Now that I’ve been playing HotS for a while, I’d like to share some thoughts on the new balance and game design.
Now if you came to me before playing the beta and asked me what the game was missing, I think the answer is obvious. Zerg with the fewest number of units, would certainly need a few more.
At the crux of the strategy of StarCraft is siege tech. Terrans get their siege tech first. Followed by Toss, second. Finally Zerg get their siege tech all the way in tier three. So if you asked me, what does zerg need for their expansion, I’d say they need siege. Blizzard, seems to agree, because they introduced the Swarm Host.
But then Blizzard gives terran the widow mine. They make it target cloaked units, have infinite ammo, and do amazing single target damage and splash damage.
A single widow mine, in the current patch, is one of the most powerful units in the game. It kills groups of zerglings much more effectively than a baneling, and it’s the gift that keeps on giving. The big question is: Why?
Why does terran have an endless, cloaked and detecting, undodgeable baneling? Why do they have what is effectively a type of siege tank that requires detection to even attack, when Terran already is the fastest race to get their siege tank?
To me, it feels like the widow mine’s redesign is one of the worst calls on Blizzard’s part since the WarHound. I hope this is simply one of their little brain farts, where they figured they’d make the mines reuseable and work against cloaked units, without really thinking about the consequences.
The only reason for giving terran such a strong unit, is how underrepresented terran players are at the highest level of play. It’s kind of sad, really. The race with the most options has been nerfed to irrelevance, and the only fix is to double down on this one unit.
But while a single widow mine can easily turn an entire game in favor of a Terran, the same could not be said about the Swarm Host. Swarm Host tech comes late -- as late as infestors. And since infestors are arguable siege tech in their own right, they basically do nothing to the balance of the game. Before, zerg hand to micro fungal growth. Now zerg can auto attack a position. Big deal.
I have a little saying in strategy games. “To attack your opponent in the spot he would choose / Is to not want to win, is to beg to lose.” With the Swarm Host, Blizzard has given us a unit that is specifically good only at attacking a fortified position. In my mind, that makes the Swarm Host one of the worst units ever. For all the positioning and burrowing that a Swarm Host has to do, they can’t have the oft used Terran advantage of attacking with high ground volleys.
So for the Zerg themed HotS patch, Terran gets an auto detecting, high dps, cloaked alternative to their siege tanks. Zerg gets a unit that replicates a handful of zerglings. Get back to the design board, Blizzard.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
No Warp on High Ground HotS
It is a time of turmoil in the realm of StarCraft 2. Players are growing bored of the current and stagnant Wings of Liberty. Yet those lucky enough to be invited into the beta testing of Heart of the Swarm are also uncertain of the future of the game.
Our favorite casters, even, know not the nuances of the game, as it changes on a daily basis.
Yesterday, I saw Husky upload a video talking about how he didn’t know that the battle hellions could be healed by medivacs. Neither did I. And I agree it makes no sense.
But then, just this morning, HD StarCraft uploaded a video and made a mistake he didn’t even know about. He said he didn’t know why this player didn’t just warp in a pilon on the low ground and, with vision, warp onto the high ground.
Now I know HD plays as toss and all. But there are some who would say that he doesn’t really play at all. I mean, even I knew that you can’t warp units into the high ground in HotS. The reason why, while not readily apparent, is easy enough to understand.
In HotS, maps have become larger. The trend is going towards macro style play. Meaning everyone’s base has more ground to cover. Add to that the mothership core, a flying unit that toss can get extremely early in the game, and you’re setting up a recipe for disaster. And by disaster I mean, a new era of 4gate type rushes.
Before, pulling off such a trick required a hallucination, or a Stargate and flying unit, or running a unit into the base for vision on the high ground.
Now, with a mothership core, you basically just need the pylon, and the rest of the attack comes for free. This acts as a multiplier effect for the most powerful spell in the early game, the forcefield. So, although it seems like an elaborate and unimportant rule change, I can understand why blizzard came to change it. Though I haven’t tested it myself, in theory, a warp prism would still do the trick.
I want to say for the record, that I just think it’s sad that I happen to know more about the nuances of the game than my favorite casters. But what makes it even worse is that my favorite casters are still way better than me, if it ever came down to a 1 on 1. Do you hear me HD and Husky? I’ll take you on any time, any where!
Our favorite casters, even, know not the nuances of the game, as it changes on a daily basis.
