StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 34

So now that all three races are out of the bag, you may have thought you've seen it all- nope! The Dev Team is still working very hard to add even more innovation and clever balance affecting design changes that will indeed polish out the gameplay of StarCraft II that much more.

Chat with the Devs: As of recent, the Dev Team has added a new ability to the Protoss Carrier that will give it a little more Umph! versus Zerg Corruptor attacks or Viking raids. In the past, the Carrier simply had a large swarm of Interceptor fighters which you had to build from scratch. Carriers now come built with 4 Interceptors already loaded (which is also the max number of Interceptors currently). They also have the new ability to have Escorts built for a temporary power boost to focus fire. Strike Fighter Escorts cost resources to build and last only 45 seconds, but add a decent amount of firepower to a Carriers attack. A Carrier can have a maximum of 4 Escorts. Escorts are given attack orders to focus-fire on whatever the Carrier is attacking and they can be destroyed independently of the Carrier or each other. The cost for these Escorts will be significant enough to where players will not want to just have the max number all of the time, as that would bleed your economy needlessly. Thus, players will have to pick and choose their battles in where they want the full force of the Protoss fleet present.

As always, feel free to give the Devs and I a w00t if you are enjoying the batches.

---StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 34---

1. An important aspect of any RTS game is for all races to have a way to siege fortified island positions, do the Protoss and Terrans [[and Zerg]] have a unit that is capable of doing so? (sclegacy.com)

All factions will have units capable of attacking from a longer range. Zerg have the Swarm Guardian, Terrans have the Battlecruisers Yamato Cannon, and the Protoss have the Carrier (which has gotten some additional abilities since we last talked about it). However we are not at all sure that these are enough to deal with fortified islands. More testing will tell us if this is sufficient or if we need more.

2. The Infestor is a very impressive unit that enchanted the community, because we all wanted to see a unit that is able to move while it is burrowed. Nevertheless there are still pending questions. Can the Infestor even infest Zerg buildings? Are infested marines produced as fast as it is shown on the gameplay trailer? Do you have to train them manually or will they pop out automatically? Do they cost minerals?(starcraft2.4players.de)

Like many Zerg units the Infestor is still under development. It cannot infest Zerg buildings though that is something we are still discussing. The speed at which Marines are generated changes frequently as we work on the ability. Sometimes its fast, sometimes not so fast. They will (probably) pop automatically. They do not have any cost associated with them.

3. The Medivac is a very interesting Unit, but there are not many information given to us so far. Can you tell us any more details about it? At which tier can it be found? How does the healing work? Can it even heal multiple units at once and how fast does it heal compared to the medic? (starcraft2.4players.de)

The Medivac is currently available from the Starport (no add-ons required). The healing works just like the medic. We will (if we keep the mechanic) be adding a graphic of the Medivac deploying medical drones to heal friendly biological units. It will only be able to heal a single unit at one time. The speed at which it heals changes frequently as we try different balance options.

4. There are many ambiguities concerning the Roach due to the much different information that has been given to us. Many users are quite unsure about its kind of attack. Is it a melee unit or is it ranged? Or is it kind of a crazy mix of both? And most important: can it hit air as well? (starcraft2.4players.de)

The Roach is ranged. He has been melee in the recent past (hence the art with the big claws) but he is currently ranged. This gives him added utility at chokes where he really shines. We have tried it as ground only and we have tried it as being able to hit ground or air. Currently it is ground only.

5. Can a Zerg Corruptor infest lifted-off Terran buildings, Colossuses, and other Zerg units such as Mutalisks or other Corruptors? Can Corruptor infest Thors, Siege Tanks or Marines if they are lifted-off by Anti-Gravity? (Battle.net) PCBANGFT

Yes, Corruptors can infest anything that flies or is forced into the air by abilities such as Anti-Gravity. In the situation of a unit being lifted by Anti-Gravity, the unit will return to the ground when the anti-gravity effect ends and sit on the ground. The corrupted unit is only allowed to attack air units and will do so if an enemy air unit flies by.

6. What is the reasoning behind changing Colossus' 'sliding' thermal lances (from 1st gameplay movie) to an array of beams (zerg trailer)? Balance? Visuals? Will it be possible to choose such sliding or array (or is it just 'horizontal' line?) fire mode from the Map Editor (available also for any other unit)? (battle.net) Dagguh

The array of beams give a more interesting AOE template for players to attempt to micro. The sliding beam looks cool, but ultimately doesnt produce any new gameplay. The current visuals on the beam are temp to see if we like the mechanic.

---End of Transmission---

 

interesting addition,

green to you and 50 minerals

 

..minerals? where...? Still I like the Q&A's... Now The only thing that new was, is the carriers ability. I am unsure about it's usefulness, I would like to see it in action..

 

oh yeah, i forgot; ONLY 4 INTERCEPTORS FTW???

 

I think it is just good, they should become air to ground unit again, (they could attack air, I just mean that their old shield, which the tempest had, should be back for the carrier.)

 

Wow very interesting, i find the information about the medivac dropship, it said that it can only heal one unit at a time....i found that quite awkward

 

Sweet Q & A. This game is shaping up to be awesome!

 

I guess the good old medic would be better This way there will be no early m&m's... Only with marauders.. Aah come back medic.. I wouldn't mind if both the healing units stayed, but with different healing rate and attributes.

