Author Topic: Starcraft 2  (Read 6837 times)

Offline Numsgil

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Starcraft 2
« on: August 17, 2010, 07:51:05 PM »
Anyone else playing in the leagues?  Other than a guy at work I don't know many people who are playing competitive matches online.  I'm only in silver ATM, so I'm not exactly stomping noobs if someone wants to pick it up   :closedeyes:

Offline bacillus

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2010, 12:23:40 AM »
Still trying to get my hands on a free version  :glare:
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Offline Ammeh

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2010, 08:17:13 AM »
as above ^

dunno if I'll play online though, online RTS tends to end up as a rush of mediocre troops until the enemy is dead.

Offline Numsgil

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2010, 05:09:04 PM »
Still trying to get my hands on a free version  :glare:

That was possible during the beta, but now that it's live I think you'll have a hard (read: impossible) time to find any keycodes to get playing online.  Since each key code costs like $50 or $60 or whatever it is.  I guess if you want to play single player only there's probably some cracked versions floating around somewhere.  But the campaign is pretty short; most of the game is the multiplayer experience.

as above ^

dunno if I'll play online though, online RTS tends to end up as a rush of mediocre troops until the enemy is dead.

Yep ^^  Watch some of the commented games.  The game makes a lot more sense when you see strong/pro players playing.  The hard core rushing doesn't work at high levels so they turn in to light harassment instead, with the core game focusing on scouting, building counters to what you scout, and managing your army effectively.

It is a bit of a multitasking fest, though, which can be pretty difficult to keep up on.

Offline bacillus

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2010, 02:30:26 AM »
Ah, the Zergling/Zealot/random tiny creature rush. Dead in 12 seconds flat. Starcraft 2 like that as well?
I know somebody who apparently has a cracked version with a few bugs-he'll pass it over once the glitches are sorted.
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Offline Numsgil

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2010, 12:31:10 PM »
I don't think you can play online with a cracked copy, since the accounts go through battle.net 2.0, which basically links your keycode to your character.  The same system is in use for WoW, where they make all their money by charging people who want to play, so I think it's pretty hack-proof.  But if you can get it working more power to you :)

...
Ah, the Zergling/Zealot/random tiny creature rush. Dead in 12 seconds flat. Starcraft 2 like that as well?
I know somebody who apparently has a cracked version with a few bugs-he'll pass it over once the glitches are sorted.
So long as you scout it out (it's standard to send a probe/drone/SCV (resource gatherer.  Non combat) in the first minute or so), you can mass marines/zerglings/zealots (the basic combat unit) to stop it.  As long as you don't die you will probably win if they heavily committed to it.

But yeah, if you aren't super familiar with multiplayer RTSs, you will probably get destroyed in a proper multiplayer match.  They have a "practice" league, though, that plays on a slower speed and has destroyable rocks in places to prevent rushes like that.

Offline Botsareus

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2010, 01:52:47 PM »
Numsgil, how good is security on Star Craft 2? Will my AVGfree be good enough? I basically gave up on Multiplayer online games after I got hacked in Cosmic Rift...

Offline Numsgil

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2010, 02:13:42 PM »
Well, I think whoever you're playing against can see your IP address if they looked for it (I don't think the game is relayed through battle.net.  I think it just operates as a matchmaking service).  And I guess theoretically, if Blizzard wasn't careful, there might be ways to overflow buffers and inject code.  So it's probably not cleared for use on computers in the CIA or anything.  But realistically, no, there aren't any security issues to worry about.  You aren't downloading executable code.  You're just playing a game, which is talking with another game. 

Actually I don't know of any security issues with any games ever.  So the above is purely theoretical.  You just generally don't get hacked through a game.  The worst that could happen is you piss off some l33t hacker somewhere and they get your IP and do things to you using that.  Like the original Windows XP, out of box, could have visible messages sent to it if you knew the IP.  But they fixed that really quick (now you have to enable it explicitly).

If you have any sort of modern OS, most of the stupid things hackers can do with an IP won't work, anyway.  There's still a DoS attack, I guess.  Not sure if it would work on a consumer PC behind a router.  But it's comparatively expensive since you need lots of computers and lots of bandwidth to do that.  They can't log in to your computer or anything, unless you've specifically enabled your router and OS to allow remote connection.  Which you probably haven't.  And even then, just pick some half decent passwords and you're fine.

People do get their battle.net accounts hacked from time to time, but that's because they fall for some sort of phishing and give out their password and account.  If you're careful to not give the password to spoof sites you're fine.

So short answer: no.

