Aight, so the predator being scrapped got me thinking alot. First I came to the same ideas as Eonmaster and DKtruvski about a mobile missile battery, but then I thought, hey, these Terran fellas are all about doing it the cheap, but effective way. So I came up with 'The Squadron' unit. Its basically the Mortar team from WC3 except I modified it. Its a unit consisting of two marines, one carrying a small gun and a personal sentry system. The other of the two is carrying a large scale rocket launcher on his shoulder. The personal sentry system is to act as a small scale sentry tower, that might be able to see maybe 5-10 squares ahead of the marine into the fog of war, in the same way the sentry tower does. The marine carrying this sentry system will also be carrying a small gun, perhaps similar to the Reavers gun, which he can shoot while the other marine deploys and aims his rocket launcher. The rocket launcher should be able to attack both Air and ground, but not light infantry, lorewise because they are too hard to aim at, and gameplay wise to balance the unit. The rocket launcher has 3 different special upgraded abilities; An EMP rocket to replace that of the Ghost, a rocket containing a charge of nerve-poison effectively destroying biological units (this would be a damage-over-time attack.), and a small tactical nuke, similar to the one they use in Starship troopers Alright, now to the down and dirty facts about this unit: It uses energy, and starts off with 100. It has maybe 100 health, or what amounts to the health of two marines. The standard gun attack does 3 damage, every 0.7 second, an extremely weak attack. The rocket launcher, that can only be used after the Squadron has been standing still for more than 1.3 seconds does 0 base damage, + 35 to Light Vehicles (Cobra's, Stalkers and the like) and Light Air, +55 to Heavy vehicles (Such as the Siege tank, Colossus and Ultralisk) and Heavy Air (Battlecruisers, Carriers). and only fires every 2.5 seconds. Approx the same speed as the siege tanks sieged attack. Its should cost maybe 100 Minerals, and 150 gas. Expensive, I know, but I dont want it to be overpowered. It should be buildable either from the Factory(because of the high powered gear?) or the Barracks. If from the Barracks, then it would require both the tech lab and the engineering bay. It has 5 upgrades: Battleshield upgrade(+15 hp), Tactical Nuke, Gas rocket & EMP rocket, and a 'Reactor upgrade' which increases its energy by 25. The Nuke takes up 125 Energy, meaning all the energy at ones. The Gas rocket takes up 75, and the EMP takes up 75. So. What do you think? It might be OP, I dont know, but I like it. Edit: Eek, setup Edit2: Darn, completely forgot about costs.
I like this idea, you really thought about this one. Good job! owerup: However, I have some comments, and here they are: The sentry system: I don't really think this will be needed, let me explain why: since it's a vulnerable and valuable unit, you will really want an escort for it. The escort will scout first and see possible danger ahead, so you don't really need another detector like system. The tactical nuke: What's up with all these people who want more and more ways of launching nukes? The silo is good enough. Other than that, if you want it to fire directly from a unit, there will be no way to counter it, and such a powerfull thing should be countered in some way. Other than that it's overpowered, since the nuke won't cost supply, you would be able to mass squadrons and completely destroy a whole base at once. And how do you want them to carry a nuke? You can't make small nukes, it has to be big in order for the reaction to work properly. The biological weapon: I really, really like this one. It's the perfect way for the Terrans to counter the new even bigger rushes of the Zerg. That's all I have to say about it, since it's just perfect. The EMP weapon: This one is also perfect. It's the perfect way to counter the new, even tronger, Protoss and the Terran in multiplayer. The whole "it has to stand still for 1.3 seconds to work" thing: Just add a deploy style function, like the siege tank has. It has to set up the launcher right? So let it set it up. In the way it is now, it can just walk away immediately after firing. Other stuff: Build it from the barracks, it's just infantry. About the costs: This is all; about balance. Nothing to be said about this until the game is almost complete.
Thanks for the feedback, and the powerup :good: Eh, about the nuke, have you seen starship troopers? Anyway, they launch a nuke like that in the movie into an alien cluster, and I just thought maybe Starcraft could adopt just one more feature, heh, but I see what you mean with no way of countering it. Perhaps it could be tuned down? Into a smaller nuke? About the sentry system, I was really thinking maybe the rockets could actually shoot at the targets picked up by the detector. Through the fog of war. And yes, I thought of the siege mode too. And perhaps that is the best way of doing it
I like the idea about missile launchers for Terrans, but i think that they have enough infantry. About the nuke. I haven't seen Starship Troopers, but isn't Ghosts nuke enough?
your idea of an sentry system would fit perfectly with the ghost. It'll make the ghost the perfect sneaking unit
maybe the deploy thing could work like in Dawn of War, theres units (ex. space marine heavy bolter) and it can only shoot after being in the same place for about 0.7 seconds, but if u move again the timer resets once u stop again, and its all automatic
Aye, that was the system I was thinking off, since he doesnt actually need to mount the rocket launcher anywhere, just aim. Hmm
squad units fit more of a CnC 3 style gameplay. I have CnC 3, I would rather keep both games as much different as possible
I haven't quite concluded what I think about the unit it self (thought I do love the EMP idea,) but visually I think it should just be one unit. Warcraft got away with the 'two units in one' look because the Mortar Team was in a sense the Dwarven Demolition Squad replacement from WC2. Also in WC3 there were a lot of 2-in-1 units. Goblin Sappers, the ogers in a way, humm, that may be all. I feel it would look better if it were a single unit, it would fit better with the rest of SC2. But this is a well thought out unit non the less. EDIT: Non-sequitor, but I was just comparing your icon to mine ,C20, the SC2 marine icon look bad ass doesn't it.
Actually, Sappers were THREE in one. *EDIT* Archmages, Deathknights, kodo beasts etc etc etc... , were all 2 in 1 too, if you count the mount.
Three in one? There really are just 2... Have a look: http://www.battle.net/war3/neutral/goblins.shtml#goblinsapper And uhm: You really REALLY can't replace the Ghost with anything. Even if it was a super invincible, undetectable, rapid firing, nuke launching superunit. (That's just lame. )
There are actually three Goblin Sappers in one unit. The third is inside the explosive barrel, and you can see his feet running underneath. First, can't replace the Ghost. No matter what. That is all I have to say on that matter, but I do like the idea of the Ghost having a portable sentry system! About the other stuff, I also don't think that it should be two units in one. It should basically just be an expensive Marine that carries a Rocket Launcher. It shouldn't take a while to set up before each shot, like the Tactical Space Marines with Rocket Launchers in Dawn of War, but instead it should have a long cooldown. After all, the Rocket Launcher would already be loaded and ready to fire, so all he'd really have to do is brace himself. The Marines should be immobilized during cooldown, and should be shown reloading the Rocket Launcher. Another way to do it would be to have the Rockets like the Reaver's Scarabs or the Carrier's Interceptors, except again, when he is loading them, he would have to be stationary. I don't really like the EMP idea or the Nerve Gas idea, because it just seems so random. Why would a Rocket Launcher be equipped with Nerve Gas or an EMP? EMP I could kinda understand, but definitely not Nerve Gas. I think it should be able to target infantry, except it would do extremely reduced damage, because, as you said, they would be so hard to target. This, however, doesn't mean that they aren't able to be targeted.
