Crossposting this from the HotS thread since it's sort of relevant here:
It's been a while, but the wife is back to the A-Z HotS art challenge. The next one up is hot!
She dropped this into Reddit and has been getting lots of upvotes and praise. Of course, the running joke is drawing Blaze in watercolors. :biggrin: Pretty good for someone who only started doing art a few years ago.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
Just the other day I reinstalled StarCraft after like a year and a half, and did some placement matches. Ended up still in plat 2. I'm garbage at the game but apparently I'm still better than at least a majority after not playing at all for a long time. I feel like I could push to diamond with just a little effort.
tomorrow the out rounds at the world championships at Katowice start. The games have been fantastic last couple of days and the bracket is basically perfect. This is the first offline tournament held in years, and the players are living up to it. It starts at 6 am Eastern tomorrow, and the stream is:
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
I never was that good at SC (I think I peaked at Plat in the early days?). The game requires so much macro and micro and I could never get it all down fast enough. Build orders helped a lot, but once things got off track, I was toast.
BUT! One of the biggest things I couldn't stand was damaged units. I don't know why, but I couldn't stand not sending out some SVCs to repair my mech units. Probably should just get used to units being disposable and create a bigger economy to simply replace them.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
A small glimpse from the Artosis life that a couple of friends and I were fortunate to share
We had been asked not to talk about it since Nal_Ra's reputation was important as a pro gamer, but I guess the cat's out now ^^'
This was a long, long time ago
So, turns out Starcraft still has tournaments and gets patches and everything. Just, you know, if you wanted to compare to any other games *cough Heroes of the Storm cough*
Anyways, there's a tourney going on this past week or so (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2), and the Grand Finals are going on now and it's pretty fun! Even if it's TvT.
First couple games spoilers:
Oliveira is the first Chinese player to make it to the Grand Finals here, winning upset after upset. Up against the well-known and favored player, Maru (who apparently was most worried about the TvT match-up ). Maru took the first game pretty convincingly, and you could hear the commentators worrying about how this would affect Oliveira, since it could be a really tilting match. And then Maru goes for a double proxy barracks in the second game, which let's be honest has been tilt-inducing for a decade or more . But Oliveira not only holds the rush, but pulls out a win! He looked so excited on that win, and probably feels like he's proven he can do this.
Game 3 is starting now, so we'll see how it goes, but whatever it ends up being it won't be a blow-out!
Edit: third game
Well Oliveira is showing that first game wasn't a fluke! Really his defense just seems so strong, he's winning these games by just shutting down Maru's attacks and then being ahead and taking advantage of that. (Or at least, that's how it looks to be, I'm really rusty at SC2 haha)
Edit2: fourth game and beyond, as saying whether there's a fifth game or not would spoiler stuff
Oliveira wins again by shutting down a strong attack and getting more damage done. Showing so strongly. Poor Maru!
And then the fifth game, the last game, soooo intense. I thought Maru had it! Classic Tank/Viking TvT play. I think Oliveira had a little lead in the end, but then Maru accidentally split his tanks away (they routed a different way it looks like), and Oliveira just jumped on them. And a huge final fight, and then Oliveira emerged victorious! 4-1, only losing that first fight, Oliveira beating some really big names in the tourney.
So, turns out Starcraft still has tournaments and gets patches and everything. Just, you know, if you wanted to compare to any other games *cough Heroes of the Storm cough*
Anyways, there's a tourney going on this past week or so (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2), and the Grand Finals are going on now and it's pretty fun! Even if it's TvT.
First couple games spoilers:
Oliveira is the first Chinese player to make it to the Grand Finals here, winning upset after upset. Up against the well-known and favored player, Maru (who apparently was most worried about the TvT match-up ). Maru took the first game pretty convincingly, and you could hear the commentators worrying about how this would affect Oliveira, since it could be a really tilting match. And then Maru goes for a double proxy barracks in the second game, which let's be honest has been tilt-inducing for a decade or more . But Oliveira not only holds the rush, but pulls out a win! He looked so excited on that win, and probably feels like he's proven he can do this.
