Banelings rolling animation

nope, my Adobe isn't working and my dad hasn't had the time to find the probleam.

 

Not true, the baneling is filled with liquid the Infester was simply an organism, it's very possible that the baneling weighs more than the Ultralisk.

Again not true in a quick burst of strength you are capable of moving, lifting, carrying far more than you could sustain. Think of professional weight lifters, some can lift far more then their body weight for about 2-5 seconds but there's no way they could continuously do that. Same applies to standing instead of walking. I can hold a 120lbs brick of lead, but I definitely couldn't run with it.

HA of course they'd make that much of a difference regardless of size. Say for simplicity's sake that a creature with four legs is holding 600lbs each leg would then hold 125lbs six would be holding 100lbs, 25 doesn't seem like a lot but when viewed as each leg carrying 25 fewer pounds suddenly it's as if the creature has lost 100-150lbs depending on how you look at it. Tell me that if you lost that much weight you wouldn't be more spry and fast.

It's not rolling through a swamp its rolling on mostly a semi soft surface, again yes with asphault or space platform it wouldn't but just like you said it would have to remain for consistency just like the mutralisk flying in space.

Again not true, I do Parkour (look it up if you want) but it's about urban movement and getting from one place to another as fast as possible in this sport you roll after falling from a large drop. I roll on a semi regular basis and I can roll several times in succession going in a straight line, if that's all I ever did I guarantee that I could do it for a much longer distance. And I'm not even some super mutant powered creature

Really? Even say when there are a huddle of marines in front a few banelings and the objective is to take out the Barracks or the Command Center? That's a quite plausible and very often used tactic.

The point of the scourge isn't that it's illogical or not possible, it's that the principle is just the same as the baneling it doesn't look right but most are willing to suspend disbelief, it's a shame that you don't but I can't hold that against you.

 

Liquids are not the densest form of matter, you know. Being an organism has little to do with weigh. It could be argued that the Infester is indeed lighter, but it could also be argued that the Baneling is lighter. Regardless, the Infester shows us a fatter and weaker version of what we already have, walking without looking awkward or poorly animated at all.

And I think the Ultralisk comparison's going a tad too far.

I'm aware of that, and it all goes back to its rolling animation. Its method of locomotion is simply not effective for something that's holding that much weight, if it really is that much weight, nor is it effective for anything at all. On top of that, it's been blatantly shown that Baneling can continuously hold that weight, so it's not as much of a toll on its body as weightlifting is on weightlifters. As for you being able to lift that brick of lead, I can't imagine that you're able to hold it indefinitely but not be able to walk with it. I understand the weightlifter scenario, and I understand your lead brick scenario, but they don't both apply at the same time.

Yes, but if each of those four legs are twice as strong as they otherwise would be, and the Baneling's legs definitely do look much stronger than the legs of most other Zerg creatures, then they'd be able to hold about twice as much. I'm not sure of the exact ratio of muscle size to strength, but for the sake of this just say that one leg has the strength of two of the legs it would have otherwise have had. Instead of seemingly having lost a hundred and fifty pounds, it would seemingly lost three hundred pounds.

Now I'm not saying that having extra legs wouldn't help, as they obviously would and if it would fix the problem then I'd welcome them with open arms, I'm merely saying that the Baneling's model isn't the problem. The problem solely lies with the animation.

And yeah, the point problem with the honeypot ant's two extra legs are that they're not bearing the load. They'd provide a bit of additional help, but if you pulled off two of their legs they'd probably still be able to hold onto the roof like that.

The Mutalisk flying is space isn't done for consistency, it's done for the plot. But regardless, I do see what you're saying here. It's just like the fact that Zerg can Burrow on any terrain type, and by extension, that the Infester's to move underground, etc. However I will say that it's best to avoid such examples of this in game, and while Zerg Burrowing and the Infester's ability are done for the sake of consistent gameplay, and that the Mutalisk is done for the sake of the storyline, the Baneling has no other justification.

