StarCraft II

StarCraft II is a sequel to the real-time strategy game StarCraft, announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. It is set to be released as a trilogy. Mike Morhaime expects the game to launch by the end of 2009, although he also notes that it will only ship once the game is done.

The Trilogy
The game will be split into three separate products, based around the terran, zerg and protoss campaigns respectively. The first will be called StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, the second will be called StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and the third will be called StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void. The latter two products are considered to be expansion sets. Little to no work is currently being done on them, Wings of Liberty being Blizzard's focus.

Blizzard Entertainment chose this route due to the challenges they faced creating the campaigns. Now they can create more content per campaign, such as movies, sets, props, characters, missions (including Easter egg missions) and so forth. Each character will have their own arcs, missions and dialog.

Each campaign will have 26-30 missions in total (including branching missions) and a set ending, rather than a cliff-hanger.

All three races will be completely developed for the multiplayer skirmish mode.

The three campaigns do not occur simultaneously in-universe. Rather, they occur in chronological order, each campaign beginning immediately after its predecessor.

The latter two expansions are expected to take over a year to release. Each will upgrade and expand multiplayer content in addition to containing a campaign, such as new units, abilities and structures.

Development History
Development on the game began shortly after Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne back in July 2003. The development was ramped up shortly after the production of World of Warcraft which was when Blizzard Entertainment hired Dustin Browder on March 14th, 2005 to the position of senior designer. He later became the lead designer.

The game is updated approximately once a week.

Game development is "very far along," and already playable in multiplayer. The game was still in internal alpha/pre-alpha in August, 2008. Two weeks before BlizzCon 2008, the entire company played StarCraft II, an important milestone. The exposition match played at BlizzCon 2008 was referred to as an "alpha" version but also a "pre-alpha" version and in Battle Report II it was referred to as an alpha version.

Approaching Beta
StarCraft II beta is expected to launch summer 2009, according to Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment.

A beta key was released at BlizzCon 2008.

The teams still have a lot of work to do on the single-player campaign and on battle.net improvements, and sound work had barely begun as of August 2008. Afterwards the game will focus again on multiplayer and the map editor. As of December 2008 the primary focus was on the single-player campaign and working on battle.net so the beta can come in a "reasonable" amount of time. No official beta release date has been announced.

Blizzard expects the game to be released faster than the usual 3-4 year period after a game is announced. The game has no certain release date but will not be released in 2008. In December 2008 Chris Sigaty said the game or beta should be out by 2009. In February 2009 Blizzard COO Chris Sams said the beta was "months away". In February 2009 Dustin Browder addressed criticisms that the beta was taking too long to announce, saying they Blizzard still needed to do work on the campaign and on battle.net, and that the beta would be announced when they had an idea what the release date would be. He also believed the beta would be announced in 2009. I see lots of questions about timelines. Here is a little FAQ. Question: "Why hasn't Blizzard released the Beta?" or "WTF have they been working on, I played it at Blizzcon last year and I thought it was done!" Answer: Solo campaign is under heavy construction as is Battlenet. When these things have enough work done that we know when our release date is going to be with strong confidence we will announce the Beta. Unless something crazy happens, the Beta is going to happen this year. Question: "Why don't you just give us your target dates if you don't know the final date? We promise, we won't get mad if Blizzard misses target dates." Answer: Let's be realistic. Our target dates are not something we hit more than half the time. Putting those out there would be pretty close to lying to the fans. We are not going to do that. We want to be able to give good info, not info that we know is suspect. We'll give target dates when we think it is very likely that we will hit them. Question: When can we have the next Battle Report? Answer: We were waiting on getting some improved graphics in (some of the new stuff looked REALLY rough). That was finished last week and we are now playing and looking for a good game. Once we get that game the process is reasonably quick to get it out. Once we go Beta, you guys can do these and put them up. When that happens I'm sure there will be a ton of them and I'm sure the quality of the games played and the announcing will go way up. Question: "I notice that you haven't actually given us any dates...." Answer: Yeah. Sorry. We don't want to lie about the Beta, and we don't even want to lie about the next Battle Report. When we know a date (for anything) for certain, we'll let you know. Hang in there. We're in the final stretch. Cavez. 2009-02-16. Some Updates. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2009-02-16.

