As posted by Karune (Blizzard Community Manager)


As mentioned in previous conversations, the development team is working extremely hard on the single player campaign, which we will be talking in more detail about at a later time. In the meantime, questions will be ‘light’ over the next couple of batches, to give the Dev Team ample time to work on their latest design challenges. There are also many preparations being made for both the Games Convention coming up in Leipzig, as well as BlizzCon, to make sure the StarCraft II community definitely gets their feed of info. Nonetheless, in this batch we were able to talk a bit more with Dustin and our balance designer to look into the current Zerg versus Zerg match up towards the end of our Q&A. Enjoy!




StarCraft II Q&A Batch 43


1) What happens if a Nullifier targets a Colossus with the Anti-Gravity ability?
(garmgarf battle.net)

When Anti-Gravity is used upon a Colossus, the Colossus will still be immobilized and lifted up, which will still allow it to be hit by units that can attack air targets. Colossi will not be able to shoot while under the effect of Anti-Gravity.

2) How many critters will there be available and will they have attack animations? (SatanicLaser battle.net)

There will be critters, but there have not been any detailed discussions yet about their attack animations. On that note, there is a possibility that BlizzCon panels may fill the community in a bit more on what type of critters there will be.

3) Can the Infestor infest any building, or only specific ones, such as Barracks or Gateways, if the Protoss can be infested? (Son_Of_Korhal Battle.net)

This is actually a mechanic they are currently testing quite a bit. It is undecided if the Infestor will be able to infest Protoss or Zerg buildings, as there are gameplay and lore reasons which support many different options. Either way, at the end of the day, the development team will choose an option that will be balanced and fun in terms of gameplay for multiplayer.

4) What units are currently undergoing major art changes? (starcraft2forum.org)

There are several artistic revisions every week, though the two newest units to get some artistic updates are the Nomad and the Stalker. The Terran Nomad is getting a complete artistic redesign from any versions the community has seen thus far. Furthermore, the Protoss Stalker is also being updated to look more similar to the concept art piece as seen here: http://starcraft2.com/art.xml?s=6

5) How do Zerg vs Zerg games play out in SC2? Is it still mostly a battle of mutalisks and zerglings or have the new units changed things around? Ideas (teamliquid.net)

ZvZ (Zerg vesus Zerg)matchup usually opens up in 2 different ways, Zerglings or Roaches. Aggressive players can use Zerglings mobility to take control of the early game, whereas going Roaches is more of a defensive strategy. Zergling vs. Roach relationship is such that for cost, Zerglings wins out in the open, Roaches win at chokes, but in mid/late games when numbers are greater, Roaches can stand up to or even beat Zerglings for cost out in the open. Hydralisks dont have much use in ZvZ early game, as they are more of an anti air unit in StarCraft II.

The tier 2 battle continues with Banelings that can dominate Zerglings, but with micro, Zerglings can actually come out ahead in Zergling vs. Baneling battles. Similarly, Lurkers counter Roaches for cost, but Roaches have the mobility advantage. Mutaliks counter Zerglings/Roaches since these units cant hit air. Whats different in StarCraft II is that Hydralisks counter Mutalisks extremely well, meaning something like Roach/Hydralisk combo can stand up to the classic Zergling/Mutalisk combo. Also, another great way to fight vs. mass Mutalisks is to tech to infestation pit (same tech level as the Spire), and make Corruptors or Infestors. Infestors have the disease ability that is great for fighting vs. units that clump really well such as the Mutalisk, and Corruptors are Zergs anti air air unit.

Due to the fast pace of the ZvZ game, most games dont end up in tier 3, but ultralisks, with their cleave attack, or swarm guardians that use swarms to soak up a lot of ground vs. ground damage are great options if the game does happen to go into tier 3.

Overall, StarCraft II has a variety of options even in a mirror match such as Zerg vs. Zerg. Players can use different unit compositions to counter the classic Zergling/Mutalisk strategy that is a still powerful but not the only option.

