BLOGS
"Starcraft 2: The Story" Episode 1 by Dynasty
Several years have passed since the Brood Wars and the universe as we knew it, has changed.The Dominion’s forces were suffering from hunger and dissbelief after the Zerg infestation had destroyed most of the natural wild life and vegetation of the Terran planets, that, above all, were the center of the Zerg atacks during the Brood Wars.
The Terrans however, were weakend, but, in time, they started to rebuild what was destroyed during the wars.
They also took care of the remaining relics and remnants of a powerful civilisation, yet a technologically primitive race and, by using the robotics technology stolen from the Protoss and by combining it with the thick Terran armor, they ultimately managed to build their most powerful assault weapon, the Thor.
In a private and hidden mountain on a planet in the middle of the Koprulu sector, the Terrans have build a hidden industrial city, ruled by none other than the well known officer, Lieutenant Duran.
With deep wounds on both his body and mind, Duran gathered his remaining strenght to motivate his troups and start rebuilding his race’s mechanical army which was previously lost during the war.
Every single soul was preparing day by day for a new war, eventhough the enemy as they knew it,was gone. They had high hopes that a war like the Brood Wars, would never happen again, yet, little did they know.
While Duran and the other officers under his command were having a meeting and preparing to impress their visiting generals, scheduled to arrive for a Thor demonstration, a couple of Banshees landed on the roof of the hidden building. Their pilots rushed into the meeting room, apologizing for the disturbance. The two pilots rapidly briefed the officers that a Zerg fleet of some sort of flyer creatures has entered the sector and was heading their way.
Aparently, the terran radio frequency had been decoded by the new Zerg flagship called the Overseer and the Terran presence had been detected.
Soon after hearing this news, Duran ordered his ghosts and Banshee pilots to gather information about the new Zerg airships.
For a few days, no Zerg presence had been spoted, yet the Terran’s were restless and very confused because they were not used to this kind of intelligent Zerg creatures.
In time, these flyers were given names, based on their brief engagements in combat.
They were given names such as: Overseers, Brood Lords and Corruptors.
The combat power of these creatures, forced Duran's hand and provided him with an early opportunity to test his new assault unit in combat, the Thor.
Considering that Duran only managed to build a few Thors, because to their large size, he was really impressed with the results, yet, ultimately, he ordered his units to go aboard the Medivacs and flee to the closeby fleet of Battlecruisers, stationed in orbit.
In order to avoid his mech technology to fall into enemy hands, Duran ordered the remaining Thors to use their powerful assault cannons on the mountain that was housing his secret base, leveling everything that Duran worked for.
While hiding behind a star in that sector, Duran broke radio silence to call for help and summon the Protoss Zeratul and Fenix for help, thinking that their common goals during the Brood Wars, would unite them once again.
By using their warp gates, the protoss appeared on the radars minutes after the distress call.
Duran : - ”Greetings my friends. Once again, our common enemy has arrived to challenge our fate. The Zerg are back, and this time more powerful than ever. I seek your assistance at once, for our common enemy has risen from the dead.”
Zeratul: - “ Greetings Duran, what have you been up to lately? My fellow dark templars have told me about a new ace in your sleave, something you terrans call the Thor.
- Entaro Adun, Executor Fenix. ”
Fenix: - “ Entaro Adun, dark templar.
-Greetings terran, what troubles you?”
Duran – “ My forces were overwhelmed by a strange fleet of new zerg flyers and for some reason, my banshees’s stealth generator stopped working seconds after I gave the order of engagement.”
Fenix:- “Yes, I know what you mean. My Mothership’s stealth systems stoped working as well. It seems like the flyer you terrans call The Overseer, has the power of disrupting any stealth generating system. “
Zeratul: - “Oh , yes, this unit of unknown origin needs to be researched at once. I will warp imediately towards the Xel’Naga home planet to seek advice from the ancient ones on the matter. Such intelligent creatures sure have old roots and have been around for quite some time now.”
