  |
Multiple Golems: -By Deathwing 3/12/2000
Over a year ago, Blizzard announced that they would be producing a V1.08 patch for Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War. Between now then, Diablo II was released, and four consequent patches were released for it, and still there was no sign of Starcraft V1.08. Just as fans grew restless, Blizzard announced the V1.08 would be release by February 2001. Shlongor posted that it was near completion, and is now in testing phase.
Then as Christmas ended, rumors began to float across the internet. Not you average ones, but those that are backed up by screenshots, convincing screenshots… People claimed that through a Battle.net glitch, they had managed to download an alpha copy of the V1.08 Patch. The IP of a Blizzard test server was leaked, and what followed can only be described as chaos.
If our latest article, we investigate these claims.
How the Patch was Obtained:
To investigate the truth of the evidence, we must first look at how the patch was obtained. While there were variations in each source's story, they all had a lot more similarities. Basically, a loophole on Battle.net that allows them to either intentionally of accidentally stumble across the IP address of a secret Blizzard test server. By logging into the IP with Starcraft, they were able to download an alpha version of the V1.08 patch. Below is a first person account by one source, Luckyman (hmm he is lucky):
To be quite honest, finding this was accidental. I was screwing around with my bots one day because they kept connecting to "battle.net" instead of "chat.battle.net", and 1 time out of 10, i would connect to a server that had only 30 people on it. I thought at first it was a major split, but then i saw that there were no public channels and I had ops in Blizzard Chat 1. I also noticed that none of my accounts worked, but guest login still did. I got curious and used ****** to find out the actual IP, and then connected with war2bne. I couldn't find anybody to talk to or chat with but I noticed there were no banner ads; i figured that this must be an internal test server. I connected with starcraft and was surprised to receive a patch download, followed by another, etc... for like 10 different patches in a row. Then it stopped with "unable to authenticate version"
That was the very first account, in which Luckyman was able to download V1.08 Revision N, by the time the information was submitted the server already did not exist. However on the second day, others were also able to stumble across the IP of a Blizzard test server, this time different from the previous. Each of them claimed to have downloaded V1.08 Revision O, which fixed bugs from N. The IP they submitted did work… causing a chain reaction that took the Blizzard community by storm.
Note: Please do not ask for the IP of the server, not only does it change, but for obvious legal reasons, we will not reveal it.
By all accounts, the patch downloaded was fairly large, but not to the point where it unreasonable. Downloaders of the N patch claimed to need to download a series of patches, while those who downloaded the O patch needed to download just one.
Unfortunately in the patch txt file, each patch did not give out the full list of what the whole V1.08 patch changed, but just what that revision changed. Hence balance changes and etc. were not readily apparent.
Features:
All Reports about the V1.08 patch had the exact same account of the new feature. Instead of just a bunch of balance changes like everyone though, Blizzard has really outdone themselves. Features include include:
Major Features:
,
- Ability to record each game as a .rep and then view it. This is very similar to the game recording feature that was available in AOE 2 and Myth.
- Major Balance Changes
- A new game type called Top vs. Bottom games, these work similar to how Top vs Bottoms games worked in War2 BNE.
- Gateway selection. We logging onto Battle.net, one logs through specific Gateways, similar to how Realms work in Diablo 2. However people of different Gateways can play each other.
Minor Features:
- Support for DirectX 8.0 voice chat.
- V1.07 hacks do not work.
- Extra Battle.net Icons like Ladies Tourney.
. In later sections, we will discuss each of the major features in detail
Note: This is no way represents all the features of V1.08 as the patch obtained was an alpha version, a work in progress. There are still quite a while before its release and Blizzard could well add new features, or even take existing features away.
Recording Games:
The largest feature in the V1.08 patch is the ability to record your games, save them as .rep files, and the load and replay them at a later date. Each game you play is automatically stored in in a temp file, and you are giving the option to store the temp file permanently in the victory/defeat screen of each game. After a name is selected, it is automatically saved in your /map/replays/ within the Starcraft directory.
In Single Player, a 'Load Reply' command now appears below the 'Load Custom'' command. In multiplayer, the creator simply selects the .rep file the way he'd normally load a map. Up to 8 players can viewer a replay at the same time. A great way four all participants of a game to gather around and talk about what they did.
