Starbase Modification

it's called re-arm because it replenish a unit's energy, (which represents fuel and ammunition) the ability does not repair a unit's hp.

 

the thing is, if a ship was being repaired and the starbase dies, does the ship inside die too?

 

Agreed Agreed Agreed!!!! Irradiate is too much fun to take away, the nomad looks like crap, the repair is useless, and the starbase (while cool looking) is not really worth getting. All your ideas were good.

 

Yes

I think the nomad would look much better if it lost those disks on the end. The quick repair does seem good not sure if its better than irradiate though

 

man the quick repair seems to suck! I mean, i read that it restores 200 hp! that means that you waste mana every time you repair something that has less than 200 hp! That is, EVERYTHING except the Battlecruiser! A Predator have only 100 hp! A waste to use on it! Same goes for the Banshee and the Viking! It is only going to be used on Battlecruisers unless you want to repair more than nessesairy...

 

that's a really nice idea... perhaps the factory will be able to do that with another upgrade? anyways... yea i really like that idea. as of now the starbase is pretty useless to players and now they will have a use for it.

 

Although I do miss irradiate, the Nano repair seems like it will be an excellent ability. For only 75 energy, it can instantly repair any terran mechanical unit to full health, except thor and the battlecruiser. Not nly that but with the starbase u can keep using the ability over and over. There's no real need to make the starbase repair units and such. It would be redundant and overshadowed by the nano ability, which is going to be much better.

The nano ability itself is not redundant, because unlike SCV's (whose repair is better as it can always be used and always bring full health) which will usually be repairing in the base, the Nano ability can be used on the fly, anywhere. The starbase repair ability would fall into the same niche as the Nano, but the Nano is just better at it. I'm not sure if this is clear, I'll clarify more if its needed.

 

The thing is, the nano repair is a huge downgrade for the irradiate ability. That's good for me as I'm a Zerg player, but it certainly has a large impact. Terran has always had the ability to heal/repair, even near the front-lines. SCVs are the most combat-capable workers for that reason.

IMO, Terran play has never been about keeping their units alive longer and outlast the opposition. Of course unit preservation via micro is a part of playing every race, even the flimsy Zerg, but Terran as a whole, functions by destroying the opposition first before the opposition has a chance to destroy the Terran.

Nano repair sounds like shield battery in the form of a unit spell. I've had that idea for Protoss, as I'm sure many other people have thought of that at one point. While I think it may or may not work for the Protoss, it doesn't fit the Terran. Especially with the existence of the defensive matrix, Terran should not have a insta-heal. SCV's heal over time is more than enough. All in all, I don't think the nano repair is fitting enough to replace irradiate.

 

I don´t think that nano repair is supposed to replace Irradiate. It is the Nomad that replaces the Science Vessel. The SV was a allroundcaster+detector while the Nomad is a support frigate. With improved Pathfinding irradiate would probably just kill one unit. Just like snipe just that snipe doesn´t work like a DoT.
Good as it was I personally would choose Snipe over Irradiate. If Terrans got both it would banish smaller organic units completely from the Battlefield.
Terrans try to destroy their enemys before they can reach them, thats absolutely true at least in SC. But that isn´t always possible. Nanorepair would most likely be used in 3 cases: Thor, BC and Buildings.

 

So the nomad doesn't have the detection ability. Hmm what will they use then

 

If the only "mobile" detector Terran have is the Comsat, then it would need a really low mana cost, cause, in SC1, it was a must to have SV and Missile Turrets just for the detection!
And now in SC2, none of those two have detection!

 

The nomad DOES have detection, why shouldn´t it? Also Turrets get detection if a Sensor is around. We don´t know how the Surveilance station works, maybe it has a CD instead of Energy based detection?

 

Nothing will be able to replace irradiate, it was one of the best abilities of any unit. However, as far as terran getting a shield battery effect; it seems that terran having been getting more than a couple protoss abilities.

Plasma torpedoes - Basically a variant of psi storm attached to a battlecruiser
Banshee - As soon as I saw this in action I thought to myself, it's a flying, cloaking reaver.
Nano ability - shield battery.

In addition to the multiple building queus (sp?), terran gets the Merc Haven, which basically builds Reapers like the zerg builds all it's units, only faster, both of which abilities are zerg-esque. So the terran having been getting upgraded forms of old alien technologies.

 

As cool as snipe is, especially as a ghost ability, it can't match irradiate and they certainly have different uses. Irradiate is an anti-Zerg ability, it's to take do heavy damage to at least one, but in most cases many, biological units which is all of Zerg. Irradiate is also good because it increases the burden on the already heavy micro for the Zerg in a TvZ game.

