Starcraft 2 Beta

[Mega Man]

Yeah, actually I do.

[Mega Man]

Next batch of Beta Testers: Sign Up!

The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know. Simply log in to your Battle.net account (https://eu.battle.net/login/login.xml), and click “Beta Profile Settings” to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you’ll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games. Please note that even if you’ve opted in to our betas previously, you’ll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.

Good luck being selected!

[Makushr1]

Once SCII comes out, I plan on building a new gaming computer. Right now, while my computers will be able to run it, I want to enjoy it at it's finest. If I had the money right now, I'd build the computer so I can be a beta tester, but not quite ready yet.

[Spec 1]

Well my computer has all but crapped out on me now (I'm using my Blackberry for internet because it moves faster) so I'll have to wait until I buy a new laptop. Bummer.

[Mega Man]

I'm uploading some videos to YouTube now...they're from my cellphone, so the quality is crappy...

Damn...YouTube takes forever for uploads. Lol!

Ah great...now after uploading some videos the first one was removed because it was "too long."
Word to the wise: "Regular" YouTube videos have to be under 10 minutes.

[Mega Man]

Your Marines and Marauders...select them and type /dance or /cheer:

Zerg Roaches can burrow and move, the Nydus Worm will let your units out pretty much anywhere:

[Mega Man]

Terran THOR and Command Center

The Command Center can now load units and then lift off. You can use this for a variety of purposes: load some SCV's so they can start right away, load some Marines to help with defense...

The THOR can attack land/air units. He has a Cannon ability that deals 500 damage...

[Mega Man]

If any of you have requests on the new units, I'll try to capture it and post it here for you. Hopefully, this will give you an edge on BNET once it's released.

Some Notes
Overall

• It's a much faster game than the first one.
• BNET places you into a league, to try to insure you're playing people about your skill level. You can move into a new league if you're winning a lot, or losing a lot. The leauges are Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Currently, I'm Gold 2vs2, and Silver 1vs1.
• Mutiple commands are now visualized. For example, if you selected a Protoss Probe and told it to warp in a Pylon, then attack a Drone that is in your base, then work on gathering minerals, it would show a grey line toward a green Pylon (not yet built) followed by a red line to the Drone, and a green line to your minerals.
• Buidings aren't durable enough. Almost to the point that defensive structures have little point to building them. They get destroyed much too quickly.
• Bases are now always made with a ramp up their front door, a cliff that could be climbed, and sometimes a backdoor with a destructible wall. This means early on you have to worry about your front ramp (easy to defend), a few minutes in you might have to worry about Terran Reapers or Protoss Colossi coming up your cliff, and later something destroying that destructible barrier and in through your backdoor.

Protoss

• You no longer have to fear the Zergling rush. The Nexus has Chrono Boost, which speeds up production at any building by 50% for a period of time. It uses 25 energy out of 200 at the Nexus. You can use this ability on your Nexus to build Probes faster, or any unit producing building to pump out units faster. You can also use it on a building (such as your Forge) to increase the upgrade speed.
• Gateways can become Warp Gates. Warp Gates can warp in a unit nearly instantaneously at any location you have Pylon Power. While the unit is being warped it, it can be attacked, so be aware of that. Nevertheless, warping in units is much faster than building them at a Gateway but requires more micro management because you have to "place" the unit and can't just queue build it.
• There aren't any Dark Archons yet...
• Carriers don't have to research the ability to carry 8 Interceptors. Instead, they have an ability that should be researched to help them release their interceptors faster.
• The Immortal is built as the Robotics Facility and can't attack air units. However, it has a special shield that really absorbs heavy damage well (anything over 10 damage). Smaller hits however will go through its shield.
• Colossus is a Protoss AOE unit. It really takes care of Zerglings and Hydralisks. If you have a few of them behind your front line, they can help your units clean up those weaker units VERY quickly. They can also go up or down cliffs, so they can scout or harrass really well.

