Karune answers forums questions!

Wow! Nydus worm can carry a lot of units. That should be fun!

 

ghost drop pod removed?

if there will be a UED race, i think the drop pod mechanic fit them well. actually my ued concept race function just like that.

the xelnaga race would be like the mechanics they have in battle realms. yes, you create and customize your hybrid units by putting units in certain buildings.

i'll make a different thread about it.

 

I agree, just imagine a zerg player built 5 nudus worms and they are cloaked...that is OP i rkn. You would be a dope if you try to attack a base with only 1 nudus worm...

 

I personally have always considered the Nydus Worm to be more of a next-gen Nydus Canal rather than a bona fide Overlord(transport) replacement. While everything about it was very nice, it was really only so in terms of improvements over the original Nydus Canal. So while the idea of somebody(even if not Zerg) getting a cloaked transport was really cool to me, I don't really think it's a big deal if it doesn't happen. In the end, we're still getting an all-terrain Canal without the dependence on Creep that is more generally useful.

However, while the Nydus Worm is a satisfactory improvement over the original Canal, I see little reason why it must stay as Zerg's unit transport, now that it lost the one thing that distinguished it from other transports and gave it an edge. With the current design, I see little reason for Zerg players to pre-load it and use it as a transport. In my opinion, they should just give the function of transporting units back to the Ovie. It made sense before, it makes even more sense now.

I guess a lot of us have always thought that the Ghost was a little "bloated," I know I certainly have. This trimming of abilities doesn't come as a surprise even in the slightest.

 

You people don't get it do you.

It doesn't instantly unload 225 units, you won't even get 225 units in there due to cost and time.
All it does is provide a passage and the loaded units 'auto-drop' one by one, and if they were channeling a large amount of units the Nydus Worm would be dead before it could unload a disgusting amount of units...
Also the fact you can now see it coming makes it even more of a nerf for Zerg transportation as it could die before it even gets to a decent place to unload, the fact is to ambush and get them by suprise which is what Zerg are supposed to excel at, yet they have no early cloakers and their transportation means are less effective than the Terran and Protoss.
Zerg don't even have an actual unit which can traverse cliffs unlike the Terran and Protoss with their Reapers, Stalkers, Colossus.

I know now I wouldn't use a Nydus Worm is its current state, its become very redundant.
You also say how its imbalanced, yet it wasn't imbalanced to unload Reavers and stuff straight into a base or recall 30 Zealots straight into a base was it?
Terran can do exactly the same thing with units like Reapers, they come straight into your base and can go straight out just as easy, Protoss can warp-in a whole army into your base with the aid of a Phase Prism yet they are not imbalanced or overpowered?
Not to mention the Nydus Worm 3 second cooldown after it emerged, the units only come out one by one just like any other transport, except it will take longer to bring them all out and you cannot evacuate as easy as you could with a Dropship or Phase Prism.

Now it would be worth your while to just move your army as normal that way atleast you can kill a few units, unlike the Nydus Worm just being a dead shot for tanks meaning you've wasted minerals and time for your ''ambush'' which can be seen from 13 range away.

Its either cloaked Nydus Worm or Overlord/seer transportation, Zerg need one or the other.

 

the language karune uses makes me feel like it doesn't function as a canal anymore, but rather that you load it up, move it wherever, and then the units pop out one by one

if it functioned the same way a nydus canal did, why does he phrase it like that?

 

You load them in the Nydus Warren (I think) and from their you move the Nydus Worm to where you want it, then unload.

Nice one ignoring my post ;]

 

no, I didn' t ignore your post, it's just that you didn't explicitly say that they were loaded all in like a transport and you used the word "channeling" so I wasn't sure what you meant

 

Oh I see as it was kinda directed at you since you said it seems way imbalanced. Does it still seem imbalanced?

 

Cavez explained more about the removal of the Drop Pods

Drop Pods were "one more thing" on the Ghost. The Ghost had a TON of powers for a while and when we were looking at it we decided we had to be simpler/cleaner with the unit design so cuts had to be made.

More importantly, when we played with them in-game we really struggled to find a good use for them in a lot of situations. They had some narrow-use cases of course, but just weren't that fun. They were balance-able.

As our unit mix changes we may find a use for them again, but today they are out.

AND a little about the Thor

We have tried the "multi-unit" in various forms a few years ago and they never really work out. It's always very difficult for the enemy to figure out how to deal with the multi-unit. And once a large number of multi-units are in-play it becomes a pretty boring game for both players.

The Thor is actually working pretty well as:
- Anti-air (Flak Cannons are good vs. smaller air units).
- Point-man for a charge into an enemy defended position.

This gives the Terrans something that is less static than the Siege Tank from the Factory to "push" and it also gives them the badly needed anti-air from the Factory as well. So far the testing on him has gone pretty well, he is balance-able, reasonably different from other units in the game and fun to use.

Thors vs. Battlecruisers is a good example of a fun match-up with this design. Battlecruisers get messed up a bit by the Thor's AA but the damage isn't quite right for taking down Battlecruisers, Battlecruisers can respond with Yamato and Thors can respond to that with their self-repair ability. Battlecruisers also have the mobility advantage. Overall I think the Thor has the edge, but player skill is a big factor in these types of heavy-metal duels.

