Karune, Blizzard’s Official RTS Community Manager, has released a third batch of answers, giving rest to a few myths and answering other interesting questions:

1)What is the role of heroes in StarCraft II? Will they be the same as in StarCraft?

 

StarCraft II campaign heroes will fulfill roles similar to what appeared in the original StarCraft single player experience, but they will have even more unique abilities from standard units, and will be more innovatively integrated into the story campaign. Heroes will not be buildable in multiplayer.

Heroes drastically change the balance of a multiplayer match, and can interfere with the core StarCraft gameplay that SC players have come to expect from StarCraft 2. For many, this confirmation brings a sigh of relief.

2)What is the max unit count population for each faction?

 

Unit population count for each faction will be very similar to the original StarCraft.

This echoes what Chris Sigaty, Lead Designer for SC2, has said in the leaked GFW interview.

3)Will there be an in-game option to change hotkeys around?

 

Currently it is planned to have this feature, though much testing has yet to be done on it. We are looking into several innovative ways to make the UI customizable to players, to allow flexibility in their style of game play.

Good news, no doubt. StarCraft’s hectic pace requires expert players to become intimately familiar with the keyboard shortcuts. This will allow all players to have a greater degree of control over the game.

4)Is Karunes Battle.net Forum Avatar a Protoss High Templar?

 

Yes it is.

5)Will the Robotics Facility have a similar upgrade to the Warp Gate allowing it to warp units in?

 

There are no plans for this at the moment. Currently Warping technology is limited to the Warp Gate. Of course, we are still testing and balancing this, and nothing is set in stone.

The Reavers will have to get to the field the old fashioned way, it seems.

These Q&A updates are now appearing weekly. The Official Unofficial Starcraft 2 Blog has sent its own questions, regarding the Yellow Crystals (a sc2blog exclusive find!), to Karune. We hope to bring you Karune’s official answers by next week!