Yesterday, I saw Husky upload a video talking about how he didn’t know that the battle hellions could be healed by medivacs. Neither did I. And I agree it makes no sense.
But then, just this morning, HD StarCraft uploaded a video and made a mistake he didn’t even know about. He said he didn’t know why this player didn’t just warp in a pilon on the low ground and, with vision, warp onto the high ground.
Now I know HD plays as toss and all. But there are some who would say that he doesn’t really play at all. I mean, even I knew that you can’t warp units into the high ground in HotS. The reason why, while not readily apparent, is easy enough to understand.
In HotS, maps have become larger. The trend is going towards macro style play. Meaning everyone’s base has more ground to cover. Add to that the mothership core, a flying unit that toss can get extremely early in the game, and you’re setting up a recipe for disaster. And by disaster I mean, a new era of 4gate type rushes.
Before, pulling off such a trick required a hallucination, or a Stargate and flying unit, or running a unit into the base for vision on the high ground.
Now, with a mothership core, you basically just need the pylon, and the rest of the attack comes for free. This acts as a multiplier effect for the most powerful spell in the early game, the forcefield. So, although it seems like an elaborate and unimportant rule change, I can understand why blizzard came to change it. Though I haven’t tested it myself, in theory, a warp prism would still do the trick.
I want to say for the record, that I just think it’s sad that I happen to know more about the nuances of the game than my favorite casters. But what makes it even worse is that my favorite casters are still way better than me, if it ever came down to a 1 on 1. Do you hear me HD and Husky? I’ll take you on any time, any where!
Friday, October 19, 2012
Workers Auto Start in HotS!
Yay, my computer is fixed and I finally had a chance to sit down and play -- to really play the new Heart of the Swarm Beta. For whatever reason, my new PC is immune to the “Client version not recognized” bug that plagued my old PC.
Now, I’ve been out of practice, so one of the first things I noticed was the addition of a simple check box: Play as Ranked.
This checkbox is quite dear to me, as I’ve previously posted on Blizzard’s forums asking for the free game feature. After hearing some bullshit answers from them, saying how maybe it would be a feature to be released in HotS, I eventually pointed out that it was trivial to program. I said, it’s only a checkbox.
Now, said checkbox has arrived. However, I am once again reminded that Blizzard has almost certainly intentionally left out a feature that would normally be kept in the game, for the sole purpose of leaving it for the second purpose of the same game. What cool features are they leaving behind for third time they make us buy StarCraft? Only time will tell.
Remember that I play as random, and my worst race is definitely Terran. So imagine how I felt when my first game wound up being a TvT. The second game I played was a RvR, which almost wound up being a TvT. My third game? A TvT. This left me wondering if there might not be some kind of a bug in the software. I mean, I enjoyed practicing my Terran play, and I definitely got to get a feel for how the new widow mine works. But enough is enough. However, I shaln't complain. Never complain about random numbers. Or, the nerd in me wants to be technically correct and say pseudo-random numbers.
One thing about the widow mine that I hadn’t noticed before -- it only attacks ground units. I had placed one by each of my opponent’s probably expos and was a bit disappointed to see that he managed to get his expo up anyway. I had my mine positioned in such a location where I was sure it could attack the command center being constructed. It simply didn’t, because it only attacks ground units. How that SCV managed to construct the thing without dying, I’ll never know. Maybe it was luck, or maybe the mines don’t target building SCVs, I’d have to watch the replay to be sure.
The other thing that really freaks me out is how the SCVs now automatically start mining. The game also starts with your rally point set to the minerals. While this makes sense on so many levels, it takes a bit of getting used to. Nearly every game I play starts with a loooooong load time. And after that, a bit of lag just at the start of the game. Just enough to make me wonder wtf is going on when I see all of my workers going for the minerals by themselves.
I would be curious to learn why Blizzard decided to start the game with the workers already mining. After so many years of us having to tell the works to do that. Did they decide that they wanted to eliminate the mindless repetition aspect of the game?
A factor that comes into play here is, what I might call for lack of a better phrase, The pro split. I always just tell the workers to head straight for the closest mineral patch. But pros always send three workers to one side, and three to the others. They might even take the time to set two workers to sync on the closest mineral patch. A technique I’ve heard called cloning. And while the pros seem to be able to do this without a problem, I never have. If you mess up, you’re way behind, and if you do it perfectly, what do you gain? I’m sure a pro would know exactly how much they gain, but I’m also sure that it’s a very small amount, in the 5 to 15 mineral range.
