The Last Days of Myth

Ah what a glorious age we live in. We live in an age where StarCraft has found a climax of popularity after having survived for more than a decade; few games have lived to celebrate such a milestone. Indeed, StarCraft is the first true eSport – but there is a catch.

The second dawn of StarCraft was a gift not of angels but of demons. StarCraft – the first – has been feeding off a life force, it has been granted gifts and many souls to follow its cause. But soon, similar to the intentions of a black widow, these souls will turn their heads. Their smiles will show razor sharp teeth where once there was only the promise of a soothing kiss. StarCraft will be torn limb from limb. It's corpse carried in a thousand pieces and sacrificed to a new false god. A golem will be constructed from these pieces. StarCraft will be reborn, his humanity now finally a thing of the past.

Rise, StarCraft II – Lord of Skill.

Sorry, reading the Sin Wars books and the constant dreaming about Diablo III as sorely affected my capacity to create analogies that don't revolve around demons and blood splattering in places you didn't know existed. In truth I couldn't really care less about what is about to happen with StarCraft and number two. I mean, beta is around the corner. That's going to be cool, a few more months – I get to go to Blizzcon and terrorize online friends for the first time in real life – and before you know it the big ES SEE EYE EYE is in stores. I mean, sure I'm excited! It's going to be cool. Like I'm in high school again! I'll actually be glad all of this hassle is over. I mean, it's been so long coming. I'm actually tired, the hype feeling has been gone for a while now. It feels like the game has been out for months. The line between StarCraft and StarCraft II is fading, almost intentional by Blizzard I think, to make the transition for everyone almost unnoticeable. The release is more of a hurdle than an actual event to look forward to. “Yes, SC2 – whoo! Now give us the fracking game we have been 'living' for the last two years!”

No, I cannot stress how important the next few months will be. Regardless of how involved you are in the world of gaming, of eSports and StarCraft. No matter how many times these words have been said, they are still true. No matter how their impact has faded, no matter how shallow the corporate hype has become. StarCraft II will be a legendary game. First a game of myth, now soon to come in this world – then reality. It's time to take a step back, to forget the theory and the discussions. This phantom that has been swarming in our thoughts has not been a game, it has been a nightmare. Because none of us have ever believed that this would be the game of our dreams, dreams that have lasted a decade for some. To us it needs to be the ultimate creation, it cannot be a shadow of what we are prepared to leave behind. We cry for Blizzard to not screw this over.

But are we really that ignorant? All this time we have been complaining like tired old men, a hive mind seemingly controlled by Statler and Waldorf. When we are thrown another bone we take a moment to marvel at it then to devour it with much gusto only to remember our self instated place and to start heckling. The issues we bring forth are discussed on a small and ignorant scale. In forums, no matter how large they are, on chat channels on ventrilo. The piecemeal feedback we are allowed to give from Blizzard is appreciated. Large glaring issues are addressed, but for the most part big laser blue watches over like a deity, indeed moving in mysterious ways.

It must be understood that this world is about to end. The ghost like existence of 'number two' will be over soon. And this is what I come to tell you. I am not here to elaborate further on the drivel so many, myself included, have been spewing about this game. Legend here, legend there. O dear me StarCraft 2 ... Gone. Done. I'm not here to make you feel the hype again like I did last time I sat down to scribble and dribble about this blueish colored haze. I was more impressed with Diablo III as I said before.

I'm here to make you nervous.

Huh? Yes you. Reading this. I mean you, no not in an ironical sense or in an attempt to make witty comments. YOU! Start sweating.

Blink.

I want you to blink. Take a step back and look at what you're doing. I don't want you do read what I'm about to type. I want you to speak it, out loud; so you know this isn't happening in a far away dream, but in reality:

The StarCraft 2 beta is about to start. And I'm going to be part of it.

Yes you are. Even without a key, and maybe even without a cracked copy. This game will be in our hands and it will forever be so. Blizzard is handing their golem to us, and it can never take it back again. It is ours to mold – nay – construct.

Once the beta is released we cannot blame Blizzard for anything anymore. Everything about the game will be ours to control. Not just through the eventual tinkering we can do with the map editor, but through the very nature of the development cycle. We cannot hide on forums and chats; we are given the opportunity to change the very nature of the game. Sure, the universe has been set, the foundations have been hammered down into the bedrock; and as I had previously stated, the soul of StarCraft has already been grafted into its spine. Now it is ours to perfect. Yes, perfect. Our dreams, our visions, our delirious outbursts – they can be a reality.

