, the Leviathan that Kerrigan and her 'crew' resides in acts as the base of operations where you can be briefed on your mission, talk to your advisors, and upgrade your army. Clicking on Kerrigan will reveal the capability to upgrade her abilities that benefit both herself and your army.
Kerrigan's base of operations inside the mouth of a massive Leviathan
Kerrigan
Kerrigan fulfills the role as your army’s hero unit and levels up throughout the course of the campaign. The Battle Focus menu has been redone to include an RPG element in which higher levels unlock more abilities for Kerrigan and your army. Kerrigan can reach a maximum of level 60, and gains experience from completing missions and bonus objectives. By the end of our demo, we were only capable of reaching level 17, including bonus mission rewards. Finally, when Kerrigan died in the demo missions, she regenerated after sixty seconds.
Kerrigan's abilities increase with each level, and also buff your army as a whole.
Kerrigan’s abilities can be toggled in between missions, but you have to select between one of two abilities per ‘row’. Note that the cooldown is in-game seconds.
Requires Level 5
Skill Subset 1 (choose between the two)
Crushing Grip Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Enemies in target area are stunned for 3 seconds and take 30 damage over time. (does not stun heroic units).
Chain Reaction Kerrigan's atack deal normal damage to her target then jump to additional nearby enemies. Deals 10 damage to up to four secondary targets (passive ability).
Skill Subset 2
Kinetic Blast Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Kerrigan deals 300 damage to a target unit or structure from long range.
Heroic Fortitutde Kerrigan gains +200 max life. Life-regeneration rate increased by 100% (passive ability).
Requires Level 10
Zergling Reconstruction Cooldown: 30 seconds. Killed zerglings respawn from primary hatchery at no cost. Respawns up to 10 zerglings every 30 seconds until all zerglings have returned to life (passive).
Improved Overlords Overlords morph instantly and provide 50% more supply (passive ability).
Requires Level 20
Wild Mutation Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 25 seconds. Friendly Zerg units in the target area gain +200 maximum life and 100% increased attack speed for 10 seconds (does not affect heroic units).
Spawn Banelings Cost: 50 mana. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Kerrigan spawns six banelings with timed life.
Requires Level 35
Twin Drones Drones Morph in groups of two at no additional mineral or supply cost (passive ability).
Malignant Creep Your units and structures gain increased life regeneration and 30% increased attack speed on creep. Creep tumors spread creep faster and farther (passive ability).
Requires Level 50
Infest Broodlings Enemies damaged by Kerrigan become infested and spawn two broodings with timed life if killed quickly. (Passive ability)
Fury Each attack temporarily increases Kerrigan’s attack speed by 15%. Can stack up to 75% increased attack speed. (passive ability)
Requires level 60
Drop Pods Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts on cooldown) Delivers Zerg with timed life to the battlefield. Drop-pods contain 40 Zerglings, 5 Roaches, and 5 Hydralisks.
Spawn Leviathan Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts a cooldown.) Summons a mighty flying Leviathan with timed life. Deals massive damage and has energy based abilities. Can attack ground and air units.
Evolution Chamber
The Evolution Chamber is where you apply persistent mutations and evolutions to your units
The evolution chamber is similar to the armory in which you can add persistent upgrades to your units that can be used during missions. How your units can evolve are divided into evolution strains (subspecies) and mutations.
You can toggle between mutation upgrades in between missions.
Mutations
Mutations are toggled skills and upgrades for your units. You choose one of three mutation options that can be changed at any time in between missions.
Select between two baneling subspecies. Choose banelings that leap up cliffs, or banelings that split into more banelings.
Evolution strains
Alongside mutations, you can drastically change the look and capabilities of your units through evolution strains that create a subspecies of units. However, you can only choose one of two competing evolution strains. The evolution process has undergone a number of changes since the last preview, including the ability to preview each evolution in game.
Selecting an evolution strain for your unit begins two "mini-missions", which allow you to harvest 'essence' of native critters that will be applied to your units. The missions conclude when you overrun a small opposing force with your newly evolved units, giving you a quick preview of how they will work in game.
Mini-missions for evolution strains give you the ability to play with your newly upgraded subspecies - raptorlings can leap up and down cliffs.
Zergling Mutations
Hardened Carapace: Gain an additional 10 HP.
Adrenal Overload: +50% attack speed.
Metabolic Boost: +60% movement speed.
Evolutions
Raptorling: Gains the ability to leap up and down cliffs and over other units.
Swarmling: Swarmlings spawn at 3 units per egg, and their spawn speed is drastically decreased (near instant).
Baneling Mutations
Corrosive Acid: Increase damage to primary target by 100%
Rupture: increase Splash damage area of effect by 50%.
Regenerative Acid : Heals nearby friendly units and structure
Evolutions
Splitter Baneling: Banelings split into smaller banelings upon detonation, each smaller baneling does 5 damage.
Hunter Baneling: Banelings gain the ability to jump up and down cliffs, as well as leap toward opponents.
Roach Mutations
Hydriodic Bile: Gain +8 damage vs. light units.
Adaptive Plating: Gain +3 armor when life falls below 50%
Tunneling Claws: Move at full speed when burrowed, and gain 100% life regen rate.
Evolutions None available in preview.
Hydralisk Mutations
Frenzy: Gain 50% attack speed for 15 seconds, with 30 second cooldown.
Ancillary Carapace: Gain +20 HP.
Grooved Spines: Gain +1 attack range.
Evolutions None available in preview.
Campaign Queen The campaign introduces the lore of there being a variety of queen species. In our missions, the traditional multiplayer queen was replaced with a Swarm Queen, which has had its model previewed in previous battle reports. Swarm Queens exhibit a number of variations from their counterparts.
Swarm Queens cost 150 minerals and 50 gas.
Swarm Queen speed off creep is faster than Wings of Liberty queens, but they are still faster on creep.
Swarm Queens do not have larvae inject ability, but Hatcheries can spawn over 3 larvae.
The Swarm Queen also has unique abilities:
Rapid Transfuse Cost: 10 Mana. Cooldown: 3 seconds. Heals 25 HP over time (auto cast).
Creep Tumors Cooldown: 3 seconds. Lays down a creep tumor to expand creep.
Mission Preview
Our preview included three, core campaign missions that had to be completed in linear fashion, as opposed to the branching missions in WoL. In our interview with Dustin Browder at the end of our preview, he noted that Heart of the Swarm mission selection will be more linear than its predecessor's campaign.
Preview mission 1: Harvest of Screams - Reclaim Nafash's Brood
Flash freeze holds all your units and buildings in stasis.
Kill the Ursadon Matriarchs to prevent flash freeze.
Reward: +2 Kerrigan Levels.
The mission begins as Kerrigan and her group of zerglings and roaches land upon an ice planet that exhibits "flash freezes" - quick snow storms that hold your units in stasis until they past. Kerrigan is told by Abathar that she needs to harvest 'essence' from Ursadon Matriarchs, which are hostile yeti-like creatures that have resistance to the flash freeze.
Upon killing the Ursadon Matriarch's, you re-encounter a frozen Zerg base which you immediately take control over. Local Protoss forces in the vicinity are notified that the Queen of Blades has returned, and you must make your way around the map while building up your forces to destroy 3 Protoss Psi Spires to cut off communications of the local Protoss encampment, who still fall victim to flash freeze. You are also presented with a bonus objective to kill more Ursadon Matriarchs in order to level up Kerrigan's abilities.
Preview mission 2: Shoot the Messenger - Intercept Protoss Shuttles
Prevent Protoss shuttles from warping off the planet.
Main Objective
Intercept Protoss Shuttles (none can escape).
Reward: +5 Kerrigan Levels.
Bonus Objective
Destroy 3 Protoss protoss psi spires.
Reward: +2 Kerrigan Levels.
Achievements
Warp in Peace – Don’t let a Protoss shuttle begin warping out in the “Shoot the Messenger” mission.
Shoot the messenger – Complete the “Shoot the Messenger” mission in the Heart of the swarm campaign.
Extreme Nexism – Destroy 2 protoss nexuses in Shoot the Messenger mission on Normal Difficulty.
The defeated Protoss forces attempt to board transport shuttles and warp off the planet in order to overcome the loss of the psi spires and call in reinforcements. The mission objective is to intercept the Protoss shuttles before they are able to reach the structure to warp off the planet.
Kerrigan proves to be a powerful and valuable unit capable of sniping shuttles extremely quickly. The trajectory of the shuttles change during each departure so we couldn't camp one spot to snipe all of them. This mission felt very similar in design to The Great Train Robbery in the Wings of Liberty campaign.
As the final shuttle fell, we went back to the Leviathan where we were greeted by a new presence - a captive Protoss.
Preview mission 3: Enemy Within - Infest the Protoss Vessel
Zerg infestation inside a Protoss ship
Main Objective
Infest the Protoss Vessel.
Reward: Unlock Roach evolutions.