Nice. As a point of interest I saw that on CWH just yesterday. Looked quite amazing. You must be pretty buff to be able to do all of that. Perhaps you are a super mutant powered creature, haha.

But the point remains that, I presume, you would not practice landing rolls, or even rolls at all, by continuously rolling as fast as you can. Rolling is a straight line like that would be different to, say, if you were actually racing someone or something.

And doing Parkour, you'd have to realise that rolling is extremely inefficient. On top of that, imagine if you were overweight, and I'm talking like... This kind of overweight. Now, would it be easier to walk or roll? Not a great example, I know, but I'm just trying to express its inefficiency and lack of mechanical advantage.

See, now this is what I meant by it would rarely happen. That's a very specific scenario you've given there, and, if it were to be used, chances are it wouldn't be used like that, and players would make use of other units, like Roaches, to distract the opponent and soak damage.

But ok, imagine yourself in a similar situation, paintball for instance, and imagine that you had a target on your back. If you, and some mates, had to run past a bunch of your opponents, and assuming that you'd run at the same speed either way, would you constantly spin or would you run in a straight line?

And regardless, it could simply be said that the Marines would shoot them all in the sides as they were going past them, as, both ways, they have no protection there.

Hmmm, well I never really thought that the Scourges didn't look right. They never looked implausible in-game, but there were certainly things that did. Cocoons, for example.

Overall, I guess it's a sliding scale. Scourges could be considered as ridiculous just as the Banelings are, but the Banelings are simply so much worse. There are potential reasons for the Scourge as well, but there are very few for the Baneling that aren't simply nonsensical, no offence intended.

 

haha perhaps it was

With the legs, I think that the front legs hold most of the weight, the mid legs provide stability and the rear legs provide the locomotion. Obviously they all do all three just saying which would have which purpose. Except in the Baneling where it would be reversed due to it's massive weight imbalance. If they added a set of legs it would solve everything but I doubt they will. Perhaps we could submit our debate to Blizz themselves and let them make of it what they will lol.

Cool that you saw and know what Parkour is, alot of people don't and I appreciate the comment.

It's a completely different scenario but rolling does improve my speed in a race since I don't stagger after a long fall, obviously the Baneling will not be jumping from buildings though so I understand your point there. Could I roll faster then someone could walk? I have confidence that I could. Now, can I roll faster then anyone can run or maybe even jog? definitely not. I suppose it would depend on how fast the Baneling could walk/run probably not very fast and it wouldn't be able to roll very fast either, unless it was going downhill as previously stated. Which is a problem I have with the baneling, suicide attackers should be fast, very fast. The Baneling does seem to lack some speed in my opinion, but I haven't played it yet. Perhaps it's a misconception.

What was that about the Ultralisk? lol jk and in his case a scooter most likely would prove most helpful yet that would be an even worse animation for the baneling I do believe haha

Personally I would zig zag a bit, and honestly given that I can do it and do it well on the move I might throw a roll in there to change my profile, but I would not roll constantly. Anything but a straight line, since it gives them a clear shot continuously. Never the less I see your point.

That's merely an opinion, again the banalings are quite strange and in some ways ridiculous but I don't think I would be upset every time I saw them move. Suppose it's a good thing you play as the Protoss eh
Unless you can think of anything else I think we've pretty much bled this topic dry lol

 

But that animation doesn't necessary have to be used, they could've made it a gas blimp like the overlord but they didn't, they kept it flying with wings despite the fact that that doesn't make sense (and makes a lot less sense than the baneling rolling) simply because they preferred the animation.

 

I think it all boils down to what the unit's primary purpose is. It's to hold as much volatile substance as possible, not to be able to move fast or conveniently.

 

@ Mike. Well that's certainly covered all bases. Anything more and we'd probably just be repeating what we'd already said. And, unfortunately, I don't actually play as Protoss, or at least, not for StarCraft1. That's just leftover from when I had an uber-Protoss themed profile. I don't enjoy playing them the most, but they do look the best. However they're all likely to be extremely different in StarCraft2, so who knows?

