Wildstorm and DC Comics showed a sneak peek artwork of the upcoming Starcraft comic book coming on 2009. Some of the characters are mentioned. I will update later on when possible. For now here is a photo I took at the hotel.
Blizzard is kicking in with a brand new Battle.net Forums for all the Battle.net games in anticipation of this weekend's BlizzCon 2008. You should update your Battle.net forum bookmarks.
Bashiok: Weve just brought our brand-new Battle.net forums online. The new forums bring a host of new features and stability, as well as helpful tools for us to better moderate and organize posts. Theyre available right now -- to access them, visit: http://forums.battle.net
The forum login requirements remain the same. In order to post you will need an account created by a Battle.net supported game and a CD-key.
These forums will no longer be open for posting, but if youd like to copy a thread or back up some information, theyll remain available until Monday, October 13.
The benefits of implementing these new forums are numerous, and we hope youre as excited as we are to see this step toward the continued growth and support of our Battle.net community.
Are you a Warcraft or StarCraft player? Do you love manga? Ever dream of bringing these rich worlds and wonderful characters to life with the stroke of your pencil?
Well, now's your opportunity to show the world your artistic skills and possibly become the artist of an upcoming Warcraft or StarCraft manga.!
TOKYOPOP is now accepting and reviewing portfolios from talented individuals interested in becoming the next big manga artist. We're looking for super-talented manga artists who not only know the Warcraft or StarCraft universes, but can handle an intense and very demanding production schedule. Our goal is to deliver truly awesome manga, and to achieve this we need artists who can give readers an exciting and authentic Warcraft or StarCraft manga experience.
We require that all portfolios have 5-8 sequential samples (preferably featuring Warcraft or StarCraft characters), as well as 5-8 character sketches/turnarounds featuring Warcraft or StarCraft characters. TOKYOPOP is a manga publisher, so your art should fit well within the manga art style.
Send your best portfolio submissions to:
Warcraft/StarCraft Art
c/o TOKYOPOP
5900 Wilshire Blvd. Ste. 2000
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Please note that all art submitted is non-returnable, so do not send originals!. Remember to include your name and contact info (email and/or phone number) within the portfolio.
Additionally, if you are attending BlizzCon 2008 (Oct. 10-11), please stop by the TOKYOPOP booth at the following times for portfolio reviews:
10/10/08 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
10/11/08 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
So get those samples drawn and show us your stuff!
Attention all gamers! TOKYOPOP will be showcasing at this year's Blizzcon! Stop by the TOKYOPOP booth to participate in many exciting activities at the show. Get your picture taken as a Terran Marine and interact with your favorite Warcraft and StarCraft creators and -both will be on hand signing the latest Warcraft and StarCraft manga from TOKYOPOP! Want more? Buy volume 1 of Warcraft: Legends or StarCraft: Frontline at the Blizzcon store for a chance to spin the TOKYOPOP prize wheel to win assorted goodies such as exclusive Warcraft: Legends volume 2!
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TOKYOPOP is now accepting and reviewing portfolios from talented individuals interested in becoming the next big manga artist. We're looking for super-talented manga artists who not only know the Warcraft or StarCraft universes, but can handle an intense and very demanding production schedule. Our goal is to deliver truly awesome manga, and to achieve this we need artists who can give readers an exciting and authentic Warcraft or StarCraft manga experience..
Additionally, if you are attending BlizzCon 2008 (Oct. 10-11), please stop by the TOKYOPOP booth at the following times for portfolio reviews:
10/10/08 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
10/11/08 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. & 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
So get those samples drawn and show us your stuff!
BLIZZCON! For those attending the convention, I will be a guest of Blizzard and Tokyopop! You will find me either wandering around enjoying the con or signing at the Tokyopop booth! I'll be signing manga, novels, etc., even Dragonlance and the Dragonrealm. See you in Anaheim!
WARCRAFT --- NIGHT OF THE DRAGON AUTOGRAPHED COPIES! Due to requests, I am taking orders for my next WarCraft novel, NIGHT OF THE DRAGON available for US addresses only at this timne (sorry)! Cost is $16 (cover) plus $4 shipping. You may also add the mangas WarCraft LEGENDS vol. 1 & 2 for $12 each (includes $1 additional shipping). My apologies, but the mangas are not available from me separately at this time.
