World Of StarCraft: StarCraft Universe
Were you following the World Of StarCraft debacle a few weeks back? Dude says he's making an MMO using the StarCraft map makerer, says he's calling it World Of StarCraft. Blizzard opens its mighty mouth and roars, scaring everyone with its sharp, pointy teeth. Internet cries "foul!", everyone panics, dude gets hired by a developer, Blizzard says it was just yawning and that its teeth are mostly for display purposes, and we all sit back down. It's the story of the internet. Well, the further good news is that the project is continuing with Blizzard's raised eyebrow of approval under the name, StarCraft Universe.
It was all the work of Ryan Winzen, who came to exceptional fame all of a sudden. And now TechSpot report that he's back at work on his mod. The game's forum explains that it will feature:
- A wide variety of monsters, bosses and character classes. SCU classes include: Infantry, Special-Ops, Demolition and many others.
- A game save system. These maps will allows players to create, save and load existing characters (a unique function uncommon to custom Starcraft maps).
- Hundreds of customizable weapons, runes and equipment to choose from. They can be acquired as loot or bought in shops.
- Multiplayer experience. These maps allow (and encourages) up to twelve players in one match.
Although as the FAQ reveals, it's not really an MMO at all. Up to twelve players can be on the same map at the same time, and there's no experience system in place, so there's no levelling, etc. The site explains, "Instead of gaining exp from battle, players will gain loot, minerals, allocation-points, and rank. These will help players in customizing and boosting their character stats." The game will reimagine stories from earlier StarCraft maps, and the published fiction about the universe, rather than creating any original storylines. And as for those gripes of MMOs, it's explained,
"SCU players will NOT experience this: "oh yay I got a new sword that does more DPS and has a different model file...boring =( ". They will also NOT experience this: "Grrr, I must continue grinding and grinding for the next weapon so I can toss away my current one." Every weapon and item found in SCU will be both exciting and situational. They will ALL be useful and will have their own strengths and weaknesses."
There's no planned release date as yet, but hopefully things will now be able to run a bit more smoothly. Here's the old video that originally got him into so much fuss:
