The latest BlizzCast is out, this time discussing all three major franchises of Blizzard. The StarCraft II discussion starts just after 19 minutes, and looks at the unit design from concept to creation with Senior Art Director Samwise Didier and Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder. Some single player content and a brief analysis of the Thor is also included.

A summary of the SC highlights include:

• Any unit that is deemed "too powerful" for the multiplayer will most likely end up in the single player campaigns.
• The Thor, as you know, is still being worked on.
• The overall process from start to finish on creating a unit is pretty interesting.
• The Zealot is the very first unit portrait to be created.

This batch also came with five new portraits (bringing our total to 14) and another screenshot:


You can download the entire episode here, or read the transcript at the Blizzard website.

Edit: Extracted the Thor and Mutalisk portraits from the flash files, although not as hi-res as the others.
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As commented in the live blogging from Blizzcon 2008, Wildstorm will publish a Starcraft comic book series on 2009. The Blizzard Swag Bag (given to all Blizzcon attendees) contained this comic book sampler split in two halves: World of Warcraft: Ashbringer # 1 preview and the Starcraft Comic Book concept art pages.

Added some photos of the ashscan sampler to the Starcraftwire Wiki. Take in mind I don't have a scanner. I used a very low quality digital photo camera in a very bad illuminated room. Now that you have been warned to the poor quality, take a look at the concept art. If you manage to scan them feel free to update the wiki.
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In celebration of the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, WorldofWar.net are running a second Razer competition! Even if you don't play World of WarCraft or even hate it, you could always need one of those really cool Razer mice. There should be plenty of video material on the web, and an hour or so in Windows Movie Makers could get you a very prestigious mouse! It will of course be significantly easier if you play WoW, but then again, you probably saw this over at WorldofWar.net.


You may have taken part in their previous Razer contest to design a Death Knight Crest, but you'll be pleased to know that you can enter this comp in addition to that one, so you have twice the chance to win some Razer goodies! Ok, so on to the details of this new challenge:

Lich King First Impressions Movie - By IncGamers and Razer.
Specifically for those of you that wanted a competition which didn't involve designing something, a screen shot contest, or just adding a comment in a thread, Razer have come up with an idea for a video contest. We want you to make a video that shows off your first impressions of the expansion. Maybe it's your first trip to Northrend, or your first steps as a Death Knight, we want to see a movie which captures the excitement and wonder of the new content. How you do that is up to you. No specialist expensive software is required, you can use something free like WeGame to capture and upload the footage.

Here are the rules: For all video submissions, the contestant has to include an "IncGamers" and "Powered by Razer" logo with his or her video. We will choose the three videos which best relate to our contest title. The 1st prize will be a Razer Lachesis and Razer Destructor, 2nd & 3rd will be a Razer DiamondBack 3G.You have until the end of the month, that's Sunday 30th of November, which gives you plenty of time to get the game, explore, capture footage and post up your videos. Send links to your uploaded entries to maticus@worldofwar.net.


Head over to the competition news item over at WorldofWar.net


EDIT: The addition of the Razer & Incgamers logos is now optional, we don't want to put off the lesser experienced of you out there
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I know this is old-old-old-old-old news (circa 11th October, BlizzCon), but some people just can't let it go, or are very very slow. Hi Videogamer! They have posted yet another piece of the same info from the launch event of World of WarCraft.

If you want to read/watch/listen to more detailed information on this, we recommend the following news items/articles:

• $150 to Play Full StarCraft II?
• BlizzCon StarCraft II Wrap-Up
• StarCraftWire.Net Chris Sigaty Video Interview

It's a bit sad that gaming sites do this, when there are so much more interesting things to ask.
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Karune posted the latest Q&A Batch, the 46th one, last night, and we get answers of friendly fire, information about multiple idle animations per unit, gas mechanic quirks, Protoss AoE damage and "spelldamage"...

