StarCraft II

[Ingmar]

The main difference is really that medivacs can't heal each other; medics can. That makes a big difference balance-wise. Science vessels have the same issue, since they can repair each other.

[bhodi]

In PvP it's "kill the healers first". Medics work in the campaign cause the AI doesn't make them the priority targets.

The AI does on brutal. Honestly it still doesn't really help.

[Trippy]

Is there a mission that can't be solved with the hammer of marines+medics?

If you mean your main force is mainly barracks troops rather than exclusively then the answer, I believe, is no, at least on Normal.

If you do mean exclusively barracks troops then there are a few missions that I think may be impossible to complete (e.g. "Shatter the Sky" and "The Moebius Factor").

I meant "Maw of the Void" not "Shatter the Sky".

[K9]

Wow, some of the players in 2v2 are awful. I had two in my placement matches alone that didn't build any SCVs.

[lamaros]

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=141496

[Paelos]

Asian currency exchanges always amuse me. Join this SC2 tournament! Win 1,000,000,000 Dong! $40,000 USD

[Malakili]

Asian currency exchanges always amuse me. Join this SC2 tournament! Win 1,000,000,000 Dong! $40,000 USD

Hell, 40k USD sure isn't peanuts either.

[Rasix]

Looks like they're really pushing this to replace Broodwar.  That's a good thing.  Tournament play is pretty fun to watch with the exception that most mirror matchups are pretty retarded at times still.

I had some fun ladder games last night, beating some folks ranked far above me. Plus, some dude thought I was a girl because I had the news caster profile picture. He got grossed out when I told him I was 31.   I found that rather amusing.

Good thing overall was that I could have won both games I lost last night with very slight changes and a bit more conservative play in parts. 

[Paelos]

Nope, $40k is a yearly salary for a lot of folks, but you have to step over a lot of Koreans to get at it.

[Segoris]

you have to step over a lot of Koreans to get at it.

Well, it's better than having to step over the Dutch....those tall bastards.

6 Battlecruisers with 3 Science Vessels pretty much solved all my problems.

I avoided getting Thors and Battlecruisers for this reason. Once I got them, I went with 6-10 BC and 2-3 Science Vessals as my air force in one group, and about 6 Thors and 2 science vessals as my second group to run the ground. The game got really easy at that point.

[naum]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/08/starcraft-2-the-latest-game-to-control-user-created-content.ars

Blizzard has slapped some serious limits on what we can do with user-created content. There's a 25MB limit on uploaded content, which means any extensive modding with custom graphics, music, or voice acting is impossible. You can't host a game from content stored locally on your computer, so it all has to go through Blizzard. In this way, the company can perfectly control the platform. So why is content being taken down?

"Because we can. Literally. We have a support department now of size and ability to enforce these types of things," Community Manager Bashiok said on the official forums. "It simply wasn't possible when our in-game support used to consist of approximately 20 technical support agents. We did, however, actually police Warcraft III maps to a small degree if they were reported. But it was a rather archaic process."

[Ginaz]

I'm really enjoying the single player campaign, esp. the story.  I don't know how much I'll be playing multiplayer as I'm still having problems with the game freezing and locking up.  I've updated my drivers and tweeked the graphic settings a bit.  Its better than it was, but its still frustrating.  

I did get into one training multiplayer match and won easily.  I chose Protoss by accident (wanted terrans) so I had no idea what did what at first.  I was convinced I was going to get bum rushed before I even managed to figure out what to do.  My base was fairly compact so I built some defenses and some ground units and positioned them so they'd have interlocking archs of fire so nothing could slip through without being attacked.  Turns out that my opponent was more concerned with base building than fighting.  He was spread out to where he had essentially 2 bases, neither of which were well defended.  I built up my air force and systematically destroyed one of his bases and all the units there and part of the other one before losing my units.  I rebuilt my air units, added some ground units, and rolled into his remaining base enmasse and crushed him.  I know I would have been destroyed in a matter of minutes by better players, but it was still nice to get a win.

[K9]

The number of people who don't build units is quite astonishing really.

[Rasix]

The number of people who don't build units is quite astonishing really.

Yah, I feel a little worse about one of my wins yesterday when I watched the replay just now.  Guy was sitting on 1k+ minerals for a long time with idle production facilities.  Didn't help that the guy was always supply blocked.

[Malakili]

The number of people who don't build units is quite astonishing really.

A lot of people probably always played (in SC1) on infinite resource maps on normal speed where you could just build base defense, sit there, tech up to battlecruisers, or carriers, or whatever you wanted, and THEN start building units.  The ladder meta game is not immediately obvious to people who haven't watched videos or played SC1 competitively.

[Ratman_tf]

Now I'm tempted to get in a few multiplayer games while the slowbies are still there. 

[Paelos]

Game crashes haven't concerned me until I got to the last mission, and the game has crashed on 3 seperate occasions. I finally started saving it every 10% just to make sure I had a good starting point. It's awful.

I'm just going to nuke the settings so I can finish the game. 

[Ironwood]

As you know, crashes were happening to me with some frequency.  Putting the graphics from Ultra (which ran fine) to the next setting (high, quite high, very high ?) seems to have reduced the crashes;  I've only had one since and I suspect that was due to, ahem, something else.

