On April 22 2011 11:08 zhurai wrote: just wondering, is hots going to require wings of liberty? (since friends at church want to buy it, but are like "ehh i'll just buy hots and not wol"
Yes, it's an expansion pack. It expands on the base (WoL).
On April 22 2011 12:14 LoLAdriankat wrote:
On April 22 2011 12:12 Fakie wrote: Lurkers are not needed in Star2. we have banes.
also, a question. do we need to BUY Heart of the Swarm and that'll patch into Wings of Liberty or is it going to be like "a patch"?
Like every expansion for every Blizzard game for the past 15 or so years, we're gonna need to buy it.
On April 22 2011 14:52 scottycopter wrote:
On April 22 2011 11:08 zhurai wrote: just wondering, is hots going to require wings of liberty? (since friends at church want to buy it, but are like "ehh i'll just buy hots and not wol"
Yes. HotS is considered an expansion, not a stand alone game. So it will essentially be the Brood War of SC2.
I have to point out that Blizzard's statements regarding this has been unclear. Originally Blizzard said that each expansion would be a standalone game, which also expands the other game(s). In case you are wondering what that's like, Arenanet did the same thing with Guild Wars. Problem is with SC2 being instanced and editable and having a ladder and such, there are a lot of potential problems with this method.
Later on, they made no official withdraw of what they previously said, but in their FAQ one of their question/answer points (that might be gone now? I couldn't find it) mentioned that HotS would be an expansion to WoL (but I don't think elaborated anymore, but did omit standalone, and did imply that WoL was required).
Hence, I'd say it's likely it will not be a standalone — mostly due to all the problems that would have— but one cannot say that for sure, as Blizzard has been pretty unclear.
I think they explained it wrong. Each expansion will have a single player campaign worthy of a standalone game. Other than that, they aren't standalone games at all. At least that's what I believe is going to happen based on BW adn TFT.
MYM also interviewed Dustin Browder and he said the same thing that that article said (required for SP, stand-alone for MP). The interview video is no longer available no their website though.
On April 22 2011 17:50 eviltomahawk wrote: Generally, expansion packs usually don't come with engine upgrades; content upgrades are the status-quo. Of course, there are a few exceptions like the Half Life 2 episodes that contain engine upgrades, but HotS is not expected to have such graphical improvements considering that Frozen Throne and Brood War were only content upgrades for their respective games. If there is a graphical update, I'm sure that it won't affect the minimum system requirements.
Well, just to stay in Blizzard topic, WoW has increased its requirements for one. An upgrade may effect the minimum as well, but we will see when we get there. If we wait 2-5 years for the void than we all will sure have better computers than the WoL minimum.
On April 22 2011 17:50 eviltomahawk wrote: Also, I'm sure that Blizzard stated that they are planning for separate ladders. Having separate ladders is generally the status quo for most RTS expansion packs, so I don't see Blizzard deviating from that. I think it's also safe to speculate that patching for WoL will be greatly reduced considering that HotS will be the new center of the community, though I think bug fixes will still be addressed with.
It wouldnt be unheard of that pros stay on older version because the newer turns out to suck. So thats why im asking.
On April 22 2011 17:50 eviltomahawk wrote: Also, I'm sure that Blizzard stated that they are planning for separate ladders. Having separate ladders is generally the status quo for most RTS expansion packs, so I don't see Blizzard deviating from that. I think it's also safe to speculate that patching for WoL will be greatly reduced considering that HotS will be the new center of the community, though I think bug fixes will still be addressed with.
It wouldnt be unheard of that pros stay on older version because the newer turns out to suck. So thats why im asking.
If the expansions do suck and some pros end up not switching, then having separate ladders would be the least of our concerns. Right now, everyone is expecting the expansions to fix some of the more fundamental problems, so a failed expansion pack would be disastrous for SC2 as an e-sport.
However, I'm not too worried about the expansion packs. Blizzard did a good job with Frozen Throne on fixing some of the fundamental problems in vanilla Warcraft 3. Additionally, most major tournaments usually use the latest version and expansion pack of their RTS games. WCG eventually updated their Command and Conquer 3 and Age of Empires 3 to the Kane's Wrath and The Warchief's expansion packs respectively when those games were in the tournament lineup. I expect most major SC2 tournaments will do a similar switch with HotS. Consequently, I expect that most pros won't stay on old versions since there simply wouldn't be any competitions that they could play in that support the older versions.
