It's been a while since the last TrueBlue, but here's another summary of what's been going on around in the Starcraft II universe lately.
No LAN in Starcraft II is not the only thing that was announced during the pressinvitation Blizzard a couple of weeks ago, but it sure has been the hottest topic lately. In two videos uploaded by Incgamers.net, made during the pressinvitation, both Vice President of Game Design, Rob Pardo, and Lead Designer, Dustin Browder, were interviewed and they both had a handful of interesting news to tell us apart from the LAN issue.
Replay editor?
A question concerning adding an option to upload replays and convert them into VODs through Battle.net 2 was brought up, and it made Rob Pardo tell us a bit more about the ideas inside the Blizzard Headquarters. They haven't planned on making a VOD uploader in Battle.net 2, but something like a replay editor is one of the things they've been discussing as a potential addition in one of their upcoming expansions of the game, but it will not be added for the launch, Wings of Liberty. Rob Pardo didn't give any detailed explanation on what they have been talking about, but this, in my opinion, sounds very interesting. If they stick with this idea, will we then be able to cut out long and boring parts of the replays? Will we be able to add effects to the replays such as zoom, blur, slowmotion and fades? It might be too much to ask, but you never know.
Singleplayer Campaign - Online
Another thing that Rob Pardo mentioned in the interview is that we'll be able to play the single player campaign on battle.net. I think that this will bring a whole new life to the singleplayer part of the game, as we'll also be able to send messages to our friends and other players while we play the campaign. This is something that probably will get more Starcraft II gamers to play the campaign, and maybe bring a whole new aspect to the game. "First one to beat the terran campaign wins, gogo, glhf" - Maybe?
Starcraft II will not be made for Nintendo 64
Alright, that wasn't too hard to guess, and I think most of us knew it already that Starcraft II won't be made for the Nintendo 64 console. This goes for the newer consoles as well such as Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii, there won't be a console version of the game like the original Starcraft, no surprises really, but it's a confirmation, and Rob Pardo gives a good explanation for it in the interview.
Replays
Watching replays is, for many, Battle.nets answer to laying down on the couch. When you're tired after a long day of intense gaming, it sure is good to watch some replays with your friends. Maybe talk about the good old days when you could get a Spawning Pool for 150 minerals. Then you decide to watch some great old-school replays of Boxer vs Yellow, but there's just one problem; Brood War has been patched, and Boxers SCVs gets lazy and decides to just chill around the Command Center for the rest of the game. In Starcraft II, however, this is not a problem anymore. Every replay will work for any patches made. But since Blizzard decided that watching replays in multiplayer won't work from launch, the good part of it kind of vanishes with the bad part. So hopefully Blizzard makes some changes really quick, because watching replays with friends is a huge part of the game. And it doesn't make it any better without LAN, as far as I know the only way to watch replays with friends now is to give them a call and ask them to come over - could be a problem if you live on two different continents.
Rumors
Rumors said that Starcraft II most likely would be delayed and released in 2010 instead of Blizzard's target which is an end of the year release. Despite the rumors, Blizzard is still aiming for a 2009 release as they told IGN this in an interview:
We're still targeting the end of the year for the launch of StarCraft II and we're also still targeting this summer for the start of the beta, so none of that's changed on this end.
Units and Abilities
Overlords and Overseers:
To clear things up, Karune answered a thread at the BlizzBlues forums regarding the Overlords, Overseers and their abilities. Only the Overlord can carry units and drop creep, but it can't drop the creep while it's moving. The Overseer, however, moves faster and detects invisible units.
MULE:
Karune explained that the MULE will harvest more than 100 minerals during its time, but it's a subject of balance. If the time of the MULE runs out when it's holding minerals, you will lose the minerals it's holding. The MULE does not have auto-cast abilities, and the same goes for Protoss' Obilisk, and the Zerg Queen.
Creep:
There's been a few discussions about the creep in Starcraft II, and it has changed a bit from the original Starcraft. Zerg now gains increased movement speed on creep, but it does not increase the hit point regeneration.
That's it for this time, but stay tuned as we'll bring you more TrueBlue threads in the future. To watch the videointerviews just follow the links below. And remember; for every day that goes, we're one day closer to Starcraft II.
Links
Incgamers.net - Rob Pardo interview
Incgamers.net - Dustin Browder interview
Blizzblues.com - Starcraft 2 Forum