Terran

• Reapers move extremely fast and can go up or down cliffsides. Currently, they are the most abused Terran unit on BNET. You can quickly run up a cliffside, harrass their workers, and exit by the time defenses show up. Since they move so fast, it's also possible to micromanage them into hit and run tactics and take down much more powerful units.
• Siege Tanks were once a staple defense unit, or a good unit to inch forward with, siege mode, destroy some stuff, siege out, repeat with some Marines/Bats/Medics. They're no longer AS useful, especially against Protoss. Protoss have Stalkers (similar to Dragoons) which can Blink (disappear and reappear somewhere else). They can disappear and reappear right next to your Siege Mode Siege Tanks!
• Marauders are like beefier Marines. They do more damage, can take more damage, but can't shoot air.
• Viking is a transforming unit that is great at AA, then can transform into a mechanical ground unit that can only hit ground. Good for hit and runs, or as a supplement to an army. Then all of a sudden you're faced with air, they can take to the skies!

Zerg

• As you've seen in the above videos, Roaches and Nydus Worm...
• Hydralisks are now Tier 2, and believe it! They are much beefier and do much more damage than they did in Starcraft 1.
• Zerg seem to have a weakness to air as it stands, unless you mass Mutalisks early. The Corrupters work ok as Anti-Air, but not well enough...and there aren't an Scourge anymore.
• Overlords are no longer Detectors. They have to be upgraded to Overseers at the cost of 50 minerals/100 gas per Overseer.
• Ultralisks are really, really, really big.
• Queens are no longer spawned from larvae, and no longer fly. They have several unique abilities (one which saved me in a 1vs1). They can spawn Creep Tumors, which generate creep. They can also force a Hatchery to make more larvae more quickly. The ability that saved me is Transfusion; it "heals" a Zerg building by 150 HP.

[Mega Man]

Protoss

Difference Between Chorono Boost and no Chrono Boost on warping in a Zealot. Also showing Chrono Boost on speeding up Improved Plasma Shields.
Warp Gates and Warp Prism. Warp Prism transports units, and then warps in more units from the Warp Gates.

[Makushr1]

They still shooting for release in the first 1/2 of 2010?

I think the earliest we will see it will be July 4th.

Wouldn't be surprised if it didnt get released until December...

[Mega Man]

It should be sooner than you think...the thing to know about Starcraft is it's going to be 3 different games.

Wings of Liberty (Terran)
(Title Pending) Protoss
(Title Pending) Zerg

Wings of Liberty will be the first in the series, and have the Terran campaign. You can still multiplayer any of the three races though.

The next expansion will feature more units and the Protoss campaign. Then the next will have a few more units, and the Zerg campaign.

All in all, you're looking at $150/$50 per game.
If you're not dying for the game, you could hold out for a "Battle Chest" after the expansions have been out for a while.

I've stopped playing the beta for now...it's really just more of the same with some tweaking that needs to be done (mostly I've mentioned it all previously), most notably that buildings are very easily demolished and static defenses pose no threat to an offense whatsoever.

I hate to say this, but if you were a diehard Starcraft 1 fan, Starcraft 2 may disappoint you. It's not the same game. Not at all.

[AllydNYC]

Thanks for all the info!

[JB135i]

Originally Posted by Mega Man

I hate to say this, but if you were a diehard Starcraft 1 fan, Starcraft 2 may disappoint you. It's not the same game. Not at all.

Say it aint so.......................

[E92-Lighting]

Sweet! i used to abuse sc ladder 10 years ago!

[Makushr1]

Originally Posted by JB135i

Say it aint so.......................

It's been 10 years. Any SC game will be good.

I personally prefer changes between games. I'd hope after 10 years new ideas would be implemented.

I doubt very many SC fans will be dissapointed, except for maybe the ones who still play SC I every day, some people just cant let go.

