9 ms·
I keep my fingers crossed for the revival of the StarCraft franchise. I grew up with the game, and it's kinda sad to see the current state of SC2: old bugs, new
by rollcat 3y ago
I keep my fingers crossed for the revival of the StarCraft franchise. I grew up with the game, and it's kinda sad to see the current state of SC2: old bugs, new bugs, community trying to take over the processes but having a very bumpy ride, opaque decision making (de-facto spokespersons/community figures under muddy NDAs), and unfortunately all our 2010 fears (no local/LAN play!) coming true, when server outages are hitting during in-person tournaments.
SC2 is still the best RTS there is. Immortal, Stormgate, and ZeroSpace are all showing great promise, but none of these is even at the public alpha stage. So SC2, with all of its problems, it is.
- tonyhart7 3y agoAge of Empire is thriving under microsoft, its not biggest esports out there but the game is pretty stable and receiving seemingly endless content updates I expect starcraft would be the same, maybe cant go back to it former glory but atleast it would be alive especially if make it to gamepass
- fphhotchips 3y agoNot only is AoEII doing really well under Microsoft, it's doing so despite taking a couple of goes to get it right in the modern era. Most other companies would have given up when HD edition got a bit of a middling response.
- biomcgary 3y agoI really wish they would update Rise of Nations, which MS also published. Obviously not as popular, but I loved the tech tree and the territory system.
- eric-hu 3y agoAs a StarCraft 2 fan, I’m actually quite happy with the current game balance. The last two rounds of balance patches from the community were far better for the playability and fun of the game. It was alarming when Blizzard cut funding for GSL and it looked like the Korean scene was practically done, but Afreeca and the community pulled together and kept that prize pool interesting enough for the Korean pros.
- rollcat 3y agoI'm glad the age of proxy void rays and queen walks is gone, but there's a lot to be desired from the process. My main grievance is that the community members who form the balance council are under some insane NDA, they're afraid of even discussing what is in the NDA, let alone what they're working on. You end up with a design by committee with minimal community input, which feeds the cycle back into balance whine shitposts and YT reaction videos. It's arguably better than nothing, but far from healthy. I miss David Kim.
- gus_massa 3y agoThe description of the DNA by Harstem in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYxQ9qfftk8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYxQ9qfftk8 doesn't sound that insane.
- scrlk 3y agoGlad to hear the GSL and pro scene still lives on. 2011-12 SC2 was the first esport that I followed. Plenty of good memories from those days, like the GSL final with the Archon toilet.
- j4_hnews 3y agoI rediscovered Brood War during Covid (free to play). 99% of matchups I lost. But there was one 4+ hour 1v1 marathon on a huge map. Lost that one too but what an incredible game. So many comebacks on both sides. So close. Matching skills is key to a GG.
- rollcat 3y agoBrood War is incredibly tough for newcomers. Skill-wise, the mid-F rank (barely above the rock bottom) is the equivalent of SC2's low diamond (roughly middle of the playerbase) - people are either this good, or drop out. If you're looking for a more fair match, and don't mind SC2 being a very different game, you should give it a try. If you can max out on literally anything before 15:00 and a-move your opponent, you will probably get a 50% winrate.
- chrisco255 3y agoSC2's matching engine and ladder is designed to generate ~50% win rates among players of all skill levels.
- rollcat 3y agoSame for BW, same for chess, that's basically how ELO/MMR works. The very bottom (and the very top) of the ladder of course have a skew, there are people who are so bad (or so good) that the ladder can't find anyone worse (better) than them and get less than (or more than) 50% winrate. It's just that the skill floor for BW is so damn high.
- tacocataco 3y agoBrood war path finding can be rough to adjust to, even if you played SC2. I wish star craft had a "scatter" button to space out your units like command and conquer has (its been a decade but I think the button is X). Maybe even some formation options to avoid everyone packing in a tight ball where the move command is issued. AOE is so lethal in SC I think it hurts the gameplay. Its a safety issue as well. Pro terrans often have wrist issues from splitting their units. With the other races it isn't as crucial, but still an issue.
- artursapek 3y agoAge of Empires has been very well maintained, even restored. It has a pretty large player base 20 years after release. It would be cool to see the same happen with Starcraft
- cool_dude85 3y agoGood luck to SC2. I hope they're smart enough not to touch SCBW and leave it as is.
