Banner by Protoss 111The press conference started off with three games of private Battle Reports in a small theater in the Blizzard building, with Dustin Browder and Rob Simpson casting live from the third row, with Moletrap, Diggity, and PsyonicReaver sitting right in front of them in row two. One of the major foci of this presentation was to demonstrate all of the ridiculously awesome features that will be available to observers in StarCraft 2 games.
The folks at Blizzard have long emphasized their hope and expectation that StarCraft 2 will be a grand e-Sport. To that end the developers are making every effort to concoct a game not only a challenging and competitive game but still agreeable to spectators. But what good would the World Cup be without a stadium to watch in or cameras to capture the action? At the recent press conference at Blizzard Headquarters, the development and e-Sports teams unveiled the full array of tools that will be available in StarCraft 2 for observing, analyzing, commentating, and studying the yet unborn art of playing it.
Note that images are used to illustrate various features mentioned in this article are not actual game play images. They have been taken from Blizzard Battle Reports or improvised on our own to give a visual example, but the functions seen in the Battle Reports were unfinished and the actual game functions will look a lot cooler and easier to read.Observation FeaturesAnyone who has watched GomTV or OnGameNet has seen the external tools they've included in their broadcasts to give the watchers and the casters more knowledge of what's going on in the game. Tasteless and SuperDaniel have access intermittently to the amount of units each player has, how much money they have in the bank, or their supply counts. But these tools and more will be available to anyone in one of the spectator slots in any StarCraft 2 game.
First of all, let me mention some general features that will be available...
12 Player/Observer SlotsEach game will have up to 12 slots available no matter what, with up to 8 of them available for participating players. When you join a game you select whether you are joining as a Participant or Observer, so even when all 4 spawn locations are used up on Lost Temple, you can still join the game as an observer until there are 12 people in the game. If only 2 people are playing as combatants then as many as 10 people may join the game as observers. However, the max is always 12, so only 4 people can join as observers to watch your 8 person FFA.
First Person ViewYou know how sometimes if you're watching an OSL game they will do a fancy animation and then you will be seeing the first person view (what they are seeing on their own screen) of one of the players? Where you can watch their screen flicker rapidly between sections on the map, watch them frantically macroing or deftly microing their units? Well you guessed it. An observer in a StarCraft 2 game will be able to watch
any player's FP View at any time.
Unit/Building Waypoints/ProductionAdditionally, there are a bunch of little things that will help you see what a player is doing. One of them is that you can see where a given unit is doing if you have clicked on it. This is something that can be seen in recent Blizzard Battle Reports, actually.
If you have clicked on a player's scouting SCV, for instance, you will see little green dots where all of its way points are, and if the player starts clicking all over the place to make the SCV dance around, you will see the green dots popping up all over.
But what we haven't seen yet is that you will also be able to see a players building rally points. When you're playing your own game and you click on one of your production buildings, a thin grey line will be seen coming out of the building to show you where it is rallied to. And when you're observing, you can see the same grey line, which is handy for checking if a player has their gateways rallied to the enemy base or only to their choke point.
You'll also be able to see simple stuff like upgrades and what units are being produced at buildings, as if you were watching a SC1 replay.
Individual Map RevealOMG! Did that probe spot the proxy barracks!? I think it came within its vision range but I'm not sure!? No more will we have to guess if a player really saw that proxy building or not. An observer will be able to limit their vision to what a specific player has seen. Simply switch to that players map reveal and see if the proxy gateways or hidden expansion exist on that players map or not.
Information TabsIn addition to these features, there will be several hotkey accessible tabs that will show an observer various kinds of information that will help them understand and analyze the game in progress. Some features we have seen before in third party programs but all of those and many brand new functions will be part of the game in StarCraft 2.
