First Impressions of SC2

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 9:42 am

There is no way -- NO WAY -- Starcraft 2 is as enjoyable as this thread about Starcraft 2 is.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:02 am

Tdarcos, you made some good points in your reply to me. I'll hang up and listen to the rest of the thread. And double what Flack says.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:43 am

Hooray for the Red Car Commandos!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:24 am

On the secondary issue, World of Warcraft must have even higher hits on the users serving it through BitTorrent, because it's still downloading an install that was smaller than SC2. After running all night it's downloaded 1.1 of 6.9 GB.

Download rate is a whopping 7-8K per second. What the fuck is going on? I have high-speed Internet from Comcast and WOW is being downloaded at modem speeds!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:47 am

Now the WOW download rate is up to about 25K. 1.1 GB downloaded out of 5.9. Looks like this one will be downloading until Friday. If this had been the way SC2 acted with its downloader, we'd still be waiting to find out my opinions of the program.

Of course, it could be Comcast doesn't know SC2 and isn't doing anything to block downloads, while Comcast does know WOW and are throttling downloads of it. Comcast has been known to throttle some applications, then brazenly lie about it until the Associated Press caught them at it. Usually it was people using Bittorrent to illegally download movies, but still, if you're not ashamed of what you're doing or know you're doing wrong, why do you lie about it?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 12:43 pm

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:18 pm

After 2 days of downloading World of Warcraft, the download count is that I have 2.6 GB downloaded of the 5.9 required. Now, it says I currently have enough that I could play, but with reduced functionality. Current speed is 14K/sec.

Jesus, I used to get faster speed than this on a goddam modem!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 8:25 pm

Okay, but let's get back to talkin' about the game we're here to talk about: STARCRAFT II!

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:15 am

Okay, SC2. I have a question, because as it is, I'm thinking if I'm getting my ass kicked on this what supposedly is a simple campaign, the rest of the game is going to be impossible.

There is a campaign where you have to guard 3 supply depots, against some hungry hordes of animals that clearly outnumber your defenders.

You have to split your forces up to guard all of them, but every time I do, no matter what I do, they're always insufficient, get killed off, and the hungry horde slurps up all the food and destroys the depot.

Every time I get killed on the first depot, and I have no idea how to solve this one problem. Even if I was winning I'd say that I don't really think this game is my cup of tea, turn-based battles like this just don't seem to be of interest to me. And yet, I'm thinking this has to be a simple campaign, and if I can't get this, I'm certainly not going to do well against a true fight in real time.

But I am thinking I want to give this game a fair try, which is why I'd like some pointer to help me out.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:59 am

As I told you both in THIS VERY FORUM, and also in a PERSONAL EMAIL TO YOU, that is NOT the campaign, that is a CHALLENGE MISSION, which you are not expected to play until you've at least become a little bit familiar with the game.

Start the goddamn CAMPAIGN, which as I've said twice now, is much easier, and leads you gradually into the game.

Honestly, this is starting to resemble the CZK debacle, where no matter how many times things were explained to you, you still refused to follow simple instructions.

Let's not... let's not do this again, okay?

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:00 pm

pinback wrote:They seem to average about one major patch every two moths or so. Occasionally they'll slip a minor one in between there.

Hey, Ben, do you think, as nice and pretty as the game is, that they could do a patch every two butterflies instead of every two moths? :)

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 12:22 pm

Tdarcos wrote:
pinback wrote:They seem to average about one major patch every two moths or so. Occasionally they'll slip a minor one in between there.
Hey, Ben, do you think, as nice and pretty as the game is, that they could do a patch every two butterflies instead of every two moths? :)

SSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 8:08 am

pinback wrote:Start the goddamn CAMPAIGN, which as I've said twice now, is much easier, and leads you gradually into the game.

I figured out what I was doing wrong, and found the campaign. So I took contemporaneous notes on paper while I was playing, from the moment I started the game again. It was about 6 pages.

