Combine the Reaper and the Marauder

well i know the title explains it all and this may of been said already but anyway

why have two seperate units when they could be combined to make a single unit that fills the roles of both and makes a all round better unit
what im saying is give the marauder a jetpack and some D-8 charges and keep his current abilities (anti armor grenades and slowing attack) and you have a unit well suited for base raids as well as his anti armor bonus and slowing attack that also allows the unit to be used in frontline battles so the unit is not restricted to the one and only role

so basically have the same old marauder (with maybe an art redesign) plus a jetpack and maybe keep the D-8s if they fit with balance

 

When I first read the title 'Combine the Reaper and th...' on the sidebar, I immediately thought "Jeez, this idea is really going to suck". You sure proved me wrong. I was expecting something like the Reaper and Jackal or the Reaper and Banshee or something equally stupid and the Marauder completely slipped my mind. Upon reading it, it had to be the most logical pair of units to combine.
Marauders are weak, their main purpose being their ability to halt enemy troops. It's true that they have a bonus against Armoured units, but it's an extremely small one, so doesn't particularly alter their main role. They're limited to Anti-Ground and are mainly a utility unit. They pretty much have got to be used with Marines as their slowing ability benefits them greatly and the Marauders can't do much damage on their own.
Reapers are also weak, their main purpose being raiding. To accompany their role they've been given D8 Charges and Jet Packs, and apart from that, they don't have much else going in their favour. They're also limited to Anti-Ground and are also a utility unit. There have been reports of them not being used too much due to a limited role and speed.
Combine the two and you get a fairly balanced unit. It'd still be pure Ground-to-Ground but it would be useful for both supporting your Marines and raiding on their own. It would have to be done extremely delicately, as it would be easy to mess up, but I think this could definitely be pulled off if Blizzard wanted to. There would still be the issue of their speed, but with cliff jumping, slowing down enemy troops and using their D8 Charges, they'd be able to fend for themselves a lot easier.
Just quickly about the model or design. It'd be a tricky one. It would have to retain the bulkiness of grenade-launching support unit, but have the minimally-equipped, light-weight feel of the cliff jumping, base raider.
Lastly, what would you name it? Marauder? Reaper? Or something new? Either pre-existing name would fit, personally I'd probably perform Marauder, but seeing as it's a fifty-fifty split, naming it one name would deny it the other.
Again, it'd have to be pulled off extremely carefully, and I wouldn't be able to say I'm 100% behind it unless I saw the end product, but it's a very plausible concept.

 

If you combine these two units you end up with a unit that can move very fast into and out of battles as well as slow other units down with it's attack. With good micro that could make it too overpowered. You can balance anything but it would have to have a major weakness to make it workable.

There are now quite a few infantry units filling different niches: Marine, Reaper, Marauder and Viking in ground mode. Do we really need them all? I think the Marauder's concussion effect is only there as a counter to the Zerg and I'd like to see if given to the Jackal and the Marauder axed.

 

The bulkiness of the Marauder is the flaw in the idea. Blizzard keeps realism a major factor (luckily) and this combined unit just wouldn't pass the test. You need bulkiness for grenade launchers and a light and preferrably slim frame for short air jumps.

I think it's obvious that using the IK system does not make an otherwise totally regular unit fill a distinct role and so the Reaper has to be changed if not merged... just not with the Marauder. I'd rather give it the axe as a reward for a very poor concept and reintroduce the Firebat with D8 charges. Then cut the Reaper and give Marines jump packs as a tier 3 upgrade and voilá - we solved all the major features with two units instead of three, SC style.