To order, go to Paypal.com and pay gryphonbooks@sbcglobal.net
NOTE! At this time, this offer ends when the novel is published --- NOVEMBER 18! So, if you are interested, order now!
THE DRAGONREALM! Pocket Books now has a title for the new archive featuring the first three novels --- FIREDRAKE, ICE DRAGON, & WOLFHELM! LEGENDS OF THE DRAGONREALM will be out next summer and will feature brand new cover art! I am pushing for a map, the first ever, so cross your fingers!
BEASTMASTER! For any of you who have been fans of the movies and series, I recently co-wrote a new novel with Sylvio Tabet, the producer of both the movies and the series! The novel, which returns the character to his roots yet expands in a new direction, has been purchased by Pocket Books! No date yet, but I'll be sure to announce that!
Our collegues and close pals from france, Judgehype, informed me early in the morning that they have an interview with Blizzard about Starcraft 2 made during the Games Developer Conference. It may have some interesting bits of info. Take a look at the English or French versions.
These are some of the questions:
1. Will the editor allow us to have the water surface react to explosions and units passing by ?
2. Will we have the possibility of having units evolve under water in the editor ?
3. Will the Ultralisk upgrades change his visual appearance ?
4. The plasma turret of the Battlecruisers seem to have disappeared (Q&A 40) will we find something similar on another unit ?
5. The Firebat has disappeared, what other close combat units do we have ?
6. Do the burrowed Zerg see the units on the surface as they are or will they only see the movements like the Terran radar does ?
7. In the original StarCraft two Psi-Storms at the same location will not double the damage, will this stay the same in StarCraft II ?
On other community news, SCLegacy reports some Starcraft II gameplay videos taken at PAX 2008. You can watch the videos here.
The Starcraft: Frontline Vol. 2 by Tokyopop is due on January 2009. It contains four stories based on the Starcraft universe. Below you have the book description:
The brutal... The menacing... The twisted... Confront the vast, renowned world of StarCraft inside this collection of mind-blowing adventures.
A Ghost Story Sterilized by war, a rocky planet's bounty and dark terrors have remained safely hidden--until a Kel Morian Combine crew catches wind of it hoping to strike big. There's just one problem: The planet seems to be haunted by a "ghost." Newsworthy
A pro-Dominion reporter lands the scoop of lifetime: an exclusive sit-down with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk following an embedded mission with terran marines. Every good reporter tells both sides of the story, but when she comes face-to-face with atrocity, can she handle the brutal truth, much less report it?
Creep Feared by all and understood by none, zerg creep finally comes under the knife in the laboratory of protoss scientists. But instead of shedding light on the bizarre bio-matter, the scientists spiral into a psychologically disturbing and nightmarish struggle against a completely unknown foe.
Glynnis Talken (Sarah McKerrigan) has a book signing schedule on Saturday, October 11th at Seaside Highland Games at Seaside Park in Ventura, California. You can find her at the Tea & Sympathy booth. If you go make sure to send us photos or video of your meeting with the voice behind Kerrigan the Queen of Blades ... of course, if you survive the experience. View the map or check train/car directions here.
Ventura City Parks Division
336 San Jon Rd
Ventura, CA 93001
The Starcraft 2 team has changed the name of the protoss unit from Warp Ray to Void Ray. Karune also explains the differences of armor attributes between units.
Karune: At the moment, there is 'light' and 'armored' armor classes. Buildings also fall under the 'armored' armor class.
Attacks on the other hand are a bit more varied. There is bonus damage towards, 'light, armored, biological, and massive.' Knowing a unit's damage bonuses will be very important in knowing what to use to counter certain units.
Biological units usually just mean they are not mechanical. Marines, Zerglings, and Zealots are biological. Non-biological units does not however mean they fall under the 'armored' class though and vice-versa.
For instance, Marauders are biological units but are armored. Nullifiers are mechanical units, but have light armor. Ultralisks, would fall under massive, biological, and armored. Though Battlecruisers would be massive, mechanical, and armored. These new categories also allow for many more soft counters in the game as well, giving slight bonuses to units against a certain type, but not have it as an overwhelming hard counter, where one unit wins the game easily.
