StarCraft 2 Q&A Batch 40 Released!

i seriously dont know what to say..i got mixed feelings.
they must've gave the BC that AoE for a reason. maybe thor has changed?? maybe theres too much ground AoE??

we'll soon find out at Paris.

 

what are the common thrash talks in french??

 

Since SC2 was announced there have been times that I've loved Blizz and times that I've hated them. This is the latter.

@Psionicz- I agree that ability has no place on a late tier unit like the BC.

 

This is one of those times that I really want to know what is on the other side of the equals sign before I make a judgement. As for the map editor changes I have nothing but praise for Blizzard.

 

Plasma Torpedoes do not exist anymore ? Too bad! Because I liked to see how the marines moved their arms when they got in fire. It would have been VERY DIFFICULT for Blizzard to create a different animation of death for each ground unit

What would have happend to the Zerglings if they got fired by torpedoes ? Would they have been morphed intio hot dogs, or something else ? Would they have moved their "arms" as marines do ?

Too many different ways of dying because of the fires of the torpedoes.


PS : ONE QUESTION, about the nullifier's antigravity ability

What would the marines do once they are in the air bacause of this ability ? Would they stay as they are now, on the ground, or would they move their lgs, like running in the air ? If a marine subish this "attack" and "flies" he will panick If I were a terran marine subushing the antigravity ability and planning in the air, I would move all my arms and legs. In panick of course.

 

Vikings are good enough for that early AtA defense, you just have to use them with something like Marines.

They did give it a GtA attack before, which I hated. not sure if its still there.

Don't forget the Phoenix, its the strongest AtA right now just like the scout was, so if the Predator was to return it would need something that would differentiate it with the Corruptor and and Phoenix, something where the Phoenix couldn't outright own it with ease.

Suggestions?

How about a fast air unit which has a spread fire type attack which can hit multiple targets if targeted from far but does lethal damage close up, and the damage can be lethal and remain balanced by the fact it has to get close and that is micro, so basically you have the choice of using it similar to a Valkyrie but without the splash damage bonus and close up its kinda like a Scourge cept with micro you can make it work even better.
It could be slightly expensive since lots of them would be quite powerful when microed.

Diagram below:

 

Good Batch. Interesting informations.

Strange thing that Plasma Torpedos got removed, most probably for the best.

I think people on forums tend to be completely lost. I see multiple post where people says ‘’OMG Terran is going for anti-air now they don't have any other anti-ground’’ and all those kinds of gameplay balance issues. I will reply this:

They test the game right now and you do not. What do you know about current balance of the built?

This being said our opinion IS important to Blizzard (so they say) but I think that balance is in their hands and not ours. We can always criticize unit designs, attacks, special ability, saying that it looks ugly, that it looks good, that the new mechanic is great or totally bad. We can help them with the look for everything, but balance, they are the only one to know if Terran is to strong against ground on late tier and to cut abilities to balance.

 

Am i the only one who still feels that the thor should to scraped?

 

no you're not the only one theres at least 3 of you in this thread lol...

@ Psionicz - more like a shotgun mechanic air unit... hmm not bad, unique and doesnt overlap the roles of other air units, but! as a consequence the missile shower of the BC should be changed coz you are already replacing it with this suggestion and 2ndly if its gonna be like a scourge?? (do you mean in damage or movement?) Anyway the role of a designated AtA fighter can be accomplished by either having that unit or simply bringing the Valkyrie back as it really is quite needed,,,, (too bad the banshee can only atk ground)

 

Well scourge do a lot of damage on 0 range and they suicide, any unit which has to spend time to get that close has a higher risk of dying, especially if its an air unit it was just a comparison, but the difference is this can deal the damage and survive, and that survivability is increased with the application of skill.
This unit would be different from the plain old Valkyrie which has splash and sucked close range, this unit fires a spread of projectiles in the direction of the targeted unit, whether is hits enough is your choice as the close you get the more focused the projectiles will be meaning it deals more damage with the risk of recieving damage.

In other words this allows it to be weaker and strong against other air units without that being the initial set in stone value, which Terran need as they are adaptive.
Just like the Jackal. if you don't micro it, it will attack from range meaning no AoE is dealt but when you get closer that AoE will be dealt if you target a unit behind the other units infront. Similar concept with the air unit. Just like the Vulture, it wasn't very great until you microed it then it was an amazing unit.

 

I SERIOUSLY hope blizzard reconsiders terrain advantages/bonuses for either the game itself or at least accessible through the editor. I made a lot of maps by using those bonuses to my advantage.

 

i was reading some extra comments added after the batch came out, and they said thor still has its attack to air alng with the BC's new air ability. Dose anyone see the terrans being a bit OP when it comes to air combat late game right now? I mean we all seen the videos and we see how thors and BCs get spamed so what can we expect for an air army like zerg air who is suppost to be a mass clutter of chaos be controled so well by late game terrans? Lets not for get armor bonus like missle turrents? This is nuts.

 

Personally I think Blizzard has NO idea how to fit in the Terran, they don't have a clear idea of what the race should do. I know this is a bit weird to explain, but... here are the general race outlines and you'll see what I mean.

Protoss - Clean mechanics, technology oriented, splash damage and ANTI-ground oriented. By ANTI I mean that their units are designed to DEFEND on the ground. The idea with the new Protoss is to have a force that can't be destroyed, not one that can necessarily decimate. Their new units and mechanics focus on this idea of defending. For instance, the Mothership is ground oriented but requires support.

