SC2 Beta activated for some Battle.net accounts

[warz]

A friend of mine got into the beta and let me zip up a few of the more interesting files from his SC2 install. I doubt I'll ever actually poke around in them, though. I'd rather be able to see them in context.

[rabbit]

That screenshot feels very Star Trek to me.  I love it.  

While my Blizzard contact/friend totally fell-through, my media contact/friend said he could probably get me a key in the next week.  Looking forward to that.  

Get me one :O

[Super_X]

I'm very jealous.

[Joe]

So Myndy, confirm/bust my suspicion that it uses WoW's servers and WoW's protocol.

[deadly7]

So Myndy, confirm/bust my suspicion that it uses WoW's servers and WoW's protocol.

I'll spare him having to do it and just tell you no without even having seen the game.

[Towelie]

From my friend who has the beta:

disappointed by sc2
its like
the same fucking game
with better graphics....
and they got rid of lurkers...
-_-;

[MyndFyre]

So Myndy, confirm/bust my suspicion that it uses WoW's servers and WoW's protocol.

No, that doesn't even make sense.  The games are architecturally dissimilar.

@Towelie: The graphics are actually pretty disappointing; it looks like it uses a slightly enhanced version of the War3 engine.  My guess is that this round of betas is for balancing.  It looks a LOT like War3.  As for lurkers... there has to be a reason to be the Starcraft 2 expansion.

[Blaze]

Lurkers were taken out as an experiment to see which tear is weakest.  This means they might be added as Tier 2 (again) instead of Tier 3.  (a good thing)

[Joe]

So Myndy, confirm/bust my suspicion that it uses WoW's servers and WoW's protocol.

No, that doesn't even make sense.  The games are architecturally dissimilar.

I meant chat-wise.

Does Battle.net 2.0 currently communicate with WoW?

[MyndFyre]

Does Battle.net 2.0 currently communicate with WoW?

No.  The disturbing thing is that I wasn't even able to identify Battle.net chat.

[deadly7]

Wait, regarding graphics:

So the gameplay videos are completely false? Those don't look like polygon blocks as was the case with WC3. Is there no actual shading and texture detail?

[rabbit]

The "Social" (read: channels) part of Bnet2 isn't operational yet.

ps: blarg

[Joe]

Ah. My hunch is that Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of WarCraft will all connect to Battle.net 2.0 servers and have "social" elements shared between all games, much like StarCraft, Diablo II, and WarCraft III do. Why do I think so? Well, because I've seen screenshots of World of WarCraft: Catacylsm people having StarCraft Alpha people on their friends list.

It'll be interesting to see how Bnet2 pans out. I'm really excited since hopefully this will bring around a new generation of bot development. I miss 5 years ago when the large community around vL inspired many (including myself) to learn program. Now, with a new protocol to reverse, and a myriad of new languages replacing VB6 (.NET specifically), it'll be interesting to see what happens.

[Blaze]

Ah. My hunch is that Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of WarCraft will all connect to Battle.net 2.0 servers and have "social" elements shared between all games, much like StarCraft, Diablo II, and WarCraft III do. Why do I think so? Well, because I've seen screenshots of World of WarCraft: Catacylsm people having StarCraft Alpha people on their friends list.

It'll be interesting to see how Bnet2 pans out. I'm really excited since hopefully this will bring around a new generation of bot development. I miss 5 years ago when the large community around vL inspired many (including myself) to learn program. Now, with a new protocol to reverse, and a myriad of new languages replacing VB6 (.NET specifically), it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Wow, it's like you've seen the many, many, many interviews where they talk about that!

http://www.starcraft2.com/features/misc/battlenet.xml

[iago]

No.  The disturbing thing is that I wasn't even able to identify Battle.net chat.

Well, when WC3 came out as Beta everything was encrypted.

As for lurkers... there has to be a reason to be the Starcraft 2 expansion.

My thoughts exactly.