Basically the only advantage snipe has over irradiate is that it deal all of its 150 damage instantly instead of over a short period of time. Almost in every case irradiate will have a greater damage potential, and it will always kill the main target if it has less than 250 HP(compared to snipe's 150 HP limit). But well placed irradiates will guarantee that you do more damage than to just the primary target, even if you don't always kill the surrounding units.

To give the ghost the snipe ability greatly improves the usefulness of the ghost, especially in its combat capabilities. However, nano repair isn't an ability fitting enough to take the place of irradiate. I see no reason for irradiate not to make a return other than nano repair taking its place and they didn't want too many spells on one unit. But even if irradiate is given back to the nomad/SciVes, I still don't think nano repair really fits Terran. I see defensive matrix + nano repair combo as a possible issue, you could probably use SCVs the make it even worse.

EDIT: Making connections between the banshee and the reaver is quite a long stretch. I would go into more detail on that but my post is already long enough. Also, plasma torpedo is AG only, that's a big difference.

 

I'm not saying they're the same unit, just the banshee will fill a similar role as to the reaver, and has very similar capabilities as far as carrying out that role(i.e., both of their main attacks are significant damage to ground units with AoE). The biggest difference I see between the banshee and the reaver, is that the banshee is much more mobile, and doesn't need to rely on a shuttle to move around.

And Plasma torpedoes also can hit buildings, which as far as I know, psistorm cannot. Not saying they are exactly the same, but definately the same concept, that a unit has an ability that will allow it to do an AoE massive damage immediately after casting.

 

I think just the differences you pointed out are distinguishing enough.

Banshee is a tactical air unit, where as the reaver is a ground siege unit. The bansee has good mobility where as the reaver was the slowest moving unit in the entire SC1. The banshee also has cloak. The banshee would be used for speedy air raids and annoyance/harassment, where as the reaver is a slow siege unit and a power drop option, I don't think you can say that their role is the same.

Plasma torpedo and psi storm is, ground only vs air and ground, units and building(didn't know this) vs units only. I don't think it's fair to tie everything together just because something is AoE.

But in any case, I don't really like the nano repair, especially if it is the reason why nomad/SciVes doesn't get irradiate.

 

Nah, the reason Irradiate isn't coming back probably is because it is that good. Will all this AoE and fast build options terran has now it doesn't need a dedicated anti zerg spell. Or if it did have it, maybe it would be too much and zerg would always have a really hard time defeating terran.

Too bad they had to kill the best ability, oh well...

 

Irradiate was really strong and usefull no discussion there. But if we look at it objectively it is single target killer/air to ground aoe. Especially the AtG part was the reason Irradiate was allowed to be so strong as it is. Maybe they took a look at what Irradiate did and disturbed it´s functions on the Ghost and the Banshee?
It might have been axed for being TOO good at least for SC2.

I don´t think they will give the Nomad a offensive ability, it would go against it´s "personality" of a defensive/support caster. Nanorepair actually fits the Terrans as the only Race that has field recovery. The Shield Battery was a good concept but I have yet to see it utilized. To be usefull it would have to be mobile and as such it would become the Protoss "Medic" equivalent. Remember that the Protoss are so durable because they have problems recovering WHEN they get hurt.

I´m convinced that the Terrans made up for the lack of irradiate and shurely NOT with Nanorepair, it is a radically diferent ability in every sense.

 

Nomad has the EMP shockwave doesn't it? I thought it did, am I mistaken? I'm pretty sure I read that the nomad had EMP. And if that's true that gives it huge offensive capabilities. The SciVes certainly has been one of the most offensive oriented casters in SC1.

EMP shockwave is by far the most power single offensive ability in all of StarCraft. It instantly depletes shield or energy completely down to 0, for Protoss that's not unlike instantly killing half of their HP in most cases. On a nexus, that's 750 in one shot, that's more than a nuke. Yet unlike nuke, the EMP has no wait time, is instant, and does not weaken the farther away from the center of the AoE. If the much more potent anti-Protoss ability made it back, I see no reason why irradiate shouldn't.

And I disagree that plasma torpedo and snipe make up for and indirectly replace irradiate. Irradiate was not only a very powerful offensive ability, but an extremely unique one at the same time. It was the only spell where the active AoE moved around following the initially targeted unit. All other AoE abilities are based on where you aim, not what you've targeted. Also, I see plasma torpedo and snipe as means to bolster the lacking combat capabilities of the BC and ghost, in SC1, their offensive capabilities left much to be desired. I see plasma torpedo and snipe only as unique ways of allowing those units to deal good damage without going with the stagnant method of simply tweaking attack damage.

 

I'm pretty sure a direct hit from a nuke on a nexus deals 1000 damage:

750 shields plus 750 hp = 1500

1500 * 2/3 = 1000

1000>500, so it's 1000.

never underestimate the power of the nuke