The newly shown death animations of Zerg units violently burning down to ashes are great. They offer diversity among death animations as well as making sense: a Zergling dying to a Hellion's flamethrower shouldn't just blow up. This is all great, but what I wonder is if death from incineration isn't just too uncommon on the battlefield. Of course, if too many units caused incineration it would slowly take the fun out of it (or sometimes not make sense), that's not what I am asking for. But to only have the Hellion burn stuff would almost be wasting development resources (or at least be asking for more). Now first I'd like to say that I don't think the Hellion is the only one. I am pretty sure Karune once described the Colossus as burning Marines. And if it doesn't, I'd like it to. It would give the attack of the Colossus a graphical edge as it kills its (biological) opponents, and it fits the brutality expected from a once outlawed killing robot. One of the reasons why I would like to see more burner units is for the fact that no Zerg unit has such an attack, and no Protoss unit is susceptible to one (death animation-wise). Only the Zealot, High Templar and Dark Templar are biological, but all of them teleport home upon 'death'. At least the Zealot does, but it looks like the HT and DT do it too. Otherwise corpses would be left (but you all know I am not the biggest Protoss lore fan out there and could very well be wrong). Also, less than half the Terran units are biological (I assume a unit needs to be biological in order to have a burning death animation. I really don't think Siege Tanks, Thors and Colossi (etc) need such animations). The battlefield could get littered with ash (which is what we're trying to avoid) if several units burn their targets down, but one way to dodge that is to give the incinerating effect to a unit's ability, instead of regular attack. Another way is to give it to a late game unit, making it less common. So my first question to you is: Which units/abilities should incinerate (if possible) their targets? First off, let me say that I think the optimal number would be, regular attacks and abilities combined: 2 or 3 for Terran and 1 or 2 for Protoss. So for the P, the Colossus could actually be enough. Why? A certain way of killing could actually be somewhat of a trademark for a race, and you all know you're suckers for race individuality. So Terrans get incinerating weapons. Protoss Dark Templars and Zealots (the basic unit of the race no less) on the other hand have cleaving attacks, leaving Marines and such notably dismembered. The only other unit that cleaves is the Ultralisk as far as I know (and perhaps the hydra in melee range, as it switches to its claws), and that's as late tier as things get. Surely you could say that slicing and dicing is the Protoss way of doing things. Anyways, moving on to my own suggestions. The only unit I think could incinerate targets with its basic attack besides the Hellion would be the Battlecruiser with its hot lasers. As the Colossus shows/should show the attack doesn't actually have to be of fire. It would make the late tier 3 unit seem more menacing. All that said though, I doubt it would actually look any good. It could even end up looking outright silly with units suddenly bursting into flame from the final laser beam hit. I would have to see it first. Abilities might be a safer card. One thought I have is to have the Reaper D8 Charges erupt in fiery explosions, setting anything biological that die from them on fire. It would also show a clear distinction between gauss pistol victims and D8 victims. I am not saying that there isn't already a difference between units dying from light physical punishment and heavy, I just think it would emphasize it more. ... As well as look awesome. Another candidate is the Hunter Seeker Missile. It would clearly show which targets got hit by it. I don't think the HSM is the kind of weapon made to set things on fire though. It should perhaps just blow things up. Note that I wouldn't want both D8 Charges and the HSM to set things on fire, just one of them. Lastly, the Thor. Recently the self-repairing ability got canned, and I think it will likely adopt a new ability. I have no idea what it will turn out to be, but if it's a damaging one (like a huge grenade or special shot or something) it could perhaps have fiery repercussions. For the Protoss, I think the Colossus alone is fine, really. No Terran unit can slice like a Zealot or DT. It makes the Colossus more unique. ------- As everything up until now has been about the arsonists, the next part will be about the victims. I ask you: Which units should/should not have incinerating death animations? Why I ask this is because I don't think that solely going by the "if it's biological" rule is applicable at all times. Sure, something that is not biological should never burn in my opinion, but that doesn't mean that everything biological should. Sometimes lore will get in the way, the Zealot being a good example. Marines have relatively thin armor, but Marauders are about as armored as Tanks and Stalkers, at