Messages

301

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Unlimited Power!!

« on: April 06, 2008, 12:08:13 PM »

I'm not talking about ease of understanding, I'm talking about ease of use. 12 unit selection limits, inadequate order queueing, etc. To get stuff done in Starcraft you need a much larger number of actions than in any other game. Use three ghosts to lock three targets down? Gotta select one, select the ability, click the target, repeat. In World in Conflict you'd just select them, hold E and click the targets one after the other. IIRC you cannot queue researches, in C&C generals you could queue two riflemen and then the capture ability, in Starcraft you'd have to go back after the units are complete to select the upgrade. The resource collection has a lot of moving from and to the res points so optimizing the routes is critical and can greatly increase your res output.

Oh ok, got ya.  Most, if not all of those things you mentioned will be updated in SC2.  Don't forget that SC1 was made 10 years ago and the RTS genre has evolved a lot since then.  The interface is easy for me to understand and use only because I've been playing it for so long.  I'm accustomed to moving manually moving peons to minerals or commanding groups of 12 units.  For someone who started on a more up-to-date interface, Starcraft will seem what it is....dated.  Nothing to be done about that I suppose.  Ten years from now people will be having the same discussion about RTS interfaces being so much easier than the set ups from "back in 2008".

But screw all that, let's play some Starcraft!

302

Nintendo Gaming / Re: The animation in the GBA Fire Emblems stink.

« on: April 06, 2008, 08:55:46 AM »

Fire Emblem was never about being a graphical showcase neither was Intelligent Systems other games like Warioware, advance wars, Paper Mario but what they did is make interesting gameplay and used the appropriate graphics to supplement the gameplay.

What he said.

BTW, do you really cares about the animations in FE?  Seriously, I'm the biggest FE whore I know and after watching the animations once or twice, I turn them off.  It helps speed up a traditionally slow paced game, especially on the GC/Wii.

But, if we are going to waste our lives comparing them, let's have a quick look:

Fire Emblem 5 SNES

Fire Emblem 7 GBA

The major difference between the two games is that the SNES one integrates the characters into the background while the GBA one doesn't.  I think it was a conscious decision by I.S. to bring the action up front in order to show more character detail and capitalize on making a game that is going to be shown on a 3" portable screen instead of a 30" TV screen.

Also, the spinning of a weapon before the critical helps indicate that it's about to occur.  Having watched only a few FE5 vids, I couldn't tell when they were landing a critical strike and when they weren't.  I could definitely tell when anyone in the GBA versions were landing a critical blow.  Maybe it would help if there was an indicator of some kind?  Spinning weapons, a longer wind up, sparkles?  Again, I haven't played much FE5, so maybe I'm just missing something.

As far as animations go, the GBA sprites are more animated and more detailed than the SNES ones.  The characters also reset their positions after each attack and do it fluidly.  In my opinion, I'd rather look at the GBA attack animations instead of the SNES ones, well that is until I turn them off.

303

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Unlimited Power!!

« on: April 06, 2008, 07:42:06 AM »

Maybe it's the retarded interface.

Dem's fightin' woids!

No, seriously, what's wrong with the interface?  It's just a mouse and keyboard for control.  Hovering the mouse over icons will tell you what is required to build a unit/building.  The hotkeys are labeled with a colored letter in the unit/buildings name.  Is it that you are more accustom to more modern RTS interfaces?  If so, what makes them easier to understand?

I don't mean to sound like I'm attacking you, I've just never played many other RTS's and I don't have a lot of reference for comparison.  I've played Dune and C&C, but I never liked the bar on the right side set up.  I also briefly played the Star Wars RTS that was supposed to be running on the AOE engine, but it wasn't mine and I had to return it.  Anyways, hook a brother up with some insight!

304

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Mobile defenses? Unfair!

« on: April 04, 2008, 08:13:16 AM »

The Protoss Phase Prism



The Protoss Phase Prism is a new and interesting take on the old Protoss shuttle.  The Phase Prism can transport units much like a Shuttle, but instead does it by converting the Protoss units into pure energy.  Not content to be just a Shuttle replacement, the Phase Prism also contains Pylon energy which it can deploy at anytime by stopping it’s movement and changing shape.  This allows the Protoss to have a power replacement at any time in case their Pylons get destroyed.

Here is a Phase Prism restoring power to some cannons.
 
The voice over in the video is none other than everyone's favorite time machine using Lead Designer, Dustin Browder.



Don’t be fooled by this picture.  This Phase Prism isn’t dropping off units.  Something else is happening here…something that will be revealed later. Gwa-ha-ha-ha! 

305

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Mobile defenses? Unfair!