StarCraft II wants to download a small update, a mere 12 megs. Again this reminds me of Second Life and its constant upgrading, however I suppose since I have a fast connection it's only going to be a few seconds.

Thinking about it, it wasn't so much all the upgrades on Second Life as that the program didn't seem to do all that much for the amount of time it spent getting almost daily upgrades and patches of circa 20 meg every single time.

And I am mad; again, the fucking chronic firewall tripping is happening, with the stupid asswipe firewall asking me at least a 1/2 dozen times if it's okay to unblock the program.

After SC2 is finished downloading its upgrade, you still have to click on "Play". What the fuck other reason would I launch the goddam program?

This was my opinion of about the first 30 seconds.

New Campaign: Casual

Digging up alien artifacts, eh? Don't tell me these guys didn't watch Total Recall!

The news guy reminds me of Fox News with its overly partisan slant, only faux news isn't going to let a reporter say something that doesn't follow the party line.

The song on the jukebox is a cute cover of Elvis' Suspicious Minds.

"Sarah", presumably the protagonist's girlfriend or wife, looks a lot like the female teacher from Final Fantasy VIII. (No, I've never played it, I saw a really hilarious review of it from Noah Antwiler, "The Spoony Experiment")

Mar Sara, Dominion space. Wonder if Paramount Pictures knows about their use of "Dominion" in a science fiction work? (Star Trek DS9). Although that might be considered generic. I once told one guy I would not recommend using the word "Borg" in any sci-fi work if it wasn't something Paramount authorized unless you did some deal with Borg Warner, the industrial equipment manufacturer.

I'm curious for mission LIBERATION DAY as to why the progress bar takes so long. Isn't the game precalculated? Maybe they need better caching algorithms.

Now the instructional movies do work.

Completion time 7:51

You'd think the commander, Raynor, being a military hero, wouldn't be spending so much time drinking alone. Or alone, period. :)

I'm starting the new mission. You have to bust up the dominion's military infestation and retrieve the alien artifact.

I realize I'll need to do a lot of grinding here, having SEVs mine ore and gas until I've built a lot more SEVs. Might need to build supply depots along the way, except I can't seem to find a way to the target: all bridges have collapsed and my troops have no means to fix them.

Basically it opens up part way when the rebels are attacked.

Interesting effect: as the SCVs mine crystals, the size of each crystal field changes, presumably to less, as the field becomes exhausted.

Mission completed.

Back at the bar, I note that the jukebox plays both kinds of worthless, unlistenable music: country AND western. Why not a gap band cover?

I never ever had a love, put the pedal to the metal and burn rubber on me, oh no no no no no no!

Or cover the Dazz band?

We both are here to have the fun, so let it whip!

Cute trick with the bar's neon sign: "U pay Ray", "Pay Up" etc.

New mission

Zero Hour (9Am, and I'm gonna be high as a kite by then.)

First appearance of the hungry ani... err, I mean Zerg.

Mission completed. I saved at the armory point, I will get some sleep.

This is more of the sort of thing that would seriously make someone want to buy the game. And now I understand why the Zerg misson I bitched about was so hard, I lacked game experience.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 12:40 pm

Tdarcos wrote:StarCraft II wants to download a small update, a mere 12 megs. Again this reminds me of Second Life and its constant upgrading, however I suppose since I have a fast connection it's only going to be a few seconds.

A new patch (1.4) was released this Tuesday, which is why the update occurred. These do not occur very often, though. Once every couple months, on average.

And I am mad; again, the fucking chronic firewall tripping is happening, with the stupid asswipe firewall asking me at least a 1/2 dozen times if it's okay to unblock the program.

I think this might be a problem with your configuration. As far as I have heard, nobody else has encountered this problem.

This is more of the sort of thing that would seriously make someone want to buy the game. And now I understand why the Zerg misson I bitched about was so hard, I lacked game experience.

I am glad your latest experience was more pleasurable, other than the country music at the bar!

