This article is paraphrased from the Starcraft II: What's Next? Panel featuring James Waugh (Lead Storywriter) Jason Huck (Lead Level Designer) Allen Dilling (Lead Artist) Justin Thavirat (Lead Artist) and Matt Morris (Lead Campaign Designer). All art is taken from the panel.
LotV Story
The storyline to the Protoss campaign was designed with a handful of goals in mind.
Create a distinctly Protoss story while wrapping up the trilogy story threads. The campaign designers really wanted to explore what it means to be a Protoss. The story would be guided by prominent themes and core values within Protoss lore. Even though there are a lot of story lines to wrap up from the SC2 story, the designers wanted to ensure that the camera was focused on the struggles of the Protoss and do them justice.
Create an epic end times scenario for players to stand against. Amon and his plans to destroy the galaxy have been discussed/hinted at since the Brood War campaign, and really came to prominence in the WoL/HotS campaigns. The designers wanted to create a truly epic scenario for the players to stand against that lived up to a scenario 7+ years in the making.
Fulfill the fantasy of playing Protosss. The designers commented that every single mission and storyling in the campaign was filtered through the lens of being a Protoss.
A driving question during development was the question 'who are the Protoss?'. Much of the exploration of the Protoss lore has been done through a human lens (i.e. how human characters have interacted with the Protoss). So the real identity of the Protoss still needed to be nailed down. So the designers sat down and developed what they saw as the key traits of what it means to be Protoss.
Ancient, noble race -- The Protoss such an ancient race that they consider themselves the first born. At their peak, the Protoss empire stretched across the Koprulu sector and stood at the height of evolutionary achievement. A recurring theme from the panel was that Blizzard view the Protoss as a kind of 'Space Samurai' and the kind of noble warrior that this notion implies. The Protoss hold honor in the highest regard, have a strict code of conduct and feel a strong responsibility to live in accordance with this code. This was a permeating fact that all campaign teams used to inspire their work.
The Khala -- The Khala is a sacred energy field which unifies all Protoss thought and emotion. The entire Protoss civilization and, indeed, their history (Aeon of Strife) revolves around the Khala in some way. To Blizzard, the Khala represented a way that they could play with the ideas of collectivism (through Aiur Protoss) and individualism (through Dark Templar) and trying to find a balance between the two (SC1/BW campaign). The designers promise that these themes will certainly surface again.
High tech -- Being an ancient race, the Protoss have had plenty of time to develop weapons of war and advanced technology even to the extent of time manipulation. The designers wanted to ensure that these incredible weapons of war were featured prominently throughout the campaign.
Small numbers -- after eons of strife and sacrifice, the Protoss are dwindling in number. So in contrast to the infinite hordes of Zerg, each Protoss warrior is a rare and precious army of one. The Legacy of the Void is a story about a small band of Protoss warrior who dare to stand against seemingly limitless numbers. To the design team, this was quintessentially Protoss.
The Storyline (James Waugh)
With the design philosophies in mind, we can now discuss the story. The first question that needs settling is: what exactly have the Protoss been up to across the course of SC2 so far? At the end of Starcraft: Brood War, the Protoss high templar were forced to flee Aiur and become refugees living amongst their Dark Templar brethren.
The Dark Templar were once outcasts due to their separation from the Khala and the Aeon of Strife. This is seen through their ritualistic severing of their nerve cords which connects the Protoss to the Khala. This shapes their deep belief in their feeling of individuality.
The events of Starcraft 1 have created a strange new era where two very separate Protoss cultures have collided and are trying to coexist. As one might expect, age of tensions begin to emerge once the imminent threat of a Zerg invasion is neutralised (end of the Protoss SC1 campaign). This 'united' Protoss group now goes by the name of Daelaam (pronounced 'day-larm') and has chosen Artanis as it's leader -- the Hierarch of the Daelaam (recall, Artanis was the hero from Starcraft 1). In order to keep the Daelaam from imploding from these pressures, he is able to unite them through the one thing that both cultures can rally behind -- the reclamation of Aiur from the Zerg.
To do this he sets out to build 'The Golden Armada', the greatest Protoss war fleet ever constructed. He then leads the Armada back to Aiur to reclaim it from the Zerg and rebuild a new Protoss society from the remains of the old. This is where the campaign of Legacy of the Void begins. The first few missions will be the reclaiming of Aiur.
Zeratul, of course, will serve a prominent role in the campaign. He will return to provide additional prophecies to Artanis and advise him on various courses of action. The designers note that all this time Zeratul has been right -- Amon, the fallen Xel'Naga has returned, hell bent on setting the galaxy ablaze and remaking it as he sees fit. Bringing about the culmination of a plan millions of years in the making.