Game 3 is starting now, so we'll see how it goes, but whatever it ends up being it won't be a blow-out!
Edit: third game
Well Oliveira is showing that first game wasn't a fluke! Really his defense just seems so strong, he's winning these games by just shutting down Maru's attacks and then being ahead and taking advantage of that. (Or at least, that's how it looks to be, I'm really rusty at SC2 haha)
Edit2: fourth game and beyond, as saying whether there's a fifth game or not would spoiler stuff
Oliveira wins again by shutting down a strong attack and getting more damage done. Showing so strongly. Poor Maru!
And then the fifth game, the last game, soooo intense. I thought Maru had it! Classic Tank/Viking TvT play. I think Oliveira had a little lead in the end, but then Maru accidentally split his tanks away (they routed a different way it looks like), and Oliveira just jumped on them. And a huge final fight, and then Oliveira emerged victorious! 4-1, only losing that first fight, Oliveira beating some really big names in the tourney.
I have still been following SC2 very closely, and I think Time beat in sequence, the best ZvT in the world, the best PvT in the world, and the best TvT in the world. One of the all-time performances.
Invictus on
Generalísimo de Fuerzas Armadas de la República Argentina
There's enough out there to believe something Starcraft is in development (not necessarily an RTS), but I strongly doubt its ready to show at Blizzcon, and nothing Jez has said even hints at that. The main "surprise" at this one is likely the first Diablo 4 expansion, which has already seen some leaks.
The big one is likely that new IP that they mentioned some time back.
Something in the fantasy genre, iirc.
They already have Warcraft and Diablo, do they really need a NEW fantasy setting?
Warcraft is bound up with pretty high/epic fantasy and Diablo is about becoming a human demon-blender. It is kind of tough to make something more "grounded" (heh) for a survival game in those settings given expectations. Plus it would need "all hunters, everywhere, for all time" branding or such.
Artistic identity also matters, you can see from the huge backlash to Diablo 3. If you wanted a semi-realistic, bright and natural setting, neither Diablo's mandated dreariness nor WoW's stylized/simplified art are a great fit.
This quote from the article annoys me irrationally.
We're curious to find out what kind of war StarCraft 3 will explore given that the ending to StarCraft 2 pretty much put an end to most conflict.
Not really. It ended the conflict of the moment but the setting is a shit show. "A victory so final as to end war," is hubris at its highest even when you don't have giant flesh eating space bugs to worry about.
The UED is still out there, and their return was the only thing except Amon that Kerrigan was afraid of. And with Kerrigan gone the Zerg just got handed over to a new queen gifted superior vision and cunning but with no reason to show the restraint Kerrigan showed in Heart of the Swarm. The swarm was broken but it's always broken until the Zerg campaign starts and it rebuilds from zero to infinity again.
Artanis united the Protoss against a common foe, but that foe is gone now and unity involved Artanis unilaterally dismantling a lot of the factions' cultural identities (and the Dark Templar were already worried about their culture eroding due to unity with Aiur). The Taldarim are going to fuck off at the first sign of not getting their way, somebody's going to be salty about the caste system being thrown down. And severing the Khala is definitely one of those things that will come back to haunt them.
We don't know what's going on in the Dominion but it can't be great because when Artanis paid a friendly visit they were on edge badly enough that they were shooting first and identifying later.
This quote from the article annoys me irrationally.
We're curious to find out what kind of war StarCraft 3 will explore given that the ending to StarCraft 2 pretty much put an end to most conflict.
Not really. It ended the conflict of the moment but the setting is a shit show. "A victory so final as to end war," is hubris at its highest even when you don't have giant flesh eating space bugs to worry about.
The UED is still out there, and their return was the only thing except Amon that Kerrigan was afraid of. And with Kerrigan gone the Zerg just got handed over to a new queen gifted superior vision and cunning but with no reason to show the restraint Kerrigan showed in Heart of the Swarm. The swarm was broken but it's always broken until the Zerg campaign starts and it rebuilds from zero to infinity again.
