i agree with blizzard. it would be pretty unbalanced allowing for huge economy costs for little micro if ultralisks could simply trample units.. however, what if there was a cool down, like... it tramples 5-8 units... but then is VERY slow for like 25 seconds and does like half the DPS.... so in the long run it does the same amount of damage, only it is mitigated?
Re: the Trample Dillema It sounds to me like you're grasping for straws to squeeze this mechanic into the game. If it worked like that, its effect would either be unnoticeable, or very rarely applied. It would require long periods of direct contact between the large and small units for the small units to be fully trampled, so only a few units in a large battle would even be effected, and it would be difficult to directly attribute their deaths to that effect. Blizzard tries to include mechanics that will get used with great frequency in many situations, with distinct effects. But at the same time, as they mentioned, they need to make it so that the cost of using it is, overall, close to the benefit gained. While this way of including trampling would bring the cost/benefit back into balance, it kills its distinctiveness and effectiveness as an ability, bringing it back down to the level of being pointless to implement. Other games make it a more viable mechanic by having different cost/benefit ratios based on wider price gap between large and small units, and greater differences in unit maneuverability(acceleration, turn rate), etc. Because units in StarCraft are, for the most part, infinitely maneuverable (instant direction change and acceleration to top speed), the only thing left available is to make the tank more expensive, small units cheaper, and the scale shifts from a StarCraft, stylized chess-like scale, to a scale more like C&C or SupCom. As you can see, the inability to squish things at whim is very deeply connected to StarCraft's structure at a very fundamental level.
Re: the Trample Dillema Yes, in starcraft every single unit has a value, so with the trampling, you could completely disable your enemy microing. In c&c those small bees or what have no value, they just come out of that factory as they would in starcraft with cheats.. About the cooldown, how would you know if the unit is able to trample again? An other bar like the lifebar under the selection circle? That would make the selection messy.. Well it's already a bit messy tough, with the "find the scv" problem. I hope those bars under the units won't make everything ugly.. And by the way, if the ultralisk would be able to do this then all mechanic units could kill the zerglings too. Just imagine some vikings landing on your rush, and it's all gone.. So zerg would come out the worse of the trampling idea.
Re: the Trample Dillema I honestly am not too fond of trample. I would rather have it about walk over small units (not damaging, just able to walk past them) and giving it a sweep attack with it's tusks doing aoe damage or something. It doesn't have to be every attack that has aoe if you guys don't want.
Re: the Trample Dillema Yeah, I am hoping the Ultralisks picks up the "step over" mechanic that the Colossus has.
Re: the Trample Dillema I don't like the idea of trampling. I don't think it would add anything really fun to the game, and honestly, it wouldn't be necessary to add.
Re: the Trample Dillema if they will be able to do this then they should be able to climb over cliffs
Re: the Trample Dillema The 2 things are not the same... The colossus can be attacked by AA weapons, but they are tall, so this is acceptable. The Ultralisk is much smaller, but powerful, but also bigger than the infantry units, so they could be able to step over the units. By the way, I don't think the Ultralisk will be in the game.. This problem will be solved easily then
Re: the Trample Dillema the issue of trample was already covered in a Q&A . The trample effect was not put into play because it might upset the balance of the game. For example a single unit can take on a stronger group just because of the trample effect
