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StarCraft 2 Beta |OT| (Beta Now Reopen, GL HF)

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Yaweee said:
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but somebody at TL discovered how to double the damage output from Void Rays
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=134124

Basically, damage is dealt whenever they start firing at a target. So if you switch targets constantly, it resets the damage counter, eliminating the cooldown between damage ticks.

Trick #1 should be patched.
Trick #2 should not.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Cru Jones said:
Hey ZealousD, I just wanted to say I enjoyed your cast of Game One of the GAF finals. Are we going to get any more posted up?

Game two is already up. However, my SC2 broke after that and I'm unable to cast the third and last game unless somebody can step up to the plate and record it for me.
 
Cru Jones said:
I'll admit that I would definitely curb my approach in certain discussions if we used a RealID system here. You recognizing this is just proving mine, and other people's point.

Its not since real ID or not I would not change here since other people would have to expose theirs also. What I am against is exposing it without a good reason or being the only one todo so as are many other people.

People knowing who I am and what I am like etc is perfectly fine with me and I am not going to hide it like most people do with their fake online persona's but the choice should still be mine just incase I was not. What I am weary of however is some random fucktard from an internet forum to interfere with my personal life due to them being a fucktard.

Hell if some random kid can hunt down some American for a whole year and kill him just because he got teabagged without anything to go by, makes you wonder how much faster shit could happen if they had something to go by.


ultron87 said:
So... you are arguing that their system is going to have exactly the effect that they are hoping for?

Mixed messages man.

No I am saying people would be alot less open about themselfs if they could be traced due to 90% of the internet being scum.

Edit - Just to add this forum change does not bode well for anyone applying for certain jobs in the future since alot of employers hate people who play WoW for example. How would you feel if you did not get the job because the interviewer found your name on the blizzard forums? That is just one possible example of why anomaly on the internet is important.
 
ZealousD said:
My project of putting the entire SC1 story up on YouTube just got a little bit better. Episode IV, aka the Protoss campaign of Brood War, is now up for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F9226B77F797043B
Thank you for doing this. There are other recaps like yours online, but I have only been able to find the Terran campagin.

I will sit down and watch them all at once whenever you're finished!
 
Xamdou said:
Did Blizzard say how long the Beta phase 2 will last? 2 weeks?

When it starts it will last until release (day9 confirmed this with the big party thing he is hosting having the live king of beta finals shoutcasted or something along them lines).
 

LaneDS

Member
ZealousD said:
My project of putting the entire SC1 story up on YouTube just got a little bit better. Episode IV, aka the Protoss campaign of Brood War, is now up for your viewing pleasure.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F9226B77F797043B

Man, bums me out it'll be a few years until we get the proper Protoss campaign for single player SC2. I love that stuff.

Also, thanks for putting these together. I tried replaying SC1 a few months back and it was just a little too dated for me to stick with it after a few hundred matches of SC2.
 

Vaporak

Member
ZealousD said:
Trick #1 should be patched.
Trick #2 should not.

I remain unconvinced that #1 will seriously unbalance the game as it doesn't work if the Voidray charges up. Regardless, in these sort of situations I think it best to leave it in and just see what happens; lets wait until we have some good evidence before we consider it unbalanced. Besides, these sort of unintended micro tricks, similar to SC1 Muta stacking, are exactly what a lot of people were clamoring for when the beta released.
 

Xamdou

Member
ChronicleX said:
When it starts it will last until release (day9 confirmed this with the big party thing he is hosting having the live king of beta finals shoutcasted or something along them lines).

So the beta phase 2 will last until release, will the stats be reset on July 27th as well?
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Vaporak said:
I remain unconvinced that #1 will seriously unbalance the game as it doesn't work if the Voidray charges up. Regardless, in these sort of situations I think it best to leave it in and just see what happens; lets wait until we have some good evidence before we consider it unbalanced. Besides, these sort of unintended micro tricks, similar to SC1 Muta stacking, are exactly what a lot of people were clamoring for when the beta released.

The idea behind void rays is that they're suppose to be weak when they aren't charged up. They should be vunerable units to groups of weaker units that can attack air. The problem with this trick is that it essentially removes this weakness. If void rays can stand toe to toe with hydralisks, stalkers, or marines, then that means the void ray has no strong weaknesses.

I don't have a problem with trick #2, because while it's scary effective, it doesn't fundamentally change unit relationships. And in fact, this trick can be done with nearly any unit in the game and be just as effective.

Edit: Muta stacking is another trick that doesn't fundamentally change unit relationships, it just makes the muta MORE effective at what it already does best. And in fact, it actually has the DRAWBACK of making them more vunerable to splash attacks, like from corsairs or archons.
 

