Nighthawk + Misc Updates

Nighthawk + Misc Updates
(http://www.sc2pod.com/wiki/Nighthawk)

Questions:
- Will you be able to rally units to a particular unit? Sort of like hero rallying in w3.

- Will you be able to control a teammate's units and resources if he ditches you?

- Will sharing units be allowed? For better micro in team games.

- Will you be able to see ally resources?

Hunter Seeker Missile Info

Source: http://forums.battle.net/board.html?sid=3000&forumId=12009

Enjoy,
Seradin

 

Nice info Seradin.
Before I hit the thank you button: Are you sure this is no leftover crap from April fools day?

 

lol positive this was posted the day afterwords on april 2nd and april 3rd.

 

Sweetness. *hits the button*

I never find this stuff, to lazy to look for it most of the time.

Anyway, most of this is very interesting, but he forgot to mention one thing: the cotrol, psy or supply when sharing units. If I transfer some unit, who will have to supply for it? Me or my ally? This can create some cool tactics when we get to transfer units and also transfer the supply.

 

It doesn't say anything about transferring, just sharing. I am pretty damn sure it will work like in WC3. The unit will belong to the original creator for all supply purposes, it can just be selected by allies.

 

Yeah, but I am hoping for a more realistic approach in starcraft 2. Sharing supply could be a great tactic.

Example: you are reasearching and do not have many units, but your ally is at the limit and needs more. Then your ally can share supply with you to create a stronger army to defend both bases untill the other player is done. Research player can build high tier units first and wins. Sounds fun to me. Adds some --take risks and you might win-- elements to the game.

 

How exactly would you share supply, you say?... You can't just share -some- supply, you either let you ally control all your units or not. Your system would mean that all allied players' supply are added together and then divided by the number of allied players - and they all have to live under that supply. That's just too weird, one guy could limit the amount of maximum units for all the other players.

Letting allies control your units should not affect supply at all.

 

Meh.. It was just a random idea of someone who is kinda tired. Sharing supply just sounded more realistic, although hard to implement.
Thanks for the feedback, I am of to bed. -2.30 am-

 

oo interesting concept..i was thinking something like this a while back when people were talking about the nighthawks abilities and stuff, so...cool. =]

 

I am glad to hear about all of this. None of it is conceptually new- we've seen it in other games (like WC3) but it's good to know that these useful team mechanics will be included in SC2 as well.

The H-S missile is interesting. It's basically a free 150 damage or kill if your enemy fails to micro.

 

awesome info, thanks seradin

 

I'm not such a fan of this Hunter-Seeker Missile. Before, the Nighthawk was extremely utilitarian and focused on indirect combat, and this just seems to have skewed it in a different direction that Terran practically already hold a monopoly of with Yamato Cannon, Siege Tanks, Thors, Banshees, Nighthawks (even without these missiles) and Snipe, in terms of direct damage, area of effect and anti-caster attacks and abilities go. On top of that, it seems like it would be a fairly droll missile if it's able to be outrun by most units.

Also, seeing as the part about the Nighthawk's abilities is very ambiguously worded, am I right in thinking that this missile has replaced both Spider Mines and Targeting Drones? If so, I'm even more opposed to the change. Apart from Spider Mines being made much more useful in StarCraft2, without any sort of cap whatsoever, I was so looking forwards to using the Targeting Drone. Not only would it have been useful for taking out priority targets much more quickly while on the offence, but it looked as though it would have worked wonders on the defence, being able to increase the damage output of all Bunkers, Auto-Turrets and Missile Turrets.

Lastly, while I've brought up Missile Turrets, Auto-Turrets being able to attack Air now is an interesting development. I'm hoping they will not replace the need for Missile Turrets, but, in the case of them being destroyed or disabled, will be able to be deployed quickly to fend off enemy raids, with the present Nighthawk still being there, providing Detection.

 

The Hunter Seeker Missile sounds awesome, interesting concept

 

Hunter Seeker kinda sucks. I did not reply to it yesterday, so now would be a good time:

- If good micro can make units outrun it, it will be almost useless for advanced players. And this is supposed to be THE new e-sports rts game...
- Spider mines -or the drone- suit the nighthawk better, since those can be used for detection.
- I want my mine drone... Do you know how happy I was when I saw that my idea turned out to be in the game two weeks later?! I will never know if they were inspired by me, -probably not- but it felt good.
- Terran has enough damage abilities already.
- @ ItzaHexGor: you would probably need about 3 auto turrets to replace one missile turret, or it would be imbalanced. It would be better used on the battlefield. Base air defense is more of a task for the thor.

