Starcraft II--any gamers out there?

[hackhelios]

Video games. Didn't see too many threads on the topic, so forgive me if this is just entirely the wrong forum for it. But if no one has any objections...

From a UI perspective, this game is making a lot of good moves.

http://starfeeder.gameriot.com/blogs...et-20-revealed

Those are Starcraft II screenshots from just about every aspect of the game, focusing on the new Battle.net platform. I am beyond excited to try this out.

The original Starcraft was amazing. Blizzard (the software company behind the game) really knows how to do Real-Time Strategy, though you may be more familiar with their World of Warcraft flagship.

Further reading--the platform they allow you to develop your own levels on is incredible, and its Custom UI maps are ridiculous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joNPrnY4K_4

[monster]

Oh it's the right forum... it's just that most of us are so old, we're excited about the release of Frogger 2

[hackhelios]

I'll be sure to provide due coverage from E3 2010 if a release date is announced.

[DanaC]

I don't play single player games much at all. But I do like me a good MMO. Mainly I prefer the sandbox ffa pvp type games, though I recently did a stint in WoW. Gave it up tho after a couple of months. Was good, but the levelling style pissed me off after a bit. I've tried many MMOs but by far the best and to my mind the king of all MMOs was the original Ultima Online. Happy days: played it for about 4 years; was a member of three guilds in that time, and ran one of them (a RP PVP guild). Apart from UO most of the MMOs I've played have been in beta (e.g Anarchy, Shadowbane, Irth), and they all were great but lacked the depth and freedom of UO. Irth came close but they totally buggered up the in-game economy and skewed the whole thing too far towards the character building players: just kept adding new levels of stuff rather than allowing people to complete their character and then play the game with that fully built character. No end game.

I'm pretty excited about the prospect of playing Darkfall Online. It's the first big MMO in years that seems to have the same kind of ethos as UO. Make the world as real as possible. In one Youtube clip I saw, the players had to take a raft ride to get to an island they were raiding. It took them 30 minutes to cross the water and reach their destination. Awesome.

I'll stop now, because if i start to go on in depth about why I think MMO makers have usually taken the wrong lessons from UO and EQ, I'll be here all night and this post will be three pages long :P

My best friend is in the process of starting up a games company and they've just begun coding their MMO (small-scale - hopefully to support up to 20k players, though with the option to build in greater capacity at a later date if it took off). They have an investor, which is great, but they are mainly part-time coders. I think one of them is coding full time. I'm really hoping they can pull it off: J has come up with a fantastic idea and it would be wonderful if he could get to implement it. It's something he's been thinking about for a long time (the game, not the company), so the setting and ruleset is pretty refined now. They're hoping to have a basic beta game within three years.

[Clodfobble]

Let me know if they need a contract sound designer. No job is too small.

[DanaC]

Oooh. Why yes I shall. Not sure where they're at on sound. I'll mention it to J when I see him next.

[hackhelios]

That's fantastic! I'm sure the beta is many, many months off, but I would absolutely love to help test it out when the day comes.

I also did a WoW stint (mine was 3 months, with the wife) and I was also frustrated by the leveling system. I raised a level 40 Tauren shaman, but by that point, all the quests just seemed like the same fodder. Go here. Get this. Escort her. Kill that. Ugh.

By the by, let me know if there's someplace I can donate to the cause of DO.

[Quick google search] Waitaminute, is this the one? http://www.darkfallonline.com/buydarkfall/ That naval battle looks amazing! Dana, if you're at all serious about trying it out, let me know and you'll have a guildmate right from the get-go. I'm excited to try it out.

EDIT: Oh I see, Darkfall is a game that's already out there, and the one your friend is working on is something else entirely. Well yeah, let me know if I can donate someplace.

[DanaC]

*smiles* I have suggested to him that he look at setting up a mechanism for donations once theyhave something more concrete on the table and can start getting an alpha/beta community behind the project. Some way to go yet, they're at a pretty early stage yet (as these things go).

I may try and enlist your help for something else at some point *grins* if ye're willing: he's doing a PhD on certain elements of multiplayer gaming and I think he's looking for people with experience of MMOs to interview about their gaming experiences. I can't say too much about his thesis but I've read his thesis proposal and it's really interesting (I think). Not sure when he'll be at the interview stage of things but I'm guessing some time over the next few months. Drop me a PM if you;re at all interested in that

Darkfall Online looks dangerously good lol I 'lost' four years to UO :P I am thinking I may get myself a little into my research MA before I embark on the game....if I am into my MA it won;t take me away from it, and i'll be able to find a balance...if I start Darkfall before I have some work under my belt I'll never get off the ground :P Looks wonderful though.

Check out this vid of Darkfall showing a big Pvp brawl:P The video is from a group defending their guild city from a raiding party

[hackhelios]

That was incredible.

I actually went to bed after watching the movie--and had a dream that picked up right where the movie left off. The tournament, as created by my subconscious, was pretty damn cool too.

Ok, I think I've found an obsession/hobby for a few weeks...