Vaporak

Member
ZealousD said:
The idea behind void rays is that they're suppose to be weak when they aren't charged up. They should be vunerable units to groups of weaker units that can attack air. The problem with this trick is that it essentially removes this weakness. If void rays can stand toe to toe with hydralisks, stalkers, or marines, then that means the void ray has no strong weaknesses.

I don't have a problem with trick #2, because while it's scary effective, it doesn't fundamentally change unit relationships. And in fact, this trick can be done with nearly any unit in the game and be just as effective.

I don't care what the intended use for Voidrays is and neither should you. The only important thing to consider as far as balance is concerned is what the rules of the game allow, and whether or not viable strategies emerge to deal with it when it pops up. Since the beta is down we haven't even once seen this in a real game, nor has there been any time to devise counter strategies should it become a problem.

All I'm arguing for is to give it some time to shake out and see if it really is worth removing or not. As another SC1 example, think of the Reaver+Shuttle combo. Your argument for not working like they're supposed to applies even more to the Reaver than it does to the Voidray at this stage; but is that actually a problem? I'd argue SC1 is better for it, not worse. So why don't we just wait and see if the same turns out to be true of the Voidray targeting micro?
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
Vaporak said:
I don't care what the intended use for Voidrays is and neither should you. The only important thing to consider as far as balance is concerned is what the rules of the game allow, and whether or not viable strategies emerge to deal with it when it pops up. Since the beta is down we haven't even once seen this in a real game, nor has there been any time to devise counter strategies should it become a problem.

All I'm arguing for is to give it some time to shake out and see if it really is worth removing or not. As another SC1 example, think of the Reaver+Shuttle combo. Your argument for not working like they're supposed to applies even more to the Reaver than it does to the Voidray at this stage; but is that actually a problem? I'd argue SC1 is better for it, not worse. So why don't we just wait and see if the same turns out to be true of the Voidray targeting micro?
if this is how blizzard did balancing though we might end up with a game that's broken 90% of the time. should the larvae trick the zerg had going in one of the patches really have been left in to see if it could eventually be dealt with? sure, we could see how this void ray thing goes for a couple games but if it appears broken i think blizz should just fix it asap.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
StarCraft has been 'broken' countless times, but countless times people have found a damn way instead of complaining.

The BroodWar scene has evolved so much. Terran used to be considered the weakest race by far. Up until a few months ago the top 10 players had 1 Zerg.

VR's too powerful? DEAL WITH IT BEFORE THEN.
 

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
Hazaro said:
StarCraft has been 'broken' countless times, but countless times people have found a damn way instead of complaining.

The BroodWar scene has evolved so much. Terran used to be considered the weakest race by far. Up until a few months ago the top 10 players had 1 Zerg.

VR's too powerful? DEAL WITH IT BEFORE THEN.
starcraft has also been patched and fixed countless times too. this is still the beta, the game should be stabilized as much as possible until release at the very least.
 
This Real ID thing is utterly moronic. You know why? Because it completely exposes Blizzard. Children play their games. Teenagers do. Aka, Utter Morons. People A) Too stupid to realize What they are giving up through losing anon and B) Unreliable to behave in a responsible manner with any sort of indentifiable information. This is going to have such epic blowback it's absurd anyone paid was involved in making the decision.

It's such unbelievable poor planning. The thing is being designed by the Xbox LIVE guy, but it's actually taking steps to ease social engineering? Are you kidding?
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Son of Godzilla said:
This Real ID thing is utterly moronic. You know why? Because it completely exposes Blizzard. Children play their games. Teenagers do. Aka, Utter Morons. People A) Too stupid to realize What they are giving up through losing anon and B) Unreliable to behave in a responsible manner with any sort of indentifiable information. This is going to have such epic blowback it's absurd anyone paid was involved in making the decision.

It's such unbelievable poor planning. The thing is being designed by the Xbox LIVE guy, but it's actually taking steps to ease social engineering? Are you kidding?

You're aware this is only for the forums, right?
 
Son of Godzilla said:
This Real ID thing is utterly moronic. You know why? Because it completely exposes Blizzard. Children play their games. Teenagers do. Aka, Utter Morons. People A) Too stupid to realize What they are giving up through losing anon and B) Unreliable to behave in a responsible manner with any sort of indentifiable information. This is going to have such epic blowback it's absurd anyone paid was involved in making the decision.

It's such unbelievable poor planning. The thing is being designed by the Xbox LIVE guy, but it's actually taking steps to ease social engineering? Are you kidding?

I'd rather not get into a flame war, so I'll just mention that I strongly disagree with this sentiment.

