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IGN 이라는 유명한 게임잡지사에서 스타크래프트 기사가 옛날에 실렸었었고 (한 3년전 쯤), StarCraft 2 With List라는 포럼 게시물이 한동안 있었어요.  거기있던글들 발췌하고 더하고 빼고 해서 만든겁니다. 제 컴퓨터에 한동안 있었었는데, 생각날때 마다 고치고 더하고 빼고 그러다가...

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StarCraft 2 Wish List
Sure, it's not actually announced, but that doesn't mean we can't dream...

Back in 1998, Blizzard released StarCraft onto a PC gaming populace. What followed was a cavalcade of praise and millions of insanely addicted fans. Of course, in the world we live in where sequels to popular games are not only fun for the fans, but fiscally gargantuan, it's only a matter of time before Blizzard announces the sequel to StarCraft and continues the beautiful story.

We're all huge fans of this game here and played way too much of it when it was released, which included plenty of time braving Battle.net and the throng of asses just waiting to cheat like little bitches, so we have a lot of ideas about what each of us believes should be in the sequel as far as engine, story and gameplay goes. While it might be a bit of a wait before we learn anything of real substance about the game, it's still fun to think about.

Why do we care?
Starcraft is, in my opinion, the best RTS ever made. The level of design competence displayed by Blizzard is remarkable. Not only did the game bring a fully realized story and high level of presentation to the table, it also brought some of the best and most intense strategy gaming to date. Three completely different races warred on each other in an interstellar struggle that any sci-fi freak would be happy to dig into. Any fan of this game has been looking forward to seeing a sequel; it's as simple as that. Not only do we want a game that's just as addicting, we also want to know where the story will take our favorite characters and the races that we've gotten to know so well.

Story board
One of the most impressive aspects about StarCraft was undoubtedly the story and presentation thereof. Blizzard managed to create a very realistic world with believable characters that gamers could actually care about in situations that, as far fetched as they may seem were also very plausible. We all got a good dosing of backstabbing, twists and turns, interspecies tension, and infighting within the races, all presented through both in-game "cut-scenes" and the brilliant cut-scenes that didn't always explicitly extend the main story and the characters, but offered an amazing look at the planets and races outside of the direct story. Seeing the "regular soldiers" getting screwed over and battling for their lives was a very personal touch that grounds players in the world that much more.

By the end of the StarCraft expansion, Brood War, there were some definite hints about the direction the series would be headed. Those that haven't finished Brood War. Last we saw, Kerrigan, the self proclaimed Queen of Blades had wound the Swarm into a frenzy and dealt crushing blows to both the Terrans and the Protoss. The Protoss homeworld of Auir was in their hands and the Terran fleet that had arrived from Earth to take the Terran colonies back into their loving embraced had been crushed, thanks in large part to their ill conceived plans to use the Zerg as their own weapons.

But most interesting of all, if one of the Zerg missions was beaten in a certain amount of time, a special Protoss mission was unlocked. In this mission, the Protoss landed on a planet and discovered some... experiments. It looked as though someone had been trying to mix Protoss and Zerg together to create one massive and mighty species. If you remember, a race called the Xel' Naga had created both the Protoss and Zerg at different times before the Zerg raced out of control and kicked the crap out of them.

Thoughts? The Xel' Naga are making their return and plan on getting their position of power back with their most powerful race yet. It might would be better off without the addition of any more main races, but I think that unlikely, although it's certainly possible that the Xel' Naga could be an unplayable race with special units as was the case with the demons in Warcraft III.

If the Xel Naga do make it back, their first victim might be the Zerg as they have the most control of this side of space at the moment. The Protoss and Terrans received such an ass-whooping in Brood War that they won't be the biggest threat. It wouldn't be surprising to see a lot more cooperation, and backstabbing, in the relationship between those two races as well. The Terrans and Protoss have been allies in the past, but neither have really trusted each other fully, their alliance has been mostly out of desperate need.

What the ultimate goal of the Xel' Naga might be is a little too much to speculate. Either way, if the story isn't told in the same gritty, dirty, dark and desperate style that the first game was, Blizzard would be doing a disservice to their fans.

