StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void Needs More Work, Blizzard Says

Fanghawk

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StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void Needs More Work, Blizzard Says

StarCraft 2's Protoss expansion isn't out yet because its units don't feel like the Protoss.

Speaking personally, I've never been one to wait patiently for a hotly anticipated game. Whether it turns out to be a critical success or underwhelming flop, I just want the thing in my hands so I can play and judge for myself. That being said, sometimes games need the extra development time because of bugs, unexpected setbacks, or even internal strife.

So exactly what reason does Blizzard have for keeping StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void from us? It already took 12 years <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/7939-Review-StarCraft-II>to get the first StarCraft sequel out the door, and <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118802-Analyst-Thinks-Next-Starcraft-II-Wont-Come-This-Year>Heart of the Swarm suffered its own delays. Why can't Blizzard just get us our expansion about technologically advanced Protoss? According to game director Dustin Browder, it's simply because the Protoss don't feel like Protoss yet.

"The missions are coming along," Browder said at BlizzCon 2013. "I'm pretty happy with the story, but the missions need some more work and the campaign mechanics -- like how you progress as the Protoss -- needs some more work before we are ready to show anything."

When pressed, Browder added that "it didn't feel like you were playing the Protoss. You want to have that feeling like 'We're the Protoss. We're these bad-ass space Samurai. We're going to lay down our lives for the greater good ... oh, and by the way, we could glass you planet if you mess with us.'"

The issue is complex because, from a developers perspective, Protoss shouldn't be powerful in the same way Terrans or Zerg are. Unlike Heart of the Swarm, where Kerrigan could fight armies by herself, Protoss strength is based in advanced technology, not the strength of individual units. "That felt great for the goddess queen of the Zerg. But that's not what I want the Protoss to feel like," Browder said. "There's no one Protoss warrior who should be out there destroying whole armies by himself. Maybe Zeratul, but he'd have to be sneaky about it.

"We want to get that feeling of 'We're the Protoss and we have technology that you haven't even dreamed of' ... We want to get that sense of power without the focus on a single character. So we're still working on that."

Source: <a href=www.warcry.com/news/view/129477-StarCraft-2-Legacy-of-the-Void-Campaign-Needs-More-Work-Blizzard-Says>WarCry

[www.warcry.com/news/view/129477-StarCraft-2-Legacy-of-the-Void-Campaign-Needs-More-Work-Blizzard-Says]

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Clive Howlitzer

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That's fine. I can go back to not anticipating the title at all like I've been doing since Starcraft 2 released.
 

Gizmo1990

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Oct 19, 2010
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I would rather they take their time and make it good and I have not yet finished heart of the Swarm despite getting it a few days after release as I hate playing as Zerg so it will be a while before I finish it. That being said I really want to have a whole game with Zeratul in it.
 

Terrible Opinions

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Fanghawk said:
The issue is complex because, from a developers perspective, Protoss shouldn't be powerful in the same way Terrans or Zerg are. Unlike Heart of the Swarm, where Kerrigan could fight armies by herself, Protoss strength is based in advanced technology, not the strength of individual units. "That felt great for the goddess queen of the Zerg. But that's not what I want the Protoss to feel like," Browder said. "There's no one Protoss warrior who should be out there destroying whole armies by himself. Maybe Zeratul, but he'd have to be sneaky about it.
Did... did these guys play Starcraft 1?
 

AstaresPanda

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12 years later and they tell us it'll be split into 3 parts. We all know its coz well, GREED. Comes out, its SC1 with a new engine and new units. But then to charge FULL GAME PRICE for an expansion pack. And now.....more delays for an EXPANSION PACK.

The Crotch said:
Fanghawk said:
The issue is complex because, from a developers perspective, Protoss shouldn't be powerful in the same way Terrans or Zerg are. Unlike Heart of the Swarm, where Kerrigan could fight armies by herself, Protoss strength is based in advanced technology, not the strength of individual units. "That felt great for the goddess queen of the Zerg. But that's not what I want the Protoss to feel like," Browder said. "There's no one Protoss warrior who should be out there destroying whole armies by himself. Maybe Zeratul, but he'd have to be sneaky about it.
Did... did these guys play Starcraft 1?
and yeh lol really ?
 

BanicRhys

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AstaresPanda said:
12 years later and they tell us it'll be split into 3 parts. We all know its coz well, GREED. Comes out, its SC1 with a new engine and new units. But then to charge FULL GAME PRICE for an expansion pack. And now.....more delays for an EXPANSION PACK.
1: Wings of Liberty's campaign had about as many missions as the entirety of Starcraft 1's.
2: It's a sequel, what the hell more do you want?
3: Heart of the Swarm was priced as an expansion pack, not a full game.
 

