Yesterday, a Starcraft II Developer Panel played out at the IgroMir 2009 event in Russia. Blizzard updated the website with a rounds up of what the developers discussed there, which is basically what we learned over at BlizzCon, but more condensed. Still worth for those who missed going or watching the live stream. Check out the official site for further updates.

	Blizzard Quote:
	Developer Panel. StarCraft II November 19 2009 On November 6 at Igromir, Lead Producer Chris Sigaty talked about the development of the hotly anticipated game, StarCraft II. He described some features that look set to make the sequel even better than the original and at the same time keep all the things that made StarCraft an RTS classic. Chris explained that four basic principles have been taken into account during the development of StarCraft II. The first is to improve all the features of the original StarCraft; the second to implement an absolutely new approach to singleplayer in an RTS game. The third and the fourth principles are the complete incorporation of the game into the Battle.net platform, and the creation of a unique game editor. The game’s engine has been built from scratch. The graphics follows the style of the first game but look modern and up-to-date. The three races will be different not only visually but also in how they play. Many units familiar from the original StarCraft have been changed, and many new units have been added. However, StarCraft fans will recognize many units they already know very well. The maps are rich, filled with lots of new objects, and the user interface has been greatly improved. The singleplayer campaign will be absolutely unique. The story of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty takes place four years after the conclusion of StarCraft: Brood War. Players take the role of Jim Raynor. The singleplayer mode will be brought to life with a so-called history mode where players will be able to interact with the environment; for instance, you can talk to NPCs and discover the latest news from all over the in-game world. Players will be able to buy upgrades, hire mercenaries and conduct laboratory research. For example, if a player prefers to use marines, he or she can concentrate all their efforts on upgrading this unit. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty’s singleplayer campaign will consist of 28 non-linear missions. The sequence of events will differ depending on the actions of the player. The new version of Blizzard’s online gaming platform, Battle.net, will be one of the most important parts of StarCraft II. It will allow users to always be online: now players will not need to log into Battle.net to find a match. Moreover, each player will be able to find an opponent of the same experience and skills. Each player will have their own profile which will contain all the up-to-date information about them including achievements. Achievements will be something new to the StarCraft series. They will make the gameplay more exciting and challenging. Also some of them will have unique rewards like decals. Players will be able to participate in multiplayer with the implementation of leagues. Each player will have to take part in 10 qualifying matches to be included in a league uniting players of the same experience and skills. Ladders will be compiled within those leagues. Battle.net will also unite players of all Blizzard games. One of the features which will help in this is cross-game chat for all Blizzard games. Thus, a StarCraft II player will be able to talk to his or her friend who is currently playing World of Warcraft. The StarCraft II editor will allow users to create various maps and mods for the game with very few restrictions. Also planned is a special map market which will ultimately allow players to trade maps with each other for money.

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