Warp Rays, also known as Void Rays now, are especially good against high hit point units, as well as buildings.
Often, the strategy that sees the most Void Ray use is against Zerg, using these units to do surprise attacks or joint attacks. Many Protoss players who scout Zerg players going mass ground units, will fast tech to Void Rays in hopes to catch them without anti-air capabilities. Void Rays are also great to do an attack on their base while you have a diversionary force distracting them in another place. 2-3 Warp Rays could take out a Hatchery much faster than say that equivalent in resources of Mutalisks.
Karune shared details of the Reaper vs. Hellions' effectiveness against enemy units and the differences between both units in certain combat scenarios.
Karune: The Hellion is faster than the Reaper side by side, but the cliff traversing talent often gets the Reaper to the place you want to go faster.
In raiding, it really depends. Hellions will be able to hit several workers at the same time, but Reapers have much more direct damage. Choosing what to use may also depend on what you are up against. Hellions are armored, whereas Reapers are light armor. Both are very useful for raiding and used in conjunction effectively could easily mean GG quite early, bleeding the enemy economy and tech.
New updates for upcoming Blizzard novel from Pocket Star Books. The brief description of StarCraft: I, Mengsk is now available. You can read it at our Starcraft Pocketbook Excerpts section.
The World of Warcraft: Night of the Dragon brief description is also available. This is the backstory to the events leading to the Magic War against Malygos in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. You may find the description at our Warcraft Pocketbook Excerpts section.
Gunnar informs AusGamers interviewed Frank Pearce (Blizzard co-founder) to talk about Battle.net 2.0 and eSports. A new bit of info came up in this interview. A Battle.net 2.0 feature is aimed to be like MySpace. By the sounds of that, community interaction and socialization experience will be increased a few notches.
Not a StarCraft related news, but I love to do follow ups on Glynnis' careers: both voice acting and book writing. She is the voice of Kerrigan the Queen of Blades in Starcraft II. On her role as a writer, Glynnis Talken-Campbell, under her book writer pseudonym Sarah McKerrigan, recently announced DANGER KISS (a medieval romance novel). Her DANGER KISS trailer has been nominated as a finalist in the New Covey Trailer Awards contest.
Watch the nominated trailer, and Vote (Voting is in the dark box in the upper left. You must disable Firefox noscript addon in order to see it.)
Title: Danger's Kiss Author: Sarah McKerrigan Trailer Producer: Richard Campbell Genre: Historical Romance
Description
Danger's Kiss is sort of a Sheriff of Nottingham meets The Artful Dodger adventure in which Nicholas Grimshaw, upstanding officer of the law, living happily alone in his thatched cottage, makes the mistake of taking mercy upon a beautiful scam artist by the name of Desiree and, instead of hanging her for her thievery, indentures her as his servant.
Sleight of hand and sleight of heart ensue as the two clash over what’s right versus what’s just, and moral lines become blurred as lawman and outlaw fall recklessly in love.
Starcraft II Community Manager Karune seeks fan feedback concerning Zerg Creep. Read below the details surrounding the latest new changes for the Zerg, and post your feedback at the following Battle.net forum.
Discussion Topic: Zerg Creep
One of the distinct features of the Zerg is their fast movement, quick reactions and their large numbers. With the newest changes to the StarCraft II build these attributes are bound to reinforced once more.
Here are a couple of changes to the Zerg:
Zerg units except Drones can now move 30% faster on creep
Creep Tumors are smaller and burrowed
These changes will have a big impact on Zerg strategy, since covering terrain with Creep will now be very important. We will see Overlord rushes with mass spewing of creep and Zerg fast micro on creep. The burrowed Creep Tumors will force the other races to get quick detection to push back the Zerg Creep and take their fast movement.
If you have a StarCraft II fan site and would like to participate, please email me at karune@blizzard.com.
Questions for Fans:
What do you think of the speed increase on Creep?
How do you think this change will effect Zerg, Protoss and Terran?
Do you like or dislike the change? Why?
