Infestation update. Broodlings?

When I was looking around on starcraft.wikia.com, as I often do, I noticed something quite interesting about the Infester. As we all know, each Zerg unit has its own upgrades now, and as I looked through the Infester's abilities and upgrades it pretty much restated when I already knew about it. Starts off with Burrow and Dark Swarm, first upgrade enables Disease, second upgrade enables Infestation of Terran or Protoss buildings, and the last upgrade increases its maximum Energy. Fortunately though, I reread the description for its Infestation ability and it said the following:

I looked up Infested Terran Buildings and Infested Protoss Buildings and they said the same thing. I then looked up the Swarm Guardian and it read:

Needless to say, I then looked up the Broodling which stated:

Everywhere referenced the same site which appeared to be down at the moment so I can't get any official confirmation, but what do you think? Personally, I think it's a great change. It stops the Guardian having to have the cheesy Spawn Broodling ability on its attack, and also means that there doesn't have to be any Infested Protoss unit. I will definitely miss the Infested Terran unit, but when factoring in the rest, it's definitely a change for the best.

 

I don't buy it, at least until I see the actual site it's on. I don't see what the problem was with the old infestation. I had no problem with Infested Protoss as long as they could explain it satisfactorily. This would also make Infestation relatively useless unless attempting to halt production on enemy structures, if Broodlings are anything like the ones from SC1. Overall it seems to be less useful.

 

Perhaps they changed the Broodling unit to mean something inducted into the Swarm?

 

Yeah the site seems to be down, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was legitimate, so I wouldn't just dismiss it immediately. I think there was a bit of a problem with the old Infestation, instantly mass producing Infested Terran Marines didn't sit too well with me. The problem with Infested Protoss is that firstly, Protoss are so honourable that if they realised that they were going to be overrun and Infested, they'd willingly commit seppuku, and secondly that the Zerg are basically out to assimilate the Protoss, thus unifying purity of form and of essence, creating the theorised totally 'perfect' being. So if they were able to Infest them, then they'd have pretty much succeeded in their mission.

Broodlings aren't necessarily as weak as they were in StarCraft1. If they're replacing Infested Terran and Infested Protoss, chances are they'd be as strong as the Infested Terran and Infested Protoss. Besides, it's a good way to balance both teams.

 

The Hybrids' strength doesn't have to translate over to gameplay completely. It's similar to how Infested Kerrigan only had Psionic Storm, Cloak, and Ensnare when she was the most psionically powerful Terran yet. But if Broodlings are in, they'd have to be pretty strong to make up for the infested units. They probably changed it because it was overpowered, but it seems kind of unnecessary to create a new unit when they could have just tweaked the numbers a bit.

 

I've been out of it for a while, but I am a bit sad about hearing that the infested marines won't be around. There was something about them that I loved so much, even though I am a Protoss player. But hopefully the "new" Broodlings can make up for it.

 

I'm not talking about the Hybrid. The Hybrid's a genetic experiment, not an assimilation. All Zerg units have been assimilated into the Zerg Swarm. The Zerglings are from the Zz'gashi Dune Runners, the Hydralisks are from the Slothien, the Mutalisks are from Mantis Screamers, etc. It's all to do with Zerg's intentions, plan or goals, etc. They intend to assimilate the Protoss, being described by the Xel'Naga as 'purity of form', into the Zerg Swarm, being the 'purity of essence', in order to create the hypothesised 'perfect' being. It's different to Infestations and genetic experimentation, but if the Zerg were to be able to Infest Protoss units, then they'd be able to assimilate them into the Swarm, thus supposedly becoming near unstoppable. That's an extremely simplified recount of it, but otherwise this would go on for pages.

 

I think this is the site you said was down (Now up) http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=1&cId=3167695
It looks legit =)
I think the broodlings though a bit bland are a good idea since it allows it to be more balanced and follow lore depending on which race gets invested

 

*edited out mah fallacy*

 

Umm, that's the cost of the Blink upgrade, not the Stalker. It's also been referenced to this screenshot.

 

...And now I feel like an idiot.

Well, I guess Infestation spawns Broodlings then. I wonder what they'll do with the Guardian.

