This is a blog post about StarCraft 2 – Wings of Liberty Starter Edition. It is actually the second time I’ve written about StarCraft 2 on the blog, the first time being when playing the beta.
I’ve written this blog post essentially to help others, with answers to questions I had, which others might have as well. So if you are a regularly subscriber to my blog, it is probably best you skip to another one of my blog posts (unless you are interested in playing StarCraft 2), as this is more a help page, than a regular blog post.
StarCraft 2 first mission
So I played the beta version of StarCraft 2 a while back, but since then I’ve changed computers, and my new system is a laptop, rather than desktop and the change in spec and operating system left me with plenty of questions. Will StarCraft 2 run on my computer? – being the first question. So I decided to try out the free ‘Starter Edition’, to see just that.
Q. How much space does StarCraft 2 take up?
A. The download package for the starter edition is 6.99GB, and then the software mentioned it required 12GB for installation space. In reality once installed and version patches were then also downloaded, my installation directory sits at 10.2GB.
starcraft 2 installer
Q. Can StarCraft 2 starter edition run on Microsoft Vista?
A. I played the beta on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, but now I’m running Microsoft Windows Vista Business on a laptop. The starter edition did install and play on Microsoft Windows Vista.
Q. How to resolve the ‘there were multiple problems saving data’ error message?
A. When the installer was applying the patches, it suddenly came up with the above error message. My solution was to close the installer, then restart it and close it after five minutes. I then walked away from the installer for a couple of hours, restarted it yet again and it then completed the installation.
Q. How to speed up the StarCraft 2 download?
A. It was estimating the download was going to take 27-32 hours on my computer, which wasn’t because I didn’t have the bandwidth. However by selecting ‘View’ from the menu and then ‘Preferences…’, I unselected ‘Enable Peer-to-Peer Transfer’, and selected ‘Don’t throttle background download’. It then said the estimate was around 4 hours to complete the download. It is also worth noting once the installer was downloaded, even after installation there were various patches downloaded. So make sure you leave a considerable amount of time for the download and install. I started it in the morning!
speeding up the StarCraft 2 downloader
Q. What computer specification do you require?
A. I can’t give you an exact answer, but I can tell you about my system specs. I played the beta on a 3GHz single core computer with an AGP Radeon HD 2400 512mb graphics card, with 2gb ram and Microsoft Windows 7.
My old system spec I played the beta on.
I’m playing the starter edition on a duel-core laptop with Microsoft Windows Vista and onboard PCI-Express x16 128mb graphics card.
So basically my old graphics were superior, but now my processor capabilities are superior. I’ve only played the first level, but it seems to run okay with low settings. I honestly don’t know what is enough of a good spec to cater to the single player and multiplayer levels, but I’m happy with my experience of single player levels on the starter edition.
To be continued…
At some stage I will update this blog post with further details, but I hope someone finds my Q&A helpful.