People are just lyk. Imma upload this leaked content and get +20 hits on my shitty little website. Then everyone steals it and puts it on youtube anyways. And the full teaser/release/confirmed content details are released days later.
Quote
They may also change or remove WoL Multiplayer units.
Marauders go bye bye
Quote
There are no plans to support maps bigger than 256x256.
But why ...
Quote
Kerrigan is allowed to die! When she dies, her DNA is used to revive her, and then you get to place her back on Creep when the cooldown is up.
Altar of Corruption anyone?
Quote
Confirmed (single player) evolutions:
Zergling:
Metabolic Boost - Move speed +33%
Posthumous Mitosis - 20% chance to spawn 2 Broodlings on death
Rapid Genesis - Instantly produce Zerglings
Raptor - Leaps at enemies and +10hp
Swarmling - Hatches 3 Zerglings instead of 2, for no extra cost
Baneling:
Vicious Discharge - Goo sprays at and slows enemies by 25%
Centriugal Hooks - Move speed +25%
Rupture - Splash radius on death +25%
Splitterling - Splits into 2 smaller Banelings, twice, dealing less damage
Gorgeling - Reduces Units/Structures into collectible resources
Roach:
Chitinous Plating - +1 armor
Bile Ducts - +2 damage
Organic Carapace - +2 life regeneration
Prowler - Move while burrowed
Leech - +10 life per kill (up to 6) and heals more rapidly while burrowed
General Newbie FAQ
Quote
Q: What is StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm?
A: Heart of the Swarm is the first expansion set to Blizzard Entertainment's sci-fi real time strategy game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Heart of the Swarm continues the epic story from Wings of Liberty with an all-new campaign that focuses on Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades. New multiplayer content will also be included in the expansion, as well as new features and upgrades to the Battle.net online platform.
Q: What features can we expect from the single-player campaign of Heart of the Swarm?
A: Heart of the Swarm's campaign will include approximately 20 new missions. Players will be able to evolve their swarms with unique, campaign-only units and abilities, and this evolution will happen in an organic manner befitting of the expansion's Zerg theme. As an example, zerglings can be induced to evolve the ability to split into broodlings upon death. Further evolution can yield specialized sub-species of zerglings such as the swarmling, a variant that spawns three swarmlings per larvae instead of the standard two zerglings. The fearsome raptor is another evolutionary offshoot of the zergling that has more health, and the ability to leap short distances to quickly close the gap on an enemy.
Another aspect of Heart of the Swarm that makes it unique from Wings of Liberty is that Kerrigan will play a major role in each of the battles as a powerful hero. Over the course of the campaign she gains in strength as well as new capabilities. Players will choose what abilities to enhance and powers to use from mission to mission.
Heart of the Swarm will also include a wider variety of sets for players to explore between missions - these sets change dynamically as players complete missions, giving a sense of a changing world as Kerrigan makes her presence felt throughout the galaxy. Fully-voiced cut-scenes will round out the cinematic gaming experience in Heart of the Swarm's campaign, while a new array of achievements will unlock in-game rewards such as portraits and decals.
Q: Will there be any technical upgrades to the graphics engine?
A: We'll be making some improvements to the graphics, including upgrades to the look and behavior of zerg creep, as well as some changes that allow our artists to better showcase the new types of planets that Kerrigan will explore in Heart of the Swarm. We still plan to keep the minimum hardware requirements the same for this expansion set as they were in Wings of Liberty.
Q: What are some of the changes made to multiplayer Heart of the Swarm?
A: While we're not quite ready to go into detail about the new multiplayer content in Heart of the Swarm, we can say that this expansion set will include new units and new maps. We'll have more details about multiplayer Heart of the Swarm content at BlizzCon.
Q: What changes will come to Battle.net with Heart of the Swarm?
A: As far as Battle.net improvements, one primary focus will be on getting the StarCraft Marketplace up and running at some point around the launch of Heart of the Swarm. The maps and mods community in StarCraft II has published tens of thousands of custom maps using the StarCraft II editor. Our goal with the new Marketplace design will be in upgrading the custom map UI to better showcase the wide variety of great new maps and mods to players who are looking for fun new gaming experiences. We want players to be able to more easily find, rate, and sort through all the great custom maps that have been created.
The Marketplace will also eventually include a commerce element that will allow mapmakers to charge a fee for their work. While there will always be a wealth of free content, we believe that allowing content creators to profit from their work will foster an environment for more complex and higher-quality custom maps. Our ultimate hope is that the StarCraft Marketplace will function and thrive in a similar manner as mobile "app-stores" - tons of free and premium content for players, and a limitless source of entertainment through StarCraft II and Battle.net.
We do have other Battle.net feature upgrades and improvements planned as well, and we'll have more details on those at a later date.
Q: Will Heart of the Swarm require ownership of Wings of Liberty?
A: For the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, yes, Wings of Liberty will be required in order to play Heart of the Swarm. For other regions that have alternative access models, we’ll provide details at a later date.