It would appear to me that the whole real ID system is in place to allow those who have close friends/real life acquaintances who also play WoW or diablo 3 to see each other as their real names in-game and also see current status across games. I don't see how this is moronic or a functionality worth raging about. For example, if my real life friend was playing diablo 3 at some indeterminate time, I could make a conscious decision whether or not to continue in my previous decision to play starcraft 2 or join him in diablo 3. All by looking at a status. In addition, if I played WoW (anymore) maybe I would notice he/she was in an LFG queue for a raid and I could quickly switch over and join him.

Am I missing something? Did Blizzard recently say they were doing away completely with the old, pre-patch-13 system where you could just arbitrarily add someone's SC2 name instead of their real ID and get basic acquaintance functionality out of it?

Really the only things I disagree with the real ID system as I've seen it is that there's so much more status information with real ID for no real reason and shy people being forced to allow others to see their real name if they share their real ID. All they need to do to fix that is allow you to choose whether or not you want SC2 "normal ID" people to see your status and give an option whether or not to show your real name when you give someone your real ID.

Methinks this is all just a misunderstanding and that your only exposure to SC2 was after real IDs were forced and you missed the blue posts mentioning they would add the SC2 names back again at retail (or sooner). I never saw it as a problem because I believe the patch that forced real IDs was expected to only last a week anyway (then got extended by a week or so).
 

Yaweee

Member
Blizzard has generally been taking a giant "Fuck You!" stance to privacy with their games. I was pretty pissed off at the new Armory that gives detailed time information about every action the character did, but this Real ID stuff is even worse.

Looks like I'll have to create a fourth Bnet account, this one with a fake name.
 

Bisonian

Member
Ice Monkey said:
this must be what I missed. are they forcing forum posts to show your real name or something?

A-yup. There's a seperate thread, but the information was posted in here first a page or so back. All Blizzard forums going forward will have your real name on every post mandatory.

As for the Real ID functionality in game, obviously real life friends knowing your name and actions is not a problem. What I do have a problem with is that there is a ton of functionality that only works once you've handed someone your real name and the ability to see everything you are doing at all times. The ability to cross-game chat for example, or the ability to send a broadcast message across your friendslist... these are things that you shouldn't necessarily have to give up that information to use.

Considering in WoW, Blizzard encourages you to contribute to and foster a community of people that are friends but you may never meet in real life, I would think that something in between those two options would be ideal. There are plenty of ex-guildmates I would love to keep in touch with as I move on to SC2, and am not necessarily in a hurry to give out personal information to.
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
-COOLIO- said:
starcraft has also been patched and fixed countless times too. this is still the beta, the game should be stabilized as much as possible until release at the very least.
I'm talking about balance changes that weren't like floating drones and mining from a floating CC over your minerals :lol

The win/loss percentage is so damn close now I think they should leave it alone and see what happens and not try to babysit and tweak the game every time a new build pops up. That's all.

SC hasn't been balanced since spawning pools were increased to 200 minerals (2001) :lol
Everything from then on, the dominance of Zerg, the rise of Terran, and the fall of Zerg can start from there.
 
ZealousD said:
You're aware this is only for the forums, right?
I realize that? I don't really see how that makes anything better. If anything, it seems to foster a worst case scenario as people more cautious abandon it and those oblivious get preyed upon.
 
Hazaro said:
I'm talking about balance changes that weren't like floating drones and mining from a floating CC over your minerals :lol

The win/loss percentage is so damn close now I think they should leave it alone and see what happens and not try to babysit and tweak the game every time a new build pops up. That's all.

SC hasn't been balanced since spawning pools were increased to 200 minerals (2001) :lol
Everything from then on, the dominance of Zerg, the rise of Terran, and the fall of Zerg can start from there.
You have no idea what you're talking about do you?
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
BishopLamont said:
You have no idea what you're talking about do you?
I'm a bit tired, but what are you disagreeing with?

I'm just saying I'd like to see Blizzard not overreacting with balancing and patching off the bat. They have a ton more resources and information, but I'd like to see a more natural course of gameflow over time even if it is not balanced at first.

I think that the current balance right now is well defined and that they should leave it alone (in addition to quirks found like that voidray micro)
 
Hazaro said:
I think that the current balance right now is well defined and that they should leave it alone (in addition to quirks found like that voidray micro)

no way in hell. the problem is that void rays are already arguably OP, I remember seeing how hilarious it was in custom games that every single last damned one of them when void rays were allowed to be purchased or whatnot, devolved into who got void rays first. Anyone else who didnt get void rays usually lost to those who did.

With that situation as it is like i described above, ANY boost to the damage void rays can do makes them OP IMHO.

It's just bad for the game as a whole if void rays are that good. If you're a toss, you should get void rays. Every game where you play a toss, you know he'll go void rays if he's any good. Every game with a toss involved will come down to whether he can survive long enough to get void rays and when he does it's likely game over.

