Zerg Infestation

It really depends. A Protoss Dark-Archon did basically just that.

If you mean mass infestation as in turning a group of Marines in a bunch of Zombies Resident Evil style, than it's stupid.

It kinda fits the Zerg race, if they can infest a Command Center and infest Kerrigan, then why can't they infest other units? I guess my final word on this would be yea, it should, but with a lot of restrictions as to not become abusable or imbalanced.

 

people like to think everything is imba, what i do is tell them this story:

imagine prior to broodwar some one told you that the protoss would get a unit that could mind control any other unit and make them switch sides... what would be your reaction? would it be "omg that is sooo OP!! not only does this spell effectively kill any enemy unit instantly but it also gives you that unit for free! imagine if you had 10 of those units then you can mind control 10 bc's or 10 carriers! that would be soooo imba!!!!"

this is the most likely reaction people will have... but how did the da turn out? far from being imba it turn out to be next to useless and hardly used in competitive games.

the moral of the story is don't jump to conclusions about whether an idea would be balanced, comment on the actual ideas themselves and leave to balancing problem to blizzard. if it's a good or a refreshing idea then we should applaud it, don't dismiss it so easily simply because you don't think it has the starcraft "feel" or you think it would be imbalanced.


Bonus 200 minerals for a great post. I know this is copy/pasted, but I'm rewarding you for having said it in the first place. Just try not to copy/paste too much.

 

I never said it would necessarily be imbalanced. I said it would be ok for it to be implemented in my opinion as long as it becomes restricted in a manner that it doesn't become abusable or imbalanced. The same can be said about every other ability or unit in the game.

 

sorry Z-BosoN that post wasn't directed at anyone in particular and definitely not you.

what you are saying is basically what i meant... it's only a bunch of numbers and everything can be balance, the main thing to focus on is if the idea will have a good impact on game play

 

Ah ok, no problem, my mistake then.

 

But it's interesting to discuss how you could implement an idea including the balancing. WIth mind control infestation the most interesting part is how you could balance it without nerfing the ability.

 

Hum as terran player i'd like have Zerg use infestation but only on organic units.

 

The thing is, if infestation were to take place, the Zerg should have it as mineral and gas cost. That way, you cannot just spam infestors and get away without any cost. It should be like 75/50 to build a specific infesting type unit. That way, it would be useful only if the unit bolstered the army greatly to be infested. Otherwise, it would be too expensive to use it.

 

It could also work like the Tleilaxu worked on Dune (anyone ever play that?). Once a unit becomes infested it takes a very long time for it to turn into enemy forces, which can be healed in the meantime.

That can make sense, because if it is a Virus or something that will take over it should take a while.

Now, if the infection occurs in a manner of being able to give commands to the units spinal chord, then it should be a very costy upgrade with high tier units. Like I said, it would need a lot of balancing.

 

What if the infestation thing was like a temporary assimilation? Obviously either Zerg don't want to assimilate Terran and/or Protoss or are unable to assimilate Terran and/or Protoss, so here's my idea for new infestation (I'm not sure if it seems a bit 'campaign-y or mission-y'):

Remember how Drones cannot just carry minerals and gas but they could also carry stuff like human-sized cocoons (when Kerrigan was being infested). So maybe Drones would have to go onto the battlefield, and either web and pick-up, or just plain pick up Terran or Protoss infantry? After they have incapacitated them, they could bring them back to the Hive (not Hatchery or Lair, that's too early), feed it into the opening in the Hive, and that would enable them to create a new building that would produce some weird, mutated, semi-bipedal, humanoid of an Infested Terran or Infested Protoss. Obviously there would be a separate building for Infested Terran and Infested Protoss, and each would require its own race's captured unit to be built.

What do you think?

 

hmmm........... not bad of an idea....

 

@ItzaHexGor
That could work, but I guess it would be to much effort to infest in that way AND you would have to use drones for it wich you would otherwise use for collecting recourses and base expansion. I thinck it would not be very cost effeciënt either if you would have to build an additional building for it. Maybe you could just bring it to the queens nest? (since the queen can infest stuff, dûh)

 

Bringing it to the Queens Nest would work, or maybe directly to the Hive. I think that having to use Drones this way would differ them from the other worker units, and it would make the races more unique. I fully understand that people would think that Drones should never be on the battlefield, but I just thought that this was a good way to introduce infestation to Zerg in StarCraft2.

 

First off, I'd like to say that I liked how infestation worked in the original Starcraft. After damaging the Command Center to the red zone, a Queen could come in and infest it, which gave it a cool new look and allowed the Zerg player to produce Infested Terrans.

So for Starcraft 2, I personally would like to see a much more expanded version of the above. I will outline below what I would do if I were designing the game myself:

Zerg Infestation - upon damaging an enemy building into the red zone of hit points, the Zerg Blarg (I know the Queen probably is not going to be in Starcraft 2, so insert a new Zerg unit here, not actually called a Blarg) can fly/walk to the building and latch on. Infestation takes about ten seconds, during which time the enemy player can kill the Zerg Blarg, stopping the process. Upon being infested, the enemy building changes and looks... well... infested. The Zerg Blarg remains latched on, and is now permanently part of the building (in other words, it is lost). Any Protoss or Terran building can be infested, with the exception of defensive structures and Supply Depots/Pylons.