They did a follow up novel after SC2 where Zagara invited the terrans and protoss to her new throneworld for peace talks. She even grew tables and chairs for them to sit on from zerg biomatter.
She offered snacks.
These are all true things that are canon.
The three big factions of the three races - Dominion, Daelaam, and Swarm, are currently friends. But yes, there are fringe factions that are more hostile - Terran separatists, rogue Zerg hives, and Alarak is still out there up to some shit (if he's the next big bad of the franchise, then sold.)
I think they could definitely tell some more grounded stories, without some over-arching mega-threat from beyond the universe to unite them all. Just have each faction with their own campaign, their own goals and ambitions, their own moral viewpoint. Let the franchise grow and change from there.
Which, yes, that sounds absurd, but Blizzard has never been a speedy company
Rumours for basically every Blizzard product have been circulating for this Blizzcon, it's kinda funny. Everyone's just thinking about it because of the acquisition, I suppose. I'm just expecting Diablo and WoW expacs
This quote from the article annoys me irrationally.
We're curious to find out what kind of war StarCraft 3 will explore given that the ending to StarCraft 2 pretty much put an end to most conflict.
Not really. It ended the conflict of the moment but the setting is a shit show. "A victory so final as to end war," is hubris at its highest even when you don't have giant flesh eating space bugs to worry about.
The UED is still out there, and their return was the only thing except Amon that Kerrigan was afraid of. And with Kerrigan gone the Zerg just got handed over to a new queen gifted superior vision and cunning but with no reason to show the restraint Kerrigan showed in Heart of the Swarm. The swarm was broken but it's always broken until the Zerg campaign starts and it rebuilds from zero to infinity again.
Artanis united the Protoss against a common foe, but that foe is gone now and unity involved Artanis unilaterally dismantling a lot of the factions' cultural identities (and the Dark Templar were already worried about their culture eroding due to unity with Aiur). The Taldarim are going to fuck off at the first sign of not getting their way, somebody's going to be salty about the caste system being thrown down. And severing the Khala is definitely one of those things that will come back to haunt them.
We don't know what's going on in the Dominion but it can't be great because when Artanis paid a friendly visit they were on edge badly enough that they were shooting first and identifying later.
I'm guessing nobody played the Nova mini-expansion, which you should, it was actually pretty great and I was generally bummed we didn't see more expansions like that. It actually delves a bit into post-Legacy of teh Void politics.
Full spoilers
Long story made short, Valarians #2, who used to be his father's #2, felt that Valarian had betrayed humanity by siding with aliens and so made some preemptive strikes against, not the protoss directly, but the Tal'darim. While stuff gets resolved, it definitely ends with Aldarok implying that humanity just proved itself a threat. I never got a sense from that episode that the Tal'darim stayed with the rest of the protoss after the war, so I imagine that schism already happened.
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KoopahTroopahThe koopas, the troopas.Philadelphia, PARegistered Userregular
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...did he do something worst MMMig?
Oh I didn't post my DJWheat pic did I?
Now there's a REAL eSport journalist I enjoyed from way back. He's been working for Twitch for a while now.
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Ed: after I trick my wife into letting me have something like that on the wall.
"Trust me hon, it'll be tastefully cultural."
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
It's been a while, but the wife is back to the A-Z HotS art challenge. The next one up is hot!
She dropped this into Reddit and has been getting lots of upvotes and praise. Of course, the running joke is drawing Blaze in watercolors. :biggrin: Pretty good for someone who only started doing art a few years ago.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
BUT! One of the biggest things I couldn't stand was damaged units. I don't know why, but I couldn't stand not sending out some SVCs to repair my mech units. Probably should just get used to units being disposable and create a bigger economy to simply replace them.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Fully vaccination rate of 85% (boosters at 40%+) and they're opening up almost completely very soon.
I don't know how hospitalizations are doing but at this trend end of April looks like it should be alright?
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
I'm kind of torn because I'd love more SC2 live content here and such. But like, also, it's not really responsible right now.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Or am I remembering wrong?