The look, the feel, the darkness
One of main thoughts is the sincere hope that Blizzard doesn't go the way of Warcraft with StarCraft. Bright colors and cartoony models are not the way this series should progress. While it works well for that title, the story and atmosphere would suffer from it. There certainly is some sort of comic book style to the original game, but if taken too far, this could all suffer. This is not Star Wars we're talking about here. This is a mature environment that deserves to be treated that way. In-game should carry over the style of the cutscenes, which will most undoubtedly be rendered in the same brilliant way that they've been doing for years now.

The look of the original game was severe in its desperation. Desolate environments of the Terran worlds mixed with the burnt and charred home world of the Zerg played a beautiful contrast to the lush worlds of the Protoss that would eventually become just as broken as everything else. This style of this game is much that of the Warhammer 40,000 series of table top games where people have developed thick skins and a serious attitude about keeping the Terran race on the top of the food chain regardless of being behind in the technology race.

I would like to see this dark style return to the art in StarCraft 2. Keep the tones dirty and the atmosphere moody. The really hard thing here is keeping the flippant personality of the Terrans, the noble but brutal nature of the Protoss, and slimy yet genetically superior biology of the Zerg with out getting too campy. The mix in the original was perfect, and I really hope that the development team can recreate that.

The little engine that could
The big question when it comes to blending graphics and gameplay together is probably whether to go fully 3D with the world and the camera. While it certainly is fun in some games to be able to zoom right into the action and see the animations and battles on ground level, it can also be a huge drawback to actual gameplay. All of us here seem to agree that it would be best if Blizzard followed in the footsteps of WarCraft III and rendered the game in 3D while keeping the game in a fixed perspective. I am expecting the pace to be frantic like the first game and having to move a camera around in the middle of the madness would be distracting to what's important.

My thoughts are that full 3D graphics would tend to keep army sizes a bit lower than we need for SC2. If they'd prefer to go with fewer units, the game won't be StarCraft, particularly if you're playing as the Zerg (or even the Terrans). They could make a good tactical game (somewhere between Commandos and Warcraft) but I'd prefer to see SC2 return to the big battles.

I also would like to see dynamic day/night and weather cycles as well, which we know they know how to do. Being able to give certain races, or even certain units, advantages in these conditions (maybe night or thermal vision for Ghosts).

I also agree that 3D terrain modeling is a key engine improvement for the next StarCraft. True line of sight and line of fire models would make tactical considerations even more important. You could actually hide behind hills and stuff.

I also have a wish that is likely not to be implemented, but could provide some interesting gameplay options. Having an engine that could render the terrain and units and the like in first-person, much like Savage does now, only less people in these hero positions, and just as many units on the field as normal. Imagine being in the middle of a battle between rampaging zerglings with ultralisks drawing fire and guardians raining death upon a Terran base with marines stiming themselves up, medics doing their thing, siege tanks shelling the ground, and a gigantic battlecruiser squadron moving in to defend the area. Seeing this all from the ground and actually participating could be very cool. For that matter, being able to sneak into bases and run inside buildings would also be very cool. Too bad that's probably not realistic.

Gameplay is King
While StarCraft remains a great game, there have been a lot of new features introduced that have become popularized in the RTS genre over the years since StarCraft's release. Some were included in WarCraft III and therefore I have every reason to believe they'll be included in StarCraft 2, but there are still more that would make us happy.

More than 12 units in a group. With a game like StarCraft, numbers are everything. Seeing a mass of Zerg running, slithering, crawling, stomping, and flying attacking a base gives a certain sense of power or dread, depending what side of the invasion you're on, and only being able to give orders to 12 at a time can be a huge pain in the butt and be the undoing of your forces.

One of the biggest things on the list is probably improved AI (anyone that has watched their goliaths fumble around will understand that need). Getting the computer to use tactics akin to a human player would be really nice, although that may be a bit tough considering all of the possibilities. Several types of AI like some other games provide would be nice, maybe even some different personality types so you play against some AI that expands quick while others. Along the same lines, more behavior stances would be better for controlling units you aren't around.

Strike groups. While the name might change, the idea will stay the same. The idea of groups of units that can be told to work together efficiently so when they engage the enemy, the do it smartly would be terrific, especially with a ton of units on the screen.