Legacy of the Void is the story about what happens with Amon's plan collides with Artanis' reclamation of Aiur. So after starting out with a D-Day style of invasion, with the full might of the Golden Armada behind you, Amon makes his presence known. Amon corrupts the one thing that defines the Protoss culture; the Khala. From there he unleashes his legions of hybrids revealing their true purpose.
Artanis and his small band of brethren must do the unthinkable, and severe their nerve cords and disconnect themselves from the Khala's light. The then flee Aiur once again on a massive ancient arkship called the Spear of Adun. The Spear of Adun will serve as this games Hyperion or Leviathan. The Spear of Adun is one of three remaining great arkships built for the purpose of sustaining the Protoss race should they near extinction. These massive ships carry an entire civilization on board and can manufacture new units. Many Zealots from long ago sacrificed themselves and were put in stasis only to be awoken should the darkest times come. Thus as Artanis escapes from Aiur he is literally taking the remains of the Daelaam with him on a journey across the galaxy.
The Spear of Adun
You will play as Artantis as he journeys the galaxy to reunite disparate factions of the Protoss, such as the Tal'Darim, Nerazim and the Purifiers, and forge a new culture without the Khala. Ultimately, you will retake their homeworld of Aiur and challenge Amon. This is a campaign that will force Protoss to change everything they know, in order to preserve their civilization and defeat an ancient evil.
Level Design (Jason Huck)
The goal for the level design for LotV was not just to introduce new mechanics and whatnot, but to really capture the essence of playing Protoss. Much like the Samurai, the Protoss have a strong code of honor and justice and strive for glory in battle. Across the course of this game the player will take the Protoss across the galaxy righting wrongs and smiting Amon's evil when it surfaces.
Sky Shield
Sometime after leaving Aiur, Artanis decides to visit Korhal (on the advice of Zeratul). Unfortunately, the Terran there are under attack from a new Terran faction called the Shadow Core and the Protoss must come to their aid. The mission highlighted by the design team was one called 'Sky Shield' which takes place on an orbiting platform that is plummeting down to Korhal due to the work of the Shadow Core. They have destroyed several atmospheric stabilizers and you must go around and reactivate them to stop the descent. The level has a timer, and more time is added for each stabilizer brought back online.
New mission mechanics in LotV include a movable base mechanic. One mission is set where your base is on a movable platform and you must move your base around (using a direction pad in the top right) to harvest the scarce minerals available on the map.
The Movable Base Mechanic
Campaign Art (Allen Dilling)
Some screenshots from the panel.
Aiur (Invasion)
Aiur (Temple)
Challenges: What does a Protoss city look like? How do you sell a D-Day invasion type theme through the design?
Korhal (Sky Shield)
Kohal (Augustgrad)
Challenges: hugely dynamic environment (terrain blows up, fire recedes as more stabilizers are turned on)
Shakuras (City)
Shakuras (Temple)
Challenges: What is a Dark Templar city?
Slayn
Challenges: Homeworld of the Tal'Darim, how to make different from other Protoss, height/depth further than any other palette
Cybrose
Challenges: Homeworld of the Purifiers (ancient robotic race created by the Protoss only to be forgotten), how to make different?
Story Art (Justin Thavirat)
As always, the Blizzard cinematics are impressive and in this case distinctly Protoss. We will link any videos that we find that are posted! In the mean time, screenshots!
Spear of Adun
Ancient Zealots in Stasis
Karax and Artanis
The Celestial Array
Some model specifics:
Artanis: white tint to a classic Protoss armor, distinctive backplate and enlarges shoulder pads to really bring out the fact that he is the leader of the Daelaam.
Zeratul: same feeling as earlier games, ragged/rough design and contrasts heavily with Artanis.
Vorazun: (Matriarch of the Dark Templar) traditional Persian influences on a Dark Templar model
Karax: (Engineer on Spear of Adun, adviser to Artanis), severed nerve cords have been augmented with cybernetic arms.
Rohana: (Preserver; stores the collective memory of the Protoss from the Khala), splayed out nerve cords represent the deep connection to the Khala
Rooms within the Spear of Adun:
War Council (customization room). Unlocked units will appear in the background. In this picture it is a Colossus.
The Bridge (command center of the ship). Background reflects the current location of the ship. In this case it is Korhal. Middle object is the Celestial Array.
Celestial Array (located in the Bridge) is how you choose mission arcs.
Solar Core, LotV unique mechanic
Campaign Mechanics (Matt Morris)
Matt dedicated the first section of his talk to discussing how 'what is the fantasy?' motivated how his team approached the design of campaign mechanics. The Terran and Zerg campaigns were focused around earning credits/assimilating organisms respectively in order to fulfill their fantasies specific to the themes of the race. The question for the Protoss was 'how do you make the most technologically advanced race in the galaxy more powerful?'. Recall that this game is about Artanis going out into the stars to reunite various Protoss factions and rediscover ancient technology. That is the fantasy the team drew on when coming up with the customization mechanics.
