I have mixed feelings about this project of reviving this old classic. Absolutely loved it back there in my childhood. Played this game in 2002-2007. For me the main value lies in custom maps and amount of creativity and hardwork that have been poured in into them. And that is why I am glad that Blizzard resurrects all that stuff, integrates the game into its launcher and in some sense perpetuates it forever (to some degree, of course, we are all mortals).
But. We all have and have heard about dozens of negative experience while using this product. A lot of things could have been made differently.
Several suggestions:
- To give opportunity to install only classic version (I would assume that the size would be somewhat higher then 2-3 Gb because of new implementations, but still). In some way SC2 has that feature. And I could guess that a major share of occupied space is just new textures. I like to redownload this game from time to time because I have some kind of problems with my willpower, so in order not to play very often I just delete it. But to download 30 Gb every time is an absurd.
- Give the players the opportunity to set background theme in the main menu exactly as it was in RoC and TFT if they chose to play with classic graphic. This would please old gamer base. New players would be indifferent I think.
- Reconnect after disconnect. Absolutely necessary in 2020. We don’t need to inherit the current way from classic. Once again, it is an absurd and a waste of time.
- Cloud saves and compatibility of saves between different versions. I know your justifications but if you want this game to be really polished and worthwhile remaster you need to handle that.
- Support of replays from previous versions. As I said “I know your justifications but if you want this game to be really polished and worthwhile remaster you need to handle that.”
- Import saves from classic versions. My files have been storaged on my disk for years. Once again, “if you want this game to be really polished and worthwhile remaster you need to handle that.”
All in all, I am glad that you haven’t abandoned this great game and are trying to give it some kind of second life. But you still need to respect your fan base. And at least for 30 bucks to allow them to choose to play version as close to classic one as possible (aka see #1 and #2). I don’t regret spending $30-40 (it is not that much for me for my child nostalgia and a second chance to a great game) but I am still considering them as an advance payment and a long term investment. And I hope that in 1-2 years the game will shine. Just take your time and do all the things right.
I assume it is missing and a. add all the content they removed from W3.
1 Like
It would be better than nothing if the original game remained unchanged.
The game is full of bugs and disconnects, the colours are ugly, the death sound effects changed, and there is no ladder system… in the ORIGINAL GAME… oh and the damn opening menu is BLACK AND WHITE…
5 Likes
Still waiting, still hoping -) May the 4th be with you!
ps. By the way, will be updating this post every 6-12 months until the game is ready -) No hurry, just take your time! The average life longevity now is about 80 years, we will be alright -)
UPDATE 11 January 2021
I have been having second thoughts recently about the topic (for some strange reason). And it suddenly struck me that we won’t get any generous news about the game either on anniversary date in January or at Blizzcon in February.
They completely stopped development and addition of new features for SC Remastered and just ended enhancing SC 2 in any new ways.
So it looks like that they are working hard on something (or it easily could be that the company is just shutting down -) ).
I think they did SC remaster just to consolidate and support some player base and they added the game to the launcher to get some synergy (so players could easily be hook on other products). And that guy Pete did a decent job there but pretty messed up with WC3. I assume they dedicated fixed amount of money for the project and Pete did handle this project in a supposed way.
So I would guess that Reforged as SC Remaster is just a marketing vehicle to consolidate and support some player base and to bring more players to their launcher. Which is pretty sad. My sour predictions are that we won’t get any new content for Reforged as we won’t get any new significant features (such as reconnect option) in the same way as SC Remaster hasn’t got any significant improvements. It looks like they have quite strict budget and at best this game will get original functionality with modern UI and contemporary online component.
This is on the bad side.
I think there is also a good side though.
So my predictions :
80-90% probability - they are working on new strategy game (Warcraft 4/SC3, more liketly WC4 because the original release was earlier)
60-70% - they will announce WC4/SC3 or some new strategy game at Blizzcon
90% - We WON’T get Reforged Reforged (or Reforged 2.0)
99% - they will add all original features to the game so it could be decent marketing vehicle (but they don’t give a lot of money for this and the team is small. But if there is still a lot of time until WC4 it wouldn’t be an issue).
So, this is my speculations. But there is also always a chance that they are just wrapping up their strategy games division because nobody wants to do games like these anymore, which is also ok, why not. Just don’t shut down old servers -)
UPDATE 25 July 2022
Glad you are moving in a right direction guys! Keep it on!
2 Likes