EconomyAs an observer, we will of course be able to see a readout of how many minerals and gas a player has in the bank at a given time like in any Gom or OSL game. But no longer will we have to estimate how well off a players economy is, because in StarCraft 2 we'll be able to see a running feed of how many
minerals per minute and
gas per minute a players workers are raking in. If a player loses a base and some workers in a fight, we know they are behind in econ. But now we can actually see that they are only bringing in about 550 minerals per minute when their opponent is gathering 1400 per, which better illustrates just how close or disparate the players' economies are.
There will also be a function to see how many resources total have been spent by either player on both economy and technology. The net cost of all workers built (and I believe worker buildings such as command centers but I'm not certain) will be totaled up to show
total spent on economy, and all technology buildings and upgrade costs will be tallied to show
how much a player has spent on tech. This can be especially interesting early game when you can see an econ build vs a tech build being played out in total expenditures. Seeing exactly the disparity in spending will enable us to make observations like, we can see that he has only sacrificed the cost of 3 extra stalkers in order to gain an early weapons upgrade advantage that will help him throughout the game, or by cutting SCV production so early hes actually spent a whole 500 minerals less on his economy and doesn't have a substantially larger army for it.
Army Size, Composition, and StrengthAnother way you can gauge a player's economy is to know how may peons they have. Well, once again the special functions that show us how much supply each player has on OGN or how many of each unit a player has on GOM will be standard issue observation capabilities in SC2.
Versions of this seen on Blizzard Starcraft 2 Battle Reports were filmed on an older build, and in the completed version of SC2 there will be full color icons of each unit with unit counts next to them.
But it doesn't stop there. You'll also be able to actually see how many resources are invested in a player's army. It can be difficult to think about how much has been invested into opposing armies with just a glance. But 12 zealots vs 30 Zerglings is much simpler when told in terms of 1200 minerals vs 750 minerals. Especially if both players lose their whole army, in which case you can easily discern that the Zerg player came out ahead by not having lost as many resources.
An early version of this function.ProductionSometimes what a player will have in 10 seconds is more important than what they have right now. Well, with the production tab you can view
everything that a player has in every queue in every building all at once.
A dozen hydralisks are bearing down on a protoss natural expansion with only 2 zealots to defend it. It looks like our protoss friend is screwed. But we click on the production tab and see that 4 stalkers, 3 zealots, and a colossus are about to pop out. We now know that the zerg doesn't actually know what they're getting into.
This tab will also be great to see what's going on with
players' upgrades, and don't quote me on this but I believe the progress of those upgrades as well. You'll be able to see side by side if Weapons 2 will finish before Carapace 2, or note that although a burrow trap has been set up, the Protoss will soon have the blink upgrade and be able to escape their Stalkers out of harm's way.
Actions Per MinuteLast but not least there will be an APM tab available. It will function similarly to third party Starcraft addons that let you view both current and average APM of each player side by side. A pretty simple feature, but always fun for seeing just how frantically a player is trying to fight off an attack or just ogling how damn fast a really good player is.
Post GameEverything that you see in the score screen at the end of a Brood Wars game will, of course, be available in the score screen of Starcraft 2. But Blizzard has really ramped up the post-game analysis features in the sequel. After a game is over you will be able to go back and examine what happened in detail. A good way of getting better at a game is to study how you played and how others have played, and SC2 will give you mad tools for doing so.
PerformanceIn the heat of the moment it can be hard to assess how you or a player you are observing is playing, and can be very difficult to understand the broader picture of what is going on. Well, the post game screen will have information to help you understand that picture, such as
average unspent resources (the average of how much you have in the bank at any given time). This is important because money you have in the bank is money that could be spent on units or tech that instead you don't have. If you find at the end that you averaged 1500 minerals in the bank, you know need to work on your macro. If you usually had 500 minerals in the bank your opponent averaged 150, then you will see why he tended to have a few extra units in every battle. Sorry, you can't blame it on hax any more.
There will be separate counts of how many total workers you created and lost throughout the game as well. "Oh, wow, I didn't realize how badly those storm drops really hurt him. Turns out I killed half of his SCVs that game."
