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This is the original development thread for Starbow.
Visit Starbowmod.com to play ladder!
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Starbow is a fan-made expansion to Brood War, built in the SC2 engine.
The game intends to recreate many of the good gameplay aspects of BW, while using units and spells from both SC2 and BW.
Notable Features:
- Brood War economy (rewards taking expansions).
- High ground advantage (units attacking uphill have a 50% miss chance).
- Combat lasts longer and occurs over wider areas, compared to Starcraft 2 .
- More positional play.
- Retains Starcraft 2 mechanics (e.g. unlimited selection).
- Balance is based on Brood War but with additional content for a broader meta-game.
Decemberscalms explains:
It's more aimed at being an expansion to BW built in the SC2 engine. It isn't trying to be a better SC2 like most SC2 melee mods do.
Its built more on BW fundamentals instead of SC2 fundamentals. The resources, map design (ported from BW for the most part), rush distances, and build times are a lot more reminiscent of BW.
Armies feel more spread out, and fights can happen over much larger space, despite armies generally being lower supply due to the lower economy.
We also put a lot of emphasis on micro being a pretty big factor. Things that are anti micro generally get developed out of the game. Fundamental changes to units were made as well to make fights more micro-able than their SC2 engine counterparts. Fights tend to last longer.
If you love SC2 and hate BW from experience with both games, this will probably not change your mind. It isn't trying to beat SC2. Its trying to be a fresh new BW oriented experience for guys who enjoyed playing and watching BW, while still being relatively accessible for a SC2 player.
Starbow is currently under development (especially in terms of balance), so expect frequent patching. As the metagame is still largely unexplored, the development team will be focused mostly on bug fixing.
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Check out the Starbow Wiki for more detailed information.
Terran:
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Protoss:
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Zerg:
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Starbow Twitch Streams:
- Decemberscalm
- SC2 Starbow
- Beastyqt
- Crank
- Dragon
- Destiny
- Rider Rockon
- Madals
- AdelSC
- Sorm Feel
- TopRamen
- sMiShox
- coZy
- Dragoni
Youtube:
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[Under Development]
Starbow can be found on the Arcade on EU, NA, KR and SEA.
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- Does Starbow have a ranking system?
+ Show Spoiler + - How does the high ground miss chance work?
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- Does Starbow have a campaign?
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A campaign for Starbow is under development. You can read about it here: http://starbowmod.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=620
A similar project would be to play the Starcraft 1 campaign in the Starcraft 2 engine. Check that our here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/303166-starcraft-mass-recall-sc1-campaigns-on-sc2-thread - Why are Starbow's macro mechanics so strange?
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The macro mechanics in Starbow are not perfect but they were added for these reasons:- Increase APM and Multitasking
All macro mechanics are cheaper to cast and/or last shorter, compared to SC2. Which means that players have to return to their base more often to macro and it raises the APM requirements to have "perfect" macro. - Improve Decision Making
They force players to make strategic choices on when to use the macro mechanics.
Protoss: Speed up workers or army production, upgrades, boost Cannons for extra defence or use Rift to save units.
Terran: Drop-down Workers, speed up army production and Scan for information.
Zerg: Speed up Larvae production, spread Creep, Heal units or structures, speed up the morphing of structures, Enrage for defence. - Provide Build Order Diversity
Each race must "unlock" their macro mechanics by puchasing some kind of structure or unit (e.g. Orbital Command, Queen, Nexus upgrade). The mechanics can also be used to widen the space for different timings or build order choices (e.g. devote Chronoboost energy on the Dragoon Range upgrade for faster pressure, spend Queen energy on Nurturing Swarm to get faster Lair tech, etc).
- Increase APM and Multitasking
- Why are the macro mechanics so similar and boring?
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We are aware that one fundamental aspect of Starcraft is the uniqueness between races. But for the most part of the develoment, we have been around 10-15 active players, who playtested this on a regular basis. We wanted to establish a decent balance amoung ourselves, and for that reason, each macro mechanic became a "Chrono boost", just because it was easier to calculate the strength of them. It gave APM to macro, it felt kinda even, but the design was a bit "ugly". It was however playable so we settled with it, and instead moved on to other areas of the game to look at.
Partly for the same reason, we added so each race can get access to their macro mechanics kinda at the same time. Queen, Orbital Command or upgraded Nexus can be available after the initial production structure for each race is built.
During earlier playtesting, it seemed much more cost efficient to only use macro mechanics on workers, tech and units from expensive production structures. We wanted to encourage its usage on cheap structures like Barrack and Gateway. Thereby Chronoboost and Overcharge got a better effect on those structures, which should reward players more for using them constantly throughout the game for army production. - Is there no way to make macro mechanics more unique?
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Surely there are. Here are some earlier stuff we looked at:
Chrono boost - Remain as it is in terms of design.
Inject - Make each cycle "pop" a few extra larvas. Each Hatchery can maybe stack 5-7 larvas to avoid insane instant re-max situations. (Aka more SC2 style).. Probably with cheaper energy cost and shorter cooldown, so its more important to use it more often.
Terran - SCV Calldown remain as it is, and different version of Overcharge. OC can calldown a "one-time-reactor" on top of a production facility. This reactor allows two units to be built at the same time, and after they finish, the reactor is destroyed. (And can be added again via casting the spell once more..)
The later version of Overcharge feels unique, fun and more like Terran. But it was hard to make it work properly in the editor, it felt a bit clunky to play with, and it would probably be hard to balance anyway.
It could be argued that Overcharge is not needed at all. Which might be true. We kinda felt that with only Calldown SCV, Terran macro had a lot less things to do with the APM. And we want to increase the skill cap for all races in that regard.
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A lot of people have been involved with Starbow in various capacities during its two years of development. Some joined early and stayed the whole time, while others left after a while. The development was public and everyone could contribute with input, here is the original [url=http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=304955]development thread:
[list]
[*] Kabel - Creator, main designer, developer, and ruthless dictator of Starbow.
[*] asphyxia88 (xiA) - Data editor, has created many of the advanced spells, units, and awesome effects used in the game.
[*] Decemberscalm - Data editor and caster, has created many of the systems used in Starbow (e.g. spread out unit movement, high ground system, economy system and many micro solutions).
[*] Xiphias - Mr Math himself, has worked on many areas... casting, wiki, maps, economy system, and is currently implementing the ranking system.
[*] Dirtybag (Foxxan) - Brood war veteran, his deep knowledge and skills have contributed a lot to balance and design.
[*] Hider - Possible recordholder for most played Starbow matches and has contributed a lot with feedback, balance and design.
[*] JohnnyZerg - Maintains the Starbow Unit Tester.
[*] GamanNO - Editor of the Starbow Wiki.
[*] Ahli - Helps out with bug fixes and other technical improvements to the game.
[*] SolidSMD, Zaphod Beeblebrox, Danko, Roblin, Iceman, Sumadin, Kalevi, LaLush, purakushi, Fishgle,
Azelja, Doominator, SmileZerg, Ulosethegame (and many others!) - Contributed to the development with playtesting, ideas, design, balance and feedback.
[*] iSoulFilcher, Flinkelinks, MavercK, Forsworne, Thrikodias - Custom models, icons and textures.
[*] iHirO - Created the logo and graphics.
[*] Meerel and IeZaeL - Thanks for a lot of great maps.
[*] SC2Mapster.com - Special thanks for answering my thousands of questions regarding the editor.
[/list]
