Jolt Country

Any BW elitism will be met with INSTANT BANS AND DELETIONS.

That is the rule. Got it?

GOT IT?

Good.

Let us begin.

Also, no balance complaints or QQing about how your race is weakest or Protoss needs buffs or any of that shit. I will not tolerate it, and it will result in immediate suspensions.

Okay. Let's go.

One more thing: Any bashing of the game or Blizzard due to b.net features you want but don't have, or the lack of LAN, or the "always online" requirement, or any of that other crap, will land you outside of this base, looking in as fast as I can hit the "ban" button.

I will not tolerate any of that.

Now let's talk SC2.

I'll start. What is BW?

Brood War. There is a small but vocal minority in the SC scene who are relentless in polluting every available avenue with endless rage about how much better StarCraft: Brood War was than SC2. How much more skill it required, how much more balanced it was, etc, etc.

If you like BW, fine. We all do/did. But SC2 is a different game, and shut up about it.

Besides, if I had to go back to BW, without the ability to rally workers to the mineral patches, without the ability to select as many units as I want, having to click casters individually to cast spells, I would... well, this is a bad time to joke about what I would do, but trust me, I would not prefer that at all.

Ah yes. I forgot. Any hysterical complaining about an upcoming patch (1.4 in this case) and how it's going to ruin the game? Well, that just earned you a rally point right the fuck out of this base.

No. We're not going to have any of that here.

Okay, back to SC2.

That reminds me. Also: no bashing of any pros or casters you happen to have a problem with. Think Day[9] isn't funny? Think Idra is a whiny bitch? Go think that on your own time, in your own forum, because if any of that winds up here, it will NOT be funny, and it'll be YOU who's the whiny bitch, when I ban/delete your ass outta here.

Sorry, just had to make that clear. Now... let's get back to the game, which is why we're all here!

For those who think I'm being a little harsh, let me explain:

I'm just trying to keep it positive in here. There's too much negativity in the SC2 community, and I just decided that this is one place that is not going to cater to it. There are plenty of other sites where you can go post whatever opinion you want, bash the game, bash the players, bash Blizzard, whatever. Just ain't gonna be here.

If you have a problem with it, I suggest you leave, because (forgot to mention this one) if anybody posts complaints about any of my policies? Hmm, what's that sound?

It's you, being banned and having all of your posts deleted.

(Oh, and any posts not related to SC2 will be deleted and earn you a single warning, after which you will be banned. I probably didn't need to mention this, as I would hope it would go without saying, but I'd rather just say it so there's no confusion later.)

Never having played Starcraft 2, tell me something about it.

I mean, I've never played Halo, but I know a piece of the story. There is some kind of war going on between the Terran Race and some outsider race, mostly fought by the main character, Master Chief.

So try offering me an explanation from the standpoint of someone who plays the game, what is it about, what is the purpose of playing (what are your general objectives), why do you find the game fun, that sort of thing.

Oh yeah, let's say I decide I want to play. Can I download the client to the game or do you have to buy it in a store, and what am I looking to pay to try the game?

And now, like when you asked me about my "yeast in beer" comment, I'll listen off the air.

Tdarcos wrote:So try offering me an explanation from the standpoint of someone who plays the game, what is it about, what is the purpose of playing (what are your general objectives), why do you find the game fun, that sort of thing.

Good questions! StarCraft II is a "real time strategy" game, or "RTS", a game where, like chess, you must utilize the resources at your command to achieve victory, but where, not like chess, everything's continuously happening, so reaction time is an issue.

The game can best be described as:

1. Use worker units to harvest resources.
2. Use these resources to build buildings.
3. Use the buildings to build military units.
4. Use the military units to make the enemy explode.

In a sense, that's basically it. The key skill here is multitasking because while you must do the above four things, you must also do them at the same time. Therein lies the difficulty.

A single-player, "story" mode exists, where you play a number of scripted missions against the computer to follow the plight of the Terrans (humans) as they battle their enemies, the Protoss (shiny, futuristic guys) and the Zerg (slimy, insectoid guys).

After that, you take to the internets and go one on one (or two on two, or four on four, etc.) with other players to explode or be exploded!

Oh yeah, let's say I decide I want to play. Can I download the client to the game or do you have to buy it in a store, and what am I looking to pay to try the game?

Blizzard offers a "starter edition" which includes a few of the
single player missions, and limited access to multiplayer, totally free, and downloable here!

If you like that, the full edition is also purchaseable online from the Blizzard website.

Thanks for asking!

pinback wrote:Blizzard offers a "starter edition" which includes a few of the single player missions, and limited access to multiplayer, totally free, and downloable... If you like that, the full edition is also purchaseable online from the Blizzard website.

Thanks for asking!

Now, question. Since I can try it for free, is it fair for me to post my opinions of the game and why I do or do not like it, or should I restrict myself to toadying and only reply if I like it, reserving any negative comments for a different thread?

Please, give us any and all opinions about SC2 that you'd like to express!

pinback wrote:Please, give us any and all opinions about SC2 that you'd like to express!

What I'll do in the other thread is more-or-less a "play by play" description of what I'm thinking.

Since today is September 11, you can consider it like a running newscast of the events of the download of SC2. Once I actually have the capacity to play the game a few times, I think I'll come back here and post a review.

Tdarcos wrote:Now, question. Since I can try it for free, is it fair for me to post my opinions of the game and why I do or do not like it, or should I restrict myself to toadying and only reply if I like it, reserving any negative comments for a different thread?

Hey, dickwad - people were giving you shit in the Crypto thread because you were being WILLFULLY FUCKING RETARDED about things that had to be explained to you SEVEN FUCKING TIMES. Holy fuck, I can't believe you're being snotty about this.