On April 22 2011 12:12 Fakie wrote: Lurkers are not needed in Star2. we have banes.
also, a question. do we need to BUY Heart of the Swarm and that'll patch into Wings of Liberty or is it going to be like "a patch"?
I miss my lurkers though, I at least want them in single player
And it's going to be an expansion, as in buying an expansion pack. I'm not 100% sure what will happen with the units in multiplayer, I don't remember if there was an official announcement from Blizz regarding that. My memory is foggy between what was official from Blizz and what was speculated around the boards.
I'm sure they mentioned separate ladders for the games. Which would make the most sense, people can still play without upgrading, but you get the "hey look how awesome this is" shoved in their face enough to maybe make them buy the next one.
On April 22 2011 10:55 stormchaser wrote: Taken straight from Kotaku:
''Blizzard plans to show off the single-player side of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm for the first time next month, offering an early look at the first expansion for and follow-up to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.
We received an invite to see Heart of the Swarm earlier today, promising that we'd see a small portion of the game's campaign, but warning that we won't see any changes or additions to the multiplayer side of StarCraft II at this stage.
Blizzard has indicated that it plans a different approach for the first StarCraft II expansion, one that focuses on Sarah Kerrigan and the Zerg legions for its campaign. It's expected that Heart of the Swarm will include some RPG-like mechanics and perhaps include new Zerg units.
Just because Blizzard is planning to show off Heart of the Swarm next month doesn't necessarily mean it's due this year. Blizzard has indicated that we will likely see the next StarCraft II game in early 2012. Note that we got our first look at the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign nearly a year in advance of the game's release.
Heart of the Swarm is the second part of a planned StarCraft II trilogy.''
On April 22 2011 17:58 Inex wrote: I don't really care about the single player, all I care about are the new multiplayer mechanics. RPG elements, simcity elements, throw in there whatever you like Blizz, because I went through the liberty campaign only when my internet died. I also hope they made the visual effects a bit better, because right now Starcraft 2 looks like some game from 2005 with all the new shader effects slapped on top of it and machines that play all of today's games on max settings, have trouble with Starcraft 2 on ultra. So Blizz please put more effort this time.
If you care bout your multiplayer experience so much, you really shouldn't bother thinking about ultra grapchics. Play on low. Just saying.
On April 22 2011 11:08 zhurai wrote: just wondering, is hots going to require wings of liberty? (since friends at church want to buy it, but are like "ehh i'll just buy hots and not wol"
Yes, it's an expansion pack. It expands on the base (WoL).
On April 22 2011 11:08 zhurai wrote: just wondering, is hots going to require wings of liberty? (since friends at church want to buy it, but are like "ehh i'll just buy hots and not wol"
Yes. HotS is considered an expansion, not a stand alone game. So it will essentially be the Brood War of SC2.
I have to point out that Blizzard's statements regarding this has been unclear. Originally Blizzard said that each expansion would be a standalone game, which also expands the other game(s). In case you are wondering what that's like, Arenanet did the same thing with Guild Wars. Problem is with SC2 being instanced and editable and having a ladder and such, there are a lot of potential problems with this method.
Later on, they made no official withdraw of what they previously said, but in their FAQ one of their question/answer points (that might be gone now? I couldn't find it) mentioned that HotS would be an expansion to WoL (but I don't think elaborated anymore, but did omit standalone, and did imply that WoL was required).
Hence, I'd say it's likely it will not be a standalone — mostly due to all the problems that would have— but one cannot say that for sure, as Blizzard has been pretty unclear.
It's always been clear they would be expansion packs, anyone who thought otherwise simply couldn't understand what was being said. Or listened to people who spread imaginary histories like this one and didn't bother verifying it. But even media sites like IGN couldn't comprehend the nuance and doublespeak.
Every time they said standalone and separate was in reference to and the context of trying to justify the trilogy through making a better campaign, a campaign that would be worthy of being standalone. The FAQ that accompanied the announcement was crystal clear for anyone who still had doubts.
Btw if you won't buy expansion you won't be able to play with new units in MP? If that's true then you pretty much pay huge amount of money just to get few new units (I don't care about campaign).
