StarCraft II to be Split into 3 Separate Games

[wacko]

Just a bit weird. Will the engine/features/GUI/whatever change between them too? Or will they all be patched simultaneously as if all one release?

as with previous blizzard games we patch everything to be the same, version engine wise and UI wise, I think the UI and engine will be pretty solid by the time Starcraft 2 comes out, and that any changes you see between release 1 and release 2 etc.. would be patched in all the clients just as we have done with the past games.

[wacko]

Completely agree with you there. And if people aren't interested in the single player they won't have any incentive to buy them outside of custom games...

Though, I’ve got a friend who is a major Starcraft 2 nut and it sounds like they’re doing some pretty conservative changes to it. The Black Hole ship seemed to be a good example: it used to be a one-only, end-game uber-unit that could destroy a screen irregardless to what was on it, but it's been reduced and reduced until it’s pretty much a normal unit. They seem very scared of messing up the balancing and new units could be a spanner in the works. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but I think we’ll have to wait and see.

while this is true, it was soon found out that uber units just had a hard time fitting into the game, Starcraft did not really have uber units and after much much play testing a lot of those units are just not normal units much like they would have been in Starcraft.

[wacko]

Learn to read people:

Blizzard added that the plans for the multiplayer component are unchanged by the splitting of the campaigns. However, some units will now be unique to the campaigns and will not be playable in multiplayer.

Wow, great. They're just copying Valve - the bad way. I hope that the single campaigns are long as fuck though. Blizz can go shove it up their asses otherwise.

the singleplayer is pretty long and its pretty different then most RTS singleplayers. We have allowed the player the ability to kind free roam if they want to do but still go down the path.

[Taylor]

Completely agree with you there. And if people aren't interested in the single player they won't have any incentive to buy them outside of custom games...

Though, I’ve got a friend who is a major Starcraft 2 nut and it sounds like they’re doing some pretty conservative changes to it. The Black Hole ship seemed to be a good example: it used to be a one-only, end-game uber-unit that could destroy a screen irregardless to what was on it, but it's been reduced and reduced until it’s pretty much a normal unit. They seem very scared of messing up the balancing and new units could be a spanner in the works. I’m not saying it won’t happen, but I think we’ll have to wait and see.

Yes I agree its a good example to conservative things happening but I think you are drawing the wrong conclusions from it. I don't believe they made it into a "regular" unit because they were afraid of messing up the balance, I think they made it into a regular unit because it was actually messing it up. Blizzard has always tried to make sure that things are well balanced and when you are going to make a sequel to a game that is so successfully balanced then I understand completely that they will mostly just copy what is done in the first game. When you look at it that way, trying new things would actually be time consuming and worthless since you can't really make something perfect better.

while this is true, it was soon found out that uber units just had a hard time fitting into the game, Starcraft did not really have uber units and after much much play testing a lot of those units are just not normal units much like they would have been in Starcraft.

I concede to both of you. I think what I wanted to do was make a comparison to different design philosophies and how they are erring on the side of caution, but the example was misconstrued.

[KungFuSquirrel]

My guess is they'll just split the userbase as with any expansion for a game. Only this time it has the potential to splinter the community into three groups instead of two like in the past.

I don't see this being a problem. Surely the MP game will be a constant, and if either of the later releases change it, it'll be patched into the first one.

Didn't Dawn of War handle this pretty well, too? You can play games with anyone who owns any of the expansion content but only play the new races if you own that expansion? I know they had big-time compatibility patches before each expansion came out.

(edit: jumped the gun before reading page 3, wacko already covered this. Fail is me!)

[Jetsetlemming]

I heard that the different campaigns for SC2 are supposed to have 26-30 missions each? Is this right? Because if so, these absolutely are as long as Starcraft 1's lone campaign. SC1's campaign was 30 missions, with Brood War being 28.

[skdr]

StarCraft 2 Trilogy Releases Will Be Years Apart

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55283

[Sindwiller]

Learn to read people:

Blizzard added that the plans for the multiplayer component are unchanged by the splitting of the campaigns. However, some units will now be unique to the campaigns and will not be playable in multiplayer.

Wow, great. They're just copying Valve - the bad way. I hope that the single campaigns are long as fuck though. Blizz can go shove it up their asses otherwise.

the singleplayer is pretty long and its pretty different then most RTS singleplayers. We have allowed the player the ability to kind free roam if they want to do but still go down the path.

Sounds nice

[Pericolos0]

the warhammer games did this like 5 or 6 times... i don't hear anyone cry over that!

[dux]

What?

[2d-chris]

Restricting a team is fair enough, but potentially limiting all teams by stopping the use of added units (as we can assume 3 teams will all be playable) could be very much a major draw back. I'd just add those extra units for everyone playing MP when the new expansion are released.

[Steppenwolf]

the warhammer games did this like 5 or 6 times... i don't hear anyone cry over that!

you dont hear me whine about it because i never played them

[Sentura]

Restricting a team is fair enough, but potentially limiting all teams by stopping the use of added units (as we can assume 3 teams will all be playable) could be very much a major draw back. I'd just add those extra units for everyone playing MP when the new expansion are released.

in that case, people (whom i'd reckon mostly will be starcraft fans, and people who are in it for the multiplayer) will just buy the first game and not care about the expansions. of course this is purely pragmatism, but it's easy to predict that sales would evolve like that. in which case, of course, putting the 3 games back into one would be more beneficient.