|
On February 09 2011 14:54 Smigi wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2011 12:05 red_b wrote:
EA shuts off the servers every time a new madden comes out.
In days past I would not have thought Blizz would do that, but now, I think they will. I agree, and have also noticed this. I think WoL servers will be up after HotS comes out, but maybe for a couple months until everyone has made the transition.
god. that would be awful.
don't worry, we hate our customers who are slower on the uptake on the rest! I mean, i plan on getting it, but it'd still be a huge slap in the face
|
Would be nice if they just gave you an option for like a discount you can just upgrade to the expansions for multiplayer and not pay for the single player for those of us that never touch it.
Ideally, there will be just one SC2 ladder with the most updated expansion units etc. Not looking forward to an expansion splitting the community if there ends up being multiple ladders/different tournaments w/ different game versions, etc..
It also raises some questions like what if you don't buy the zerg expansion pack but buy the 3rd toss expansion and try to play online. Will you get grandfathered in w/ the zerg expansion and have those mutliplayer features and units or will you have to have the previous expansion?
|
On February 09 2011 16:05 FLuE wrote:
Would be nice if they just gave you an option for like a discount you can just upgrade to the expansions for multiplayer and not pay for the single player for those of us that never touch it.
Ideally, there will be just one SC2 ladder with the most updated expansion units etc. Not looking forward to an expansion splitting the community if there ends up being multiple ladders/different tournaments w/ different game versions, etc..
It also raises some questions like what if you don't buy the zerg expansion pack but buy the 3rd toss expansion and try to play online. Will you get grandfathered in w/ the zerg expansion and have those mutliplayer features and units or will you have to have the previous expansion?
Yeah. I was thinking the same as well. But I seriously doubt they will implement such a thing. Alot of players will mostly not care for the single players because they will just play though it just once, and the rest of the time will be spent on multiplayer. So if you want HotS, Blizzard is going to make you pay for the whole package.
Its going to be weird to have different servers, because there will be another expansion coming out after HotS. And I bet that each expansion will have more content to it then just a simple single player campaign/new units. But I guess its going to kinda feel like WoW. You can't have all the perks unless you buy the expansion packs...
|
Im quite certian blizzard has said it will be a seperate ladder for the expansions
|
Most likely it'll be a completely new ladder, with the old one staying as it is.
|
On February 09 2011 16:34 Lobo2me wrote:
Most likely it'll be a completely new ladder, with the old one staying as it is.
yeah i feel dumb cause i dont know where to reference it from, but i know for a fact it has been stated that it will be like this, you can still play the original game with the same ladder, or the expansion one with the new stuff on a new ladder.
Also the games will not be stand-alone as some have speculated.
|
they should of course have 2 ladders (and it would be a huuuuuuuge surprise if they didn't) and not because it is necessarily better (i dont think its better that player population is divided) but what are they going to say to players that for one or another reason hasn't bought their expansions?
"Too bad, your 1-2 years of playing multiplayer ladder has now come to an end. Please enjoy playing vs the AI until you pay up 50 more bucks".
|
People paid for this game. Blizzard cant say that they NEED to buy the expension to be able to play online. So I will say both LOW and HATS.
|
On February 09 2011 17:38 Deckkie wrote:
People paid for this game. Blizzard cant say that they NEED to buy the expension to be able to play online. So I will say both LOW and HATS.
Blizzard doesn't have to have a ladder for WoL. I believe that they will drop the ranked ladder and just have unranked games.
|
its been said by blizzard that the multiplayer versions of the game are going to be the same. So if you have one game, you have access to the most up-to-date multiplayer for as long as you have the account.
Meaning, you bought WoL, the only reason to buy HoTS is for campaign, as they will just patch in HoTS multiplayer to a WoL install.
|
On February 09 2011 21:08 hellsan631 wrote:
its been said by blizzard that the multiplayer versions of the game are going to be the same. So if you have one game, you have access to the most up-to-date multiplayer for as long as you have the account.
Meaning, you bought WoL, the only reason to buy HoTS is for campaign, as they will just patch in HoTS multiplayer to a WoL install.
I have never read that, but there is absolutely no way that will end up being true if that has been said.
|
I cannot see why they would break from the precedent of WC3/TFT (separate ladders running in parallel). The competitive scene will switch to HotS within a few months of release anyway unless it's completely broken, but I would bet that we are going to see two separate (and independently balanced) multiplayer experiences.
You have to remember that the multiplayer experience is built around their automated matchmaking system. No ladder equals no AMM equals no multiplayer for the folks who didn't buy the expansion. Casual and less skilled players aren't suddenly going to set up custom melee games.
On February 09 2011 21:08 hellsan631 wrote:
its been said by blizzard that the multiplayer versions of the game are going to be the same. So if you have one game, you have access to the most up-to-date multiplayer for as long as you have the account.
Meaning, you bought WoL, the only reason to buy HoTS is for campaign, as they will just patch in HoTS multiplayer to a WoL install.
