Starcraft 2 Beta !

SeantheMan

How have you all got beta keys ? or have they cracked the beta ?

WellyJ

Random selection, luck.

SeantheMan

I don't think all the above ppl were randomly selected.
Jazzy did you get an invite in the end or ??

Jazzy

SeantheMan wrote: »

I don't think all the above ppl were randomly selected.
Jazzy did you get an invite in the end or ??

nah was just playing in a mates gaff. they have 2 computers and 2 beta keys rocks socks

bugs

The beta was cracked over the weekend. No lan play, no online play, just the ability to play a map alone or against test AI.

Jonny7

Any idea if there will be an open beta?

Am betting any of those cracks etc are full of trojans

TheDoc

no key for me and ive jsut exhausted every avenue to get one.

I believe its cracked online where you can play 1v1 against the AI. Keeps getting patched but keeps getting re-patched.

And in all honesty blizzard arnt caring that much id say, its absolutely spawned so much more attention to this game its unreal..

BopNiblets

I just played a cracked beta game, me as T vs Z, Z, P, actually some mad version of the AI that didn't want to attack and didn't know how to move their units away from nukes.
Lawl I got 37 kills on one ghost before I got bored and decided to mass Battlecruisers!
PEW PEW PEW, NEED MORE PEWS!

Great fun if not at all challenging.

Spunog UIE

I just read here that StarCraft II beta testers getting second beta key to give to friends!

I'm your friend right guys? ... right? Pleaseeeeeee

SeantheMan

I'll be your friend too !

Jonny7

Wow the keys have dropped ALOT in price on ebay.. 50 quid now

You are gonna get guaranteed 2 or 3 months play out of the key.. thats more than most games.. and I can tell you now its bloody great.. the only thing is you'll exhaust yourself from playing.. think I've done almost 70 games in a row.. so ****ed

Jazzy

now i have a key

game rocks

tman

D'oh!
Didn't realise they were still going for cash moneh...

That'll be €50 please, TheDoc!;)

Funky

anyone who got keys there's a SC2 boardsie user id thread on the Strategy forum here

jimi_t2

A lot higher spec than I thought that it'd be! Immediate impression is of a cute hybrid between the visual styles of Warcraft III/later C&C iterations. Haven't really delved into it much yet, but

*Menus/Titles/Sound improved drastically
*Terrain looks *gorgeous*
*Not as many new units as I'd expected. Probably a good thing
*Some great mechanic altering buffs (i.e. the protoss chronos ability)

Tech demand is a bit higher than I expected though, I'm getting a lot of paged pool memory errors (250gb HD, 2gb RAM, 256mb Laptop GFX).

(Anyone with a spare beta key who doesn't want to whore it out please feel free to indulge me, I'm stuck in sandbox mode for the time being with some questionable AI )

EDIT: Later thoughts.

* Thor unit for marines is hilariously oversized. Voice actor is a Schwarzenegger knock-off, one of whoms phrases is ''I'll be back''.
* A whole lot of emphasis based on 180 or 240 second units for the terrans. All of the Ravens turrents, the MULE etc...
* The extended supply depot thing for the Terrans is skewed. 50 energy for +8ppl? Madness
* LOVE the ability or lower the supply depots
* Computer, just before I annihiliated it, said ''gg'' over chat. A little thing, but it made me smile and I haven't seen that feature since Q3A.
* The ability to have larger groups is great as well, really makes for some epic battles.
* Its reminding me more of Warcraft 3 than Starcraft so far... not sure why, but it could almost be a mod. I'm playing on the crap graphics settings to get 50-60fps, and other than some advanced wireforms and such (the protoss one for placing pylons is lovely) you'd wonder where the development time went.
* Some very Firefly esque musical cues for the terrans. MIDI-esque overall but keeping in line with the original. Couldn't fault it. Ambient and FX sounds are superb

BopNiblets

The Starcrack AI is pretty good.
I didn't get a beta key but that didn't stop me playing against computer!
Playing a 4 player match with 3 AIs is tough enough, if they scout you first and there's 2 zerg players:

kekekekekekeke

quarryman

can someone explain to me what exactly is cracked, the beta demo?

And what is Starcrack AI?

jimi_t2

quarryman wrote: »

can someone explain to me what exactly is cracked, the beta demo?

And what is Starcrack AI?

As it stands anyone can download Starcraft II's beta. It's online only though, so if you don't have a betakey to log on to battle.net then you're just wasting your time. You can't skirmish or anything as enemy AI routines aren't implemented and there's no single player mission demo.

What the community have done is develop a series of launchers, series of maps and their own inherent (and frequently updated) enemy AI to staple onto the open beta. Starcrack would be the most popular one, and has gone from the original proof of concept of computer creating a couple of marines to look at you to quite a bloody challenge.

This way you can happily get to grips with all the races and have a few good laugh skirmishing offline and developing strategies so you're well ahead of the pack when the commercial online goes live. (See darkblizz for details).

Jonny7

They are constantly tweaking the balances based on feedback from the top pro's mainly in Korea, that is Blizzards strategy and its worked well for Starcraft 1.

I love the game and the menus so far, nothing annoying, fairly smooth and functional.

There doesn't seem to be any single unstoppable strategy from any race so far.. they each have their strengths..

Players from copper bronze and gold all seem fairly clued in, most players will scout, and they'll try anything, often attacking early rather than turtling in their bases for the rest of the game

Playing as Zerg exclusively, some forums go on about the roaches but I rarely use them, I just experiment with tier 1 and tier 2 units.. especially banelings, which I feel are an amazing unit and totally underused, I can harrass groups of protoss zealots and whatever else just by running one baneling in at a time and exploding him until the other player just gets pissed off and then I hit him with a ton of them mixed up with zerglings.. the protoss often quick tech to void rays so I quick tech to muta's.. just a lot of back and forth which I love

Its roughly the same with Terran, but the bunker rushes and the huge mixes of marines, medics and medivacs can be hard to counter, the game really rewards players who scout, however am still learning what the other buildings look like so I can predict if there are fliers or drops or sneak attacks coming

The best thing of all is the attitude of the other players, so much respect.. decent guys.. ... no LOL WTF PWNED rofl so easy lolzzz.. of course when the full game is launched expect all that

So far so good





I think I'll start playing with other races as I still have little clue how the other units operate