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	Chat with Devs: StarCraft II is definitely evolving to be even more intense than the original StarCraft, with the increased mobility of units with cliff traversing abilities, as well as new transport abilities. In response, the development team has buffed up the Terran Planetary Fortress to have splash damage as well, which has proven to hold off decently against raids now, especially with your SCVs fixing the command center at a very high rate. As always, shoot the devs and I a w00t! if you are enjoying this Q&A batch! ---StarCraft II Q&A Batch 46--- 1. In StarCraft II, will there be friendly fire? – Xigon(Battle.net) Yes, friendly fire is still available in StarCraft II. You can take out cloaked units attacking your base by using friendly fire on your own unit and giving splash damage to cloaked enemy units, which has been executed by many players in the original StarCraft. For example, if you play Zerg, you can kill Dark Templar attacking your Hatchery, by targeting your Banelings to attack your Hatchery near the invading Dark Templar. 2. Trilogy is Beginning, mid and end, or is it the same story told from three points of view? – Lolod(Battle.net) The stories will be sequential. The Zerg story will begin from the end of the Terran story, and Protoss story will begin from the end of the Zerg story. 3. Are there any special animations for units which are standing around doing nothing for a long time? (StarCraft 2 Source) There will be multiple animations for units which are idle. 4. What is the optimum procedure for the new gas mechanic? Should a player mine both gases at the same time and cycle the inactive workers (when the geyser goes down) to the minerals? Or should a player mine only one geyser and alternate the workers between the two? (StarCraft 2 Forums) It totally depends on what your strategy is in the game. For example, you can mine two at the same time and double up your gas supply to build up certain armies or tech up very quickly. Or if you need more continuous and stable gas supply for your strategy, you can switch off your workers between the two gases with your micro-controls. 5. What Protoss unit is now the best option to counter mass enemy air units? The Phoenix lost its overload ability which was really the only Protoss splash damage option other than Psi Storm. (StarCraft 2 Forums) Against Zerg’s mass air units like Mutalisks, Archons and Psi Storm are still the best counters. Against Terran’s mass air units like Vikings and Banshees, Protoss can still use Phoenixes and focus fire. Vikings currently do additional damage to large ships, rather than light armor. 6. What kind of damage do spells deal? Is there a type “Spell” or don’t they have any specific attack type? (StarCraft 2 Source) There isn’t a specific “spell” type of damage, but some do additional damage to current types already in the game. For example, Ghost's Psi Round deals an additional 40 damage to Psionic units. There are ‘special’; cases though as well, seen when Psi Storms instantly kill Hallucinations and when a Yamato Cannon will not activate an Immortal's hardened shields. [StarCraft II Blue Roundup] How useful Archon have in SC2? i've heard they lost their splash damage and they lost Feedback ability for longtime ago even the Archon have thier splash damage but what improvement Archon have from SC1 ? against Terran , Archon easily defeated by ghost against Zerg , Does Archon still have splash damage ? now the protoss have Immortal with High HP equip with Harden Shield and have longer attack range i think Archon need buff :/ (Pondpond, USWest) Archons still have their splash damage and are still quite the beasts they were in the original StarCraft. There is no better feeling than watching a group of Archons instantly pop a stacked group of Mutalisks. Question on Zerg I read this interview about mbs. They said let's say you have 3 baracks in one group you have to press m three times to get 3 marines. Now, let's say I have 3 hatcheries in one group, do i have to press z 3 times for lings, or do i have to press z for each larva=9times? (Shaytan, USEast) If you have three Hatcheries in one group, press your group number and hit 's' key, you will select all your Larva of three Hatcheries. And you can hit 'z' as many as you want them to morph to Zerglings. If you have nine Larvas, you need to hit 'z' nine times to morph all of them to Zerglings. ---End of Transmission---

Update from Karune:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	ADDON to Q#6: "Spells" also ignore armor, as well as the Immortal shields.

For this session and all the previous Q&A sessions you can visit our Q&A Archive which currently holds a total of 200+! questions and answers! or if go to the Q&A listing if you prefer viewing the batches 1 by 1.
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Keith R.A. DeCandido sent the script proposal for StarCraft: Ghost Academy to Tokyopop and Blizzard for approval. If everything goes well (laughs -- it is DeCandido's ... of course it will be) this manga will be sitting on your lap fresh off the bookstore on Jun 16, 2009.


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Well, not really a concept art per se but more of a preview lifted from the recent StarCraft Manga - which is still pretty awesome.

It's been awhile since we've had one of these so I thought now would be a good time for a bit of a catchup. Below are a few of this week's interesting threads:

Polls

• Jim Raynor and Kerrigan Auditions - Cast your vote and let us know what you think of these potential voice actors.

