Biggest surprises so far?

[Skosiris]

Can be anything -- gameplay, units, graphics, UI, etc.


I'll start: I certainly didn't expect to be playing SC2 today!

[Psionic]

I'm surprised at how obnoxiously powerful the Brood Lord/Corruptor combo is lol

[Dalcyon]

Can be anything -- gameplay, units, graphics, UI, etc.


I'll start: I certainly didn't expect to be playing SC2 today!

Its my first time playing SC in 3D. So I was surprised by how good looking the game is!!

I know there are tons of videos out there, but its nothing like actually playing it and zooming in. Anyone knows if we are able to rotate the camera?

[Cybexx]

I know it sounds a bit stupid when talking about the biggest surprise, but I was very surprised by how awesome the help menu is. The Tech Tree tab is awesome to have in-game, it has some nice rollover info and is very readable, very easy to quickly see what I need to built in order to access a unit.

Better than that is the Unit tab which has profiles for all the units for each faction which lists a few units they are strong and weak against. Having this info in-game is awesome, despite the fact I probably shouldn't be reading it during a match. The only gripe I have is that the Strong/Weak unit info seems to favor Protoss units, which doesn't help as much when I'm playing as Terran, though that is a minor gripe.

Tips and Tutorials are currently grayed out, but I am sure they will be useful too. I was expecting a simple screen with some text and I got much more.

Great work Blizzard!

[Tomstone]

i'm not sure but there is only 10 games for match making? is that per day?

[Cybexx]

No, as far as I understand it your first 10 matches are placement matches after you finish those, depending on your performance you are placed into a group of 100 people of similar skill level and further player matching is done against that group, until you become better than that group and advance into another group.

[Bladeseye]

At first I was like "THEY REMOVED QUEENS OMG OMG". Then I looked closer and /facepalmed myself.

[Indigo]

...Anyone knows if we are able to rotate the camera?

Try the insert and delete keys. :)

[zerg]

The build display after matches is awesome.

[Gerdofal]

Can be anything -- gameplay, units, graphics, UI, etc.


I'll start: I certainly didn't expect to be playing SC2 today!

That too :) But I think my biggest surprise was when I tried to kill a Protoss carrier and realized they actually have armor and defense this time! Wow... they mauled me.

[Dalcyon]

Try the insert and delete keys. :)

ty!

[Charb]

I'm surprised at how powerful reapers are and how quickly I saw a thor get taken down.

Reapers do insane building damage and could rush you from the start and wipe out your base.

Thor - almost a letdown, but thank goodness for that! Does great damage to anything, and that CD ability of theirs that does 600 damage is great against bunkers/emplacements.

However, when I saw one fall to like 4-6 zealots in a fast manner I had to laugh because I honestly thought that the Thor was going to be some kind of impenetrable moving fortress.

Battlecruisers are quite tough by the way O.O
...Not as tough as carriers though - they are kind of beefy this time.

Nice surprises: the Colossi and the Void rays

void ray beam charges up much faster than it did in the initial videos and even just 2 of them can wreak some untold devastation on a base.

Colossi - Zerg Murderer. I used 2 to cut down 12 hydras, about a dozen zlings, and a few banelings with ease. Yeah, only 2 colossi did this with a little bit of micro up and down some cliff edges.

[Lipton]

Can be anything -- gameplay, units, graphics, UI, etc.


I'll start: I certainly didn't expect to be playing SC2 today!


Short cut keys, still getting use to em ;)

Also the 'stickiness' of smaller units in a group when trying to select just one, but I'm sure by tomorrow it will be 2nd nature ;)

[Tomstone]

No, as far as I understand it your first 10 matches are placement matches after you finish those, depending on your performance you are placed into a group of 100 people of similar skill level and further player matching is done against that group, until you become better than that group and advance into another group.

Ok thanks for clearing that up. I guess I'll find out.

[Mentlegen]

Probably how rusty I am and how hard zerg is to play compared to protoss and terran.

Also how awesome roaches are after they're upgraded.

Finally how short the matches are, I don't think i've had one last past 15 mins

[Diesel]

For me; I'm surprised at how well it is running for it's first day out the doors. I see other people having some issues, however all I've had is the fact that my mic won't work at all.

Fine polish for a beta, looking forward to see the improvements.

[Toridas]

My biggest surprise is all the hotkeys they've changed on me. E for probe? E for pylon? A for marine? I understand what they're trying to do with the new keys, I would just prefer the old way. Selecting all drones from a hatchery but only one of them mutating when I press a button will take some getting used to also.

