Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty Beta Test PDF Gameplay Report
Starcraft 2 is a real-time strategy (RTS) game for one to eight players. The game features three playable species (Terran, Protoss, Zerg) that each has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. During the game, the players build up their own individual bases (constructing numerous buildings) in different parts of the map while building units at the same time as well. Each player must also mine minerals in order to procure the necessary funds for constructing their buildings and units. In addition, players must also carefully manage their resources and sustain their army by building enough “supply depots” to feed all units as well. This number of units thus determines how many units the player can build. The ultimate goal of a game match is to accumulate the right number and combination of units necessary to go and defeat another player or the computer. A player/computer is defeated when all of his buildings are destroyed by an opposing player(s). Note that players may ally in the game creating for any combination of 1v1, 2v2, or even 1v7, etc matches possible. Also note that there are many different modes of play for Starcraft too. I have only described skirmish mode here to illustrate the mechanics of the game in their widest application
Overview Game Balance. Each species possesses its own particular strengths and weaknesses. Blizzard accomplished this balance by carefully designing each species’ tech-tree in such a manner that each species has advantages/disadvantages both temporally and unit-to-unit. A tech-tree refers to the build order necessary to construct certain buildings or units. More powerful units or more advanced buildings require prerequisite buildings, upgrades, or even other units to be built first. Temporal advantages. By delicately designing and spacing Starcraft’s build order per species, the developers have granted each species certain advantages over each other at different points of a match’s timeline (thus, I call this a ‘temporal advantage’ – a time-specific advantage). For example, Zerg is typically strongest in the early part of the game because with the Zerg species, players are able to mass produce at a cheaper price the first attack unit before any other species. The downside to this, however, is that each individual attack unit (called the Zergling) is relatively weak on its own and dies easily when left to fight its own battles. On the reverse end, the Protoss species generally has the most powerful individual units but also generally take the longest to build and are the most expensive to make. Unit-to-Unit Balance. Aside from temporal advantages specific to each species during the match, Starcraft also sports a robust ‘unit-to-unit’ balance as well.
Every single unit or combination of units in Starcraft per species possesses a devastating counter-combination from each of the opposing species. For example, the Protoss Zealot may be powerful in one-on-one combat, but it quickly falls prey when attacked by a swarm of many Zerg Zerglings although each Zergling itself is quite weak. Yet, one Protoss High Templar is able to destroy a swarm of Zerglings with one of the Templar’s special abilities. The Templar, however, has very low life and is helpless and easily killed if left on its own without support. By focusing on fewer units and buildings, Blizzard was able to craft a greater multitude of meaningful strategic combinations. Instead of just cloning units, giving them a different color and art (a lá the earlier Command & Conquer games), each unit in Starcraft is carefully thought out and distinctly different than all of its counterparts. User reflexes and short term skill. The last aspect of Starcraft that plays a role in game balance, and that can even supersede much of the game’s aforementioned balance mechanics, is Starcraft’s intricate…
Starcraft is considered one of the more carefully balanced real time strategy games ever developed. But this was not always the case. Patches for the game that tweak game balance continue to appear even now, and we can thus consider the design of the game is not yet finalized. The designers kept accepting input from players, and considered this input to further develop and balance the game. This endless iterative approach is what make it possible to give a game with so many different mechanics (the amount of variables, like terrain shape, access to resources, etc… is huge) such a delicate balance. But there is also a clear contradiction on the game dynamics. The importance skilled player input at the micro level can have over strategic decisions is something that was clearly unforeseen by the designers. When the supposed game balance is defined by units with different costs and power, the ability of skilled players to disrupt this balance falls clearly into emergent behaviour. The iterative design and balance polish took this into account, but the game dynamics had to be modified. Two different player skills are required to play the game, an strategic long term one that is carefully balanced so no race or player has a clear advantage over others, and a short term, reflex and skill based one that supersedes the strategic one in importance and can make the player experience frustrating, since there is no possibility a novice player can ever beat an experienced one.
Thus, the audience of the game shifted from its release, when players played against the computer in levels designed around the strategic balance, to the current audience, who plays online against other human players and has become much more reduced, since the time needed to master the game when played this way has increased. And with the audience, the paradigm of the original game design (strategy game where choices are balanced so any player feels rewarded) shifted to the current one (skilled based system in which players can test their proficiency and feel rewarded for becoming better at playing). The most important lesson to learn from this game success is how the developers were able to adapt through their iterative design to shifting audiences and polished a game experience that for certain competitive players, those willing to invest the amount of time needed to master the game (and that are fulfilled by going up the ranks), is one of the most successful and balanced game experiences.
Download Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty Beta Test PDF Gameplay Report
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