An infested structure, no matter what it is, will be able to produce an infested unit unique to the race who previously owned the building. Lore wise, this can be viewed as the occupants of the enemy structure having been infested (so Terran or Protoss civilians/engineers). This way, the only advantage in infesting a larger enemy building is that of hit points, not production value. This is to keep it simple and easy to balance.

An infested Terran building could produce something like this:

Infested Terran - 50 Minerals, 25 Gas, 60 HP, Carapace 1
These former Terran civilians' bodies have been twisted and disfigured beyond recognition while their cognitive abilities have been all but eliminated for easy control. While it has lost its previous ability to suicidally explode causing a lot of damage, the new Infested Terran is armed with a pair of deadly claws for close melee combat. It also has the ability to leap into an enemy vehicle, tearing apart it's engine with an unnatural fury. Unfortunately, it is usually lost in the process, since it does not mind opening a fuel cell with its bare hands.

An infested Protoss building could produce something like this:

Infested Protoss - 100 Minerals, 50 Gas, 80 HP, Carapace 1
This former valiant Protoss has also been twisted to the will of Kerrigan and the Swarm. During the infestation process, the Plasma Shields have ceased to function and the once beautiful Protoss body has been maimed many times over. The Infested Protoss, like the Infested Terran, is also armed with deadly claws, although its claws are about half as strong as the Terran counterpart. However, it possesses an ability called Psionic Fury. The Infested Protoss can use its formidable psychic powers to "grab a hold" on an enemy unit, freezing the unit in place while slowly crushing its brain. In game, this has the effect of slowing draining the life of an enemy biological unit. The one disadvantage is that the Infested Protoss also cannot move during this process, and becomes an easier target.

If Blizzard were to implement an idea with any semblance of a similarity between my thoughts above, I would be a very happy man. Let me know what you guys think.

 

i loved dune ! such a fun game. the contaminators for them were so much fun, nothing brightened up my day quite like hordes of little blue guys

the infection idea could work quite well if used by the zerg, it could shoot spores or just latch onto the target itself. in the thread http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/index.php?topic=3664.0 , there was an amazing idea for infestation. if blizz put it into thr game it would make the zerg a hell of alot more fun to play. would need some balancing however... anywho cheak out that thread, the guy who came up with that idea deserves a cookie :thumbup:

 

Is that referring to building the infested unit, or infesting it on the battlefield? If its building the infested unit, they already have a cost.
And infestors do have a cost, so the spammer wont get away with it without any cost.

 

I like ninerman13's idea! owerup: I also like the fact that you excluded Zerg infested Zerg. Zerg would never develop a creature that was only able to be acquired through infestation of another Zerg unit, instead they would just breed the creature themselves and make it acquirable through mutating the Larvae. However, I still see a problem with infested Protoss. I think that if Protoss units/warriors/etc, knew that they were being infested or about to be infested, that they would commit seppuku in order to die honorably, than allow themselves to be infested and mindlessly slay their own brethren. Also, I think that if the Zerg Blarg (I like the name Blarg ) is able to infest buildings, it should be restricted to the major buildings, like Command Center, Barracks, Factory and Starport for Terran, and the Nexus, Gateway, Robotics Facility, and StarGate (I am aware that these might not necessarily have an exact replacement in StarCraft2, but by major buildings I mean ones that produce units). So stuff like the Engineering Bay, and Academy, etc, for Terran and Forge, and Observatory, etc, for Protoss will be exempt.

 

My concept is like this scenerio

Broodlings now cost x minerals and y gas to make. After making those broodlings, you can launch them at the enemy unit, infesting them in the process. This would make infesting marines stupid but infesting siege tanks and goliaths pretty fun. Goliath grows into a heavy armoured creature that has a slow rate of fire and siege tanks become infested-like terrans that blow up when striking the target, dealing 750 damage.

Why do siege tanks blow up? Because the Zerg cannot utilise ammunition well. Thus, they use it istead to boost the explosive power of normal infested Terrans and deal tremendous damage. While goliath infestation is nearly instant, Siege Tanks first become infested, then you have to wait the time taken to build an infested Terran for it to reach its full potential.

Infested Goliaths would utilise the abilities of a Hydralisk, needles replacing the bullets in the ammunition bay. Although this severely weakens the firepower, the infested goliath has more hp than a hydralisk and more armour. And it cost 25 more gas too.

That's currently the ideas I have about infestation of units to gain control of them.

 

I don't like the idea of infesting units straight off the battlefield. It is too similar to the Dark Archon's Mind-Control ability. If an infestation mechanic is introduced in StarCraft2 where units are individually plucked from the battlefield, it should remain as similar to Spawn Broodling as possible. An idea I had about the Queen (if it returns) abilities is that Spawn Broodling and Parasite could be merged. The Queen would cast the Spawn Broodling-like spell, like the one it had in StarCraft1, which would still kill the unit (only infantry... Siege Tanks and stuff didn't make sense) but instead of a pair of pretty much useless Broodlings being spawned, two or three parasites would be spawned. These parasites would run to the closest enemy unit in it's own field of vision, and run up to it, and parasite it which would give the Zerg player vision of that unit. If there are no units near by, then the parasites die. Also I believe that a detector should be required to discover whether units are parasited or not.

 

@ ItzaHexGor - Yeah, I definitely can see the ability being solely limited to unit-producing structures. And obviously, a Protoss would rather die than be infested by the Zerg. But in reality, even if they pledged suicide over infestation sometimes the Zerg could be upon them before they have a chance. I just personally feel that the Zerg should be able to infest both Terrans and Protoss. It'd be cooler that way.