On April 22 2011 11:10 DirtYLOu wrote: RPG LIKE? WHAT IS THIS!?!?!
This should be STARCARFT , not WARCRAFT -.-
wow blizzard really is going big for money there... and dont care about Starcraft Fans.
What do Blizzard honestly have to lose? They've already made most people who came from BW punch a wall with the murder of the storyline. As long as it don't effect Multiplayer I'm fine with it.
On April 22 2011 10:58 Bobster wrote: I'm not the only one who immediately thinks of WC3 when he hears about RPG-like mechanics, right? Not sure I want to level up Kerrigan and manage her "inventory" etc.
New Zerg units should be cool, I expect one of these to be added to the MP eventually.
Who wouldn't want to manage Sarah's "inventory"? :D
But it does bring up WC3 when they put it like that. Not sure if I like that, have to see the previews I guess.
On April 22 2011 20:25 Alpina wrote: Btw if you won't buy expansion you won't be able to play with new units in MP? If that's true then you pretty much pay huge amount of money just to get few new units (I don't care about campaign).
A $40 one time payment isn't a huge amount of money.
On April 22 2011 10:58 Bobster wrote: I'm not the only one who immediately thinks of WC3 when he hears about RPG-like mechanics, right? Not sure I want to level up Kerrigan and manage her inventory etc.
New Zerg units should be cool, I expect one of these to be added to the MP eventually.
It's fine by me. I play a lot of other games, and it's always fun to invest in a character through RPG mechanics.
[QUOTE]On April 22 2011 21:12 fant0m wrote: [QUOTE]On April 22 2011 20:25 Alpina wrote: Btw if you won't buy expansion you won't be able to play with new units in MP? If that's true then you pretty much pay huge amount of money just to get few new units (I don't care about campaign). [/QUOTE]
A $40 one time payment isn't a huge amount of money.
Believe me it's a lot of money for some people, especially when you pay pretty much for nothing - just few units.
On April 22 2011 10:55 stormchaser wrote: Taken straight from Kotaku:
''Blizzard plans to show off the single-player side of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm for the first time next month, offering an early look at the first expansion for and follow-up to StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.
We received an invite to see Heart of the Swarm earlier today, promising that we'd see a small portion of the game's campaign, but warning that we won't see any changes or additions to the multiplayer side of StarCraft II at this stage.
Blizzard has indicated that it plans a different approach for the first StarCraft II expansion, one that focuses on Sarah Kerrigan and the Zerg legions for its campaign. It's expected that Heart of the Swarm will include some RPG-like mechanics and perhaps include new Zerg units.
Just because Blizzard is planning to show off Heart of the Swarm next month doesn't necessarily mean it's due this year. Blizzard has indicated that we will likely see the next StarCraft II game in early 2012. Note that we got our first look at the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign nearly a year in advance of the game's release.
Heart of the Swarm is the second part of a planned StarCraft II trilogy.''
You already have banelings. Stop whining. Nice interview though.
You can take back your Banelings, if we get Lurkers instead Or why don't they make Banelings more a anti-structure Unit, lowering their damage against units and increasing it against Buildings and add Lurkers to deal with clumps of Units.
On April 22 2011 20:25 Alpina wrote: Btw if you won't buy expansion you won't be able to play with new units in MP? If that's true then you pretty much pay huge amount of money just to get few new units (I don't care about campaign). :
A $40 one time payment isn't a huge amount of money.
Believe me it's a lot of money for some people, especially when you pay pretty much for nothing - just few units.
Well, if you aren't playing the campaign that's included in the game, then you are wasting money. A lot of the cost comes from paying for the campaign and all the employees and man-hours that went into making it.
Plus, I think Blizzard stated that they are also planning on a lot of improvements for Battle.net that are going to ship with HotS.
Whats wrong with a RPG feature in a sp CAMPAIGN?? I dont understand why ppl whine on that. Its great to see blizz takes a diff approach to make the game interesting and fun for casuals. For the more loyal fans and the "its not warcraft ffs":Hopefully theyll also take a diff/better approach on explaining and following sc1 storyline and stop making fantasy/love stories.
EPT
Or why don't they make Banelings more a anti-structure Unit, lowering their damage against units and increasing it against Buildings and add Lurkers to deal with clumps of Units.
