StarCraft 2 Q&A Batch 47 Released!

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After a long drought of Q&A releases Karune has finally cranked out his batch of answers to some very interesting questions. Karune talks about the effectiveness of micro and the map editor as well as some other topics. Unfortunately, no chatting with the devs, but nice nevertheless. Enjoy!
StarCraft II Q&A Batch 47

1. In the original StarCraft, most air units can move and fire, vultures have fast rotating times and can shoot backwards and run forward instantaneously with enough micro. In StarCraft II, there have been some concerns from players who have played the game, that the unit movement animations are getting in the way of micro. Will such animation cancelling techniques still be possible in StarCraft II? - Team Liquid

Both macro and micro-control are very important in StarCraft II as well, and when it comes to micro-control like Vulture’s moving and shooting in the original StarCraft, it is still possible to focus on micro control with the units.

For example, Mutalisks can fire while moving, with micro. And certain ground units, like the Marauders with the slow attack or Roaches with fast regeneration, benefit greatly from moving and shooting, but they still need to stop to shoot. The Hellion is also interesting, because the Hellion is a unit that has high burst, long delay between attacks, splash damage type, as well as a fast movement speed, so it can be used for kiting purposes as well as closing in the distance after every shot to do max possible damage. Eg, shoot once, close the gap, shoot again, close the gap even more, so that you don’t waste a single shot, but with each movement, you are doing a lot more damage.
StarCraft II also has a firing on the move unit -- the Void Ray. The Void Ray can move closer to an enemy unit while continuing to fire at it, and because the damage type builds up over time, it would be more ideal to finish off that one unit that’s trying to run away or back up before engaging a brand new target.

2. Do you plan to introduce consume (cannibalism) as one of the zerg features? For example, in Starcraft I, defilers ate zerglings to gain 50 energy (it is possible to introduce consume for ultralisks which will gain 50 life after eating a zergling or another unit) - Unbreakab1e (USEast)

We don’t have the consume ability in the game now, but if consume is considered as necessary to the game, you will see this ability in StarCraft II. Currently Zerg has caster units like the Infestor, Queen, Overlord, and Overseer. Infestors can move while burrowed, which means it can regenerate energy again away from the battle. The Queen has already powerful skills and combat ability. Overlords can fly and mutate the creep without any energy. Overseers also can fly so that they can earn some time to regenerate their energy as well. If the current Zerg casters having the consume ability, it could make them too powerful and strong.

3. Will there be custom water units? For custom maps and Scumedit will players be able to make units that swim/float. Also will there be special units designed for water, but only available on the Scumedit, like a shark-like zerg or protoss water vessel. Obv. I know these won’t be in multiplayer ladder, I only mean for custom maps. - Imperial_wizard (Lordaeron)

We haven’t finalized the decision about the exact extent of support for custom maps and Scumedit yet.

4. Maps have always been important to keep SC balanced, fun and competitive. We have already seen you have some interesting new tools to help multiplayer map designers balance their maps such as tall grass that blocks vision of ground units. What other new terrain elements are we gonna see in SC2 to make interesting competitive maps? – VIB (Team Liquid)

Currently there are Xel’Naga Watch Tower, Grass, and Destructible Rocks in the map. We will be pleased to add more if we can design other features which will make the game more exciting and balanced as well.

5. The Thor was built by an SCV at first, but since quite time now it is built like a normal unit in the factory. Was this changed due to design or balance reasons? - InStarCraft.de

We changed this due to the balance reason. Before the change, you could build as many Thors as you want at the same time with your SCVs, as long as you have resources, with one Barrack and an Armory. We decided that this can be too much benefit to Terran, and we changed that Thor could be built from a Factory.

6. Zerg has cliff-scaling units? – Scumlord (USEast)

We want to keep three races different and they do not necessarily have the same ability units. Currently Zerg do not have a cliff-scaling unit, like the Reaper in Terran or Colossus in Protoss. However, Zerg still can expand very quickly and have other movement advantages like 30% additional speed on creep. They also have the combination of Overlord’s creep generating ability and Nydus Network as a very powerful tool to attack opponent’s main base or expansion. Also, Overlords are currently able to transport Zerg units like the original StarCraft.

7. I noticed that in the Protoss demo the Protoss buildings when warped in, had there surfaces visibly warped in, like in the original StarCraft. However, in recent builds and footage, Protoss buildings just appear after the building animation. Is this just a temporary thing, or is it really gone? - Ultimasx (Battle.net)

Warp-in of Protoss buildings should be one effect for all with the final frames unique showing the specific buildings structure phasing in.

--End of Transmission--
Source: Battle.net
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Special thank you to DarkTemplar_L for a great article!

 

Overlords can load again.... GOOOOOOOD lol.

 

Ummm... a bit out of date? However, at least now I know how to format such a post properly.

 

Yes... Thanks indeed! Unfortunately Kimera, I beat you to the article submission büttön. Even if it is a few days late, since I wasn't even looking around on the Battle.net forums, it still counts.

And yes! Finally, Overlords can load again! And I do hope that Cönsümè will be back in the game, it was a great help to all the Zerg Casters.

 

i like how overlords can transport, but does that mean the nydus worm is gone? or is it more that the nydus worm can hold 200 while the overlord can only hold 8?

 

finally i was wondering when you were going to get around to this, i do admit that the battle report was the better choice to pick first.

 

The Thor will be built from the Factory ? I understand that if a SCV builds it outside the battlefield and that you have enough money to build 10 Thors you can build all of them together, and that is an unbalance toward other races.

But the Thor is as huge as a factory. How is it possible to build a Thor from a factory ?

And the battlecruiser is as huge as the Spaceport too. How is it possible to build a battlecruiser from a Spaceport ?

I LOVED the animation once the SCV finished to build the Thor. I loved to see this Thor morphing into itself to become an accomplished Thor. Will the animation still exist ?

Why can"t Blizzard "open" the Factory to show the Thor leaving this structure ?
So also for the battlecruiser : the Spaceport should open a huge gate to free the battlecruiser.


Another suggestion maybe a good one : why can"t the Thor be reduced in its size to make it more credible to build it from the factory ? A huge Thor can"t be produced inside a factory, so if this unit is reduced in size it will be.

I understand that for a question of balance the Thor should be build from the factory. But what if we can just build once power-overwhelmed Thor on the battlefield like for the Protoss Mothership ? Yes, we give a super-giga powerful unit to the Terran, but just one on the battlefield. The thor can attack ground and air units.
Maybe what I just wrote is non-sense, but we can talk about it. And for the Zerg ? The queen is, according to me, the mega-giga,-tera power-overwhelming Zerg unit. This is the Super Saiyan of the Zerg.