 

Eh how lame... you go to the trouble of infesting a Terran building and it spawns broodlings. The whole mechanic as of now is messed up, very non-dynamic if you ask me. Seems like a warcrafty type thing to infest the building and produce a set number of units and it only lasts for a certain duration of time.

How infestation should be:
Option 1 Terran
Only infest Barracks
Infestor physcially merges into the Barracks and the infestion time begins, once finished the Infestor emerges and you can now produce Infested Marines normally.
Building stays on the current player's control
Can be lifted
Hitpoints decrease when the infested Barracks isn't landed on creep - makes sense lore-wise as what gives the structure/infest sustanance.
Regens hitpoints when landed on creep

Option 2 Terran
Infestor physically merges into Barracks permanently
Infested Barracks cannot lift
Creep is produced from the Infested Barracks
Infested Marines are produced normally from infested Barracks

Infestation Protoss
Infestor physcially merges into Gateway permanently for the infestation to begin
Creep is produced from infested Gateway once infefested
Infested Zealots are produced normally

 

Why is everyone just assuming that Broodlings are crap? What's wrong with them? Nothing. The only reason people don't like them is that they were really crap in StarCraft1. If these have replaced the Infested Terran and Infested Protoss, then they'll be as powerful as the Infested Terran and Infested Protoss. They're not going to say, 'well what if we take out the Infested Terran and Protoss, and replace them with just as many weak, flimsy Broodlings?' If Zerg were to just Infest Terran, and they made Infestations more useful, then it would be unbalanced against the Protoss, and vice versa. Having the same unit come from each easily balances it out, and also gets rid of the need for Infested Protoss, which would contradict the storyline.

 

Well, I'm not totally against the idea of having broodlings be the outcome of infestation, BUT, really, a broodling is just another small melee unit, like a zergling. Its kind of, whatever. There shouldn't be any form of infested protoss though, it just doesn't sit well lore wise. I say, infested marines for the terrans, and that the gateway be turned into an oldschool nydus canal for the protoss. If they made the broodlings interesting, I would be fine with that too.

 

What's wrong with infested protoss? None of us know the lore yet. For all we know Kerrigan might have found a way to infest Protoss. There's nothing wrong with it as long as it's explained and it's believable. I don't really hate broodlings so much, but I just don't think they'll be as interesting, even if they were more powerful.

 

Well Wick how about this, all Protoss units are warped in and not held in stasis like Marines. So one would think one the Protoss knew a building was being Infested they would stop the warp in from the other side, so what would there be for the Zerg to infest? This is of course ignoring the other storyline problems of infested Protoss and the fact that a Zealots armor is built to warp him back home in the case of an emergency. It just doesn't make sense for the Zerg to make any infested unit involving the Protoss.

On another not I think it would be cool if the Infestor could infest more than just Barracks and Gateways so it might be a lot better if just one generic Zerg unit is always produced instead of units tied to the infested building.

 

I guess I can kinda see their concept with the Broodlings, its like the infestor uses the building for minerals (energy) to produce the Broodlings.
But I really hate the set number of Brooldings produced, it really ruins the mechanic. I'd rather have them keep the building if they've gone through all the trouble to infest it. If it stayed like this, I'd never use it in a serious game.

 

@ SmoothBore. The Broodlings won't necessarily be a tweaked Zergling just because that was what they were in StarCraft1. Take the Queen for example. It's been completely redone and hardly resembles its former role at all. I'm aware that it was a huge change for the Queen so it may be considered an exception, but it's a similar scenario for the Broodling. They used to just be a couple of weak supplementary units and basically a side effect of Spawn Broodling, but now they're created in large numbers after an Infestation, so it's more than likely that their role or function have been changed.

@ LordKerwyn. As far as I'm aware the Infester can Infest all buildings, not just the Barracks and Gateway. I agree that it should be able to Infest all buildings, as now it's the Infestation that is creating the Broodlings and isn't just Infesting the units inside in which case they would most likely be required to Infest a production building like the Barracks, etc, but I feel that the amount of Broodlings created should be scaled with the importance/cost/size of the building. For example, Supply Depots and possibly Bunkers, etc, will be in much greater supply and more Infestation-able than things like the Barracks and Command Centres.