Bonus Objective
Infest the Urasadon.
Reward: +2 Kerrigan levels.
Achievements
Biomass effect – collect 450 biomass in the enemy within the mission.
Enemy Within – Complete the “Enemy Within” mission in the Heart of the Swarm campaign.
Failure to Launch – Don’t let an Escape Pod reach less than 20 seconds in "enemy within" mission on normal.
The mission begins on the Leviathan, where Kerrigan is interrogating the new Protoss captive to learn more about their occupation of the planet. Before the Protoss captive is warped back to the rest of her crew, Kerrigan infests her with a parasitic larvae. As the captive warps back to her shuttle, her body explodes releasing the parasitic larva - the first unit you control in this mission.
The parasitic larva is a unique unit that can infest critters found on the Protoss ship - the first of which was a Ursadon that came with its own unique abilities. As you stealthily make your way across the Protoss ship, infesting and kill creatures of all shapes and sizes, you eventually earn the capability to evolve your parasitic larva into a spell casting queen. After liberating a number of Zerg forces located across the ship, you rampage across the corridors, destroying the main reactors and slaughtering all of the Protoss crew.
At the end of the mission, your forces fully infest the planet and set up a base of operations as you await more orders.
Bonus: Brutal campaign
We had time left to play the campaign on brutal difficulty up to the second mission, which is where we got stuck. The new difficulty brought even more fierce Protoss waves with more unit abilities such as charge. What was most surprising, was that Ursadons gained the ability to leap over cliffs and were also aggressive toward the Zerg forces and bases.
Dustin Browder & Image Gallery
After all of that was done, Dustin Browder sat down with us for yet another TeamLiquid interview. Considering that the last time he agreed to such an interview the parody video became almost as popular as the actual interview, we had to give him props for obliging us again.
Apologies for looking down at the phone frequently, was trying to prevent nervously forgetting the next question.
Dustin answered a variety of questions, including but not limited to:
The linearity of the single player experience.
The pathing/clumping behavior of units in StarCraft II and the decision to keep it as is.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
Let's make a trailer for our new game without any of the new units we are introducing to our new game. Dat blizzard logic. In all fairness to them, the trailer was probably in the works before the balance team had any idea what units they were going to keep and such.
On January 22 2013 17:38 Mrvoodoochild1 wrote: Let's make a trailer for our new game without any of the new units we are introducing to our new game. Dat blizzard logic. In all fairness to them, the trailer was probably in the works before the balance team had any idea what units they were going to keep and such.
Well yeah, imagine if they'd had warhounds in this. Or even shredders. Doesn't make sense.
On January 22 2013 17:38 Mrvoodoochild1 wrote: Let's make a trailer for our new game without any of the new units we are introducing to our new game. Dat blizzard logic. In all fairness to them, the trailer was probably in the works before the balance team had any idea what units they were going to keep and such.
Well yeah, imagine if they'd had warhounds in this. Or even shredders. Doesn't make sense.
And who says that there will be no shreders or warhounds in singleplayer?
Really nice interview, I like what how he talked about hidden expos as a factor in map size. Makes me wonder if that is as big a consideration for GSL mapmakers as it is for Blizzard.
So we have Mutations+Evolutions for units, as well as Kerrigan skills. Any word on base upgrades? Or are those passive creep, drone and overlord abilities all?
That opening cinematic was soo damn cool, especially because I have been using a lot of ling/bane/ultra vs terran lately ^_^ Great to hear Brutal is really tough, can't wait!
when i saw the intro i was like fuck yeah kerrigan is back and then she woke up and i was like fuck no... edit: i cannot say i like the cinematic though. its pretty flat, not really any story or anything useful to know apart from kerrigan still dreaming off swarming the men... and that could have been done in like 20 seconds. dont understand me wrong, the quality is awesome but the story doesnt seem to develop into anything more interesting than the first part which i didnt like too much unfortunately
very cool cinematic but just one thing irks me with all the Blizzard cinematics as of late, why does the main protagonist always have to have this multi layered bassy voice? Illidan, Cataclysm, Lich King, Tichus and now Kerrigan, don't get me wrong the cinematics themselves are absolutely awesome but the voice! arrrrrrrrrrgh ><
Amazing coverage by TL ! The interviewer was really stressed out tho...you have to chill man, Dustin is a cool guy no need to put so much pressure on yourself ahahaha :D
And yes my jaw dropped when i was watching the intro video. Every single time blizzard does a cinematic intro i am amazed by its quality, this stuff was just wonderful
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
Yup. And tournaments should probably have them off by default.
I love the idea though.
Ah, this is the kind of preview I was looking forward to. I cannot wait to get my hands on the campaign for HotS, jesus. Thanks TL!
Intro was a bit... not as great as the one for WoL, but the ending sure was neat :>
That cinematic was absolutely beautiful. I do think the reason Terran lost that battle is because his tanks weren't sieged and his vikings were in assault mode.
My absolute favorite part about HotS that i wasnt aware of until now has to be the SKINS. I will play for days upon days to get skins for my marines and company
Dustin answered a variety of questions, including but not limited to: The pathing/clumping behavior of units in StarCraft II and the decision to keep it as is.
Drop Pods Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts on cooldown) Delivers Zerg with timed life to the battlefield. Drop-pods contain 40 Zerglings, 50 Roaches, and 5 Hydralisks.
I really hope all this story with Kerrigan's feeling guilt and raging on Mengsk will not end up like some Disney movie with her return to be a human or new "friendly compassion zergs"
[list][*]Drop Pods Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts on cooldown) Delivers Zerg with timed life to the battlefield. Drop-pods contain 40 Zerglings, 50 Roaches, and 5 Hydralisks.
Well, I guess we don't have to worry about Kerrigan feeling too weak. Even for the last few minutes, that's an instant, free, 130 supply army :O
Even the most basic spell is a yamato cannon for less than half the energy cost.
No offense, but these interviews are so incompetently done. Just rehashing of questions that have already been answered previously and you don't follow up on all the holes in Dustin Browder's arguments.
On January 22 2013 18:38 Ribbon wrote: [list][*]Drop Pods Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts on cooldown) Delivers Zerg with timed life to the battlefield. Drop-pods contain 40 Zerglings, 50 Roaches, and 5 Hydralisks.
Well, I guess we don't have to worry about Kerrigan feeling too weak. Even for the last few minutes, that's an instant, free, 130 supply army :O
Even the most basic spell is a yamato cannon for less than half the energy cost.
I'm scared. What will Blizzard add on Brutal difficulty to balance it O_O
Dustin answered a variety of questions, including but not limited to: The pathing/clumping behavior of units in StarCraft II and the decision to keep it as is.
Drop Pods Cost: 100 mana Cooldown: 300 seconds (This ability starts on cooldown) Delivers Zerg with timed life to the battlefield. Drop-pods contain 40 Zerglings, 50 Roaches, and 5 Hydralisks.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
I would expect that skins only appear from the perspective of the player selecting them - if A is a zerg playing against B, and he has a skin for tanks, marines, and roaches, he will see all tanks, marines, and roaches on the map as having that skin. If B only has the skin selected for zerglings, Hydras and Marauders, he will not see tank.marine.roach as having a skin, but rather only ling/hydra/marauder.
Blizzard cinematics are always jawdropping and this one was no exception. Would love it if Vikings could actually land like that, maintaining their momentum rather than having to stop. Ultralisk crushing a Tank was funny.
Training mode? Why not take a lesson from the moba-games and introduce an overlay that assists new players with builds in the lower leagues in competitive games/ladder games? I played a few moba-games recently, years after playing them very sparingly, and the build-suggestions allowed me to compete and not be completely useless. I can't wrap my head around why they think that adding an ugly graphic showing drone-count (removing an opportunity for pro-players to make a mistake) and an out-of-primary-environment tutorial will help new players, yet leave them completely on their own when it comes to the important part: playing a real match against a real opponent.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
On January 22 2013 17:34 sCCrooked wrote: Curious why there's NOTHING new like the units or abilities in the opening cinema o_O
Also why doesn't that T have any hellbats against all them lings?!
Remember how during WCS, Blizzard kept playing that HotS unit preview video that showcased a bunch of stuff that had already been pulled from the game? Annoying, wasn't it.
These cinematics take months to develop. Blizzard doesn't get the chance to "do over" if the hero unit of the movie gets pulled from the game at the last minute. As such, it makes sense for them to only feature the units they know are definitely going to still be in the game when it comes out.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
I'm more concerned about the performance hit. Not an issue in 1v1, but in team games it could be significant with enough of them. Probably a none/self/all option would suffice. Looking at it from a dota/lol perspective though, it gives casters and spectator's a bit of variety if somebody chooses to use a skin and you can see it.
On January 22 2013 18:14 Noxblood wrote: One question i was hoping to get answered was is there coming or not coming a shared replay feature in HOTS? Sick cinematic as always from Blizzard!