Each unit will have three alternate versions which by design will aim to be of similar power levels, but suited to different scenarios. The designs are inspired by the faction the unit was acquired from. The example cited was the Aiur Zealot vs the 'New' Aiur Zealot. The Aiur Zealot is the classic Zealot. The New Aiur Zealot comes from those awakened from the Spear of Adun and the weapons they were placed in stasis with. (Basically grants Zealots AoE damage and spin around while charging).
A second campaign mechanic was inspired by the destruction of Char Sara. In Starcraft 1 the Protoss destroy Char Sara using incredible warships. This kind of power was something the design team wanted to include in the campaign. The Spear of Adun will serve as that weapon. The customization of this weapon will take place in the Solar Core. As you collect energy from completing side quests you can power up this weapon to unlock various abilities to add to the weapon. At present it will be impossible to max out/unlock all the attributes for the Spear of Adun so the player must make decisions as to which abilities they want to use.
Upgrade screen for Solar Core
A menu at the top of the screen will be used to activate these abilities.
A time freeze ability has just been used
The follow series are some screenshots from the Solar Core being activated for the first time.
Allied Commanders (Matt Morris)
Objective based co-op experience
Pick a commander from your favorite race
Unlock units and abilities as you progress
Open-ended progression experience versus AI
Little more was revealed about this, however this seems like mini-campaign missions that can be played cooperatively. It will lack the cinematic from he campaign but will include campaign only units. Open ended seems to imply that this will be in ongoing development even after release, also this wasn't confirmed.
it's always good to see awesome new tilesets, the art guys always do a great job despite what the traditionally lack laster writers have given them. personally, i'm surprised they didn't talk about selendis at all given her high rank in WoL, i hope to see more of her.
On November 08 2014 14:24 Endymion wrote: it's always good to see awesome new tilesets, the art guys always do a great job despite what the traditionally lack laster writers have given them. personally, i'm surprised they didn't talk about selendis at all given her high rank in WoL, i hope to see more of her.
Honestly, me too Selendis seemed like an awesome character in protoss lore
Hehe they really like to bring in some Sc1/BW campaign flair into Sc2. Mar Sara first, HotS the Cocoon bit. In Bw Protoss fled from Aiur, in LotV they reclaim it. Also Artanis got a freaking huge armor upgrade.
Man, why do the campaign maps look so much sexier than the blizz multiplayer ones? I mean poor gameplay is a given but the campaign is so better in terms of deco.
On November 08 2014 14:35 neobowman wrote: Man, why do the campaign maps look so much sexier than the blizz multiplayer ones? I mean poor gameplay is a given but the campaign is so better in terms of deco.
Love the Age of Mythology/Red Alert influenced campaign abilities. The new story characters look interesting, especially the preserver, hopefully they'll be more fleshed out than the ones in HotS ("Their essence will be mine!." "Essence!" "I take their essence!" ).
On November 08 2014 14:40 Existential wrote: I really hope this can at least meet the standard of the BW campaign. The last two have been underwhelming.
You will be let down if you liked the BW campaign over the WoL one gameplay wise :p. Doubt they suddenly switch back to mostly two hour base building maps with no time pressure at all.
On November 08 2014 14:24 Endymion wrote: it's always good to see awesome new tilesets, the art guys always do a great job despite what the traditionally lack laster writers have given them. personally, i'm surprised they didn't talk about selendis at all given her high rank in WoL, i hope to see more of her.
I think she's the female with psi blades ignited in the first picture. She refers to Artanis briefly in the trailer. Kind of disappointing that her and the other hierarchs from In Utter Darkness don't seem to be present, but I'm interested in Raszagal's daughter.
On November 08 2014 14:40 Existential wrote: I really hope this can at least meet the standard of the BW campaign. The last two have been underwhelming.
You will be let down if you liked the BW campaign over the WoL one gameplay wise :p. Doubt they suddenly switch back to mostly two hour base building maps with no time pressure at all.
More the story than game-play. SC2's campaign has been fantastic in the actual game-play but the story has been utterly atrocious.
Case in point; Raynor swore to kill Kerrigan at the end of BW for betraying them and killing Fenix. First thing in SC2, he's still pining for her and Fenix is not mentioned once until the end of HotS.
On November 08 2014 14:40 Existential wrote: I really hope this can at least meet the standard of the BW campaign. The last two have been underwhelming.
