http://starcraft2.4players.de/games_convention_interview_frank_pierce_bob_colayco.php
Sc2Source:
Karune told us at Paris about the single player- and multiplayer mode, that there are differences in animations and graphics because in the multiplayer mode things have to be faster. We want to know if there are any other changes between these two modes like costs or abilities for the units or so.
Frank Pierce:
Sure. I think one thing to know is that in terms of different graphics between single player and multiplayer the higher fidelity graphics will normally be used for the purpose of storytelling. You wouldn’t necessarily see those same graphics in the actual missions where you are fighting against the AI in single player. The scourmish component of single player is going to use the same aspects as the multiplayer-version. There will just be real-time cinematic sequences that we do or interactive cinematic sequences or if we do any storytelling components in mission we will use higher fidelity graphics. As far as abilities and what not go the level designers that make the single player campaign always have the flexibility to do whatever they want to add flavor to the single player missions. So, you’ll see returning characters like from the original StarCraft story like Jim, Kerrigan and character Jim Raynor and Kerrigan and those units may be units that you use in missions or in single player and those might have unique abilities and so the level designs can do whatever they need to do to deliver the story and anything interesting.
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Sc2Source:
What about the development from StarCraft 2? What has changed in the years before and after the announcement after you get a lot of feedback from the fan sites all around the world? Is there anything you changed in the production with the feedback or is it the same way you work on the games.
Frank Pierce:
Well, you know, one thing to note is that even before the announcement and after the announcement the game is still a work in progress. The game changes on day-to-day bases for any number of reasons. Feedback internally, what the designers think they need to do, what the programmers need to do. So since we have announced it there have been thousands and thousands of changes made to the game and off the top of my head I can’t think of any specific changes that I would tribute to feedback from fan sites. Can you think of anyone?
Bob Colayco:
That’s not something I can speak to. But I know that – as we get into the beta-phase – that’s probably the point where when fans are playing and that a lot more of those types of suggestions are being given a lot more weight as far as what they experiencing when they play because sometimes what you see and what you read about your perceptions are different then the reality in play. To use one example: the roach. It doesn’t really sound like a sexy unit. It’s got a higher regeneration rate but you know when you play it, it probably has a lot more impact on you and you realize what it is capable of doing and what you are capable of doing with it. Once we get more people playing the game those people giving feedback and maybe at that point it’ll be more obvious how the feedback is affecting the production.
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Sc2Source:
What was with these programmers? I heard that in Korea should be a presentation or so?
Frank Pierce:
Yeah, we have had a couple of events where we had competitions, e-sport competitions. We started with the original StarCraft and Warcraft 3 and we used that opportunity to show a preliminary build of StarCraft 2 to the community and also use that opportunity to have proplayers try out StarCraft 2 and provide some of their thoughts and feedback on the game.
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Sc2Source:
One question about e-Sports. StarCraft 1 was never planned as an e-Sports title. It’s completely different with StarCraft 2. StarCraft 2 was planned as an e-Sports-title from the beginning, so what can we expect from StarCraft 2? Are there any features you can talk about especially for e-Sports?
Frank Pierce:
One of the features we are definitely working on improving and in integrating much better is the replay-functionality which is naturally important for the e-sports-community. We are working at better support for tournaments and leagues on battle.net so that there is a lot more facility in that regard. We are talking about things like cameraman-functionality which we already have in World of Warcraft as well.
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Sc2Source:
So what about this replay function? Will the replays be saved on the Blizzard-Server?
Bob Colayco:
The way it works right now is that the replays are saved on your local computer. So when I play you save the replay on my computer. Maybe some other things we try to do is like how can you easily show the replay to your friends and make that more easy to transit to. As far as a specific functionality for battle.net we are not really ready to get into the details of that because there are still decisions being made as we develop, whether specific things will make it in with the launch of the game and what we will have to add on later because the development on the new battle.net will be continues. It’s not like we are launching a game and this is it, this is the end. There’s going to be more things added on as we go.
Frank Pierce:
We are also talking about potential spectator’s functionality and things like that. We have an e-sports-team internally whose responsibility is to host the events that we run and also work for parties so that e-sports-team will be responsible for e-sport with StarCraft 2 as well.
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Sc2Source:
Lets talk about the landscape: It looks great in StarCraft 2 and someone mentioned before that there will be other amazing landscapes as well. When will we be able to see something new about this?
Frank Pierce:
We have already shown a number of different tilesets like this space platform, char, the magma type of tileset. We have shown of a lot and I don’t know if there’s any more that we have held back.
Bob Colayco:
I am not actually sure which ones we have shown and which ones we haven’t and what the complete list is right now. So it’s hard for us to say. We have shown off quite a bit and there is still a good amount of development time left so we felt like we needed to add more like...
Frank Pierce:
I think probably... maybe we have some stuff to see at... BlizzCon... I don’t know.
Bob Colayco:
Yeah, that’s a tough question for us... I don’t know.
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Sc2Source:
You screwed an idea to upgrade every Zerg unit individually. Did you have any other ideas in this direction?
Frank Pierce:
It’s not every single unit. It’s like certain big units like the Battlecruiser that you would have to upgrade individually. We wouldn’t do that with a marine. The marine would use universal upgrades. Other ideas in terms of like what else do you mean?
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Sc2Source:
Like the upgrade mechanism for the Zerg. Is this one final or do you still...
Frank Pierce:
(laughs): Nothing is final. We are doing a lot of play testing and the build that’s out on the floor is the same as the one in Paris. But internally since then things changed, you know, almost on a daily bases. I was just reading and e-mail this morning about latest changes on internal builds. There are all kinds of things they’re being experimented with in all kinds of different areas. Just as an example the vespingas mechanic. We are trying a lot of different things just to try to make the process of collecting gas or just the process of collecting resources more interesting and more strategic for players so something like the Zerg upgrading mechanic... – everything is a subject to change.
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Sc2Source:
Do you think the StarCraft world and the story is big enough for a future MMO?
Frank Pierce:
The StarCraft franchise is big enough and rich enough for us to do anything we want with it. I could be used in multiple genres it could be use for multiple types of media like movies or novels or comic books. Yeah, it’s definitely rich enough for us to do anything we want with it.
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Sc2Source:
Thank you for the interview.