But only if we take up the challenge. Only if we apply ourselves these coming months. A time where we look at things together. To apply the theories and to actually scientifically prove our claims. We are a swarm. A mind of thousands. We can fill in the blanks that Blizzard has so carefully prepared for us.

Yet with this I also give a warning. We cannot fall to the same trick as last time. We need to bind ourselves to reality. We cannot overdo this. The beauty of StarCraft was in the elegance of its simplicity. We know StarCraft II has the potential to be greater, this is etched into the golem. Added abilities and ways to micro. Some fundamental mechanics were cleared to allow this. Now is not the time to fight these changes, but to use them and wring them into something superior.

Indeed it is time for us to become that mass, to turn on our old god and shred it. To fuse it with this new entity. I say we use our knowledge of StarCraft not to correct, but to rebuild and improve. Although I would be happy to leave you with just that mindset. I will give an example that will severely hurt the timelessness of this article.

To me, StarCraft II still seems wrong. Having played it I know it is similar, but when watching the last battlereport I saw immediately one major issue that is simple to correct.

Unit clustering.

When watching StarCraft the units are simple to distinguish; this is not because of the game's age and my familiarity with it, because essentially the same rough forms are present in the sequel. It is because units are far closer to one another when walking in a group. This brings with it a number of problems that weren't issues before. Micro issues are obvious and the threat of splash damage is severe. But that isn't the major issue. The clustered groups will become a staple of the new game – which isn't StarCraft . Where we were promised a micro intensive game this has now become a question of macro and well-placed timing events – like the explosion of banelings or a good psy storm and nullifier blockade.

Being proficient in individual unit micro has all but vanished. The additional skill we were promised from abilities has effectively replaced normal unit micro. Because of the improved AI flanks happen without effort and can as easily be solved with a few new unit abilities. Indeed individual units disappear in their clusters – in something I would almost dare call 'squads'. Sure there was some nice toying around with a scouting probe, we could expect nothing less. But after the unit counter reaches a number above four, all player depended micro is reduced to the use of abilities.

Now, you will say that better players will find a way to micro these units above their abilities. But they won't. The additional advantage given to these units by intensive micro is marginal. My claim is not to dumb down unit AI, but to reduce the AI enforced clustering by several hexes. Make zealots and stalkers, roaches and zerglings, marines and marauders, stand further away from each other so it is possible to select individual units and reduce the effectiveness of game breaking splash abilities. Spreading out these units will also help the player and the observers see what is happening. It will give battles a far more structured appearance and will put the focus back to the individual unit. Indirectly, the player will be less dependent on computer AI as small micro orders will start to gain importance. Mechanical skill will not be as reduced as it is now, not only focused on the use of abilities.

These are the things we need to look at, not just stuff our heads into balance. Look outside the box and change the details that make the difference between flawlessness and perfection. If StarCraft II does not succeed, we will only have ourselves to blame.

Article by Greth
http://www.youtube.com/user/GrethSC
Grethsc@gmail.com

P.S.: Thanks Sailence for reminding me I write sometimes!
P.P.S.: Read through my two previous columns discussing similar subjects.

Excellent read.

Nice article.

A trait of many modern RTS games is that the units clump up tightly in order to attack a single enemy. I'm not sure whether it's because of the 3d engine or whether it's to prevent units from getting stuck in a narrow place, but I sure wouldn't want to see ten siege tanks on top of each other trying to shoot a zealot, then getting stormed to hell. (I'm basing my experience on a particularly bad Sierra RTS where this could happen. Just replace "stormed" with "bombarded", and "zealot" with "marine".) I had never thought of this problem with regards to SC2.

Was the whole reason for you to write this article unit clustering?
I already heard the developers talk about how the units cluster up at the moment and how that overpowers the splash damage units.
StarCraft 2 is still in alpha phase and I do think Blizzard will do something about this till the release.

Sorry but what you've written, Greth, sounds just like something from the Battlenet forum plus your writing in the first two thirds of the article.

Adding a smiley to make me look less harsh:

Nice troll - If you're serious I'll justify it with a response.