You will be let down if you liked the BW campaign over the WoL one gameplay wise :p. Doubt they suddenly switch back to mostly two hour base building maps with no time pressure at all.
More the story than game-play. SC2's campaign has been fantastic in the actual game-play but the story has been utterly atrocious.
Case in point; Raynor swore to kill Kerrigan at the end of BW for betraying them and killing Fenix. First thing in SC2, he's still pining for her and Fenix is not mentioned once until the end of HotS.
Blizzard's writers are terrible and they've said that they don't consider story an important enough component of games to justify hiring people that know one end of a pen from another. It's unfortunate, but we have to live with it.
On November 08 2014 14:57 Jevity wrote: Looking at the trailer, that is Artanis with the blue and green blades, correct?
Does this mean Zeratul died and he is using Zeratul's blade?
Either members of the Hierarchy use a green and blue blade to symbolize the fact they represent both halves of protoss culture, or he takes Zeratul's.
If it's Zeratul's, I'd assume that either he tries to stop Artanis from invading Aiur(because it wastes protoss and zerg lives that could be used against Amon), or he's killed by hybrids as he's sifting through the ruins of Augustgrad.
On November 08 2014 14:40 Existential wrote: I really hope this can at least meet the standard of the BW campaign. The last two have been underwhelming.
You will be let down if you liked the BW campaign over the WoL one gameplay wise :p. Doubt they suddenly switch back to mostly two hour base building maps with no time pressure at all.
More the story than game-play. SC2's campaign has been fantastic in the actual game-play but the story has been utterly atrocious.
Case in point; Raynor swore to kill Kerrigan at the end of BW for betraying them and killing Fenix. First thing in SC2, he's still pining for her and Fenix is not mentioned once until the end of HotS.
Blizzard's writers are terrible and they've said that they don't consider story an important enough component of games to justify hiring people that know one end of a pen from another. It's unfortunate, but we have to live with it.
they should hire me 4realz i'd make it about vampires werewolves zombies and ponies. raynor gets heat vision, zeratul gets a magical ring, kerrigan has a super lasso and artanis can talk to fish
On November 08 2014 14:40 Existential wrote: I really hope this can at least meet the standard of the BW campaign. The last two have been underwhelming.
You will be let down if you liked the BW campaign over the WoL one gameplay wise :p. Doubt they suddenly switch back to mostly two hour base building maps with no time pressure at all.
More the story than game-play. SC2's campaign has been fantastic in the actual game-play but the story has been utterly atrocious.
Case in point; Raynor swore to kill Kerrigan at the end of BW for betraying them and killing Fenix. First thing in SC2, he's still pining for her and Fenix is not mentioned once until the end of HotS.
Blizzard's writers are terrible and they've said that they don't consider story an important enough component of games to justify hiring people that know one end of a pen from another. It's unfortunate, but we have to live with it.
they should hire me 4realz i'd make it about vampires werewolves zombies and ponies. raynor gets heat vision, zeratul gets a magical ring, kerrigan has a super lasso and artanis can talk to fish
Man, they always make cool and creative looking units/version of units in the campaign. I wish they tried changing things up a bit more in multiplayer. I just think options are a good thing. I remember in HoTS campaign they had these different zergling upgrades making them do different things. I was hoping multiplayer would get that too. Now these Aiur Zealots look awesome. Wish there was an upgrade for that in MP.
yeah can't say im expecting much from the story side given how terrible HotS was but as long as the missions are still fun to play it doesn't really matter
On November 08 2014 15:47 Meatex wrote: yeah can't say im expecting much from the story side given how terrible HotS was but as long as the missions are still fun to play it doesn't really matter
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
On November 08 2014 14:24 Endymion wrote: it's always good to see awesome new tilesets, the art guys always do a great job despite what the traditionally lack laster writers have given them. personally, i'm surprised they didn't talk about selendis at all given her high rank in WoL, i hope to see more of her.
Honestly, me too Selendis seemed like an awesome character in protoss lore
I assumed she was the female zealot at 0:35 and 1:27. I've heard her advanced several times as the likely Heroes zealot character (apparently she fights like that in lore?). Would make sense, her being an admiral and reporting to Artanis on the status of the fleet.
On November 08 2014 14:24 Endymion wrote: it's always good to see awesome new tilesets, the art guys always do a great job despite what the traditionally lack laster writers have given them. personally, i'm surprised they didn't talk about selendis at all given her high rank in WoL, i hope to see more of her.
Honestly, me too Selendis seemed like an awesome character in protoss lore
I assumed she was the female zealot at 0:35 and 1:27. I've heard her advanced several times as the likely Heroes zealot character (apparently she fights like that in lore?). Would make sense, her being an admiral and reporting to Artanis on the status of the fleet.
