Now that the NDA has been lifted, sc2gg.com has put up their article detailing what they saw at Blizz HQ.
The press conference started off with two games of private Battle Reports in a small theatre in the Blizzard building, with Dustin Browder and Rob Simpson casting live from the third row, with Moletrap, Diggity, and Psyonic Reaver sitting right in front of them in row two. One of the major foci of this presentation was to demonstrate all of the ridiculously awesome features that will be available to observers in Starcraft 2 games.
The folks at Blizzard have long emphasized their hope and expectation that Startcraft 2 will be a grand eSport. And to that end the developers are making every effort to concoct a game not only a challenging and competitive game but still agreeable to spectators. But what good would the World Cup be without a stadium to watch in or cameras to capture the action? At the recent press conference at Blizzard Headquarters, the development and eSports teams unveiled the full array of tools that will be available in Starcraft 2 for observing, analyzing, commentating, and studying the yet unborn art of playing it.
Note that images are used to illustrate various features mentioned in this article are not actual gameplay images. They have been taken from Blizzard Battle Reports or improvised on our own to give a visual example, but the functions seen in the Battle Reports were unfinished and the actual game functions will look a lot cooler and easier to read.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
But then why did they embargo this pathetic trickle of information?
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
Then why the hell did they have a godamn NDA, jeez.
we kind of already knew this information from the battlereports, which go waaaay back into early alpha builds. only thing noteworthy to me is replay rewind but even that was leaked before the NDA began.
I have no idea why they had us sign an NDA considering they didn't show us much. Maybe they didn't want the European and Korean sites to hear that Blizzard had nothing to show them and to still make them fly out to California?
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
No real new information? Rewindable replays? That's pretty huge.
Also I heard that they were supposed to see the new Battle.net and single player features in person, but Battle.net broke the day the reporters were supposed to go there. Too bad, really, but oh well, it happens.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
He was criticizing the amount of new information in the article, not the quality or people who wrote it.
Rep rewind seems cool. It was so damn annoying to have to fast forward through 25 minutes of replay to see 1 thing you missed.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
No real new information? Rewindable replays? That's pretty huge.
Also I heard that they were supposed to see the new Battle.net and single player features in person, but Battle.net broke the day the reporters were supposed to go there. Too bad, really, but oh well, it happens.
That tidbit isn't worth a 1-week NDA. It's not like they wanted to keep people from ruining a big press release about how they have a new replay feature.
If Battle.net2 broke, they should've dropped the NDA.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
No real new information? Rewindable replays? That's pretty huge.
Also I heard that they were supposed to see the new Battle.net and single player features in person, but Battle.net broke the day the reporters were supposed to go there. Too bad, really, but oh well, it happens.
Yeah, a few of these things, like the rewind replays and the FP views I wasn't aware of/paying attention to before, so some of this is new, at least to me.
@Psyonic_Reaver: Looking forward to your Q&A tomorrow!
liked the video at least, especially the micro against the baneling mob. Am i the only one who thinks the spine-crawlers attack animation seems weird. Imagine 3-5 of those defending a location and shooting across the screen like that.
Thanks for posting that. Good interview, at least this guy seems to know what we expect out of Starcraft. I think for SCII we might actually get some support from Blizzard, hopefully.
The video is really intense, I wish there was a lot more information released as most all of this is just updates on the current status, which wont really affect us later on down the road.
Was really hoping for new information are possible beta release, though it seems like it will be within the month. It seems like it definitely wont be this week at least.
Seems like the campaign will feature a lot of stuff not found in skirmish, this bodes well for UMS!
They can choose the order of the missions, they can choose which units they want to upgrade. So if you love yourself some medics, hey I got a couple upgrades for you they would make them so powerful we'd never put them in multiplayer. We've got a couple upgrades in there--oh, did you want an eight-man bunker with three armor? Go you. Did you want a Hercules dropship that can carry three Thors into battle, and looks like it can? There's all kinds of crazy stuff that you only get through the solo campaign. I think it'll really rock 'em, but we'll see.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
Then why the hell did they have a godamn NDA, jeez.
Wasn't the NDA supposed to allow all participants a chance to report on their findings? Rather than the ones who were lucky enough to get in on Monday posting up mass news articles, while the ones at the end of the week either a) getting everything ruined and/or b) not having a chance to post up news articles themselves. By delaying it a week all the sites were able to post up the news at the same time.
Anyway, this is all interesting stuff about the obs mode, but not really something I'm interested in. I hope there's an option to disable obs mode too, since the article seems to indicate that anyone joining can switch to obs if they want, and I don't necessarily want random people observing me if they're probably just going to tell my opponent what I'm doing.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
No real new information? Rewindable replays? That's pretty huge.
Also I heard that they were supposed to see the new Battle.net and single player features in person, but Battle.net broke the day the reporters were supposed to go there. Too bad, really, but oh well, it happens.