« on: April 03, 2008, 10:57:33 PM »

Looks like the Tempest was also a little faster and a smaller target.  I hope the super-shield is an upgrade for the Carrier.  I love me some Carriers but there so slow...

I don't think the Carrier will be getting any changes.  It's probably going to come back the exact same.  Giving it the upgraded shield would make them too overpowering versus Terran Goliaths or Zerg Hydralisks.  Carriers are at their best when attacking from cliffs, water, and high ground.  It causes all kinds of chaos amongst the attacking ground units.  If you hit and run using focus fire with any form of terrain advantage, the battle is yours.

This thread is getting me interested in the game. I didn't play as much of the original as I would have liked, and I was never any good at it, but I enjoyed it. Plus I have to support Blizzard; as a Mac user I love a company that not only releases the Mac version of a game at the same time as the PC version, but releases it on the same disc.

I'm glad you're getting hyped.  Jump aboard the train with the rest of us.  I'm going to be starting a NWR forum member Starcraft thread in Matchmaking in a few weeks, you should join us.  Most everybody will be completely out of practice or total noobs.  The aim is to have fun.

306

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Mobile defenses? Unfair!

« on: April 03, 2008, 09:20:59 AM »

Soul Hunter is the one that is gone isn't it?  I don't remember hearing anything about it.

Oh yeah.  The Soul Hunter and the Tempest are gone.  The Soul Hunter was unbalanced and got the cut.  The Tempest was basically a copy of the Carrier that had a super shield that activated versus ground attacks only.  It also couldn't shoot air.  It was found to be not different enough from the regular Carrier and got the axe.  The Twilight Archon is now just called the Archon, but it has been given a new spell.

Oh my, look at me getting ahead of myself.  Clever Ceric, trying to pry more information from me.     j/k  Keep firing away with those questions!

307

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Harassment 101

« on: April 03, 2008, 08:44:38 AM »

The Protoss Phase Cannon



The Protoss still deploy the multi-purpose automated cannons for base defense.  For Starcraft 2, there has been a slight twist on the cannon.  The cannon can still detect invisible enemies, shoot ground and air, but now you can move it around your base.  That’s right, problems with enemies dropping in on your money line with your only cannons defending your entrance?  No problem!  Tell those Phase cannons to ball up into energy and warp to the money line to help thwart invaders.

Here they are in action.

The actual cannon appears from the 45 second mark to the 1:19 mark.  The other units shown in this clip, made back in August 07, have since been removed from the game.  They will still be available in the map maker mode though.



Warping or not, this many flanking Marines spell doom for these Cannons.  Wait a minute?!  What's that in the sky!  Hmmm...I wonder, stay tuned.   

308

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Auto-Turrets FTW

« on: April 02, 2008, 08:15:48 AM »

The Zerg Mutalisk



The Zerg Mutalisk, or Muta for short, is the staple air unit for the Zerg airforce.  Much like many Zerg units, Mutas are not dangerous by themselves, but when packed into large groups, can cause massive damage and headaches to their opponents.  Mutas excel at hit and run style harassment strategies.  Their only weapon is to spit out a glaive worm which, upon hitting it’s target, will bounce and hit up to two more enemies.



These Marines probably should have retreated by now.  Not like it would help at this point.

Scary, real scary.

The above link shows how a hit-and-run unit can be in the hands of an expert.



No words could describe how horrifying that would be seeing something like that looking down upon you.

309

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Auto-Turrets FTW

« on: April 01, 2008, 02:34:37 PM »

I figured as much but it be fitting in with the description they gave.

True. 

Hey, check out the April Fool's gag that Blizzard posted today.

Tauren Marines!

Starcraft is just Warcraft in space.  Indeed.   

310

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Auto-Turrets FTW

« on: April 01, 2008, 10:28:16 AM »

In the Nomad description they hinted at the ship itself having weaponry.  I'm sort of interested if you heard if it has even rudimentary anti-air capability.

Right now the Nomad is unarmed and only able to attack through the structures it creates.  The turrets it creates are ground to ground attacks only, but that may change to be either ground to air as well.  If not, they may give the Nomad an air-to-air.  Honestly, I don't see that happening.  The Nomad is being billed as a replacement Science Vessel, so it's primary use is spell casting and detection.  If it did get an attack, it would probably be very weak and not worth the effort, not unlike the Arbiter from Starcraft 1.

311

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Nomadic wanderers

« on: April 01, 2008, 08:28:03 AM »

Nomad Abilities

The Terran Nomad isn’t just for detecting enemy units.  Oh no, this bad boy is willing to help out in the fight too.  Below are a few tricks that the Nomad has up it’s sleeve.



