Fourth Race Theory

???

 

Pretty sure they did rule out a 4th race, cant remember what it was on... possibly that interview thats in another thread somewhere.

 

honestly i don't think there will be a fourth and i highly doubt it but i really want them to swoop in and add one or do the WOW thing and make an expansion with new races


INFESTED PROTOSS FTW

 

Your avatar is schizofrenic, shes talking to herself :upset:

 

Personally I'd like to have hybrids and/or Xel Naga as playable characters or NPCs but be left out of the main game. One of the main things I'm anticipating about SC2 is the map editing programs and potentials (I have no knowledge of WarIII's map editors but from what I've seen they're much less restricted in what they can do). From this I hypothesise that new maps made by players in SC2 will exceed the fun factor of those currently in SC. Having Hybrids and/or Xel Naga will add a lot more possibilities to maps in the future. Then again that will possibly delay Blizzards release of SC2

 

one thing dude i agree with you i loved the SC map editor you could make the coolest maps on that (and i as well have not used the map editor for WarCraft 3) but it better be amazing im really looking forward to it but i really hope they at least have more then the 3 races in the game and if it is only the three races then have different factions of then like on (sorry for the reference) halo 2 with the two sides of the covenant that would be sweet

 

Personally I'd like to see hybrids more as they just sound like they'd own

 

i wanna see them to, theres that picture of one of them in a cell, or it could be just a captive zerg.

 

The one thats shown twice in the artwork trailer?

 

yes yes, but waht is it, i saw a thread that zooms in and says they can see a face, but i dunno

 

I saw that, but this art work is paint, so if you zoom in, its a glope of black. Blizzard art work wouldent make it so if you zoom in on a drawing, it would be so detailed that you could see a face.

 

run on sentence? sorry for the grammar Nazisms, had English final this morning, kinda wiped.

anyway, its not known if the hybrids are sentient yet(unless its mentioned in the books) and therefore could still be underdeveloped animals. Even with psychic abilities, it isn't necessarily a thinking being, making it a zerg, but with no motives for expanding. It would want nothing more than to eat, sleep, and mate.

 

well yeah, thats waht happens, its really hard to make out but the say its a face, and all it is is some pixels (like the face on mars, if seen from a different light or higher resolution its no longer a face)

i dunno where i saw this though, some other forum somewhere

 

they better have more than the 3 races even if you cant play them yet and we have to wait for an expansion or something like that i want there to be more than 3

 

NO PLAYABLE 4th race

 

My personal preference would be the Xel'Naga, but whatever Blizzard decides to do (or doesn't decide to do) is most likely fine with me.

 

Well, aside from Zerry mentioning the Xel's aboard the Hyperion, this oughta sway your minds regarding them AND Duran:
http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/index.php?topic=1894.0

Sure, it's pure speculation, but still, Duran is a very likely candidate for the Xel's.

 

i voted for I WANT HYBRID and there will be no fourth race but really i like to have Hybrid to come and the Xel'Naga will be revealed probably in SC3 ^_^

 

My biggest hope for this starcraft, is a new playable race, i love protoss, zerg and terran, but after 10 years, well really i´ve been playing for 7, i need a new race, i voted for the xel-naga, it´s the race that id love to use, but id like that there were 5 races hybrids included, so they could balance 5 and not 4, they had 10 years! dont tell me its impossible to balance, of curse if you tell me they just started working yesterday thats the case, but i know they have a very big surprise for us, come on!!!!! give me some xel-naga super ships!.

 

I voted for Xel'Naga, because the hybrids would just be waking up. How many units could they possibly have? Basically just the hybrids themselves. I think the Xel'Naga are a more established race and that the hybrids could be part of their army. I think it would be great if they did introduce the Xel'Naga as a playable race, but I'm not sure that they would.

