Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has posted a 10th batch of answers to questions posted by the fans. Compared to the normal Q&A sessions, this one brings new, interesting information, and brings up even more follow up questions.

1) What does the “Intercept Missiles” function of the Predator do exactly?

 

The Predator is equipped with a point defense laser system which destroys incoming enemy projectiles. This ability makes the Predator an excellent support fighter to help defend slower capital ships, such as the Battlecruiser.

 

2) Can the Radar Tower also detect invisible units even in Fog of War?

 

No. On the other hand, Sensor Arrays and Radar Towers do allow all Missile Turrets in its range to also detect invisible units within those Missile Turrets range.

The meaning of this answer is not clear. Is Karune saying that only a combination of a Sensor Array/Radar Tower and a Missile Turret will provide detection? That would seem superfluous and even a bit silly. Here’s hoping the Sensor Array and Radar Towers function as detectors by themselves.

3) Can the Thor defend itself against air units well?

 

The Thor unit can attack air units, although it has a relatively slow rate of fire. It is always still better to escort your Thor units with additional support units.

 

4) Can the Thor be attacked by the Missile Turret like the Colossus?

 

No.

The Colossus is tall enough to be vulnerable to anti-air attacks, but apparently, the Thor is not.

5) Will phase cannons dissipate if they travel outside influence of pylon matrix?

 

No, phase cannons will not be destroyed if they travel outside of pylon power. However, phase cannons caught outside of pylon power will still be able to move but will also be stuck in energy form. They cannot redeploy until they are back in range of pylon power. Also, while in energy form, phase cannons have no shields and are extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.

We have previously speculated that the Phase Cannon energy form is limited to Pylon energy range, but apparently they can also travel outside of it. This sounds like an extremely powerful ability – perhaps too powerful. It’s easy enough to construct a Pylon on the battlefield and then produce Phase Cannons on the spot – it will be even easier now that it’s possible to set up power with a Phase Prism and stream in the cannons.

However, this can be offset by having the energy form travel very slowly outside energy range, while remaining vulnerable.

6) When a player in a team game leaves will the computer AI take over? Or, will the remaining players be given control of that person’s team?

 

Computer AI will not take over if your ally leaves in a team multiplayer game. Although, if you have allied control set, the player will be able to control their allys units after they leave.

Lastly, in case you missed it, here’s Karune himself appearing in the flesh in a YouTube video.

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16 Comments to “Q&A Batch 10: Real Information”

1. Ken — August 25, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
   

   ABOUT THE PHASE CANNONS
   hmmm… very reminiscent of the Wisps of warcraft huh? the phase cannons in energy form. I wonder how fast they travel from one spot to another. And if they can travel outside the pylon energy matrix, how vulnerable are they to attacks? can they travel over cliffs and ridges? or islands? Im really excited using this new defense/ offense system of the protoss.

   ABOUT THE COLLOSI
   Right now, I’m not very excited to use the Collosus. They are twice as expensive as reavers yet they are only powerful againsts small units, no anti-air but can be hit by air, cannot be transported, their attack doesn’t do too much on armored and they look too fragile.

   ABOUT THE RADAR DOME AND SENSOR DOME
   In my opinion, if you build a Sensor Tower, it functions as a detector and all turrets within its range become detectors as well. If you upgrade to Radar Dome, only difference is all non-cloaked hostiles beyond the fog of war (in a wider range than detection) can be seen as exclamation points. But it is still a detector and it still makes all turrets at its range become detectors. All cloaked units beyond the fog of war can only be seen if they go near the turrets. Radar Tower’s detection range is different from its beyond-the-fog-of-war range. The latter is wider than the previous.

2. d — August 25, 2007 @ 9:41 pm
   

   “No. On the other hand, Sensor Arrays and Radar Towers do allow all Missile Turrets in its range to also detect invisible units within those Missile Turrets range.”

   if you reread it… it says.. ALLOW ALL MISSILE TURRETS..etc it in no way says you need a combo.

3. Ken — August 25, 2007 @ 9:50 pm
   

   Yeah, d is right. You don’t need this combo for detection. Sensor Arrays and radar towers are detectors themselves. But Turrets without Sensor/ Radar towers nearby are NOT detectors, unlike in Brood War.

4. Bunn — August 25, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
   

   Ahem, so technically, he is correct. Missle turrets are not detectors, but need an additional detector structure near them, no ? So a combo IS required for them to attack invisble units …

5. whiteknight — August 26, 2007 @ 2:27 am
   

   Phase cannon

   i think he mean something like

   warp to pylon range but suddenly pylon is destroyed
   (unable to warp in command if not in pylon range)

   i still wonder thor and siege tank role ?
   aren’t they are same ?

