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Which SC2 expansion had the most entertaining esports? - P…

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Whatson
Profile Blog Joined January 2012
United States5357 Posts
July 07 2024 02:37 GMT
#41
WoL 2010-early 2012 when there was actually hype and the game felt fresh. People were trying some absolutely wild shit even in high-stakes tournaments and SC2 was considered a top dog among video games.
¯\_(シ)_/¯
radracer
Profile Joined March 2020
United States73 Posts
July 07 2024 08:20 GMT
#42
On July 07 2024 11:37 Whatson wrote:
WoL 2010-early 2012 when there was actually hype and the game felt fresh. People were trying some absolutely wild shit even in high-stakes tournaments and SC2 was considered a top dog among video games.


Basically started the modern esports boom, the wild west days ended and things got so much more serious / official
old
SC-Shield
Profile Joined December 2018
Bulgaria835 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-14 09:50:14
July 14 2024 09:49 GMT
#43
Wings of Liberty when the game was new and had a big enough player base. Gameplay was better than HotS. LotV comes close to WoL in terms of gameplay for me but player base is no longer there.
Agh
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States1024 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-14 18:13:10
July 14 2024 17:30 GMT
#44
WoL simply because every unit that was added to the game simply made it worse.

The game just needed a few minor changes and it was near perfect.
eg)
-Slightly rebalance most t1 (mostly unit sizes with very little actual number changes)
-Remove high ground warpin
-Replace forcefield with a slowing spell
-Brood lords no longer spawn units
-Infestor in current state
-Mules removed from the game (Orbital slightly faster build time, call down supply gives bonus health as well as armor)
-1v1 supply cap removed / raised to 300


That a long with not having a lot of its life span wasted on absolutely fucking terrible maps would have been the dream. (Shoebox of war, Delta Quadrant, Metalopolis, Shakuras Plateau, Antiga shityard to name a few)
I may appear to be an emotionless sarcastic pos, but just like an onion when you pull off more and more layers you find the exact same thing everytime and you start crying
Ciaus237
Profile Joined July 2015
South Africa286 Posts
July 14 2024 17:42 GMT
#45
On July 15 2024 02:30 Agh wrote:
WoL simply because every unit that was added to the game simply made it worse.

The game just needed a few minor changes and it was near perfect.
eg)
-Slightly rebalance most t1 (mostly unit sizes with very little actual number changes)
-Remove high ground warpin
-Replace forcefield with a slowing spell
-Brood lords no longer spawn units
-Infestor in current state
-Mules removed from the game (Orbital slightly faster build time, call down supply gives bonus health as well as armor)


That a long with not having a lot of it's life span wasted on absolutely fucking terrible maps would have been the dream. (Shoebox of war, Delta Quadrant, Metalopolis, Shakuras Plateau, Antiga shityard to name a few)


Aww yeah some minor changes there. Just a few pixels away from perfect, except for an overhaul of terran economy, terran's core unit DPS density, zerg core unit splash vulnerability, protoss's main early game defence, and all of Zerg lategame.
Those are not minor. Those are more substantial than adding a handful of midgame units by miles.

WoL was a great game, but it's just unbelievably worse than LotV.

The time that we kill keeps us alive
Agh
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States1024 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-14 20:25:36
July 14 2024 17:58 GMT
#46
On July 15 2024 02:42 Ciaus237 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 15 2024 02:30 Agh wrote:
WoL simply because every unit that was added to the game simply made it worse.

The game just needed a few minor changes and it was near perfect.
eg)
-Slightly rebalance most t1 (mostly unit sizes with very little actual number changes)
-Remove high ground warpin
-Replace forcefield with a slowing spell
-Brood lords no longer spawn units
-Infestor in current state
-Mules removed from the game (Orbital slightly faster build time, call down supply gives bonus health as well as armor)


That a long with not having a lot of it's life span wasted on absolutely fucking terrible maps would have been the dream. (Shoebox of war, Delta Quadrant, Metalopolis, Shakuras Plateau, Antiga shityard to name a few)


Aww yeah some minor changes there. Just a few pixels away from perfect, except for an overhaul of terran economy, terran's core unit DPS density, zerg core unit splash vulnerability, protoss's main early game defence, and all of Zerg lategame.
Those are not minor. Those are more substantial than adding a handful of midgame units by miles.

WoL was a great game, but it's just unbelievably worse than LotV.


Except literally everything I listed there addresses every issue that you typed out.
Won't spoonfeed but something like a ball of marines is significantly less punishing if their size is increased, since it lowers the number that would normally be able to attack (and also would allow things like an additional ling to attack them) The actual unit stat adjustments would be extremely minor and only apply to a few units.

