Hell... it's about time - Let's Play Starcraft 2

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Hell... it's about time - Let's Play Starcraft 2

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InfinityComplex: Feb 5, 2011; Nothing better than swinging around a little girl like a flail.

It was a wasteland to begin with, so I don't think anyone cared what happened after the Protoss bombarded it.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 07:36

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# ? Jun 9, 2024 16:42

occipitallobe: Jul 16, 2012

Patter Song posted:

Fair enough. I just started playing through SC1 again (Probably will give up before long, mostly for old times' sake), and I just beat Terran mission 1.4 and got the text dump.

"Thirteen hours after the evacuation of Mar Sara, Protoss warships took up orbit around the colony and unleashed a massive planetary bombardment. All life upon the surface was extinguished."

Now, these events are at the very beginning of SC1, which, IIRC, puts it four years before the start of SC2. Apparently Mengsk is just really good at encouraging people to move back to dead planets for Mar Sara to be this populated already, but he already did the same "everyone move back to a ruined hellhole" once with Korhal itself, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Honestly, I feel like the four year timeskip was poorly thought out. Make it ten, hell, make it twenty years, and you have a much better story all round. Raynor becomes a more openly disillusioned revolutionary who's at this point only fighting because he has no other choice (making Horner's dissatisfaction with him more obvious), the recovery of the Terran Dominion makes sense as well as Korhal, and the disappearance of the Zerg actually becomes a mystery - that Kerrigan took four years to revive the Swarm might be thinkable, that she took twenty - not so much. So when the Zerg hit the Terrans again, the confusion of the Terrans makes sense instead of the 'man she lost most of her forces 4 years ago in a war against us and now she's invading us for reasons we cannot comprehend' business.

Wanton Spoon posted:

I love mission 3 because I see it as the prologue to the Starcraft II campaign. It sends the message, "We know what concepts made this mission special in the original game, so we've decided to take those concepts and apply them to all the missions, including the ones you've already played, including that mission specifically. We're retaining everything that matters and was fun in the original Starcraft, but we don't want you to feel like you're retracing your steps at any point." And I never did. Until HotS

This post (and the previous video) is seriously making me consider go back through and playing on Hard (or even trying Brutal). Normal wasn't all that challenging, (but I'm terrible at this game) but seeing how drastically different the difficulty setting makes the levels play out is really cool.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 07:44

DFlux: Apr 25, 2008

Yeah Mar Sara was kind of a poo poo hole, so no one (besides Raynor I guess) gave anything resembling a poo poo about it.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 07:45

Patter Song: Mar 26, 2010; Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.; Fun Shoe

InfinityComplex posted:

It was a wasteland to begin with, so I don't think anyone cared what happened after the Protoss bombarded it.

Fair enough, but encouraging people to move to a place after it's been leveled to the ground (not even wildlife left) is kind of a difficult sell. "Move to Mar Sara: the real estate's cheap?"

What gets me is that it's populated at all in SC2. The Dominion bothered to resettle it after all that.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 07:47

Calax: Oct 5, 2011

And I'm pretty sure that Korhol was significantly more "kablooey'd" than Mar Sara

For those who don't know, Korhol basically got nuked from hyperspace a few decades before the first game. To the tune of "1000 Apocolypse class Nuclear warheads"...

And this was after having Mengsks' family killed, and decapitated, for daring to stand against the Confederacy.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 07:47

Laradus: Feb 16, 2011

Think Korhal gets a few nukes in BW as well (as a bit of infestation as well) - it cleans up nicely.

Have a series where someone went and spliced together all the mission intros/cutscenes/in-game scenes from SC/BW before SC2 was released here.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 15:13

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Laradus posted:

Think Korhal gets a few nukes in BW as well (as a bit of infestation as well) - it cleans up nicely.

To the point that it's a minor plot point in BW that since Korhal is already an irradiated wasteland, Mengsk is more than willing to fling every nuke he has at the UED invasion force.

Then again, you could justify the planet's appearance in WoL by saying that you're only visiting the nice part of the planet where the terraforming has been most successful. HotS shows that the outskirts of the capital are still pretty barren.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 15:18

Patter Song: Mar 26, 2010; Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.; Fun Shoe

So why doesn't Mengsk use whatever blueprints and such he looted when he took over to build replacements for the Psi Emitters and Psi Disrupter? The Psi Emitters lure the Zerg into a location (presumably even Kerrigan can't restrain a bloodthirsty Zerg brood chasing after a Psi Emitter) and the Psi Disrupter breaks the link between Kerrigan and her broods, turning the Zerg against each other. I'd think that building another Psi Disrupter would be goal #1 of the Dominion, and even if it were too complicated to manage, putting a bunch of Psi Emitters on a wrecked planet and eradicating the planet afterwards (like they did in Campaign 1, albeit indirectly) is a damned effective anti-Zerg strategy.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 20:53

Feinne: Oct 9, 2007; When you fall, get right back up again.