Kerrigan: - “Greetings my lords, a nice reunion you got here.”
Duran: - “ You … You … You..”
Zeratul – “Silence, Duran. Let the wreched one say his thought.”
Kerrigan:– “Now, now… Is that the way you treat an old friend.”
Duran: “Yes Kerrigan, you were once my friend… long time ago, but not anymore….”
Kerrigan: - “ You fouls can’t see the big picture here. I’m back, and this time is for good. The Brood Wars will start again until all of you will be under my command.”
Duran: - “Bring it on, baby !”
Zeratul : - “Well, Fenix, it looks like we will fight again against the Brood. Gather your troups, fortify your defences and meet me at the Xel’Naga temple. Adun toridas, my friend !”
Fenix : - “So shall it be, my friend…So shall it be. For Adun!”
For a while, the zerg presence hasn’t been felt, yet, the danger was far from being over.
Soon, we will follow the adventures of our heroes in their fight against the Zerg, yet that is another story to be told…
To be continued....
Hey, it's me again
Recent stuff i've been doing. New Starcraft 2 experiences.Hey everyone.
Recently, I have submited a blog thread about my first contact with Blizzard's brand new title, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.
Like I was saying, there's a lot of things that annoy me when i play versus my fellow silver league players that play using the Zerg race.
As a protoss player, im having a hard time playing against the zerg becouse so far, I didn't manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat when it comes to beating Zerg players.
For instance, yesterday, I had the pleasure of being raped by a player that went for mass hydras and infestors.
I had massed zealots, couple of dark templars (note that he had overseers but that isn't the point), several sentries and a decent amount of Collosuses. (about 5 Colosuses).
Eventhough I used my army with carefull macro/micro, I got raped becouse his infestors mind controled my collosuses and basically beat me with my own army, which is kinda weird becouse collosuses are a must have vs zerg, yet it's useless since it can be mind controled.
As a suggestion to Blizzard's devs, they should restrict the mind control skill to tier 1 units. If a protoss masses Carriers for example, the zerg makes several Infectors and destroyes the protoss with his own units.
About myself, all I can say is that I had the pleasure of attending a small event ESL Romania is organising every weekend in May, along with Intel and Media Galaxy (Romanian electronics shop), to celebrate Men's Day (May 5th).
I went in the first day of the event and had the pleasure of competing for the Fifa World Cup 2010: South Africa Amateur contest, where I came up second and won an EA Sports jacket with "Need for Speed Shift" written nicely on the back, as well as a Fifa World Cup 2010 Retail game.
A couple of hours later, on 4 computers provided by Intel and Media Galaxy with full gaming gear, the 2v2 Starcraft 2 Beta competition began.
My former coleagues from ESL Romania insisted that I chose a member of the croud to team up with and, as a result, I got teamed up with a girl.
We had to face a couple of guys, both of them Terran players, in a BO3 matchup.
Basically, we were like P+T vs T+T.
The first game, took place on [4]Lost Temple.
I was the 3 o'clock protoss and my team mate the 6 o'clock terran, against the 2 players in the 9 and 12 o'clock positions.
The game was pretty fast since I planted a pylon next to the bases of the 2 terrans and had my team mate scan the lower margins of their bases so I could warp in a couple of fast dark templars(I went directly for DTs, hoping they wouldn't atempt a rush).
The second game and third games were one 2 maps I really don't remember at the moment.
Anyway, the matchup basically ended at 2-0, yet we decided to play the 3rd game as well and it all went down to a flat 3-0.
We won a golden medal with "Intel Starcraft 2 First Place" written on it, as well as a Blizzard T-Shirt and a plush speaking Murloc.
I really wanted to provide coverage of this event, here on sk-gaming.com, yet, for some reason, my friends at ESL Romania asked me not to.
Anyway, I want to annouce that starting this weekend, I intend to livestream all my games and hopefully provide commentaries to very nice games provided by top EU platinum players, obviously while streaming their match.
Maybe some of you might ask yourselves "Why would i listen to the commentaries of a silver league player?".
