Q&A batch 31 !!

the new Q&As with a huge gamplay blog how karune had advertised: enjoy :good: :
Welcome back to another edition of our StarCraft II Questions & Answers. This week we will get to see a new unit that is built in the Factory: The Jackal. Enjoy!

Gameplay Blog: This past week while playing a Terran versus Terran mirror game, Karune discovered a new unit option from the Factory. This new unit is known as the Jackal, which is a fast vehicle like the Vulture, but instead wields a rail gun, which does an area of effect damage in a straight line at ground units.

His opponent built the standard Marines & Medics (M&Ms) composition while Karune bunkered his choke point and teched straight to a Factory with a Reactor add on, which allowed him to build two Jackals at one time from a single Factory.

After he built a group of 6 Jackals, he rolled onto the field with his Jackals broken up in two groups with 3 Jackals each. Karune engaged his M&Ms with his first group, having the Marines line up around his Jackals as they naturally do while firing. Quickly, he brought in my second group of Jackals along the side to flank the M&Ms and the line attack did the rest, killing up to 2-3 units with a single focus fire command. With a little micromanagement, Karune was able to decimate his opponents' whole group of 15 or so units, while only losing two Jackals. That battle gave him a significant military advantage, which eventual led to a relatively quick win.

1. How will Marines mount into a pod? Is this done via the barracks, or an entirely unannounced building, or Dropship-like airship yet to be revealed? (sc2armory.com)
Terran infantry currently load into the Shadow Ops building (prerequisite for the Ghost). A Ghost can then launch drop pods, which originate from that building.

2. Can a player order a Ghost in a Bunker to call Nukes and Drop Pods? baboonsy (Battle.net)
Yes, Terran infantry currently have all abilities except the SCV repair ability available for use while inside a bunker, including the use of Nukes and Drop Pods.

3. What spells are specifically affected by the Nullifier's ability? Will physical spells like the Marine's Stim Pack, the Ghost's Nuke, or Reaper Mines be disabled? Also, will spells cast before entering the area (I.E. Ghost's cloak) be disabled upon entering the area? (www.starcraft2forum.org)
Only abilities which require energy usage will be unable to be cast while in the Null Void's area of effect. Additionally, the Null Void ability will disengage cloak by units such as the Ghost. It also currently reveals burrowed Zerg units, but this is still being debated in terms of balance.

4. Last we heard, Veterancy was active for the Terran but we haven't heard anything about it since and are quite curious is it still in the game? (starcraft-source.com)
Veterancy will likely be seen in the single player campaign, but will not be in the multiplayer game.

5. In StarCraft, some units had instant attack animations (Corsiar, Mutalisk, Vulture). This allowed people with good micro to make these units move and shoot. In contrast there were units that had an attack animation which required the unit to stop and shoot. This allowed people with good micro to dance (move, shoot, move shoot, maximizing the distance travelled without the unit losing any shooting time). In Warcraft III, units tended to have attack animations which took as long as the cooldown for the attack, making micro actions such as these non-existent.

Will units in StarCraft II have attack animations that last as long as the cooldown for their attack, similar to Warcraft III? or will players be able to dance (moving in between shooting) like in StarCraft? Also, will there be any units with instant attack animations that can be micromanaged to move and shoot like in StarCraft? -Fen / GenericTerranPlayer (teamliquid.net)
Balance will be the first priority when determining the animation duration for units. With that said, there will be certain units that players will be able to dance' with, and there will be other units which will force the unit to stop and fire. Some units in StarCraft II will not only need to stop and fire, but will do additional damage to a target while it focuses. All of these characteristics which determine how a unit will be used in competitive play will be chosen based on balance.

6. When a unit is cloaked or burrowed, can the sensor tower still see the unit in the fog of war? DarkAlaskan (Battle.net)
Yes, the Sensor Tower will reveal all units in the fog of war, including cloaked and burrowed units. Sensor Towers are currently a staple to any Terran defense or offensive. Xordiah

wow six beautiful questions are answered
RTS Community Representative EU

http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general-eu&t=362&p=1&#post362

Update from karune:
1)agreed with what Blazur says about bunkers and nukes, but imo if you reduced the range at which nukes can be thrown when inside a bunker it would be a little bit easier, still I would prefer ghosts not being able to launch nukes when inside a bunker....I mean wtf am I supposed to do if there are 5 bunkers?? How do I know where it's been launched from? lucky guess?