Given what they've done with WoW, this is logistically plausible, but I don't see it happening: it means HotS will be a complete bust for anyone who's only interested in the multiplayer game - and unless HotS is trivially priced, that's a lot of lost sales.
|
On February 09 2011 21:08 hellsan631 wrote:
its been said by blizzard that the multiplayer versions of the game are going to be the same. So if you have one game, you have access to the most up-to-date multiplayer for as long as you have the account.
Meaning, you bought WoL, the only reason to buy HoTS is for campaign, as they will just patch in HoTS multiplayer to a WoL install.
If it was true nobody would buy HoTS....
|
I love how nearly everyone is assuming HotS will contain new multiplayer units and otherwise change the mp significantly, when there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this. In fact Blizzard have actually said the multiplayer changes will be small and once *balance* is reached they wont be planning on breaking that with further expansion packs.
HotS and LotV are primarily the extensions of the singleplayer campaign. At most it will contain one or two units per race, even that is unlikely as introducing new units sets balance almost back to square one. A complete redesign requiring a different ladder would be incredibly stupid, you don't fix what isn't broken. Unlike with vanilla WC3 or SC the mp is already very well balanced, they were a complete joke by comparison.
|
On February 09 2011 21:53 Kazang wrote:
I love how nearly everyone is assuming HotS will contain new multiplayer units and otherwise change the mp significantly, when there is absolutely no evidence to suggest this. In fact Blizzard have actually said the multiplayer changes will be small and once *balance* is reached they wont be planning on breaking that with further expansion packs.
HotS and LotV are primarily the extensions of the singleplayer campaign. At most it will contain one or two units per race, even that is unlikely as introducing new units sets balance almost back to square one. A complete redesign requiring a different ladder would be incredibly stupid, you don't fix what isn't broken. Unlike with vanilla WC3 or SC the mp is already very well balanced, they were a complete joke by comparison.
http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/08/23/starcraft-2-heart-of-the-swarm-update/
And what about multiplayer? "Multiplayer is going to be more like an expansion set sort of vibe. We're not going to ship all brand new races. There will definitely be additions to multiplayer, but that's going to feel like an expansion set." Pardo went on to compare the amount of new multiplayer content to what was added for multiplayer in "StarCraft: Brood War."
That means:
New maps
New units
Balance patch to incorporate the new units
A new ladder
http://gameaxis.com/exclusive-interview-with-dustin-browder-starcraft-2s-lead-designer-part-1/
Q. New units?
Dustin Browder: Yeah.
Combined with the Kotaku post earlier in the thread they have a stance currently that they will spawn a new ladder for HotS and that it will include new units. I can't believe people think they wouldn't add units to SC2. Of course they will. It's what they did in BW and they've repeatedly mentioned that they would add new units at every Blizzcon panel relating to Heart of the Swarm.
|
yeah i think they will do like they've done before, with sc1 and BW, wc3:roc and wc3:tft
add a few units, probably not as many as before since this starcraft started out with the "full" arsenal from bw (with some changes) and the balance is much more important atm, than between sc and BW. but i'm pretty sure that they will set up new servers with HotS, add a few units and keep the one for WoL. and different ladders, just like with sc1 and just like with wc3
|
On February 09 2011 11:49 bkrow wrote:
Itll go the same way that Warcraft 3 --> Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne went i imagine..
I wouldnt be too sure... Activision wasnt being interactive with decisions back then....
|
Yeah, at most one or two units per race, which is what I already said, anything other than that is unlikely, or it will break the game.
You think it's important (and difficult) to scout a terran now in the early game? How about adding 2, 3 or even 4 new units to that already formidable line-up and you have to account for all and any of them without being able to scout. Rock, paper, scissors is fun right guys?
There are already a ton of "auto-lose" strats if you don't account for them and accounting for them is too often guesswork, increasing the variety of units only adds to this massively.
BW added some core units that completely changed the game worked, so take that "like BW" comment with a grain of salt. Vanilla SC had quite a few less units and some completely un-used ones (lol scout), adding more was logical. Not so for SC2.
My personal prediction is for one Tier 2.5 or 3 unit and one minor unit (eg infested terran, point defence drone, etc) to be added in the expansion, but seriously unless the new units have either a large amount of redundancy and/or replace others outright adding any more than one major unit per race would be terrible design.
|
Conveniently Dustin being such a great bro of mine thought he would chime in with some info gems in an interview with G4tv.
Dustin Browder wrote:
But you can imagine we do have some challenges ahead of us. We don't want to just add another three units to the game for this expansion, three units to the game for the next expansion. That would be a very bloated game for us at that point and the chances that some of those units would be duplicates of other units that already exist in the game in one form or another would be extremely high. So we're looking at the different solutions. We don't know for sure yet, but there will definitely be fixes and changes and various improvements to the multiplayer experience.
So yeah, they wont be adding many units with the expansions.
It's like I'm psychic or something, or maybe just using common sense.
|
Brazil896 Posts
He said he doesn't want to add 3 units (1 for each race), does it mean he wants to add zero units? hm...
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