[Eliyah]

I just finished playing all three races against the very easy ai to look at the units.
I was surprised to see Hydralisk Den as an Advanced building for zerg.
I was also surprised that when having 3 larva selected and pressing the hotkey for drones it only produces 1 out of 3 of the larva. So you need to select them and press d d d to get three drones...
I was frowning when i realized this. I'm iffy about the queen unit.

I love the new comstat for terran and the two other abilities granted by the upgrade. Increase supply at the rdy for when we forget a depot is great.

Theres so much to write about but I have been up for 24h and need to get some sleep even though I want to keep playing.

There are plenty of surprises for each race. Some enjoyable some unpleasant in my opinion. Definitly a great game though :)

[Klaxor]

My biggest surprise is all the hotkeys they've changed on me. E for probe? E for pylon? A for marine? I understand what they're trying to do with the new keys, I would just prefer the old way. Selecting all drones from a hatchery but only one of them mutating when I press a button will take some getting used to also.

The new hotkeys threw me for a loop too. I was all confused why I wasn't building what I thought I was half the time!

[Gunslinger]

First building I built, a barracks, watching the construction take place, realizing I was playing STARCRAFT 2... surprised doesn't even begin to describe.

[Ignorance]

I'm surprised at how well the servers are handling us. Maybe all that World of Warcraft money is being put to good use.

[Veszerin]

First building I built, a barracks, watching the construction take place, realizing I was playing STARCRAFT 2... surprised doesn't even begin to describe.this. The building animations are amazing.

[Spooner]

Biggest surprise was how quickly my ghosts could dismantle an enemy base. I expected them to be torn down faster it's nice to see an expensive unit have some staying power.

[Vonhenry]

I have two:

The first was my first match and just how underwhelming that huge Thor was! I know it was most likely me not utilizing range and supporting it correctly, but dang...not even close to worth my production cost/time in that first match.

The second was how cool the Zerg structures looked while building; and how "gross" the zerg look in general. Just great!

[Bagels]

My biggest surprise was when i tried to find the lurker and it wasn't there. :(

I was also surprised how disgusting the zerg sound.

[Lagorathia]

first surprise was the battlecruiser's damage. holy crap. it hits hard and fires fast. when did it ever become so powerful? was a little underwhelmed by the yamato gun i guess, but it seems to recharge faster and bcs in groups are still going to tear through things with it in a second.

second surprise was ultralisks. OMG. soo much damage! :D

[Greengoo]

I love the animation on the Warp Rays... it's like watching the deathstar fire :D

[Delasangre]

How ineffective the rocks are at preventing people from rushing. I think all of my games ended in 5-15 minutes, even on the novice version of the maps.

[Wyndrunner]

I was surprised at how powerful the queen's ability to create more units is.

[Sinjgarous]

I agree with Cybexx.galenryder I didn't expect to see such a detailed help menu, tech tree and I didn't even expect the unit tab displaying all the units strengths/weaknesses.

I didn’t expect the 3D to be so in depth or even to be playing it so soon. Even if it’s just in Beta, the game is amazing.

Blizzard, you guys are incredible.
Thank You, I have been waiting for this for sometime and you do not disappoint.

[Alex]

I'll start: I certainly didn't expect to be playing SC2 today!

I'd say you nailed it, and here I was getting annoyed/disappointed about no beta key at Blizzcon 09 :) Didn't believe the email until I had checked it on Battle.Net, I was sure the scammers had already started sending out emails and managed to get past gmail's filter :)

[Minorthreat]

My biggest surprise is that I even got in, let alone on day 1.

Other fun ones include how intuitive the B.net UI is, how the units (old and new) completely capture the old SC feel, and how amazing the graphics are. WarCraft III looks like trash compared to this. I know, it's old and doesn't even properly support widescreen, but still.

[Cephalopod]

Day 1: Queens can pump babies into the lair :D ... and also that you can rally workers to resources straight now.

[Krazytrumpet]

Biggest surprise/favorite thing so far is that if your ally leaves, it gives you control over their stuff.

[Argonanth]

The build display after matches is awesome.

ya that's about the only thing i found cool. I did get to play the game at blizzcon so i guess the whole 3D and graphics thing has passed...

Oh ya... woke up yesterday expecting to have a normal day and then bam beta on my account and within an hour i was sitting in my room playing SC2 and it still seems weird that I'm actually playing it again.

[Madhatter]

biggest surprise.....

The music! Either I hadn't noticed at Blizzcon or they did some work on it since then but kudos.....

[Zelph]

You mean the elevator music? I'm not such a fan.

[Neovalkyrion]

The fact that so many of the unit upgrades show up visually on your units.

And that you can infest Protoss organic units as well as Terrran. Infested Zealots are SCARY, I can only imagine how an infested High Templar will look. Only wish that you had more than ten seconds to enjoy them.

