Starcraft 2 Beta is now live

[Slurktan]

I'm not sure I'd call beta the home stretch yet; between the single campaign being released and the way Frozen Throne changed over the course of the beta (massively changing the paradigms from plain Warcraft 3), we could have quite a wait going.

SP3's installed, so I'll re-run the opt-in, and hope for the next round. None of my friends have mentioned getting in yet, so I'll be living vicariously mostly through this thread.

Where do you opt in?

[jurble]

If anyone wants to PM me their beta key, go right ahead...

there is no beta key, it automatically shows up in your battle.net account.

[Poobah]

Copy paste from my post on another forum, except I changed all the pictures to links.

Just had a fun match against a Zerg player, also some features of the replay viewer on display here :

An eary fight against some Roaches, my boys in blue send them running ;) Note that you can even see where people are clicking, what they are selecting, etc.

This forum doesn't allow images in posts, how annoying

A pair of Phoenixes playing Corsair with these Overlords. Unfortunately the queen shows up to shoot them down. Solution? Lift the queen into the air so we can shoot her, of course!

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A larger battle. Immortals are really strong against tougher ground units like roaches (though vulnerable to being swarmed by little buggers like zerglings). With the zealots to stand on the front line they rip the zerg ground forces apart while my Phoenixes deal with the Mutas and then start getting torn apart by the nasty Corruptors (the other zerg fliers you can see there, they have quite a lot of health and attack air only, their bonuses against armoured seem to suggest they are for owning carriers, void rays, battlecruisers and suchlike, but they are strong against all air units). My Stalkers chase the Corruptors off though and I move on.

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Zerg retaliated against my base, but a mixed force of Stalkers and Phoenixes manages does well, though those Corruptors are really hating on my Phoenixes.

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He has how many minerals? :o

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I attack through his back door and his air stuff takes out my Phoenixes and few Stalkers, leaving me with no anti-air to fight those mutas, at least not with this attack force. Unfortunately I'm just about to discover exactly how strong Immortals are against buildings and other armoured stuff, especially with +2 attack...

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Om Nom Nom...

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Nom Nom.

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Oh, and the new Protoss macro mechanic on display. It makes a building operate 50% faster, and is cast from a nexus. IIRC it lasts for 30 seconds, long enough to permanently have one copy of the spell up on a building per nexus as the nexus regenerates about the energy cost of it in that time.

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[denstorebog]

My God, this game is ugly.

I still want to play it though.

[PhelanArcetus]

No Mac beta at this time; whether it's due to wanting to limit support requirements while doing balance testing or because the Mac version isn't ready I'm not sure.

Opt-In is on the battle.net site; basically, log into your account and manage beta settings. Instead of just putting your email into a lottery, you have to download and run an app that tells them your system settings, so Blizzard can a) ensure you're using adequate hardware/software and B) get some breadth of supported hardware/software in their tests. At least in theory.

He has how many minerals? Too many; he's not spending them fast enough, it looks like. Either he's losing a lot of overlords or forgetting to build more (maybe assuming Warcraft 3-style upkeep?).

[Poobah]

My God, this game is ugly.

I still want to play it though.

Well I'm playing with the graphics all on the lowest setting because Im on a crappy laptop while I'm at university. The big pc is at home.

[Spectralist]

(maybe assuming Warcraft 3-style upkeep?).

There's no upkeep system.

I've taken a couple 3d images that can be cross-viewed for anyone familiar with the technique. Unfortunately nVidia's hotkey for taking 3d screen shots is alt-f1 and alt shows the health bars. I was going to take a shot of a few carriers going wild but all the health bars on the interceptors makes it impossible to see anything.

The game seems much faster paced than SC1. I think my longest game so far has been 18 minutes. Even on the newbie maps that have rubble blocking the paths into the starting base locations that you have to destroy to get through.

[PhelanArcetus]

Yeah, that was just a theory as to why the guy didn't have more control; him thinking the upkeep mechanic exists. Most likely it was just a matter of him being overwhelmed and not spending his resources (unless all his overlords were getting ganked so he couldn't accumulate control).

Games I've watched (the battle reports and some live streaming yesterday, for the most part), have been quicker, and in part that's because there's a lot less turtle teching going on. Most of my SC experience, either you rushed or you turtled. Here, I'm seeing a lot more active scout / harass / strike.

Of course, I may also be watching players much better than me and those I typically played with, plus the impact of the battle reports popularizing a more dynamic style. The comparative ease of maneuvering around terrain may also contribute. Sure, you fortified that choke... but what's that, reapers or stalkers just hopped up the side of your base and into your SCV line? Oops.

[Atreides]

My roommate got into this, the only problem is that my college's internet is too slow for Starcraft and Warcraft 3, so he's unsure how well he'll be able to play it.