Developers
The lead designer for StarCraft II is Dustin Browder.

The team devoted to StarCraft II consists of only about 40 developers, including twelve people who worked on the original StarCraft. The team consists of four or five managers, 12-14 programmers, 8-10 artists and the rest consist of designers. It has its own internal leadership structure. A "couple" of ex-progamers are part of the team, working on balance issues such as mutalisk micromanagement and creating strategies against each other.

Gameplay
StarCraft II gameplay will feature the original three gameplaying races and no new races.

StarCraft II retains some units from the original game, although some of these units have been given new abilities. Due to story events from the previous game, some units have been phased out or replaced. For example, the conquest of the protoss homeworld of Aiur has prevented the creation of more dragoons - the transplanted forms of protoss warriors in exoskeletons - resulting in the remaining dragoons to be redesigned with different weaponry and a shield that absorbs heavy damage and renamed to "immortals".

The demo reveals new abilities that involve more complex interaction with the game environment than in StarCraft. Terran units known as reapers can swiftly leap over cliffs, and protoss stalkers are capable of short-range teleportation to pursue fleeing enemies. Additionally, new abilities have been extended to structures. The protoss are able to warp prefabricated units within range of their pylons, and also possess the warp prism, a unit that acts as a mobile pylon, providing power to protoss buildings in the absence of conventionally built pylons.

The number of units in the game will not significantly change. For every new unit added, one "underused" unit has been removed.

There are 5 computer AI levels of difficulty for the multiplayer game as of April 2009; Beginner, Easy, Normal, Hard and Insane.

Multiplayer Gaming
StarCraft II is also designed to focus more heavily on the multiplayer aspect, when compared to the original StarCraft. The changes include overall improvement in Battle.net, a new competitive "ladder" system for ranked games, and new matchmaking mechanics – designed to "match-up" players of equal skill levels. In addition, the replay function, which allows players to record and review past games, will be improved. Resource sharing between allies may also be allowed.

The game is currently set to have eight players. The number of players in custom games is expected to be at least 8, and Blizzard is "shooting" for 12 or more.

Blizzard Entertainment intends to make the game fun for beginner and intermediate players, as well as give expert players more depth in gameplay.

As each installment of the trilogy is released, multiplayer will, for all intents and purposes, be updated in a manner similar to the relationship between StarCraft and its expansion-both can be played, but the latter features more content.

Gameplay Differences from StarCraft

 * The script-driven AI, programmed by Bob Fitch, has been improved; it will scout more and make decisions accordingly. It won't be able to see everything its opponent player has, even on difficult mode.
 * Maps start out explored (but hidden due to the fog of war) rather than completely blacked out as in StarCraft I.
 * Terrain combat bonuses have been removed. However, terrain is still important in a battle. For instance, units that attack from a ledge will not be revealed to the player of the units being attacked.
 * Units at the base of a ramp will not be able to target opponents beyond the top of the ramp, but will be able to see brief flashes of attacking units. Units that reach halfway up the ramp will have unrestricted vision above the ramp.
 * "Line of sight blockers" will enable units to ambush each other, resembling bushes smoke (found on space platforms) and tall grass. Air units can easily see through the blockers.
 * The damage system has been significantly altered. Units now do base damage with bonuses against certain unit classes.
 * Certain zerg units can not only burrow but also move underground allowing these units to move right past enemies and possibly into their bases more easily.
 * When a player's main buildings are destroyed, they are eventually revealed.
 * Given time, Blizzard would like to make various upgrades be seen visually on the upgraded units, similar to marines' shields.
 * Units will be able to pass through shallow water.
 * Some doodads can be destroyed by effects such as explosion, possibly opening up inaccessible areas of a map. Destructible rocks will have viewable hit points and can be destroyed by any attacking unit. Cliff-climbing units such as the reaper and colossus can climb or jump over the rocks.
 * Xel'naga watch towers are neutral structures or doodads which can be temporarily captured by units. This expands that player's viewing area.
 * Customizable decals can be added to terran structures and units, showing various faction logos. Blizzard has designed the Raynor's Raiders decal and is working on others, hoping to allow players to choose which decals their side will use.
 * Multiple animations exist for units that are idle.
 * In melee games as of April 2009 players can choose from 9 colors, red, blue, green, purple, orange, light blue, gray, yellow, and pink. In September 2007 players were expected to be able to choose from between 12 to 18 colors.
 * Players will be able to choose their color before a match starts.

