Fourth Race Theory

I agree too. There will be a fourth race in the game but I mean no fourth PLAYABLE race in the solo campaign and in multi-player. Of course we'll see the Xel'Naga and the Hybrids (so there are 5 races ! And if the Xel'Naga = hybrids, so just four races in total). But they will just be special units that we will control if they are friends, or not if they are enemies. As we did for the Dark Templar in the last mission of SC1. It depends on Blizzard's scenario. Surely there will be other Xel'Naga structures, like the Xel'Naga temple of the last mission of the BW Protoss campaign.

We'll have to wait for the expansion set again. As Blizzard released easily a lot of WC3 games, continuations, they will make the same with SC2. I suppose. Where is the charm ? It will be like for the TV-series : once they have a success, it is economically impossible to decide to stop the scenario, and we approach ridiculous, improbable and senseless scenario.

I hope Blizzard will perfectly control what it does with SC2 for its scenario.

 

I just don't see how many ways we can tell you that besides it being fruitless and impossible, Blizzard won't do it for gameplay reasons.

I don't know what other facet of logic we can throw at you to convince you. So I guess you're just going to retain your position indefinitely. Sorry we couldn't save you.

 

starcraft plus new race/s > starcraft same 3 races only.

UED and xelnaga. if your bored playing terran then play UED. new unit new mechanics everything new. =p

 

Yeah. UED should have a more technologically advanced weaponry than the Terrans of the Confederacy.

 

And they DID. They had Marines, Charon Boosters, Valks, etc etc.

 

did you mean medics?

 

I guess that's what he meant.

The Sons of Korhal of Brood War also has those.

 

I don't think the problem lies in balancing four races, but four races worth of units and mechanics. As has been mentioned before, balancing difficulty increases not with races, but with units, as each must be balanced against each other and in combination with still others.
Not even considering balancing difficulty, If you want them to all be notably unique, you start hitting an upper limit on the number of units you can include in a game without glaring overlap occurring.

The way you pull off more than three (or, I should say, more than one) races, then is by dividing the total number of units and mechanics per race by the number available.

From this I formulate this simple equation:
[units (and mechanics) Per race] = [Unique units available]/[number of Races]
P = U / R

With algebraic manipulation, you see that:
[number of Races] = [Unique units available]/[units (and mechanics) Per race]
R = U / P

As you can see, there are two ways to increase the number of races without causing overlap.

The first is to increase [unique units available]. This is done by applying more time and effort to the problem, but this number probably increases logarithmically with time/effort, which means that it becomes more expensive and time consuming, impractical, to do this beyond a certain point (this point is called the budget.)

The second way to increase the overall number of races is to decrease the number of units/mechanics per race. This means that each race, while remaining completely unique, becomes simpler and simpler to understand and master as the number of races increases. The simplification would probably be critically limited at some hazy point where not every race has access to the mechanics necessary to do well against another race. I imagine though, that the point is much lower in a game that is commonly played in 1:1 setups than it would be in a game that focused on interdependent teams (like an MMO).

I do not believe that SC2 is very close to its racial upper limit because there are enough redundant units and potential mechanics that they could be divided out cleanly at least once, but perhaps twice before the game encounters any serious fundamental balance problems. The reason, then, that Blizzard is opting to stick with three races, even while adding units and mechanics, is that they want each race, individually, to be more robust, flexible, which achieved through role-overlap which is achieved by maintaining a large number of units per race.

 

Here's the thing......

A triangle of war is interesting, but a square is not. Why? It's tough to have rivalries between four teams, face it. If you think about it, the best systems are in threes. Love triangles, etc...

You can't beat the rivalry formulated between three races for dominance. When you introduce four it's that much tougher to keep one from becoming the little brother of the bunch, and that's already a challenge in SC1.

What I've said in this thread before isn't that four races is impossible or even hard, it would just take a lot of time, and by the time you've balanced all those races, you've probably already developed a new graphics engine and you have to start all over again with development.

 

Alright...time for me to bang some heads together.

It can't be the xel'naga because the xel'naga dont have an army. They are a benevolent race, and them having buildings and units designed for war doesn't make any sense. It can't be the hybrids because the hybrids are comprised of a single unit. Its a zergling/protoss combo, you can't base an entire race off of one unit.

 

lol I agree with ^^

Aren't the Xel'naga an ANCIENT race? That created the toss and the overmind? That info alone would mean they could sit there and "create" things/"uncreate" things lol...it doesn't make sense...they are a creator race that existed 1000s of years ago....the Hybrids would be a cool idea, but that would mean Duran or whoever is really the mastermind has a lot more than infested terrans and zerg/toss hybrids...maybe SC3 haha lets see where sc2 goes

 

I suggest we let this thread die as this is all really fruitless and those who haven't been convinced by now that there will be no fourth race are just hopeless.

 

i think a new race would be exciting!

 

I hope theyre wont be a forth race. Hybrids...are just lots of experiments, after reading some lroe, i just don't think its realistic to except them.

As for the Xel' Naga...they are like the demons, or Burning Legion in WC3. They play a prominent role in the story, but are just too good and god-like to be a race. They created the Protoss and Zerg...c'mon...they also might have created the Hybrids as well.

I wouln't be disappointed if they busted out a 4th race, but I would be more than satisfied if they didn't.
I love the current three.

 

the bonus race should be for campaign purposed only =p

 

Blizzard has already said that there will only be three races, and that the Xel 'Naga/Hybrids will be dealt with in the single-player campaign. So I wouldn't lose much sleep about seeing a possible fourth race guys.

 

do u think that the Hybrid could be the Xel'Naga?

 

i dunno maybe? Duran probably captures the xel'naga and code names them hybrid and only to find out in the end that the xel' naga are the parent race of the zerg and protoss :O ooo spooky

 

Impossible. The xel'naga created the zerg and the protoss, not the other way around.

 

no 4th race guys... Impossible. Only the terran, toss and zerg are in. They are needed, not others