Joneagle_X's WWI StarCraft 2 Review

Sounds to me things are a bit off with very few units actually being useful laving little room for diverging tactics.
Having suh a poor choice of tactivs can make for a boring game

 

Great stuff Jon! I'm glad to hear how gameplay is working out

My Questions:


In SC1 you could scroll over your units upgrades to see their attack. Does doing this in SC2 show the bonus damage certain units do, or did you have to pit units against each other to approximate?

Do you mean it still needs some AoE to it's attack to justify it's cost, or do you just like the sight of sweeping destruction? How do you think it would fair if it still had the old attack, but there was a small range AoE around the beam's target?

What does the 5x2 (x8 Intercept) mean? Each one does 5x2 damage? That seems like a powerful attack to me. Is the Carrier useless because of the lack of focus fire, or the step down in health/shields from SC:BW?

Is the Archon still just a damage sponge, or has it gotten any abilities back? Do you think it needs any (like Maestrom, etc.)?

How does the bonus damage work for units that have multiple attacks, like the Reaper? If I'm reading the table right, he gets +15 vs light units. Is it 15 for each shot, upping it from 3x2 to 18x2, or is it divided amongst each attack, making it 10.5x2? do upgrades to damage work the same way?

Judging from your article it seems the Reactor has pushed Terran towards building some weaker units en masse, which is more of a Zerg thing. Do you think that the Reactor should be nerfed by increasing the time taken to produce units simultaenously? For example, say it takes 40 seconds to produce a Marine. If you produce two at once with the reactor, the time taken increases by 10%, making the 2 marines take 44 seconds to be produced. The numbers could be changed, but I believe such a change could still keep the Reactor usefull without pushing Terran players to delve into Zerg tactics.

The Battlecruiser wasn't in the statsheet. Is the 8x8 attack still there, and is it causing as many problems as you say? How would you propose nerfing it? Would having it waste damage from attack cycles be enough, or would it be more effective to decrease the number of attacks/the damage of each attack?

What was the attack speed of the Corruptor? Do you think an increase in it's attack speed would make it more useful, or just an increase in damage or hp?

Has loss of stacking Mutalisks really had such an impact on their usefulness?

Did having the Crawler buildings built from Drones again feel like a hindrance, or was the extra cost of a Drone to build a good exchange for not having base defense depend solely upon the Queen?

It seems like the Crawlers may be overpowered with their ability to move. Do they still lose HP off the creep? How fast do they move? Do you think the movement speed of Crawlers should be decreased, or should uprooting and moving be a research upgrade to prevent the early game crawler rushes you described?

 

did you think that the Roach filled its role nicely, or do you think it could change?

you didnt talked much about the Ultralisks or the Infestor, how was they like? was there any changes to them?

 

Off creep they move really slowly and they do lose hitpoints, they move around the speed of an un-upgraded Overlord. Just watch the videos.

 

Did anyone suggest that the thor would be awesome and unique if its gtg exclusive and attack single target only? ^^

ultralisk. splash gtg damage.

coloosus. linear aoe gtg damage.

thor. powerful single target gtg. the gta role is bad for the thor's look.

yes the thor is lost.

i hope they just make the thor the strongest and ultimate terran gtg single target dealer. there are few of this in starcraft like the archon and there is none of this in the terran arsenal.

 

Wow. There is a crap load of questions. I'll do my best to answer them all.

The Thor is definitely a tank. It also has a great GTA attack. That's why it's so confusing. You can either tank it (though it's pretty ineffective as an actual offensive unit GTG) or you can keep it home as a mobile and extremely effective GTA weapon. It's rebuild looks really dumb ATM but I can see some potential. I still think it should just lift off like a building and then it would be more unique. I even suggested to Samwise (Dustin wasn't around WTF?) that the Command Center have an upgrade to "Thor" and would thus emphasize it's "building" status. Right now it just has NO identity. It's not even built by an SCV.

And the Nydus Worm requires Creep and is a building. You have to be able to see the area you're creating it at. It's exactly like the old Nydus Canal ATM. It's pretty nerfed and dumb. But that is a VERY recent change as all the build devs still thought it was a unit! It's still very powerful but nowhere near as cool.