Still I applaud the decision for an unpopular reason. Etiquette. Without the ritual of sending your workers to the mineral line at the start of every game, our fingers are now freed up to type a proper greeting to our opponents. And I’ve always found that StarCraft players are among the most rude on the entire internet.
So if one day, you happen to have a HotS game against Maulakai and you see me type “May the best man win.” Be a doll, and cast your APM to the wind by typing back something. Preferably less BM.
Now, I’ve been out of practice, so one of the first things I noticed was the addition of a simple check box: Play as Ranked.
This checkbox is quite dear to me, as I’ve previously posted on Blizzard’s forums asking for the free game feature. After hearing some bullshit answers from them, saying how maybe it would be a feature to be released in HotS, I eventually pointed out that it was trivial to program. I said, it’s only a checkbox.
Now, said checkbox has arrived. However, I am once again reminded that Blizzard has almost certainly intentionally left out a feature that would normally be kept in the game, for the sole purpose of leaving it for the second purpose of the same game. What cool features are they leaving behind for third time they make us buy StarCraft? Only time will tell.
Remember that I play as random, and my worst race is definitely Terran. So imagine how I felt when my first game wound up being a TvT. The second game I played was a RvR, which almost wound up being a TvT. My third game? A TvT. This left me wondering if there might not be some kind of a bug in the software. I mean, I enjoyed practicing my Terran play, and I definitely got to get a feel for how the new widow mine works. But enough is enough. However, I shaln't complain. Never complain about random numbers. Or, the nerd in me wants to be technically correct and say pseudo-random numbers.
One thing about the widow mine that I hadn’t noticed before -- it only attacks ground units. I had placed one by each of my opponent’s probably expos and was a bit disappointed to see that he managed to get his expo up anyway. I had my mine positioned in such a location where I was sure it could attack the command center being constructed. It simply didn’t, because it only attacks ground units. How that SCV managed to construct the thing without dying, I’ll never know. Maybe it was luck, or maybe the mines don’t target building SCVs, I’d have to watch the replay to be sure.
The other thing that really freaks me out is how the SCVs now automatically start mining. The game also starts with your rally point set to the minerals. While this makes sense on so many levels, it takes a bit of getting used to. Nearly every game I play starts with a loooooong load time. And after that, a bit of lag just at the start of the game. Just enough to make me wonder wtf is going on when I see all of my workers going for the minerals by themselves.
I would be curious to learn why Blizzard decided to start the game with the workers already mining. After so many years of us having to tell the works to do that. Did they decide that they wanted to eliminate the mindless repetition aspect of the game?
A factor that comes into play here is, what I might call for lack of a better phrase, The pro split. I always just tell the workers to head straight for the closest mineral patch. But pros always send three workers to one side, and three to the others. They might even take the time to set two workers to sync on the closest mineral patch. A technique I’ve heard called cloning. And while the pros seem to be able to do this without a problem, I never have. If you mess up, you’re way behind, and if you do it perfectly, what do you gain? I’m sure a pro would know exactly how much they gain, but I’m also sure that it’s a very small amount, in the 5 to 15 mineral range.
Still I applaud the decision for an unpopular reason. Etiquette. Without the ritual of sending your workers to the mineral line at the start of every game, our fingers are now freed up to type a proper greeting to our opponents. And I’ve always found that StarCraft players are among the most rude on the entire internet.
So if one day, you happen to have a HotS game against Maulakai and you see me type “May the best man win.” Be a doll, and cast your APM to the wind by typing back something. Preferably less BM.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
I know that this is the StarCraft blog and all, but I’m sorry. This morning, I have to type about World of WarCraft. If I could take back the blog title, I would. I’d call it: Maul’s Blizzard’s Bitch Blog.
After finally leveling my druid to 90, I thought I’d seen all of the new game content. I mean, okay, maybe there are some raids and pvp stuff that I’m missing. But from my past play, I know that most of the new stuff is in the new dungeons and leveling. At least for the way I play it is. But you have to admit, everything about this new version of WoW is simply better.
The daily quests work together better. You now get to daily quest grind for your mounts. Some may say that this isn’t quite as good as previous versions. I would compare the new system to the old, WotLK days. The achievements I had to endure to fly on a Red Proto Drake! But I kind of like the idea that you can now choose a faction, grind out the rep, and get the reward. It wasn’t very fun to have to find just the right party composition to interrupt for More Rabi.