It is. She refers to Artanis briefly in the trailer, and it's definitely her voice.
I was checking and I think it is the same voice. The headpiece is very different (cf this), but the zealot and Selendis both have strikingly concave cheeks. Looks younger/more feminine in the recent trailer mostly because the bumpy part of her forehead is now covered.
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
For quite some time. I agree. But do away with it all and for good? I don't think so.
Also super stoked, the art is beautiful. Ideas about the units etc. sound fresh and the story can only get better from here!
Damn, this should be pretty good! The story I don't expect to be that great, probably simple again, but oh well, as long as it's somewhat solid.
The tal'darim and cybrose palettes look AWESOME. I wonder if a disruptor is from the purifiers? The fact that the protoss have an ancient robot race they created but forgot about is so cool, just really tells how advanced the protoss are, while at the same time it's fresh and exciting. I think I'm going to really love the purifiers.
EDIT: OH SHIT THERES A VIDEO NOW!
Wait if the lead writer is different, perhaps the story will be better?! (Hope not worse, lol)
After watching that video I got a quite the noble and highly advanced Protoss boner. The art is so damn good, just a superb job. If the story is only half as good we have something great coming at us.
On November 08 2014 19:21 Doublemint wrote: After watching that video I got a quite the noble and highly advanced Protoss boner. The art is so damn good, just a superb job. If the story is only half as good we have something great coming at us.
On November 08 2014 19:21 Doublemint wrote: After watching that video I got a quite the noble and highly advanced Protoss boner. The art is so damn good, just a superb job. If the story is only half as good we have something great coming at us.
"Fulfill the fantasy of playing Protosss. The designers commented that every single mission and storyling in the campaign was filtered through the lens of being a Protoss."
Cannon rush or blink all-in every mission :D
On a serious note, I played the shit out of the WoL and HotS missions to get all the achievements. I hope they make it more difficult than HotS because those were way too easy even on brutal. Some challenge would be nice, some of the WoL achievements were tough to get.
Since there's so much on the line with the xelnaga and protoss, I hope they go back to SC1 quality storytelling but I'm not very hopeful. At least the missions will be fun!
Looking at the new map themes, my inner map maker fire is becoming more and more blazing. Does new textures! Better looking ramps! THE NEW DOODADS! EVERYTHING! ... I really need beta access to this.
The campaign gameplay in sc2 has been nothing short of amazing and beautifully drawn fun!
That said, the story is so shit that it makes me conflicted. Like seriously. Fuck the story writers, but love to the campaign designers for the single player gameplay.
This is the plot of basically all of their games right?
That's the plot of most games.
Blizz writers have been taking it pretty easy, but this critique wasn't exactly worthy of Oscar Wilde, either.
Have to agree. This is the basic plot scheme for most fantasy stories. Not even worth a cookie pointing this out
yea i mean one of the points was just "love plot concludes negatively/positively" which is the same as saying "a plot concludes." well good job pointing out that the plot concluded
On November 08 2014 19:21 Doublemint wrote: After watching that video I got a quite the noble and highly advanced Protoss boner. The art is so damn good, just a superb job. If the story is only half as good we have something great coming at us.
Yeah, say what you will about Blizz but their artists have always been ridicolously good.
On November 08 2014 19:50 TheBloodyDwarf wrote: Man, im proud to be protoss. We are fighting against darkness and horror!
Given how Protoss can play multiplayer, i giggled a bit every time they mentioned having a honor code
On November 08 2014 19:21 Doublemint wrote: After watching that video I got a quite the noble and highly advanced Protoss boner. The art is so damn good, just a superb job. If the story is only half as good we have something great coming at us.
Yeah, say what you will about Blizz but their artists have always been ridicolously good.
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
For quite some time. I agree. But do away with it all and for good? I don't think so.
Also super stoked, the art is beautiful. Ideas about the units etc. sound fresh and the story can only get better from here!
As long as Mike Morhaime is CEO there will be starcraft, it's his favourite franchise, even if it's the least popular of all three of them Starcraft stuff will be made. Sure, it might take a (long) time but they'll get made. I wouldn't worry about it.
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
They always have the option to do a reset, either by jumping ahead a significant amount of years or going back through a time machine for a re-do.
Obviously that won't happen, they'll make another Starcraft game with kerrigan and raynor and whoever else doesn't get killed off in LotV because they're Iconic Characters and it'll be just as poorly written as the current one (though with the typical high standards of Blizzard design and polish).
I'm looking forward to the release of sc3, when people will praise the amazing storyline and unit interactions of sc2 and be apalled by the bad writing and dumbing down of mechanics in sc3.
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
They always have the option to do a reset, either by jumping ahead a significant amount of years or going back through a time machine for a re-do.
