If I were on the design team...

As the Starcraft II beta draws to a close, I was thinking about some changes I would make to the game if I was on the design team. I decided to post them here in order to see what the forums thought of my ideas (since you all are certainly more organized thinkers than the BattleNet forums lol). Please note - these are based on two things: A) my opinion about certain units/abilities, and B) assuming that, like Blizzard said a few weeks ago, Protoss still have the highest winning percentage and Terran the smallest. Obviously there would still be some balance adjustments to be made.

Terran Changes
- Nuclear launch target dot made slightly bigger for enemies - this is based on the fact that the dot itself is actually very difficult to find and detection in general is a little more difficult in Starcraft II
- Radius of nuke damage increased by .5 - to help compensate for the above nerf, encourage some more nuke play
- Raven gas cost decreased by 25 - to help encourage some more use of the Raven and aid indirectly in research of its Hunter Seeker Missile
- Battlecruiser Weapon Refit upgrade renamed to Cannon Mount - because the name fits better in another place...
- Thor 250mm Cannon Upgrade renamed to Weapon Refit; now allows a FREE upgrade choice per individual Thor (that does take 5-10 seconds to complete): the 250mm Cannons as we know them or Flak Cannons (a new AOE air-only attack) - I really liked the original Battlecruiser choice Starcraft II had in the alpha stage (Yamato vs. Plasma Array vs. Defensive Matrix) and would like to see something similar; this would make more choices for Terran players and even stronger GtA possibilities for the Thor
- Corvid Reactor, Moebius Reactor result in 25 additional energy as opposed to Raven/Ghost starting with 25 extra energy at creation - I feel like it would be more useful to have a more permanent energy effect
EFFECT: Terran are “buffed” in general.

Zerg Changes
- Roach supply cost reduced back to 1, HP reduced from 145 to 115 - the main problem I have with Blizzard’s earlier supply nerf is that it takes away from the Zerg “swarm” mentality; by reducing supply cost and HP the overall Roach nerf stands but now a 200 supply Zerg ground force actually can look like a swarm
- Infestor Frenzy ability still keeps its current effects, but now launches as a small AoE “spore effect” that affects ALL biological units; lasts 20 seconds instead of 30 and costs 50 energy - I didn’t like the individual unit enhancement and feel like this buff would be more interesting with the catch that you could also accidentally affect enemy biological units; time/energy nerf are an attempt to keep it balanced
- Corruptor corruption ability removed; now, provided it gets the last hit on an enemy air unit, 2 Scourge are spawned (that do 20 suicidal damage each and function on a timer similar to that of a Broodling’s); Corruptor damage decreased to 12/15 to massive - like in the alpha phase when the Corruptor would create a stationary turret, makes the Corruptor actually feel like a Zerg infestation unit; damage lowered to compensate
- Pathogen Gland ability now results in 25 additional energy for the Infestor vs. 25 extra starting energy -for the same reason as the Terran reactor upgrades above
EFFECT: Zerg are also generally “buffed”, but not as much as Terran (e.g. Roach, Corruptor changes intended to create more of a “swarm” and “feel” effect rather than actually buff or nerf the unit).

Protoss Changes
- Mothership new ability: Shield Recharge; functions in similar capacity as the original Starcraft’s Shield Battery to recharge Protoss shields; upgraded at the Fleet Beacon for 100/100 - gives Protoss players another reason to actually tech to Mothership and creates more choices in its use
- Dark Obelisk research added for 150/150: “Twilight”; after completion any Archons created using DT (HT+DT or 2DT) keep/gain the Feedback ability as well as a 100-energy pool (that starts at 25); also have a slightly different, perhaps darker blue hue - gives Protoss players an actual reason to use Dark Templar in a given Archon merge and gets rid of that pesky blank space on a Dark Obelisk
- Khaydarin Amulet yields 25 additional energy as opposed to 25 extra starting energy - same reasons as for Zerg Pathogen Glands & Terran Reactor upgrades above
EFFECT: Protoss also “buffed” but not as much as Terran or Zerg, changes mainly meant to correct some upper tier/bothersome issues (a.k.a. an upgrade-less building).

Let me know what you guys think/your ideas. I would definitely look at these things if I were on the design team at Blizzard. Then again, perhaps this is why I am not....

 

Nuclear launch target dot made slightly bigger for enemies - yes but then they'd have to decrease the time it takes for the nuke to drop to make it balanced.

Radius of nuke damage increased by .5 - nah just give it more damage

Raven gas cost decreased by 25 - agreed

Battlecruiser Weapon Refit upgrade renamed to Cannon Mount - Disagree. Blizzard's name suits fine.

Thor 250mm Cannon Upgrade renamed to Weapon Refit - And have to micro upgrade each unit? That's just time wasting and not really necessary.

