one way cliff jumpers

i've seen a few people complaining there are too many cliff walkers, which take away their uniqueness. there could be one way cliff jumpers that can only jump down cliffs but not jump up.

examples could include zerglings, ghost, dark templar

just imagine swarms of zerglings diving off a cliff to attack enemies below

 

I would like to see zerg climb instead of jump just for uniqueness

and Yes zerglings ambushing from above does sound cool

 

I feel like Zerglings being able to jump down cliffs fits perfectly the frail wings they seemed to have in the gameplay trailer. And Zerglings ambushing from above would be quite a sight. One minute, you are chillin the next Zerglings fly down out of nowhere and rip your forces to shreds. Coolness.

 

Dude, this idea rulez. Zerglings are perfect for it. I can just picture a Zerg rush swarming down cliffs into your base....

*Drools*

 

You sure do drool alot Fenix.

Besides Zerglings I can't think of anything else it would work wih

 

Banelings? I don't know, I think maybe they could roll down with some momentum and explode upon impact dealing AoE damage?

Or maybe also the hydras could like lift themselves up using their claws or something?

Interesting thread...

 

Yeah, 'specially for someone with no mouth

Well, why have it for anything else? In the SC world, units are supposed to be unique, and this would keep the Zergling relevant late game, especially if it gained a slight bonus from cliff diving

 

you can't have EVERY unit jump up cliffs... it lessens the importants of the reaper and collosus. so basicly the zergling as good of a raider as a reaper, and they're easier to get and dirt cheap.

 

Exactly. Perfect suicide attack.

Also, if they bring the Infested Terran back, I'd love to see that have it. I can totally picture them jumping off cliffs yelling "For the Swarm!!"....I realize Banelings probably replaced them, but God that's an awesome image.

 

The cliff jumping addition to SC2 is certainly a unique one that opens up so many possibilities for gameplay and strategy, which would be hard to find a perfectly balanced structure that doesn't overemphasize a units importance and role.

The Colossus fits perfectly as a mobile artillery killing machine perched high in the air on tall legs for maximum range of sight/fire, terrain maneuverability and overall efficiency.

Reapers are pretty cool, I'm glad they have the explosive pack throwing ability or I wouldn't like them as much. Normally a small ability like that on a unit wouldn't completely change my mind on a unit, but without the packs sure they are good base raiders because they can infiltrate from so many more places on a map, and work great in packs, but the addition of the explosive packs really emphasizes their base raiding image and functionality.

And for Zerg we are yet to see what the the swarm will bring to the table in terms of cliff climbing. Zerglings could climb cliffs, maybe lurkers if kept in the game, defilers possibly, and any new units we don't know about yet... I wonder what Blizzard will decide on. If Zerglings could climb cliffs, I'd preffer to have it as an upgrade to the Zergling. Giving it to the ling just as is would have to drive up cost and the Zergling wouldn't be the affordable core unit that it is, espcially in early game.

Although I personally think that one cliff jumping/climbing unit for each race is enough, the Ghost and Dark Templar are interesting ideas to toy around with.

If Blizzard really wanted to take the Ghosts covert special ops role even one step further, they could add the ability to scale walls with rope. Rappel down a cliff for example. It could possibly find a way up cliffs as well, but for balance purposes (heh what do I know about balance yet to be done in SC2 though lol) I would prefer it to only be able to go down cliffs. You could send in an appropriate army of units to the enemies main entrance, or other expansion base (pick spot and unit to send that you can draw enemies attention to that battle long enough, but with minimal loss in resources), then have a cloaked Ghost sneak in the back of their base by roping down a cliff, launching a nuclear assault. The enemy will most likely think the nuke is placed somewhere in relation to where you are attacking them at, and won't think of where your Ghosts are really at. They might figure it out, but I'm sure a lot of times it will be too late to do anything by the time the nuke falls. Hell, you could build up a few nukes and really wreak havoc from behind if you wanted to.

Wall climbing for the Dark Templar would be super cool and would fit it's assassin image, but I think it would make the Dark Templar too much for most to deal with.


Bonus 300 minerals for a great post.

 

Psh How come I have never gotten bonus minerals for posts I Have made.

Yes jumping zerglings would be bad.

I think climbing would be good for the ghost and DT but they would take a few seconds to reach the top and they would be vulnerable the mean time unable to attack.

 

If you give cliff climbing/jumping to too many units, terrain simply won't be an issue any more.

 

So far it has only been one unit per race so it isn't too many. Plus the two that can do it do it in totally different ways.

 

I've always been intrigued by the idea of cliff jumping. Even before the wing'ed Zerglings, I always imagined Vultures and other hovering units being capable of, at the very least, dropping down to lower levels. With Vultures in particular, I saw them flying off the cliff and moving with no loss in speed. I mean, they have wings, boosters, hover devices and... psionic auras... It shouldn't be too hard to at least slow a fall.

I particularly like the idea of more-mobile workers: it would be good for scouting and fleeing bases. The main problem with workers jumping is, of course, the act that it would make expansion on cliff-heavy maps very easy.

I'd say that hovering units would have the easiest time cliff jumping, but special-ops units like DTs and Ghosts might be able to as well, but very, very slowly. They'd need grips and footholds and everything. I'd imagine it would also make them vulnerable to attack as they did it.

As per the number of units per race that can do this: I imagine it would be larger than the number that can go both ways, bu nowhere near the majority of units.

BirdOfPrey: The Protoss actually have two cliff jumpers: the Colossus and the Stalker. Admittedly, it's not as obvious with the Stalker, but they use the "Cliff Jumper Corridors" (paths between bases that only cliff-jumping units can take consisting of multiple tiers of terrain or rock obstructions) that Blizzard built into their maps with the same kind of ease as the Reaper, if with less speed.
Also, the Viking might be considered to be a cliff jumper as well, as, like the Stalker, it gains mobility with an upgrade, however, the fact that it converts to a full air unit makes that distinction a bit hazy.
At any rate, both races appear to have two ground units that fit into the high-mobility category.

 

I already posted this idea in the topic that is directly related to Zerglings being able to climb cliffs, and I thought I would post it here as well as it is more of a concept of cliff jumping functionality that isn't specific to a unit/race. I will, however, use the Zergling as an example

A general idea for cliff jumping/climbing is that if a unit (upgraded Zergling, for example) is climbing up or down a cliff and there is a missile turret or other ground-to-air only unit on the lower elevation of terrain, it should be able to shoot at the Zergling that is climbing up or down. A Turret, for example, that is firing at a Zergling climbing up/down a cliff might have a reduced attack damage, but a small amount of splash damage (since a missile is exploding against a cliff wall).

Just something I thought would be cool, and the only structure or unit that I can think of that it would apply to is the Missile Turret.

 

The Stalker won't be as good for a raid though since it requires LoS to blink which cliffs block

Either way it is hardliy overdoing it

 

If it was dependent on Line of Sight then Stalkers wouldn't have any problem blinking down a cliff, it would be blinking up the cliff that would pose a problem... unless Blizzard makes an exception somehow for Stalkers so as long as the player can see the terrain. Could be logically accomplished if the description of blink included that if another nearby unit or detector could see the spot to blink to, and it is within the range of the blink ability, then it can go up a cliff.

 

one thing i would like to point out is unlike maps in sc2 where there are only 2 levels, maps in sc2 has many levels, so only being able to jump down is a big difference from being able to jump both ways.

 

point 1: i cant imagine an explanation why units would be able to go up cliffs and not down
point 2: you actually had 3 terrain lvels in SC

 

on most tile-sets there are only 2 levels, i think only space platform and indoors had 3. anyway most games are played on maps with 2 levels