The new Battle.net

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

Sounds like the new battle.net is coming very soon. Does this mean that Starcraft 2 is going to be ready soon? I sure hope so! Here are some of the features:


Always Connected ~ Battle.net and StarCraft II are seamlessly interwoven into one experience with persistent characters and features.

Competitive Arena ~ Matchmaking and online multiplayer modes that are more intelligent and more accessible for a wider audience.

Social ~ Set up your Blizzard Entertainment social network with better friend management functionality and other social gaming components.

Mod Support ~ Full support for community-created mods that will constantly evolve the StarCraft II online experience.

For more info check out this website. (http://www.starcraft2.com/features/misc/battlenet.xml)

[jango]

i kinda like wot they've done so far following WoW being merged with it .. so i'd expect it only to get better with this update

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

i kinda like wot they've done so far following WoW being merged with it .. so i'd expect it only to get better with this update

Yeah I know a bunch of people that complained but I personally upgraded to the battle.net account for WoW as soon as you could. I am very excited for the Real ID system so I can keep track of friends in WoW while playing Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3.

[LemonRising]

I'm all for the new battle.net


And hopefully starcraft 2 will be out soon.
I believe they're still beta testing though.

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

I'm all for the new battle.net


And hopefully starcraft 2 will be out soon.
I believe they're still beta testing though.

I think it was reported somewhere that the beta will begin sometime this month. My hope is that it is a very quick beta but if I really had to guess I think Starcraft 2 will be out sometime in November for the holiday season. Here is hoping that it will be out sooner then that.

[jango]

I think it was reported somewhere that the beta will begin sometime this month. My hope is that it is a very quick beta but if I really had to guess I think Starcraft 2 will be out sometime in November for the holiday season. Here is hoping that it will be out sooner then that.

*cough*

article (http://www.macksites.co.uk/GameBank/index.php?topic=172.0)

[youthism_is_me]

turns head ( i am aww struck in confusion)

[nakedrobber]

Yes, very stoked. Battlenet was always rock solid but this sounds even better.

[BobTD]

Is this going to turn into something like the STEAM network?

I have a lot of friends on STEAM and really I dont want to run another program in the background to be connected to a smaller group of players. They should just team up with STEAM and make their communities connected.

I might write up a dissertation on the subject and send it to blizzard about all the benefits that would have. But I wont because they will ignore me atop their mountain of gold trying to figure out what they are going to do with 11 million people paying them $15 a month.

Thats well over 15 million dollars a month even after expenses that they can play with, if STEAM didnt want to cross their community Blizzard could just buy them.

[LemonRising]

StarCraft II (http://www.starcraft2.com/features/misc/battlenet.xml)


for those interested.

[BobTD]

Blah it is just Blizzard games only. But it seems like they will update WOW to be part of it, meaning they probably are not giving up on it for a long time yet. (from what I hear from my hardcore friends its in massive decline)

Also, we can expect Diablo3 to have the same cool features... oh who am I kidding. There is almost nothing here that excites me. And the game records how well you do and automatically gets harder, witch sucks if you take long breaks or let someone else play on your computer.

They dont need any of this crap. But whatever they are doing, they are not spending all this money for nothing. This is a tool they can use to record all kinds of data and keep tight control of unlike past games that many people where able to hack, pirate, mod, or farm and sell items for.

[LemonRising]

Well I imagine that it only records how well you do when signed into YOUR battlenet account. So others playing on your computer would not be a huge issue unless you share your account.

[BobTD]

yeah, but its "fully integrated" meaning its always on, even when your offline. =P

Swords have two edges.

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

yeah, but its "fully integrated" meaning its always on, even when your offline. =P

Swords have two edges.

I think you are reading too much into this. I think what the always online does is more of a step closer to cloud computing where it doesn't matter what computer you log on to your saved games record and what bracket your in is the same for you anywhere you login. If you take long brakes I could see it effecting your rank in your 100 person bracket but I doubt you would drop out of your silver, gold or platinum ranking. If your friend plays on their own battle.net account it won't effect you at all and thats kind of the point. If your friend doesn't have an account then have them play one of the unranked games.

[BobTD]

I'm not worried about how it matches you from online games, when it comes to the "learning" it does. I'm worried about frustrating computer AI when you play not logged into an account.

Lets say I play it a bunch and have a friend over who wants to try it, but they get annihilated by the AI. They may not want to play it. I would much rather hear them say "it learns 'or' uses a difficulty setting".

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

I'm not worried about how it matches you from online games, when it comes to the "learning" it does. I'm worried about frustrating computer AI when you play not logged into an account.

Lets say I play it a bunch and have a friend over who wants to try it, but they get annihilated by the AI. They may not want to play it. I would much rather hear them say "it learns 'or' uses a difficulty setting".

I think you will have to be connected to battle.net to play.

Maybe someone in the beta could clear this up but I don't think you won't be able to choose the AI difficulty anymore. They have said there is improved AI but I thought I saw an interview once that stated there would be different levels of AI. Custom games will still be there and I bet you can set one of these up to be vs AI at a specific level. Found the interview on G4 (http://g4tv.com/videos/44215/StarCraft-II-Beta-Interview---Dustin-Browder/) it starts talking about AI around 3:40 and he states that you can go down to a lower AI level if its to hard for you.

[BobTD]

ohk, thats good. I guess Im just used to RTS games that dont have different levels of AI difficulty that the automatic difficulty thing worried me.

I can think of more then a few RTS games that only have one AI setting. I cant even remember is startcraft had AI levels. I think they did... not sure though, and I dont want to install it again.