The Ghost is a very useful unit, though most definitely it's very tough to use. I simply don't have enough experience with the game (so neither does anyone else) to use it effectively. But it has huge potential. I mostly used it for its EMP ability against Protoss. It's devastating. Nukes are great. They have a bit smaller of a radius and since they're totally ineffective against Immortals it's difficult to use it effectively for its cost. But it's still an awesome weapon. Plus it looks schweet!

As for the Nomad, they switched the model back to the original for WWI but told me that the new one is there but hasn't been perfected yet. I was a little mad about that. It was the first unit I looked for. But no ability changes there.

You can still see bonuses and attacks.

Still needs AoE to justify it's cost. The old attack with a small AoE might work but it's so cool as is.

5x2 means two attacks for five damage. So 10 damage total per attack cycle. I'm not sure exactly how this works, but the Carrier is just expensive and lacks any real bite. It's HP has definitely taken a hit. Not to mention Interceptors are also 25 minerals apiece. Expensive. 400 gas? Sheesh.

Damage sponge. It wasn't as overpowered in this build as it was last time. Before it could almost 3v1 Ultralisks, but now it's back to about 1.5v1.

Not sure, but I would venture to guess that it divides it up.

The Reactor needs some work. Not sure what needs to happen here. I would say that perhaps there needs to be a mineral cost associated with producing Marines at that speed. Maybe the Reactor just needs to be more expensive and build very quickly. Perhaps 200/200? It's just so easy to get now. Anyone can build 50 Marines in less than 4 minutes of game start.

Unfortunately I didn't do the Terran stats. Nikzad did. I don't know, but it's not on the list he gave. I think the 8x8 attack is still there and it definitely switches to the next target in the middle of a burst. I think it just needs to be more expensive. The unit is great because it can contribute significantly to Terran forces just by itself, but a player should not be capable of massing it like I saw done. For sure, Terran air is the most powerful ATM. By a long shot. Remember that video where a Battlecruiser took on two Carriers with ease? That's about where we stand.

It was pretty slow. I think it needs a bigger attack. And when it infests units they should start shooting back to help turn the tide. Currently the shooting back feature is gone. I think it should be very similar to the Devourer. Lots of armor, lots of HP, and it's attack should bring Capital Ships to their knees.

Yes, they're far less mobile. Now they're just an annoyance. Especially with even one Thor hanging around. The dev team has assured me numerous times that they WILL make the Mutalisk stack.

I think it's fine. Not a hindrance at all. The Devs just need to be careful that they don't put too much of a burden on the Zerg to sacrifice Drones while the Protoss and Terran are chugging away. But I do think it's a good idea to move away from the Queen because she allowed for mass defensive structures.

Don't worry. I didn't have any problem with this. They're pretty slow overall and they lose ALL their armor when they uproot as well as a large chunk of HP. They're so easy to kill when uprooted (and can't attack) that I routinely ignored units to kill them if someone uprooted one (because they're slow to build and cost the player 150 minerals). That's how quickly they died when uprooted. The problem I described had to do with a player's inability to get a head start in building their Spine Crawlers by building a Creep Colony.

I like the Roach. I just don't like that it has sent the Hydralisk packing. They need to find a way to work the Hydralisk back in to a prominent position. I keep thinking the Roach should be a mutation of the Hydralisk (like the Lurker) or vice versa (Hydralisk from Roach).

Not many changes to them except that the Ultralisk does +40 damage to buildings or something ridiculous like that. Ultralisks absolutely tear through buildings. I was talking with some other site admins about a fully upgraded Ultralisk which would theoretically do something like 115 damage to a structure.

The Infestor apparently has a model change in the works, but no other changes to note other than that.

 

Ok I will do that topic later today, but Ill only take questions from this topic! Thank you for the answers!

Question:
About the Jackal! What if they made it have a bonus against light (instead of that big bonus against armored), and then no gas cost? Then it would be massable like the marine, and really be like the vulture, also meatshield for your tanks?