Were you informed that you are going to have to face an enemy that might try to kill you and end your game early in Starcraft 2? Because in the CZK thread that was, to you, unacceptable.

Also, bickering and flaming is a bannable offense. I forgot that one. So, you know. Cool it.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:

Tdarcos wrote:Now, question. Since I can try it for free, is it fair for me to post my opinions of the game and why I do or do not like it, or should I restrict myself to toadying and only reply if I like it, reserving any negative comments for a different thread?

Hey, dickwad - people were giving you shit in the Crypto thread because you were being WILLFULLY FUCKING RETARDED about things that had to be explained to you SEVEN FUCKING TIMES. Holy fuck, I can't believe you're being snotty about this.

Uh, take some time to read Ben's comments where he said that a number of types of negative comments would result in banning, asshole. I wanted to be sure if my comments were negative about the game that they would be acceptable. It could be he simply wanted to hear good comments about the game in this thread; thus I wanted to see, first, if a comment which was negative would be acceptable.

Ice Cream Jonsey wrote:Were you informed that you are going to have to face an enemy that might try to kill you and end your game early in Starcraft 2? Because in the CZK thread that was, to you, unacceptable.

It was said that it is a strategy game similar to chess. In chess, you do lose pieces or you sometimes end up in a draw (stalemate) or a no-win scenario (checkmate).

What I objected to in CZK was that the game was such - and I didn't have the words for it then - that it gave you a very narrow window of survivability within the first ten minutes. Yes, other text adventure games can end up killing you or placing you in a no-win situation or can't get a perfect score, but they aren't on the level of having a near razor-thin margin of error that you can get killed in the first ten minutes of playing and have non-intuitive means of getting out of the problem that keeps causing you to die.

Okay, now I'll speak about Starcraft 2.

I spoke in depth about the size of the application being a bit on the bloated size, a 3 meg bootloader for a 7 gigabyte installer that uses 12 GB to install. I can understand why, with the opening movie, the music and graphics and such I can see where it has to use a lot of resources to do that.

I also spoke about the fact I find it a serious bug that the downloader/installer quitting without so much as an error message if it fails to install all the patches and if it fails part-way through the previously installed patches don't stick and it has to start all over.

I disabled Windows Firewall while it was installing to stop - not necessarily SC2's fault - the chronic and constant re-re-re-re-re-re-requesting if it should unblock the internet connection of the program. Once it was finished patching I re-enabled the firewall; the program itself runs fine without triggering firewall popups.

I found a few things. First, supposedly in certain parts of the game, in addition to the tutorial - very useful - there are supposed to be some movies showing you how to do things, but clicking on 'play movie' causes nothing to happen.

In fact, when I was first playing one of the campaigns I was frustrated because I couldn't figure out how you would complete the campaign, it didn't seem to offer a way to solve the problem. The tutorial made what needs to be dome much clearer.

The graphics are very good. The music is okay, it's not something you'd want to listen to on Top 40 but it's not jarring either. Sound effects are good, especially as to warning you which soldier you picked to go on some action.

I've found the payware aspect of the game a bit offputting. It shows you the option to play competitively and selecting that brings up a window where a 'spinner' (the high-tech looking version of an hourglass cursor) appears as if it's loading content, but I discover (at some point later on in deeper menus) that competitive play requires purchasing the game, Fine, but say that earlier; don't show me stuff that makes me think a part of the game works or is loading content to use it.

Virtually every time you go into anything you might want to use it keeps reminding you with click-thru pop-ups that you can either choose to play the current version or buy the upgrade.

The whole idea, I would think, of the free version is to show me why I should want to cough up $70. And the irritating constant demand for tips is a turn-off, but some freeware application developers find these begging notes get more subscriptions so I understand why. It's one of the reasons I've tended to go with open source applications or buy an inexpensive application if not available open source, the nagware form of free applications leaves me with mixed feelings.

I will probably go back and play the game some more and see how it works and learn a few more things about it. I tried one of the campaigns where you are supposed to protect 3 of your storage bases from being overrun by hungry animals, and my first try wasn't good enough, the first one, the invaders killed everyone then ate the place.

The big thing about it is, it reminds me a lot of the Steam game Total War: Shogun 2 Demo which was $4.95 when I bought it.

Also, though, this sort of genre of game is not one I really go for all that much, I've never been much of a wargame player of this type. I like games like Trade Wars and I'm working on developing one of my own as a web-based application, but this type isn't normally my cup of tea but I will keep an open mind. I think it might be a bit more complicated than I like. I'd rather stick to simpler games like chess. (That's not an oxymoron. Chess is a very simple game to play; it has very fixed rules and explicit ways you have to do certain things. Now, the strategy in chess is what is extremely complicated and you can spend a long time - months to years or even a lifetime - learning.)

Tdarcos wrote:I will probably go back and play the game some more and see how it works and learn a few more things about it. I tried one of the campaigns where you are supposed to protect 3 of your storage bases from being overrun by hungry animals, and my first try wasn't good enough, the first one, the invaders killed everyone then ate the place.

Couple things:

1. This is NOT the campaign, that was a "challenge" mission, optional test missions which are just available to help teach you and hone your understanding of the mechanics of the game. The actual campaign itself starts with a short movie, then takes you to a bar on a desolate planet, where you begin your story. The starter edition you are running allows you to play the first four missions of the full campaign. You will likely find the campaign itself an easier, more forgiving place to start, since the challenge missions already assume you've played quite a bit and are already familiar with the basics of the game.

2. The hungry animals are called "Zerg", just in case anyone asks.

pinback wrote:2. The hungry animals are called "Zerg", just in case anyone asks.

Not any more, they're not. They're now "hungry animals."