I actually posted this is a previous thread but I think that it works well here. It's my rational and personal idea for a Xel'Naga army as a playable race:


"It's been flying around that the Xel'Naga are going to be reintroduced into SC2, namely from the BroodWar Dark Origin Mission (which was awesome) and from what people have said about Zertul and Raynor from Blizzcon. I think reintroducing them is awesome, however, it has also been suggested that they would be a NPC race or some sort of super race. I think this is a terrible idea. Here's why:


1. WC3 sucked. Why? I blame the burning legion. Suddenly there was this "other" force from outside the player controlled realm of the game which was the ultimate evil that all the races needed to team up against. This is what would basically have to happen against an all powerful Xel'Naga. Interesting? Slightly.

What has always captivated me about the starcraft universe is that it has such an amazing story line with deep and reverberating characters. Why is this? It's a drama. It's like a really good Telenovela... on steroids (stimpacks?) and in the future. What makes drama good? High stakes. EVERY faction is trying to outmaneuver ever other faction to gain an advantage. If they don't get that advantage, they'll probably die. Blizzard has no problem killing off a major character to show how lethal making a mistake on this scale is. Fenix, Tassadar, Stukov? All major characters, all killed off. It made the game much better rather than worse.

Imagine an all powerful Xel'Naga force which makes all the players join forces and be friends! (yippie!) It would ruin the best dynamics in the game.

Furthermore, the intensity of this all out, no holds barred, race for survival both alienates us to and endears us to the characters. It makes them believable. Tassadar's sacrifice, Kerrigan killing old friends to take control or prevent her own death. The characters do wonderful, horrible, or extraordinary things for survival. They even reflect on what they've done. Tassadar reconsidered following the Conclave's orders to destroy infested terran worlds. Kerrigan said, "For the first time since my transformation, I grow weary of the slaughter". These characters have depth. If the Xel'Naga don't have to do the nitty gritty work, if the player doesn't see and experience them suffering in some way, they won't indentify with them and the overall game will suffer. Kerrigan is the "Queen B*tch of the Universe". Yeah, because she earned it. If the Xel'Naga want to take the title from her, I want to see them earn in with the same blood sweat and tears that she did. I want to see them be worthy of it.

2. The Xel'Naga could logically be a balanced race. According to the starcraft book, the Xel'Naga were all but wiped out by the Zerg (I believe it says the vast majority were destroyed). If suddenly, there incredibly powerful, or if Blizzard back tracks on that, I will be outraged. It's part of the mythos of the game and I think it's stupid to go back and say "No, actually, the Xel'Naga were scheming from the start and they wanted the Zerg to believe they have wiped them out." Lame. Stupid. Stop. That doesn't even make sense. What would make sense? The Xel'Naga were actually all but obliterated and the surviving members hid in deep space licking their wounds. All powerful? Hardly. The (at that point primitive) Zerg kicks their butts. Even the Protoss (who were practically in a relative stone age compared to now) managed to kill hundreds of them before they left Auir.

A Koprulu superpower? I think not. That would (again) be totally lame.

But how, you may ask, could they be introduced to the game? Easy. We actually know, or can infer, quite a bit about them. Let me explain.

They are an interstellar nomadic species. It says so in the book. They are also very interested in Psionics and created the Khaydarin Crystals, so they're probably psionic as well. And they altered both the Protoss and the Zerg as well as other unnamed races throughout the galaxy.

Ok, so we have a nomadic biologically based, very intelligent, probably psionically active race, which has an extreme knowledge of physics and biology. Oh and they're also almost extinct. And they're going to be in StarCraft 2.

3. If they can be playable and balanced and it makes sense for us to see them. This is how I would propose that they act like. Please disagree if you want. This is where I get a little creative with everything.

4th New Distinct (and Balanced Smiley ) race, The Xel'Naga.
First difference: tech tree.

Terran can build everywhere, Protoss are limited to the psi field, Zerg are limited to the Creep. I propose a different base set up for the Xel'Naga.

1st: Their base is one of their nomadic ships, called Worldships in the starcraft book. These function as their bases. They're mobile (but slow as hell). And new "structures" are actually build as individually targetable additions to the worldship. It has enough slots to build one of every type of structure in the tech tree, but only one. To build additional copies of structures or to expand the worldship must "split the core" and form a second worldship (kind of like mitotic division) and the second worldship starts from scratch. While splitting the core, all research and production in the worldship (i.e. the base) will stop. Defensive structures are also in the tech tree, but remember only one of each unless you give up some other building on that particular worldship.