It's like if you play MTG with no rules and access to every card, what a surprise: everyone has dual lands, 4 black lotuses, and a billion moxes. Then throw in 4 fireballs and wait until you draw one, do 20 damage and its game over.
 

msv

Member
eznark said:
Do you go to the bar and troll the guy watching a baseball game just because you don't like the team he is rooting for or the shirt he is wearing? No, you either engage in a decent discussion or you stay out of any conversation.
Ok, this is pissing me off. I can troll whoever the FUCK I WANT. It's legal for a reason. Chasing someone down and stalking them/doing harm to people isn't. People who troll the fuck out of other people should be defended, not people who kill trolls.

Seriously, stop with this 'oh it's okay' bullshit. If you really want a good discussion, go on a board that's made for it. It's fucking glorious that people can say whatever they want without repercussions (perhaps a bannage, sure). It's not glorious that people can't say whatever they want because they fear for more severe repercussions. And that's exactly what you're implying.

Because they're afraid of some nutjob going bonkers on something you said, they will keep civil? Are you a complete idiot? Nutjobs who go bonkers have nothing to do with civility, they go bonkers because they're FUCKING INSANE. No civility is going to help you with this.

Seriously, think about it for more than 2 seconds and mind your privacy. It's not something you should give away without good reason.
 

Vaporak

Member
Ice Monkey said:
no way in hell. the problem is that void rays are already arguably OP, I remember seeing how hilarious it was in custom games that every single last damned one of them when void rays were allowed to be purchased or whatnot, devolved into who got void rays first. Anyone else who didnt get void rays usually lost to those who did.

With that situation as it is like i described above, ANY boost to the damage void rays can do makes them OP IMHO.

It's just bad for the game as a whole if void rays are that good. If you're a toss, you should get void rays. Every game where you play a toss, you know he'll go void rays if he's any good. Every game with a toss involved will come down to whether he can survive long enough to get void rays and when he does it's likely game over.

It's like if you play MTG with no rules and access to every card, what a surprise: everyone has dual lands, 4 black lotuses, and a billion moxes. Then throw in 4 fireballs and wait until you draw one, do 20 damage and its game over.

Except that you're totally wrong? Voidrays weren't OP before this micro trick was discovered, or else every tournament would have been filled with them. And you don't have any proof at all that they'll be OP now because you've never even seen it done in a game nor seen anything thought up to counter it.

The only match up that this has a chance of majorally changing is PvZ, but according to the Team Liquid thread 3 queens (450 minerals) beat 2 voidrays (500 minerals/300 gas) using the trick. Further, in PvT vikings will still beat Voidrays just based on their range and production advantage. And in PvP, it can't be OP by definition as they both have acess. So how are Voidrays now totally OP again?

I'm with Hazaro, lets at the very least wait until we know its OP. Balancing based on gut instinct is not the way to go.
 
Hazaro said:
I'm a bit tired, but what are you disagreeing with?

I'm just saying I'd like to see Blizzard not overreacting with balancing and patching off the bat. They have a ton more resources and information, but I'd like to see a more natural course of gameflow over time even if it is not balanced at first.

I think that the current balance right now is well defined and that they should leave it alone (in addition to quirks found like that voidray micro)
The game isn't even released yet, there will be plenty of things to balance for a long time. People will find new OP strategies/units. You know it took years for the original SC to be balanced right?

Oh and I'm disagreeing with this:

Hazaro said:
SC hasn't been balanced since spawning pools were increased to 200 minerals (2001)
Like seriously, what?
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
BishopLamont said:
Like seriously, what?

I think what he's saying is that there hasn't been any balance adjustments. Every patch since has been for bug fixes and the like.
 
ZealousD said:
I think what he's saying is that there hasn't been any balance adjustments. Every patch since has been for bug fixes and the like.
Ah got it. All is forgiven then.

edit: Actually is that even correct? I'm pretty sure spawning pools were 200 way before the last balances were made.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Pandaman said:
belated gj to zealous for the commentary on the finals, just watched game 2. ^^

Thanks! =)

NOW SOMEBODY RECORD GAME 3 FOR ME FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!11 O_O
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Pandaman said:
you dont record them yourself? o_O

i could probably do it during the day tommorow or the day after.

Check the past couple of pages. My SC2 am borked.
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
Pandaman said:
ah. how would you like it done?

Medium rare.

Just record the match and do as much as you can to keep the focus on any action happening. Put the video on some sort of filesharing site and I'll download it and do the voice over.
 

Pandaman

Everything is moe to me
ZealousD said:
Medium rare.

Just record the match and do as much as you can to keep the focus on any action happening. Put the video on some sort of filesharing site and I'll download it and do the voice over.
no deal!
im recording foodcaps! and worker count to!
and with a heavy focus on macro in battles!
muwahahahahaha.
 
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