This. Will we be able to watch replays with friends in HotS or not?
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
I'm more concerned about the performance hit. Not an issue in 1v1, but in team games it could be significant with enough of them. Probably a none/self/all option would suffice. Looking at it from a dota/lol perspective though, it gives casters and spectator's a bit of variety if somebody chooses to use a skin and you can see it.
that's true. Already I go down to sub 6 fps lategame, unless this is incredibly well coded, its going to be really annoying.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
I'm more concerned about the performance hit. Not an issue in 1v1, but in team games it could be significant with enough of them. Probably a none/self/all option would suffice. Looking at it from a dota/lol perspective though, it gives casters and spectator's a bit of variety if somebody chooses to use a skin and you can see it.
that's true. Already I go down to sub 6 fps lategame, unless this is incredibly well coded, its going to be really annoying.
If the skins are just different textures, there should be literally no performance hit at all. The size of those textures is pretty small, so additional skins would likely fit on the same texture file (the same texture atlas). There wouldn't be a performance hit since the texture gets drawn anyways, a different skin just means that it gets drawn from a different sub-position in the texture file. The only performance hit with such a change could come if your ram is really small and can't handle the couple of megabytes of additional data, meaning you constantly have to reload stuff from the hard drive.
Is that the first cinematic that had siege tanks in it?
edit.
I think that map marketplace is never going to happen at this point. They've pushed it till the 3rd? If it is delayed after that, then it can only be for Starcraft 3.
Still not happy with pathing explanation.
What do they have against hidden expansions? That's what scouting is for. Oh well, they're conceding.
On January 22 2013 17:38 Mrvoodoochild1 wrote: Let's make a trailer for our new game without any of the new units we are introducing to our new game. Dat blizzard logic. In all fairness to them, the trailer was probably in the works before the balance team had any idea what units they were going to keep and such.
Iconic units are iconic. Zerglings, hydralisks, mutalisks and ultralisks. Marines and Siege Tanks. We're kicking it old school. I guess they have a viking and flash of baneling. Hard to go wrong with the old stuff as they're among the best looking units cinematically. Have we seen a cinematic with a Roach? I have a hard time picturing exactly how they would be beyond their unit sprite. Hydralisks still got that Alien vibe Hard to give that unit up in the video even the actual ingame unit has been relegated to side jobs compared to the hydras of old.
On January 22 2013 18:38 Cheeseling wrote: I really hope all this story with Kerrigan's feeling guilt and raging on Mengsk will not end up like some Disney movie with her return to be a human or new "friendly compassion zergs"
On the second point, you should watch the leaked ending cinematic (which given all the information released so far, I'm 99% sure is real)... and then rage at the cheesiness.
Awesome cinematic, so much high intensity action (although clearly that viking pilot was in bronze league if he thinks he can take an ultra and about 50 lings) :D I'm really looking forward to this, sure multi-player is good and all but I really love RTS single player campaigns. While the story may have been a bit 'lite' I really enjoyed the WoL campaign (enough to play it about 5 times over) and this looks like it's shaping up to be a fun sequel.
I really enjoyed the Single campaign of SC2 WOL and it looks like they are doing a great job at Hots as well and I can't wait. And the intro cinematic kicks ass, as always when it comes to Blizzard, too bad the Terran was bronze level, what noob to land his viking to fight that ultralisk
Mayby insteed of skins (or along them) they should implement Army painter similar to the one WH40k has, would be great for competive play as teams would eg. reginster their colours setup in the way football teams do with their sports wear
On January 22 2013 16:49 Waxangel wrote: When you get to fight a Terran player who lands vikings against ultralisks, you know it's a dream.
Hahaha, the first post wins the thread.
I guess they must administer stimpacks to viking pilots aswell, I don't know why else he would land his ship in front of an ultra . The cinematic vikings look really really cool by the way. They look so dynamic, while ingame they are a really stale and stiff unit, more like a floating missile launcher instead of a dynamic warfighter.
The cinematics also prove siege tanks need a buff :D. It would also have been fun to see 5 blue flame hellions kite all the zerglings around the town square.
On January 22 2013 20:23 Ch3rry wrote: Does evolutionary mini-missions counts into 20 mission campaign limit??
If so, we are looking into shortest RTS single-player campaign ever... (as mini-missions are done in couple of minutes)
Uh no, 20 missions refers to 20 actual missions, as in maps. Mini-missions aren't really missions per se, it's just a colloquialism.
Edit: Btw, did they keep the WC3 style stat increase leveling system from the previous iteration for Kerrigan? That would pretty hilarious given 60 levels.
Nice interview - excluding your cellphone studying! Note it's much more polite to just have a break of a few seconds between questions [which you can always edit out if you want] than to take your attention off of your subject while they are answering your question.
Hidden expos are awesome! I can't really see why that is a reason not to use large maps on ladder. It is very risky but can be rewarding..if you are good you scout for it.
On January 22 2013 16:49 Waxangel wrote: When you get to fight a Terran player who lands vikings against ultralisks, you know it's a dream.
Been sitting on that one a while, hadn't ya?
Great cinematic, as expected of Blizzard. Nothing needs to said about the campaign, at least, as they're fantastic with those. We'll just have to see how the multiplayer pans-out.
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
Very cool cinematic and the campaign seems quite fun. I'm hyped for this !!!
I actually think that the alternative skins are a great thing for esports : In a mirror match, it would be cool to have a player on alternative skins while the other one is on basic's. It might make ZvZ way more watchable.
Still no word on the promised seperate ladders per race ! The unit skins sound pretty awesome, adjusting things to your personal taste.. more personalised gameplay is never bad.
On January 22 2013 21:23 Diks wrote: Very cool cinematic and the campaign seems quite fun. I'm hyped for this !!!
I actually think that the alternative skins are a great thing for esports : In a mirror match, it would be cool to have a player on alternative skins while the other one is on basic's. It might make ZvZ way more watchable.
it prabobly wont have any impact on esport as from spectator and pro point of view it's rather an annoying feature; if it has some impact it'll be an indirect impact (by attracting more casual gamers into play)
The amount of my fangurling that goes into Kerrigan i indescribable. Loved the cinematic! it didn't "spoil" the story (we already knew that, the cinematic doesn't give us anything new lorewise)
atmospherical and visual very great, loved to see how a fullscale invasion of the zerg work, also nice leviathan! all in all HotS seems more relevant than WoL (emphasis on "seems", i don't know yet) concerning the events. So, i doubt that Blizzard will make this "dream" of Kerrigan happen (depicting the same event twice is stupid and they would have spoiled it, so the intro is not what will happen.. or is it?) which means there will be (hopefully) some plottwist and Mengsk won't be the main objective/problem in the campaign
^I think that information is not right. The upgrades for baneling have the same effects/name as for zergling. Probably a mistake on TL's part. There were some other errors as well I noticed.
Damn, I'm excited to play the campaign. The only thing I didn't really like was the hunter baneling - it just seems like Blizzard ran out of evolution ideas and decided to copy the raptorling's. Well, the cinematic made up for it.
Oh man... I have nerd chills all over my belly button after watching that opening cinematic. I went from caring less about the campaign to can't wait to play it lol :D
Cant the interviewer just read/quote the question after the answer. It is normal thing to do, but not listening to answers and looking 50 times per minute to phone is not.
Other than that, nice very nice coverage TL, liked the cinematic a lot.
On January 22 2013 22:32 chrisolo wrote: They should seriously consider making a movie. That quality of CGI is just astonishing.
Simply wow.
Ya but the budget and time needed to make a movie is really really high.
Their quality of CGI is really top-notch. But it is just a 3.00 trailer.
To make a full-fledged SC-based movies would take insane amount of budget and time.
I doubt Blizz would want to invest into movies now. Though it is up to Activision to decide now.
Ye I know this would need a large amount of money and time, but I think it would be a worthy investment. I really dunno any animated movie, which had this quality and was in this more serious genre (I like those Pixar, Disney and co. movies, too, but I would like to see an animated movie in a serious genre as well). And I think many people, even those who aren't familiar with SC would visit the cinemas for this epic movie.
On January 22 2013 22:32 chrisolo wrote: They should seriously consider making a movie. That quality of CGI is just astonishing.
Simply wow.
Ya but the budget and time needed to make a movie is really really high.
Their quality of CGI is really top-notch. But it is just a 3.00 trailer.
To make a full-fledged SC-based movies would take insane amount of budget and time.
I doubt Blizz would want to invest into movies now. Though it is up to Activision to decide now.
Ye I know this would need a large amount of money and time, but I think it would be a worthy investment. I really dunno any animated movie, which had this quality and was in this more serious genre (I like those Pixar, Disney and co. movies, too, but I would like to see an animated movie in a serious genre as well). And I think many people, even those who aren't familiar with SC would visit the cinemas for this epic movie.
I disagreed.
Blizz should stick to what they do best. Which is to make games.