2. Mining is completely different. Instead of having a main, stationary base, the worldship can move.`Therefore, I would propose that the Xel'Naga have satellite mining structures which "warp" the resources back to the worldship. These of course would be incredibly weak (low HP and no possible defensive structures unless the worldship was actually floating above it. All you have to defend it is a possible worldship and units. Allows for quick but vulnerable expansions. Also I would imagine Xel'Naga units being really expensive, but really powerful.

3. Wormholes. Instead of "Warping in" units like the Protoss, the Xel'Naga could have a series of connected wormholes, which would allow for rapid deployment of forces anywhere across the map. Kinda like a Nydus Canal, only I foresee one major difference, making it more balanced. Namely: anyone can use those wormholes, friend or foe. The Xel'Naga have the ablilty to shut down a wormhole, but it takes 2-5 seconds and possibly strands some Xel'Naga units away from the main forces and allows them to be slaughtered. OR if the player isn't paying attention/ doesn't act in time, a major enemy offensive could slip through the worm hole and right into your undefended main base (worldship). Not pleasant and it will keep both of the player on their toes. Unprecedented mobility? Yes, but with a huge potential cost.

4. Tier Structure. Very different. I imagine the Xel'Naga with 2 major types of units. 1st. Cheap, expendable failed experiments. They screwed up the Protoss and the Zerg, and there are mentions of other failed experiments, why not let them join the fray? These units would be cheap and massible (a zergish trait) but pretty easy to kill. Other option would be that the player using the Xel'Naga would be able to chose from a list of attributes and essentially create new units from scratch with variable costs depending on the hp/damage caused. An other choice would be that basic units could be changed while in the game. Or leveled up different tech trees. Kinda like the hydralisk/lurker or mutalisk/guardian/devourer only with much more options. Imagine a zergling that gets the ability to attack air. That sort of thing. This shows their mastery of biology. I think these should be mostly ground based

2nd tier: the Xel'Naga themselves. Very few left, but incredibly powerful. Few if any "medium" units. This is where I'd like to see a really powerful "mothership" like unit. Xel'Naga have wormholes, why not black holes? These units are really powerful, but incredibly expensive and take a long time to make (and if you're making something, you can't created a new base per the splitting the core rule). I think these units should be mostly air based.

Together, they make a potent combination (much like the zerg-protoss hybrid itself). But they require significant finesse to use well. A swarm of biologically crazy units with powerful air units pummeling obstacles to the ground unit flood; it seems unstoppable Problem? Catch them off balance and they can be wiped in short order and then just steal their wormhole and destory the base. Smiley

And as for the hybrids themselves. This would be my suggestion. Powerful? Yes. But how many of them could there really if they were just created. 1,000? 10,000? For the entire sector? Drops in the pond. There are MILLIONS of Zerglings. I would have them be almost the generals of the Xel'Naga ground forces. They would be incredibly expensive, and the Xel'Naga would hate losing any one of them (their perfect children remember?). They would be really powerful, like archons only organic, but with a lot of psionic powers. That shows their protoss self. Their zerg half? I was thinking an ability like "global blink" where their purity of essence let's them reach out to each other and one can home in on another and blink to wherever they are on the map. It would have a long cool down rate but say there's an army in trouble. There's one hybrid as general and it's doing some pretty bad-@$$ damage. Suddenly there are two. Better kill them both quick because in a moment there will be four. Then eight. Then you die. That'd just be pretty awesome.


So...... let me know what you think please Smiley And if you're an undercover blizzard employee, please put this in the game it would be so much better than just some crazy other force like the burning legion. Which P.S. sucked. Don't do that to starcraft 2. It has so much potential. And don't bring Tassadar or Fenix back. Yes they were awesome, but if you pull any more of that Medvih crap I'm not gonna buy another game from you. <---sike I totally would. I love you guys."