Offline Prsn828

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2010, 08:46:06 AM »
Numsgil, how good is security on Star Craft 2? Will my AVGfree be good enough? I basically gave up on Multiplayer online games after I got hacked in Cosmic Rift...
As Numsgil said, you likely won't be getting hacked unless you opened up a path for the hacker yourself.
I expect (though this is purely speculation) that Blizzard probably also has protections built into the game to prevent malicious alterations from playing online.

That being said, I am a relative newb at starcraft, so I wouldn't take my word on it.

On another note, does anyone else find it pretty daunting to consider playing online after just having gotten used to playing from the campaign?
Faster gameplay, more building and unit options, more challenging opponents, and no saving/pausing/redos.  I feel like I'm in a newb nightmare just thinking about it...

Any suggestions?
Should I do the challenges (the easy ones) before going into online play, or train against the computer?
It seems so intimidating to me right now... Having a defensive nature sucks   :(
So, what will it be? Will you submit to my will, or must I bend reality to suit my needs?
Better answer before I do BOTH!

Offline Panda

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2010, 09:06:42 AM »
I have learned from playing online RTS that I had no chance against a lot of people, and tried, either finding somebody with the same ability of mine, or just play offline against the AI, which sometimes is difficult in itself.

Offline Welwordion

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2010, 01:49:13 PM »
Well I have starcraft2 but like panda said I somewhat suck against other people, so I do not play rts competive.
Besides its just to hectical all those battles that take place in the space of seconds and you have to micromamage them somehow.
I also never figured out how to manage my resources, building and scout effectively at the same time.

Offline Numsgil

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2010, 05:14:30 PM »
Numsgil, how good is security on Star Craft 2? Will my AVGfree be good enough? I basically gave up on Multiplayer online games after I got hacked in Cosmic Rift...
As Numsgil said, you likely won't be getting hacked unless you opened up a path for the hacker yourself.
I expect (though this is purely speculation) that Blizzard probably also has protections built into the game to prevent malicious alterations from playing online.

That being said, I am a relative newb at starcraft, so I wouldn't take my word on it.

On another note, does anyone else find it pretty daunting to consider playing online after just having gotten used to playing from the campaign?

Yes.

Quote

Faster gameplay, more building and unit options, more challenging opponents, and no saving/pausing/redos.  I feel like I'm in a newb nightmare just thinking about it...

Any suggestions?
Should I do the challenges (the easy ones) before going into online play, or train against the computer?
It seems so intimidating to me right now... Having a defensive nature sucks   :(

Blizzard wants more people to get in to the leagues (for obvious reasons), so they've done a pretty good job of outlining a path to do that without feeling overwhelmed.

Anyway, after the campaigns, the progression is supposed to be something like: play AI opponents, play cooperatively with other people against AI opponents, play 3v3 or 2v2 with other people, then finally play 1v1 against other people.  And when you go 1v1 there's that practice league you do first where you play at a slower clock speed and have destructible rocks everywhere to slow rushes and the like.

The challenges are also good.  I've only done a few myself but they definitely should help get your feet wet and understand basically what you need to be doing.  They cover unit counters, keyboard shortcuts (I'm slow to learn these, but it helps), and base management.

Also, playing defensively is pretty much how you're supposed to play Terran in 1v1.  You turtle up, gather resources, and build a massive army that you then unleash.  As long as you keep scouting so you know what to build, this is a fine strategy.

...

Anyway if people want to play with me, you should be able to look me up through my email/"Real ID": Numsgil2002@yahoo.com

Offline Botsareus

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2010, 06:34:48 PM »
Quote
The worst that could happen is you piss off some l33t hacker somewhere and they get your IP and do things to you using that.

You bet.

The guy put a program on my computer that:
When I press the shoot button it slightly rotates the ship off target. And my dj studio had "I hope you trowup tonight" when I open it  :wacko:

When I get my internet fixed, I will probebly get a lifetime to StarTrekOnline... I just wanted to know how are modern game security in general.

Offline Numsgil

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Re: Starcraft 2
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2010, 09:34:41 PM »
The guy put a program on my computer that:
When I press the shoot button it slightly rotates the ship off target. And my dj studio had "I hope you trowup tonight" when I open it  :wacko:

That's not IP hacking.  That's someone giving you a trojaned executable and you running it.  Don't run binaries from das internets without a good idea of where it's from and definitely not without anti virus unless you like hours wrestling with windows manually fixing things.

Quote
When I get my internet fixed, I will probebly get a lifetime to StarTrekOnline... I just wanted to know how are modern game security in general.

Really?  that one?