[PhelanArcetus]

He could find odd times of day to play, but that's probably all, and a game beta isn't worth messing up your sleep schedule. That's on the assumption that the school network is too slow because of massive load from the whole student body sharing porn.

A friend living in graduate student dorms actually had to pay for a separate internet connection, because after about noon, the network became unusable, even for low-bandwith things like hotline chat clients.

Of course, your roommate could always give me his account ;)

[Ser Greguh]

FYI all, it is possible to view SC2 replays even if you're not yet in on the beta. Here's a how-to guide at gamereplays.org. I think this is legit as access to the SC2 software doesn't seem to be what's restricted, just battle.net keys. I got it working and have viewed a few replays. To be completely honest I'm underwhelmed so far. CoH has spoiled me when it comes to RTS.

[The Dude]

I got my beta by cheating (went to Blizzcon). I don't usually get much time to play but I logged in almost 25 games this weekend. So far, it's ridiculously fun even though I pretty much suck. I never played SC1 competitively (ladder) but I did play a LOT of War3/TFT ladder games up until WoW came out. I think fans of the original SC will be pleased as it does feel very similar to me. I'm also really glad that they didn't try to make the game more like War3, while still pulling off many of the great feature (like RT games and an improved ladder system). I think I may end up liking it more than Warcraft, but that's a pretty bold statement this soon.

I do wish they had implemented a tougher AI for practice. Right now you can only go against "very easy" which is giving the AI too much credit. It's a little intimidating basically jumping right into ladder play, but it didn't take me much to overcome my reluctance.

[Third Knight on the Left]

For those who don't have the beta (like me), there are tons of live streams.

Here is a link to several, some of these like Louder are top players.

Also if you want something prettier there here a number of HD quality VoD's

Diggity is the man

Huskystarcraft[/url- more games but he isn't commentating yet

HD Starcraft

and GrethSC, who is awesome but whom I can't seem to link for some reason.

[Third Knight on the Left]

okay my links are screwy I don't know why. The thrid one is supposed to link here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/hdstarcraft?blend=2&ob=4#p/u

[Durckad]

My friend's roommate got this and now I hate him sooooooo much.

[Werthead]

Does the Beta list the tentative system requirements for the game?

The graphics so far - at absolutel best - look about 75% of the quality of Company of Heroes (a game released in 2006). If Blizzard demand a dual core for the game they will clearly be taking the piss.

[Commodore]

I love the Starcraft campaign, but I sucked at the Battlenet. I always felt like it was too heavily dependent on who could multi-task the best rather than battlefield strategy (although both elements are present, I just couldn't manage to fight a battle and not forget to keep building units while the battle was going on).

Can't wait for this, Starcraft is one of the top 10 games of all time imo. The best games find a way to achieve a high amount of variability and unique experiences while at the same time maintaining competitive balance. That's very hard to do. I'm sure Starcraft II will have balancing patches as people find and copy tactics that are overpowered, as they should. This isn't as big a deal as in an MMO, where a character you have sunk a ton of time into could see their abilities nerfed.

If I recall, Starcraft nerfed Reavers because they were deemed overpowered. Can't remember what other fixes they had.

LoL at the running commentary in that youtube vid: "Looks like he's going to be a little late spawing that last zergling. That will cost him."

[Slurktan]

Does the Beta list the tentative system requirements for the game?

The graphics so far - at absolutel best - look about 75% of the quality of Company of Heroes (a game released in 2006). If Blizzard demand a dual core for the game they will clearly be taking the piss.

You actually think so? I'd strongly disagree. I watched the HD version on Youtube today full screen and the graphics in SC2 are actually pretty fricken detailed. There is a whole lot of moving shit even when it's just buildings sitting there.

[Shryke]

You actually think so? I'd strongly disagree. I watched the HD version on Youtube today full screen and the graphics in SC2 are actually pretty fricken detailed. There is a whole lot of moving shit even when it's just buildings sitting there.

Like most videogame graphics (and especially for Blizzard games) it looks WAY better in motion. Stills don't do it justice.

[The Dude]

Does the Beta list the tentative system requirements for the game?

The graphics so far - at absolutel best - look about 75% of the quality of Company of Heroes (a game released in 2006). If Blizzard demand a dual core for the game they will clearly be taking the piss.

Nothing yet, but I assume that's going to be worked out as part of the beta. I've got an average video card (9800 GT, 512MB) and have no issues running everything maxed out. This is only playing 1v1 and a couple of 2v2 games. They haven't opened up the larger formats yet.

I haven't played Company of Heroes so I can't compare. The game looks and feels really nice, but the graphics certainly aren't spectacular. BUT, this is a Blizzard game. They've never, ever published a game that even came close to pushing the envelope when it comes to graphics. I mean in game obviously. They've always been focussed on gameplay and game features first. That formula has worked pretty well for them.