The StarCraft II Field Manual: A Closer Look

While the StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Campaign will take you on an epic journey across the Koprulu sector, every recruit has got to start somewhere. The StarCraft II: Field Manual will provide you with an in-depth view of the threats and hazards of this far-flung region of the galaxy.

For years, we’ve been developing the ultimate compendium of all things related to StarCraft, and now – that reference guide has arrived. Filled with over 120 pages of original art, and chock-full of comprehensive detail on the units you know and love (or hate!), flipping through the Field Manual is an immersive experience that will take you to the far corners of the StarCraft II universe. From the rugged Terran SCVs, to Zerg Hives or grand Protoss Arkships, the Field Manual will allow you to explore the realm of StarCraft II unlike ever before.

What You’ll Find

The Field Manual provides you with the Dominion’s latest declassified intelligence on the many units and structures you can expect to encounter in the Koprulu sector.

In each section you will find:

• Unit or Structure Name
• Brief History
• Vital Stats/Specs
• Variants (Including historically significant units)
• Tactical Notes

In addition to all the documented segments, the StarCraft II: Field Manual is filled with delightful commentaries and musings from Dominion Marine recruits of the past.

Community Involvement

When we started production of this manual we reached out to a certain individual that many of you might be quite familiar with: Robert 'Xiaorobear' Rose the creator of the well-known “StarCraft to Scale” image series

Robert has been creating StarCraft fan art for years highlighting the relative size of various vehicles and creatures. When we began working on this book we knew we wanted a section featuring scale charts for units, and often referenced his fan art as an example of what we wanted to do. We finally asked ourselves: why don’t we just ask him if he’d like to participate in the book instead?

We had a fantastic experience working with Robert and including his vision of units to scale in the Field Manual. His passion and dedication to this type of work was exceptional, and so we took a few minutes to ask some questions about his past, and what we might see from him in the future.

An Interview with Robert Rose

What got you into StarCraft in the first place?

I should thank my older brother’s elementary school friends for introducing it to him! And then [my brother] for wanting to play it against me. It only took a couple of games to get hooked, everything about the setting and visuals were basically the coolest thing I had ever seen at the time. So, thanks, bro.

When did you first begin creating art for StarCraft?

Right away! The oldest set of StarCraft drawings I still have are a couple pages of (very very crude) designs for a 4th race from around 15 years ago, complete with a tech tree and mock-screenshots. I still have a few Zerglings from then too, as Zerg designs were my favorite. I stopped for a long time in the middle though, and it wasn’t until years later that I realized communities of fans were still going strong online, and I went back to doodling StarCraft units in school.

What inspired the notion of “Units to Scale” for StarCraft?

Being a big fan of Star Wars and dinosaurs as a little kid has to be the original root of it. With Star Wars they did a great job of putting out books with all of these schematics and bits of information (including the sizes!) of every ship and alien creature you could think of. Then across every piece of Star Wars media, from the movies to video games and fan films, there was this strong sense of canonical visual consistency. And of course every good dinosaur book has a big emphasis on the biggest and smallest dinosaurs, with diagrams comparing them to people or elephants or whales or whatever. I was happy and inspired to discover that there were other StarCraft fans across the world creating absolutely amazing fan art, but of course we were all working from our imaginations of what those tiny pixelated sprites might look like, so every single person was drawing every unit completely differently! For one person an Ultralisk might look like a beetle the size of a car, for another it could be a towering tripod the size of a building.

In retrospect, I also appreciate that level of creativity and interpretation, but at the time I thought it was a shame that no two fans would ever be able to make their own StarCraft animations that looked like they inhabited the same fictional universe, if in one Carriers were 500 feet long and in another they were 5000. So that contrast with everyone being able to just look up how big an X-wing or a Tyrannosaurus is, and see it compared to every other ship/dinosaur, was probably where the idea to create my own reference chart came from. The info in the Field Manual is exactly what I would have loved to have when I was younger.

Since creating “Units to Scale” what other projects have you found enjoyable?

One of my next dreams has been to make my own StarCraft cinematic, especially since I’ve already assembled all of this great reference material of how all the units would look at that cinematic scale. I’ve been having tons of fun improving my 3D animation skills, and I think I’ll be able to put out something that the StarCraft community will really enjoy. I also practice my own original illustration and digital painting when I have the time, though that’s more art for myself and less for an audience than my fan art projects.

How do you feel about being included in the StarCraft II Field Manual?

It’s an amazing privilege. I honestly spent hours of my childhood with the original StarCraft instruction manual, reading the lore and copying the tiny images of the units. I never could have guessed that my drawings would be in that manual’s successor! I’m sure Legacy of the Void, the Field Manual, and its art will be as much of an inspiration to the next generation of would-be sci-fi artists as the originals were to me. And if some kid out there ends up copying one of my drawings, or coming up with a scale chart for their own imagined worlds because of me, that would be the icing on the cake. Even better than icing?

What can we expect from you in the future?

My next step will be finding a position in the industry as a concept and/or 3D artist, so keep your eyes peeled for that cinematic, and for whatever game universe I contribute to next!

We hope that you will find hours upon hours of interesting facts, diagrams, sketches, witty-remarks, and more in the StarCraft II: Field Manual. This manual is available now in bookstores and online, and through a purchase of StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void Collector’s Edition. We trust that you will find as much joy in reading it as much as we did in creating it.