You can write a response to this:
I believe they're going to do something about the unit clustering as I've heard them talk about it.
And with unit clustering gone it'll be easier to micro and then you can be hyped for the game again.

The issue with unit clustering is that Blizzard is currently working around it as a set factor. They are designing balance around it, but aren't thinking about changing the clustering as a mechanic.
I believe changing the clustering mechanic on a fundamental level will help a lot more than trying to incorporate it in the balance of things. It's a small change, but a whole step from a development point of view I'm sure.

http://sc2gg.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8873

It's PSI storm. Not Psy storm. Everybody keeps trying to throw me around like I'm some kind of AoE spell and I'm getting too many bruises.

Sorry, Greth. But this post was way too long. It felt like a rant. I just skiped stright to unit clustering, which was well written. I think it would have been better just to post the unit clustering part and leave the rest out.

Now to the issue at hand, units may cluster closer together but you have no group size limit. So you can split larger groups into 2 to 4 smaller groups for easier handling. Also, those with better mirco will be able to manage miro even in large clusters. I think we will still see the dragoon mirco we see in large PvP battles. Especially looking forward to what mass Stalker battles will look like.

I don't think unit clustering is bad at all. The lack of unit clustering in starcraft is the result of piss poor pathfinding and should not be seen as any kind of advantage. Rebalance the game to take into account the superior path finding AI will make the game better as a whole. With easier access to counters such as Ghost EMP vs PSI storm, those will better APM and miro skills will be better able to handle large scale battles. Hence, I believe that if they balance the game right that micro will still be very important in SC2 even with the dense unit clustering. In fact, I feel that mirco, macro, and, most important, multi tasking skills will be even more imporant in SC2 with all the new unit abilites and increased mobility of the races.


A simple solution may be to include a scatter command to have units seperate from each other.

First of all, it wasn't long at all. Second of all, the first part isn't just a meaningless rant, it's a call to arms. The unit clustering serves as an example of what needs to be done more thoroughly.

This is exactly the point I'm trying to make. The micro will be completely different from before. It won't be about the individual unit being microed, it will be about a group of AI controlled units interpreting the commands a player is giving them. The additional micro a player issues his units will be reduced to a general direction. In essence a polished version of '1a2a3a' (yes I said it).
Yes the added abilities will give a lot to do during a battle, but what I'm trying to say is: when unit clustering is reduced by distance there will only be an added bonus to micro. Micro will become more important and will actually be able to make a difference in large scale battles. ON TOP of all the micro used for abilities. All this to compensate for the micro lost in the battle versus the pathfinding of the previous game.


I don't think clustering and advanced pathfinding is a bad thing either. It's impossible to have a modern game without them. But as I said above, there needs to be compensation. This is what my column was about. To think outside the box for a moment and look for the small things that could make a huge difference. I'm not talking about abolishing clustering. I'm saying to tweak it a little bit!
One of the main issues with our thinking towards Starcraft 2 is that we are very ... 'Digital' in our way of thinking. Either it is good, or it's bad. ITS BAD! AWAY WITH IT! WE DON'T WANT TO SEE IT!
MBS SUCKS! MBS RULES!
But obviously that's not the case.
I'm asking for a gentle nudge. Spread out the units so they aren't brushing shoulders. It would change many things.

You see, this columns isn't about unit clustering. It's about this problem right here. If we can't see the bigger picture when discussing Starcraft 2, then 90% of all our feedback will be useless.
Blizzard has game developers, they can connect the dots perfectly. But we need to be able to draw a pattern first. We need to find the issue, but not in black and white.
Even if my suggestion isn't the most perfect, my statement still stands.



A simple solution that would wreck havoc with the very core of the game. You would introduce a world of random events that would solely be based on luck instead of skill. Can you just think of the abuse this would cause?
That's another general issue. A 'simple solution' doesn't include introducing a whole new unit or ability - certainly not a global one.
Introducing a scatter command would mean that Zerg would win every game with mutalisks, as even AoE would be pointless against them. I can only imagine what it would do with banelings.

Unfair of me to go so deep into it? Perhaps. Or perhaps it's time to start looking at this game as if we WERE the developers. Think in REALITY and NOT as if this is a THEORY or a MYTH. This is REAL.
THIS is what my column is about. You shouldn't have skipped ahead.