least judging by their hp. Thus it might look awkward if they burn. They should be considered. Next up: Buildings. Zerg buildings are biological (duh), but maybe an exception has to be made. While it would look wicked with Hellions purging a Zerg colony with flames, there are more than one drawback. As seen with the Zerg units, burning animations take time. Cutting down on them would probably end up looking forced and ridiculous, especially with Hatcheries being dozens of times bigger and all. The problem with having Zerg buildings stay and wither to ashes is that they are in the way. Anything short of a Colossus would simply clip into a burning Hatchery and disappear (and honestly, the Colossus peeking its head out of a burning inferno is probably even worse), because I am pretty sure that all death/destruction animations are passable by units, to avoid hindering game play. Another reason against it is that it could be unreliable whether or not the Zerg structure actually ends up being burned down. if you're targeting a structure with a mix of units including Hellions, it all comes down to what fires the final hit. A Hatchery could be covered in Hellion flames from all directions, but if a Siege Tank abruptly finishes it off it will simply blow up, a rather disappointing (and confusing) ending. The thing is though, that above two examples are also true for the Ultralisk, which is even bigger than some Zerg structures. But there has to be a burning Ultralisk in the game, amirite? Sooo, now I hope for some discussion, regarding that and everything else. [/longpost]
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/09/22/22n_tank_wideweb__430x279.jpg http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/PSEUDOSC/9-11Pix/Image159[1].jpg http://www.umass.edu/loop/images/upload/53137/Burning plane.jpg Mechanical things burn too Therefore, I see no reason why any unit shouldn't have a burning animation. A burning animation doesn't mean it has to melt, by the way. As for which units should cause a fire death, I'd say any unit which makes an explosion is a possibility. So, Tanks, Thors, and just about everything else. The problem is, though, that this would turn fire deaths into the standard death so I say just keep it to the units that use fire as the actual weapon (Hellions). In case it matters, I haven't read the entire post yet because I'm about to leave.
Now Gassy might've put burn in a few places but I'm fairly sure, especially going by the thread title, that he meant incineration, not burning. Mechanical things incinerating is ridiculous, while buring is not (actually the viking already catches fire when dying). I would like incineration to be something special for two reasons. One is that it would make it unique and awesome, to put it simply. Secondly, cluttering the opponent's crowd with piles of cinder could actually be a viable (positive/negative) side effect of using late tier units, as I've always hoped deep down that some abilities will physically alter the game (like visuals, etc.). To this end I would only allow the hellion from the Terran and the colossus from the Protoss. D-8 charges rely on concussion I think, and BC lasers sort of evaporate the target, not incinerate it. Tanks should not set things on fire because they use shells (in tank mode, at least, I don't know the effects of catching a load of plasma). Giving the ability to incinerate to just 2 units in the whole game could seem as if the game didn't show off the good visuals enough but if there are several types of deaths (incineration, explosion, dismemberment, or "cardinal" with no effect on the appearance of the unit for example from psi storm or sniping) then these could build up to create a wide range of death animations. As for the victims, a complex interplay of unit type and attack type sould decide this. I'm not able to go into that at 23:43
Sorry, I meant the animations as seen in the recent video, with the Hydras and such turning into ashes in the end. I'll edit it. I am talking about death animations where things catch fire, burn down to a pile of ash, and finally ascend into the air.
omg, sorry, the post is too long to read as whole, so I'll just refer to your HIGHLITED questions neh... actually I read it and agree with you, Colossi would look stupid (unless it's a blue incerating, but that would require a new animation, meaning more development time) And I think that burning zerg buildings might look quite AWESOME. Um, I have one concern tho... If the burning animation gets spammed a lot (100 lings burning) it might get in the way of the player's vision.. so Im not sure if Im a big fan of burning units... Time will tell.
I want burning for biological units and melting for vehicles and mechanical units from fire weapons. I would like laser weapons (Warp Ray, Stalker, Colossus) and explosive weapons (Siege Tank, Reaper charges) to gib biological units (Zerg already... kind of gib... but Marines, Reapers, Zealots, etc.). Annnnnnd units falling apart, torn up, flopping over and dying from everything else (Marine bullets, Hydralisk spines, Zergling claws, Zealot blades).