News

• SCraftWiki Help Section Launched! - The help section for the SCWire Wiki has been fully updated.
• Through The Nydus Worm - Starcraft 2 Insight - Find out what some fans thought of StarCraft II at the recent Blizzcon event.
• Protoss shield regeneration - Karune discusses the mechanics behind the tweaked Protoss shields.
• StarCraft Beta in 2009 - Catch up on a recent interview with Chris Sigaty and Samwise Didier.
• StarCraft: Ghost Active Again? - Was this a harmless slip-up or perhaps part of a bigger plan?

Community

• Starcraft 2 or Warcraft - Will StarCraft 2 be more like StarCraft or WarCraft?
• A Collection of Blizzard Comments - Keep an eye on what the Blizzard Community Reps are saying about the recent changes.
• StarCraft Beta - Find out what the beta might have in store for us.
• SC2 : 3 different products - Tell us what you think of the Trilogy announcement.
• SC2 Release date rumor - Another rumor for when StarCraft II will be released.

Off Topic

• First spam thread - I honestly don't know what to say about this.
• The Corrupt Wish Game - Help us corrupt everyone's wishes.

Kalos' Chronicles

• Kalos' StarCraft 2 Hardware Guide - Read up on the latest article by our tech guru Kalos, this time with a guide to the StarCraft II Hardware.

With all the recent talk around the upcoming beta it's not hard to get excited about the start of next year. Just think, in a few short months we could be playing StarCraft II!
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Kalos' Chronicles >> Kalos' StarCraft 2 Hardware Guide >> (Page 1) | (Page 2)



Kalos has finally blessed us with his much anticipated StarCraft II Hardware Guide, and if you are in the least interested of what ACTUAL hardware will be good for your machine in time for our most anticipated RTS game, it's definitely a good idea to check this guide out, or ask Kalos about specifics in his StarCraft 2 Technical Forum. Here is a short snip of the article:




What are you waiting for? If you want the technical update and quirky language of The Kalos, head over to Kalos' StarCraft 2 Hardware Guide right now!
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GFraizer has posted a new Battle.net Ban Policy Update. Blizzard just banned 350,000 Battle.net accounts caught cheating in Diablo II and StarCraft games. This is a strong message to those who are still cheating or were planning to, as well as a strong message to those who plan to play Starcraft 2 and Diablo III in the new upcoming Battle.net 2.0 where cheating measures will be tighter:

	Blizzard Quote:
	As part of our continued effort to ensure a fair and fun online experience for all Battle.net players, we have expanded our efforts to remove cheaters from StarCraft and Diablo II. We have identified and closed over 350,000 StarCraft and Diablo II accounts which were found to be using third-party hacks. The Diablo II CD keys associated with the closed Diablo II accounts are now restricted from playing on Battle.net for approximately 30 days. Repeat offenders will have their accounts closed and their CD keys permanently banned from Battle.net. As a reminder, we reserve the right to close the accounts and ban the CD keys of players who are caught cheating on Battle.net. Cheating ruins the game experience for legitimate players, and we will not tolerate it.

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We have received heads up from a couple of agencies informing us that the voice acting role of Jim Raynor and Kerrigan the Queen of Blades are now up for grabs. It seems the Jim Raynor voice actor used in the Starcraft II cinematic and in the in-game single player demonstrations was a placeholder; or the creative team decided at last minute to change the actor.

Overall, this is an indication that Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is on crunch mode. Voice acting is one of the few steps of development when the single-player dialogues are set in stone. As many of us witnessed, the developers revealed they were a third done with the Single Player (at the Starcraft Panels during the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals in Paris back on June 28-29).

This was roughly five months ago. After Blizzcon, now we know that Starcraft II will be a trilogy. In short, fans could speculate they meant they were one third done with the Wings of Liberty episode.

Are we looking at an anniversary release date? (April 1); or the usual RTS release date (July 1)? We will have to wait and see.

We wish to gather feedback from the entire Starcraft Community. Do you wish Blizzard to hire the original Starcraft voice actors: Glynnis Talken (Kerrigan) and Robert Clotworthy (Jim Raynor)? Please, write up good reasons to wish these voice actors back in Starcraft II. Spread the word around your favorite forum communities.