Being able to start offenses at the same time would be cool. If you have several groups around a base and would like to have them begin an assault with specific targets all at the same time, it's hard to get everything started at exactly the same time. If you could assign targets and then hit a button so that all of the groups would move in at the same time, which would be very cool. In a game like StarCraft that has such a fast pace, setting up more complicated coordinated attacks might be implausible, but that would be even better.

Bringing more locations that hit home into the mix would be nice. Protecting a Human city where there are families with their cats and multigrain toast would be really cool. Seeing the Zerg creep all over Terran things could be very cool. Same with the Protoss. I would Love to see a Protoss city, or at least the outskirts. Where do they live? Do they have cats and multigrain toast as well?

The biggest of these may be the inclusion of a new race contending for the galactic throne. If Blizzard could do the creative and balancing job that they did with the first three races with that additional Xel' Naga race that fits in
to the story, the world would be happy.

I also want:

Physics based gameplay. For instance, shoot down a Protoss carrier in a special way and maybe it will crash into the ground/one of your buildings. Adding an interesting element like this could be interesting, making carriers a liability in some cases. It may end up being too much, but at least they could try it.

Fleet commander functionality, like Conquest: Frontier Wars multiplayer. Upping the strike group idea one, players could actually put units under the control of Generals that could command them in different jobs. Tell a General to go take out a base, and he'll do everything he can to do it. Maybe even bring in some personalities for the generals so you know where to use each of them strategically.

Capture and control functionality. Use marines to hold abandoned buildings and structures a la Red Alert 2 or Generals. While this might only work for the Human side, it could give that race even more "always prepared" functionality that they already posses.

More customizable, almost Impossible Creatures like experience for the Zerg. Think about really playing overmind with your creatures and combining them into new and disgustingly dangerous forms.

Veteran units that carry experience over from mission-to-mission. It always makes your decisions tougher when you send an experienced unit on a suicide mission. Having units that you can take through the campaigns with you can make your more attached to the experience as a whole.

More important unique units. Though the idea of Warcraft III's heroes doesn't quite fit with the franchise, there still ought to be a few more killer units and more reason to preserve them. Maybe a new system of unit experience, or a between-mission performance upgrade to a specific unit type.

New areas. In contrast to making sure the story has continuity, there should be a wider variety of areas and locations in the new game. Have the conflict spread to other areas. Have the Terrans defend their homeworld from attack, for instance.

Formations like we saw in Warcraft III and Kohan where ranged units will automatically place themselves behind any melee units. In the case of Terrans that have mostly ranged units (aside from the semi-ranged flamers) basic marine units would still want to sit around and protect siege tanks and the like. Having this happen automatically would be cool.

While it isn't necessarily a gameplay improvement aside from knowing what you're up against, it would be cool to see upgrades happen graphically on units. Every time a marine gets a more powerful weapon, actually seeing that change on the models would bring a lot of visual interest to the game.

Please, no...
Just like there are some things that we hope to hell that Blizzard doesn't change, there are also some things that we hope to hell they don't even include.

Creeps - While it's nice to go around knocking frog guys and trolls and whatever else over the head in a fantasy based RPGish game like Warcraft III, if they decided to add that feature in StarCraft, I would be forced to embarrass myself.

Supply chain - Yes it's highly doubtful that they would even consider this. But that doesn't mean I can't hope it doesn't happen.

100 unit limit - They had better not make StarCraft along the lines of Warcraft with its focus on smaller groups. StarCraft is about the mass forces and carnage! We want mass carnage!

Items - Once again, it worked fairly well in Warcraft III, but just wouldn't really fit in this context.

Do we really think this is possible?
While I'd Love to see all of these things implemented into StarCraft 2.Obviously, some of the ideas we've given are technically difficult to pull off. Some of them would surely not fit into gameplay as well as I might think, simply because I haven't had to think them through.

More Wish List features?
Expecting too much could be a trap that would disappoint any gamer, so we certainly aren't expecting to see all of this stuff. All I can really hope is that they keep with the same dark style and incredibly balanced gameplay.

Sure, it's not actually announced, but that doesn't mean we can't dream...