Corvid Reactor, Moebius Reactor result in 25 additional energy as opposed to Raven/Ghost starting with 25 extra energy at creation - Agreed. 25 more max enerty is good. More starting energy is like wtf?

Roach supply cost reduced back to 1, HP reduced from 145 to 115 - If you want one supply I would want a major damage nerf too. We don't want 99% of zerg players spamming roaches as their first rush as they did before Blizzard nerfed the roaches. So leave them as thei are now or reduce the supply AND nerf the damage alot.

Infestor Frenzy ability still keeps its current effects, but now launches as a small AoE “spore effect” that affects ALL biological units; lasts 20 seconds instead of 30 and costs 50 energy - Good idea. But I'd want it to cost 75-100 energy then. 50 is not enough for this.

Corruptor corruption ability removed; now, provided it gets the last hit on an enemy air unit, 2 Scourge are spawned (that do 20 suicidal damage each and function on a timer similar to that of a Broodling’s); Corruptor damage decreased to 12/15 to massive - 20 suicide damage each is not enough. if the did like 200 suicide damage each but it required the Corruptor to kill itself to use the ability, then it'd be worth it.

Pathogen Gland ability now results in 25 additional energy for the Infestor vs. 25 extra starting energy - Disagree. Zerg make and punp out a lot of units, so starting energy is nice. And then it's different to the Terran ability which is good.

Mothership new ability: Shield Recharge; functions in similar capacity as the original Starcraft’s Shield Battery to recharge Protoss shields - Agree 100% I miss the shield recharge ability from SC1. having the Mothership have it it for say 100 energy a shot would be really nice.

Dark Obelisk research added for 150/150: “Twilight”; after completion any Archons created using DT (HT+DT or 2DT) keep/gain the Feedback ability as well as a 100-energy pool (that starts at 25); also have a slightly different, perhaps darker blue hue - basically you want the Dark Archon from Brood Wars to appear in SC2. I think Blizzard are keeping the Dark Archon for an expansion pack. I would like to see the dark archon back actually. But Blizzard does not seem to agree with me.

Khaydarin Amulet yields 25 additional energy as opposed to 25 extra starting energy - DIsagree. It should have 15 starting energy and 15 max energy. Just to make to different to the above 2. And 3 different races is good.

 

Definitely make Terran nukes take less time to get to the target, 20 seconds is WAY too long!

 

Keep in mind the numbers here are all ballpark guesses - I really have truly no idea what numbers would fit best.

@the8thark - I never thought about the energy thing that way (different energy upgrades for each race) and I like your idea a lot. My main reasoning is that I think in general it is more beneficial to have permanent increased energy rather than just buffed starting energy.

For the Roach, I always got the impression from Blizzard that the problem with the 1-supply early mass-Roach had more to do with their survivability/toughness as a unit rather than damage output, hence my HP nerf as opposed to damage nerf.

The Corruptor spawning Scourges thing has low damage output since I don't think it'd be as fun to have to sacrifice your Corruptor in order to spawn any Scourges.

Finally, for the Archons, my main issue is not so much wanting the Dark Archon back as correcting the fact that at the moment there is absolutely no incentive to make Archons from DTs/1DT+1HT, since players are only doing this when HTs deplete their energy pools.

 

If the unit lasts for a long time on the battle field then max energy is good. But if the unit is going to be mass produced andvery quickly be sent to it's death, then one shot of a spell is all it'll ever get. And +25 starting energy would make less waiting around for that one shot of an ability before it dies. But I thought why not make all 3 races different .

I can see your points witht he roach. Damage or HP wither way is fine. But I think you'd agree with me when I say the 1 supply roach would have to be weaker in some way to the 2 supply roach. Or just have it cost 2x as much .

My Corruptor idea was just me muching around with random ideas. A good idea? Probably not but there might be a way to turn that idea into something good.

Oh there is a lot of incentive to make Archons from 2x DT. In the latest patch it takes just a few seconds to make Archons. And if you mass DTs and the enemy prepares for a DT rush and enroute to the enemy base you transform all into Archons and fool him that way you can really catch him unawares and it's a real tactic Blizzard want people to use. You could do the same thing with HT's. But the slower movement and lack of cloak pf the HT's makes it less useful.

 

Eh, decent ideas in there, I don't agree with most of it but w/e.

However, Blizzard changed the energy upgrades from SC1 for a good reason. Max energy increase was pretty useless when players always made sure to use their energy before it builds up so much. So +25 starting energy is pretty much ALWAYS better, since you start with that extra energy, instead of only getting it only if you save up energy for several minutes and hit your max.

This is especially true for protoss high templar. After you get their energy upgrade, you can warp them in and immediately cast psi storm. Warp prism behind the enemy mineral line = terrible terrible damage.