[Innervated]

The Hydralisk Den being an advance building after a Lair is required. I was doing a good build up until that and I was like omg wtf happened to the Hydralisk Den? I couldn't figure it out until I upgraded the Lair and then I found it under Advance buildings and I'm like wtf? Totally different from what I played at BlizzCON 2009 this past summer. Totally shocked and disgusted by this change, as a zerg player.

By then it was arleady too late, I was owned by an army of zealots as it seems zerglings are also too weak now. They don't seem to stack up to zealots the way they used to in SC1, not sure if it's an AI with the zergling or something but it's something, usually the amount of lings I had should have done the job vs that many zealots, or did the zealot AI gotten that much better at killing zerglings?

I don't get why they nerfed hydras like that. Terran have marines off the bat with AA, and Protoss can make stalkers with just a cybernetics core which is reduced in price, the cybernetics core now costs 150minerals now vs the 200 it used to be from SC1.

Zerg has no AA units until a Lair is built and then a Hydralisk den?

Roaches either needs to be able to do AA or give us back the Hydralisk at the Hatchery level. Roaches are designed as a medium around unit, but it just seems to be a grounded version of the Hydralisk, which begs to say the only real difference between a roach and a hydralisk is that hydralisks do AA at the next tier and for a little more gas, and roaches are ground only but are more agressive as they regenerate faster and can move while burrowed.

I seems this unexpected change broke zerg for me, either that or I seriously have to adapt to a mass with ling/roach as the fotter til the Liar is up.

Seriously not likely this unexpected and major change since I played at BlizzCON this past summer.
Not sure why the key bindings for some of the old skool units was changed. I did remember at BlizzCON that probes are now "E" instead of the old "P" keybindings, still throws me off to this day. Same with the Overlords, their now "V".

I dunno I've only played a few games since I installed it early this morning before I went to sleep for work. I think I just need to sit down and spend some good time on the changes, since yes it is a new and entirely different beast.

[Lagorathia]

queens can attack air. if you're lagging behind your opponent in tech then you can build spore crawlers. otherwise, what does it matter? hydralisks come in the same tier as air, and they are very powerful.

[Innervated]

queens can attack air. if you're lagging behind your opponent in tech then you can build spore crawlers. otherwise, what does it matter? hydralisks come in the same tier as air, and they are very powerful.

Not if you need quick AA at the hatchery level. The spores are defensive buildings forcing you to turtle, not a zerg strategy I like. I prefer to swarm out and let the units do the job and not hide behind a lot of defensive buildings.

Queens aren't a mass producable attacking unit, as least not perfered since they can only attack air and their slow as hell when they move. They have their own function that is to basically give you more larva for the most parts.

[Warlocksol]

I was surprised by how awesome Void Rays are :) You get enough of those and it's crazy. I got like 5 of them and took some joy in watching the Nexus shields/hp slowly tick down, then faster, then faster, then crazy fast. Something very satisfying about focused laser beams :)

[Wingless]

I don't mind hydras being up there. I like lings and banelings. Roaches I haven't used much but that was before I heard about move while borrowed they should be fun. I actually have not built one hydra yet been going Zergling > Baneling > Mutalisk. Working great so far.

I love the queen spawn larva. 3 hatcheries 3 queens = 21 units per batch. By late mid game Im pumping out more mutas then anyone has been able to deal with.

Honestly zerglings feel more powerful. In zerglings vs zealots the zerg player needs to micro and surround. If you let zealots get in a choke where they form a sort of wall you cant surround them and they'll roll over you.

[Lagorathia]

Not if you need quick AA at the hatchery level. The spores are defensive buildings forcing you to turtle, not a zerg strategy I like. I prefer to swarm out and let the units do the job and not hide behind a lot of defensive buildings.

Queens aren't a mass producable attacking unit, as least not perfered since they can only attack air and their slow as hell when they move. They have their own function that is to basically give you more larva for the most parts.

ya I see your point

[Wingless]

Queen can attack ground and they are slow off of the creep. They are really a last resort you should be up to lair by the time you opponent gets air. Scout more and see what they are making.

[Lagorathia]

Queen can attack ground and they are slow off of the creep. They are really a last resort you should be up to lair by the time you opponent gets air. Scout more and see what they are making.

but even so, rushing low tech should be a viability. and there's nothing rushy you can do with any GtA zerginess. if your opponent rushed air you don't have a chance.

[Skosiris]

Surprise of the day: Motherships are created from the Nexus.

[Terradrius]

2 things, probably:

Someone mentioned the music - the terran music in general seems to very evocative of Firefly, which I definitely approve of.