The Auto-Turret can be made onsite by the Nomad at anytime.  Fly by and drop a few off to defend your expansion or attack an enemy expansion.  Give your army a fall back spot when being pursued by enemies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIEWp5-yxGM

See the Nomad’s Turrets in action!



Mine Drones are created by the Nomad to act as first strike surprise defenses.  Once deployed, the Drone will create and plant 4 mines around itself and then cloak to render itself invisible.  When the enemy approaches, the mines uproot themselves and attack.  Afterwards, the Drone uncloaks, replaces it’s mines and cloaks again.



Nano repair lets the Nomad repair any mechanical unit by 200 hp for the cost of 75 energy.  How useful is that?

312

Nintendo Gaming / Re: I have a confession...

« on: March 31, 2008, 10:46:53 PM »

The first thing I checked when I read this was where bosshogx lives.  Well it appears to be on the opposite side of the continent from me so at least I don't have to worry about encountering him on the road.

My brother says that one of the coolest gaming experiences he ever had was playing F-Zero on the GBA while in a car.  He was a passenger though.

Nothing to fear.  I haven't done the crime in almost a month now.  I started this thread to help atone for my stupidity and maybe help other people who might be doing similar stupid things.  I would consider driving and texting or talking on the phone to be equally dangerous.  Get a hands free device to talk and never text while driving, even if you don't need to see the letters.

313

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Nomadic wanderers

« on: March 31, 2008, 01:17:23 PM »

BTW, the blue tiberium equivalent, gemstones, was already present in C&C:RA

Hmm...gemstones first appeared in C&C:RA, Browder was the Lead Designer.  Yellow Minerals appear in Starcraft 2, Browder is the Lead Designer.  My God!  Browder is the one who used the EA time machine!  Dun-dun-duhn!!

314

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Don't eat yellow minerals.

« on: March 31, 2008, 08:44:24 AM »

The Terran Nomad



The Terran Nomad is the newest in the line of deep space exploration and colonization ships.  The Nomad was made to handle the harsh environments of new worlds and boasts a large variety of sensors.  These sensors allow it to detect cloaked and burrowed enemy units anywhere near it.  The Nomad is replacing the older, out of date Science Vessel.

**Please note: The Nomad has recently underwent a complete overhaul of it’s design and will probably not look like this in the final game.**



Uh oh, looks like someone found a Protoss expansion.



Wait, what is this thing?  That doesn’t look like a Nomad.  Hmmm…stay tuned!

315

Nintendo Gaming / Re: I have a confession...

« on: March 30, 2008, 05:56:56 PM »

You are going to die, and kill us all.

How bad would that crash/wipe out have to be to kill the entire NWR forum?  Wow.

316

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - Don't eat yellow minerals.

« on: March 30, 2008, 08:35:21 AM »

Nice, blue tiberium!

[sarcasm] No, no, no.  Yellow crystals are nothing at all like this "Blue Tiberium" you speak of.  It's a completely brand new and innovative concept thats never been seen before in any prior RTS.  Dustin Browder, the Lead Designer of Starcraft 2, would never borrow from other RTS titles.  Never mind the fact that he was the Lead Designer of C&C: Red Alert 2 and C&C: Generals.  I'm sure it's a complete coincidence that this "Blue Tiberium" you speak of is so similar to Yellow Crystals.  In fact, I'm willing to bet that this "Blue Tiberium" you speak of was a rip-off of the Yellow Crystals!  There's probably some time machine thing at EA they use to jump into the future and steal other people's ideas.  Yeah, that must be it.... [/sarcasm]

OR you could be dead right.  Take your pick.   

Awesome thread, I knew next to nothing about SC2 until I read this thread and now I know somewhat more. Kudos!

No problem man.  Feel free to Google to your hearts content for more information or just drop by here to get the "Dojo Trickle" of information.  You play any SC1?  I'm thinking about starting a thread in Matchmaking and was hoping to get some people to join in.

317

Nintendo Gaming / Re: I have a confession...

« on: March 30, 2008, 08:18:47 AM »

I'd laugh if this wasn't such a serious hazard. I hope you know you are putting more lives at risk by doing that than your own. How would you feel if some kids get killed because you were distracted on a video game while driving? Could you live with yourself after that?

So again, it's not really a funny thing at all...

You are absolutely right.  That's actually part of the reason I posted it here so that enough people would tell me how wrong I was for doing it.  I knew what I was doing was wrong the whole time, but figured I was a good driver and could handle it fine.  The part of me that knew better kept nagging me and I always remembered that if you had a problem, the first thing to do was admit it.  I made this thread to get my problem out in the open and hope that other people will tell me to stop. 