Obviously that won't happen, they'll make another Starcraft game with kerrigan and raynor and whoever else doesn't get killed off in LotV because they're Iconic Characters and it'll be just as poorly written as the current one (though with the typical high standards of Blizzard design and polish).
Touche. inb4 Kerrigan sacrifices her zerg self to kill amon only to be purified and her and raynor live happily ever after
HOTS campaign was dumbed down so badly it wasn't fun to play. You could just build super OP zerglings in every mission and a-move until you win. WOL had several fun missions where you needed to figure out the best/most fun strat to play. I've played WOL campaign maybe 5-6 times, HOTS once and it was instantly clear I'll never play it again.
Unfortunately, I think LOTV is going to be similar to HOTS. Maybe even worse.
Damn SC2 campaignes have been ridiculuosly amazing in gameplay and production value and this one is looking to be even more epic. The cutscenes and arts are stunning. No company has better artists than Blizz.
On November 09 2014 01:48 Ahli wrote: Teamliquid, are you allowed to post this?
Why wouldn't they be? The OP states where they took everything from.
From the rules that I have received along with a virtual ticket (fanpages should have received the same mail):
You can use any information provided during the event, but you are not allowed to broadcast any part of the stream on your fansite. You cannot take screenshots of the stream to illustrate your coverage. A Press kit will be available on the site and you can use it to do so.
Posting a video and screenshots on an official representitive user from a fanpage on the fanpage is a clear infringement. Even worse is the fact that these information are from a virtual-ticket-only-panel. A few other fanpages are doing these infringements and in a perfect world they will all be kicked out of Blizzard's fanpage program. Since TL has a lot of power due to its big community, they will most likely not be seriously punished, but it's a huge bad mannered move regarding other smaller fansites that will just be kicked out if they do that.
I'm not defending the rule's existance, but it's just horrible if the big sites just overstep it.
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
They always have the option to do a reset, either by jumping ahead a significant amount of years or going back through a time machine for a re-do.
Obviously that won't happen, they'll make another Starcraft game with kerrigan and raynor and whoever else doesn't get killed off in LotV because they're Iconic Characters and it'll be just as poorly written as the current one (though with the typical high standards of Blizzard design and polish).
Touche. inb4 Kerrigan sacrifices her zerg self to kill amon only to be purified and her and raynor live happily ever after
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
They always have the option to do a reset, either by jumping ahead a significant amount of years or going back through a time machine for a re-do.
Obviously that won't happen, they'll make another Starcraft game with kerrigan and raynor and whoever else doesn't get killed off in LotV because they're Iconic Characters and it'll be just as poorly written as the current one (though with the typical high standards of Blizzard design and polish).
Touche. inb4 Kerrigan sacrifices her zerg self to kill amon only to be purified and her and raynor live happily ever after
On November 08 2014 16:14 Zenbrez wrote: So would it be logical to take away from this that there will be no possibility for SC3?
It's a safe assumption since they'd have to either downscale significantly or upscale ridiculously. Unless they take a long detour to wrap it up in LotV, the UED is still a dangling plot thread, and they could do something ridiculous like a fullscale Xel'naga invasion.
Neither sound particularly good, and Morheim's said that he wants to move the company away from large WoW/SC2/D3 type games and focus entirely on small projects like Hearthstone, Heroes, and Overwatch. This is likely the last entry to the SC universe outside of Heroes type games.
Completely disagree here. There's absolutely the capacity for further Starcraft games and in particular an SC3. The QnA mentioned that there's definitely the passion in the Blizz team for future SC projects given the opportunity. Once SC2 dies down I'm sure they'll be looking at SC3 to replace LotV. Plot wise its not hard to continue things, can always create new villains, heroes and storylines within the same universe
They always have the option to do a reset, either by jumping ahead a significant amount of years or going back through a time machine for a re-do.
Obviously that won't happen, they'll make another Starcraft game with kerrigan and raynor and whoever else doesn't get killed off in LotV because they're Iconic Characters and it'll be just as poorly written as the current one (though with the typical high standards of Blizzard design and polish).