 

The Marauder's ability isn't actually a slowing effect, it's a temporary halting one. It definitely doesn't halt them for long enough to flee back a bit, turn around and halt them again, so you wouldn't be able to constantly kite all biological units. Also, there are several ways to avoid this exploitation, if it does exist, like slowing down the Marauder/Reaper's weapon speed, meaning it's not able to slow them enough to stay out of combat, or making it take a bit to reach maximum speed, like the Mutalisks in StarCraft1, so that they won't be able to flee far enough because they won't instantly be travelling at top speed.
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At the moment the Terran infantry are comprised of the Marine, Reaper, Maruader and Ghost. Cutting one pretty much has the same effect as merging two, it just gets rid of one infantry choice, and is a better alternative than giving the abilities to later units were they won't be as effective or fit as snugly.
The Marine is a standard, versatile unit, the Reaper is a raider, the Marauder is for support and the Ghost is for special operations. They don't really overlap so they pretty much are all needed, except for the fact that the Marauder and Reaper have very limited roles. Combining them is a surprisingly plausible idea.

It may be a problem, but it can be fairly easily overcome. It's not as though Reapers were constantly flying about, they had it running to boost their speed and just used a short burst to jump up cliffs. Assuming it's not remodelled, it can still be done with the Marauder, just that it would require a more forceful burst to get up the cliff face where the Reaper just had a weak burst.

Which unit are you wanting to axe to get the Firebat with D8 Charges? If it's the Reaper then you're basically just merging it with the Firebat whilst getting rid of an Terran cliff jumper, and if it's the Marauder then you're overlapping the Firebat with the still existing Reaper and removing Terran's main support unit, which is needed to keep your Marines alive for as long as possible. If you're replacing both with the Firebat then you've basically done what blindoutlaw suggested without the Jet Pack.
No offence, but giving Marines a Jet Pack upgrade is an awful idea. Marines are the standard Terran fighter and are always created in numbers. Giving them Jet Packs instantly allows for Terran to run the majority of their troops around the map, making it impossible for ground support units to support them, making the support units less useful as well. This isn't to mention that they'd have to be made more expensive and weaker to compensate for their sudden boost in versatility, nor taking into account that it's a, if not the, classic Terran unit, so giving each and every one of them Jet Packs would be like giving Zealots a way to fly.

 

Reapers never ran at all, they are air born all the time. When I first saw Reapers I thought they ran also but they don't.
Also to be honest, I'd rather have the Marauder cut and allow the Reaper to have some changes but still retain its fundamental jump pack ability.
Although I'm not very fond of giving Marines a late game jump pack upgrade as it would probably be not that useful since Colossus would rip thru groups of Marines and so on. It also removes a nice role which fitted the Terrans being cliff jumping which allows many tactics which are pretty obvious.
Now when making these changes you have to be very careful you don't overlap with the Marine which cannot be changed since its just your standard expendable infantry unit.
Like I said before I'd rather keep the Reaper because the Marauder is just a beefed up Marine which slightly slows down targets, Terran already have the Medic to boost their survival rate so why make another which is again limited to working with Marines.
The Reaper is something I can imagine being used along with Vikings as they are both very mobile and could support each other pretty well.

 

At least when they're about to cliff jump, landing from a cliff jump, when stationary and when firing, they're in contact with the ground, but if Reapers do fly while moving, it'd be easy to make the changes so they run instead.
The Marauder isn't just a beefed up Marine, it's a beefy support unit for the Marine. It's expensive, got longer range and more health, but a weaker and slower attack. It's designed to support Marines, not to be like a more powerful one or anything. They do already have Medics for an increased survival rate, but that's not enough to compensate for the fact that they have no damage-absorbing melee units, unlike the Protoss and Zerg. Just giving them Medics would be like just giving Protoss or Zerg Zealots or Zerglings. It's just not enough. There's too much to be filled in the role of survivability, so the Medic isn't able to do it alone.
I can't really imagine Reapers being used with Vikings at the moment. Vikings are good at taking out all Air targets and infantry, so Reapers wouldn't really be able to add to that. Their D8 Charges can take out buildings, but it's basically a one use thing (per raid, not per game), so it'd be easier and quicker just to let them go at it themselves.