When loading a replay, the player is presented with a modified interface, where they can choose the pause the replay, as well as increase or increase the Game Speed. Extra Game speeds are added so players can fast forward to the action, and the game may run up to 16x the 'fastest' game speed. So far there's no rewind feature, but this may change by the full release.
In all respects, players will have full control of the replay. They can scroll to any part of the map, select any unit (but not control the unit of course!) to check its health. Unlike what some people though, the replay is not a movie, but instead is totally interactive. It is like you are in a game where everyone allies and gives share vision to you, and you simply watch the game. All selected units have a green circle around them, as if they were your units. In Multiplayer, observers may also chat to each other. "I was pleasantly surprised after recording a 30 minute game the replay file was on 130 k, that's awesome!" -Bluechip
By default, all players (where computer or human) are automatically on shared vision with the observers in a replay. Thus observers are able to see all cloaked and burrowed units. Observers can then choose to only see through the eyes of some players or to reveal the whole map by click on the 'eye' icon that has replaced the diplomacy icon on the bottom left. So far, it appears the Replay option is available for every type of game, except the Official Single Player Campaigns.
Replay files are extremely small, and in fact their file size depends more of the size of the map rather than the length of the game. In fact on Hunters, you can expect to have nearly every game recorded are under 200kb in size! This makes them very easy to distribute and download, as easy as scums.
The ability to replay games will be extremely useful. Expert players can watch replays to analyze what they could to done to improve. Meanwhile in tournaments, replays can be distributed for everyone to watch. Their availability will be a great help to Battle Reporters, who can now support their reports with all the screenshots they need, and write about all of details they could of missed from watching a game once.
Balance Changes:
As V1.08 is an alpha version, its readme did not come with a list of balance changes. Consequently these had to be discovered. Below is a complete listing of changes that have been discovered.
Terran
- Dropship Movement Speed Increased to Science Vessel Speed
- Missile Turret cost reduced to 75/0 from 100/0
- Charon Boosters Research cost reduced from 150/150 to 100/100
- Irradiate Research cost Increased from 150/150 to 200/200
- Valkyrie Missile Damage increased to 6.
Build time decreased from 60 to 50
Movement Speed Increased to that of a Wraith
- Yomato Cannon Research cost decreased from 200/200 to 100/100
Protoss
- Dragoon Build time increased from 50 to 60
- Carrier Base Armor Decreased from 4 to 3
- Scout Cost Reduced from 300/150 to 275/125
Zerg
- Hydralisk Speed Increase upgrade cost increased from 100/100 to 150/150
- Cost of Queens Reduced to from 100/150 to 100/100
- Spawning Pool cost increased from 150/0 to 200/0
- Broodling Research Cost Decreased from 200/200 to 100/100
- Lurker Morph cost increased from 50/100 to 75/125
Overall, the Terrans have being greatly strengthened, the Protoss slightly weakened and the Zerg significant weakened. With the missile turrets cheaper, Terrans are now much less vulnerable to both Lurkers and Dark Templars. In addition, the Valkyrie has undergone huge improvements, now more powerful, faster to move and faster to build. We can expect the unit that was once obsolete to make a powerful impact on the game. With the increased sped of Dropshiops and better anti-air, Terrans are now a lot more mobile than before can protect their expansions much more easily.
In contrast, players of the Zerg will need to do some heavy revision to their tactics. Lurker rushes will no longer be extremely effective vs. Terrans or even effective vs. Protoss. Lurkers are now something that players only build a few, like Dark Templars, rather than in mass. With the Hydralisk weakened, Zergs will now need to rely on spell casters. This is reflected by the significant increase in power of the Queen. Now a Zerg must use the Broodlign ability to destroy tanks, and ensnare to counter stimpacks.
The Protoss underwent the least change, the most major probably being the longer build time of the Dragoon. This will probably discourage dragoon rushes and force Protoss players to build support units such as Templars, Reavers and Zealots rather than just goons. The wakened carrier is now much more vulnerable to the Valkyrie (who now deal 3 damage instead of 1 to the Carrier's health, that's a huge 200% increase), and will also need to make more care going against marines. The decrease in cost of the scout may actually make the unit useful.
|
  |