Rewinding replays is definitely not new news
On October 24 2008 08:51 fusionsdf wrote: not to hijack thread, but from the US press conference you linked:
StarCraft 2 Replays: A new feature called Bookmarks will be implemented into the replay functionality of StarCraft 2. There will be both standard and user customizable bookmark functionalities.
For example, there may be automatic bookmarks set at every 5 or 10 minute mark. This would allow the user to quick jump throughout the replay without have to spend time fast forwarding. Very similiar to the difference between DVD and Tapes.
With user customizable bookmarks, the replay author could set bookmarks at particular battles and other points of interest.
I'm sure I mentioned it as well after the blizzard HQ visit before blizzcon last year
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
No real new information? Rewindable replays? That's pretty huge.
Also I heard that they were supposed to see the new Battle.net and single player features in person, but Battle.net broke the day the reporters were supposed to go there. Too bad, really, but oh well, it happens.
On October 24 2008 08:51 fusionsdf wrote: not to hijack thread, but from the US press conference you linked:
StarCraft 2 Replays: A new feature called Bookmarks will be implemented into the replay functionality of StarCraft 2. There will be both standard and user customizable bookmark functionalities.
For example, there may be automatic bookmarks set at every 5 or 10 minute mark. This would allow the user to quick jump throughout the replay without have to spend time fast forwarding. Very similiar to the difference between DVD and Tapes.
With user customizable bookmarks, the replay author could set bookmarks at particular battles and other points of interest.
I'm sure I mentioned it as well after the blizzard HQ visit before blizzcon last year
They talked about it last Blizzcon regarding things they wanted to add to the game, but it was never confirmed before the visit, but yeah it is one week old. It was one of the few tidbits that slipped out before Blizzard enforced the NDA last week.
They can choose the order of the missions, they can choose which units they want to upgrade. So if you love yourself some medics, hey I got a couple upgrades for you they would make them so powerful we'd never put them in multiplayer. We've got a couple upgrades in there--oh, did you want an eight-man bunker with three armor? Go you. Did you want a Hercules dropship that can carry three Thors into battle, and looks like it can? There's all kinds of crazy stuff that you only get through the solo campaign. I think it'll really rock 'em, but we'll see.
Just read that interview, it sounds so crazy, I'm not a Terran player but I'm looking forward to the campaign, it actually sounds exciting. I want to see the level where the lava rises every few minutes haha
On June 29 2009 16:25 Psyonic_Reaver wrote: I have no idea why they had us sign an NDA considering they didn't show us much. Maybe they didn't want the European and Korean sites to hear that Blizzard had nothing to show them and to still make them fly out to California?
woot, no new news? So am I the only one who didn't know about the FPView feature? (which in my opinion is way more awesome than rewind, if its real FPView) Mh I really wonder how big the replay files are gonna be
Anyways, I liked the article even all the points that were already known were imo better explained than elsewhere.
1) NDA make the playing field fair for all the sites. So that those journalists that visit Blizzard last Monday doesn't have an advantage over those that did the visit two days later.
2) Blizzard's plan was to show and release much more of the game, but in the last minute they change the plans. Single player and Battle.net 2 reveal was put on hold.
From what I have heard Blizzard are going to invite people back in a couple of weeks, to release the information they planned to release last week but didn't.
Some of us don't hump the SC2 forums for updates so we can shout OLDDDD like a forum noob. Even if it was just a summary of the observer mode features, it was a great read. Thanks.
On June 29 2009 20:43 Orphan wrote: Anyway, this is all interesting stuff about the obs mode, but not really something I'm interested in. I hope there's an option to disable obs mode too, since the article seems to indicate that anyone joining can switch to obs if they want, and I don't necessarily want random people observing me if they're probably just going to tell my opponent what I'm doing.
Pretty sure it will be similar to SC1, the lobby leader would set slots to 'Open','Closed','Computer' and now also 'Spectator'
On June 29 2009 22:05 Elric wrote: So much sad article bashing. :/
Some of us don't hump the SC2 forums for updates so we can shout OLDDDD like a forum noob. Even if it was just a summary of the observer mode features, it was a great read. Thanks.
On June 29 2009 16:14 MaD.pYrO wrote: Didn't find this article very worthwhile tbh as there were no real new information involved
Dude. What the fuck do you expect when they tell us: "Hey! Come on over and we'll show you the new B.net and Single Player!" Then we show up and they go: "Oh gee well, we found this new bug in the B.net server so we don't want to show you it. Same goes for the Single Player. OH BUT LOOK! New Obs Mode!! Ohhh shiney!!"
I mean. I'm glad they showed us that because I am totally stoked for it but don't criticize us for giving lack of information when we were given nothing.
Agreed. I'm a little disappointed that Blizzard upheld a WEEK LONG NDA for this information. It's exciting, but I don't see why it was so time sensitive.
This slipped through the cracks for me, but if you think someone has spent a ton of time on an article, please don't copy paste the whole thing. Copy paste part of it and link to the rest. That shows respect to the author. I edited the OP to reflect that.
EPT