Patter Song posted:

So why doesn't Mengsk use whatever blueprints and such he looted when he took over to build replacements for the Psi Emitters and Psi Disrupter? The Psi Emitters lure the Zerg into a location (presumably even Kerrigan can't restrain a bloodthirsty Zerg brood chasing after a Psi Emitter) and the Psi Disrupter breaks the link between Kerrigan and her broods, turning the Zerg against each other. I'd think that building another Psi Disrupter would be goal #1 of the Dominion, and even if it were too complicated to manage, putting a bunch of Psi Emitters on a wrecked planet and eradicating the planet afterwards (like they did in Campaign 1, albeit indirectly) is a damned effective anti-Zerg strategy.

The Zerg control structure has changed pretty significantly since the Brood War, with much more proximal control spread out over a lot of intermediate entities with increasing levels of independence instead of just having a Cerebrate somewhere controlling everything. I'm pretty sure that's why Psi Emitters aren't terribly useful anymore, because there actually are Zerg smart enough to know what those are and restrain the others from pursing. As for other wonder weapons designed to counter the Zerg, we'll just have to wait and see what Mengsk might be cooking up.

Until this new offensive the Zerg were mostly concentrated on Char, where their central Hive Cluster is currently located. Their numbers made it basically impossible to even consider an offensive.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 21:36

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Speaking of that, the UED campaign in BW is my favorite in the whole SC1 by far. Particularly the last mission, the entire large map is full of enemies just waiting for you to clear away. It even has some minor and unique obstacles to prevent it from being too easy.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 22:22

my dad: Oct 17, 2012; this shall be humorous

Feinne posted:

Until this new offensive the Zerg were mostly concentrated on Char, where their central Hive Cluster is currently located. Their numbers made it basically impossible to even consider an offensive.

Well, people did consider and even try an offensive, it's just that it completely and utterly failed, resulting in the destruction of the entire UED fleet, and a big chunk of Mengsk's and Artanis' forces.

# ? Feb 9, 2014 23:27

RichardA: Sep 1, 2006; .; Dinosaur Gum

Patter Song posted:

So why doesn't Mengsk use whatever blueprints and such he looted when he took over to build replacements for the Psi Emitters and Psi Disrupter? The Psi Emitters lure the Zerg into a location (presumably even Kerrigan can't restrain a bloodthirsty Zerg brood chasing after a Psi Emitter) and the Psi Disrupter breaks the link between Kerrigan and her broods, turning the Zerg against each other.

For the emitters at least they may no longer work. Given that the Overminds main goal in the attack on the Terran colonies was the capture of a ghost the attraction to their psionic emissions may of been a temporary thing that Kerrigan later removed.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 00:10

Raldan: Oct 21, 2010; HH Challenge Caster
(Pls no bm)

Update :siren:

Voting:

Upgrade
We've got 125,000 Credits, just tell me how you want to spend the money. We can save the money if you want as well. We don't have to spend it all now.

Combat Shields
- Marines gain +10 life.
50,000 Credits

Advanced Medic Facilities
- Medics no longer require the Tech Lab add-on.
60,000 Credits

Stabilizer Medpacks
- Medics heal targets 25% faster.
- Medics use 33% less energy per heal.
105,000 Credits

Incinerator Gauntlets
- Firebats gain a 40% larger area attack.
40,000 Credits

Juggernaut Plating
- Firebats gain +2 armor.
85,000 Credits

Mission

Outbreak
110,000 Credits
2 Zerg Research
New unit: Hellion

Smash And Grab
110,000 Credits
4 Protoss Research
New unit: Marauder

The Devil's Playground
110,000 Credits
3 Zerg Research
New unit: Reaper

Voting will end Wednesday Feb 12th at 11:00 pm EST

# ? Feb 10, 2014 06:12

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Combat Shields, Advanced Medic Facilities, and The Devil's Playground.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 06:23

Penakoto: Aug 21, 2013

Combat Shields, save what's left afterwards.