Making a SC movie with this quality of CGI animation would take tens of millions. Not to mention you need a really good director/producer/writer to make a good story of SC. And a lot of marketing.
Blizz expertise lies in producing games. Not making movies which is what the movie-industry does.
SCI/II is popular within the gaming community but not within the public community.
On January 22 2013 22:32 chrisolo wrote: They should seriously consider making a movie. That quality of CGI is just astonishing.
Simply wow.
Ya but the budget and time needed to make a movie is really really high.
Their quality of CGI is really top-notch. But it is just a 3.00 trailer.
To make a full-fledged SC-based movies would take insane amount of budget and time.
I doubt Blizz would want to invest into movies now. Though it is up to Activision to decide now.
Ye I know this would need a large amount of money and time, but I think it would be a worthy investment. I really dunno any animated movie, which had this quality and was in this more serious genre (I like those Pixar, Disney and co. movies, too, but I would like to see an animated movie in a serious genre as well). And I think many people, even those who aren't familiar with SC would visit the cinemas for this epic movie.
I disagreed.
Blizz should stick to what they do best. Which is to make games.
Making a SC movie with this quality of CGI animation would take tens of millions. Not to mention you need a really good director/producer/writer to make a good story of SC. And a lot of marketing.
Blizz expertise lies in producing games. Not making movies which is what the movie-industry does.
SCI/II is popular within the gaming community but not within the public community.
And all of that is why they are making a warcraft movie. Humhumhum.
That opening cinematic really sets the stage for the rest of the game but it also only causes the in-game graphics to look very childish. The linearity could be hope for a more serious plot but then again wasn't the ending spoiled a few years ago?
Also:
Zergling Reconstruction Cooldown: 30 seconds. Killed zerglings respawn form primary hatchery at no cost. Respawns up to 10 zerglings every 30 seconds until al zerglings have returned to life (passive).
On January 22 2013 22:32 chrisolo wrote: They should seriously consider making a movie. That quality of CGI is just astonishing.
Simply wow.
Ya but the budget and time needed to make a movie is really really high.
Their quality of CGI is really top-notch. But it is just a 3.00 trailer.
To make a full-fledged SC-based movies would take insane amount of budget and time.
I doubt Blizz would want to invest into movies now. Though it is up to Activision to decide now.
Ye I know this would need a large amount of money and time, but I think it would be a worthy investment. I really dunno any animated movie, which had this quality and was in this more serious genre (I like those Pixar, Disney and co. movies, too, but I would like to see an animated movie in a serious genre as well). And I think many people, even those who aren't familiar with SC would visit the cinemas for this epic movie.
I disagreed.
Blizz should stick to what they do best. Which is to make games.
Making a SC movie with this quality of CGI animation would take tens of millions. Not to mention you need a really good director/producer/writer to make a good story of SC. And a lot of marketing.
Blizz expertise lies in producing games. Not making movies which is what the movie-industry does.
SCI/II is popular within the gaming community but not within the public community.
And all of that is why they are making a warcraft movie. Humhumhum.
Minor thing, but it'd be nice if you could use XP or whatever to unlock colours for ladder.. Red vs. blue (or green vs. red) gets pretty boring. If two people choose the same colour you can have a backup or whatever. >_<
On January 22 2013 23:21 thezanursic wrote: Nice even though. I don't play SC2 multiplayer anymore because of obvious reasons I'm really excited for the campaign!
Wow, I know Blizzard loves cliche and cheesy dialogue, but this takes the cake. I don't think it is literally possible to write more gut-wrenchingly hideously stupid dialogue.
Of course the animation quality (and music too I might add) was absolutely stellar, but I really don't think that voice-over was necessary in the slightest.
I guess it's a follow-up/tribute to the first half of Brood War's ending cinematic? (which had equally-poor dialogue, and impressive graphics for the times)
On January 22 2013 23:32 jubil wrote: Wow, I know Blizzard loves cliche and cheesy dialogue, but this takes the cake. I don't think it is literally possible to write more gut-wrenchingly hideously stupid dialogue.
Of course the animation quality (and music too I might add) was absolutely stellar, but I really don't think that voice-over was necessary in the slightest.
I guess it's a follow-up/tribute to the first half of Brood War's ending cinematic? (which had equally-poor dialogue, and impressive graphics for the times)
On January 22 2013 23:32 jubil wrote: Wow, I know Blizzard loves cliche and cheesy dialogue, but this takes the cake. I don't think it is literally possible to write more gut-wrenchingly hideously stupid dialogue.
Of course the animation quality (and music too I might add) was absolutely stellar, but I really don't think that voice-over was necessary in the slightest.
I guess it's a follow-up/tribute to the first half of Brood War's ending cinematic? (which had equally-poor dialogue, and impressive graphics for the times)
Terrible terrible interview, just extremely unprofessional. Not the way that I would like my site represented when interviewing a major company. STOP LOOKING AT YOUR PHONE.
To be completely honest, it looks quite badass. Not sure if I will get it but this post made me want it a little bit. And Blizzard always had badass cinematics (nothing will ever top the WC3 ones though).
On January 23 2013 00:39 Frins wrote: That viking..... epic landing... sad dead
Just like every time you actually land a Viking.
It looks awesome but if you don't know what you are doing it will be bad in 99.9% of cases. So props to Blizz for making the trailer so similar to multiplayer gameplay Really cool stuff.
The opening video looks amazing. Like the detail that is in there I don't think ive ever seen quality like that before other than maybe skyrim. Its very hard to make all of those units come to life like that.
Amazing post! The screenshots the interview were great. The cinematic blow me away i loved watching those ultras stomp on the tank Can't wait for HotS!
Them terrans didn't really put themselves in a good position. They should take some lessons from the battle of thermopylae. They literally just put themselves in a bad position.
Really cool video, and I enjoy listening to Browder talk about the things to come. Keep it up TL!
Good stuff. HotS is looking good. Please take my money, Blizzard. Glad that skins look to be through in-game stuff so far rather than a cash grab though.
@killy666 A nydus worm is guess. But 100% not an Ultra
A question: as this is not a zerg world, the Leviathan transported Lings/Banes/Hydras via Zerg-Pods. And how the Ultras? lorewise it is unexplained in the trailer... just curious lawl. Also strange that they already have a Nydus Network... which doesn't make sense but who knows, maybe KerrKerr already invaded another side of the planet so it could set itself up.
LVU for the Leviathan, i didn't like the Ultra/lings scenes though. The beginning with the pods/Vikings/Behemoth is far better! And then fucking iconic Kerrigan swinging her leg fucking iconic on dat dead... something. More iconic than Madonnas whole career tbh.
But seriously, Blizzard made a leap forward in the cinematics! Visually at least. The Zerg seem alive and it's hell to render 50.000 of lings on one screen. The Ultras only look good from the front, but not from above or behind... not zergy :D Augustgrad looked really good from above, 15/10 points for the visuals!
Kerrigans speech is laughable as always but that's why we like her so much, don't we? Also... what did she mean with "at last in this world..."
The end bothered me a bit. Not the fact that it was a dream, but that it portrays Kerrigan a bit weird. For people who don't know the storyline and already hated the "amnesiac" Kerrigan for being weak, insecure, this will give them the rest. I hope you got my point.
TL;DR
All in all my faith in HotS has not been destroyed and i applaud the Cinematic!
I just have 1 big question: Will the campaign be played in "fast" or "faster" mode?
I would love to play the WoL campaign again, but after a few missions I just get so annoyed about how slow the game feels compared to multiplayer that I quit & don't play single player for the next few days / weeks
On January 23 2013 00:48 Serinox wrote: Can't believe they used the Wilhelm scream...
Looks epic otherwise :D
Ahaha I heard that. It wasn't quite a full Wilhelm :p
The trailer does a pretty fantastic job of capturing the personality of units while making them look realistic rather than cartoonish.
The matchmaking vs A.I. sounds interesting, as well as the other new things.
Some of the campaign bonuses, plus Kerrigan's strength, look so extreme, it makes me wonder what exactly matches up to that to make the campaign difficult. The description of Brutal sounds promising.
DB's talk on the story was also encouraging, though it's not really his department.
Damn you. On the first view i didn't hear the wilhelm scream and i had to google it to know what i means. now i always have to rofl on that scene. It is my most loved and most hated Cinematic now.
On January 22 2013 23:21 thezanursic wrote: Nice even though. I don't play SC2 multiplayer anymore because of obvious reasons I'm really excited for the campaign!
obvious reasons?
People are getting so entrenched in negativity in those forums that they don't even feel the need to justify those comments anymore. Everything bad about starcraft is now "obvious reasons". *Sigh*
On January 23 2013 01:10 Mahogany wrote: I just have 1 big question: Will the campaign be played in "fast" or "faster" mode?
I would love to play the WoL campaign again, but after a few missions I just get so annoyed about how slow the game feels compared to multiplayer that I quit & don't play single player for the next few days / weeks
You can speed up the game speed in the options menu. Go play the single player!