Well, i can't blame you if you do, yet the answer is simple.
Becouse i have the knowledge and the brains to comment matches and eventhough, im in silver league, i know how to apply most of the strategies out there, yet i lack the exercise to do it in order to go gold or platinum.
Anyway, I see myself as a behind the scenes kinda gamer and have no intention of going pro in SC2.
I like writing about stuff related to games and im still learning the editorial job description so please, don't hate.
Peace to you all.
Starcraft 2 Beta Playday #1 (for me)
Recently, i received my own beta key for SC2 and i started playing too. Here is my first contact with the game that will become legend.Recently, i received my very own beta key and decided to play it and share my oppinion on the game with the public.
To make this more structured, i will talk in different categories.
Introduction :
Since Starcraft Brood War was launched sometime in '98, if my memory serves me right, i was literally a maniac regarding this game.
I used to play a weak terran, did decent with zerg but i mostly enjoyed playing protoss which i really got good at before i quit it sometime in 2001-2002.
As a first impression on the game, before actually playing the game, built mostly from viewing lots of gameplay vods and youtube videos,the game is pretty much a success and way more than i expected.
Obviously, i really liked, from day one, the features Blizzard put in the new protoss race and felt anxious to play it.
In-game first impression:
Ok, so i got the key, added it to my Battle.net account and installed the game.
When i first joined the game, i really liked the user interface but i think it's to shiny and to loaded of buttons and stuff.Anyway, it was good.
At first, i thought of playing my 5 directly and join a league directly. In the meantime i changed my mind and played a few practice games in the custom game section
.
After a few custom games, i started my 5 games which ended up with a 3-2 win/lose ratio that sent me to Silver League division 143.
What i didn't like about this system is that some people get more skilled opponents while others get weaker opponents.
Some gold members for example lose most of their games in their division (becouse they aren't skilled enough), while some silver members win most of their games becouse they belong in a higher skill league.
This is mostly becouse the league selection system is not that well set up in my oppinion and might add weaker players to higher skill leagues and the other way around.
The game itself :
Most people say that SC2 is pretty well balanced even at the present moment, concept that i totaly disagree with.
For example :
Zerg : very strong ground wise, yet very weak air wise. For some reason, zergs have a lot of trouble if their opponents go air and they usually try countering air units with hidras but most of the time that strat doesn't go that well.
Protoss : Dark templars are pretty much useless throughout the game becouse it is easy to make true sight units (observers,ravens or overseers). Their air units are pretty weak and easily counterable.
The void ray is decent against zerg and does quite some damage against low numbers of mutalisks, yet in large numbers,they are dead meat. The pheonix, which is an only air unit, is very weak against air units. Mutalisks simply wipe the floor with them. Personally, they deserve a buff, either make them atack ground too or buf their air damage.
The other problem with the protoss is that they lack a more powerfull ground ranged unit, like the protoss dragoon in SCBW. The immortals are good but they don't atack air and they cost a fortune.Actually, most protoss units cost to much which is another big issue with the current SC2 protoss race.
Terran : For some reason, all the terran players i saw out there, play with ground units with the old school strategy involving tanks,marines and marauders (assisted by ravens and medivacs). The high end units like the protoss carrier and the terran battlecruiser are currently to weak to be played.
The over nerf of the marauder made it's point to the terran players and now it really needs a little revert.At least make the 'concussive shells' upgrade build time shorter and the cost lower.
Another big issue is that an average skilled zerg player is extremely hard to beat becouse the current zerg is to fast paced and can expand way to fast. In 10-15 mins of play, the zerg can have at least 2 expansions and full teched buildings along with high numbers of units.
As the protoss cannons are currently worthless, a protoss expansion is very difficult to protect and considering the huge costs for the protoss unit training, the protoss is very hard to play,specially against zerg and terran players.
My first day of playing :
While playing my first games in the custom game section, i played each race to figure out how people try to counter what you throw at them and to my disappointment, they always used the same units to counter my atacks. The concept of making a unit to counter another that Blizzard used in SC2 is not such a good idea becouse it doesn't let you use your imagination, instead it forces you to play the same strategy over and over which, on a long term, will get boring.
Insight on Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
A while back, as all the gaming world found out already, Blizzard Entertainment has released one of it's long expected titles, Starcraft II : Wings of Liberty. Here's some insight provided by a man outside the scene,who doesn't have a beta key yet. Regardless, i did play some AI games and i can't be more happy of what the game brings to the table.If we talk about economics,specially marketing, Blizzard made a couple of strikes of genious but also some huge mistakes.
To expand on the above statements, i will take both statements and elaborate upon them.
About doing strikes of genious, well, in my oppinion, that was made with the "playing hard to get strategy".
In the early times,way before the beta, they made public some games played by the testers, on youtube and other web sites of this genre, to make sure the word spreads out quickly. This really worked out and in a matter of weeks,maybe even days, every soul in the gaming world, knew about the upcoming title, SC2 WOL.
The other thing,which, on one side is another strike of genious and on the other side a foolish thing, is this closed beta.
In this beta, most players won't get beta keys and will buy the game instantly upon release, yet, by handing out so few beta keys, they wont know, upon shipping, the total amount of users their servers can support. That might create chaos if something wrong happens (like Assassin's Creed II when it was shiped for like 30-40 Euros and the servers got flooded,making players who legitimately bought the game, unable to play).
Regarding the game itself, it is pretty balanced for a beta, eventhough players believe that the terran race is kinda lacking options in order to win.
Personaly, i think its a matter of race orientation.Probably the lower skilled players went terran and that's why people think the terran needs a push, so to speak.
Eventhough im a strong enforcer of the use of legitimate licenses, in order to try out the game, i had to use the cracked version of starcraft 2, to my shame. I do have intentions of buying the retail copy of the game the day it gets shiped though.
I really loved how the protoss turned out and the warp technology opens up a wide variaty of strats. I did notice a slight weakness against the zerg becouse, in my oppinion, the zerg's game is way to dinamic for the other 2 races and if played right, you just cant keep up with the zerg's game. If i were a blizzard developer, i would defenately nerf the zerg big time.
All races were really fun to play but, i intend to play my long lost love, the protoss.
Who knows, maybe lady luck strikes me and i get a beta key somehow.
About the game itself, i dont know really, a lot of people complain about the latency issues. If Blizzard doesn't do something about the latency soon, they should defenately provide a mean of going around this somehow. Maybe the protocols or whatever is needed for garena or other platform that simulate lan latencies...
About the replay functions, they seem ok,though they are not so different from the ones in WAR3 TFT.The only difference i could notice is the possibility to backtrack the replay and that's about it.
Anyway, these days i couldn't play much but i promise to play some more and edit this entry.
See you soon ....
DreamHack Winter 2009 about to start.
Three days left until Dreamhack launches. Although SMM will be at the same time, Dreamhack is always worth watching. Read further for all the information you need.In the last news article regarding DH Winter 2009, the official rules set was released,yet, since then,a lot of things changed over and over. For instance, Pipe isn't banned anymore.In addition to this, the starting hour for the event was postponed to 1500 hours CET,in order to have everyone settled in and confortable,so to speak.
Some of the atendees are already known : Fnatic.MSI, Unique.Dota, DIPS, Team Wåhlin, EnRo Griffins. Both Unique and Enro seem to have some roster problems and will be atending the event with two stand-ins each.Enro somehow got its hands on lapiz and unpapayacoconut and Unique will be playing Puppey and Pajkatt.Aside the teams mentioned above,the two teams that won the Romanian Qualifier,XFZ.Int and Planet-X will be atending as well.The prize pool is set as before,somewhere around 50.000 SEK which is an average of 5.000 USD,split in both cash and gaming gear.
All the best wishes to the atendants and may the best team win.