Control Scheme

 * When a ghost paints a target area for a nuclear missile, a large visible nuclear symbol appears to the player. The small red dot is still all that is seen by other players.
 * A player can select 255 units in the latest build. Up to 200 units can be held within a numbered control group but they form into "subgroups" of 24, each with a little number beside their icons.
 * Units within a control group display their control group number. The selection UI displays how many units are in the group.
 * Control group tabs will display what units are bound to each group number.
 * Subgroups allow the player to scroll through different type of units in his current selection with the Tab key. If a group of multiple unit types are selected, the player still has access to their abilities by tabbing through the subgroups.
 * Spellcasting units will use "smartcasting"; when multiple units are given the same spell order, only one of them will comply, preventing a serious waste of spellcaster energy.
 * A player can select multiple buildings. Multiple selected combat buildings can "focus fire" on enemy units.
 * They can be put into selection groups. The player pushes a button to create each individual unit from the group of structures. This applies even to larvae. Buildings with reactors will go into their own subgroup. As of May 2009, pushing tab while selecting a group of buildings causes them all to create a unit.
 * Each structure will show how many units they are creating or (in the case of zerg hatcheries), how many larvae are available. Units will be produced at the structure with the shortest queue.
 * A player can set a rally point for a "town hall" to a mineral or vespene source and workers will mine the resource automatically when built and will split up over multiple mineral patches. Combat units will attack-move to the rally point.
 * Two rally points are able to be set on a hatchery; one for drones and another for warrior units.
 * Units can be rallied to bunkers and transports.
 * Units can be rallied to follow other units.
 * Idle worker units can be quickly selected with an idle worker button, the ~ (tilde) key.
 * A player may be able to change the hotkeys around.
 * Player units "won't line up like ants" when given a move command. Units will not bunch up unless given a manual attack command against a specific enemy unit. If so, they will spread apart when the enemy unit dies or they become idle. Units in the same selection with different speed characteristics will continue to move at different rates. Units won't pass through each other.


 * Holding the Alt button will show unit and building hit points overhead.
 * SCVs can autocast their Repair ability. Carriers can auto-build their interceptors.  The new medivac dropships can autocast Heal just as medics could in StarCraft: Brood War.
 * Units have a hold button which stops them from moving and also from attacking. However, as of March 2009 the lurker did not have this ability.
 * The player can zoom into the action, but cannot change the viewpoint left or right.
 * Spellcasting and burrowing can be set into waypoints.
 * Allies will be able to see each others' resources. When an allied player leaves, the remaining ally gets the rest of their resources and units.

E-sport Aids
Multiplayer games will include menus, leaderboards and overlays displaying statistics: StarCraft II will feature seven observer modes: none (no menus), resources (gathered resources and supply count), spending (on economy, tech and units), unit (number of units), production (units and buildings being created), army (resources spent on the army) and APM. These will be available in "real time".

A "telestrator" will be available to point things out to other players.

Macromanagement and Resource Mechanics

 * Main articles: Macromanagement in StarCraft II, Vespene gas

Resource clusters will generally have two vespene gas geysers.

High Yield Resources
Gold-colored "high yield mineral fields" have been added to the game. These minerals are worth more per "chunk" transported by a worker unit. Expansion sites containing gold minerals will be worth fighting over, creating a new strategy around which expansion sites to claim. As of the World Wide Invitational 2008, they provided 8 minerals per trip.

A similar mechanic for high-yield vespene geysers may also be devised.