 

Just saw some more miscellaneous updates by Karune.

And...

While I was disappointed by the Ghost's nerfed attacks, I'm surprisingly happy with the apparent changes to Snipe. In my opinion, Psi Round was far too limiting, and only actually did a hundred damage, and only to a select few units, the majority of which had over a hundred health.

Although the damage has been nerfed again, the fact that it, seemingly, can now be done to all units, and ignore armour, is a huge plus. Overall, it's gotten back to the core principles it displayed in the original Terran gameplay video.

That said, the damage has, nonetheless, been severely reduced. The following units are the only units that the Ghost will, currently, be able to one-shot in game;

• SCV's
• Marines (Including upgraded Marines)
• Reapers

• Larvae
• Drones
• Zerglings
• Banelings
• Broodlings
• Changelings

• Probes
• Observers

Now in my opinion, the damage is not high enough, and I think the ability to one-shot units such as Roaches and High Templar would be extremely useful, but even so, even from these select units we can see that it has become much more useful. Most notably, I'd say it's been vastly improved against Zerg, balancing with the previous bias towards countering Protoss, and most notably with being able to Snipe Banelings.

On top of that, it must be remembered that there is no rule saying that to be useful, the targets need to be one-shotted. Even with only sixty damage, a small group of Ghosts could wreak havoc to almost any army, regardless of what it consists of. On top of that, even now, Snipe will still be vital for crippling such units as the Roach and Templar, either allowing the rest of the army or a couple of follow up shots to finish them off, or by, when the Sniped Templar comes back into play, finishing them off with a Snipe, then and there. Also, with there being so few primary targets for the current Snipe, it could also be said that it will be used a lot more freely than it otherwise would have been.

Lastly, EMP seems to have been nicely balanced, allowing for units such as Archons and tactics such as, say, massed Carriers, to be used without any risk of them all being crippled instantly. As for the removal of its Energy Detection radius, I definitely think it's a step in the right direction, as it was far too gimmicky before.

On the other points, I'd love to see the Targeting Drone be reintroduced, and, needless to say, am looking forwards to the new screenshots we've been promised. It might even give us a bit of an insight into how long it takes for these processes to be completed.

 

Nice info, thanks Itza.

One thing: the snipe may not one-shot (High) Templar anymore, but if you hit them with an emp they are practicly useless. Also, this would force them to Archon meld, which you can snipe if you are fast enough. -they start at 1 life when merging- A question for anyone who knows: do the Ghosts still have cloack?

P.s. Infestor screenshots? W00T!

 

Kind of like a reaver's scarab?

 

@ Aurora. Correction; If you hit them with an EMP, they are temporarily useless. Depending on whether they've already cast their abilities or not, EMP might have no effect on anything, and will not always be viable if you have a lot of Banshees, other Ghosts or Nighthawks in the local vicinity. So yeah, it may prevent them from casting whatever it is they were otherwise going to cast, but only if you catch them before they cast. If you catch them after they cast, it does next to nothing, and they'd've retreated anyway. It doesn't force them to Archon merge, only to retreat.

If they could be taken out with Snipe, then they're gone. End of story, and a very different story to using EMP.

 

Yeah, of course you would have to get them before I cast. And if you succeed, it becomdes a lot safer to get close. But unless you know how fast energy regenerates in starcraft 2 -and it turns out to be fast-, the retreating tactic is bad imo. Most of the time when I play protoss, I make archons of depleted high templars. It just takes to long for the energy to come back for my play style. -But I am used to zerg, so waiting is not really something I like.-

 

Well not only does that not mean that EMP'ing will make them practically useless, but you're completely forgetting about the Dark Pylon's ability to transfer Energy. On top of that, it would be more risky to keep them on the front, either when going to merge with another High Templar or waiting for the other to run out of Energy, than it would be to retreat. Lastly, and conversely, EMPing them still allows them to merge into an Archon, whereas if they were Sniped, then they're dead, meaning no Archons, no recharging Energy, no nothing.