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A sign that Bashiok is starting to lean towards the “Karune”-way of bringing life to the Diablo 3 General Discussions community, but this one is from an over-bumped thread that caught Bashiok’s attention.
BTW for those who do not, Bashiok is the Community Manager for Diablo 3






Bashiok’s First (Unofficial) Diablo 3 Q&A

1. As we all know, one of the lead developers is Leonard Boyarsky. He is well known for working on such projects as: Fallout and Arcanum. May we suppose, that the world map in D3 will look like the one from Fallout or Arcanum so we will travel through it in a real time and encounter monsters?

Act transitions haven’t really been discussed externally. It would be cool to have something a bit more engaging; however, I think the Diablo II style zoom-zoom to the next act …worked.

2. Will there be a risk of falling into the abyss or off the bridge being knocked or pushed by the monster?

No. Unless it’s part of a special event or something.

3. Would it be possible to filter games by any installed game mod if there will be an Open Battle.Net in D3?

We’ve never supported and don’t intend to support “mods” for Diablo II or III.

4. Its clearly understandable that there will be some forest landscapes (like jungles around Kurast) in D3. Will the forest landscapes reflect the atmosphere of an ancient, deep and sombre forest? Or there will be just pre-made paths, like in Diablo II?

We haven’t announced/shown any locations beyond those on the website.


5. In the gameplay movie we saw a final battle with a boss, where with his brutal strength he bit the player’s head off. Can such situation be possible while playing Diablo 3? For e.g.: after reaching some breakpoint (critical point) in character’s health, the boss smashes the hero with some unique ability?

That’s what we would like to do. We’d like it that when a player dies to a boss we may have a special/random event or death animation specific to that boss. So if you’re going to die or have died to a boss, there’s a random chance that you’ll see something other than a normal death. That’s the dream any way.

6. Will there be the alternation between day and night? If so, will it influence the game in some way? E.g. different mobs at night and day (some mobs that can be met only during day/night etc), character’s skills or weapon will gain additional mods (to enhance attack and damage etc)?

Not that I know of.


7. Will it be possible to see the total bonuses given by the weapons, armor, etc on the screen without calculating them manually? E.g. will there be any screen that will show that all your stuff gives +20 to str and 5 to dex etc

The UI is still under some design revision, but currently in Diablo III you can open your character sheet, and when mousing over a stat it lists what your total stat is and then breaks it down to base stat plus any modification. So for instance Vitality may list: “24 (22+2)” if you’ve got something giving you +2 to Vitality.

That’s the current design any how, but I don’t see any reason for it to change.

8. Which question would you like to ask yourself and then answer? :)

Q: What’s your favorite thing about playing Diablo III right now?
A: Blood sprays. They never get old. Zombies seem to just be chock full of the stuff.

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IGN: What do you do as the lead world designer, and what have you worked on in the past in that respect?

Leonard Boyarsky: As lead world designer I’m responsible for the lore of the game, the history, the story. I work with a quest designer named Michael Chu, who’s had a lot of experience in the RPG industry. We make sure that through the quests the story’s being conveyed to the player. We also work very closely with the art department to make sure - y’know, they’ll come to us and say to us ‘what’s going on with this civilisation or that civilisation, what’s the history?’ Because there’s a lot of ruins and building up on cities that have been around for a long time. So, building a world – the way we’re building this world – from the ground up and with a lot of history, really informs the art. And it’s a back and forth thing too, the artists will sometimes come up with really cool concepts and we’ll work that back into the lore. So that’s basically what we do there.

I started out as just an artist, and after that I was the art director on Fallout, where I was more the creative director, and really fleshed out that world in terms of the feeling of the world, the mood of the world, and then I progressed on that project to designer, and then, before leaving to start my own company, we designed Fallout 2. And then I started my own company with a couple of guys called Troika, and we made Arcanum and Vampire. I did way too many jobs on those games, from world design to animation, to texturing, to drawing, to concepting, to producing, but my love has always been the world creation part of it… and you’ve really got to choose. If you want to do it well you’ve got to pick your specialty, but it’s really great because I get to work with art directors like Brian [Morrisroe]… he’s really fantastic, and he wants to hear [what other people have to say]. Sometimes artists really just want to go in their own direction, but at Blizzard they’re really into the back and forth. Everybody has good ideas, so it’s been a really great experience.

read the full, 2-page interview here

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