Battle.net and Metagame Functionality

 * ''Main article: Battle.net 2.0

Blizzard Entertainment intends to release a new version of battle.net with StarCraft II. Frank Pearce said they probably won't be able to implement all plans by the time StarCraft II launches, but they can add more features to battle.net "as we go".

Blizzard Entertainment intends on improving replay functionality, as well as better support for e-sports on battle.net. They are talking about things like cameraman-functionality, which currently exists in World of Warcraft. Replays can be "bookmarked" at certain time points but cannot be rewound. When StarCraft II is patched, it will not prevent players from viewing replays.

Jeff Kaplan revealed that players of StarCraft II and Diablo III will share "gamer achievements", adding up to a Blizzard Level, in a similar manner to the system in World of Warcraft. Blizzard has not made a final decision on the matter.

Blizzard intends to continue support StarCraft II years after release, in a similar manner to the StarCraft patches, which have been updated more than ten years after the release of the original StarCraft.

Races and Units

 *  Main article: List of StarCraft II units

StarCraft II will only feature the three original races in standard multiplayer: protoss, terran, and zerg. It has been confirmed that there will not be a fourth race introduced. However, when asked about the possibility of hybrids and xel'naga in the game, Blizzard Entertainment employee Karune replied that "we are planning to explore the mysteries surrounding the Xel'naga for the single player campaign. In the campaign you will encounter several unique units that would not otherwise be seen in multiplayer."

Blizzard discussed the possibility of a fourth race early on in the game's development. However, the development team felt that had a finite amount of ideas and wanted to make sure that they focused on the best ideas for the existing three playable races rather than diluting those ideas across four races. In August 2008, Frank Pearce has stated that adding a fourth fully playable race would likely be discussed if Blizzard decided to make an expansion for the game, three months before the expansions were announced.

Campaigns and Lore
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The game takes place four years after StarCraft: Brood War, approximately the same time as the storyline of StarCraft: Ghost. The storyline is being written by Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers, concurrently with The Dark Templar Saga which is written by Christie Golden.

Each of the three StarCraft II campaigns -- terran Wings of Liberty, zerg Heart of the Swarm and protoss Legacy of the Void -- will be released as separate products.

StarCraft II will take place both in new worlds and in worlds that had appeared in the original game. Char is back as is Mar Sara. One of the new worlds is Bel'shir, a jungle-covered protoss-colonized moon that was a religious retreat until it was attacked by the zerg; it now houses many ruined temples. The world shown in the cinematic is Braxis Alpha. Other new worlds include Red Stone and Jotun.

Jim Raynor is set to continue his adventures as are Infested Kerrigan and Zeratul.

Recent Events

 * Main article: StarCraft II introduction.


 * 1) The biggest terran faction in StarCraft II will be the "evil empire" of the Terran Dominion. The Kel-Morian Combine and Umojan Protectorate are currently independent from the Dominion, which is trying to consolidate its power. However, Raynor's Raiders are the main playable faction, and Jim Raynor is referenced as the central character of the terran campaign.
 * 2) The zerg, under the command of Infested Kerrigan, have pulled back to Char and been quiet for four years. No one knows what Kerrigan is planning as her forces kill all enemy scouting parties. Kerrigan herself says the zerg have evolved and thrived during this period, and are becoming "much, much more, for the final metamorphosis has only just begun." Kerrigan is planning on invading many worlds.
 * 3) Raynor's Raiders have been outlawed by the Terran Dominion. Arcturus Mengsk has continually hounded them, but refused to assassinate Raynor as that could make him a martyr.
 * 4) The United Earth Directorate forces were destroyed by Infested Kerrigan's zerg armies (though a few surviving companies are still around somewhere in the Sector).

Mythology
An overarching thread involving the xel'naga and rumors of hybrid creatures will weave through each of the campaigns.

There will be many connections between the StarCraft: Ghost franchise and StarCraft II. For instance, Gabriel Tosh, a character from StarCraft: Ghost Academy, will appear on the Hyperion in Wings of Liberty and will serve as a connection between the two storylines.

A Nova-centered cinematic appears on a TV screen in StarCraft II.