These aren't even hindsight ideas since I had someone make a map (unfortunately defunct now) and it was truly a breath of fresh air, and everyone enjoyed it.




Edited the supply changes in since that was the only thing I forgot other than Queen changes but it was one of the larger/game altering changes so I didn't include it.
+ Show Spoiler +
for anyone wondering the base idea was 1 queen limit per hatchery. (Injects tied to that hatchery [from anywhere and also overlapping like current], net energy regen increased (resulting in 5 excess per inject, current transfuse).

Also had a secondary idea when they played with the idea of auto-injects, but that's separate.

I may appear to be an emotionless sarcastic pos, but just like an onion when you pull off more and more layers you find the exact same thing everytime and you start crying
KobraKay
Profile Joined March 2010
Portugal4236 Posts
July 14 2024 22:19 GMT
#47
Easy win for WoL to me. Not even close.

Hots changes were not the best but there was still something there.....then lotv just killed it with how much wrong it got.

Stopped watching sc2 all together when lotv came out. It no longer represented starcraft to me.

Played the campaign and did an effort to watch some games but nope.

CJ Fighting! (--.--)
Yoshi Kirishima
Profile Blog Joined July 2009
United States10366 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-15 03:30:22
July 15 2024 03:29 GMT
#48
300 max supply? That would take massive redesigning and rebalancing.

How about just start with suggesting 250 supply first... or 225 if we're not trying to make the numbers pretty.
Mid-master streaming MECH ONLY + commentary www.twitch.tv/yoshikirishima +++ "If all-in fails, all-in again."
Gescom
Profile Joined February 2010
Canada3507 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-15 03:53:32
July 15 2024 03:49 GMT
#49
WoL was 'exciting' but 5 rax reapers, Metalopolis/Scrap Station/Steppes of War, Protoss 4game, 1 base play etc etc was objectively BAD.
Jaedong Hyuk || Bisu Jangbi || Fantasy Flash
radracer
Profile Joined March 2020
United States73 Posts
July 15 2024 06:17 GMT
#50
It was objectively bad as any early era RTS'es builds, imo. but objectively the popularity for WoL was the highest, which i'd argue is hard to match in terms of excitement, the sheer crowds at every event, numbers in the streams, all added to the excitement of enjoying the esport together.
old
fLyiNgDroNe
Profile Joined September 2005
Belgium4037 Posts
July 15 2024 10:51 GMT
#51
Pretty sure the best was that one in which Nexus could shoot shit in all different directions, which was balance fixed by moving this ability to A FUCKING PYLON.
Drone is a way of living
sertas
Profile Joined April 2012
Sweden889 Posts
July 15 2024 11:23 GMT
#52
hots killed the game. Speed dropships ruined starcraft. WOL had terrible endgame but it was far better than anything that came after
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13990 Posts
July 15 2024 13:33 GMT
#53
On July 15 2024 20:23 sertas wrote:
hots killed the game. Speed dropships ruined starcraft. WOL had terrible endgame but it was far better than anything that came after

Speed Drops being your final straw over BL-Festor, Swarm Host mirrors or Tankivacs is...interesting
Chain 1 Arthalion Chain 2 Urgula Chain 3 Mululu Chain 4 Lukias
ejozl
Profile Joined October 2010
Denmark3463 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-15 14:31:40
July 15 2024 14:22 GMT
#54
For the average ladder joe, WoL>hots>lotv. For watching: LotV>hots>WoL. I think lotv>wol>hots for gameplay, but hots, WoL did feel more polished.
Tempest without the aoe should just be cut it's the dullest concept ever and medivac boost wad the beginning of the end. It's david kim's philosophy of making things that are more "fun" overpowered. The entire game got powercrept ever since with mobility increases and other things that increase the pacing and it was all because of this.
In WoL the answer to bl\infestor would've been increasing the size of the maps and\or implementing lotv economy. EMP was there to answer at the time as well, but t's were not good enough to play this.
In HotS sh's were fixed so the final iteration was actually good and it was the most balanced version of sc2. All of the overcharge spells were lame Band-Aids, but pylon overcharge is actually better than battery overcharge. If it was spawned from the nexus, the amount of pylon cheeses would've also been kept in check.
And I don't think increasing the supply is that game breaking, actually.