Honestly, this is completely up to balance, and of course if it proves too difficult to prevent or avoid, I'm pretty sure it will be changed.

Furthermore, the red dot that Ghosts project when launching a Nuke at the moment, is somewhat easily avoided.

2)The Jackal does not currently hit air, but be assured that Terrans will have their counters to air. At the moment, they are still figuring out what unit best fits that role (such as the Thor).

3) The Jackal's attack is instant, whereas the original StarCraft Lurker had an attack that would go outwards from the location of the Lurker, which allowed a player to potentially dodge the attack even if you were originally standing in its line of attack.

4)The Banshee now has a single target attack. It will still be able to cloak and is still only able to hit ground targets.
It is true that Terran does have various area of effect attacks now, though most of them all require micromanagement.

5)They currently need to stop and fire. But if your opponent's units are in the line of attack of a Jackal when it attacks, they will surely take damage, whereas if it were a Lurker (from StarCraft), they would still have about half a second to react and possibly dodge that attack


Update#2:
6) The Nullifier will be a mechanical unit and there has yet to be a screenshot. Hopefully, we will get one out to everyone shortly, with the new changes to the overall colors of StarCraft II as well.

7) In the current build, when you initiate Salvage on a Terran Bunker, units inside the Bunker will no longer be able to use their abilities.

Much of the mechanics around Salvage are still to be balanced, though I don't think it would be terribly hard, especially since the duration it takes to Salvage a building can be changed easily.

 

Re: ^Q&A 31 !!

GOOD find, how the hell do you find all those, do you not have a life like me?

PS: you sig is a bit sucky

EDIT: i really like the new unit!

 

Yes the new unit seems to be interesting ! And its big advantage for the terrans that nukes can nuke out of a bunker ...
U tarn the ghost go into bunker ... send nuke and the opponent don't know , also with detects, where teh ghost is and wehn the bunker is destroyed he's tarned for a short time...

PS: my sig is in process

 

The Jackal....Nice :good:

I will be hoping what the Maruader, Nullifier and the Jackal will look like, and especially, i wonder what the Zerg will look like

 

Now that ghosts can nuke out of a bunker, that really gives the nuke a lot more usefulness. It retains its infamous assault qualities, and now it can be used defensively as a "last ditch effort" to repel a normally unbeatable hoard.

I still don't think I completely understand the radar tower, but I think I get it enough to get by until I use upon SC2s release.

 

Nuke+Bunker+Zergling Rush=Bacon?

The Jackel seems kewl. I wonder if it is ground only (Seems so, especially for balance reasons).

 

Yeah seems like ground only... im sure people will like the railguns (ahem pew pew lasers own them ahem)

 

Very good Q&A, this Jackel unit sounds nice. But why should it be limited to ground, its a Rail gun.

But I find it stupid for Null Void to unburrow units cuz that doesn't require energy and physcially it just doesn't fit together. But they are still changing this so who knows.

But Hmm... No Zerg this week, we should see the Jackel tho, does this mean a new big gameplay video?

 

The Null void did not unburrow did it, it just detected right?

 

It's like the Science Vessal, you see a black dot

 

Oh it reveals, I misread. My bad.

 

I think Terran is getting to much detection, else its fine!

 

What a great Q & A! Good find!

I can just picture a massive attack converging on a Terran outpost... only to be Nuked from a Ghost inside a Bunker. However, I am unhappy to hear that veterancy will be in the game, even if only single-player. It's not a mechanic I like too much (my reasons are in the veterancy thread).

I'm glad we filled in a Factory spot - but Terrans still need to fill the Starport spot! The Jackal sounds really cool, but it doesn't address the current lack of anti-air the Terrans have. I'm sure Blizzard will realize this at some point though.

 

Agreed. Hopefully the Jackel can hit air.

 

At the moment it can't.

 

Perhaps the veterancy system is just based around that your "heroes" get stronger with the time?

 

Ah yes. ''It has an AoE effect in a straight line against ground units.''
But that doesn't rule out a GtA attack, maybe it just doesn't do AoE damage to Air targets since its pretty much firing from an angle.

 

I soo hope that you are right. I don't want other units have this stuff.

 

To clear up some things, Karune has been posting:

So the Jackal's attack IS ground only. Interesting to note that the Banshee now has a single-target attack. Boo in my opinion - I loved what we saw in the Terran demo video!

 

The banshee is useless from now on.... Nice... Splash damage please..