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
Jun 1, 2010 11:08
Several years have passed since the Brood Wars and the universe as we knew it, has changed.The Dominion’s forces were suffering from hunger and dissbelief after the Zerg infestation had destroyed most of the natural wild life and vegetation of the Terran planets, that, above all, were the center of the Zerg atacks during the Brood Wars.
The Terrans however, were weakend, but, in time, they started to rebuild what was destroyed during the wars.
They also took care of the remaining relics and remnants of a powerful civilisation, yet a technologically primitive race and, by using the robotics technology stolen from the Protoss and by combining it with the thick Terran armor, they ultimately managed to build their most powerful assault weapon, the Thor.
In a private and hidden mountain on a planet in the middle of the Koprulu sector, the Terrans have build a hidden industrial city, ruled by none other than the well known officer, Lieutenant Duran.
With deep wounds on both his body and mind, Duran gathered his remaining strenght to motivate his troups and start rebuilding his race’s mechanical army which was previously lost during the war.
Every single soul was preparing day by day for a new war, eventhough the enemy as they knew it,was gone. They had high hopes that a war like the Brood Wars, would never happen again, yet, little did they know.
While Duran and the other officers under his command were having a meeting and preparing to impress their visiting generals, scheduled to arrive for a Thor demonstration, a couple of Banshees landed on the roof of the hidden building. Their pilots rushed into the meeting room, apologizing for the disturbance. The two pilots rapidly briefed the officers that a Zerg fleet of some sort of flyer creatures has entered the sector and was heading their way.
Aparently, the terran radio frequency had been decoded by the new Zerg flagship called the Overseer and the Terran presence had been detected.
Soon after hearing this news, Duran ordered his ghosts and Banshee pilots to gather information about the new Zerg airships.
For a few days, no Zerg presence had been spoted, yet the Terran’s were restless and very confused because they were not used to this kind of intelligent Zerg creatures.
In time, these flyers were given names, based on their brief engagements in combat.
They were given names such as: Overseers, Brood Lords and Corruptors.
The combat power of these creatures, forced Duran's hand and provided him with an early opportunity to test his new assault unit in combat, the Thor.
Considering that Duran only managed to build a few Thors, because to their large size, he was really impressed with the results, yet, ultimately, he ordered his units to go aboard the Medivacs and flee to the closeby fleet of Battlecruisers, stationed in orbit.
In order to avoid his mech technology to fall into enemy hands, Duran ordered the remaining Thors to use their powerful assault cannons on the mountain that was housing his secret base, leveling everything that Duran worked for.
While hiding behind a star in that sector, Duran broke radio silence to call for help and summon the Protoss Zeratul and Fenix for help, thinking that their common goals during the Brood Wars, would unite them once again.
By using their warp gates, the protoss appeared on the radars minutes after the distress call.
Duran : - ”Greetings my friends. Once again, our common enemy has arrived to challenge our fate. The Zerg are back, and this time more powerful than ever. I seek your assistance at once, for our common enemy has risen from the dead.”
Zeratul: - “ Greetings Duran, what have you been up to lately? My fellow dark templars have told me about a new ace in your sleave, something you terrans call the Thor.
- Entaro Adun, Executor Fenix. ”
Fenix: - “ Entaro Adun, dark templar.
-Greetings terran, what troubles you?”
Duran – “ My forces were overwhelmed by a strange fleet of new zerg flyers and for some reason, my banshees’s stealth generator stopped working seconds after I gave the order of engagement.”
Fenix:- “Yes, I know what you mean. My Mothership’s stealth systems stoped working as well. It seems like the flyer you terrans call The Overseer, has the power of disrupting any stealth generating system. “
Zeratul: - “Oh , yes, this unit of unknown origin needs to be researched at once. I will warp imediately towards the Xel’Naga home planet to seek advice from the ancient ones on the matter. Such intelligent creatures sure have old roots and have been around for quite some time now.”
Kerrigan: - “Greetings my lords, a nice reunion you got here.”
Duran: - “ You … You … You..”
Zeratul – “Silence, Duran. Let the wreched one say his thought.”
