Q&A Batch 42 Online!

This week's Q&A has been released and focuses on peripheral issues regarding Starcraft 2. Questions covered include teasers about cheats, map making, and cinematics. But of course don't forget the usual cookie discussion about abilities on units like the Battlecruiser.

There's no Gameplay shout this week or message from the Devs, just Q&A! But there's still a lot of information to be gleaned here! Enjoy!

 
--StarCraft II Q&A Batch 42---

1. What was the main reasoning to shifting the Hydralisk backwards one technology level? How does this affect the Zerg early-game, especially since the Zerg will have absolutely no anti-air units before the Hydralisks? (gamereplays.org)

Actually, the Hydralisk has been brought back down to Tier 1.5, giving Zerg early anti-air capabilities without upgrading their Hatchery to a Lair. The test originally was to put Hydralisks at a later tech and have Corruptors be buildable earlier without a prerequisite building other than upgrading to the Lair. To make this happen, the Corruptors had to be nerfed appropriately to fit that tech, which made it very weak and much less fun. Additionally, without a prerequisite building, opposing players could not scout the Zerg player to see when they were going air, which did not fit the gameplay style we were shooting for.

2. What kinds of cheats will be included in Starcraft 2, and how will they be accessed/unlocked? (starcraft.org)

There will be cheats, but you wont know what they are from us sorry.

3. Concerning resources there is one big issue for mapmakers: There are only two of them. For many UMS-maps you need more different resource-types than gas and minerals, thus mapmakers were forced to use even civilians as a sort of resource. So will mapmakers be able to place their one, gather-able resources on the map such as lumber or gold? (starcraft2.4players.de)

Yes, we have recently added support for one additional custom resource type. Additional custom resources types may be implemented in the future, but there are no plans at the moment.

4. With the Battlecruiser's new ability dealing splash damage to lightly armored air units, you could fear that the Thor has once more fallen into a role void. Is this the case or are the Battlecruiser ability and the Thor's anti-air capabilities tactically different enough? (Gamereplays.org)

The overlap is really no more different than a Siege Tank and the Yamato Gun ability or the Reaver and the Psi Storm from Brood War. The new ability helps the Battlecruiser against a specific group of units, which are units the Battlecruiser is already good against, rather than making it effective against all units. The last thing we wanted is for the Battlecruiser to kill groups of units that are supposedly effective at countering it, such as the Warp Ray.

5. Does the Battlecruisers new AoE affect friendly units in the area? (thewarcenter.net)

No, the Missile Barrage does not affect friendly units.

6. Will it be possible to use the full 3D cinematics mechanic from the single player campaign in the map editor? (sc2pod.com)

Yes, we are looking forward to seeing some awesome custom cut scenes from the community.

7. Most users know that even invisible units can be seen by experienced players since they cause this nice little blur effect while in Warcraft 3 invisible units are indeed invisible aside from leaving footprints on the ground. So what about transferring the 'real' invisibility into the World of Starcraft by allowing mapmakers to choose from those two different invisible modes for each unit? (starcraft2.4players.de)

Map makers will be able to remove the blur effect that is currently on StarCraft IIs invisible units.

---End of Transmission---

Source: Battle.net

 

Sweet, the Hydra's back to 1.5 tier and the Corrupter is as powerful as it was before, custom resources, and real invisibility.

Awesome.

 

Booyakasha! CHEATS! Funnily enough, today was a beautiful day and during the course of the day at one point I go "It is a good day to die!" to my brother. He looked at me puzzled for a second but then caught on. I love how Blizzard's cheats make connections to pop culture and references to older games. Like the corsairs saying "It is a good day to die!" when they were produced, or "show me the money" from Jerry Maguire giving you mad cash money, "valdez" giving you oil in WC2, or "the gathering" (as in Magic: The Gathering) for mana in SC. Good times.

 

Question #4 about the BattleCruiser and the Thor has gotten me worried. It seems that Blizzard is intending to keep the current Thors role. They have this attitude of, "We like the current Thor, so we are not going to change it whatsoever."

This is the exact same attitude that they had with the Medivaic Dropship. People were very worried about the Medivaic Dropship but after the WWI, from the countless of reports that I read were very positive for the Medivaic Dropship. From that, the community can be a little rest assured that the mechanic was a good one.

Thors on the other hand, was the complete opposite. People were saying that they weren't very useful and needs a revamp. I'm extremely worried about the Thor and how Blizzard is intending to keep the Thors role. I am afraid that they might become the new Scout for SC2. Something so kickass looking deserves better then this. Blizzard, please revamp the Thors mechanics.

 

Question seven annoys me. The answer doesn't really address the question....I, for one, much prefer the way WC III's cloak works, and would LOVE to see it in SC II. Removing the blur is nice, and shows just how in depth they're making the map making program, but I would still prefer the ability to choose between a couple different cloak forms, down to the unit itself.

