sc2armory’s BlizzCon 2009 Starcraft 2 QA

Posted by Lipton on August 31st, 2009 filed in StarCraft News

sc2armory.com will be posting up a series of 4 QA sessions they had with the devs during BlizzCon 2009.

3 of the batches will be covering each race in Starcraft 2, the current one is a more general Q&A. Be sure to check out SC2armory.com for the rest of the batches.

1 - When a ranged infantry unit like a Marine or Hydralisk is attacked by a melee unit, or simply engages another unit at point-blank range, do they enter hand-to-hand combat?

No, the ranged units do not have an alternate melee attack. However in one of the Battle Reports you will notice a Hydralisk destroying a buildings with its claws. According to Dustin Browder, this is simply an alternate killing animation when attacking at close range. So to answer your question, there is not an alternate melee attack but there may be an alternate animation for it.

2 - Are there any other methods to stopping or preventing a nuke other then killing the Ghost or silo before it hits?

Sadly no. The nuke is supposed to install fear in a player and get that thinking of "Oh no, where is that nuke going to hit and where is that Ghost located?". If you give the player more options of disabling a nuke, it takes away that fear and de-specializes the Ghost in some way.

3 - When you play against the computer rather than a human player, does the computer know your location and base immediately?

No it does not. The AI in Starcraft 2 is far more advanced and superior to that of its counter-part, SC1 and WC3. According to Dustin Browder, the computer player does not even know your race and must scout with a unit before determining the race and the location.

4 - Did the new doodads, towers, rocks, and tall grass really effect the way the game was played?

Why yes it does. In some of the maps you had 3 entrances but 2 were blocked off be destructible rocks. If you did not watch those chokes or build up defenses, your enemies will slip by and attack your mineral line directly. This happened to me on a few occasions until I got use to the fact that there are multiple attack points this time around.

The same idea applies to watch towers and tall grass. The watch towers are extremely useful in determining which direction an enemies army is heading and if you are even able to withstand the attack. And all it takes is a single Zergling or Marine to use it.

The tall grass personally was my favorite, especially as Zerg. Since most players would use the tall grass to hide their units and ambush, you can do the same by burrowing your units behind or within the grass, and then waiting for the enemy units to try and do the same.

5 - Will every mission in the campaign involve the Terran in some way? Or will it be diversified with maybe a Zeratul Protoss level or a Kerrigan Zerg level.

The campaign will consist of only 30ish Terran related missions. However there will be one mission that acts as a "Protoss mini-campaign". What this means is that the Protoss mission will be related to the Protoss Campaign elements, in the manner of how Terran use credits and technology, the Protoss will use their equivalent. What that equivalent is, I cannot say. And for you Zerg fans, there will be no Zerg playtime within the campaign (at this time).

6 - Are almost all games decided in the early round?

If your a good player, then yes, lol. If you can constantly harass and pressure your enemy, you can beat them in under 15 minutes. However, if your noobs and just turtle and tech, well then the game could go on for a good 30+ minutes.

7 - How do high yield minerals compare to regular minerals and should they be a priority?

They aren't a high priority and a must have on every map. Additionally, they aren't that useful in early game since they are blocked off by destructible rocks. However, once you get to mid/late game they can be a extremely great source of income and can be used to mass units that only require minerals. Vespene in late game is still hard to obtain and is sparce.

8 - Is it true that in order to install the game on your PC, you need to have a Battle.net account first?

Yes this is true. To install the game you must have a Battle.net account and must connect to the internet upon installation.

source - sc2armory.com

Follow Starfeeder and sc2armory on twitter