Or, what I like the best is how they’ve improved Archaeology. Formally, this was the worst profession ever. The most grind for the least reward. Now, you can level your arch. while doing daily quests. I’d always felt somewhat like a jackass for having leveled all of the secondary professions on my toons. In hindsight it felt like a waste of time. But now, in Mists of Pandaria, I can actually level them all in a way that feels meaningful, while doing other things in the game.
Currently, I’m grinding out the last bar of rep for the Cloud Serpent Riders. I’m butchering that name, for sure. But the point is, I level fishing, first aid and arch. while getting rep for them. It’s wonderful! And to think I went into this expansion, giving all of my cloth to my Warlock Tailor because “Everyone knows first aid is simply a cloth sink.”
But what’s really great is that the game doesn’t simply end and go to daily quests once you hit the level cap. The content continues! How pleasantly surprised I was to see more cutscenes and quests involved in level 90, end game content. Bravo, Blizzard.
For some reason, it pleases me to no end that they’ve finally added a way to water walk, to fish out in the middle of open water, without the hassle. All of my toons have a stack of pots of water walking on them -- pots that don’t work! Oh, blizzard knows they don’t work. If I have one complaint, it’s that they didn’t fix the pots -- they simply added something better, knowing that I would grind to the new thing anyway.
Even the way the game handles alts is great. The way toons share mounts and achievements now makes total sense. Before, you could hop on an alt, and the players around you would have no idea what your skill level was. They wouldn’t be able to pick up on the subtle clues -- like the fact that you’d earned a red proto drake, to assess your skill level. Now they can.
The one point where they seem to have lost the thread is with the pets. Now, even without ever having played a game of pokemon in my life, it’s obvious what game they’re copying. But where they’ve lost the thread is, you can’t fight against players everywhere. The absolute, best place to fight would be in a raid, while everyone is waiting on some guy to arrive. Not being able to pet battle in the one situation where you really do need to dick around completely misses the mark for me. Patch, please!
I once heard a Blizzard executive say ‘I hope we can continue to meet and exceed your expectations.’ Well, Blizzard, this time, I can certainly say that you have. Thanks for making my most played game of all time even better.
After finally leveling my druid to 90, I thought I’d seen all of the new game content. I mean, okay, maybe there are some raids and pvp stuff that I’m missing. But from my past play, I know that most of the new stuff is in the new dungeons and leveling. At least for the way I play it is. But you have to admit, everything about this new version of WoW is simply better.
The daily quests work together better. You now get to daily quest grind for your mounts. Some may say that this isn’t quite as good as previous versions. I would compare the new system to the old, WotLK days. The achievements I had to endure to fly on a Red Proto Drake! But I kind of like the idea that you can now choose a faction, grind out the rep, and get the reward. It wasn’t very fun to have to find just the right party composition to interrupt for More Rabi.
Or, what I like the best is how they’ve improved Archaeology. Formally, this was the worst profession ever. The most grind for the least reward. Now, you can level your arch. while doing daily quests. I’d always felt somewhat like a jackass for having leveled all of the secondary professions on my toons. In hindsight it felt like a waste of time. But now, in Mists of Pandaria, I can actually level them all in a way that feels meaningful, while doing other things in the game.
Currently, I’m grinding out the last bar of rep for the Cloud Serpent Riders. I’m butchering that name, for sure. But the point is, I level fishing, first aid and arch. while getting rep for them. It’s wonderful! And to think I went into this expansion, giving all of my cloth to my Warlock Tailor because “Everyone knows first aid is simply a cloth sink.”
But what’s really great is that the game doesn’t simply end and go to daily quests once you hit the level cap. The content continues! How pleasantly surprised I was to see more cutscenes and quests involved in level 90, end game content. Bravo, Blizzard.
For some reason, it pleases me to no end that they’ve finally added a way to water walk, to fish out in the middle of open water, without the hassle. All of my toons have a stack of pots of water walking on them -- pots that don’t work! Oh, blizzard knows they don’t work. If I have one complaint, it’s that they didn’t fix the pots -- they simply added something better, knowing that I would grind to the new thing anyway.
Even the way the game handles alts is great. The way toons share mounts and achievements now makes total sense. Before, you could hop on an alt, and the players around you would have no idea what your skill level was. They wouldn’t be able to pick up on the subtle clues -- like the fact that you’d earned a red proto drake, to assess your skill level. Now they can.