@ Psionicz. I'm glad you can see the the concept with the Broodlings, but one thing you've got to remember, and I'm not saying you don't I'm just saying it as a reminder and for a bit of clarification, it's not the Broodlings that are the problem with having a set number of Infested units produced, as it was like that all along. The same thing happened for the Infested Terran and most likely the Infested Protoss as well. About whether to keep the structure or not, I gotta agree with you there. Infestations do not just disappear. Even if all the Broodlings are spawned within the first five seconds the Zerg player has not control over Lift-Off or anything, Zerg player should still keep the building.

Here's my overview of it. The Broodling is the perfect unit for the job. In StarCraft1 and with other ideas for the Broodlings in StarCraft2, they've always been produced in a different way, usually being the the result of a Zerg unit's actions on another unit. In StarCraft1 it was the Queen casting it on a target which spawned the Broodlings and previously in StarCraft2, although it's really quite irrelevant because it was never actually in the proper game as it was just a failed concept, it was the Swarm Guardian that basically did the same thing but on its attack, and now it's the Infester Infesting an enemy building in order to produce them. They've never really been a unit that is 'produced' so it makes sense that a set number is spawned from a building, just like how a set number was spawned from enemy targets in StarCraft1. Infested Terran and Infested Protoss on the other hand would always be more 'producible' units, so it would not flow as well to have them instantly spawning out of Infested buildings.

The buildings should remain in possession of the Zerg player. Infestations do not just die or disappear, returning the building to full functionality. Even if the building does not produce any more Broodlings and cannot Lift-Off in the case of Terran, the Infestation should not just disappear. Although it would serve no apparent purpose, it would be a significant hindrance to the opposing player and could also act as a durable, but blatant, Parasite. However, perhaps Terran and Protoss could have an ability to 'purge' an Infested building, restoring it to its former self. I was thinking Medics, not Medivac, for the Terran, due to their Restoration ability in StarCraft1 and also loosely based on their involvement in sedating and capturing the Overmind in the campaigns. Whether a single Medic is required or a group of two or three, I think it should cost a significant amount of Energy, after all, they're essentially 'resurrecting' a razed building. I was thinking of somewhere in the range of 75-100% of their base Energy, regardless of the number required, so if it requires two Medics, you'd need two Medics with almost 75-100% Energy. Anyway, that's just a quick opinion of how it this large scale Restoration could work. For the Protoss I thought the Mothership could fly over and purge the building, but chances are it could be a superunit, which would limit its usefulness with purging, and also it comes in right at the end of the game, which could be far too late. Instead I landed on the High Templar. It's a closer tier to the Medics and are renowned for their psychic abilities. Again, it could require up to 100% of their total Energy and maybe even require two or three, etc, just like the Medic.

Anyway, that purging is just an idea. The main points are that the Broodlings suit such an ability perfectly, and the Infestation should not be on a timer. They should at least require a large scale Restoration type spell or purge in order to return it to normal.

 

Nyet.

Kerrigan just learned how to properly infest a Terran in Shadow Hunters, which takes place right before StarCraft II. Unless Kerrigan is a genetics genius, she's not going to learn to infest a Protoss right away.

 

I don't see why Infested Protoss can't fit. Kerwyn brings up a good point about how Protoss units are warped in, rather than held in stasis like Marines. However, even though the Protoss are as advanced they are, it wouldn't surprise me if they had a living crew inside the Gateway/Warp Gate, monitoring all of the little details of the process to make sure a zealot doesn't get warped to some stray planet. I doubt those crew members would be wearing an emergency evacuation beacon like Zealots would, because threats shouldn't be present in the building in the first place. As for Protoss committing suicide to avoid infestation, they're not always going to have the chance. They'll probably be restrained by tendrils growing out of the infestation, and eventually placed in a chrysallis, which is similar in purpose to a stasis cell. Finally, the infested marines we're seeing are the rejects - kerrigan has been seeking ways to recreat herself to an extent. Most of the experiments fail, resulting in hideous deformalities along with loss of intelligence and sanity. The Protoss's psionics might mitigate it some, but they will still end up pretty ugly and NOT the purity of form and essence, ergo not the deadly weapon the Zerg sought.