 

nice Q&A. Im only worried about the thor...yes. I want it to have a faster, ground attack.

 

Blizzard sorted the hydra... now for the thor.. they will do it.

 

^
u think? they havent changed it for a while now....even though alot of us are complaining...

 

We all know how the Thor needs to work. Its just a matter of time, zzz.

 

I think Blizzard didn't change the Thor earlier because they wanted fans to play with the "Auto-Repair" feature first. I don't think it got bad reviews.

The rest of the unit...

Also, the anti-ground attack doesn't suck. It does 80 damage to armored units. Armor counts four times, but the only ground unit with starting armor above 1 is the Ultralisk.

 

The map editor will be so powerful!
Wahaha

I can't wait to experiment with the cinematic stuff

 

First the Hydra is back to normal, and blizzard just need to fix the Thor and custom cut-scenes and custom resources! Awesome!

 

so, let me get this straight....the thor ground attack is pretty good against heavy armoured units?
But uberly crap on light armoured units?

 

Haha. I am wondering why alot of ppl do not like the current Thor's role but I prefer the current build over the previous one. Firstly apart of the Viking and BC's missile barrage, there are not enough Terran anti-air firepower. Changing it back to the previous build will make the Terrans lack of good gta units. Secondly the slow turning speed and the bulkiness of the old Thor will definetely make it vulnerable to alot of units. It will be probably share the same fate as the BC from SC1.

I do admit that the old Thor is more unique but for me gameplay is more important than coolness or more unique mechanism. Furthermore, the current Thor is strong against almost all air units. If this Thor is to be scrap, there will be nothing much left to counter Carriers, Motherships or mass Mutalisk apart of Vikings. Anyway the old Thor's role is too similar with the Siege Tank. So I say plz keep this current Thor.

About medic vs Medivac dropship, I couldn't help but worry about what might happen if this healing dropship is to be implemented. Just becoz the medics could not keep up with the flying reapers do not justify the need of a healing dropship. And the lack of a healing spell in the early stages can cause significant setback to the infantries. The stim pack cannot be fully utilised early stages since the health cannot be recovered. Even though Marauders has slowing effect, it was mentioned that Zealots that are charging will return back to its normal speed. And I truly doubt that Marines has enough support to stop the wave of Zealots. So to play safe, it is better to let Medics return even though it is possible for Marauders to support the Marines. Dun forget the game is yet to be finalised.

If the old Thor do return, Blizzard better make a replacement for the current Thor.

 

@ Charmed - Not being able to utilize stim packs very early on isn't all that bad. With the reactor add-on, you can pump out CRAZY amounts of marines. Columns and columns. Like Roman-Army-esque numbers of marching marines. The ability to have superior numbers kinda balances out not being able to use the stim early on.

About the thor, I feel like they made a huge unit whose performance does not match its image. I was not impressed by the Thor when I used it in any attacks on an enemy base. I would always send people to attack, and the thor would show up a bit later than everyone else. Whenever it came on screen, I felt like "Ok, this is gonna be SWEET" and wanted to sit back with a box of popcorn and watch it demolish. It looks and sounds AWESOME when it attacks and stuff, but the amount of damage it does was surprisingly disappointing. If they want to keep it's attack stats and stuff, I think they should shrink it a little, to make it less like a big unit that doesn't match up with its image.

It's like a stick of dynamite that you light and throw, only to have it fizzle like a 20 cent sparkler.

 

^
tahts what i thought the thor was. I want it to have a stronger ground attack.....well, maybe not stronger, but atleast faster. I want the thor to look and feel like it can create and cause much damage.

 

The thor normal attack it doesn't look soo powerfull, but I only see videos, soo I can not said.
I think that the primary role that it has the Thor is for break position defences with its ability long range.
The animation of the auto repair it doesn't look real. Becoz is almost destroy in pieces when you got back like a new one in just 2 seconds. Maybe if they make a middle destroy model before past to the complete destroy it will be ok. But i am really sure that blizzard thoght in that, but how they are no sure about the repair ability yet, they dont waste time in that kind of stuffs until they have a good balance at all.

 

I think it would be cool if they gave the Thor the Vikings ground attack (the chainguns, only a lot more powerful) so that the Thor would combat light ground units, and give the Viking the Thor's gtg attack (weaker, but faster firing) on its shoulders that it uses against whatever form it is in. This would give the Viking an actual ground role apart from harassing workers, and make the Thor actually useful at doing something on the ground. They could also keep the ata attack on the Viking stronger by saying "due to the recoil the gtg attack has to be weaker than the ata attack."

 

Awesome! You can take off the blurring effect of cloak! Ahhhh... good old Hydralisks back where they belong.

 

Its amazing how excited we get when the dev team makes something more like SC1