RTS Starcraft 2 goes free to play

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

If brood war stopped being brood war and became an inferior dumbcasual game I would be playing it.

 

[Space Satan]

It is still not clear for me, when SC2 will go free then ALL players will be able to play online with ALL units, meaning all three expansions included or they could only play online with WoL units? And only single-player campaign will be restricted?

 

[tmux]

You're not being charged money but ti doesn't mean it's "free", you still have to install Blizzard's proprietary spyware in order to play. Then you're milked for way more than the game is worth. And at any rate, they've probably figured out that whoever wanted to buy the game already has, so they might as well try sucking in a few more losers with the promise of a "free" game.

 

[Martius]

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/21173629/starcraft-ii-going-free-to-play-explained-11-3-2017

You will be able to access the ranked multiplayer ladder to compete with other players to become the best of the best, complete with all of the multiplayer units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void. All you have to do to unlock it permanently is earn 10 First Wins of the Day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play—our way to preserve the quality and integrity of the ranked experience.

I guess whole multiplayer will be free, I am just not sure how it will work in practice. I thought multiplayer is still divided in three version unless I missed some merge?

 

[Space Satan]

Wow. EU havemore players than Korea? David Kim surely worked hard to get SC2 here.

 

[Multidirectional]

If brood war stopped being brood war and became an inferior dumbcasual game I would be playing it.

I really tried enjoying ordering every single command individually, clicking on every unit production building separately and fighting my own units on where the fuck they should be going while only being able to select 12 of them at a time. I tried to get into mindset that says this is RTS gameplay perfection but I'm just too much of a pleb for it and probably only gonna keep SC R for campaign and occasional skirmish, not MP. I cannot play my keyboard like a fucking piano and thus I'll stick with dumb casual RTS with convenient controls.

 

[RhodokMasterRaceOfficial]

just stop bein casul dude

 

[ArchAngel]

This is how to get your free HotS if you own WoL:

Noticed many people (like me) tried to click on the upgrade button on the b.net app Starcraft page, to claim the free HoTs upgrade only to find that goes to the store and asks for a purchase.

Dont click on the upgrade, instead on the top right there should be a gift icon, with an orange dot, click on that and claim the gift.

If you cant find the gift, restart your Battle.net App, or from the dropdown with your name click on check gifts. It should appear.

 

[Rahdulan]

Good. Now I just wait for a decent sale on Legacy of the Void so I can finish the story proper.

 

[fantadomat]

Good. Now I just wait for a decent sale on Legacy of the Void so I can finish the story proper.

Can't you ,you know just sail your yacht in the bay?!

 

[Dzupakazul]

This isn't bad news. I feel like I got my money's worth from SC2, and now I can play it with some people as an introductory RTS (the co-op mode is pretty fun too).

Campaign might have a pretty shitty story, but I mostly just overlooked it and flexed mechanics on the vast wealth of missions from WoL, which were generally pretty good.

Though notably, after SC2 on Brutal, I'm now playing WC3 on Hard and that is way, way harder, though I have comparatively much less WC3 experience, so that might contribute.

And it's still pretty engaging to play on ladder.

 

[Multidirectional]

So, any Bronze/Silver/Gold newbs here? Nobody wants to get together for this shit? We've been climbing 3v3 ladder with couple people yesterday, having lots of fun.

 

[Rahdulan]

I have no idea why you can't buy individual expansions anymore through the store, only in-game. LotV goes for 15€, for example. You just need to download 24GBs for the privilege of purchasing it.

 

[ArchAngel]

I have no idea why you can't buy individual expansions anymore through the store, only in-game. LotV goes for 15€, for example. You just need to download 24GBs for the privilege of purchasing it.

Because you cannot download only LotV anyways. You will always get WoL as well since it is free to everyone now. I guess they assume if you want to buy it you want it also installed anyways.

 

[Multidirectional]

Ok so far we've been climbing 2v2 and 3v3 ladders on and off with Lord Gumblert (not sure about codex name), Hoaxmetal, Kony and The Sheeep. Having a lot of fun with it personally, even during losing streaks. Feel free to join in guys.