Nice article but i kinda disagree with you.

First of all i read all of it the first part is not useless nor long, just good. Regarding the concept you're trying to communicate on the second part I will try to talk about the idea and not the example, not only because usually smart people usually do so (and i'd really like to be one) but also because i have no experience in controlling RTS units other than sc:bw.

I am not sure I agree with you because I'm afraid that the beta won't be _that_ hard on the game.
It's basically blizzard's call to decide whether to accept only balancing feedback during beta or also big stuff on the game engine and game mechanics... therefore we'll know if such type of suggestion will be welcome only when the beta will be started.

If it would have been my call I guess I would start taking the major feats for granted (unless some big flaw appears) and ask everyone to concentrate on the balancing issues.
I don't know if it's the manager in me who's speaking but I think that we should always notice the distance between perfect and feasible (creating the good old "good enough"). Even if blizzy will never ever give us such a message, they DO rely on profit margin to survive.
Focusing more on the game, my guess is that for those small feats we will grow to love them even if they're originally considered to be bugs or flaws. I mean, you guys love little macro things that a noob like me didn't even understand for the first two months.

I really don't see the problem with that. SC1 was the most difficult RTS simply because of the many limitation of the old game. It was not an advantage that made the game better. While SC2 is reducing the Mirco and Marco requirements, it will be increasing the multitasking needs of a player with the greatly improved mobility of the races and the ton of added abilites. And the player with the superior stratigic think will still dominate which I find more important than Mirco and Marco skills.


Prehaps it because I suck at this game that I'm excited by the reduced Mirco and Marco complexy of SC2. I'll still get crushed by people with higher APM and multitasking but it should allow me and my friends (fellow noobs) to have more enteraining games. I'm excited about SC2 exactly because it won't be the APM slave driver that SC1 was.


No, I'll still blame blizzard. After all, they make the finally decisions on the game.

I think individual unit micro will still be important... lurker & siege tank spread/placement, collosus' directional beam will be most effective when attacking from a particular direction (same with the Hellion's flamethrower), void rays will be most effective when ordered to attack different units or buildings, Stalkers will be individually blinked away, roaches will be individually burrowed...

A slightly wider unit spread might help with this, but individual unit micro will definitely not disappear.

Nice post Mr G. perhaps borderline melodramatic in places but the only thing I've read about SC2 in a good while to evoke any kind of emotion!

It's like I reached fervour pitch a month ago or so (i almost coughed up $100 for a key on ebay ) but now something in my head has flicked and I'm so cheesed of it isn't here already I've lost my enthusiasm. If I wasn't so impatient I think I'd still be really excited, very odd indeed.

Also I agree that at least the small units could do with being a little less cosy.

Wolf.

Im betting that at first the big things to do will be just use the abilities of units and attack move.

Give the game time to develope. SC1 took a decade to get to the level it is today. How long did it take for people to find muta stack? How bout even something simple as Goon Micro. What about zealot 'bombs' vs tanks?

Keep in mind that many of the every game tricks we use in SC are things that were not even designed by the game creators. They are 'glitches' or 'tricks' of the game engine.

When the game comes out we will be reduced to trying to be fast and use unit abilities. As the game is mastered by some we will start to see very neat tricks that makes a unit so much more useful than previously thought. Thats the nature of video games. Keep in mind that since this an entirely new game engine, the tricks that develope might be COMPLETELY different the tricks in SC1. In fact I'm counting on that.

Anyone in the smash community knows this. When brawl came out (smash for wii), many many high level Melee players (gamecube) thought the game was skill less and slow. As it turns out, the game is a bit slower paced but skill takes a prime seat in the game.

It comes down to SC2 is a NEW game. Its not Starcraft.

And that's the whole point now isn't it ...
A bit slower, and a little less skilled.
I don't call that a sequel, I call that a setback.
Why bring out a sequel if it's going to be inferior?
We're talking about a potential eSport and not just a game released for pure entertainment. We're talking about an industry that might very well last over a decade.
Why give up when we haven't even started trying?

Actually I've spent my fair share of time reading forums and interviews and most people who have played it agree that SC2 is actually faster paced than the original. Micro will still be there, it will just be a different kind of micro. Things like putting your resource collectors on minerals or 1a2a3a4a or selecting every building to queue up units have simply gone the way of the dodo. A good example of this would be Warcraft 3. The focus will be more on microing your units special abilities since we are going to have more of these abilities at our disposal. It focuses on letting players build a strategy instead of how fast they can click on things. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of respect for people who can pull off amazing PSI storms, irradiates, plagues, and dark swarms in the original. But i feel smartcasting will be a nice step up. I never thought it made sense for every unit to cast the same ability if it doesn't stack. Thats my 2 cents.

Well, if you respect people pulling off Jangbi-storms - then you respect the difficulty of issuing those commands. I didn't talk about smart casting as I don't think it's as major a problem. Once clustering is altered then there will be more difficulty in using these abilities and that will balance them out. Right now, the excitement of a massive storm spread will be gone, as it's not a show of extreme skill, but of a granted ability.
1 - t - click - tab - t - click - tab - t click. Jangbi-storm.

First off, Brawl is a higher stakes game in this country with a huge thriving tournament scene. The top brawl players in this country are taking in thousands in winnings. To the smash "newb" the game appears as a party game yada yada but to the gamer it is one of the most balanced and perfect fighting games out there. Pure entertainment sounds a bit misused with the tone I inferred from your post.

You misread me. Brawl is a bit slower paced but takes more skill. More viable matchups and greater effective movesets as well as MANY character specific advanced techs instead of a few universal ones. You can just learn how to shffl, wavedash, and fight vs falco fox shiek and falcon and you had mastered the game. Brawl you must learn so much more. (disclaimer : this is not meant to start a smash debate, its meant to showcase the divisions of thought with a similar game).

From what I have heard, btw, SC2 is going to be at least as fast paced.

Enough about brawl, that was just supposed to be a comparison point because Melee was a highly developed game with an extensive metagame and Brawl was its sequel and the community had similar fears leading into that game as this one does with SC2.





The whole point of my post that you replied to was to point out that when SC2 hits our computers we are all going to be newbs at it and therefore it’s not going to take serious skill to win matches at first. People WILL misunderstand this as meaning the game is skill less and not as skill based as the game that they have spent a decade on. We will not know how to do cool micro beyond using unit abilities and maybe some cute movement. That will all change as the game matures.

When a game sequel is on the horizon people as want the game to be basically a few new additions to same old game. That’s not really a sequel, that’s an expansion or, at best, a version 2. StarCraft 2 is NOT starcraft BW version 2.0. It is StarCraft 2 Version 1.0. As such, it is young (not even born right now!), completely new, and destined to grow.

I have a feeling this thread is a shadow of a small community split that will happen upon the release of sc2. There will be some that prefer sc1 and not see the point sc2 after having played it. Think of what happened when wc3 came out. Many sc players just preferred the older game.

As for myself, I’m allowing myself to get excited about the new parts of the game. I love learning new things and I love grand strat and micro. So far to my eye, this game is set up to be more about those things than SC1.

Try not to judge sc2 with the same eye you use to appreciate sc1. SC1 is a decade old game with the most mapped out metagame in the RTS genre. If you hold sc2 up to that standard it is an autofail.


edit - Just read you thread here Greth : http://sc2gg.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=2691

What has changed your outlook from when you wrote that till now?

Again, I feel the difficulty of using mass spells such as PSY storms as a result of an outdated game and nothing to be cherished. Elite progamers like Jangbi will still have their Mirco skills show from the sheer about of abilities to keep track of, the increased multitasking, and the seemingly faster gameplay of SC2.

Besides, the ease of getting spells of will make their effective use more common which IMHO will make the games more exciting to watch.

Great article, and subsequent defensive arguments!

It seems like the attitude of the designers was to make the game more accessible and to allow people to be more lazy while playing it. The game itself takes on more of the responsibilities of micro, which may be a move to make the player feel more like a commander than some omniscient god who can make his marines attack their own command center, or send dragoons through a sunken line again and again. Maybe Blizzard is trying to put you out of a job by making it impossible to do ridiculous things in SC2? God, I hope not.

The shift of responsibility onto the computer is a horrible trend in video games lately; if SC1 was Chess, SC2 risks becoming a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book. I can't really do much about all this, though, since I'm still waiting for a Beta Key, and at this point the game is nearly out in stores.

Brilliant writing, once again!