Kerrigan:– “Now, now… Is that the way you treat an old friend.”
Duran: “Yes Kerrigan, you were once my friend… long time ago, but not anymore….”
Kerrigan: - “ You fouls can’t see the big picture here. I’m back, and this time is for good. The Brood Wars will start again until all of you will be under my command.”
Duran: - “Bring it on, baby !”
Zeratul : - “Well, Fenix, it looks like we will fight again against the Brood. Gather your troups, fortify your defences and meet me at the Xel’Naga temple. Adun toridas, my friend !”
Fenix : - “So shall it be, my friend…So shall it be. For Adun!”
For a while, the zerg presence hasn’t been felt, yet, the danger was far from being over.
Soon, we will follow the adventures of our heroes in their fight against the Zerg, yet that is another story to be told…
To be continued....
Hey, it's me again
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
May 6, 2010 16:57
Recent stuff i've been doing. New Starcraft 2 experiences.Hey everyone.
Recently, I have submited a blog thread about my first contact with Blizzard's brand new title, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty.
Like I was saying, there's a lot of things that annoy me when i play versus my fellow silver league players that play using the Zerg race.
As a protoss player, im having a hard time playing against the zerg becouse so far, I didn't manage to pull a rabbit out of the hat when it comes to beating Zerg players.
For instance, yesterday, I had the pleasure of being raped by a player that went for mass hydras and infestors.
I had massed zealots, couple of dark templars (note that he had overseers but that isn't the point), several sentries and a decent amount of Collosuses. (about 5 Colosuses).
Eventhough I used my army with carefull macro/micro, I got raped becouse his infestors mind controled my collosuses and basically beat me with my own army, which is kinda weird becouse collosuses are a must have vs zerg, yet it's useless since it can be mind controled.
As a suggestion to Blizzard's devs, they should restrict the mind control skill to tier 1 units. If a protoss masses Carriers for example, the zerg makes several Infectors and destroyes the protoss with his own units.
About myself, all I can say is that I had the pleasure of attending a small event ESL Romania is organising every weekend in May, along with Intel and Media Galaxy (Romanian electronics shop), to celebrate Men's Day (May 5th).
I went in the first day of the event and had the pleasure of competing for the Fifa World Cup 2010: South Africa Amateur contest, where I came up second and won an EA Sports jacket with "Need for Speed Shift" written nicely on the back, as well as a Fifa World Cup 2010 Retail game.
A couple of hours later, on 4 computers provided by Intel and Media Galaxy with full gaming gear, the 2v2 Starcraft 2 Beta competition began.
My former coleagues from ESL Romania insisted that I chose a member of the croud to team up with and, as a result, I got teamed up with a girl.
We had to face a couple of guys, both of them Terran players, in a BO3 matchup.
Basically, we were like P+T vs T+T.
The first game, took place on [4]Lost Temple.
I was the 3 o'clock protoss and my team mate the 6 o'clock terran, against the 2 players in the 9 and 12 o'clock positions.
The game was pretty fast since I planted a pylon next to the bases of the 2 terrans and had my team mate scan the lower margins of their bases so I could warp in a couple of fast dark templars(I went directly for DTs, hoping they wouldn't atempt a rush).
The second game and third games were one 2 maps I really don't remember at the moment.
Anyway, the matchup basically ended at 2-0, yet we decided to play the 3rd game as well and it all went down to a flat 3-0.
We won a golden medal with "Intel Starcraft 2 First Place" written on it, as well as a Blizzard T-Shirt and a plush speaking Murloc.
I really wanted to provide coverage of this event, here on sk-gaming.com, yet, for some reason, my friends at ESL Romania asked me not to.
Anyway, I want to annouce that starting this weekend, I intend to livestream all my games and hopefully provide commentaries to very nice games provided by top EU platinum players, obviously while streaming their match.
Maybe some of you might ask yourselves "Why would i listen to the commentaries of a silver league player?".
Well, i can't blame you if you do, yet the answer is simple.