Also, just so you know: "Sarah" is Sarah Kerrigan, who Jim Raynor was all sweet on until she was captured by the Zerg and turned into the Queen Bitch of the Zerg.

So now Jimmy just drinks and mopes like a SPACE SAD SACK.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 6:39 pm

pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:And I am mad; again, the fucking chronic firewall tripping is happening, with the stupid asswipe firewall asking me at least a 1/2 dozen times if it's okay to unblock the program.
I think this might be a problem with your configuration. As far as I have heard, nobody else has encountered this problem.

The control in the control panel for the firewall offers about as many choices and results as a light switch; Firewall on, or firewall off. No means to say "grant these programs an exception".

pinback wrote:
This is more of the sort of thing that would seriously make someone want to buy the game. And now I understand why the Zerg misson I bitched about was so hard, I lacked game experience.
I am glad your latest experience was more pleasurable, other than the country music at the bar!

Once I turned off the music, it was okay. I mean, Grand Theft Auto III had something like 5 different radio stations and I think the PC version can use a library of MP3s. You'd think StarCraft could have had some better choices.

Or I would have liked to just turn the damn jukebox off, so that if music is in other places is present you can still hear it.

pinback wrote:Also, just so you know: "Sarah" is Sarah Kerrigan, who Jim Raynor was all sweet on until she was captured by the Zerg and turned into the Queen Bitch of the Zerg.

So now Jimmy just drinks and mopes like a SPACE SAD SACK.

Reminds me of Star Trek:Next Generation where Captain Picard being captured by the Borg, and Guinan having to advise (now) Captain Riker that he will have to give him up and admit he's effectively dead; despite firing on what it is now, that's not Picard and the man he knew (and loved) is a casualty of war.

I guess it is supposed to show Raynor is sort of a wimp, or he isn't as strong as he wants the world to think. But it seems to raise a conflict here: if he's even half the man he pretends he is, I'd think it would be more like Rico in Starship Troopers, when he finds out both his parents are killed by the bugs, he doesn't continue leaving, he turns around and tries to withdraw his resignation from the army so he can go back and kill every one of them.

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Fri Sep 23, 2011 7:38 pm

Tdarcos wrote:The control in the control panel for the firewall offers about as many choices and results as a light switch; Firewall on, or firewall off. No means to say "grant these programs an exception".

Okay, but let me say it again: Of the millions of people who bought the game, approximately zero of them reported the problem you are having. I've done comprehensive searches of Blizzard's tech support forum to substantiate this claim.

You'd think StarCraft could have had some better choices.

"Terran In Up", though? C'mon, that's GOLD, Jerry!

Or I would have liked to just turn the damn jukebox off, so that if music is in other places is present you can still hear it.

Pretty sure if you click the jukebox enough, it turns off.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Sat Sep 24, 2011 1:50 pm

pinback wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:Or I would have liked to just turn the damn jukebox off, so that if music is in other places is present you can still hear it.
Pretty sure if you click the jukebox enough, it turns off.

Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt. Click the jukebox enough, it goes back to the start of the list of "Hits from 500 years ago." There is no selection that is not playing anything.

But I am having news. I finished the three missions, as I stated in my previous entry.

But I have good news: I beat the Zerg! I had to go up on YouTube after about 50,031 tries and get a hint.

And I realize those videos really do represent just hints. I'm on the second of three and, just like in the previous one, it's always the last of three that I get killed on, I can often get the first two done, but then figuring out how to get the third one is the problem.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Thu Dec 22, 2011 10:56 am

Tdarcos wrote:Back at the bar, I note that the jukebox plays both kinds of worthless, unlistenable music: country AND western. Why not a gap band cover?
I never ever had a love, put the pedal to the metal and burn rubber on me, oh no no no no no no!
Or cover the Dazz band?
We both are here to have the fun, so let it whip!

Having just listened to both of them, I think they're much better than any of the music in SC2.

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