Give each race ways to passively disrupt opponents

There should be attacks in each race that, once delivered, make life hard for other races for a short time. In WC3, there was the undead disease cloud. In Starcraft II, there should be:

Terran: Nuclear strike harms all Zerg (including units) in blast zone for 1hp every 3 seconds, interferes with all Protoss shielding for 1 hp every 3 seconds, and continues to do damage to Protoss biological units (Zealots, Dark/High templar) for 1hp every 3 seconds.

Zerg: acid bombardment by guardians or whatever the equivalent unit is affects all terran vehicles as well as biological units (the infantry are super-mechanized, as seen in the trailer) for 1 hp every 2 seconds during and up to 15 seconds after they drive or walk through an affected area. The acid effect at a particular point on the ground should last 60 seconds or so after the initial bombardment.

Zerg: anti-psionic creep upgrade makes creep dangerous to Protoss ground units, interfering with shielding for 1 hp every second while Protoss units move on creep.

Protoss: psi field upgrade interferes with Zerg movement in an area, causing 1 second delay as units to respond to orders and a 15% miss probability for ranged units striking anything but buildings.

Protoss: warp detonation overloads terran and protoss mechanical units for 1 second, after-effect drains mana from all enemy spellcasters (regardless of race) at the rate of 5/second for 30 seconds.

So, I've tried to provide some asymmetry in these variations around the theme. Notice that protoss vs. protoss could get even uglier with warp detonations. In some ways, I almost wish that they'd give the units in Starcraft 2 a lot more HP so you could have more abilities that do small amounts of damage over time. It seems like the battles are going to be too short--a lot like the original Starcraft, whereas in Warcraft 3 the units lasted longer in battle. I'd be happier if the units lasted for a time somewhere between those extremes, so the game was fast-paced but at the same time these sorts of mild AOE and long-duration effects could be part of the game.

 

I don't see how this is "passive" disrupting opponents. This is pretty much more of a "lasting biological effect" on units.

Also, 1 hp every 3 seconds would simply cancel out the Zerg and Protoss regeneration rates, so it would really only be detrimental to the Terran.

As I've said in a number of other threads, I am completely against units missing. There are very few exceptions to this including cliffs and dark swarm, etc. But otherwise units should hit 100% of the time. It's either 100% normally or 0% because of an ability that prevents it. The only other option is to reduce the damage taken through an ability (defensive matrix). Otherwise we're all going to be rolling dice on whether an attack will be successful, etc.....

While "effects" from regular attacks are certainly interesting to ponder, they really don't have any place in the actual game as they add more of an unpredictable element and simply make the player's thought process a lot more complicated. It's better overall if the units' abilities and strengths are more straightforward and aren't affected by any number of outside factors.

 

A number of good points. The asymmetry is harder to work out when the races are so asymmetric to begin with.

I can also see why you don't like the idea of units missing.

And, as you can probably tell, I've played way too much WC3 and am still thinking about lots of things in terms of auras. I did like hat aspect of the game, though--they way various auras could work multiplicatively to increase your army's power by 10% compounded by 15% compounded by 30% compounded by 6%, etc.

BTW, are these official forums run by Blizzard for the purposes of collecting feedback and ideas on the upcoming game? I just found them via search engine...

 

Well you could try the main battle.net forum but i must warn you its not in the best of conditions....

This site is also visited by people from blizzard every once in a while as proven by one of the latest question and answer batches.

 

They're not official forums but they're widely known as the most informative, consistent, and organized.

Much better than the official battle.net forum which is populated mostly by trolls. And then Karune, but w/e.....

 

Wait, it seems that your giving each race some sort of "nuke" Not actually one that damages, but it slows down units in an area (or damages slowly).

Some abilities use the pylon matrix and zerg creep. The zerg creep idea has been discussed and given up, because it gives zerg a huge advantage. You can't really use the protoss pylon idea because enemy players aren't supposed to be able to see the matrix, which could give away protoss postion. With this psi field upgrade, they would have to be able to see the matrix, making it unbalanced.

Overall, it's a nice idea, but this passive disruption on home base makes it waaayyy too hard to attack a defended area. Passive disruption on the offensive is a little strange. In starcraft, most spells had an effect immediately, and if not immediately it only targets one unit. To make a spell that targets an AoE of units and hinders them and causes a lot of thinking is really not "starcraft"

Yes, that isn't a great reason, but starcraft is supposed to be a simple game that creates tough strategies. I attack you, 10 damage, you attack me 6 damage, I cast psi storm, fast damage that will kill. Not really: hmm, I cast spell, you get 10% decrease in attack speed, and umm, 15% decrease in attack, which is what, 10 - 15%*10, about 8.5, rounded down i guess, so uhhh 8 damage, and then theres a decrease in attack speed...

Really complicated.

 

I agree that the units should have more hitpoints, but
those abilities are just too complicated.

 

i belive that passive disruption is a major annoyance it would make the game boring if you where on a team and 3 terrans nuked all the ground on the way to thier base so every time you tried to make an assault by the time youd get there your army would have lost like 75% of its overall hp

 

Its like having super weapons on other RTS like in generals

USA: Particle Cannon
GLA: Scud Storm
China: Nuke

all i want is terran who has nuke, but thats just me