Each StarCraft II fansite will be featuring different types of questions, so be sure to also visit those sites. All of this feedback will be compiled and sent to the dev team.
Please structure feedback as follows:
-----
(question you'd like to answer)
(your answer)
(question you'd like to answer)
(your answer)
-----
Were looking forward to seeing great discussions on the Zerg Creep.
MikeN from Blizzard Technical Support informed fans that Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War have been updated with patch 1.15.3 which fixes a few problems on Windows and Mac versions.
MikeN: We have just released a new patch for StarCraft! Just connect to Battle.net and the patch should automatically download. If you wish to download the standalone patch, please go to our support site here.
Patch 1.15.3 - Bug Fixes
Fixed a communication bug affecting third party leagues.
Alt-F6 no longer stalls the game on Windows.
Game now works correctly on versions of Mac OS X which do not support 256-color mode.
Starcraft 2 Beta doesn't seem to be on the radar yet. As of WWI 2008 in Paris, a third of the single-player had been done. Crispy Gamer got a four=pages interview with Bob Colayco and Frank Pearce discussing several topics about Starcraft 2 including voice chat. Blizzard is looking closely at some Steam features.
Crispy Gamer: What about plans for an open beta for StarCraft II?
Pearce: A beta is very important from the perspective of getting feedback from the community and continuing that process of iteration. A beta is something that we're very likely going to need to host. But we haven't made any determination whether we're going to have to host a closed beta or an open beta, or both yet.
The Starcraft 2 terran unit Nomad has now been renamed to Vulkan and its graphics revamped. The Protoss Archon's graphics have also been updated. This reminds everyone nothing remains the same throughout development, and even through beta things may still change drastically. The same held true in the original Starcraft game where units were added and removed constantly prior to release.
Karune: Speaking of the Nomad, it has actually gotten it's new art update, and a name update as well. It is now known as the Vulkan, and will be resigning down chaos at your expansions with its Auto Turrets.
On that same note, the Archon has also been updated visually with an amazing portrait animation that will surely command respect when ordering this guy around. Furthermore, say good bye to the 'walking' Archons as the 'legs' to the unit model have been removed. This unit now hovers around the battlefield decimating enemy forces like a true ominous being. Keep a look out for these two art updates in future screenshot releases :) This new Archon is also 'leg-less' and has updated art from any build or screenshot seen thus far is what I meant.
Chat with Devs: Something I noticed during our recent shows at Games Convention in Leipzig and PAX in Seattle is that many new players trying out the game who played Zerg built several creep tumors, thinking they were either defenses or going to morph into defenses. This eventually lead into a conversation with Dustin about why Creep Tumors no longer morph into base defenses. For those who dont know, a Creep Tumor is a building which expands creep around it significantly. Building this building is an excellent way to cover additional ground with creep, allowing for many new strategies, including aggressive Spine Crawler pushes (the mobile Sunken Colony).
Dustin brought up two scenarios to why Creep Tumors no longer morph into other Zerg defenses:
1) You would be able to creep across the map by moving your creep-spawning base defenses.
2) It would be easier to accidentally end up with buildings off of creep because the creep-generator moved away.
Thus, since the development team definitely wanted to give Zerg mobile defenses, they decided to split the roles of the Creep Tumor and the other Zerg defenses. This also allows for the team to make these Creep Tumors burrowed and very cheap in the latest build.
As always, feel free to give the Devs and I a w00t if your enjoying these Q&As!
---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 44---
1) Is it possible for replays to contain more in depth player statistics such as average clicks per minute, number of hotkeys used, etc.. ? (starcraft2.com.au)
Replays will have much more info available in them that will include more detailed stat tracking, as well as other useful eSports related features.
2) Terrans currently appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of troop mobility, (as compared to 'Warp-in' and 'Nydus Worm') are there any plans to bring back the, 'drop-pod' or other new transport mechanic? (sclegacy.com)
Actually, the Terrans have many units and mechanics that empower them with more mobility than the original StarCraft. The Reaper and Viking is a good example of new units that extend the Terrans raiding capabilities. Furthermore, Medivac Dropships offer more incentive to build lots of Dropships, which translate to more mobility for their entire army. Salvage is also another mechanic that helps in terms of rebuilding and moving a Terran base to new locations. Lastly, the Terrans are still the only side that can pick up and move their whole entire base, as well as being able to load SCVs in their Command Center now, allowing for quicker fast expanding strategies.
