Accepting someone into the SC2 beta on Tuesday is just mean. :)

[Kevin]

So I got my e-mail from Blizzard saying welcome to the SC2 beta with the instructions to get the client. Of course since the servers are down for maintenance I can't start the client download. They tease.

Though I'm pretty happy to get in I must say.

[yangman]

It's never fun to be the bringer of bad news, but you'd probably want to know about this: http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?top...7&sid=5000

Have fun with the beta while you can.

[Crusader]

I got in the beta too, having good fun getting massacred by the rest of the populace.

[Kevin]

Well I got it downloaded (even though I wasn't using my connection for much else it crawled at about 180 KB/s. Then it took about 5 hours for all the patches to download and install. It was ready to play about 10:30 at night just before I went to bed so I haven't fired it up yet.

Getting in will at least let me know how my system will handle it. I've figured I might have to upgrade to be able to play this and right now computer parts are low on my priority list.

[Frag]

I got in the beta too, having good fun getting massacred by the rest of the populace.

No single player content?

~Frag

[Delc]

No single player content?

Not really. You can play against computer opponents, but the only difficulty is 'very easy.' And it lives up to the name.

[Kevin]

I got in the beta too, having good fun getting massacred by the rest of the populace.

No single player content?

~Frag

Yeah there will be single player campaigns, but they are not seeing a public beta. The beta is mostly to balance the the multiplayer experience, which makes sense.

[--Pete]

Hi,

So I got my e-mail from Blizzard saying welcome to the SC2 beta with the instructions to get the client.

Just got my invite today.

Though I'm pretty happy to get in I must say.

Ditto. But I might give it to Magi. She's the better player in RTS.

--Pete

[swirly]

Getting in will at least let me know how my system will handle it. I've figured I might have to upgrade to be able to play this and right now computer parts are low on my priority list.

For what it is worth...my system seems to handle it pretty well. It is only a 2.2Ghz with 1.5G RAM and a geforce 7300 GT. Everything has to be set to the lowest settings and if there are really large fights then it will start getting choppy. So microing in those battles is rough. 95% of battles are fine even for micro (which I always sucked at anyway). I'm wagering your computer is better and so should have no problem. I'd not want to go much weaker than mine though.

[LennyLen]

If anyone with a machine roughly equivalent to a Dual Core E6550, w/ 3Gb RAM and a Raedon HD 2400 (equiv of a nVidia 8200) can report their performance, I'd like to hear it.

[Kevin]

For what it is worth...my system seems to handle it pretty well. It is only a 2.2Ghz with 1.5G RAM and a geforce 7300 GT.

Our systems aren't that different. Dual Core Opteron running at 2.1 GHz (though now that I figured out what the issue was that caused hard locks I'm going to push it back up to 2.3 or so; it's actually a 2.0 part but it overclocks well). 3.5 GB of ram, and GeForce 7600 GT.

I don't have everything on low, I went with the default settings so some things were bumped up a few steps. I've only had time to play one match vs the CPU (which since you only get very easy right now is just a way to get familiar with the interface) and I noticed a few slow downs that worried me for trying to play against another person. But for the single player campaign and some co-op vs the CPU I think I'll be alright. I also have some room to lower settings, though most of the settings that relate to CPU were already bottomed out. It was some of the video card stuff that was still at medium levels.

[Frag]

Ok, well if there's no single player campaign, I doubt I'd play should I even get an invite. RTS's and I just don't mix well. Took me nearly 4 months to beat the single player campaign in WC3 and after I did and logged onto B.net to try to play some pvp matches, I finally gave up after going something like 1-25, and the one win was because a smurf felt bad for me.......

Have fun guys,
~Frag

[Tal]

I got in too. No way I'll be able to DL and install before I leave for vacation.

[yangman]

Battle.net 2.0's matchmaking is system is actually very good. Before it really throws you into the fray, you will complete a series of placement matches against opponents of increasing rank, after which the system will try and place you into a bracket with similarly skilled players. It will continue to tweak your match up as you play, pitting you against better ranked players if you are doing well, or even demote you into a lower bracket if the division is proving to be too much.

[Frag]

Battle.net 2.0's matchmaking is system is actually very good. Before it really throws you into the fray, you will complete a series of placement matches against opponents of increasing rank, after which the system will try and place you into a bracket with similarly skilled players. It will continue to tweak your match up as you play, pitting you against better ranked players if you are doing well, or even demote you into a lower bracket if the division is proving to be too much.

Assuming that this is for me, it's not even who you play that's so bad, it's the micromanagement required and the speeds. It's that in order to do well you have to be able to keep track of what is building (with arcane hotkey's needing to be memorized) and what is being recruited and where you are on the tech tree. You also have to direct each and every movement of your troops and how they're doing, what they're up against, and what the counters are for what your opponent is doing. It's just far more than I can keep track of given the lack of time you have to think and plan. Ninja Gaiden seemed more forgiving.

Please just ignore my whinging, as I said RTS's and I just don't seem to mix, because my MMO, FPS and Console reflexes seem to be adequate for my personal standards of success but fail so miserably whenever I've tried RTS's that I typically will lose single player maps regularly, but can do hardcore pure-legit challenges with ease in other games.

/apologizes,
~Frag

[NuurAbSaal]

Please just ignore my whinging, as I said RTS's and I just don't seem to mix, because my MMO, FPS and Console reflexes seem to be adequate for my personal standards of success but fail so miserably whenever I've tried RTS's that I typically will lose single player maps regularly, but can do hardcore pure-legit challenges with ease in other games.

/apologizes,
~Frag

You are not alone!

A match between us in any RTS would be highly amusing for RTS buffs I guess.

take care
Tarabulus

[yangman]

Surely there is no need to apologize. As a dreadful RTS (especially StarCraft) player myself until recently, I totally understand.

The key difference between the genres seems to be that what you should do to become better is often very counter intuitive in a game like StarCraft. Notice that your opponent is massing an army that's far bigger than yours? Stop building your own army and pump out more workers. A small skirmish is happening in the middle of the map? Ignore it and continue to manage your base. Pushing out with an army of your own? Instead of managing the battle, start setting up an expansion base or two.

It's quite a mouthful more than "aim better".

Blizzard has done quite a lot to reduce the reliance of micromanagement, and the increased friendliness is obvious. And, there's nothing stopping newbies from having epic matches that even the pros can appreciate.

[Frag]

And, there's nothing stopping newbies from having epic matches that even the pros can appreciate.

I want to rip his esophagus out, interesting but...

~Frag

[yangman]

And, there's nothing stopping newbies from having epic matches that even the pros can appreciate.

I want to rip his esophagus out, interesting but...

It grows on you. :p

[Treesh]

And, there's nothing stopping newbies from having epic matches that even the pros can appreciate.

I want to rip his esophagus out, interesting but...

It grows on you. :p

He's such a pompous donkey. "I wrote off <this unit>, but..." and "I told him to do this...." Backhanded compliments all through. Good replay, but take out his commentary and it's even better. =)

Edit: Well, at least halfway through he does add in that he was giving some really bad advice.