 

WTF you took my fecking medal!! >=\
And you didn't even address my post about the colossus.

 

^
now that is slack, kuvask is a really helpful person. Check out the sig he did for me.

back on topic, jon,,,could u please explain the new collosus attack? i didnt quite get that..

 

Relax Ace, I was kidding a WWI coverage is like the best thing this site could get. And Jon's done hell of a lot of work for the site with the tees and admining and Anaheim and everything.

 

^
i totally agree with you, Jon definitely gets that award.....
xD

 

Be glad you got a medal. You're not the only helpful person here so you're lucky to be acknowledged. Though I would think the chance to go to all the Blizzard events would be reward in itself. I'd let them ban me if I got to go to a fansite event.

 

Lol. The fansite events are definitely fun and worth the effort. I'm just trying to bring back what information I can.

As far as the Colossus I don't know what I haven't yet answered. It still does the same splash attack but it has a new animation. First the beam starts and goes left to right. Then it starts right and goes to the left. It's like it's swinging a lightsaber.

And I don't really think I have the authority to comment on balance solutions regarding bonuses. There are hundreds of balance solutions for any of these problems.

 

Nice report! hopefully the Terran will be be changed a lot and blizz really do need to take another look at the Zergs

 

Did you ever use the nomad and how did it play out?

What units are buildable with a reactor?

How about bunkers?

How about zergs ability to spam units? was it too slow??

What is making the zerg weak? early tier? mid-Tier? or late??

What do you think the biggest change in the Zerg needs to be?

What do you think the Biggest change in the game needs to be?

How about Reapers mine ability. How were they offencivly in unit to unit combat? Did you ever throw them during a fight??

How about this ability that the zerg buildings spawn units when they die?? was that in the WWI build?

 

AOL just for your information, a lot of these questions were answered in the post, and I think that it would help Jon if you only posted questions that hasnt been answered in his post or later (these can be seen in my post here on the board).

 

Its hard trying to think of a new question and then go back and see if they were already answered. if thats the case just have jon Not answer the question and i'll go llok for the answer.

 

The logical way of doing it would be to read the whole thread and all the questions and the answers to them, not coming up with the question and searching if it's been answered :wacko:

 

AOL so you want Jon to do the work?

 

It's cool. They're not difficult questions and there isn't a pile to be answered.

Yes, I used the Nomad. It's back to its old model for some reason but beyond that there were no changes. It has the same abilities (turrets, etc.)

Barracks = Marine, Factory = Jackal, Starport =Viking

Any infantry unit can sit in the Bunker and can use all of their abilities. Marine, Marauder, Ghost, etc.

No, you can still build a lot of units. The cost is still an issue at this point.

Zerg has certain units that are strong during each tier. They're not overly weak at any one point. I would just say that they're unpowered as far as air units go.

I think the Zerg are shaping up as far as the structure of the race and the strategic options available. I think the Terran need the most work.

The Terran need something that puts them more in line with their race identity. Then balance, balance, balance. But the game overall is very fun and exciting.

I used it a couple of times. Mostly I would raid and enemy mineral line and do a lot of damage and then as any serious response came up (anything more than just Marines because Reapers can easily handle Marines almost 2 to 1) I would lay mines and retreat slowly. This would force the other player to continue firing at my Reapers instead of the mines and would do decimating damage to the units pursuing my Reapers. They're pretty effective.

Oh. Yeah. That was there. It was dumb and hardly worth mentioning. It basically spawns a few broodlings which are very weak. They die after a few seconds so you can just run your units around instead of fighting them. It only has any impact early game when it might kill a few Zealots if they're unsupported. It's nice if you're losing, I guess. They kill Zerglings pretty easily but it's nothing special.

On a related topic (regarding base defense) I felt that the Planetary Fortress is a bit much. It's actually a viable strategy for a player to simply build a lot of these because one can take out a good number of units. Just one by itself can hold off around 12 zealots simply because the SCVs can repair it so quickly. It's really ridiculous. I had a player build these all over the map and it required my getting DTs to beat him.