 

[Eyestabber]

The ELO inflation is real, godamn. I was a humble gold scrub before f2p and now I'm high plat/almost diamond.

Still, doomsday predictions are still wrong and you can still get a match in less than a minute. SC2 is very much alive.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Shit is also very much alive.

 

[Venser]

Almost made it to masters for the first time, only like 2 wins away but then the ladder locked and new season started

 

[Multidirectional]

I am too casual to get to high leagues, sitting at Gold/Platinum with zerg. Anyone for team up or 1v1 sparring?

 

[MilesBeyond]

Shit is also very much alive.

Man what the hell have you been eating

 

[Eyestabber]

I love to see how the ELO system actually WORKS in this game, as opposed to MOBA shit. I intentionally dropped my ELO by quitting every single TvT in the loading screen and now I'm getting matched with goldies and I can def feel the difference. It's p. funny since I can just outmacro them and then A-move across the map to win. Just won a game by marching marines straight into burrowed lurkers. Protip: more shit counters less shit, lel.

Only annoying thing about goldies is their tendency to cheese like 60% of the matches but...eh... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Multidirectional]

Only annoying thing about goldies is their tendency to cheese like 60% of the matches but...eh... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Winning against cheesers feels very satisfying though. Most of them seem to get lost and unable to switch tactics once you shut that cheese down. I had quite a few games where a protoss cheeser sticks with one base for 10+ minutes while I keep building up my eco. Usually all it takes is to sneak a worker past them to get another hidden base as soon as you see the cheese going down. I am sure higher league cheesers are way more annoying but I might never find out.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

ELO definitely works, one season I'm in silver (1v1 zerg) , the next they put me in god damn platinum after 1 placement match. Did placement for 4v4 just for fun, got placed in diamond after 3W2L I'm scared to do the season placement match, they'll just put me in grandmaster or something and invite me to some tournament.

 

[Anomander Rake]

Is there still cheese as Terran? Because all I've seen it's just 2 rax against Zerg and it doesn't even work that well tbh.

I loved this game when I could polt 2 rax a protoss or block zergs with the three bunkers block.

I remember those days with grief and despair that I can't cheese anymore, because cheese was removed

Best part was the two pylon block with the photon cannon behind against zerg, ah, these were the days :')

 

[Eyestabber]

Common cheese I saw in the last couple days:

- Protoss cannon rush. Very ineffective since terran can fly their buildings away and a single siege tank shuts this shit down forever. Never lost to this.
- Proxy barracks. Deadly if left unscouted. Otherwise a single bunker + scv repairs holds the line. I won a game where I had literally just one marine inside my bunker when the attack hit. Be wary of people who make walls with 3 depots since they are trying to hide the cheese.
- Zerg single base roach/ravager all in. Marines can't hold this shit, you need factory units. If you scout the zerg natural at 1:10 and he has no 2nd hatchery, HUNKER DOWN BECAUSE ITZ HAPPENING!!!

Also, beware of map specific cheese. I lost to a terran on 16bit because the cunt proxy raxed me by flying his barracks into my backyard natural. Very cheeky. I couldn't even get mad.

Another sort of cheese was a toss player who went Nexus first on a gold base. Since i scouted the usual places, I thought he was going single base all in and hunkered down. The cunt then surprised me with a 3 base army that overwhelmed my 2 base economy. I naively thought I was ahead economically when I wasn't and got wrecked.

Most of them seem to get lost and unable to switch tactics once you shut that cheese down.

"If 2 cannons failed to win the game, it's time to build 20 more" - Silver/Gold league wisdom.

Also, when cheesers DO switch tactics they will either:

A) try to build 2 new bases at the same time to overcompensate their crippled economy or

B) go for cloaked units. Failed cannon rush means it's time to go for dark templar. Because...why not?

Btw, I'm currently at low plat on Americas. Same nickname.