3) With the new high ground mechanic in place, an army can't fight units that are on higher ground anymore until they get a spotter up the ledge. Both Zerg and Terran have the possibility to spot units on high ground with Overlords and floating buildings right from the start of the game, but the first Protoss unit to fly up there would be the Phase Prism. Could it be that Protoss players have a significant disadvantage on some maps because of this?(GameReplays.org)
In the latest builds of StarCraft II, the Protoss no longer need an Observatory to build Observers. Observers will be able to be built straight from the Robotics Facility, allowing earlier eyes on the battlefield.
We definitely saw that especially on certain maps, Terrans were able to block their choke point early, taking away much of the scouting portion of the game from Protoss, and are trying out this new solution for it. Additionally, we felt that Observers were too a crucial to the Protoss army to have them that far up the tech tree.
4) Will the Unit Portraits in SC2 be pre-rendered high quality video clips like in SC1 ? willygundersen (Battle.net)
The unit portraits will be shown in much higher quality than the actual units on the screen, similar to the original StarCraft and Warcraft III. They will not be video clips, but will be animations rendered in game. There will be several examples of their unit portraits in the next BlizzCast, where we have Dustin and Sammy discussing the process of creating a unit.
5) We all know how important it is that tier 1 units be effective at later tiers, which has prompted different unit abilities like the Zealots Charge. But it seems that the Protoss have a leg up in that they have Charge while the Zerglings have only their traditional speed boost without any AI enhancements. Is anything being planned for the Zergling? (starcraft2forum.org)
Due to the new game engine, Zerglings have much better pathing in StarCraft II, meaning they move much more efficiently. Zerglings are able to both surround enemy units easier and are more easily selectable as well, being able to control more than 12 at a time. Furthermore, Zerglings are also slightly smaller than their original StarCraft counterparts, and able to be morphed into Banelings, which are extremely effective against Zealots. Lastly, Zealots have also had their shield hit points reduced by 10, as compared to the original StarCraft Zealots.
pR0gR4m3R on StarCraft-ESP.com sends word that StarCraft II and WotLK will be available to play in Madrid this weekend during the WC3 and WoW finals. Bit of a positive surprise! (Read More).
Ars Technica previews Starcraft 2 after their hands-on experience at PAX 2008 this past week. Nothing new, except they loved to play the game, and didn't find any difference between the original Starcraft and the new sequel. The new units feel natural and fit in with the other units in the Starcraft universe.
Send us your StarCraft-themed comics and we'll choose the funniest or most interesting to be showcased on a special gallery page. Remember, we're looking for the best StarCraft humor out there. You can submit comics created in any medium, just make sure they're relevant to StarCraft II, original, and make us laugh.
For the first month, our winner will receive an 8GB Blizzard Branded iPod Nano, a copy of the StarCraft board game, a StarCraft Battle Chest, a shirt, and a copy of the StarCraft cinematics DVD. Two runners-up will also receive prize packages. See the official contest page here.
Frank Pearce talked about Starcraft 2 and Battle.net 2.0 with GamesIndustry.biz, and from what I could interpret it seems Battle.net 2.0 will work like ... Steam? to access World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2, and Diablo III into one solid Blizzard Community where you can interact with friends who play the same game as you, or even if your friend doesn't have World of Warcraft, you may keep in contact with him to synch playing Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3. If my interpretation was correct, this is gonna be a great feature. Read the interview
Q: That's the basis of the plan to unite communities from all of Blizzard's titles more?
Frank Pearce: We'd definitely like to be able to bring the entire Blizzard community together online. Battle.net would certainly be a good tool to make that happen. The WoW community is massive, the StarCraft community is large as well.
We'll have to see - we probably won't be able to implement all the plans that we have in mind when StarCraft II launches, but with Battle.net being an online destination, we can add features as we go.
Q: Do you see lots of crossover between the different players of your games?