The one point where they seem to have lost the thread is with the pets. Now, even without ever having played a game of pokemon in my life, it’s obvious what game they’re copying. But where they’ve lost the thread is, you can’t fight against players everywhere. The absolute, best place to fight would be in a raid, while everyone is waiting on some guy to arrive. Not being able to pet battle in the one situation where you really do need to dick around completely misses the mark for me. Patch, please!
I once heard a Blizzard executive say ‘I hope we can continue to meet and exceed your expectations.’ Well, Blizzard, this time, I can certainly say that you have. Thanks for making my most played game of all time even better.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
No card, no play.
So my luck with StarCraft hadn't been very good. Sure, I got invited into the HotS beta. But before i could play, my computer died. It's still in the shop. Meaning i could only play on my laptop. But that computer has a recognized bug. Battle.net doesn't recognize my client version. It's all over their forums. So no HotS for me.
But wait, I have a third computer. My iMac. Turns out the game works on it! But my iMac has compete garbage for a video card. Even with all the settings turned down, the laggy response time makes it unplayable.
Alas, I have turned to WoW. With a recently turned level 90, there's plenty to do in Pandaria. Until my pc gets a new power supply, that is.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Don't leave me hanging
How the standard StarCraft greeting became "gl hf" I'll never know. But I'm an artsy fartsy kind of guy. I have to be different. For years, playing go in KGS, I used the greeting "Long days and pleasant nights." It's from a Stephen King book. But once an opponent finally gave the correct response, "May you have twice the number," I knew it was time for something different.
I closed my eyes, and came up with, "May the best man win."
I'm not sure where that one comes from, but I imagine an old 1800s pistol duel. Maybe over a woman.
The other day I used that greeting, and randomly got Zerg again a Protoss opponent. I did my usual build, an economical 7 pool. He scouted and walled off by the time my six lings got to his base. Wp. Which ushered us into a macro middle game. Six bases later, I typed gg. As he bulldozed my army, I watched the gg fade out without a reply. No gg?, I typed.
I don't gg cheesy players, he responded.
Which was fine by me, because I don't click surrender for people who leave me hanging. I look at the gg I'm much the same way as a high five. Sure, you can leave me hanging. But don't expect me to do you any favors. I'll alt tab out and play WoW or take a bio before that. I mean, while a seven pool may be cheese, it's not like the pros are above it. And he won! How is it that StarCraft may be the only game with regular sore winners?
Next time you play StarCraft, I urge you to not take the game personally, and show some respect to your worthy opponent.
PS I got into the HotS beta yesterday! I can't wait to blog all about it.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Let's face it, StarCraft is in a slight decline at the moment. Don't feel sorry for blizzard -- it's their fault! With the recent release of Mists of Pandaria, what gamer hasn't given up a slice of their video gamer playing pie to the new game on the block?
Despite spending more time than usual as a druid, I still try to for in my daily set of StarCraft games. sets of three, of course.
My first game was a PvT. I was happy to win by teching to colossus and smashing him in open battle.
What surprised me was that he turned our to be a diamond ranked player. Diamonds don't usually lose straight up like that.
Second game was a TvP. Imagine my surprise when he scouted me, saw I was terran, and promptly began canon rushing my front door. I had already walled off, mind you. So I built a bunker, just to be safe, held off the rush, and won in the first few minutes. Turns out that clown was diamond as well.
Who does that, I wonder? Until now, I thought diamond ranked players were better than that. Blind cheese will never work as good as scouted, planned cheese. I can only assume he blind cheeses me because I play as random. But honestly, we can invoke Sun Tsu here:
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat fights first and then looks for victory.
Despite spending more time than usual as a druid, I still try to for in my daily set of StarCraft games. sets of three, of course.
My first game was a PvT. I was happy to win by teching to colossus and smashing him in open battle.
What surprised me was that he turned our to be a diamond ranked player. Diamonds don't usually lose straight up like that.
Second game was a TvP. Imagine my surprise when he scouted me, saw I was terran, and promptly began canon rushing my front door. I had already walled off, mind you. So I built a bunker, just to be safe, held off the rush, and won in the first few minutes. Turns out that clown was diamond as well.
Who does that, I wonder? Until now, I thought diamond ranked players were better than that. Blind cheese will never work as good as scouted, planned cheese. I can only assume he blind cheeses me because I play as random. But honestly, we can invoke Sun Tsu here:
Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat fights first and then looks for victory.
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