Q: How much will Heart of the Swarm cost?
A: We typically don't provide details about pricing until the game is closer to release. We do view Heart of the Swarm as an expansion set, so for the regions that have a standard box business model such as North America and Europe, we will price accordingly. For other regions that have alternative business models, we’ll provide details at a later date.
Q: Will there be a console version of Heart of the Swarm?
A: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is being developed for Windows and Mac. We have no current plans to bring StarCraft II to any console platform.
Q: When is Heart of the Swarm coming out?
A: It's too early to talk about a specific release date at this point in time. As with all Blizzard games, our ultimate goal is to provide the best possible experience for our players, and we will take as much time as is needed to ensure that Heart of the Swarm meets the expectations of our players, as well as our own high standards.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 31 2011, 11:07 am by Cardinal.
I would go for that. I don't think you could try to do worse.
I don't think Kerrigan looks too bad... tentacle hair has its uses.
Show them your butt, and when you do, slap it so it creates a sound akin to a chorus of screaming spider monkeys flogging a chime with cacti. Only then can you find your destiny at the tip of the shaft.
@Lanthanide.. Verry interesting. But I'd rather not read too much into it... so it won't ruin every show for me lol... on the other hand, the americanization of the first sc2 installment's campaign is so blatantly obvious.... reading tvtropes.org will make it seem like a joke.
Gabriel tosh is successfully assassinated regardless of which side you chose. The havenites mostly died from being infested and were not completely saved, but the infestation was contained regardless.
Kerrigan is suddenly human again, but retains some of her zerg nature. She needs better control over the swarm which is what hots is all about. While she has missed her humanity, she still hates her human life since it pretty much sucked. Therefore she prefers to be mother to the zerg and save all 3 races. Before, I'm pretty sure she only cared about the survival of the swarm. That doesn't mean she won't kill anyone who gets in her way though.
Unless that cinematic was lying, kerrigan will have to become reinfested later to show up at mengsk's office.
I hope we get to see more of the book character heroes like dahl, zamara, and ethan stewart.
Kerrigan is still Zerg. She is like the new breed of an Infested Terran, it allows her to be a Spy I suppose.
The Baneling/Hydralisk looking guy on the left is essentially the thing that makes all of the broods, he is most likely the guy who made Banelings, Broodlords, Lurkers, etc. This is Kerrigan's Armorer/Scientist. I think this is an improvement from Rory :3
The weird chick tentacle thing on the right, is basically a clone of Kerrigan. It is her "Matt Horner" and essentially relays everything to her from the Zerg and vice versa. Referred to as her memory as the Queen of Blades.
After hearing and reading all of this, I am guessing she stepped down from being the leader of the Zerg and they evolved that thing on the right, to lead them in her absence. But since she basically considers Kerrigan her mother, it's like Kerrigan can do whatever she wants now and the Zerg still treat her as their mother. Must be nice to have an entire race that is devoted to you without having to even worry about it.
As far as Battle.net improvements, one primary focus will be on getting the StarCraft Marketplace up and running at some point around the launch of Heart of the Swarm.
Reviving kerrigan is fucking stupid. I always hated warcraft for that. It's so easy to go through the missions now that you can just revive the heroes over and over again. This campaign is looking pretty shitty right now.
It'll cost DNA which I assume is what you use to improve the swarm over missions however. So playing missions and being like 'oh hey wtf i'll just let the bitch die 20 times' will be pretty fail.
As far as Battle.net improvements, one primary focus will be on getting the StarCraft Marketplace up and running at some point around the launch of Heart of the Swarm.
I actually sat through the whole SCLegacy video and it was pretty interesting. Sixen was the only one asking map-making questions, but their answers (other than for the map dimension question) were pretty helpful. They also mentioned Blizzard Allstars, so seems like they are still actively working on it.
I actually sat through the whole SCLegacy video and it was pretty interesting. Sixen was the only one asking map-making questions, but their answers (other than for the map dimension question) were pretty helpful. They also mentioned Blizzard Allstars, so seems like they are still actively working on it.
They have an article on the battle.net page which states that they are busy with hots campaign, "Blizzard DoTA" and the map marketplace...
I actually sat through the whole SCLegacy video and it was pretty interesting. Sixen was the only one asking map-making questions, but their answers (other than for the map dimension question) were pretty helpful. They also mentioned Blizzard Allstars, so seems like they are still actively working on it.
They have an article on the battle.net page which states that they are busy with hots campaign, "Blizzard DoTA" and the map marketplace...
Reviving kerrigan is fucking stupid. I always hated warcraft for that. It's so easy to go through the missions now that you can just revive the heroes over and over again. This campaign is looking pretty shitty right now.
Kerrigan never died in the first place and neither did Tassadar.
Vrael -- It is, and I could definitely use a company with a commitment to flexibility, quality, and customer satisfaction to provide effective solutions to dampness and humidity in my urban environment.