There will also be a
combat efficiency statistic available. This will basically be a function of how much you killed compared to how much you produced. If you hop your 6 reapers up and down a hill killing a ton of zerglings without taking any damage, you'll see that efficiency spelled out in the score screen. Perhaps if your combat efficiency is consistently low after all your games you might think about practicing your micro in order to squeeze more usefulness out of your units.
GraphsThey say a picture is worth 1000 words. Well, the graphs that you will get to see at the end of a game of Starcraft 2 are worth OVER NINE THOUSAND. People have a much easier time understanding things when they are represented visually, and the post game graphs paint a very clear picture of the overall flow of a game.
There will be a
graph showing the flow of the
size of each players army as the game goes on. The turning points in the game will be painfully obvious as you see the places where your line diverges from your opponent's. It will become clear how a certain battle set up the advantage that was built upon for the rest of the game.
Artist's interpretation.Similarly, there will be a
graph showing the progress of your economy, based on the rate of income that was viewable moment by moment during the game. You'll be able to place the precise moment of that marine drop behind your drone line when you see the sharp decline in your economy compared to theirs.
Build Order TableEver wanted to copy a build you saw someone do? Well, in Brood Wars you'd have to go through and painstakingly review a replay or VOD over and over, pausing and manually noting down each unit and building made, and when. Well, that will all be done for you in the sequel. At the end of the game you can click on the build order section of the post game section and see exactly what units and buildings were made by each player at exactly what time. It will look something like this:
Probe 0:45
Pylon 0:55
Probe 0:58
Probe 1:15
Gateway 1:20
Probe 1:29
Probe 1:45
Cybernetics Core 1:56
Zealot 2:02
As far as I know, there is not a supply count listed for each step, only a time. However, I think that the time is even more precise and supply counts could be inferred from the production listed, anyhow.
Replay FunctionalityZOMG Rewind!Ladies and gentlemen, we have
replay rewind. FINALLY. Oh my god, I can't even tell you how many times it has annoyed me to have to watch through the whole replay again to catch something I missed. Well, in SC2 you'll be able to jump back and watch it again and again.
It won't be a full rewind ability like a video, but as you watch through a replay it will periodically create saved states that you can jump back to. So when 3 DT drops are happening at different expansions all over the map at the same time, you'll be able to watch one, go back 30 seconds, watch another, and then do it again for the third.
Progress Bar DragOnce you have watched through part of a replay, that portion will be available for scrolling through as if you were watching a video on youtube. You can click the beginning of the game and have it jump back to that point, or you click progress indicator and drag backwards through the replay until you get to the right spot. In fact, as you drag the replay backward and forward, the minimap (and possibly the full map but I'm not certain) will update in real time. So you can keep an eye on the minimap and drag the progress bar back until you see the two blobs meeting in the middle of the map in order to rewatch a big battle, for instance.
Future Features / ChangesWell, it is important to note that while I personally witnessed these functions in the very newest build of Starcraft 2 at the Blizzard press conference last week, this is not the final product, nor even the beta, so things are subject to change. I highly doubt that any of these features will be taken out, but we'll have to see.
But more importantly, more features may be added even before the beta is opened. The Starcraft 2 developers told me that they have a long list of things to do and another long list of things they'd like to do. Often we would ask them "is there going to be a way to record your voice while you are watching a replay" or about other features we'd like to see, and they would say "That sounds really cool! We'd love to include that but we can't make any guarantees." The Devs are working their asses off to include as much cool stuff in SC2 as possible, but due to constraints I'm sure we can't even comprehend, probably not all of it will make it in. But one thing is for sure.. these new observation features are just the beginning. I'm certain that there will be many more great eSports features in the game by the time the beta and the final game come out. Be sure to check back for updates, and when they tell us about the new Battle.net later in the summer we'll let you know how cool that is, too.
Newly Released Observation Features in Starcraft 2
Jun 29 2009, 06:27 AM