 

Axe both the Marauder and the Reaper. Half a Reaper adds to the marine in the form of the jump pack upgrade while the other half is given to the reintroduced Firebat in the form of D8 charges. The reason I'd like this is because Terran doesn't have any unit that can be considered melee (besides the SCV...), which is against the unwritten rules of RTS games. Plus flame throwers are much cooler than grenade launchers but that might just be my opinion.

What's being countered got to do with the ability to cross cliffs? That's like saying Overlords shouldn't fly because they get owned by any flying unit.

 

Against the unwritten rules of RTS games? StarCraft1 was a ground-breaking, ultra-successful RTS that we all have and enjoy, and in it Terran didn't have any melee units, apart from the SCV, so I don't see why you'd want a melee Firebat in StarCraft2. There's no unwritten rules saying that a team can't be comprised of all ranged units and it makes the Terran more unique and have a different play-style to the other teams. If there's any unwritten rule to be applied here, it's that Terran don't get melee units.

 

I meant the fundemental things in an RTS game, like the concept of a building, a unit, range, melee, ground- and air units, things like that. Although on second thought the lack of a melee ranged unit could add to the diversity among the races. However, I do think that without a melee unit, Terran will totally get owned by dark swarm unless there are certain mechanics that contradict lore (like the shock cannon only damaging multiple units under swarm).

Psionicz, sorry if I sounded harsh, I didn't mean to. What I meant was that the Marine could still have jump packs even if it gets crushed by Colossi because giving them was never intended to make them stronger against the Colossus.

 

I would prefer to cut the Reaper and the Jackal, and bring back a unit like the vulture, that can harass and still be usefull (just vulture as an example!!!). But there are some really good ideas in the topic I must say!
I think it will after all be very hard to fix the Terran right now, because when you change something here and there, other problems pup op. Thats at least what happend since June!

 

Itza you really need to back up your statements cuz I have not heard anywhere that the Marauder has longer range than a Marine. Its attack is also the same damage as a Marine with a +4 armor damage bonus.
Also on the Dark Swarm thing, how about giving the Reaper a fast firing, low damage electric gun which jumps from target to target (possibly slowing down infantry units due to electricity messing with their nervous system), damage output is decided by the jump range although the inital damage always stays the same. It gives a similar splash damage to the Firebat and allows them to counter Dark swarm with relativly cheap units. And for damaging buildings they have the D8 Charges.

6 4 1 = Damage.
R ---M--M---M

 

Electric guns don't belong in the Terran arsenal in my opinion.

The reason I'm clinging to the Firebat is that it has a very nice name and the flamethrower is devastating and "primitive" at the same time, and these attributes fit the Terran very well. It also utilizes fire in a unique way and is not just another projectile firearm.

 

Jackals are the new Firebats with range, I'm content with that.
Why don't electric guns belong in the Terran arsenal. They are humans and we use electricity every hour of our lifes, so why can't they utilize it for combat as we already do?

 

I would think it'd look too much like chain lightning, and having WCIII stuff in SC2 is generally not accepted. But hey, that's just my opinion right now, I might even get to like it if I saw it in action.

 

Chain lighting isn't trademarked as warcraft. many other games do this, its even a natural effect. But I got the idea when I remember the Dark Trooper from starwars battlefront. The physic system for that unit works in a way which would work with the change I'd like for the Reaper. Omy I just Remembered they have jump packs too...
Lol I just noticed the Reaper works just like Jango Fett in the game, he even has bombs like the D8's.
I will record the Dark Trooper in action and I'm sure you'll love it.

 

I think combining reapers and maurauders is great idea.
Make the reaper able to transform into maurauder.(and vice versa)
Just turn their jetpacks into grenade launcher or something...

 

its about time the terran gets some electric attacks or something similar and i say the reaper or marauder should get it. im sick and tired about the terran being nostalgic like most want them to be...dual pistols and granade launchers? thats just NOT hardcore scifi. xp

 

hmm.. how about mini-EMP grenades for the maurauders?
Extra dmg for protoss shields/mana. That would make the maurauders effective against spellcasters.

 

Ghosts pretty much deal with spell casters and their ability to 'sense' them in the fog of war.