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
This one definitely made its mark tho
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Possible. I remember them using music from the soundtrack of The Rock a lot, too. I may still have 2001 vods somewhere. God that was just the best
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
We had been asked not to talk about it since Nal_Ra's reputation was important as a pro gamer, but I guess the cat's out now ^^'
This was a long, long time ago
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Anyways, there's a tourney going on this past week or so (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_sc2), and the Grand Finals are going on now and it's pretty fun! Even if it's TvT.
First couple games spoilers:
Game 3 is starting now, so we'll see how it goes, but whatever it ends up being it won't be a blow-out!
Edit: third game
Edit2: fourth game and beyond, as saying whether there's a fifth game or not would spoiler stuff
And then the fifth game, the last game, soooo intense. I thought Maru had it! Classic Tank/Viking TvT play. I think Oliveira had a little lead in the end, but then Maru accidentally split his tanks away (they routed a different way it looks like), and Oliveira just jumped on them. And a huge final fight, and then Oliveira emerged victorious! 4-1, only losing that first fight, Oliveira beating some really big names in the tourney.
3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
Steam profile
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
https://www.xfire.com/blizzard-announce-starcraft-3-blizzcon-november/
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
Here's hoping!
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Something in the fantasy genre, iirc.
Witty signature comment goes here...
wra
They already have Warcraft and Diablo, do they really need a NEW fantasy setting?
Warcraft is bound up with pretty high/epic fantasy and Diablo is about becoming a human demon-blender. It is kind of tough to make something more "grounded" (heh) for a survival game in those settings given expectations. Plus it would need "all hunters, everywhere, for all time" branding or such.
Artistic identity also matters, you can see from the huge backlash to Diablo 3. If you wanted a semi-realistic, bright and natural setting, neither Diablo's mandated dreariness nor WoW's stylized/simplified art are a great fit.
This quote from the article annoys me irrationally.
Not really. It ended the conflict of the moment but the setting is a shit show. "A victory so final as to end war," is hubris at its highest even when you don't have giant flesh eating space bugs to worry about.
The UED is still out there, and their return was the only thing except Amon that Kerrigan was afraid of. And with Kerrigan gone the Zerg just got handed over to a new queen gifted superior vision and cunning but with no reason to show the restraint Kerrigan showed in Heart of the Swarm. The swarm was broken but it's always broken until the Zerg campaign starts and it rebuilds from zero to infinity again.
Artanis united the Protoss against a common foe, but that foe is gone now and unity involved Artanis unilaterally dismantling a lot of the factions' cultural identities (and the Dark Templar were already worried about their culture eroding due to unity with Aiur). The Taldarim are going to fuck off at the first sign of not getting their way, somebody's going to be salty about the caste system being thrown down. And severing the Khala is definitely one of those things that will come back to haunt them.
We don't know what's going on in the Dominion but it can't be great because when Artanis paid a friendly visit they were on edge badly enough that they were shooting first and identifying later.
They did a follow up novel after SC2 where Zagara invited the terrans and protoss to her new throneworld for peace talks. She even grew tables and chairs for them to sit on from zerg biomatter.
She offered snacks.
These are all true things that are canon.
The three big factions of the three races - Dominion, Daelaam, and Swarm, are currently friends. But yes, there are fringe factions that are more hostile - Terran separatists, rogue Zerg hives, and Alarak is still out there up to some shit (if he's the next big bad of the franchise, then sold.)
I think they could definitely tell some more grounded stories, without some over-arching mega-threat from beyond the universe to unite them all. Just have each faction with their own campaign, their own goals and ambitions, their own moral viewpoint. Let the franchise grow and change from there.
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/blizzard/23768911/create-a-new-universe-with-us
Which, yes, that sounds absurd, but Blizzard has never been a speedy company
Rumours for basically every Blizzard product have been circulating for this Blizzcon, it's kinda funny. Everyone's just thinking about it because of the acquisition, I suppose. I'm just expecting Diablo and WoW expacs
I'm guessing nobody played the Nova mini-expansion, which you should, it was actually pretty great and I was generally bummed we didn't see more expansions like that. It actually delves a bit into post-Legacy of teh Void politics.
Full spoilers
Would be so fucking down for this.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah