I just realized that if the system to unlock new units is the same from WoL (every new mission unlocks a new unit) these achievements don't show us all the units we are going to unlock. From what I've seen so far it looks like each mission will unlock a unit, and the ones we know for sure are:
Zergling, Baneling, Roach, Hydra, Aberration (I've seen them in a trailer or sometthing like that). Those make five units.
If we add the ones that are most likely to be unlocked: Swarm Host, Ultralisk, Mutalisk, Viper, Corruptor, Brood Lord. We have 11.
If Queens need to be unlocked like all the other units then we have 12. From the achievements I think the Virophage and Nydus Worms may be unlocked as well, so they are 14 now. Any idea of what the others could be? Kerrigan will have a special ability to call a Leviathan so it isn't unlocked by any specififc mission.
Practically, behind the plastic, HotS is the same as in WoL, that's the truth. The only difference is that they changed money for mutagen, mixing both Swann and Stetmann to make Abathur. While I can accept that you receive a new unit type per mission, and that will be pretty much so with the Protoss expansion, I can't say the same for the unit upgrade system nor Kerrigan's, in which, if you look it closely, is kind of the same as Dawn of War 2, but Blizzard only removed the inventory. The same applies for Izsha, I fear, as she'll be a tentacled Matt Horner.
That, the fact Stukov's alive and infested and not explained how he ended in Kerrigan's hands and the fact the leaked ending from years is real, will make Heart of the Swarm probably the worse story ever told by Blizzard, which only matches that of Diablo III. The romance between Kerrigan and Raynor, the Viking ripped apart, it's all pointing to a Twilight-like story, in which absurds occur and nothing makes sense at all and there's a happy ending, something Blizzard NEVER did before Warcraft III was released.
Sorry to be so negative, but I'm afraid that's how the train will head out. And wreck.
Nah, we're gonna have to wait until HotS comes out. Or LotV, we don't know if we'll actually face a hybrid base on the Stukov missions or if it'll be just creatures popping out of Terran vats.
Funny, Mozie, I honestly thought the next WTE would be 'Protoss Settlement' or something like that, and this one would be WTE 117. After all, we done Zerg Base, Terran Base, Infested Terran Base, so Protoss is what's left, I think.
Oh, well, you can't always get what you want, I suppose.
Anyways, I inspired this small, particular work on Bulletstorm, the FPS I came to like. It mixed majestic background and brutal action in a manner rarely seen in a game of such genre (But then, it came from the same guy who made Gears of War).
Normally I wouldn't ask such a noobie question like this, for I've grown self-sufficient in terraining terms, but the situation has come to a point where I have to make this one particular question, that may affect the workflow of my project entirely or at least a part of it.
I say this because this has everything to do with a map that I'm making: A Xel'Naga space station, with all those elements seen in the Maw of the Void mission in Wings of Liberty. My problem is not making the station by itself, the problem is exactly it's core component: It's style.
How's it made? How do you define it as truly alien, and not something blatanty stripped off a Terran or Protoss station? Is it curved or geometric? How to do it?
I say this because I've done an attempt at a Xel'Naga station, and it turned out to be as awful as it could get. In my standards at least.
Will be most appreciated if someone could help me at this one single doubt.
I've decided to go on the most basical of ways possible, kinda reminding people of the start of Wings of Liberty and the thrill of fighting through Mar Sara.
Some things in here are not copies, but rather a tribute to EvindL and his campaign, particularly the stronghold defense map, which I consider the most well worked of all.
Isn't this a bug? I thought so anyway, and now i see Telt with blizzard and snowfall doodads that i don't have...
No, it's more for marketing strategy. Blizzard wouldn't just unleash EVERYTHING for a mere Beta editor, especially when March is virtually close. I know they have A LOT of features reserved for the terrainer breed.
I do agree, I guess. I frequent the map art thread at TeamLiquid, and most of what's there is splendid. What I meant to say that was that, although it's cool to ladder on good-looking maps, campaigns benefit even more because the aesthetics help immerse you in the story. You are in other words enhancing the experience on more than a superficial level.
Campaigns give you more room too. Melee maps tend to be more open, and too many doodads can affect gameplay. So the stuff you see here isn't likely to show up in a melee map. Even the guys in the map art thread on Liquid work within these boundaries.
I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to create a campaign. But I am glad I did it, even though it will never be played as much as Nexus Wars. As I look through this thread, I get a ton of inspiration for my next campaign.
But this also doesn't mean Melee maps have to be necessarily empty. Indeed, there are machines that just aren't meant to handle StarCraft II, but when you make a map, you have to consider the eternal clash of two factors: Accessibility X Immersion. A map must be clean enough to easily read but must also have that little spice that can make players remember that map.
So far the only official map that managed such so was the Protoss Station in HotS. It's clean, but it's also riddled with details and it's by far the most worked map in the Melee area.
I liked those images of yours. They all seem pretty chaotic, different and misleading, like if you were in a dream or something (Particularly the Terran air platform with ice on it.). I particularly like the Protoss doodads, they catch up the style pretty well, although I oughta criticize those korhal buildings. The kinda lack normal mapping of a sort. Makes things hard to kitbash in a later future.
Obviously. If there is one thing Blizzard hasn't been doing (Yet) is making their cutscenes look ridiculous in a Japanese way. They're too concerned with realism that they ultimately fail at it.
Well, I was talking more about the style than the content, but I still disagree. Not that I am much of a Bay expert (I am no more a fan than you), but from what I remember, his action scenes are a bit more lively, and somewhat less heavy, thematically speaking (there is often an undercurrent of humor or lightheartedness). The HOTS cinematic is, as you say, "hopeless", but I don't find that to be a fitting characteristic of Bay's scenes. I don't really see the problem. It's Zerg invading Korhal, and I think Blizzard does that idea justice. How else should that have been conveyed?
For instance, the Leviathan suddenly glimpsed through the cockpit window, is a truly terrifying image. As is the fact that it is so large that we can only catch glimpses of it. The entire scene has an extremely dark tone, one that reeks of... futility. I don't think I've seen such a dark scene in a Michael Bay film.
I'm not sure Michael Bay has monopoly on fantastic action scenes, but I guess that's all in the eye of the beholder. I also wonder how "Mengsk's statue falling" is Bay-esque, or why the Viking should stop moving while transforming. I don't think I've seen a falling Battlecruiser in a Bay film.
Really? Haven't you seen 'Dark Side of the Moon' (HAD to watch it, thanks to my parents... ¬¬)? The invasion of Chicago? Buildings falling, giant monsters like a huge squid thing and armies falling as their efforts are useless against the Zerg/Decepticon army? Except, of course there is no humor, but the action in itself, the screenplaying, coupled with the one-liners, is what it gets so close to it. I mean, "Vengeance will be mine."? That's just the beginning of it, I tell you.
Yes, there is no humor because Blizzard is doing a feeble attempt at making things the most serious as possible. But in the end, in how badly executed the scenes are executed is what it makes pathetic, laughable, hilarious and not so serious. Was that way with Diablo III, it will be with HotS and LotV.
Then, the idea of invading Korhal is somewhat about the same as in the movie, just modified so people can't scream MICHAEL BAY in it. Look behind the plasticity of the graphics and action, and all you'll find is simple, plain, uninteresting plot so far. Same thing for the campaign.
/edit By the way, the only humor scene was the Wilhelm scream. Which practically done it for the video. Just noting.
Michael Bay? Not sure I agree with that. Bay's editing is typically very fast, with the action often hard to penetrate, particularly in Transformers. The shots in the cinematic are very long and wide, making it easy to see what's going on.
You doubt so? Vikings moving while transforming, explosions everywhere, a dumbass marine just standing waiting to be stomped, an invasion which seems hopeless, particularly with Mengsk's statue falling and the Battlecruiser crashing in the background... You sure it's not Michael Bay style, even with all evidence suggesting so (Without the shaking camera idiocy)?
Truth is, Blizzard is more interested in making more and more explosions for the cutscenes and multiplayer than the characters and history itself altogether. Otherwise, the Prophecy bull in Wings of Liberty would be pulled off the right way, not the "Kerrigan must live for the sake of the franchise" style.
0
@SoulFilcher: Go
'Let's hope I'm wrong', isn't it what you said?
0
Practically, behind the plastic, HotS is the same as in WoL, that's the truth. The only difference is that they changed money for mutagen, mixing both Swann and Stetmann to make Abathur. While I can accept that you receive a new unit type per mission, and that will be pretty much so with the Protoss expansion, I can't say the same for the unit upgrade system nor Kerrigan's, in which, if you look it closely, is kind of the same as Dawn of War 2, but Blizzard only removed the inventory. The same applies for Izsha, I fear, as she'll be a tentacled Matt Horner.
That, the fact Stukov's alive and infested and not explained how he ended in Kerrigan's hands and the fact the leaked ending from years is real, will make Heart of the Swarm probably the worse story ever told by Blizzard, which only matches that of Diablo III. The romance between Kerrigan and Raynor, the Viking ripped apart, it's all pointing to a Twilight-like story, in which absurds occur and nothing makes sense at all and there's a happy ending, something Blizzard NEVER did before Warcraft III was released.
Sorry to be so negative, but I'm afraid that's how the train will head out. And wreck.
0
@SGTMeowmers9: Go
Nah, we're gonna have to wait until HotS comes out. Or LotV, we don't know if we'll actually face a hybrid base on the Stukov missions or if it'll be just creatures popping out of Terran vats.
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@Mozared: Go
Funny, Mozie, I honestly thought the next WTE would be 'Protoss Settlement' or something like that, and this one would be WTE 117. After all, we done Zerg Base, Terran Base, Infested Terran Base, so Protoss is what's left, I think.
Oh, well, you can't always get what you want, I suppose.
Anyways, I inspired this small, particular work on Bulletstorm, the FPS I came to like. It mixed majestic background and brutal action in a manner rarely seen in a game of such genre (But then, it came from the same guy who made Gears of War).