Frank Pearce: We did some research, and I can't remember which direction we did it in - whether it was StarCraft players that played WoW or vice versa - and there's a fair amount of overlap.
StarcraftWire got an interview with Karune. The interview covers Medivac Dropships, LAN and a serious hint that beta might not be too far. Not many official website updates until beta.
Telias from 4players.de informs they got a interview with Frank Pierce and Bob Colayco at the 2008 Leipzig Games Convention. The English version of this interview is now online.
So what about this replay function? Will the replays be saved on the Blizzard-Server?
Bob Colayco: The way it works right now is that the replays are saved on your local computer. So when I play you save the replay on my computer. Maybe some other things we try to do is like how can you easily show the replay to your friends and make that more easy to transit to. As far as a specific functionality for battle.net we are not really ready to get into the details of that because there are still decisions being made as we develop, whether specific things will make it in with the launch of the game and what we will have to add on later because the development on the new battle.net will be continues. It’s not like we are launching a game and this is it, this is the end. There’s going to be more things added on as we go.
Frank Pierce: We are also talking about potential spectator’s functionality and things like that. We have an e-sports-team internally whose responsibility is to host the events that we run and also work for parties so that e-sports-team will be responsible for e-sport with StarCraft 2 as well.
Shacknews previews Starcraft 2 after their hands-on play at PAX 2008 convention and interviewed Karune to discuss the new changes to be made to Starcraft 2. The build played at PAX was the same played at WWI Paris
2008. However, Karune confirms that fans will play a different build at BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim. Multiple Building Selection will change some from what was presented at WWI and PAX. Vespene Gas will drastically drains faster in the new BlizzCon build, and will force players to strategically spend more minerals to purchase Vespene Gas.
The design here is to balance Micro vs Macro Management players and spend vespene gas resources more wisely. Once the Vespene Gas geyser is drained, you must move all your Vespene SCVs to the minerals until the geyser is replenished.
Kevin Yu: In the build that you'll see at BlizzCon it's more of a compromise. Clicking on each of the barracks--let's say you have three barracks. It won't be like you press "M" once and you'll have three marines pop out. You're actually going to have to press "M" three times, which is a little more controlled over what comes out. Because let's say you have a tech lab on one, and on another you have a reactor, so they build different units and such. You can actually have a little more control over that now.
We've tried different things like enable tabbing inbetween each building. Like you click a control group of all your barracks, and you have to tab inbetween each time to press "M." So you have a control group that's 4 for your barracks; 4, M, Tab, M, Tab, M, Tab, M.
We made it one step easier on that. We used to have more control. Honestly, the game still requires a lot of skill and we're not too worried about that. We're really thinking that the game is going to have a lot of things we're not expecting. There's going to be a more tactical dynamic to the game, especially with units being able to move a lot faster. All the races are a lot more mobile than they were in StarCraft 1. With Protoss you warp in your army, you don't have to wait for them to cross the map. You can move your whole entire [Zerg] army with the Nydus Canal. Dropships now are very prevalent in StarCraft 2 for Terrans because they also double up as a medic now. More incentive to have dropships and move your army around.
TotalVideoGames interviewed Frank Pearce and Bob Calayco to discuss details of Starcraft 2. It is not something that is in the works, nor will make it to release date, but it lurks within the dev team's minds. Starcraft 2 could have a co-op gameplay after release date. Curiously they mention the term of Map Pack releases after release date, and co-op gameplay could be introduced that way. The mention of map packs could mean there is no monthly fee planned for Battle.net 2.0.
TVG: Relic Entertainment has announced that Dawn of War II will be released in the first quarter of 2009; how do you feel about their ideas about where the RTS genre should be heading?
Pearce: They've got some cool stuff. I've heard about Dawn of War II potentially having a co-operative [campaign] experience, which is a really cool idea. [It's] something we talked about that we don't have for the launch of StarCraft II, but it's definitely something that we've kept in mind when creating the technology so it doesn't preclude from doing something like that in the future.
Starcraft: Ghost has officially been declared not currently in development. It will return at some point in the future, but it is off the radar currently. Blizzard's focus right now is Starcraft 2, Diablo 3 and Wrath of the Lich King.