[Mega Man]

Just to clarify just what's not the same:

• They've really designed it with speed in mind. It's a much faster game than the first one. You get units much more quickly, everyone relies on a rush, or anti-rush (usually consisting of massing units) at the same time as teching. I really can't tell you just how much faster it is than the first game. Just know that the Protoss Chrono Boost makes SC2's Protoss faster at getting Zealots out than your average Zerg Player getting Zerglings. It's now the Zerg that have to scout the Protoss to check for a rush and go on the defensive.
• All maps thus far (only like 5-7 maps) are rush friendly, and have a ramp. Remember how Hunters map in the first one always had one way in and then being surrounded on all sides by water? This is similar...You're and 2 sides by impassable terrain (water/*******, 1 side by a cliff (can be moved up by Colossus or Reavers), and 1 side with a ramp.
• There's always an easy expansion right next to you. You'll need it too. Vespene Gas is needed (like in the first one) for all the more powerful units. The minerals are just there as a bonus really.
• You have a lot of ground to defend. All your base locations are really large. This makes them susceptible to fog of war. If you don't have buildings there, you won't know your enemy is massing in the area you can't see. Or, if they're Zerg, a Nydus Worm suddenly appears and unloads a s#itload of units. Protoss Warp Prism can warp in units faster than you can make units. Terran Reavers are currently the fastest moving unit in the game. Hit and Run!
• Maybe the game is just extremely fast and hard right now because there are a bunch of SC1 Invitational Players playing right now. Of course they will dance units around me.
• Buildings (static defense buildings in particular) are almost completely useless at the moment. They are destroyed faster than units.

Someone has suggested I use FRAPS for video recording. I 'm currently looking into it, haven't downloaded it yet. Does anyone know how long I can record on the free version?

[Spec 1]

Originally Posted by Mega Man

Wings of Liberty will be the first in the series, and have the Terran campaign. You can still multiplayer any of the three races though.

Wow that's good to hear. I was scared only Terran would be available until the Protoss was released, etc.

[Mega Man]

Patch 2.0
Balance Changes

Terran
Banshee
Cloak: This ability no longer requires Fusion Core to research.
This unit needed this. Before, cloaking would have to wait until tier 3. Now it can effectively cloak at tier 2.
Barracks
The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.
Factory
The build time for this building has decreased from 65 to 60.
Reactor
The build time for this building has decreased from 40 to 25.
Reaper
The build time for this unit has increased from 30 to 40.
Nitro Boost: The build time for this upgrade has increased from 90 to 100.
Unit can still be abused. The only difference is now it takes them longer to be made even faster.
Starport
The build time for this building has decreased from 55 to 50.
Tech Lab
The build time for this building has decreased from 30 to 25.
Now Terrans can get to Reapers even faster! Let the abuse begin...
Protoss
Mothership
The build time for this unit has increased from 120 to 160.
The food cost of this unit has increased from 6 to 8.
The number of shots fired by this unit has decreased from 8 to 6.
The shield of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
The health of this unit has decreased from 400 to 350.
The acceleration of this unit has decreased from 1.3125 to 0.3125.
The deceleration of this unit has increased from 0 to 1.
All of this needed to happen. As the game stood before the patch, Mothership = GG
Nexus
Chrono Boost: The duration of this ability has decreased from 30 to 20.
Zerg
Corruptor
The damage done by this unit has increased from 12 (+8 massive) to 12 (+10 massive).
Hopefully, Zerg now has a good Anti-Heavy-Air...still would've preferred Scourge.

*My thoughts given in italics.

[DimSum]

Anyone wanna share a beta key with me

[Mega Man]

After logging in, and trying a couple of games, maps have been changed too. They're now less "rush" friendly, though rushes are still possible. Areas just take longer to get to, or melee units have to go around an area before having access to a ramp.

Cliffsides are still an issue: if you're playing against Terran either scout often for Reaper build, or place static defenses at your cliffs. Watch for Protoss Colossus.

[ooowowizstev]

I was just playing sc2 beta today. Pretty cool, just gotta get use to it.

[matt_435xi]

what are the Apple system reqs for the beta?