Battle Report 2 Follow-Up Questions!

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In the wake of the second Battle Report, a number of interesting questions have appeared on Battle.net that Karune and Cydra have taken to answering to settle some issues. In them we learn about the Hydralisk's melee attack, the Planetary Fortress, and StarCraft 2's easiest race to play. Here's a collection of some of the better ones seen this week:
Check it out in BR2, go to the time of 20:22, and WATCH THE HYDRALISK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RAMP!!

Correct. It really is the melee attack animation. But the damage is the same with the range attack.



What damage and extras (like extra vs Armored) does the Hydra deal: 1. melee, 2. ranged vs ground, and 3. ranged vs air?



It does not change the damage at all. It has the same attack rate and does exactly the same damage as the regular hydralisk attack. It is just visual.



At about 16:20 in BR2 I noticed the banshees began shooting at the burrowed Zerg forces that they couldn't shoot at before. I didn't notice a comstat scan by the Terran player. Was it the auto-turret or the nighthawk (I noticed there is an eye icon on the second row of their abilities) that revealed the cloaked units? Was there just a comstat scan I didn't see? Also, can the Xel'Naga watch tower be under control of summoned units like infested Terran or auto-turrets?


Nighthawk has the detecting ability. Xel'Naga Watch Tower only can be activated by the ground units. Infested Marine can activate the Xel'Naga Watch Tower but Auto-Turret can't.



Many of us are worried that the Planetary Fortress will not be used in ladder and pro games, due to the extremely high benefits of building an Orbital Command. We think that if we add a few features to the PF we can make it much more viable and on par with the OC. Some of our ideas include:

• increasing the number of SCVs it can hold from 5 to 10 or even 15
• allowing the cannons to shoot at air as well as ground
• adding a fog of war detection range about one thrid of that of the Sensor Tower (but hiding it from the enemy)
• allowing the call-down of drop-pods loaded with 6 marines for a mineral and energy cost

Any comments and/or points of discussion from posters and developers would be appreciated.

Currently in testing, the PF (Planetary Fortress) is already quite beefy - It's ground attack has been buffed to 40 damage and has a 6 range. When upgrading to a PF, your command center also gets +2 building armor, making this building a very formidable obstacle, especially with 20 SCVs repairing at the same time. There have been many games I've seen the PF hold off raiding forces and sometimes even attacking forces by itself and SCVs. While I wouldn't think it'd be wise to convert your first Command Center to a PF, converting strategic expansions could be helpful, such as those at high yields or may be farther away from the rest of your bases.

On a side note cause I'm sure somebody is wondering this as well - the PF upgrade costs 150 minerals and 150 gas whereas the Orbital Command upgrade costs just 150 minerals. The PF prerequisite building is the Engineering Bay and the Orbital Command prerequisite building is the Barracks.

EDIT: The PF does splash damage as well.



Does the fortress have an area-of-attack damage, or does it attack a single target at a time?



Splash damage, like a Siege Tank



Does the splash damage friendly units, Karune...?

Yup, they make for somThe Planetary Fortress' splash damage will not hurt friendly units but the splash damage of a Siege Tank still will.


Karune, if you were trying to be really nasty and bottle up your opponent would you put a planetary fortress right outside their base entrance?

Yup, they make for some pretty humorous games, though keep in mind each one of these are a 550 minerals and 150 gas investment. It takes quite a bit of time to build + upgrade, but if you could pull it off early game (assuming your opponent does not scout) it will surely keep them bottled up until tier 2 or 3 where more mobility comes online. To mount an attack on a Planetary Fortress takes quite a good number of units. Usually it would be better to bypass it if you can. This is of course more of a gimmick than a strategy that will have high success repetitively



We know that in Battle Report 2, Banelings no longer roll. What I'm wondering is that do they have the rolling animation once they get the speed upgrade?


Yes. In the current build, Banelings are no longer roll but once they get the movement speed upgrade, they have the rolling animation.


What is the easiest race to play, and what race is planned to be the easiest? I know they are probably all "equally easy" but what do you recommend for beginners?



Terran is the most "understandable" since many of the units look and behave like more real-world weapons. Protoss are the easiest to play since they have generally less micro with their units (no siege tanks) and their units are pretty tough so they are more forgiving of mistakes. The Zerg are the hardest. Their economy is difficult to manage, many of their units are powerful but unforgiving if you make a mistake with them. At least that's the way it feels to me.=)



Source: Battle.net
Discuss this article in the Forum!

 

Some interesting posts there, but nothing we couldn't have figured out ourselves, really. :/

However, I never thought he would say that the Zerg would be hardest to play. I think they are a lot more easy to understand then in Brood Wars. They have more specialized units now, like the Corruptor, Baneling and the Roach. I would say Protoss is the hardest race to play at the moment. :s

 

Excellent summary of recent b.net activity! Thanks Joneagle_X

 

awesomeness!!! thanks for putting it all together brew.

 

thanks for puttin umh all togethor! :yes:

maybe i should start doing that hmm.....

 

Very noice... I loved that melee hydralisk animation.. SOOOOOOOOOO cool... I have fallen in love!

 

Didn't notice the hydra had a melee animation, I'm going to have to watch the game against to see that.

Wasn't expecting the zerg to be hardest to play, looks like im going to have to try harder if I want to get good with them.

 

I kinda found the zerg race to be the second difficult while the terrans were the most difficult all the micro have to be used (siege tanks etc) but i didn't particularly know that the zerg would be the most difficult here.

I'm gonna check the zerg animation, i never noticed it.

 

oyg... I need this game now...

y o y is is taking so darn long!
-crys-

Wait, do zerg still have mutas?

 

They certainly do, what would it be like without mutas?

 

Hell

Mutas are deadly..

 

Haha! StarCraft without Mutalisks ... that's like ... StarCraft without StarCraft

 

Mutas are fine but I'll be pissed if pro ZvZ matches in Starcraft II boil down to muta micro as often as they do in Starcraft 1.

 

That's not really a problem with StarCraft 2. The problem is that it might boil down to Roach micro.

 

i just wanna see what i can do with the PF to harass people. lol build a CC fly it into foes base. set er down click PF and boom could be blowing up 1/3 his base in seconds.

 

Yeah ... No .. that definitely wouldn't work like that.

That's like saying you can drop a tank into an enemy's base, click research Siege tank, and then start sieging them in seconds.

 

lol i don't think that would be possible at all, since you couldnt drop on enemy units, but if you somehow do it, enjoy blowing stuff up!

anyways nice report

 

It will be interesting though to see how Planetary Fortresses could potentially play a role in a contain. Sure it would be pretty expensive and you'd have to guard it while it upgrades since a planetary fortress cannot fly, but a couple of planetary fortresses and a few turrets would provide a strong static defense without costing supply.

The obvious downside though is you're investing 550 minerals, 150 gas, and a significant amount of build time into a single structure that is vulnerable to both air and siege range attacks.

 

Wow these are some great questions. Thanks for putting them all together
I love that the Banelings roll after being upgraded. Very clever.
I like how tough the planetary fortress is. It should be hard to take down.
Battle Report 3 can't come soon enough! =P

 

Planetary Fortress

Hmm... I'm not up for a stronger PF, I feel it may already be OP... I mean it's not OP in a sense that it cannot be destroyed (although it would be considerably hard doing so since it can be repaired by a whole squadron of SCV's quick , or for at least a while 'till reinforcements come), but OP in a sense that I can't see defensive structures in other races (especially the protoss) that can compete in the early game (the zerg queen is kinda easy to access in early game as well).