Terran Campaign: Wings of Liberty

 * Main article: Wings of Liberty
 * Zeratul: "I bring tidings of doom. The xel'naga return, the cycle nears its end, the artifacts are the key."
 * Jim Raynor: "The key... the key to what?"
 * Zeratul: "To the end of all things."
 * ―Zeratul delivers a warning to Jim Raynorsrc

The terran campaign will focus on Raynor's Raiders, which has become a mercenary force based in the Hyperion. It will also include a Zeratul-focused mini-campaign.

Zerg Campaign: Heart of the Swarm

 * Main article: Heart of the Swarm

Protoss Campaign: Legacy of the Void

 * Main article: Legacy of the Void

Campaign Structure and Development
The campaigns will be a tree-shaped arrangement, enabling players to choose different passages, level-ups and bonuses. Each campaign will have a distinct beginning and end, but the center portion will vary considerably when played by different people. Each person might try a different set of subquests, and finish them in different ways. Usually the palyer can go back and play "missed" missions; only in rare instances will a choice prevent a player from playing another mission. Decisions made in one campaign will have no effect on the campaign in the next expansion.

Each campaign will have its own starmap.

Players can get closer to the main characters in interactive sets.

The campaign is designed to teach players how to play the game, often without them realizing it as they're being immersed in the story.

As of August 2008, Blizzard has been "implementing certain ideas and trying out certain things to finalise decisions on the direction that's going to go." While Blizzard has a general idea of the storyline they want to tell, they must still put it into the context of missions, which they weren't able to do until recently until they had devised the framework of the different factions and how units are built.

It has been confirmed that StarCraft II will not feature a co-operative campaign mode, at least when the game launches. However, Blizzard hasn't excluded the possibility and may install such a function in a future patch or expansion pack.

Heroes and NPC units
Heroes will not be buildable in melee maps. Each will have a unique appearance. They will fill the same role they did in StarCraft I, "but they will have even more unique abilities from standard units".

Heroes will not often appear in campaigns, and will have little impact in gameplay. Their role is mostly restricted to "story space".

Some units that were "cut" during StarCraft II's development will appear in the single-player campaign as well. "Several" units from the original StarCraft will be present in the single-player campaign.

Other Races
The xel'naga will fit into the story "in a rather epic tale" and will be part of the backbone of the trilogy. It is important to note that the "greater whole" of the xel'naga race was wiped out, which means some of them may still be alive. According to Zeratul, the "cycle nears its end." This involves the finding of alien artifacts.

Hybrids are not available as a playable race in StarCraft II, though Blizzard Entertainment has promised that "the zerg/protoss hybrid would be dealt with."

When Blizzard Entertainment employee Karune was asked if there would be any hybrid units in StarCraft II, he replied "we are planning to explore the mysteries surrounding the xel'naga for the single player campaign. In the campaign you will encounter several unique units that would not otherwise be seen in multiplayer."

Tilesets
StarCraft II will feature 20 unique tilesets, including the Shattered City environment.

Soundtrack
StarCraft II will feature new soundtracks by Glen Stafford, the soundtrack composer for StarCraft. In addition, edited versions of the StarCraft soundtracks will be found in StarCraft II.

Movies
StarCraft II will feature fewer, more epic movies compared to the original. In addition, there will be several in-game cutscenes of higher quality than the original games' pre-rendered movies. The number of in-game cinematics will exceed pre-rendered cinematics. This is due to the need for fine-tuning cinematics and that pre-rendered cinematics must be planned early on in the development process.

Adaptations
StarCraft II’s lore will be supported by several novels authorized by Blizzard Entertainment. The Dark Templar Saga serves as a prequel to StarCraft II, I, Mengsk is a tie-in to StarCraft II and the StarCraft: Ghost novel Spectres will also serve as a tie-in.

Technologies
StarCraft II will support the DirectX 9 (Pixel Shader 2.0) software. It will be fully compatible with DirectX 10 as well, which will provide access to enhanced graphical effects. The Mac client will utilize OpenGL, instead. The game will also feature the Havok physics engine, allowing realistic interaction with the environment, such as "debris roll(ing) down a ramp".