Becouse i have the knowledge and the brains to comment matches and eventhough, im in silver league, i know how to apply most of the strategies out there, yet i lack the exercise to do it in order to go gold or platinum.
Anyway, I see myself as a behind the scenes kinda gamer and have no intention of going pro in SC2.
I like writing about stuff related to games and im still learning the editorial job description so please, don't hate.
Peace to you all.
Starcraft 2 Beta Playday #1 (for me)
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
Apr 22, 2010 10:41
Recently, i received my own beta key for SC2 and i started playing too. Here is my first contact with the game that will become legend.Recently, i received my very own beta key and decided to play it and share my oppinion on the game with the public.
To make this more structured, i will talk in different categories.
Introduction :
Since Starcraft Brood War was launched sometime in '98, if my memory serves me right, i was literally a maniac regarding this game.
I used to play a weak terran, did decent with zerg but i mostly enjoyed playing protoss which i really got good at before i quit it sometime in 2001-2002.
As a first impression on the game, before actually playing the game, built mostly from viewing lots of gameplay vods and youtube videos,the game is pretty much a success and way more than i expected.
Obviously, i really liked, from day one, the features Blizzard put in the new protoss race and felt anxious to play it.
In-game first impression:
Ok, so i got the key, added it to my Battle.net account and installed the game.
When i first joined the game, i really liked the user interface but i think it's to shiny and to loaded of buttons and stuff.Anyway, it was good.
At first, i thought of playing my 5 directly and join a league directly. In the meantime i changed my mind and played a few practice games in the custom game section
.
After a few custom games, i started my 5 games which ended up with a 3-2 win/lose ratio that sent me to Silver League division 143.
What i didn't like about this system is that some people get more skilled opponents while others get weaker opponents.
Some gold members for example lose most of their games in their division (becouse they aren't skilled enough), while some silver members win most of their games becouse they belong in a higher skill league.
This is mostly becouse the league selection system is not that well set up in my oppinion and might add weaker players to higher skill leagues and the other way around.
The game itself :
Most people say that SC2 is pretty well balanced even at the present moment, concept that i totaly disagree with.
For example :
Zerg : very strong ground wise, yet very weak air wise. For some reason, zergs have a lot of trouble if their opponents go air and they usually try countering air units with hidras but most of the time that strat doesn't go that well.
Protoss : Dark templars are pretty much useless throughout the game becouse it is easy to make true sight units (observers,ravens or overseers). Their air units are pretty weak and easily counterable.
The void ray is decent against zerg and does quite some damage against low numbers of mutalisks, yet in large numbers,they are dead meat. The pheonix, which is an only air unit, is very weak against air units. Mutalisks simply wipe the floor with them. Personally, they deserve a buff, either make them atack ground too or buf their air damage.
The other problem with the protoss is that they lack a more powerfull ground ranged unit, like the protoss dragoon in SCBW. The immortals are good but they don't atack air and they cost a fortune.Actually, most protoss units cost to much which is another big issue with the current SC2 protoss race.
Terran : For some reason, all the terran players i saw out there, play with ground units with the old school strategy involving tanks,marines and marauders (assisted by ravens and medivacs). The high end units like the protoss carrier and the terran battlecruiser are currently to weak to be played.
The over nerf of the marauder made it's point to the terran players and now it really needs a little revert.At least make the 'concussive shells' upgrade build time shorter and the cost lower.
Another big issue is that an average skilled zerg player is extremely hard to beat becouse the current zerg is to fast paced and can expand way to fast. In 10-15 mins of play, the zerg can have at least 2 expansions and full teched buildings along with high numbers of units.
As the protoss cannons are currently worthless, a protoss expansion is very difficult to protect and considering the huge costs for the protoss unit training, the protoss is very hard to play,specially against zerg and terran players.
My first day of playing :
While playing my first games in the custom game section, i played each race to figure out how people try to counter what you throw at them and to my disappointment, they always used the same units to counter my atacks. The concept of making a unit to counter another that Blizzard used in SC2 is not such a good idea becouse it doesn't let you use your imagination, instead it forces you to play the same strategy over and over which, on a long term, will get boring.