Touche. inb4 Kerrigan sacrifices her zerg self to kill amon only to be purified and her and raynor live happily ever after
I see a lot of discussion about the storyline.. And I think it will finally END
Yes - there will be sacrifices, but BALANCE will be restored between the P, T, and Z races once again
HOWEVER - there's always the "encore" if the fans seem to be so hyped about more content from the SC universe to go very BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK in the time when Protoss have had all the Inner battles, the Adun's teachings and separation of the ways of the Khala, the time when the Overmind was fighting for the selection/survival of the Zerg species
Things like that
They could've even "tell the whole story" how all that Xel'Naga creation of the universe even unfolded
As for sequels - it will be either a complete new game - in terms of - having completely new characters and use none of the present
Regardless - I really like the new units - basically I like the idea of ALL OF THEM.. As for the implementation - well - that remains to be seen cause Blizz tends to "finalize" their SC Multiplayer product state pretty late
And yes - I LOVE how it was all thought out for the Protoss to choose 3 special species for each of the units and choose one of them in the up-coming battles
People can complain about story all they want, but the overall universe and design of the Starcraft world is absolutely breathtaking. Can't wait to experience the Protoss some more (quite frankly from both the multiplayer and the singleplayer previously the world is way too Zerg/Terran centric. I saw as much creep as I did of actual Shakuras/Aiur on those levels!)
On November 09 2014 13:19 Darkaros wrote: People can complain about story all they want, but the overall universe and design of the Starcraft world is absolutely breathtaking. Can't wait to experience the Protoss some more (quite frankly from both the multiplayer and the singleplayer previously the world is way too Zerg/Terran centric. I saw as much creep as I did of actual Shakuras/Aiur on those levels!)
So what you're saying is "people can complain, but I refuse to accept that those complaints might have any merit."
I'm excited about all of this but, mostly that LoTV will be stand alone. I wonder why they decided to do this, I like it though, I also wonder if it'll be more expensive sense it's stand alone.
I don't know why people like Kerrigan. I know she's iconic, but I got sick of her so quickly in HotS. I don't think she's the type of character that can survive being a protagonist.
I just hope the campaign will depend less on heroes and more on managing armies, i.e. more WoL and less HoTS, where Kerrigan took on every mission singlehandedly basically. If we start with D-Day like invasion, man that would be precisely the epic start of the campaign that I'm so looking forward to. You can't have a D-Day like invasion without massive armies and just a few generals. Speaking of generals though, where is Tychus Findlay? I hope they can revive him one way or another!
Happy to hear that the dialogue is up to par this time. The hots campaign was a true pain. Also, I see no reason not to make brutal mode actually difficult this time.
And another thing they really messed up in HotS, starcraft is supposed to be an RTS, not a MOBA. WoL managed this, but in HotS, kerrigan really ruined the whole RTS experience. I would not appreciate completing the campaign by around with Artanis with an imba psi storm + that space cannon thing they have going on.
Well i expect the campaign to be really fun, with just awful writing. But, eh, what are you gonna do? I'm hyped, should be some really cool missions to play while the insanity of the MP at release is worked out.
On November 09 2014 15:51 roronoe wrote: What happened to Selendis (I think thats her name?) from the WoL campaign?
She is the female zealot at 0:35 and 1:27. She refers to Artanis briefly in the trailer, and it's definitely her voice. (see earlier in thread)
Yeah, she still reappears, but she might not make an appearance as a playable character, so to speak.
Maybe she dies in the invasion
Or is severely demoted to a minor character, seeing as she doesn't seem to reappear on the Spear.
Not appearing on the Spear means nothing. The only characters on the Spear we've seen so far are the abathur/engineer and iszha/horner analogue. They were ship crew, but not particularly important characters. (And were similarly revealed earlier than more significant characters in the plot.)
The second trailer appearance strongly suggests she does not bite it on Aiur, and so I would imagine she becomes one of the scattered Protoss leaders. At least, it would be bizarre if she weren't,
On November 10 2014 10:00 tritonice wrote: Great write up/summary. I hope we get a little spirit Tassadar action along with Selendis. I thought Selendis was an awesome character.
I'd be surprised if Tassadar doesn't show up. The fact that Artanis takes up Zeratul's psiblade makes it seem like he might end up being the next Twilight Messiah.
On November 09 2014 13:19 Darkaros wrote: People can complain about story all they want, but the overall universe and design of the Starcraft world is absolutely breathtaking. Can't wait to experience the Protoss some more (quite frankly from both the multiplayer and the singleplayer previously the world is way too Zerg/Terran centric. I saw as much creep as I did of actual Shakuras/Aiur on those levels!)
So what you're saying is "people can complain, but I refuse to accept that those complaints might have any merit."
That's cool.
Wow. That is not what I said at all lol. Story =/= universe/design. It's like saying I hate a story in Star Trek because it didn't explore plot/setting points haha. Chill out.
Story and Lore wise this is just going to be a Protoss rehash of how the Heart Of The Swarm campaign played out.
Reunite the swarm, deal with old and new faces and approach an old sin/shame (Mengsk for Kerrigan, Aiur for Protoss) while you face the vague Xel Naga hybrid threat (Duran in HOTS, Amon in LOTV) and you ultimately prevail!!
They even have the same basic kind of characters as HOTS did.