Having rewards for playing multiplayer is a really good idea by blizzard. In wol there is not much of a incentive to play ladder unless you enjoy it, which a lot of people do but It can be frustrating. You either win and feel good or lose and feel bad. With rewards it gives you a goal to reach which makes it easier to keep on playing even though you might be on a losing streak.
I just hope skins dont make units unrecognizable. I also wonder how tournaments are going to deal with it? Maybe tthey will force players to not use skins or maybe there can be a option to not see skins.
I have a feeling that the story will mostly be about Kerrigan's struggle to keep her need for vengeance against Mensk from getting the best of her. You know, standard Chris Metzen stuff.
I noticed there was no mention of "Replays with friends". I hope that this was just something that may have been skipped over, and will still be available upon release.
Terran was bad. Landing vikings vs ultras and werent even seiged. He got caught totally unprepared and got owned. He needed to make hellbats and more ravens!! Also zerg needs to make viper to dark swarm that bio ball!
Kind of a shame in regards to the back tracking on the market place. If memory recalls they had eluded to it coming with HoTS at some point after the initial release (could be wrong).
I still have pause in regards to the clan system and what it will end up being. One of the largest downfalls from my point of view was the absolutely abysmal system they put in place to make WoL not unlike the movie aliens where 'nobody can hear you scream'. Adding a clan system is a step in the right direction, but if they don't add the proper tools to help new players or players getting back into the game to find those things they'll end up being mostly meaningless. Hopefully they've learned their lesson but based on past interactions where they just don't seem to be 'in sync' with the community and extremely slow to react (see the map pool as a good example) I am a bit wary that they'll get it right this time.
For TL: Great post awesome interview and preview. HoTS has the potential to really help some of the issues WoL had both in the multi-player and community scenes, here is to the hope they get it right.
On January 23 2013 01:37 Chainedsage wrote: Having rewards for playing multiplayer is a really good idea by blizzard.
Haha yeah, "good idea by blizzard". Couple of years late to the party, but I guess it's still better than never.
Those Blizzard fellers are real inventors, next I hear they will create some kind of circular device with a rotating axis that will allow for easy transport of comparatively heavy objects.
Oops, sorry for the baneling mutation mixup. Here are the actual mutations for Baneling, they will be edited into the OP soon:
Corrosive Acid - Increase damage to primary target by 100% Rupture - increase splash damage area of effect by 50% Regenerative Acid - heals nearby friendly units and structure
Really cool cinematic! Love how they toy with the scale of the units. Probably should be some kind of ingame effect when bringing down a battlecruiser if that's what happens...
Yeah it's pretty childish, i know, but I'm actually looking forward to the leveling system xP
Also Dustin Browder did a great interview. He seems like a smart and pretty down to earth guy after all
On January 23 2013 01:06 Denda Reloaded wrote: @killy666 A nydus worm is guess. But 100% not an Ultra
A question: as this is not a zerg world, the Leviathan transported Lings/Banes/Hydras via Zerg-Pods. And how the Ultras? lorewise it is unexplained in the trailer... just curious lawl. Also strange that they already have a Nydus Network... which doesn't make sense but who knows, maybe KerrKerr already invaded another side of the planet so it could set itself up.
LVU for the Leviathan, i didn't like the Ultra/lings scenes though. The beginning with the pods/Vikings/Behemoth is far better! And then fucking iconic Kerrigan swinging her leg fucking iconic on dat dead... something. More iconic than Madonnas whole career tbh.
But seriously, Blizzard made a leap forward in the cinematics! Visually at least. The Zerg seem alive and it's hell to render 50.000 of lings on one screen. The Ultras only look good from the front, but not from above or behind... not zergy :D Augustgrad looked really good from above, 15/10 points for the visuals!
Kerrigans speech is laughable as always but that's why we like her so much, don't we? Also... what did she mean with "at last in this world..."
The end bothered me a bit. Not the fact that it was a dream, but that it portrays Kerrigan a bit weird. For people who don't know the storyline and already hated the "amnesiac" Kerrigan for being weak, insecure, this will give them the rest. I hope you got my point.
TL;DR
All in all my faith in HotS has not been destroyed and i applaud the Cinematic!
when the pods drop units they are still in egg form. so the ultras just hatch from the egg just like the lings but they take a little longer than zerglings and hydras
Brilliant intro movie, i sometimes wonder if Blizzard could actually make a movie for Cinema release, Its got all the components. Rogue Hero, hot chick kidnapped into something else, creepy crawlies and funky aliens running around shouting "My Life For Aiur!"
Getting excited. I hope they can make the multiplayer more different than WoL right now. When I play the beta I find I force myself to use HotS units as opposed to wanting to incorporate them into my mix.
I must say thats some devious engineering. Instead of making the weapons rotate so that the viking can shoot both ground and air you make the viking transform so that it can walk! Ingenious
On January 23 2013 04:19 ACrow wrote: Thanks for the preview! Nice (and cheesy) cinematic, I'm actually really pumped for the campaign now. That Zerg is totally hacking though.
Zerg was hacking? It was the Terran that sieged up on the low-ground on Metalopolis in the first place.
Just think boys and girl... those are in-game graphics for the games our kids will play.
That seige tank sliding in front of that ultralisk, trying to kill it, and then the viking flying over it and transforming into landing mode! SICK! O.O I wish the viking landing would look like this in the actual game!
Unit skins unlocked with experience sound really neat. I think an option should be provided to view enemy units with their normal skins if people don't want to see the skins their opponents have chosen, though.
Anyone notice that in the Kaldir (? Ice Planet) screenshots, when everything gets frozen, the Overlords are too heavy to fly, so they're stuck to the ground :D
On January 23 2013 05:36 Dantat wrote: I can't believe people are calling the intro epic or awesome.
I've never been so "meh" at a blizzard trailer before.
We basically just saw: 1. Three fighters attacking some gigantic mother ship (???) 2. Zerg A-moving into a siege line.
Coupled with some lame action beat in the background.
Your nuts, that trailer was amazing and epic. it wasn't intended to be a 1v1, its part of the story line (where the zerg pwns). Plus I'm sure you can create a beautiful cinematic with your CG skillz... right?
I thought the viking was buying time so the banshees could fly back and get into position before Upton the Ultralisk makes his way to the tank line. Same way people leave units behind in ladder so rest of army can escape.
Definitely looking forward to the new campaign dynamics and expansion in general.
All i though after playing the beta of HOTS for a couple weeks was "I need to move to another game". Blizzard doesn't know what they're doing, so i went do Valve and Dota2
The cinematic is cool. The visuals are sick, though Kerrigan's dialogue is a bit cheesy. The ending redeemed the cheesy lines a bit. I was thinking- oh boy, here's the cliche standing-watching-the-army-invade pose. Then the little twist at the end saved it
I'm actually pretty excited for the new campaign. I really enjoyed WoL's single-player
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Physics engine While the new unit physics were announced at Blizzcon 2011 and are present in the current beta, the demo showcased a few new elements in the engine. The physics can be manipulated in the data editor of the Galaxy Editor, giving map makers control over how units can physically interact with the world. The demo video we were shown had two groups of ghosts shooting at one another, with bodies flying extravagantly across the screen.
Other video demos showcased dead units sliding across the terrain, off cliffs and into lakes. Massive units were shown to be able to kick around dead units and debris.
Any elaborations on that part? I'm very interested in this and I wonder what else they would add, because right now you can already modify and access the physics data of HotS via the editor and it looks pretty finished.
I'll take that opportunity and shamelessly plug my work in progress map here where you can see some of the HotS exclusive Physics stuff.
On January 22 2013 17:38 Mrvoodoochild1 wrote: Let's make a trailer for our new game without any of the new units we are introducing to our new game. Dat blizzard logic. In all fairness to them, the trailer was probably in the works before the balance team had any idea what units they were going to keep and such.
That just ain't so dood, u blind ? Check out the speed on that Hydraliskheeeee...
i love the trailer i wish they'd make a full like 2 hour movie, but i noticed so many little things wrong ..
no hots units shown (minus drop pods which aren't in multiplayer) ud figure they'd maybe showcase these new units in the expansion right?
there's a billboard with no add on it for some reason? why not plaster that in an igun add thats weathered and starting to ware away or something?
nothing actually knocks the mengsk statue down it falls on its own. (^^^ my only conclusion is maybe the nydus shifted its foundation making it fall on its own? but i mean come on, just have an ultra crash into it or muta's shoot at it maybe?)
the building in the background when kerrigan stands on the statue doesnt match up, (and no its not the other side of the city look at the position of the sun, assuming there is only 1 for this planet) look at 2:02 and then when shes standing there after the blast, the buildings dont match up and arent even the same one/model.
a bunch of the zerglings run past the siege tanks and appear to be on move command(not rly critical is just something i noticed)
there are no banlings shown in the panned out picture yet u see them in the zoomed up(did someone press X?)
the siege tanks rate of fire is way to low and they wouldn't of gotten over run THAT fast(dont harp on me about this one, i just honestly feel with something close to 28 siege tanks they'd hold out longer than what felt like 10 seconds)
and a battlecruiser that big? i mean wicked , looks amazing but....maybe a tad too large?