6. jibbiajabba — August 26, 2007 @ 6:19 am
   

   i still think the phase cannon is very imba, i can picture some ppl building a row of pylons to ‘transport’ their cannons to someone’s base, or use their uber micromanagement skills and move their cannons using phase prisms.

7. Battlarmd — August 26, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
   

   I sure hope Blizz make the Thor hittable by flyers, right now, I am already quite upset about the removal of the Reavers.

   The reavers might be in the same department with the Colossus with ‘killing lots of small units’ but the reavers can be DROPPED, whereby the Colossus is likely expensive, cannot be transported, and gets hit by turrets, whereby the reavers can be expendible if you drop and destroy a whole economy line with 3 sacrabs.

   And if the Thor is not hittable with fliers, then it seems the colossus is just being picked at! Lets hope these things get changed.

8. Battlarmd — August 26, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
   

   Just read a post, and got another quick comment…

   If the Reaver was removed caused the Colossus does the same job…

   why wasn’t the seige tank removed cause the THOR does the same job?

   cause the Colossus sure aint as good as a Reaver when it comes to heavy bombartment, as of right now, the Protoss doesn’t have a unit that can do more then 100 damage per hit on land. (not even warp-ray, which takes time to focus)

   Just put back the Reaver pls. *sniff*

9. whiteknight — August 27, 2007 @ 1:49 am
   

   Just read a post, and got another quick comment…

   If the Reaver was removed caused the Colossus does the same job…

   why wasn’t the seige tank removed cause the THOR does the same job?

   yes i agree and both must be station to become full power mode

   if remove the reaver then remove the siege tank too

10. Jesse Wang — August 27, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
    

    Just read a post, and got another quick comment…

    battlrmd, stop being a pessimist. You’re just assuming that no Protoss unit will do over 100 dmg, and even so there is the warp ray which can deal an infinite amount of damage over time. Though I have to agree that reavers should come back, stop going to conclusions that the reaver will ultimately be gone and that the siege tank will always stay.

11. Asker — August 27, 2007 @ 5:50 pm
    

    1. The post seems correct. Without the sensor thingy, your turrets can’t see cloaked units. But the comments are also correct that in terms of ‘detection’ you don’t need a combo but the sensor is a must :p

    2. I agree with the comments on collosi. So my suggestion would be: ‘Giving it a little bit of air attack wont hurt (I think). Maybe it won’t mimic the sweeper laser’. Probably making it shoot both air attack (if they decide to give it an air attack) and ground attack at the same time would be a nice one too. It is indeed a ‘war machine’ (from the unit descriptions) and we’re talking protoss here. :p. Or another idea: ’some people have misgivings on the warp ray. how about merging the warp ray with the collosus (warp ray beam for air attack and the standard collosus sweeper laser for ground attack’. :p ..

    Anyway, I hope the mods don’t mind. I’ll post some questions that have been asked a while back on this post.

    Have these questions been asked already and if so, are there any answers? (or maybe people here have some ideas)
    - Can reapers jump over buildings?
    - Can the falling debris damage units that are under them?
    - Can the timed-grenades of the reapers be destroyed before they explode?

12. jibbiajabba — August 27, 2007 @ 6:18 pm
    

    Nice questions asker, but we probably can’t answer these questions here, you have to ask in this specific site:

    http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?fn=sc2-general&t=9620&p=1&#post9620

13. Starcraft 2 — August 28, 2007 @ 1:11 am
    

    No questions need to be made about shared control now, last Q gives us that answer.

14. Battlarmd — August 28, 2007 @ 3:40 am
    

    True about me being pessismistic.

    but just trying to make a point, hopefully I didn’t come as a whiner. but I do was upset when they ‘announced’ reavers won’t be returning.

    I always thought the Reaver is quite a trademark of the Protoss as well. And so far, it is also true that I am disappointed about the colossus, not only no air attack, but getting hit by air units, cannot be transported, and probably… expensive too. When Blizz named the colossus the reason of the Reaver’s removal, I was upset.

    but yeah, probably new things will come.
    Blizz is good at managing players expections, and I know for sure, my comments, probably is not strictly my own, bet a lot of people feels the same.

15. Starfeeder — August 28, 2007 @ 10:34 pm
    

    I for one wish Karune would answer questions about the new Battlenet and questions about support for fansite hosted tournaments / leagues…

16. Xpl0si0n — November 23, 2008 @ 8:53 am
    

    other website with you can detect status is http://www.yahooscan.eu also with website you cand download your buddies avatar.