Potential Stalker Upgrade

did you read all the posts? the first post doesn't explain it very well. if you did what are your concerns?

 

as long as its a semi late game upgrade i personally would be fine with it
i just dont c it happening as any sort of early upgrade
at the same level as detectors

 

Well I don't like the idea of it fading in and out because I don't really like the random factor. I think perhaps it should be a user activated ability. That or have an upgrade that makes the stalker permanently cloaked

 

it is not random, the periods of cloak and uncloak are fixed. (e.g. 5 seconds cloak, then 5 seconds uncloak)

 

I still think adding a toggle would solve alot of peoples qualms about the ability because players could sinc there stalkers or shut down the "blinking" for a little while if needed. Also the way i imagine the toggle working is when you activate the ability after 1-5 seconds the stalkers cloak and keep jumping from cloaked to non cloaked in 5-10 second intervals until the toggle is changed again and the stalkers stay uncloakced until the ability is reactivated.

 

I have to repeat that any player control over the exact timing of the cloaking, defeats the whole point of the idea.

The idea is to allow for battlefield confusion tactics. Not to just give yet another unit ambush capability. Ambushing is a more powerful ability than what I have suggested. Obviously if players can choose when their units cloak, and/or leave them cloaked permanently, they would do so. So this suggestion is designed to promote a deeper, less obvious level of tactical thought.

Just like cliff-climbing inserts a new realm of possibilities between pure ground and pure air combat. Limited concealment introduces a whole new forum of tactics in-between pure stealth and pure visible combat. I think it offers a good bit of added strategic depth. All of which is ruined by allowing the player to turn it into just another stealth unit... and a crappy one at that.

 

Im not suggesting a player can completely control the randomness factor im suggesting they can control when things start to go random. What i meant by those time intervals is each time a stalker cloaks/decloaks it stays that way for a random time that lasts between 5-10 seconds and when you activate the ability it takes a random time bewteen 1-5 seconds before the unit cloaks. I only suggested the toggle becuase it gives a player a chance to look at the exact number of stalkers he has and a chance to semi sincronize them before randomness completely takes over.

 

ohhhh... you're suggesting a random timer? hmm... could be interesting I guess

might actually make sense to have a toggle I suppose - but then to maintain the concept, we'd have to have a random timer... and random effects don't traditionally make it in Starcraft

but you may be right that a toggle makes more sense, because as somebody was saying earlier - it doesn't make much sense for the DT's to be perpetually struggling to cloak when they should already know it can't be maintained for long... makes them look kinda slow-witted - but the mechanism you suggest means they'd just be trying their best to fulfill their commander's orders... a much more valiant image

EDIT: and to keep the random variables to a min - it could be as simple as just having a random delay to the initial cloaking after being ordered to cloak... so player clicks toggle, Stalkers cloak individually random 1-5 secs later, and then they keep on the 4 sec cloak, 6 sec uncloak cycle - until the toggle is switched off...

 

Also the inclusion of a toggle decreases the stress aginst the random factors because players would have some level of control over the effect instead of it being completely passive which seems to be tkaing just as much heat.

 

i'd rather have the cloak on and cloak off to be really short, like strobe light effect. maybe 2 second cloak, 2 second uncloak. that's just enough time for them to see you coming before you vanish and reappear halfway closer to the base.

 

Hey what if instead of just cloaking the stalkers phase out meaning that they take little or no damage for th 2 seconds. It would add an interesting and unique aspect

 

hmm... the problem with setting the rate at around 2 secs is that I doubt most players would have enough time to do anything really with the mechanism

ideally I'm aiming at a time frame short enough that it doesn't let hidden ambushes work - but still long enough so that players can use it tactically

 

I say we have it be 1.337 seconds then. Most players will be able to do something in that time slot. If not.. well...

 

If not it's their problem for not being 1.337 enough.

I like the idea of the toggle, it seems logical, but not the idea of phasing out. The faerie dragons had phase shift in wc3 because they were spellcasters and very weak hp wise.

 

i just like the completely random thingy.

 

i honestly don't care about the lore...
lets get some fair mechanics then just make up w/e
toggle sounds good also

 

the cloak thing should really be more of a scare tactic though, like they'll know that for every stalker they see, there might be 3 that they don't see.