The game is expected to support a a variety of video cards; ATI Radeon 9800/NVIDIA GeForce FX to ATI Radeon HD 4800s and NVIDIA GeForce G200s.

StarCraft II will support screen resolutions from 5:4 to 16:9. Larger screens will have a slightly larger viewable range. The game will support wide screens but not multiple monitors. The minimum resolution will be 1024 x 768 x 32 bits.

Game unit models will feature about 2000 polygons.

During game design, 3DSMax was used to create low-polygon unit models, MudBox for high-polygon models, and Photoshop was used to edit textures.

Gore can be disabled, but doing so will require restarting the game.

StarCraft II is written in 32-bit code but will support 64-bit systems. It has multi-core capability.

The game will support lighting effects, including a light/dark cycle used in some missions.

Plans to integrate voice over internet protocol into the game are underway. However the audio will not be available in replays.

Scumedit

 *  Main article: Scumedit

The game will come with a map editor called "scumedit". The StarCraft II Map Editor will improve upon the World Editor from Warcraft III in every way.

Startools
Startools, a proprietary toolset, will be included along with Scumedit. Startools lets modders design and create doodads.

Trailers, Demonstrations & Other Videos
Blizzard Entertainment made the very first publicly playable demo of StarCraft II available at BlizzCon 2007.

StarCraft II was featured at E3 2007, July 11th 2007. Only a demo was viewable, not a playable version. StarCraft II was featured at BlizzCon 2007, August 3rd to 4th, 2007. Terrans and Protoss were playable. The same two races were playable at GenCon Indy. The game was available at the 2007 Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, August 22nd to 26th 2007.

Official Videos
The official videos featured Blizzard Entertainment employees making official announcements. Most are stored on the official website for StarCraft II, established and maintained by Blizzard Entertainment.

WWI 2007 Videos

 * First artwork trailer, showing a large number of scanned concept art drawings/paintings for StarCraft II and another protoss/terran battle on a different map than the first official gameplay demo video.

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 * First cinematic trailer, introducing Tychus Findlay and showing in detail the involved, robotic process of installing Tychus Findlay's marine armor.
 * First official gameplay demo, giving a tour by means of a video recorded from an apparently mission-like game from the protoss view point that demonstrates and describes the protoss warp gate ability, updated zealot, the new immortal, the new terran reaper, the (now renamed) phase prism, the stalker, the new zerg nydus worm and classic zerglings, the ability to combine phase prisms and warp gate ability to create a significant force anywhere on the map, massive new colossus units, the ability for classic zerglings to mutate into new banelings, the classic mutalisks, new Phoenix, classic terran battlecruiser, new (now renamed) warp ray, and the "ultimate" unit of StarCraft II: the mothership. It finished with a terran/protoss brawl which ended with three ghosts each launching a nuke that wiped out the entirety of the protoss and terran forces involved in the brawl (with the exception of the ghosts) and then zerglings killed the ghosts and forming up the letters 'GG' as they mutated into nanelings.

BlizzCon 2007 Videos
Blizzard Entertainment showcased several videos at BlizzCon 2007.


 * Terran Gameplay Trailer: Shown at BlizzCon 2007, this video demonstrated terran units such as the Banshee, ghost and Thor.


 * Terran Campaign Trailer: Also shown at BlizzCon, this video demonstrated some of the mechanics behind the new terran campaign, as well as discussions between Jim Raynor and other characters.


 * Art Video: A discussion featuring the artwork of StarCraft II.


 * Lore Video: Chris Metzen and Andy Chambers discussed the lore of the StarCraft universe.

March 2008 Videos
Blizzard Entertainment held a press event in March 2008 to showcase the Zerg. p4vPidUIoo4
 * Zerg Reveal Trailer: At the event, Blizzard Entertainment showed a video featuring the zerg including a voice over.

WWI 2008
Blizzard Entertainment hosted the World Wide Invitational in June 28 to 29, 2008. Live streaming video of panels and games were shown.

BlizzCon 2008
At BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard showed several videos, including the first minute of the StarCraft II opening cinematic. Or_-jn5AnoI&fmt=18