I made a mod that you can use for WoL it increases supply to 300, pylons give 6 supply only and you start with 12 workers and there is lotv economy, with slightly more minerals on the fat fields. I think something like this would make wol rly interesting to play. There is an elegant simplicity in wol and the game is still really deep. There are other things you could do as well such as lowering vision slightly on most units, especially zerg ones.
The 6 supply pylon keeps the 300 supply somewhat in check, while also making it more costly to further your army supply as opposed to remaking army supply. Sc2 can be very snowbally.
SC2 Archon needs "Terrible, terrible damage" as one of it's quotes.
andrewlt
Profile Joined August 2009
United States7702 Posts
July 15 2024 15:06 GMT
#55
WoL. BL-infestor and SH killed my interest in watching SC2. BW zerg was the aggressive race. Turning it into the late game turtle race was a total failure.
StarcraftHistorian
Profile Joined November 2022
United States154 Posts
July 15 2024 21:03 GMT
#56
LOTV has by far the most entertaining gameplay. Overall I would say I agree with those who have said LOTV>WOL>HOTS. In the early part of the LOTV era we still had loads of top tier Koreans, we saw the player base spike up after f2p, had the largest prize purses in SC2 history, hit peak all time viewership numbers on streams, all while having dynamic and engaging gameplay.

WOL was super hype and obviously when SC2 was on top of the world it was a great time to be a fan. The quality of the games was largely trash though with several minutes of dead air in the early game, and rudimentary mistakes being the deciding factor in so many games.

HOTS had an amazing era in Korea with KESPA finally behind SC2, but overall the scene was suffering. Viewership started to tank, we went from one awful stale meta in Broodlord/Infestor, to an even worse meta thanks to Swarmhosts. The HOTS era still produced a load of wonderful moments and I'm happy I never walked away from the game, but imo the HOTS era is what gave the world the perception that the game was dead.

The scene was on life support when LOTV released, and here we are 9 years later. We may be struggling with playerbase issues after some years of decline, but overall I think even now we are better off than at the end of HOTS.
Haku
Profile Joined August 2013
Germany550 Posts
July 15 2024 21:46 GMT
#57
HotS but not because of the game itself, rather the pro scene, especially proleague!
We had awesome team tournaments, a very competitive scene and nice storylines.
Jaedong | Life | MKP | PartinG | LosirA | ByuN | TaeJa | TY | TLO | Bomber | HerO | Rotti | Dark | Stephano | Maru | Ragnarok | MC | IdrA | Serral | Creator | Bunny | INnoVation | Liquid | Prime | JinAir
Olli
Profile Blog Joined February 2012
Austria24422 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-16 07:08:11
July 16 2024 07:01 GMT
#58
Agree with the sentiment of many others here - the game itself isn't so much the deciding factor as the scene, players, tournaments around it. Late WoL was an absolute mess with the dominance of BL/infestor, but WoL SC2 was extremely fun anyway. The metagame was still developing, team houses were still a thing - that allowed certain players to pop up seemingly out of nowhere for a while because they discovered certain strategies early (hi, Seed!). We had a lot of entertaining personalities in and around the game and there was always discourse of some kind. We had team leagues and a large variety of offline tournaments, but still had the GSL as the holy grail of SC2 and a different format altogether.

HotS was by far the better game and I enjoyed playing it far more, but towards the end of it we already started thinning out - in terms of players, personalities and variety in the game itself. And even though LotV is probably an even better game, that trend has only continued. Nowadays I can take a break from the game for months, come back and I'll have missed very little strategic or metagame development.
Administrator"Declaring anything a disaster because aLive popped up out of nowhere is just downright silly."
inermis
Profile Joined September 2010
353 Posts
July 16 2024 08:51 GMT
#59
this shouldn't be a discussion, its obvious, #1 WoL - new game, everyone learning the game, new strategies everyday, huge hype all around the world. #2 LotV - game became quicker and more fun to spectate. #3 HotS - swarm hosts... need i say more lol...
play hard go pro
Slydie
Profile Joined August 2013
1929 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-07-21 07:42:50
July 17 2024 10:54 GMT
#60
On July 16 2024 00:06 andrewlt wrote:
WoL. BL-infestor and SH killed my interest in watching SC2. BW zerg was the aggressive race. Turning it into the late game turtle race was a total failure.


That was not intentional, it was just the best way to play after the Queen range+2 buff. Creep was also way stronger back then, even though the players were much worse at abusing it.

The bl/Infestors composition itself was not that problematic, it was just too easy to get there using by hive rushing and spending almost only mineral units to defend.

I am still a bit sad the game is balanced around mules, warp gate, chronoboost, injects and Queens, but I am used to it by now.
Buff the siegetank
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