 

How does horizontal line of fire bring any new gameplay. It looks cheap and lore wise it wouldn't really do the damage. If it stays like that I definitly won't be using the Colossus.

The Medivac thing is just a flying Medic. But this means the Marines will come under heavier fire but I guess Marauders are their to shield them/slow units down. Kinda lays the strategies out, doesn't allow much else to be done, unlike with Medics where you had a number of uses.

I hope they change the Infest mechanic. I should be how it was in Sc1 where the unit physcially infested it giving us the building and Infested Marines forever instead of this short cheap version which doesn't allow much dynamics.

The Carrier change sounds kinda sucky.

 

I like the escort idea but I hate time limits. Why not make them permanent but take pop cap (say 1). They are already limted to 4 per carrier and could be kept on a leashe so you can't use carrieers and mobile factories and send escorts on sorties. One thing though is if the escorts fire at the carrier's target then what good will they do against sudden surprises? I think if they can be destroyed individually you should be able to task them individually but they would still be kept on a leash

 

I got to 6 and went YES! finally the showdown we've been waiting for. And then... it didn't say that they had a good laugh at themselves for even considering it
With a huge, slow moving robot like that, who would start microing to have all the fancy pew pew lazorz hit enemy units? Meh I think I need to find myself a new favourite unit.

Not a bad Q&A, though I feel they're trying to add more micro to counter the reduced macro. They should realise that not all units need abilities.

 

Can I say Warcraft?

 

You can but you may not.
We will have no talk of SC2 being a WC clone

 

I don't even see the point of the Escort things lastign 45 seconds. Wheres the lore behind that, also whats the balance since they feel its better for it to last for 45 seconds. Same with the infest ability, all these abilities which only last a short time, to me seems so un-starcraft-like.

 

If they absoluteley have to be timed make it 2 minutes or something

 

I doubt they have a visual timer on them so it could very well help you lose the battle if you engage the enemy during the last few seconds, since they most probably have a build time on them.

Also, I don't understand the idea behind corrupted units attacking air only, especially for the Colossus (since they did not deny the ability to corrupt it). Not only that but I'd like to see a corruptor sit down and reprogram something they don't even comprehend.

 

Broodlings and hallucinations showed an energy bar as a timer


Im all for corrupted units using their original attacks. After all the pilot/gunner is still ther and in control right?

That would mean buildings would be defensless. Maybe when they land they become infested and spawn marines

 

I'm still not sure why ppl insist on hating the colossus just because of it's new attack.

I wasnt real big on it at first, but upon realising that it had an AoE similar to the reaver's(just not as strong), as well as Jon's statement that the AoE makes it much harder to counter by ground, I think that it is a much stronger unit than the original, especially in groups.

The batch overall, wasn't too interesting, but the escort idea for the carrier sounds interesting, but as recently stated, lorewise it doesn't seem to fit. As for the 45 seconds, it sounds fairly reasonable since you would only build them when they are needed(major battles/last attempt to defend).

 

I like the new change to Carriers.

Carriers both made and shattered the SC1 fantasy for me, it's what got me into playing the game. Back in '98, when my friend drag me to an internet cafe and showed me a StarCraft for the first time. When I saw a fleet of carriers with an ass load of interceptors filling the screen raping it up, I was awe struck. But when I got better and easily dispatched fleets of carriers with small groups of hydras, it killed the fantasy for me.

It was especially sad when I go against players who desperately try to pull carriers to defend their rundown base, interceptor-less and all. Starting with 4 interceptors should definitely add some value to carriers(which I currently have no respect for whatsoever).

I must disagree with some of the previous comments and say that I think a 45 second time limit is quite adequate. Even under extreme ambush, it's unlikely that any moderately skilled player can't react fast enough to quickly issue a few attack orders, press the carrier group hotkey, and hit a single key 4 times. You're not going from 0 to 8, you're going from 4 to 8, it's not that big a deal. 45 seconds should also be long enough to last through the bulk of most battles, this is SC, not WC, battles don't last forever. And if you ever find yourself still stuck in the heat after the 45 seconds? Just make 4 more, how hard is that? They said they're gonna set the resource cost for Escort as such that it discourage having them all the time, not more than once.

I hope to see the medic make a return and the dropship fixed. Based on what Jon told me on AIM, the current Dropship sounded like a design flaw. Jon also assured me that, based on firsthand play experience, the Colossus with the current AoE attack was OP as hell, hope to see that fixed as well. The reason they gave for giving it such an attack is wack as hell, but at least there's still that tired phrase: "still under development." Blizzard needs to test island maps extensively to get that aspect of play balance right, but I doubt they can pull it off just from internal testing alone.

EDIT: Not that I know what goes on in the wacky brains of genius game designers, but I can see good logic behind Corrupter design. It's because of the role that Blizzard wants for it, dedicated AA, simple as that. When you're pulling Corrupters, it's because you wanted some units dedicated for taking down AIR, for anything else, you would already have big swarms of other units. If you're faced with a serious threat from enemy air, imagine what would happen if corrputers took down some units and start going AG. It defeats their purpose of existence and, in some situations, could cost you the fight.

 

http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4413

Jon, that's not the first time