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@Cybrok: Go
I already tried that, but it's no hope. It's just too large, and scaling it down to make it 'flyable' just makes it ugly.
No, it's gotta be the hard way, one way or another.
/edit Especially with those goddamn supply tanks included.
0
Normally I wouldn't ask such a noobie question like this, for I've grown self-sufficient in terraining terms, but the situation has come to a point where I have to make this one particular question, that may affect the workflow of my project entirely or at least a part of it.
I say this because this has everything to do with a map that I'm making: A Xel'Naga space station, with all those elements seen in the Maw of the Void mission in Wings of Liberty. My problem is not making the station by itself, the problem is exactly it's core component: It's style.
How's it made? How do you define it as truly alien, and not something blatanty stripped off a Terran or Protoss station? Is it curved or geometric? How to do it?
I say this because I've done an attempt at a Xel'Naga station, and it turned out to be as awful as it could get. In my standards at least.
Will be most appreciated if someone could help me at this one single doubt.
0
I've decided to go on the most basical of ways possible, kinda reminding people of the start of Wings of Liberty and the thrill of fighting through Mar Sara.
Some things in here are not copies, but rather a tribute to EvindL and his campaign, particularly the stronghold defense map, which I consider the most well worked of all.
0
No, it's more for marketing strategy. Blizzard wouldn't just unleash EVERYTHING for a mere Beta editor, especially when March is virtually close. I know they have A LOT of features reserved for the terrainer breed.
But this also doesn't mean Melee maps have to be necessarily empty. Indeed, there are machines that just aren't meant to handle StarCraft II, but when you make a map, you have to consider the eternal clash of two factors: Accessibility X Immersion. A map must be clean enough to easily read but must also have that little spice that can make players remember that map.
So far the only official map that managed such so was the Protoss Station in HotS. It's clean, but it's also riddled with details and it's by far the most worked map in the Melee area.
0
@Telthalion: Go
I liked those images of yours. They all seem pretty chaotic, different and misleading, like if you were in a dream or something (Particularly the Terran air platform with ice on it.). I particularly like the Protoss doodads, they catch up the style pretty well, although I oughta criticize those korhal buildings. The kinda lack normal mapping of a sort. Makes things hard to kitbash in a later future.
Oh, talking about kitbashes...
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I hope you don't find this too cluttered. You'd be surprised how the Zerg manage to fit in so tight spaces...
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@SoulFilcher: Go
Obviously. If there is one thing Blizzard hasn't been doing (Yet) is making their cutscenes look ridiculous in a Japanese way. They're too concerned with realism that they ultimately fail at it.
0
@EivindL: Go
Really? Haven't you seen 'Dark Side of the Moon' (HAD to watch it, thanks to my parents... ¬¬)? The invasion of Chicago? Buildings falling, giant monsters like a huge squid thing and armies falling as their efforts are useless against the Zerg/Decepticon army? Except, of course there is no humor, but the action in itself, the screenplaying, coupled with the one-liners, is what it gets so close to it. I mean, "Vengeance will be mine."? That's just the beginning of it, I tell you.
Yes, there is no humor because Blizzard is doing a feeble attempt at making things the most serious as possible. But in the end, in how badly executed the scenes are executed is what it makes pathetic, laughable, hilarious and not so serious. Was that way with Diablo III, it will be with HotS and LotV.
Then, the idea of invading Korhal is somewhat about the same as in the movie, just modified so people can't scream MICHAEL BAY in it. Look behind the plasticity of the graphics and action, and all you'll find is simple, plain, uninteresting plot so far. Same thing for the campaign.
/edit By the way, the only humor scene was the Wilhelm scream. Which practically done it for the video. Just noting.
0
@SGTMeowmers9: Go
It's gotta be. Otherwise he reduced himself to the miserable class of blind, suck-loving fanboys...
0
@EivindL: Go
You doubt so? Vikings moving while transforming, explosions everywhere, a dumbass marine just standing waiting to be stomped, an invasion which seems hopeless, particularly with Mengsk's statue falling and the Battlecruiser crashing in the background... You sure it's not Michael Bay style, even with all evidence suggesting so (Without the shaking camera idiocy)?
Truth is, Blizzard is more interested in making more and more explosions for the cutscenes and multiplayer than the characters and history itself altogether. Otherwise, the Prophecy bull in Wings of Liberty would be pulled off the right way, not the "Kerrigan must live for the sake of the franchise" style.
0
I gotta be honest. I didn't like this teaser. Not one bit.
- The one-liners are typical of comic book villains and Joel Schumacher movies (Batman and Robin, remember?).
- The Wilhelm Scream ruined the scene.
- The action and battles sound much more like Michael Bay movies these days.
- It practically says the game's story will be just this: Kerrigan invades Korhal, kills Mengsk then leaves with her spiky fluffy ponies. The End.
Serious, I think this is the WORST cinematic I've seen out of Blizzard so far... Other than Diablo's battle with the Archangel in Diablo III.