Insight on Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
Mar 19, 2010 08:58
A while back, as all the gaming world found out already, Blizzard Entertainment has released one of it's long expected titles, Starcraft II : Wings of Liberty. Here's some insight provided by a man outside the scene,who doesn't have a beta key yet. Regardless, i did play some AI games and i can't be more happy of what the game brings to the table.If we talk about economics,specially marketing, Blizzard made a couple of strikes of genious but also some huge mistakes.
To expand on the above statements, i will take both statements and elaborate upon them.
About doing strikes of genious, well, in my oppinion, that was made with the "playing hard to get strategy".
In the early times,way before the beta, they made public some games played by the testers, on youtube and other web sites of this genre, to make sure the word spreads out quickly. This really worked out and in a matter of weeks,maybe even days, every soul in the gaming world, knew about the upcoming title, SC2 WOL.
The other thing,which, on one side is another strike of genious and on the other side a foolish thing, is this closed beta.
In this beta, most players won't get beta keys and will buy the game instantly upon release, yet, by handing out so few beta keys, they wont know, upon shipping, the total amount of users their servers can support. That might create chaos if something wrong happens (like Assassin's Creed II when it was shiped for like 30-40 Euros and the servers got flooded,making players who legitimately bought the game, unable to play).
Regarding the game itself, it is pretty balanced for a beta, eventhough players believe that the terran race is kinda lacking options in order to win.
Personaly, i think its a matter of race orientation.Probably the lower skilled players went terran and that's why people think the terran needs a push, so to speak.
Eventhough im a strong enforcer of the use of legitimate licenses, in order to try out the game, i had to use the cracked version of starcraft 2, to my shame. I do have intentions of buying the retail copy of the game the day it gets shiped though.
I really loved how the protoss turned out and the warp technology opens up a wide variaty of strats. I did notice a slight weakness against the zerg becouse, in my oppinion, the zerg's game is way to dinamic for the other 2 races and if played right, you just cant keep up with the zerg's game. If i were a blizzard developer, i would defenately nerf the zerg big time.
All races were really fun to play but, i intend to play my long lost love, the protoss.
Who knows, maybe lady luck strikes me and i get a beta key somehow.
About the game itself, i dont know really, a lot of people complain about the latency issues. If Blizzard doesn't do something about the latency soon, they should defenately provide a mean of going around this somehow. Maybe the protocols or whatever is needed for garena or other platform that simulate lan latencies...
About the replay functions, they seem ok,though they are not so different from the ones in WAR3 TFT.The only difference i could notice is the possibility to backtrack the replay and that's about it.
Anyway, these days i couldn't play much but i promise to play some more and edit this entry.
See you soon ....
DreamHack Winter 2009 about to start.
By Calinescu 'Dynasty' Dan-Gabriel
Nov 24, 2009 11:06
Three days left until Dreamhack launches. Although SMM will be at the same time, Dreamhack is always worth watching. Read further for all the information you need.In the last news article regarding DH Winter 2009, the official rules set was released,yet, since then,a lot of things changed over and over. For instance, Pipe isn't banned anymore.In addition to this, the starting hour for the event was postponed to 1500 hours CET,in order to have everyone settled in and confortable,so to speak.
Some of the atendees are already known : Fnatic.MSI, Unique.Dota, DIPS, Team Wåhlin, EnRo Griffins. Both Unique and Enro seem to have some roster problems and will be atending the event with two stand-ins each.Enro somehow got its hands on lapiz and unpapayacoconut and Unique will be playing Puppey and Pajkatt.Aside the teams mentioned above,the two teams that won the Romanian Qualifier,XFZ.Int and Planet-X will be atending as well.The prize pool is set as before,somewhere around 50.000 SEK which is an average of 5.000 USD,split in both cash and gaming gear.
All the best wishes to the atendants and may the best team win.
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