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Physics engine While the new unit physics were announced at Blizzcon 2011 and are present in the current beta, the demo showcased a few new elements in the engine. The physics can be manipulated in the data editor of the Galaxy Editor, giving map makers control over how units can physically interact with the world. The demo video we were shown had two groups of ghosts shooting at one another, with bodies flying extravagantly across the screen.
Other video demos showcased dead units sliding across the terrain, off cliffs and into lakes. Massive units were shown to be able to kick around dead units and debris.
Any elaborations on that part? I'm very interested in this and I wonder what else they would add, because right now you can already modify and access the physics data of HotS via the editor and it looks pretty finished.
I'll take that opportunity and shamelessly plug my work in progress map here where you can see some of the HotS exclusive Physics stuff.
Wow that UMS looks amazing. Well the demo we saw was nothing that's been released or discussed prior - all these physics changes may already be in the beta but I thought it was worthwhile to point it out as a nice feature. I also highlight the physics for units falling off cliffs and massive units knocking corpses around, which I didn't see in the Blizzcon 2011 demo or YouTube videos.
Being able to edit the physics in data editors was new to us too.
I should have also mentioned that the elaborate deaths only happen in certain circumstances to avoid clutter in large battles. For example, purposes only start flying once their are little to no units left on the field.
On January 23 2013 05:36 Dantat wrote: I can't believe people are calling the intro epic or awesome.
I've never been so "meh" at a blizzard trailer before.
We basically just saw: 1. Three fighters attacking some gigantic mother ship (???) 2. Zerg A-moving into a siege line.
Coupled with some lame action beat in the background.
Last time we saw a marine being built and we though it was cool.
I watched that again and still think it's cool!
That being said, I'm not sure why Dantat liked watching a marine built more than this.
True, I did! Watching that marine suit up was deep... There was emotion, anticipation, excitement. Why? It was an announcement trailer for a sequel to the best RTS ever made more than decade later.
But thisss.... well I can tune in to the next episode of GSL (well this trailer was more flashy and sparkly I'll give you that).
On January 23 2013 05:36 Dantat wrote: I can't believe people are calling the intro epic or awesome.
I've never been so "meh" at a blizzard trailer before.
We basically just saw: 1. Three fighters attacking some gigantic mother ship (???) 2. Zerg A-moving into a siege line.
Coupled with some lame action beat in the background.
Last time we saw a marine being built and we though it was cool.
I watched that again and still think it's cool!
That being said, I'm not sure why Dantat liked watching a marine built more than this.
True, I did! Watching that marine suit up was deep... There was emotion, anticipation, excitement. Why? It was an announcement trailer for a sequel to the best RTS ever made more than decade later.
But thisss.... well I can tune in to the next episode of GSL (well this trailer was more flashy and sparkly I'll give you that).
True... zerg is probably equally OP in GSL
(kidding, although I guess you could argue that zerg would be OP if terran sieges late and didn't manage his eco all game long and got out macroed)
Well I loved the cinematic. Blizzard always great for the little things in their trailers. The rain on the viking's windows. The tracking of the guns as the viking rises. The sheer force of the tank explosions. And the wilhelm scream. Loved it.
Some great stuff in this preview that keeps me looking forward to it, thanks again TL =D
On January 23 2013 01:10 Mahogany wrote: I just have 1 big question: Will the campaign be played in "fast" or "faster" mode?
I would love to play the WoL campaign again, but after a few missions I just get so annoyed about how slow the game feels compared to multiplayer that I quit & don't play single player for the next few days / weeks
You can change the game speed in the menu if you want (it's set to normal by default). Alternatively if you set the difficulty to brutal, it automatically locks you to fastest speed (you can't lower it).
im so excited, wasnt interested in the campaign but seeing all the different stuff you can evolve i cant wait to play and of course the multilayer will be awesome
That video was amazing, I'm getting more anxious every day. Some of those upgrades look almost too overpowered, I am excited to see how they actually play out for me in game~
I hope that the unlockable skins feature allows you to choose if you want all of your Dark Templar to come out with the same skin- I hate the look of the Zer'Atai DTs (the ones with the double-bladed scythe), and I'd much rather have all my DTs have the Lenassa skin (single blade).
Oh man, this is so awesome. I skipped through some of the preview to avoid spoilers (even if there aren't any), but I really cannot be more excited for this game.
I would find amusing someone re-creating those engagements from the cinematic in game and then sarcastically 'casting' it. "Oh dear, he's tilting badly now. Look at that random viking land right in front of that ultralisk and zergling pack...and, wait, sorry to interrupt but huge engage in front of the bridges! Oh no, he is on the wrong side of the choke and those tanks are sieging up waaaay late. This is a disaster!"
The marine tank composition was being caught unsieged. The viking sacrificed himself to buy valuable seconds for the tanks to get into siege mode. That extra round of tank shots probably killed hundreds of zerglings, it was a brilliant tactical maneuver.
I'm curious if there will be a cinematic featuring Protoss more. There has not been a cinematic showing Protoss structures-units, only lonely Zerathul ;( Hope there will be one in HoTS or at least in LoV in x ammount of years.
On January 23 2013 09:07 AllHailTheDead wrote: does anyone know if I pre-order this from gamestop do I get a beta key?
You are better off calling or going in person to see if they do. In some threads, people say that if you pre order at GameStop they print out the beta key on the receipt.
The Viking transformation reminds me of how Starscream transformed in the movie, lol.
All that epic stuff for 1 marine... that gets taken out by Zerglings 10 seconds later !
I remember the first time I watched that, throughout the entire thing my smile just kept getting wider and wider, then I lost it when the rax lit up again at the end. xD
On January 23 2013 06:10 itkovian wrote: The cinematic is cool. The visuals are sick, though Kerrigan's dialogue is a bit cheesy. The ending redeemed the cheesy lines a bit. I was thinking- oh boy, here's the cliche standing-watching-the-army-invade pose. Then the little twist at the end saved it
I'm actually pretty excited for the new campaign. I really enjoyed WoL's single-player
Agreed. I actually like how it ended in a dream instead of the standing watching the army invade pose (especially after the somewhat typical villainous dialogue that is a bit cheesy actually).
On January 23 2013 06:10 itkovian wrote: The cinematic is cool. The visuals are sick, though Kerrigan's dialogue is a bit cheesy. The ending redeemed the cheesy lines a bit. I was thinking- oh boy, here's the cliche standing-watching-the-army-invade pose. Then the little twist at the end saved it
I'm actually pretty excited for the new campaign. I really enjoyed WoL's single-player
Agreed. I actually like how it ended in a dream instead of the standing watching the army invade pose (especially after the somewhat typical villainous dialogue that is a bit cheesy actually).
So we are going with "it was a dream" at the end being what saved it? I see what you mean, but I also must play the snark and say that I feel that is a really bad sign. It reminds me of how the best way to try and make the ME3 end seem not so bad was to think of it as a dream via indoctrination theory.
I'm happy with some michael bay cinematics from Blizz. That is half the fun of the type of settings they work with. Those seem to be too many of them at this point though. I wish there was still more peter jackson and/or james cameron stuff. Where did the pre-wow warcraft related type stuff go, or bw? Maybe even some of that humorous terantino-like stuff from a couple of the original sc cinematics.
Really Hyped!! =D I would pay many times to see a StarCraft Movie haha cant wait to see all cinematics during the campain.
BTW: Who is these people drinking at 0:08 secs during the image distortion of "Blizzard"?? its like a hidden picture, watch it on HD and carefully pause it to be able to watch it.
On January 23 2013 06:10 itkovian wrote: The cinematic is cool. The visuals are sick, though Kerrigan's dialogue is a bit cheesy. The ending redeemed the cheesy lines a bit. I was thinking- oh boy, here's the cliche standing-watching-the-army-invade pose. Then the little twist at the end saved it
I'm actually pretty excited for the new campaign. I really enjoyed WoL's single-player
Agreed. I actually like how it ended in a dream instead of the standing watching the army invade pose (especially after the somewhat typical villainous dialogue that is a bit cheesy actually).
So we are going with "it was a dream" at the end being what saved it? I see what you mean, but I also must play the snark and say that I feel that is a really bad sign. It reminds me of how the best way to try and make the ME3 end seem not so bad was to think of it as a dream via indoctrination theory.
I'm happy with some michael bay cinematics from Blizz. That is half the fun of the type of settings they work with. Those seem to be too many of them at this point though. I wish there was still more peter jackson and/or james cameron stuff. Where did the pre-wow warcraft related type stuff go, or bw? Maybe even some of that humorous terantino-like stuff from a couple of the original sc cinematics.