Anyway, you guys know that this stuff changes all the time, but until we learn more, the Thor seems to be in a pretty good space.

SOURCE: http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=1271560&p=1

it sounds to me that they gave the Thor the nano-repair bots to make it a tank.

 

Lol @ the Thor now better than the Viking.

 

If the thor is for clustered light air then the viking is for heavy air, right? Pretty much the role of a goliath, which is fine because the thor might just find its place after all the awkward tossing about. I don't like the sound of self-repair unless an SCV needs to be mounted.

 

@ Psionicz : Keep in mind that the Viking still has something the thor will never have, greatly superior mobility

I think it's pretty good that we finally hear about the Thor, it's been a while we did not get news. The more he was absent in the news the more he was close to being cut.

And I din't want the big guy to be cut off :_ (

A role might have been found that will fit him! Good news!

 

Lol if the Thor can self repair, why can't the other mechs like the BC do it...

 

so the thor is just a bigger goliath in sc2. =\

 

By "mutli-unit," I assume he meant multi-functional or all-purpose, more or less. My question is, when has anyone other than Blizzard wanted the Thor to be all-purpose? In my opinion, whether the current Thor works or not, it is the most "multi-unit" Thor to date. So not to be sarcastic or cynical, but, I really don't understand wtf he's talking about.

Give us Ovie transport. We don't need cloak on Nydus, just give us Ovie transport.

 

-Shoots Remy-

I want my cloaked/burrowed Nydus Worm. >;[

Overlord/seer transport would be nice also as I've said before, Protoss can warp everywhere, Terran can heal on the move, both races have cliff traversing units, and the Zerg has nothing even on par to those, except a 'glitch' where the Nydus can go up cliffs, but that is not effectient at all and cannot be microed. To use that as cliff traversing only would be very linear.

 

-Dodges Psionicz's attack via bullet time(or some other crap), laughs at it, and shoots Psionicz back, critting him for 99999 damage-

Psionicz, despite the inherent super mega ultra coolness in the Nydus Worm having cloak, Ovies transporting is better.

If you consider the Nydus Worm as an improvement/successor/replacement to the original Nydus Canal instead of Zerg's unit transport, you'll see that it's not so bad how it is now. The uncloaked Nydus Worm is still fully functional and a great tactical tool. As Zerg's only unit transport, it falls short, but that's the case even with cloak IMO.

As a next-gen Canal, the current Nydus Worm can still have some good uses. Bring a couple along with you on assaults, and if you find a soft spot somewhere, you can go ahead and make your own "door" to the enemy's base/expo bypassing choke defense.

Even when there is no such soft spot and you are limited to full frontal confrontation, the Worms are still not useless to you. You can just plant the Worms in the backlines behind your troops. That instantly establishes a beachhead for your assault efforts and provide a remote rally point for all of your newly built ground units. This is especially useful to the Zerg because Zerg rely on the flow of replacement units more than the other races.

As I've said before, give us Ovie transport.

 

-Pauses the matrix, interrupts via time distortion before Psionicz attempted to shoot Remy and said...

@ Psionicz - as a primary protoss player you have well given right and justice in defending our cause.. but needless to say, as Remy said a post ago, one wouldnt be so reckless anyway with the worm as even if it has cloak, zerg players still wouldnt bluntly maneuver transports in a suicidal path.. the way I see it maybe we can have an agreement on this possible opinion about my preferred worm.. "how about make it burrowed but still visible superficially by leaving large tracks of ground breakage on its path so atleast in fairness sake everyone can be satisfied..."

@ Remy - you've cited well how a nydus worm is rather an evolved structure turned into a unit that also I think is fine as it is now compared to the previous state. But maybe there is a purpose behind a skill devolution of the overlord, as back 10 years before, a possible reason the ovie was the primary transport was to compensate for having no shuttle or dropship w/c are both air types - the overminds perhaps sensed that disadvantage that they make those ovies evolve a capacity like that but after 4 years Kerrigan has definitely got some explaining to do so put the blame on her if youd like...

I dont see anything wrong with either of your arguments, as Psionicz is possibly right with zerg being less disadvantageous against other factions transpo and Remy being able to rationalize what are Blizzards intentions on doing it so, but isnt protoss the only one with a new style of transport (multi-transpo not clif-hikers)? Maybe rather the problem is "do the zerg need the ovie/seer as an alternate mode of transpo? why in the 1st place did blizzard removed it from ovies anyway? is Kerrigan being conservative with ovies, as she doesnt want it to put in harms way anymore? Safety or insanity?" -The truth lies out there....

-Resumes with space time continuum and still the same messy action occured...

 

Wow. I really like your idea Remy. Send a butt load of units to the front of the base and hold the nydus worms in reserve, full of units...then if you are losing the battle, you can unload them right behind the front line; if you find a weak spot of D, just bypass it and unload behind enemy lines, or just pop up ON enemy lines while they are preoccupied taking out the main force.

Just imagine a bunker+siege tank defended ramp or choke. While they are taking out swarms of zerglings and hydras, you could pop up in between the bunkers and siege tanks with some banelings, within the minimum range and the choke could be gone in a matter of seconds!

I'm getting goosebumps.