Ironically, I almost got hit by another driver because she was texting on her phone.  I wasn't doing playing games or anything.  I just watched at she slowly drifted into my lane.  She was holding her phone up over the wheel to either text or look at pictures.  I honked the horn and she corrected herself and closed her phone up.  Didn't look at me as we passed.

The good thing is that I've added an MP3 player to my car so that I can listen to tunes.  That makes the drive go a lot easier and safer.  I still have my DS with me, but now I only play on my lunch break at work.  Gotta get through Professor Layton.

318

Nintendo Gaming / Re: I have a confession...

« on: March 28, 2008, 08:29:23 AM »

So, I've decided to stop playing on the road.  I came to this obvious decision when I was playing Brain Age's Sudoku.  I imagined getting into a car wreck and having to explain to the police why.

Cop: "Why happened Mr. Hogx?"

Me: "I, uh, was distracted..."

Cop: "Distracted? By what?"

Me: "I was....uh....*sigh*...I was busy training my brain..."

Cop: "..."

Me: "..."

Cop: "Wow, just wait for the internet to find out about this one."

Some responses:

PartyBear - You found me out! 

Vudu - Oh man, Fire Emblem is what got me started.  FE is my crack...

Torusesu:  Sorry to hear that.  At least I can learn from other people's mistakes.

Shecky:    We should play this weekend with special rules.  We both start by driving 5 MPH around a Wi-Fi hotspot like McDonalds or Starbucks.  After every day/turn we add 1 MPH to our cruise control.  Sounds like fun to me! 

319

Nintendo Gaming / Re: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

« on: March 28, 2008, 08:11:31 AM »

Well, it looks like a friend of mine is going to be playing it first, so my review will have to wait.  He's letting me borrow Professor Layton while I wait.  Brain puzzles vs. Ninja slashing action.  Either way, I win. 

320

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - I always feel like, somebody's Stalking me...

« on: March 28, 2008, 08:09:24 AM »

High Yield Minerals

New to Starcraft 2 are the High Yield Mineral Patches.  These mineral patches give an additional 4 minerals on top of the usual 8.  Each trip by a worker will net a total of 12 minerals.  They can be easily spotted because of their unique yellow color.  But beware, most of the time these patches will be in hard to defend areas.



Yellow minerals minding their own business.



The stakes are raised over the yellow mineral patches

321

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - I always feel like, somebody's Stalking me...

« on: March 27, 2008, 03:37:41 PM »

Oh, heck, yeah!  Count me in.  I guess I'm not really a regular poster (yet), but I'd love to dust off my old copy of Starcraft.

Well dust it off bud.  Jump on Battle.net to get the latest patch and PM me when you want to play.  8 player FFA's!  4v4!  1v1!  w00t!

Ugh, zerg are, and always have been, so gross. Why do people want to play as these living fleshy nasty David Cronenberg mutations? Yuck.

Come on, you know you want to snuggle up next to one of those slimy, pulsating piles of goo.  Or skip hand in hand with an armored cockroach mutation that could rip your head off.  Although, you haven't seen gross yet.  There's a Zerg unit on the horizon that might make you hurl when you see it.   

322

Nintendo Gaming / I have a confession...

« on: March 27, 2008, 03:18:05 PM »

I play my DS sometimes when I drive.   

I'm a terrible person.  I know I shouldn't do it, but I have a long commute and get quite bored.  In my defense, I only play games that are turn based like Advance Wars, Phoenix Wright, Picross, and Brain Age's Sudoku.  Most of the time it's at a stop light or a long car-less straight away.  Hopefully I'm not the only person guilty of this...anyone else care to admit their gaming sins?

323

Nintendo Gaming / Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword

« on: March 27, 2008, 03:09:02 PM »

I just picked it up today and am looking forward to putting some time into this weekend.  Anyone else planning on picking this up?

324

General Gaming / Re: The Starcraft mega thread - work, work, work

« on: March 27, 2008, 07:56:22 AM »

The Protoss Stalker



The Protoss Stalker is the Dark Templar version of the older Dragoon technology.  Although it does not possess the firepower and shielding of the Immortal, the Stalker has a unique ability to teleport short distances.  This ability, called Blinking, can be used to move up and down cliffs, chase down enemy opponents, or run away from melee units.
 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTzj9-Oz0Z8>Make sure not to use these lines on a first date.[/url]

Don’t run, you’ll just die tired.



It's just a jump to the left...and then a Blink to the right!

325

General Gaming / Re: Official NWR PAX 2008 Thread

« on: March 26, 2008, 11:16:36 AM »

Yeah sorry, I was doing some other stuff on my PC when I read that first post and didn't actually goto the website.

No problem.  Does your brother in law still play Starcraft?  I'm looking to get some people to play with me in a casual environment.  Maybe get some of the NWR regulars to play.