To me, I see it as a big sign of things to come. If the whole cinematic was a simple 'lolol zerg is attacking terran lolol' then well, yeah, that has no big meaning apart from being an epic battle. The simple fact that this was a dream suddenly makes everyone want to find out what exactly is going on in Kerrigan's head; is she reformed but with flashes of her old Queen of Blades persona, does she have multiple personalities, etc?
On January 22 2013 17:34 sCCrooked wrote: Curious why there's NOTHING new like the units or abilities in the opening cinema o_O
Also why doesn't that T have any hellbats against all them lings?!
because it's the intro, not the end. I'm sure we may see a cinematic at the end with vipers and swarm hosts, you have to get there first. remember, the cgi is campaign, not multiplayer.
Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
Trolled by blizzard, vikings are useless after an Ultralisk remax
:D :D
I've already watched the trailer like 10 times, will watch for the first time today v0v cant wait for the campaign TBH. No demo for us?
On January 22 2013 17:08 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote: Skins for units On top of new portraits and in-game logos, skins will be part of the experience and ladder reward system of Heart of the Swarm. The preview that we saw had only a picture of units skinned from campaign (mercenary marines, dark zealots, raptor zergling). The details are still being worked out on how to introduce interesting skins without introducing too much clutter to the competitive aspect of the game.
Now there needs to be a option to turn it off from the player's perspective.
THERE NEEEDS to be an option to turn it off.....
I'd rather pay a monthly fee straight up than being forced to play with this...
I'm more concerned about the performance hit. Not an issue in 1v1, but in team games it could be significant with enough of them. Probably a none/self/all option would suffice. Looking at it from a dota/lol perspective though, it gives casters and spectator's a bit of variety if somebody chooses to use a skin and you can see it.
that's true. Already I go down to sub 6 fps lategame, unless this is incredibly well coded, its going to be really annoying.
If the skins are just different textures, there should be literally no performance hit at all. The size of those textures is pretty small, so additional skins would likely fit on the same texture file (the same texture atlas). There wouldn't be a performance hit since the texture gets drawn anyways, a different skin just means that it gets drawn from a different sub-position in the texture file. The only performance hit with such a change could come if your ram is really small and can't handle the couple of megabytes of additional data, meaning you constantly have to reload stuff from the hard drive.
Alright, thanks for clearing that up!
my Ram is fine, for instance In Heroes of Newerth I started lagging so much when they added all the skins and new heroes, and I thougt it was because of bad coding (the optimized a lot of shit and performancewise its much better for me nowadays).
There are Easter eggs to be found in the opening cinematic Lol not that I found it out myself. Just read on another website. The people (apparently a group of Hungarians) who found it are pretty imba I gotta say. It's pretty much impossible to spot if you don't know what you're looking for.
At 8 seconds and 18 seconds at the screen changes, there are pictures of people (supposedly the development group) partying. + Show Spoiler [At 8 seconds] +
Great article shindigs and ghostclaw the campaign leveling system (mutation and evolution) will be very interesting hopefully it will give me a sense of replayability in campaign trying out different strategies(and of course difficulties).
On January 23 2013 23:10 Weirdkid wrote: There are Easter eggs to be found in the opening cinematic Lol not that I found it out myself. Just read on another website. The people who found it are pretty imba I gotta say. It's pretty much impossible to spot if you don't know what you're looking for.
At 8 seconds and 18 seconds at the screen changes, there are pictures of people (supposedly the development group) partying. + Show Spoiler [At 8 seconds] +
I'm not exactly why but this intro cinematics feels a bit like C&C. Maybe because I'm not used that much in macroscale battles in StarCraft cinematics.
On January 24 2013 01:40 Boo.Crazy wrote: lol so epic, i hope that one day Blizzard will make a movie about startcraft =)))
You realize that it will almost surely be crappy below-B-class movie? What's good for the game is not very good for the cinema.
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
Dude the viking landing in front of the ultra was a really obvious (to me anyways) and humorous nod to how infamously bad vikings are on the ground. I loled anyways. I still can't get over the sheer quality of the cgi though, pretty crazy.
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
Dude the viking landing in front of the ultra was a really obvious (to me anyways) and humorous nod to how infamously bad vikings are on the ground. I loled anyways. I still can't get over the sheer quality of the cgi though, pretty crazy.
I don't think so. They general mood of the cinematic is so far from humorous nods of any kind that I kind imagine why would anyone do that. The only reason for the scene I can think of is that someone though it would be cool to show battle-ready viking landing and shooting with his machine guns.
On January 24 2013 02:27 nimdil wrote: I'm not exactly why but this intro cinematics feels a bit like C&C. Maybe because I'm not used that much in macroscale battles in StarCraft cinematics.
On January 24 2013 01:40 Boo.Crazy wrote: lol so epic, i hope that one day Blizzard will make a movie about startcraft =)))
You realize that it will almost surely be crappy below-B-class movie? What's good for the game is not very good for the cinema.
i would rather put it this way: just because people still accept abysmal unlogical stereotypical B-movie plots as backstories to videogames doesnt mean they will accept it in a movie
i surely hope that standards will rise in respect to stories in games. and if they do, that will make starcraft's story look like a pile of shit...
On January 24 2013 02:27 nimdil wrote: I'm not exactly why but this intro cinematics feels a bit like C&C. Maybe because I'm not used that much in macroscale battles in StarCraft cinematics.
On January 24 2013 01:40 Boo.Crazy wrote: lol so epic, i hope that one day Blizzard will make a movie about startcraft =)))
You realize that it will almost surely be crappy below-B-class movie? What's good for the game is not very good for the cinema.
i would rather put it this way: just because people still accept abysmal unlogical stereotypical B-movie plots as backstories to videogames doesnt mean they will accept it in a movie
i surely hope that standards will rise in respect to stories in games. and if they do, that will make starcraft's story look like a pile of shit...
There are some games with decent storylines. Planescape Torment had one, for example.
Note that - however - StarCraft has EXCELLENT storyline compared to Diablo. I guess great games don't need great storylines, especially if they aren't story games. Maybe for some game types great storylines would be a burden.
On January 22 2013 17:34 sCCrooked wrote: Curious why there's NOTHING new like the units or abilities in the opening cinema o_O
Also why doesn't that T have any hellbats against all them lings?!
because it's the intro, not the end. I'm sure we may see a cinematic at the end with vipers and swarm hosts, you have to get there first. remember, the cgi is campaign, not multiplayer.
i hope ending cinematic will lean to LoV, taking the Protoss as a narrator/main race
On January 22 2013 17:49 nehl wrote: when i saw the intro i was like fuck yeah kerrigan is back and then she woke up and i was like fuck no... edit: i cannot say i like the cinematic though. its pretty flat, not really any story or anything useful to know apart from kerrigan still dreaming off swarming the men... and that could have been done in like 20 seconds. dont understand me wrong, the quality is awesome but the story doesnt seem to develop into anything more interesting than the first part which i didnt like too much unfortunately
That's the point - it's the perfect intro. You learn nothing of HotS' story that you didn't already know, but it shows off "what could be".
I hated how Wings of Liberty's trailer spoiled LITERALLY over half the plot.
On January 24 2013 05:48 nimdil wrote: There are some games with decent storylines. Planescape Torment had one, for example.
Entire Legacy of Kain series - another one. Wish they would bring back the creative team that wrote the dialogs of Raziel and Kain for some games. Back then it was clearly visible that the script was written by someone who majored in English.
Oh, how I wish that Blizzard would hire that kind of writers. Not "Fix my damn jukebox" oneliners ones.
On January 24 2013 05:48 nimdil wrote: There are some games with decent storylines. Planescape Torment had one, for example.
Entire Legacy of Kain series - another one. Wish they would bring back the creative team that wrote the dialogs of Raziel and Kain for some games. Back then it was clearly visible that the script was written by someone who majored in English.
Oh, how I wish that Blizzard would hire that kind of writers. Not "Fix my damn jukebox" oneliners ones.
u
Some people may cringe but I thorughly enjoyed the RA2 storyline. The intro was epic!
There are console games as well with good storylines.
On January 23 2013 06:10 itkovian wrote: The cinematic is cool. The visuals are sick, though Kerrigan's dialogue is a bit cheesy. The ending redeemed the cheesy lines a bit. I was thinking- oh boy, here's the cliche standing-watching-the-army-invade pose. Then the little twist at the end saved it
I'm actually pretty excited for the new campaign. I really enjoyed WoL's single-player
Agreed. I actually like how it ended in a dream instead of the standing watching the army invade pose (especially after the somewhat typical villainous dialogue that is a bit cheesy actually).
So we are going with "it was a dream" at the end being what saved it? I see what you mean, but I also must play the snark and say that I feel that is a really bad sign. It reminds me of how the best way to try and make the ME3 end seem not so bad was to think of it as a dream via indoctrination theory.