Next Mission: The Devil's Playground

# ? Feb 10, 2014 06:26

Sel Nar: Dec 19, 2013

Combat Shields and the Playground.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:11

The Door Frame: Dec 5, 2011; I don't know man everytime I go to the gym here there are like two huge dudes with raging high and tights snorting Nitro-tech off of each other's rock hard abs.

Stabilizer Medpacks and Devil's Playground
I want to see swarms of reapers

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:17

FoolyCharged: Oct 11, 2012; Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Upgrade: Stabilizer packs
Stage: Outbreak

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:18

UED Special Ops: Oct 21, 2008; Grimey Drawer

Voting for Combat Shields and The Devil's Playground.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:23

RareAcumen: Dec 28, 2012

Stabilizer Medpacks and Smash And Grab

RareAcumen fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Feb 10, 2014

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:26

Veloxyll: May 3, 2011; Fuck you say?!

Stabiliser Medpacks and Smash and Grab Gotta get all the bulky infantry.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 07:33

InfinityComplex: Feb 5, 2011; Nothing better than swinging around a little girl like a flail.

Veloxyll posted:

Stabiliser Medpacks and Smash and Grab Gotta get all the bulky infantry.

drat straight.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:01

Cador_2004: Oct 13, 2012

Stabilizer Medpacks and Smash and Grab

The Medpacks are just so useful it's not even funny, same thing with the Marauders. I would say Devil's Playground first, but I think Marauders are more useful in that mission than Reapers in Smash and Grab.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:06

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

All of the missions are set up such that you really only need to use Marines, Medics, and the new unit of that level to win, even on Hard. I wouldn't worry about cross-fertilizing the units between missions too much. Most times you try to get cute, it actually ends up to your detriment.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:13

Alpha3KV: Mar 30, 2011; Quex Chest

Upgrade: Stabilizer Medpacks
Mission: The Devil's Playground

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:16

a busted-up mailbox: Dec 14, 2012

Stabiliser Medpacks and Smash and Grab

Gotta get that MMM ball going

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:17

LeschNyhan: Sep 2, 2006

Nice little call back by Blizzard to the best game(s) they're ever made: The Lost Vikings.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:21

ArkhamPraetor: Sep 11, 2011

Stabilizer Medpacks and Smash and Grab, bioball all the way.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:33

NotALizardman: Jun 5, 2011

Combat Shields and Smash and Grab. Get huge.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 08:51

IronSaber: Feb 24, 2009; oh yes oh god yes form the head FORM THE HEAD unghhhh...

Stabilizer Medpacks and Smash and Grab.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 09:14

occipitallobe: Jul 16, 2012

Juggernaut Plating and Smash And Grab. Seeing these missions being taken care of so easily on Brutal makes me feel like that improving the medics isn't going to make this LP more interesting.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 09:37

Spudd: Nov 27, 2007; Protect children from "Safe Schools" social engineering. Shame!

Combat Shields so you'll have no excuse to not Stim all the time and Smash & Grab because what the hell is wrong with all you people get Marauders. :psyduck:

# ? Feb 10, 2014 11:07

fuck off Batman: Oct 14, 2013; Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah!

Veloxyll posted:

Stabiliser Medpacks and Smash and Grab Gotta get all the bulky infantry.

My thoughts exactly!

# ? Feb 10, 2014 11:12

Poil: Mar 17, 2007

Stabilizer Medpacks at the Playground.

Coolguye posted:

All of the missions are set up such that you really only need to use Marines, Medics, and the new unit of that level to win, even on Hard. I wouldn't worry about cross-fertilizing the units between missions too much. Most times you try to get cute, it actually ends up to your detriment.

True but doing Outbreak with tanks is pretty awesome.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 12:32

Kaboom Dragoon: May 7, 2010; The greatest of feasts

Medpacks and Outbreak

# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:18

Finnish Flasher: Jul 16, 2008

Combat shield, save rest, devil's playground

# ? Feb 10, 2014 13:38

Jolan: Feb 5, 2007

I wanted to come in here and defend the writing of SC2 as charmingly campy, but after watching that intro again... It's like someone just took a bucketfull of TVTropes (including lines from other media copied verbatim) and poured them over the script. Thankfully, it's slightly better in the rest of the game, and the gameplay itself is stellar, so it mostly evens out. I do wonder what we'd get if Blizzard threw its expertise behind a new IP with a story that was written by professionals.

Anyways, go for Combat Shields and The Devil's Playground.

# ? Feb 10, 2014 14:15