When they first announced the trilogy they said that each of the campaign installments after WoL would play differently, something like Kerrigan's choices will affect the outcome and the story of the campaign, Artanis will have to choose between the Protoss tribes and can't please everyone affecting the outcome and story of the campaign.
I know after HOTS that Blizzard isn't willing to make the SC2 story a spiritual successor to the the original game / BW but they could at least make the story less formulaic...
It seemed REALLY interesting that Kerrigan starts back as a Ghost in the beginning of HOTS and I thought that they would use that plot element more creatively than having it be disregarded very quickly to make Kerrigan "zergy" again (I GUESS they played it for drama with Raynor but it was damn cheap writing considering they made up rather quickly in the end).
I'm gonna play the LOTV campaign but I'm not going to have any expectations for the writing, since I sincerely doubt that the ending will be anything but the universe being saved by Protoss/Terran/Zerg or that the plot will be thick getting to that point.
After watching the Overwatch cinematic trailer and how well it was done in the vein of Pixar (and most definitely The Incredibles), perhaps the writers at Blizzard just don't have the chops to successfully write a sequel that follows the dark gritty and morally ambiguous nature of SC1.
On November 10 2014 07:49 cheekymonkey wrote: Happy to hear that the dialogue is up to par this time. The hots campaign was a true pain. Also, I see no reason not to make brutal mode actually difficult this time.
And another thing they really messed up in HotS, starcraft is supposed to be an RTS, not a MOBA. WoL managed this, but in HotS, kerrigan really ruined the whole RTS experience. I would not appreciate completing the campaign by around with Artanis with an imba psi storm + that space cannon thing they have going on.
This is the plot of basically all of their games right?
It is a pretty good plot framework that just depends on the execution. Blizz has gone for a combination of cringeworthy deus ex machina, out of left field betrayal and Twilight-lite "love" stories, though.
Hoping the same. The campaigns were really fun and well designed, but just way too easy. I actually enjoyed watching the friends I got into the game play them more than I myself, since so much of it becomes trivial if you can macro even a little bit.
Ideally, they'd add a difficulty setting (or two or three) on top of each existing campaign where the enemy spawns 1.5x, 2x, 3x as many enemies as in Brutal. Enemy production build times reduced similarly.
Alternatively, just increase the HP/DPS of every bad thing. It's a lazier fix, but it would get at the higher difficulty and would actually be kinda cool for the HotS campaign's swarminess feel (wouldn't it be cool if you occasionally actually had to remax?).
Maybe lazy fix for existing campaigns and have much harder difficulties with increased spawn counts for LotV? I'd love to legitimately feel outgunned.
On November 12 2014 00:59 Yoav wrote: Hoping the same. The campaigns were really fun and well designed, but just way too easy. I actually enjoyed watching the friends I got into the game play them more than I myself, since so much of it becomes trivial if you can macro even a little bit.
Ideally, they'd add a difficulty setting (or two or three) on top of each existing campaign where the enemy spawns 1.5x, 2x, 3x as many enemies as in Brutal. Enemy production build times reduced similarly.
Alternatively, just increase the HP/DPS of every bad thing. It's a lazier fix, but it would get at the higher difficulty and would actually be kinda cool for the HotS campaign's swarminess feel (wouldn't it be cool if you occasionally actually had to remax?).
Maybe lazy fix for existing campaigns and have much harder difficulties with increased spawn counts for LotV? I'd love to legitimately feel outgunned.
Like torment difficulty in diablo? That would be interesting
Don't expect much in terms of a deep and tragic story beyond perhaps a few big twists and key characters being killed off which can be seen from a mile away, but SC2's campaigns have a great sense of scale, creativity, artwork and manage to incorporate the RTS mechanics well to the campaign so I'm definitely giving it a try. I wouldn't want the difficulty ramped up artificially by giving the enemies more HP and damage, so if they could improve the enemy AI by improving their macro and maybe their micro it would be nice, or give them more minerals/gas.
Logically speaking it makes no sense that Blizzard would fail at having a challenging highest difficulty setting. If they wanted to, they could have made Brutal truly difficult even for seasoned players. The fact it's not makes me think that this is on purpose and that they want for the highest difficulty setting to be accessible for new players, to not demotivate them or something. Expect the LotV campaign to still be incredibly easy on all difficulty settings.
All I can say is, I'm glad Artanis is the main character and not Zeratul. Artanis just makes a lot more sense.
I found the WoL Brutal Mode to be the most difficult, unless you just MMM everything. HotS' Brutal Mode is just a joke though. It'd be cool if Blizzard implemented a NG+ where you kept all the upgrades, but the enemies always had Mercenary units or something of that sort.
EPT
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(in arcade) They have been ingame since 2010 :D
