SC2 blog Exclusive: Terran Harvesting Machines spotted.

During the very first seconds of the initially released StarCraft 2 gameplay video, the flying Protoss formation of multiple Phase Prisms and Phoenixes grab the attention. However, it’s what lies beneath the Protoss armada you should be looking at.

Hidden in plain sight, below the flying units, are several very awkwardly placed crystal patches, with two distinct units, of what looks to be Terran design.

The unit appears to be of sturdy mechanical construction, not unlike the Harvester in Westwood’s series of RTS games (Dune, Command and Conquer), and apparently harvests crystals by firing a short-ranged energy beam at them for long periods of time. Unlike the Yellow Crystals, that were spotted in such formation and placement that didn’t leave any doubts for the Crystals’ purpose, these Harvesters do appear to be placed near crystals not in the proximity of Vespene Geysers, and in quite unreachable surroundings – which might indicate that the unit is just a well designed doodad.

Moreover – a somewhat similar, if not identical unit, makes an appearance at 0:50 into the gameplay video, and can be spotted in the top right corner of the screen prior to the Terran base landing sequence. The unit appears to be firing at nothing, just passing its laser over the barren ground.

None of the Harvester units have moved around, and are only seen turning the energy beams on and off, or moving the beam around while firing. This introduces another option – that the Harvester is a stationary building or unit, somewhat similar to the Colony of Civilization games – an outpost dedicated to collecting resources, which is later picked up and “unloaded” by SCVs.

Either way, it’s the first time that Blizzard introduces an alternative crystal harvesting method, or a mechanical laser-shooting doodad.

Additional theories explaning the strange Terran Harvester.

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8 Comments to “StarCraft 2 to Introduce New Terran Harvesting Machines”

1. darkphantom02 — June 30, 2007 @ 8:31 am
   

   just a doodad. nothing more. how would you get them there? doesn’t seem quite fair for the other races…but, hell, maybe its just something that is uniquely terran. but, i think its just a doodad.

2. Kristoffer Ang — July 1, 2007 @ 11:55 am
   

   This could very well be a unit that enhances crystaline growth, or maybe a unit that does some treatment to unearth crystals.

   In the first place, why do these crystals exist? How do we humans bring resources out from their natural cribs?

   We stimulate the earth to produce such resource over shorter times and through emulating what nature does.

3. SiMich — July 2, 2007 @ 4:01 am
   

   Well, for first, I do not think that they are Terran-only. Even that the thought is not pleasant for me, I think, that these harvesters are going to be… buyable in some bulding, just as Goblin Harvesters from W3 were.
   For second, I don’t know what to think. I thought that it might mine the minerals, but these talks about destroying or creating minerals made me thought. True is, that it would really enhance gameplay – ever-lasting resources. Or maybe it’s going to move them – destroy on one place, create on another place. By that you could move crystals to safer location.
   If I (and others who wrote it before me) am right about the second paragraph, it would be cool. But if I’m wrong about the first one, it’ bad. Imagine, that Terrans would have ability to create crystals. Of course, the moving would not be such a big issue – Protoss is mobile enough. But the other races would then run out of recources.
   Good would be if every race would have a machine like that. Maybe with some changes, but something like that. We think that we seen all the units of Protoss, but we might miss another one. I know that races should not be similar, but this similarity would be needed.

4. Drayen — July 4, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
   

   theres another harvesterr when you see the terran buildings flying, that harvester however is shooting his laser at the ground, no minerals in its proximity, so im calling doodad for this one

5. Walrus_King — October 23, 2008 @ 9:51 am
   

   I’m stumped. it doesn’t seem to be just a doodad because it’s firing lasers, but it never moves throughout the entire video. i think it might be storage seperate from the command center. in the game “age of mythology”, made by microsoft, you could build structures specifically for storing resources to keep from having to go back and forth between far-away resources and the town center. these structures mining the resources on their own would be a major difference, though it is possible and it’d be pretty damn cool.Possibly these are just an alternative to the scv once you reach a certain point in the game, perhaps after the engineering bay is built. i would imagine that they would need to be emptied out by scvs for the resources to be used. maybe it’s just a faster way of mining.

6. No Name — November 8, 2008 @ 9:18 pm
   

   Its a doodad, i know why. It would have shown up on the map.

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