[Paelos]

As you know, crashes were happening to me with some frequency.  Putting the graphics from Ultra (which ran fine) to the next setting (high, quite high, very high ?) seems to have reduced the crashes;  I've only had one since and I suspect that was due to, ahem, something else.

Yes, I knocked down mine a setting and had no problems until now. It's going to medium next.

[Ginaz]

As you know, crashes were happening to me with some frequency.  Putting the graphics from Ultra (which ran fine) to the next setting (high, quite high, very high ?) seems to have reduced the crashes;  I've only had one since and I suspect that was due to, ahem, something else.

Yes, I knocked down mine a setting and had no problems until now. It's going to medium next.

I might have to lower the settings again, too.  Mine will freeze for a minute or so, then go black or some other colour then come back fine.  Tweeking the settings lower has reduced the frequency of this but its still frustrating.  My machine is pretty good (i7 920, Radeon 5870, 6 GB RAM) and all my drivers are up to date so I have no clue why I'm having problems.

[Ingmar]

Interesting, I have the same processor and memory but a NVIDIA card, and it runs as smooth as anything. Wonder if there's some ATI-specific issue?

[Ironwood]

Yes.  There is.

What Ginaz just described happens to me and that's a GOOD crash.  Windows 7 will say 'whoops, you're driver stopped, but it's ok now', as opposed to locking up your fucking machine.

It's clearly that.

[Rasix]

I haven't locked up yet.   I have a rather modest system (with an Nvidia card) with the game on about medium settings on a high res monitor (1900 x 1080?).  The game does require me to have my vid card fan cranked up and suffers some performance issues (mostly between missions oddly).

 

[Segoris]

That is weird. I have an Intel E8400, 4g ram, ATI4870 on Vista64 and have yet to have a crash running on max settings through the campaign or any other challenges/multiplayer I've done. I will say that the multiplayer ran smoother in beta for me with older drivers. The lastest ATI drivers don't seem to play well with SC2 as I noticed a drop in performance (I'm guessing it's the driver, but it could very well be something else but I updated the day I started playing retail SC2).

Now I'm tempted to get in a few multiplayer games while the slowbies are still there. 

I say this as one of those "slowbies"......

[Ginaz]

Yes.  There is.

What Ginaz just described happens to me and that's a GOOD crash.  Windows 7 will say 'whoops, you're driver stopped, but it's ok now', as opposed to locking up your fucking machine.

It's clearly that.

Its outright crashed on me a few times, too.  I've had to do a few hard restarts as well.  Hopefully, its just an ATI thing and either they or Blizz can sort things out. 

[Paelos]

I've had a hard freeze happen several times with a GeForce 285.

[kildorn]

My only issue is that SC2 black screens and spins if I alt tab. Which is amusing, since Ingmar and I have nearly identical boxes beyond an ATI versus an nvidia card, and he alt tabs fine.

[Der Helm]

Wtf... no paypal option if I purchase via Battle.net ?

[Ingmar]

My only issue is that SC2 black screens and spins if I alt tab. Which is amusing, since Ingmar and I have nearly identical boxes beyond an ATI versus an nvidia card, and he alt tabs fine.

Yeah, a GTX260. Maybe my computer is just magic!

[trias_e]

Guy rushes with pretty much a million +1 zealots...too bad burrow is 

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/52331-1v1-protoss-zerg-blistering-sands

[Rasix]

I'm not sure I can play this anymore unless I know I have time to play something else more relaxing afterwards.  Ladder matches stress me right the hell out. 

Actually getting better at applying good micro in spots.  I completely trashed a group of voidrays with my stalkers by constantly blinking them back and retreating so he couldn't charge.  Worked really well.  (Of course, I follow that up with a really hilarius brain cramp in which I lose a lot of units I shouldn't.  OH YAH, I HAVE BLINK.) Yay me.

[apocrypha]

My copy finally arrived yesterday (thanks for taking 2 weeks play.com, last order you get from me). Had issues installing and updating, all very tedious and annoying, but by the time I had it installed and working I only had time to play the first 2 campaign missions.

That was enough to make me feel old. And slow. And stupid. I hope I get better at it 'cos so far I suck badly! I might end up playing a lot of skirmish vs AI because at least there I can adjust the game speed to a level that my addled brain can cope with 

[Ironwood]

I'm getting really annoyed with the noobs.  The frigging challenges teach you how to block in your fucking base and fend off rushes and have an economy and good build order.  Failing to do that shit just has NO EXCUSE.

And if I get ONE MORE FUCKING PROTOSS who builds multiple gateways but only one pylon powering them, I'm going to go fucking nuts;  two allies last night lost power due to the lings and one of them was so stupid that even after I said 'yeah, get another pylon there', he didn't bother and got depowered again.  That's just insanely stupid.

Anyway, my point here is that I cannot reccomend running all the challenges till you've golded them.  It really will make you a much better player.  I used to have economy problems but that economy challenge will beat that right out of you.

[jakonovski]

I welcome noobs, even shitty noobs with open arms. Hands down worst thing in an online game is an inbred gaming environment where alpha nerds bully other nerds.

[Ironwood]

Wut ?