-StarCraft II Q&A Batch 55---

1. Not all potential players of StarCraft II have played the original StarCraft before, thus they might encounter problems with the understanding of the story. Is it possible to play the campaign of StarCraft II without knowing anything? Will you come up with some things that happened in the original StarCraft and Brood War again – just so that people not familiar to the story get more information?
We plan on having story elements that will bring players up to speed on the most recent plot developments and prepare them for the StarCraft II storyline. We also plan on having a plot summary of what transpired in the original StarCraft and Brood War during the installation process. However we feel that regardless of your familiarity with the original story, all players will be able to enjoy the story developments in StarCraft II.

2. You have already announced that you are going to record various stats when playing StarCraft II with the new Battle.net 2.0 – but how detailed will those statistics be? Will one be able to see how many units of a certain kind (for example Marines) one have build or even killed so far?
We will be recording a large amount of stats for StarCraft II, but we are still in discussion as to which stats will ultimately be tracked. We will determine how detailed the stat-tracking will be based on what information we think will benefit our players the most to help improve their game.

3. You have already stated that you will support DirectX 10, but what about DirectX 11?
We currently do not have any plans on supporting DirectX11-specific features, but the game will be compatible with DirectX11.

4. How many stats will a Hero unit be able to take? Three like in Warcraft 3 or is there even a limit?
If you create a user-amp with heroes, you can outfit them with a large number of stats. However, currently only three stats will be able to be displayed on the UI due to limited space.

5. In lore Protoss warp in their units and buildings from some far planet. Will there be any mechanic that reflects this such as a "warp out" that could act as a refund?
We do not have any plans to include a “warp out” game mechanic. We have discussed the possibility of this in the past, but it felt too similar to the Terran mechanics of being able to salvage the structures.

6. Will there be a converter to convert our favorite original StarCraft maps to StarCraft II maps? I don’t want to lose all of my favorite maps from the original StarCraft when I get StarCraft II.
There will not be a map converter for StarCraft II. Map-makers will have to manually rebuild any of their maps using the new StarCraft II map editor.

7. I'm just going to assume that you will have some sort of window mode in StarCraft II. But I was wondering if you're going to implement a windowed mode like the one that World of Warcraft has? You know where you can maximize the window, removing the borders and enabling fullscreen mode yet providing easy access to the desktop.
You will be able to select both windowed and full-screen windowed modes from the options menu.

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lame. i mean i wasn't expecting a converter but it kinda makes me want to stop making maps =p. Maybe this is a good thing though. Fresh newness on bnet =]. And why play maps the old way when they can be remade with new features and better units.

Remember how long it took the original sc to have a big enough list of UMS to be picky and choose almost exactly what you want to play? At least two years, if I remember correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong, but If SC II has a new editor, then it's going to take just as long if not longer for the SC II UMS list to be even satisfactory for some people who play. That's going to suck. The entire battle.net will have to play crappy pre-made UMS or melee which only so many enjoy.

It didn't have as big as a following, I don't think. The editor was also limited and most maps nowadays use things that can't be done with Staredit. I wouldn't worry man.

I think it will be cool. Just imagine all the mappers rushing to make the first Helms Deep, the first Raccoon City, the first Diplo, etc. Awesome.

TCH ... oh well.. it's kind of predictable....

Btw what'd they mean by not being able to display more than three stats for hero units? :\

I'm guessing you can display HP, energy, and a custom one? Or maybe attack, defense, and a custom one? IDK. But maybe if we make custom interfaces we can show more.

Maybe it's shields, or... possibly... armor in hp format?

I think its like Warcraft.
Strength, Agility, Intelligence. You can import those sorta things into SC2. Maybe SC2 already has stats like that?

ya i'd wager its like warcraft...but warcraft always felt too...loose. Just not solid. Iono. Maybe not a lot of mappers paid enough attention to detail or something. God i friggen pray sc2 map is user friendly. Instead of Marine with walk speed .14234 attack range 11029 attack animation 122 death animation 490283 blah blah blah. i mean i hope it has all those features and the same functionality as wc3 but give the retards like me a break ya know!

6. Will there be a converter to convert our favorite original StarCraft maps to StarCraft II maps? I don’t want to lose all of my favorite maps from the original StarCraft when I get StarCraft II.
Yes. I will make one for you.

blizzard is too lazy but dear heinermann will take charge and have the burden of this epic task! that does sound super hard to do.. ja?

U know what? A simple Triggers -> New SC2 programming language converter will be awesome enough...

Thanks in advance, Heinermann <3

As long as I get my hands on the beta client (not the key).

I feel MadZombie is right, you got nothing to worry about.
I'm sure within a month you will see SC->SC2 map remakes, probably remade manually from scratch.

I think part of that two year UMS wait for SC was mappers figuring out the extra things that the triggers were actually capable of, a big one being hyper triggers.
The new staredit will surely make everything we had to fight with in SC available as a standard feature.

The Warcraft 3 editor had crazy features, I expect no less from SC2.
But I never really got into WC3, the game felt very "messy". Just goes to show that sometimes simpler is better and more fun.

First generation SC mappers will have an edge over fresh SC2 mappers, just because of the intellectual challenges SC editing offered, it does teach an interesting set of skills.
I do suspect that original SC mapping will become something of an art form, passed down from generation to generation.
It does teach fundamental logic & problem solving, it would be a pretty cool class for elementary school