Maybe it's just because I haven't been following SC2 news, but Chrono Boost was a big pleasant surprise. Adds an interesting new mechanic for Protoss.

[Chichen]

I was able to beat 2 people :O (lol I'm terrible.)

[Joshsuth]

The mothership in general. Thing's insane.

[Noot]

I was suprised that 8 marines and 2 siege tanks still worked.

[Skosiris]

I was suprised that 8 marines and 2 siege tanks still worked.

There's a counter to everything.

[Cheesybacon]

I too was shocked to get a invite, i NEVER get invites. And of all games i got to play this one :)


on the gaming side, i like how they took some cool things from warcraft 3, and i love how i can tell a probe to build like 10 cannons in sequence by holding down the shift button.. almost makes the game kinda windowsy :) holding down shift and draging in like 5 files into a folder :) It certainly makes you feel like a commander telling a worker what his orders are for the day.

[Webbstre]

My biggest surprise, other than ACTUALLY GETTING A BETA INVITE was that I think I beat a Korean in my third game. Yay for Dark Templar and Warp Gates!

[Darakov]

How bad the novice maps are.

[Lagorathia]

How bad the novice maps are.


oh god. those are bad. i skipped the rest after my first one.

[Doraiya]

The graphic setting. The amount of scaling that can be applied is a true testament to Blizzards efforts to make sure that everyone can play their games, regardless of how much they've spent on their systems.

That and Hydralisks at T2. Eghhh.

[Hungrydingo]

I'm with the people who were shocked to get an invite. I've been getting turned down for every beta ever, and lucky me, the first one I get ever is for the game I've been looking forward too for almost 10 years. So far this is exactly what I wanted in SC2, it does different things over SC1, but at the same time it sticks to the formula that made me addicted to SC1. Only sad thing is the old grade school friends I lost touch with that I used to stay up all night playing SC1 with when we were 14.

[Darjeeling]

The lack of the bloodcurdling scream and the dismemberment of the medics :(

But I think the biggest surprise was the first time I built a Thor and I found out I got the terminator instead.

[paradox]

im surprised how much people expect this game to be sc1 with 3d graphics

yes they nerfed hyrdas.... they are still powerful.

roaches are nothing like hyrdas

yes selecting all larva and clicking d once only makes one... learn to spam the key its not really difficult

they changed some of the play styles of the races... its a new game get over it

[Comtrav]

Well, getting the beta key is definitely the biggest. I was like ZOMG STARCRAFT 2. Won't be needing YOU, second-tier RTS games coming up in March...

Marauders have a lot of HP for a Terran unit that comes from the barracks. I was surprised at how beefy they were.

Was also surprised Reapers can attack buildings, lol. (And Reaper vs. Reaper fights are funny. Blink and you'll miss them.)

Also, the break-able rocks, Xel'Naga watch tours, high grass, and such, are nifty and can make a bigger difference then I thought. Especially the cliff-jumping stuff, it's huge on certain maps.

[Tiamazzo]

Opening my email account and seeing that I was accepted into the beta.

I was so shocked by it, I scoured the hell out of it to make sure it wasn't some gold farmer going for my wow account.

[Mut]

I was surprised at how many hotkeys are different. Not judging good or bad, just different.

Also at the graphics. I was thrilled to see that even though a 3d engine is being used, the basic look while fully zoomed out is extremely reminiscent of starcraft 1. The game looks familiar yet stunningly better.

[Scorcher]

I was surprised that the Terran sensor tower isn't a detector. It seemed like a fairly safe assumption, and I didn't look closely enough at the description to notice I was wrong. Imagine my shock when a sizable group of dark templar showed up in my base shredding through my defenses.

I was also surprised at just how seamless SC2 and the new battle.net are. Its hard sometimes to figure out which part I'm using.

[Varia]

The button next to the minimap that toggles a palette swap on all units: green = friendly, red=hostile, rather than having player colors. Useful on maps where your units blend into the background color, to be sure.

[Marathdamane]

This particular thread i have already found out multiple things i didnt know. like being able to control allies if they bail the pallet swap and queued construction.
Waking up to the beta invite in my email was pretty awesome.

Just how strong the colossi really are. bring 4 or 5 of them with 4 or 5 carriers micro right things just die left and right.

how intuitive the controls are is also quite nice

[Skosiris]

Nice little touch: In the Graphics Options screen, the tooltip for Gamma reads as follows:

"Warning: Setting this value too high or too low may cause artists to cry."

[Kindread]

The biggest surprise is the TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE DAMAGE!

You knew it was coming...

[Kreychek]

How much I don't miss the micro (i.e. the micro that was beneficial in BW but has been made obsolete by the new unit AI, pathing, and... removal of the vulture).