- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
- Messages
- 1,504
Hey guys, this isn't my project but definitely a project worthy of note.
Many players in the StarCraft 2 commuity point to Brood War or other games' approach to unit, map, and economic designs in contrast to StarCraft 2. Notable problems in StarCraft 2 that are noted are the high amount of hard counters, the three-base economic cap, and poor design of an entire race.
Starbow was originally created as a Brood War HD remake in the StarCraft 2 engine with modifications to make it as balanced as possible, as a Brood War total remake would be very broken. Units that would be broken, for example, would be the Lurker, the Mutalisk, and Vultures.
Starbow, after years of development, balancing and tweaks was released nearly a month ago, and has taken the community of StarCraft by storm.
With a Brood War economic system, many of the old units with proper balances, soft counters, and long, back and forth macro games, Starbow punishes players less for timings and more for economic mismanagement, having poor positioning. Certain playstyles that were impossible to use (such as Bio in tvP) have been made more viable with the additions of StarCraft 2 abilties, such as Dropship (formerly Medivac) Boost. Macro mechanics as well make a show in Starbow, contrast to Brood War. These macro mechanics, which were Orbital Commands, Queens, and Chrono Boost in StarCraft 2, have been given Gas requirements, and have been balanced to help the player, rather than punish the player.
Since battles draw out much longer, due to units being tougher and more soft-countered based, this leaves alot of room for micromanagement between players, creating insanely action-packed engagements.
Starbows release was also highlighted by Sean "Day9" Plott, who came back to visit StarCraft II since his hiatus purely for Starbow's release.
His series of dalies can be seen here;
Starbow is regularly updated, discussed, and is growing exponentially with their initial release, with the goal to make a fun, balanced RTS for fans of both StarCraft 2, and Brood War.
You can check out the forums here to get in on the discussion.
And you can also ladder against other players (with a letter rank system, soon to change to an iccup-like system, soon) for the title of the Best Starbow player.