GothmogII

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Huh...I kind of thought the idea was to throw as many crazy unit designs in as possible for the main campaign and then pare some of em' down for multiplayer balance. Though, I -kind- of get what they're saying, the Protoss don't really have a kind of character like Kerrigen...well, besides Zeratul, but they've kind of relegated him to wise old man status which is a shame.

Guess we're going back to playing as the Executor. And what a load of character he/she had. x)
 

LazyAza

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I was pretty disappointed with Heart of the Swarm. And I know because I only replayed it once, whereas Wings of Liberty I must have replayed 6 or 7 times it was that good. So they should take all the time they need to make Legacy of the Void great.

I'm not in a hurry to burn through another Starcraft campaign, they need to be satisfying.
 

Tahaneira

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Feb 1, 2011
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GothmogII said:
Huh...I kind of thought the idea was to throw as many crazy unit designs in as possible for the main campaign and then pare some of em' down for multiplayer balance. Though, I -kind- of get what they're saying, the Protoss don't really have a kind of character like Kerrigen...well, besides Zeratul, but they've kind of relegated him to wise old man status which is a shame.

Guess we're going back to playing as the Executor. And what a load of character he/she had. x)
Unless they've changed their minds (or lied), Zeratul is going to be the protagonist of this one. Granted, it sounds like he'll mostly be running around doing diplomacy, but in this universe, 'diplomacy' usually boils down to 'go kill this thing for me, then I'll help you' anyways.

Actually, that sums up diplomacy in most games, along with 'if you stop trying to kill me I'll join your side.'

OT: The long development cycle is irritating, but preferable to the alternative. I loved Wings of Liberty, and I really liked Heart of the Swarm. I just hope they don't leave out as much as they did in HotS (I was kind of upset over the lack of Overseers and Overlords that could do pretty much anything aside from provide population) and that the Protoss will continue the tradition of ridiculous single-player OP goodness.
 

Tanklover

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AstaresPanda said:
12 years later and they tell us it'll be split into 3 parts. We all know its coz well, GREED. Comes out, its SC1 with a new engine and new units. But then to charge FULL GAME PRICE for an expansion pack. And now.....more delays for an EXPANSION PACK.
I'm sorry, it seems you never played SC1 or SC2. SC2 is NOTHING like SC1, on the surface it may bear its name and have some of its units but in reality they are nothing alike. SC1 was fun, challenging and deep, SC2 is just baby's first rts :). Also the story is completely awful, Raynor wanted to kill Kerrigan at the end of BW but they decided to change that into a cheesy love story? Good job Blizzard. They are just milking money out of the franchise at this point for as long as there are people looking for the next step after hours of candy crush and farmville, just like WoW.
 

Tony2077

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as long as it comes out i don't care how long it takes i waited for the first parts
 

RJ 17

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BanicRhys said:
AstaresPanda said:
12 years later and they tell us it'll be split into 3 parts. We all know its coz well, GREED. Comes out, its SC1 with a new engine and new units. But then to charge FULL GAME PRICE for an expansion pack. And now.....more delays for an EXPANSION PACK.
1: Wings of Liberty's campaign had about as many missions as the entirety of Starcraft 1's.
2: It's a sequel, what the hell more do you want?
3: Heart of the Swarm was priced as an expansion pack, not a full game.
1: Full Disclaimer: I've never played WoL because, like the person you quoted, I was right-proper PISSED that they broke SC2 into 3 separate games. That said, however, I have heard that it does indeed contain a good 30 missions. I've also heard that a good 20 of those missions could be cut from the game and have the story completely unaffected...meaning they're just fluff and padding, completely unnecessary. If that's true, then the bulk of the story is only told across about 10 missions...just about as many missions as each campaign had in SC and BW.
2: A game with 3 campaigns, and an expansion with 3 campaigns that expanded the story told in the three campaigns from the core title.
3: They're still charging three times for what I (and apparently others, considering Banic's post) felt should have only been one game.
 

Skeleon

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Hm, curious. At least in Starcraft 1, the Protoss did feel like each individual warrior was more powerful. I don't quite get what he means with the feel he wants to evoke, how that is supposed to work in practice, but remember that even their weakest unit, the Zealot, was more powerful and more expensive than the other races' starters. I guess that had to do with the shields rather than the hitpoints, but it felt like they were pretty tough little buggers already. What is he trying to do?
 

Nouw

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The Crotch said:
Did... did these guys play Starcraft 1?
Exactly my thoughts. Protoss have shields because they're technologically advanced yeah but more importantly, it's to make their units more durable and consequently more expensive to create a balance.
 

Ferisar

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RJ 17 said:
BanicRhys said:
AstaresPanda said:
12 years later and they tell us it'll be split into 3 parts. We all know its coz well, GREED. Comes out, its SC1 with a new engine and new units. But then to charge FULL GAME PRICE for an expansion pack. And now.....more delays for an EXPANSION PACK.
1: Wings of Liberty's campaign had about as many missions as the entirety of Starcraft 1's.
2: It's a sequel, what the hell more do you want?
3: Heart of the Swarm was priced as an expansion pack, not a full game.
1: Full Disclaimer: I've never played WoL because, like the person you quoted, I was right-proper PISSED that they broke SC2 into 3 separate games. That said, however, I have heard that it does indeed contain a good 30 missions. I've also heard that a good 20 of those missions could be cut from the game and have the story completely unaffected...meaning they're just fluff and padding, completely unnecessary. If that's true, then the bulk of the story is only told across about 10 missions...just about as many missions as each campaign had in SC and BW.
2: A game with 3 campaigns, and an expansion with 3 campaigns that expanded the story told in the three campaigns from the core title.
3: They're still charging three times for what I (and apparently others, considering Banic's post) felt should have only been one game.
The story of the first game can be told in about two paragraphs as a tack-on in a fully realized novel. You have to understand that most game stories are fluff. It's all padding. There's nothing new that's coming from these stories that will shake or make comment on any socio-economic structures or have any impact past the emotional/visceral feeling of whatever the player may experience through interacting with the game. The question becomes of how much value and ascribed interest do you place unto whatever piece of mission or story-bit that you're looking at.

This differs from person to person, unfortunately. Ultimately, however, there's no real reason to just shoo away exposition and story-telling because it's "filler" in a series that's been largely nothing but filler. To that effect, the majority of exposition and actual effort that was put into story-telling in SC2 was miles ahead of anything SC1 was capable of (in the form of the semi-explorable Hyperion, Raynor's interactions with characters prior to missions, foreshadowing (regardless of how hammy it may have been at times), and just an overall expansion of the universe that SC had set up. It's certainly not going in the direction of power-struggle over a single sector of space that SC1 went for, sure, but that does not really... Make more gameplay simply be "padding".

I suppose my recommendation would be just to experience the single-player through someone else who owns the game if they're willing to share their account, but at the same time it's just another game that's, on the technical level, fairly excellent. The shaping of the story and whatnot is left to the viewer. In that vein, I personally think that this story being told in a singular title would likely result in a fairly lame experience given the subject matter they're tackling. The scope of "the antagonist" which we are "facing against" is much larger, so there is very little problem in giving a bigger amount of exposition to every faction from which they can be properly explored.

Also, greed? I mean... I don't know how greed works, but one game every four years is probably... Not the most "questionable" decision that's based on monetary gain that people can pin-point as Blizzard's downfall at this point. It's fairly weak in terms of an actual argument when the current-day context of corporate greed is exemplified by CoD: The Next Warfare being released every single year.

OT:
Yeah, this isn't that surprising. I, personally, couldn't care less about how long it takes as long as it's done, because this is the campaign I have the most interest in. I think what a lot of people are reading wrong here is individual power as compared to protagonists, but the point stands that, when isolated from technology the Protoss are actually fairly frail, so their INDIVIDUAL character presence lacks a certain defining primarch? I suppose would be a good word. Zeratul is a strong leading role, but he does not have Kerrigan's raw power output to present in combat. Something like an Archon or a being of intense ability is necessary to convey Protoss capability (even if it is through means of technology). With the direction the story is going, while subterfuge that Zeratul is capable of is likely going to be valuable, the necessity to bring firepower is going to be necessary when the "end" comes, so to speak. Nothing else without spoilers.
 

LetalisK

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Okay? This is pretty much what Blizzard does. They push back games over and over until they get it exactly like they want it. I see no problem with this. God forbid a developer actually give a shit about their product rather than just try to push out sequels as quickly as possible.
 

Aeshi

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Saying they "split SC2 into 3 parts" is like saying they "split the Warcraft RTS series into 3 parts", or that Mass Effect/The Witcher has been "split into 3 parts"