- gigatexal 3y agoThe SC2 professional scene is doing really well I think. Lots of games being played at the highest levels. And tons of content for it on YouTube with some of the best play by play commentators out there. I really enjoy that. What deep pocketed Microsoft could do is really up the ante and make the prize money for tournaments of say Quake (they own ID) or SC2 and others really high and attract even more buzz etc etc. I just hope these games and IP don’t just become afterthoughts. Will we get a demonic hell on earth new doom game? Will we get an even more hellish Diablo game? Will we get a SC3? With all these game studios under one roof I wonder how many games will get axed in the pursuit of “synergies”?
- MobileVet 3y agoRTS is such a great genre. I know everyone loved StarCraft but I enjoyed Warcraft II and 3 more… along with C&C, Red Alert and Age of Empires. Not sure why. Warcraft 3 was a great balance between micro and macro management due to the Hero concept. SC always just felt like a game of numbers… but I am sure I just wasn’t as experienced. Regardless I would love it if the genre stayed alive and I am glad Age is continually updated and stable.
- imbnwa 3y agoAh, sweet memories of Helm's Deep on WC3 Bnet
- EstesPark 3y agoWow, I completely forgot about Red Alert. That game was a blast!
- bavell 3y agoChew on this!! Awaiting orders. Affirmative! What a gem.
- MobileVet 3y agoRight? And that soundtrack! I could listen to Hell March without the game. They actually released the full soundtrack as a CD.
- biomcgary 3y agoI recently found an open source version that has been fun (https://www.openra.net/ https://www.openra.net/).
- bigboy12 3y agoMs bought Nokia - out of business Ms bought Skype - useless as Zoom won the Covid era MS bought Lynda.com- who? MS bought LinkedIn- does anyone pay $90 a month to use it? MS bought Danger - the best tactical keyboard mobile phone. DEAD MS bought Halo vr system a $3509 pos that never got an update Ms buys stuff , never making stuff.
- chrisco255 3y agoAgreed, an SC3 would be potentially awesome. And I've always thought it would be interesting if they built a StarCraft MMO.
- tacocataco 3y agoThat Starcraft ghost seemed like a cool concept. Also I wonder why "World of starcraft" never happened. Terran would play like kinda like Planetside, zerg could play like the alien team in Natural Selection, protoss like the predator in the AVP games.
- deprecative 3y agoMy assumption for why "World of X" games didn't pan out under ActiBlizz was because Project Titan destroyed all appetite for other MMO games at Blizzard. You've got the MMO team on WoW. Are you going to split that team up to go work on MMOs for Starcraft or Diablo?
- seabird 3y agoI love RTS games, but they're probably never going to achieve the level of success they have in the past. You can still make them, but like arena shooters, movement shooters, and fighting games, they really are from a different era that modern players struggle to come to terms with, and it's hard to justify risking putting a lot of money behind them. It's a shame, because I love all of these genres, but I wouldn't bet the farm on them. There's always a chance and I hold onto hope. Baldur's Gate 3 is a CRPG with a budget way beyond what I would ever be comfortable risking on a genre that has been fairly niche in the overall video game landscape for 15+ years, and it paid off massively. However, being realistic, BG3 is a game that is strong regardless of your skill level and the other genres I've mentioned struggle with that.
- endorphine 3y ago> love RTS games, but they're probably never going to achieve the level of success they have in the past. You can still make them, but like arena shooters, movement shooters, and fighting games, they really are from a different era that modern players struggle to come to terms with Interesting take. Why do you think that is? They just fallen out of fashion or something else?
- chongli 3y agoNot the GP but I’ll give my take: The long term value for an RTS is with the multiplayer. The problem is that the games are incredibly demanding to play. It takes a lot of practice and experience to get good enough to get off the “bottom rung” of the online ladder, just to be able to reach close to a 50% win rate. Many gamers find this too stressful to deal with. They end up quitting the game and moving on to something else. This causes the “bottom rung” to move up in skill, as the weakest players leave. Since winning in these games is zero-sum it gets harder and harder to win the more weak players leave. Eventually only the most dedicated players remain, making it extremely difficult for new players to break onto the scene. The other aspect to RTS games, the single player campaign, takes a lot of effort for the developers and designers to build. Unfortunately it has very little staying power. People play through the story maybe once with each faction and then either try out multiplayer or move on to a different game.