I'm happy with some michael bay cinematics from Blizz. That is half the fun of the type of settings they work with. Those seem to be too many of them at this point though. I wish there was still more peter jackson and/or james cameron stuff. Where did the pre-wow warcraft related type stuff go, or bw? Maybe even some of that humorous terantino-like stuff from a couple of the original sc cinematics.
To me, I see it as a big sign of things to come. If the whole cinematic was a simple 'lolol zerg is attacking terran lolol' then well, yeah, that has no big meaning apart from being an epic battle. The simple fact that this was a dream suddenly makes everyone want to find out what exactly is going on in Kerrigan's head; is she reformed but with flashes of her old Queen of Blades persona, does she have multiple personalities, etc?
Yeah, that's what I meant.
The "it was only a dream" part at the end meant it wasn't just some typical Michael Bay, everything is exploding, Hollywood movie trailer. At the end, you're like, EPIC CINEMATICS... but the standing at the end pose with cheesy villainous dialogue has been done a thousand times already....
BUT WAIT! You see Kerrigan slowly close her eyes.... then OMG IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM? The way transitioned Kerrigan dreaming into waking up was also done really well (again, she closed her eyes in the dream... then she waked up basically in the same spot).
I haven't seen many other shows or trailers do that with characters waking up from a dream before actually. So that was actually a new experience for me.
Not only was the transition from dream to waking up from the dream really well done, the twist at the end actually made me really want to know what's going to happen next. It really showcase the "Who is Sarah Kerrigan?" title Blizzard had above the trailer on the SC2 page (so it showcase the theme they were trying to present with HotS).
Overall, the waking up from the dream part really made the trailer (that and the Viking's epic transformation sequence). Visuals were great all around but those two things are what made me keep rewatching the trailer.
___________________________________________
Speaking of that, let me clarify on "cheesy villainous dialogue": + Show Spoiler +
Okay, Kerrigan's speech in the trailer wasn't that bad but I definitely think Blizzard needs to hold back on the villainous dialogue (Kerrigan's speech at the end of BW was fitting, because Kerrigan had come so far and when she became the ruler of the entire Zerg, it was a huge achievement and a huge epic villainous moment because you saw how Kerrigan went from just some girl to the Queen of Blades).
Of course, that time is over. Kerrigan has already been established as the controller of the Zerg, basically the strongest army in the SC universe (aside from maybe the Hybrids, Xel'Naga, maybe the UED since supposedly the UED's main forces back on Earth are way more advanced than the Terran army we usually see).
There's no need to keep repeating what has been said numerous time in both BW and SC2.
It's kind of like Diablo III. Everyone disliked how in Diablo III, it seemed that Diablo, Azmodan, <insert more bad guys>, only knew how to make one liners and nothing else.
Diablo: EVERY SECOND YOU TAKE, I COME CLOSER TO VICTORY NEPHALEM!!!!
Diablo: NEPHALEM, I WILL MAKE YOU KNOW WHAT TERR-AWR (Terror) IS!!
Azmodan: YOU FOILED MY PLAN BEFORE POWER RANGERS ! BUT NOT THIS TIME! I HAVE TONS OF ARMY!
That was basically all the D3 villains came down to. We don't want Kerrigan to be a Diablo III villain.
So, that's another thing the "it was all a dream" twist at the ending did right. It saved the trailer from the cheesy villainous dialogue, it SAVED KERRIGAN FROM BECOMING A DIABLO III VILLAIN (which is good).
Anyway since everyone is liking the HotS trailer, lets see remember how epic WC3: TFT's ending is: + Show Spoiler +
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OW02BWFRnkw
You see Arthas as the Lich King sitting on the Frozen Throne... and that's all you needed to know. I'm like OMG WTF, what's going to happen next.
And now let's see what Blizzard did with Arthas return in WoW: + Show Spoiler +
Yep. Epic!
You just knew, things just got real. They did a great job of ending things in WC3: TFT and they did just as a good job as showing his return in WoW: Wrath of the Lich King.
What made Wrath of the Lich King trailer good was that it wasn't a typical trailer. The way you hear Arthas' dad ironically talk about Arthas (before he turned evil), was well done.
(Let me spoil the ending of Wrath of the Lich King for you though - The player assembles a 1337 army of nerds and manages to take out the Lich King with said 1337 army of nerds.)
Yep, nerds saving Azeroth (okay actually, we all got pwned at the end and needed an NPC to save us, but we still did a huge part!).
Blizzard definitely knows how to make cinematics.
Actually speaking of WarCraft.... the villains never really had cheesy dialogue (at least compared to D3). Diablo in Diablo III was like "RAWR, TERR-AWR (TERROR), NEPHALEM YOU CANNOT WIN, etc".
However this is what the villains sound like in WarCraft: + Show Spoiler +
Take note Mannoroth does sound a bit typical at first but, he knew to hold back on the "RAWR" and decided to be polite to Thrall with "A worthy effort but futile". So, at least if we're going down... we're going down to a villain that knows how to be polite.
The Battle Focus menu has been redone to include an RPG element
WOW followed Warcraft3.
Should we expect an RPG named WOS after the third expansion of SC2?
No. They are doing RPG with Kerrigan because it makes sense. We already know that she is a wizard who uses her body as a weapon rather than laser guns. We know she has immense potential but had her power taken away from her. Leveling her back up makes perfect sense. We didn't get RPG in WoL because it makes no sense that Raynor's gun gets bigger for every 100 zerglings he kills. It probably won't make sense for LotV because while Zeratul is a wizard, he is already close to max level.
On January 24 2013 22:09 Weirdkid wrote: O.O there's a WoW female gnome with trademark double pigtail silhouette thing hanging in the cockpit at 27-30 seconds into the intro video hahaha
LOL i thought it was the terran sigil all these times i watched it but you're right
a lot of hatred here towards the story but I for one loved both the warcraft / WoW storyline and the sc--->bw.-->sc2 and Im sure Im going to love hots as well.
On January 24 2013 05:48 nimdil wrote: There are some games with decent storylines. Planescape Torment had one, for example.
Entire Legacy of Kain series - another one. Wish they would bring back the creative team that wrote the dialogs of Raziel and Kain for some games. Back then it was clearly visible that the script was written by someone who majored in English.
Oh, how I wish that Blizzard would hire that kind of writers. Not "Fix my damn jukebox" oneliners ones.
Awaken my child and embrace the glory that is your birthright.
I still remember that line despite playing the game ~15 years ago. What I wouldn't give to have it back.
On January 23 2013 17:49 Jenia6109 wrote: Every new Blizzard cinematic is better than previous. Starcraft and Diablo2 cinematics were cool! Warcraft3 cinematics were masterpieces! WoW cinematics were epic! Starcraft2 cinematics were WOW!! Diablo3 cinematics were ubercool!!! And now this... I have no words... TvZ rough battle, classic in itself, and all of this is a dream of a girl... this is absolutely crazy...
Actually the way the battle is handled seems rather stupid - especially the viking: "ooh, that guy just ignored several tank shots and stomped the machine; I better land down to fight it with my low calliber machine guns" wtf o_O
Also - where are Thors. I want to see Thors because Tanks/Ultralisk scale is waaay different than in the game (unless these were Omegalisks which I seriously doubt).
Would have loved to see Odin MK2 there somewhere. But I guess then the Terran would have won. As for the Viking Pilot. The Mutas are after me ... out of rockets, the guys at the Statue need more time. Just need to hit the ultras weak spot and they will have to get past this meatball first ... Also maybe a pun on Wings, as I belief many Terrans fighting the Broodlord Ultra switch decided they have no choice but to land them. I actually wish they would allow something like a patrol move land, where it lands still moving at ground walk speed, while in transformation haha.
Zerg is so mannered ^_^ he doesn't have infestors or brood lords. Or his opponent is a huge noob that lands vikings against ultras so he decided to give him a chance.
I hope the Story will play out different that we think it will/Blizz wants us to think it will. Like Mengsk is the main goal... maybe... something greater will happen
On January 25 2013 03:28 il_Cattivo wrote: Zerg is so mannered ^_^ he doesn't have infestors or brood lords. Or his opponent is a huge noob that lands vikings against ultras so he decided to give him a chance.
I think ling/bane/ultra is actually pretty strong in hots, though. Of course, they're missing vipers.
Will not buy. Things take a LONG time to be ready for them... soon. Also the promises they gave us in the early days of WoL are coming true, but it took long time, It shows weak caring for the players that play their games. I give up at least at the SC2 part. Waiting for other games if possible... soon. [ I have played Blizzard games for 10 years. I've had enough]
▶ It was a dream ▶ The current threat was on ground, with the planet overrun the viking would be done for anyway ▶ The video actually shows how weak a landed viking is, satirically commenting on the power of landed vikings vs ultras.
EPT![[image loading]](/staff/Waxangel/hots/training.jpg)
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