Customized play styles: uber universal upgrades

In a post in the new Zerg mechanics thread, an idea was mentioned for Zerg, but I thought it might be better to have apply it to all races to make the game more interesting. The original post that I got this idea off of is here posted by Heretic666)GC(.

The idea is for each race to have about three uber upgrades that apply universally to all your units, but you can only choose just one in any given game. This would allow every individual player to have a even more personalized play style, and more customization/personalization can only be a good thing. I really think it would add a lot of flavor to SC multiplayer.

The ideas mentioned for Zerg were:

Reinforced Carapace - All zerg units gain +1 armor and 5-15 Health
Tunnelers - All zerg ground units gain burrow and can move while burrowed
Enhanced Senses - All zerg units have a longer sight range and attack range (if they have ranged attacks)
Decay Absorption - Any unit that dies on the creep slowly refunds resources to the Hive (total = 1/4 or the units max Health in Minerals and Gas)

I think Reinforced Carapace and Tunneling might be the better ones for Zerg out of the original ones by Heretic666)GC(. I think the uber upgrades should compliment each race, so increase attack range would be better for Terran, as Terran has the most ranged units. Zerg really doesn't have enough ranged units to take advantage of it.

My personal suggestion for Zerg would be:

Advanced Muscular Augment - All Zerg units gain increased movement speed
Reinforced Carapace - All Zerg units gain +1 armor and 5~15 Health
Tunneling - All Zerg ground units gain burrow and can move while burrowed

Here are some more ideas for the uber upgrade that could also be for the other races, I will put the suggested race in parentheses. Not all of these might be feasible, just throwing out ideas:

Increased attack power(Terran), slightly increased attack rate(Protoss), full time regeneration(Terran/Protoss-HP), faster regeneration(Zerg), faster energy regeneration(Protoss), 5% decreased unit resource cost(Protoss/Terran), slightly decreased unit build time(Protoss), slightly reduced spell cost(Protoss), +1 supply provided per overlord and +25 to max supply cap(Zerg), 1~2 damage returned to melee attacker per attack(Terran), units explode upon death dealing small damage to enemies in a very small(melee) AoE(any race), all units take up much less room in transports, transports can carry many more than before(Protoss), able to build Mothership(Protoss, not sure about this one).

These are some ideas. I think the uber upgrades should be available late tier 2 or as soon as you hit tier 3(hive/starport/stargate) at the latest. But I think as long as it fits a race, some of them can be the same for more than one race. For instance, Terran can benefit greatly from a universal increase in movement speed as well.

Thoughts?

 

How about adding increase nuke AoE and +1~2 marines per droppod(Terran).

 

its so annoying with too many upgrades (i really really hate the age of empires games)

and if not the zerg moves really really slow while tunneling it would be sooo overpowered

 

what feels starcraftish? that's such a vague argument it really doesn't amount to anything. plus this is sc2 not sc.

great idea, i have a few suggestion for the terrans

conscription - all terran infantry cost 50% less. this might seem too much but considering that uber upgrades only become available late in the game, when terran infantry become much less useful, it is reasonably fair and will make infantry a more viable option for the terrans late game

repairing nanobots - arms all terran ships and vehicle (maybe excluding battlecruiser) with a pack of these repairing nanobots which when activated will repair up to 50% of the unit's maximum hp within 15 seconds. can only be used once, auto-activate when hp becomes red, can also be activated manually.

over charge - allow all terran units with energy bar to gain energy at cost of hp, unit has to stay in place and "channel" in order to gain energy. each hp converts to 2 energy, the rate of conversion is 20 energy per second. units with red hp bar can't over charge. can't be repaired while charging

 

Your idea on the repair nanobots are good but the ability to repair 75% within 15 seconds is way unbalanced. It would be better if it gradually repairs the vehicle its on.

 

15 seconds is a long time. also i've changed it to 50% meaning it would only repair 5 hp per second on a unit with 150hp

 

okay here's my ideas from the other thread for terrans

Salvage (you already know what it is)
Improved Manufacturing - Decreased building time on factory and starport units
Laser Targeting - Increases all ranged Terran attacks (not scv doh) slightly


i think a 50% less cost on infantry would be way over powred as you could build alot of barracks and double produce marines, you would overwhelm even zerg

and channel doesn't feel terranish, it would fit protoss alot better

and nanobots have to be made weaker, around 20% for a small mineral fee would be better

 

great ideas, keep them coming, you're right about the starcraftish feel
though i still think it needs to keep the starcraftoid feel

 

ummm whats the difference between starcraftish and starcraftoid then ???

 

Spelling?

Or maybe starcraftish is "kinda like starcraft" and starcraftoid is "very much like starcraft."

 

or may by starcraftish is how it fits the starcraft universe and starcraftoid is how it fit's for gameplay  :

and btw i got 200 posts now yay

 

I find that very much unlikely. LOL.

 

Consription and Nanobots(reminds me of Red Dwarf!) seem like great ideas, but Overcharge seem to be more of a Protoss or Zerg mechanic to me.

I feel that if there are upgrades where you can only choose one it should be more like a group like this:
Conscription - Decreases build time of Infantry
Improved Manufacturing: Decreases build time of Vehicles
Aeronautical Engineering: Decreases build time of Ships

For Zerg it might be something like:
Increases Damage of all melee units
OR
Increases Damage from ranged units
OR
Increases damage/effects from abilities

Protoss could be:
Faster melee units
OR
Longer range for ranged units
OR
Faster/longer ranged air units(certain air units become faster, others get more range)

 

I don't think its necessary with 2 build time decreasers.

and your other upgrades just seem to increase range or damage, we want more originality like for example zerg can upgrade cannibalize so their small/medium units get an ability who works the same as in wc3

 

starcraftish= is like starcraft, like a human with 3 eyes is still a human
stracraftoid= bears some recemblences to starcraft, like something with 2 arms 2 legs and a head is humanoid

 

Then that makes completely no sense at all

 

But the Terran can only chose one of those upgrades each game. So they either get faster produced infantry, vehicles or ships. The Zerg get either stronger melee, ranged or spellcasters. The Protoss get either more adept melee, ranged or air units. This wasn't meant to be an original idea, it was supposed to be the way of specializing the army. Having a similar upgrade for each unit type is the best way to do this both gameplay-wise and balancing-wise.

 

i don't think overloading is protoss, protoss build to be superior, they are the most advanced known race in the galaxy. they do not use gimmicks such as overloading engines for temporary power at the cost of structural damage. the zergs obviously can't overload since it's a mechanical concept.

in fact i think it suits the terrans perfectly. when the terrans are faced with a problem, they might try such temporary solutions such as over charging.

 

see four posts up for new explanation

 

The Protoss pretty much already have an ability similar to Overcharge with their Phoenixes. They over load their weapons/engine to wreak havoc for a few moments but they are then immobilized for the next few seconds.