Terran - Unclear of the direction of this race. They have a little bit of both sides. Their siege tanks are highly aggressive but also are immobile and so are oriented to defend. There is no clear direction in unit strengths either in the air or on the ground. There is an emphasis on infantry, but clearly this is not enough to overcome the splash damage mechanics of either the Protoss or the Zerg alone, so there must also be a counterbalance in mechanical/armored units. Because of this and the requirement of Terran to be a ground-oriented race, their air units are confused in their abilities. I.E. The Thor is necessary for an anti-air attack at a lower tier, but the Battlecruiser is required as well.

Zerg - They may be the least developed race as far as the game development is concerned, but their idea is possibly the clearest. The mass mentality is an easy form to develop and any unit, no matter it's strengths or weaknesses, can be balanced simply through the cost and mass production of said unit. You can practically make any unit and it will work for the Zerg.

As you can see, I'm making some assumptions here but I hope some of you understand the way I'm talking about each race. This is the way these races "felt" in March. Both the Protoss and the Zerg had clear, linear strategic options for their game strategy, but the Terran do NOT. The player was often left with so many choices in different unit abilities that they went in too many directions at once and therefore their force was "spread thin."

This is what I'm hoping will be corrected in time for WWI.

 

I agree with you Jon that they don't know what they're doing, the Terrans are supposed to be adaptive, meaning they can be weak and they can be the strongest when skill and knowledge is applied. They've obviously lost that.
They are just thinking linear in trying to give incentives to do certain things such as Medivac to follow Reapers and Marauders to slow down Zealots when there are many more methods of slowing down forces such as using splash damage to seperate/halt them etc.

In Sc1 for Terran you had 3 simple choices, infantry, mech and a combination. And all of their units had uses where you wouldn't think they would, such as SCVs/Medics walling your Marines/Firebats from Zealots, Vultures killing Dragoons, using the buildings as shields and scouts (they actually blocked projectiles when in the right posotion, irridating your Science Vessels instead of the units so that you can take out whole groups of Guardians/Zerglings etc, also irridating other mechs to kill of the Zerglings attacking them, half building depots to stop expansion but canceling it so you gain some minerals back, the fact Firebats produced faster than Marines, and so much more.

Jon could the Sc2 Terran do anything like that, and what?

Also what do you think of my air unit idea, as I think that a good direction instead of giving units abilities loads of abilities, just give them attributes which have a function where you have good control over it meaning more skill can be applied which further distinguishes the skill levels of players and allows that learning curve to happen through-out the Sc2 experience.
Simple things like patrol making units attack more effective or doing it to Zerglings so as they cut a path through a base you can stop clicking the whole army and you can micro little groups meaning much more effective assults.

To put it simple, units like the Reaper and Viking get a thumbs up, units like the current Thor and Marauder get thumbs down.
The Thor was so sexy since it had so much hitpoints and it could be built directly from SCV which in its self had a multitude of tactics.
Zerg and Protoss are going in the right direction, the Terran are far from that.

P.s. Firebat is better than the Marauder as that slowed them down with its attack instead of getting an ability, if Firebats came out the enemy would retreat especially the Zerglings and Zealots. Slowing with an attribute of its attack instead of it being branded a slow-down-unit.

 

I too agree with jon but i think terrens on the gound have a little more Clearity then as you put. Right not we see how a unit like the lurker would be effective agenst masses of units so i would say terrens have tons of splash along with tanks and didnt they say the marauder dose splash(but the effect only hits the main target) so i would take it they are a Anti group fighting race. After this recent post i would fear terrens in the air now too. but only i guess to an extent of speed. But there is just no rytham to there madness at this point, As blizzard is changing SC2 up so much the gameplay must really be a HOLE NOTHER WORLD. I mean the terrens must really of been OP to drop a medic to try and Maintain that balance.

 

Do you think the map editor will include units from all Blizzard worlds? Frozen throne had some zergling and marine units in the map editor, i would want to see some Diablo 2 units appear in a SC2 so I can finally see what its like to control Diablo.

 

Blizzard said Warcraft III has a totally different engine and that the characters will not be in the editor, nor will there be a way to port them over without creating the models from scratch (which Blizzard doesn't seem like willing to do). I reckon that eventually there will be models of all the characters Blizzard has made, but they will be community add-ons, so the quality is not guaranteed.

 

at least we are in for a very exciting editor... cant w8 for making custom maps..

 

Yeah, i cant wait to continue the personal missions i made for me and my brother to play.

 

I think it's about time the Thor was scrapped. It was basically a walking Battlecruiser when it was first revealed, and now its attack doesn't suit its "heavy combat walker" status. I propose replacing the Thor with a GtA rocket artillery. It would still have the same AoE attack, but it would be much smaller and move a bit faster. As for the Battlecruiser's Missile Barrage ability, I say keep it. Sure, BCs aren't particularly fast, but it would still allow them to keep things under control until the Thors arrive.

An alternate solution would be to scrap the Thor and any replacement for it entirely, move the Viking back to the Factory with it's research upgrade to Air mode, Give the Battlecruisers their Plasma Torpedos back, and reintroduce the Predator. This seems the better solution, since it would give Terran the full spread of air units that both the Protoss and Zerg now have.