Dear Starcraft2.pro Community, we will start ancillary to the Starcraft2.pro Art Contest with really nice prizes , another mini contest about the TOP Highscore. Distribution of prizes :

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1st place – Quicklink VIP Account (Download Rapidshare/Uploaded Premium unlimited)+ 7 Digit ICQ UIN (multiple choice)

2nd place – Rapidshare 1 month Account + 7 Digit ICQ UIN (multiple choice)

3rd place – 7 Digit ICQ UIN

4th place – 7 Digit ICQ UIN

5th place – 8 digit ICQ UIN

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[Information about the prices and valued cost] You can choose your difficulty and i am aware of the “complex” of the Highscore. For example: Player A beats the Game and kills every Unit and Player B does the same = both get the same Score. So how can i decide who’s first and who’s second? It’s just that simple = who will have the most cash @ the end. The second thing is: Screenshot won’t do it. I know that you can inject the flash player with an value changer and set the value “money” to = 999999$ so NO SCREENSHOTS. If you want to join this contest you have to screen capture this (like in the Bug Report method) and save the replay in .avi/.wmv/or other. So don’t upload it until i ask for it. First you all post your highscore in this thread and after the Deadline i’ll ask the top 5 for a replay and they’ll send it. After this i will send out the prices. The second condition is : You need at least 10 posts and 2 own threads [more or less not important] (preventing multiple attendance and promoting)

That’s it.

The starcraft2.pro Squad wishes you good luck ,have fun and of course GG

If you have a BlizzCon key from 2008, you can now register it at http://blizzcon.com/beta

Please note that the key on the back of the BlizzCon card is NOT a StarCraft II ‘key’. When you opt in on the above site, your email will be added to a distribution list for a guaranteed StarCraft II beta key. When time comes, an email containing a StarCraft II beta key will be mailed out to those who registered with their BlizzCon key. At that point, players will be able to enter their StarCraft II beta key at their Battle.net account management page, allowing them the ability to download the StarCraft II beta client.

Reminder:

Many people have been asking where they can get beta keys for StarCraft II. Here are a few of the opportunities out there right now, and more will come as we approach closer to beta.

“Vespene Laughs” StarCraft II Comic Contest (reoccurring monthly) 
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=10697505926&sid=3000

Blizzard Theme Park Contest (Ends for North America March 30th, end dates differ for each region, check with the regional site) 
This is a great opportunity to get creative, especially since we’ll be giving out a pair of beta keys to each category winner. Go Go Go! 
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=15230879667&sid=3000

Warcraft III The Frozen Throne Tournament Season Winners 2009 
The top 20 eligible participants at the end of each region’s invitational ladder will receive a StarCraft II beta key. 
http://www.battle.net/tournaments/2009/faq.shtml

Upcoming Opportunities to look out for: 
Beta Opt-in 
BlizzCast Contests/Events 
Future Find Raynor Screenshots (will be announced when it starts, unfortunately does not include previous finds) 
StarCraft II Trivia 
StarCraft II Fan Site Program 
and more…

Chat with Devs: StarCraft II from its conception has been designed to be an eSport and one of the backbone features to helping players learn more about their own gameplay as well as their opponents is through replays. In our chat with Dustin this week, he highlighted various features that will be available to players while viewing replays. These features are designed both to help players improve in StarCraft II as well as serve as a platform of statistics for eSports commentary.

• How much damage did that Reaper raid do on the enemy economy? 
• Does it look like the enemy is going to be able to make a comeback? 
• Is that player walking into a losing battle?

These are all questions that are raised in exciting competitive games and replays. With the new replay system, players and eSports casters will be able to follow these games in much more depth, as well as understand the repercussions of players’ major decisions on the battlefield. Players will be able to easily compare statistics of opposing players in real time as well as make their own predictions based on stats comparing army size, resource collection rate, resource allocations, and tech research in progress.

Reapers Raiding Zerg’s Economy 
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI%20_Resources_1.jpg 
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI%20_Resources_2.jpg

Comparing Army Sizes 
http://www.battle.net/Images/misc/3-17/Replay_UI%20_Units_1.jpg 
** Replay UI is still very much work in progress 
*** Shown are two tabs of various info tabs the player will be able to view while viewing a replay

1. Overlord can be upgraded to carry units, and spawn creep, and Overseer can detect, spawn changeling, and has a longer line of sight. Why not just have the Overlord upgraded with these abilities, rather than have him transform? – Mooiki (Lordaeron)

We want each race’s detection ability to be well balanced. We don’t want to see every Overlord with detection after upgrading the ability once at Lair. Separating detection capability into two units creates important choices for Zerg players, to ensure their army has enough support of each type available.

2. Any support for stereoscopic play? – Ylleks (Azeroth)

Stereoscopic vision can be an interesting feature, as we’ve seen with the recently added support in World of Warcraft and other games. For now however, the team is concentrating on the core aspects of StarCraft II and making sure the core features of the game that will be used by everyone are as good as can be. Later on down the road we can evaluate more features like this and see if they make sense to support in StarCraft II.

3. At previous events with playable StarCraft II stations we often saw players doing classic Brood War build orders and tactics. Taking all the new things into account, how far do you get with playing just like in Brood War? Is it a clear disadvantage or a good way to start? – instarcraft.de

It will depend on the player’s play type and creativity. The experience and skills from the original StarCraft will definitely help players get familiar with StarCraft II. However, there are a lot more units, abilities, and buildings in StarCraft II than the original StarCraft. Players can always start out playing in the way that they used to play in the original StarCraft. As they grow more comfortable with the game they can begin exploring the new units and abilities and discover lots of new strategies. It’s not a matter of advantage or disadvantage, it depends more on the players’ play styles and preferences.

4. Will it be possible to use characters to colour ingame text like in SC1? – StarCraftWire.net

No, currently there is no in-game colored text support. Colored text was a neat trick in the original game, but we wanted to ensure that all in-game communication is clear and easily-readable, so we’re only supporting default text style.

5. In the single player, you said we can choose from the missions and the way we want to go forward. Will it be like we definitely will play all the missions and we can choose the order, or does it mean that probably we will miss some missions? – StarCraft II Hungary

In most cases, you’ll be able to go back and explore a mission branch that you skipped earlier in the campaign, so you can experience almost all of the missions in a single play-through of the campaign. There may be a couple of rare cases where a choice you make closes off a mission, however.

6. Will campaign decisions in the Terran portion affect campaign outcomes/branches in the Zerg and Protoss portions? – TheWarCenter

We looked into this possibility, but after some debate, we decided it was most important that each campaign delivers a self-contained, yet epic storyline. Giving each campaign a single start and ending was the best way to ensure a coherent plot.

7. In the original StarCraft, you could make the Lurker (through bug use), while burrowed, hold fire until told to attack, something which led to many exciting situations. Are there any plans to include a “hold fire” command for the Lurker in SC2? In addition, worker units lacked Hold and Patrol commands in SC, will this be the case in SC2 as well? – Team Liquid (Zanric)

There is no hold fire command for Lurker in the current build. However we will look into every possibility that encourages more tactical, exciting gameplay and keeps the game balanced.