Post your comments below. We will forward this petition to the Starcraft II team. This is your chance to get the former and loved Jim Raynor and Kerrigan voice actors back into Starcraft II!

If you want to partake in the poll, you can do so here. This is the poll:

Petition: Do you wish this two original Voice actors of Starcraft in Starcraft II?

• Yes, please!
• No, thanks!

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As the interest of StarCraft 2 has increased amongst the fans the closer we get to StarCraft 2 Beta, the need of a properly fleshed out and organised Help Section became apparent. After much hard work of gathered wiki expertise from the sister-wiki (DiabloWiki), you can now enjoy a fully refurbished set of articles to help you with everything wiki-related!

Regardless if you are looking for what the simple "wiki codes" are used for making text bold or italic, are seeking a support page for more advanced edits or just want to look at the wiki structure, you will find solace.

The StarCraft community is screaming for information for StarCraft 2 and it's universe, and regardless if you only have time for fixing one spelling mistake per month or want to dig through it like a badger, there is plenty of friendly room in the wiki. Still, if you hit a wall of any sort, you know we got you covered. =)

A BIG thanks goes out to Troglodyte, who is the force behind porting in the help pages to SCraftWiki.com!

Feel free to contact me or the extraordinary wiki contrib Troglodyte if you have any questions or suggestions about the wiki, we're here to help. Below is a list of ALL the new help pages. Feel free to read them, or improve them!

Wiki Help Navigation
• Help Contents • Community Portal • Markup • Help FAQ • Wiki Support • Category Structure • SCraftWiki Policies • Help Category	• Wiki Tools • Article History • Boilerplates • Disambiguations • Moving Articles • Redirects • Stubs • Templates	• Glossary • Articles • Categories • Images • Tables • Talk Pages • Vandalism

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My friend Lord of Ascension over at SCLegacy reports that they have finally finished up on their reports from BlizzCon. They have a collection of over a dozen writeups from the events, and lots of energy has gone into writing it all up. Well worth a look!

• StarCraft: Legacy BlizzCon Coverage

Update:
It seems I used the wrong link. Troglodyte helped to make it a working link, but I got the right one now from LoA in my mail, so enjoy!
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Our friends over at TeamLiquid has sobered up since BlizzCon, and written a quite large piece of their impressions from the gameplay. Five different authors has done quite a job with it. Recommend a read of it!



Source: Team Liquid
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The Protoss Plasma Shields have always been an indication of just how advanced this race is, so it's not a big surprise to hear that (like the Zerg creep) they too will be getting a slight tweak for the sequel.

We first heard of the new shield mechanism as part of Q&A Batch 19, and we also reported that the Shield Battery was dropped from the multiplayer back in January of this year. Karune has recently tried to expand on how this works:

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	The rate of shield regeneration has been increased significantly from the original StarCraft, but will be a fixed rate, rather than an increasing rate over time. The shields will not increase until the unit is out of combat.

	Blizzard Quote: (Source)
	It is measured by an X number of seconds in which a unit has not attacked nor was attacked. X being a number determined through balance.

I'm interested in knowing what you think of this and whether the absence of the Shield Battery will affect your gamplay style.
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MedievalDragon reports on a possible slip-up from a Korean keynote over at our Diablo 3 sister site. Nova from StarCraft: Ghost might still be alive and kicking inside Blizzard HQ.

Some background: We all know by now that Mike Morhaime admitted during BlizzCon 2008 that a new MMO is in the works over at Blizzard. We don't know if they have any additional projects at the moment but as they have their three main franchises, and a Battle.net 2.0 dev team on top of the unannounced MMO, it's probably not a 5th dev team hidden. The reasoning for this is that Blizzard like to keep things tight. A StarCraft: Ghost game type could possibly be an MMO.

It might not be. It might indeed be a 5th team or outsourced project, or just a strange choice of words on the keynote...

The keynote in question was at the Korea Gaming Conference (KGC 2008), and this is a snip from MD's news item:



Remember that the Blizzard/AMD cooperation was reported by us a few months ago, as well as revealing new screenshots and the Graphics Requirements for StarCraft 2. Is this a second related leak?

The official line from Blizzard is that the game is "indefinitely put on ice", and has no work done on it, whatsoever.
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