Flying in space makes as little sense as a gas blimp in space. It's still a vacuum. They're still subject to zero atmospheric pressure and no resistance whatsoever. All Zerg units flying, accelerating and turning makes just as little sense.

 

Ay, but they could fart and have the expanding gas push them along.

 

wow, brilliant idea my friend, now.. does that give the zerg a negative aura debuff or its enemies gets poison damage per second lol....


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have you guys seen the movie starship troopers?? i just kind of imagine the baneling as the fart bomb of that big alien canoneer.. now if only banelings could leap attack for suicide ^_^ it wouldve been sweet

 

I dont mind the rolling animation. I just hope they have a walking animation in the editor for variety.

 

Any other different movement animations you can think of? I doubt they will put just one in there, if they are going to do that then I demand there be rolling Ultralisks in the editor!

 

I do not care if its illogical for the baneling to rolly anymore coz at the end of the day, what people are interested into is 60% coolness and 39% power.... oh yeah logic comes to 1% for those like us who keeps whining and just wouldnt be thankful enough for how good this game is going haha

 

LOL a rolling ultralisk!!! i would love to see that!! ahaahaha.

ill create a UMS map of rolling ultralisk...LOL

 

hahahaha... seriously thats something, disastrous and funny

 

Reminds me of deadly rolly pollies O_O

 

Maybe it could be longer and have more legs then have a cool grinding run with more protection over its acids then you would have a small warning of banelings burrowed.

 

In my opinion the Baneling animation should remain a rolling animation, mostly for artistic reasons. It makes the baneling more visually unique (determining between units when there is a lot going on is one of the problems in SC2 that I keep hearing about). It's different from all the other Zerg, and creative. There are also plenty of other games such as Lost Planet which feature rolling bug creatures and pull it off wonderfully- it makes for an intimidating speedy foe.

I do see how logically it might not make a TON of sense, but its not entirely flawed. It's not like we have some physics article here that says its more effective to walk than roll (assuming the organism is biologically INTENDED to roll, which is the case here)

Lastly, it's not like all the units in Starcraft have ever "made sense". Take the goliath- the whole concept of a walking combat robot is simply ridiculous and unpractical.

 

Am I ignorant in not knowing why the goliath is foolish? I see no problem with a walking combat robot. It's legs would be able to move the weight it has faster then say treads, wheels would be even faster but nothing can compare to the mobility of legs since it can walk up a pile of rocks where as wheels and treads couldn't.

 

actually, treads are better at going through rocks and sand than legs.

In order for a robot to walk on 2 legs, it would need a way to move the center of gravity when moving, else it would fall over when it lifts one leg up; a counter balance. Thats basically why the arms naturally swing when walking, they are moving the body's center of gravity so it moves toward the leg that's still on the ground, that is why walking feels a bit wierd when you forcably hold your arms to your side and can find it a little harder to walk straight.

It would be better to have a machine with 4 legs, where a back leg of one side moves at the same time as the front leg of the other side, as it would be much more balanced and easier to upgrade to move faster.

 

Legs would probably have the advantage of mobility, yes. However, why do you think that legs would definitely be faster than treads? There are a number of large walking robots that exist today and they are all quite slow. Tanks are quite fast.

HOWEVER we have to take into consideration that this is Starcraft and way in the future and thus technology would be at an entirely different level. Therefore it is possible that mechanical legs would have developed to the point where they would be much faster. At the same time, so might have treads and wheels.

When it comes down to it being future Sci-Fi, anything is possible, so all of these creations in Starcraft aren't practical today but could be. At the same time, this could also apply to the Banelings movement.

Going back to speed. Several people have stated that a rolling motion is entirely unpractical with absolutely no evidence to back that idea up. I'm not saying it's not true, just that if you think that mechanical legs can be faster than treads when that isn't the case YET, you can't really assume that a rolling motion would be entirely impractical as well.

But that's just my two cents. In all honesty I dont think it would be a bad thing if they walked/crittered at all, but it would be just another zerg then. Originality is important in a game, and Starcraft has never had a huge focus on realism; its scifi!