Comments on: New StarCraft 2 Protoss Unit Page: The Mothership

By: Vatiz

Vatiz — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:05:12 +0000

Protoss > Mothership
Terran > Thor

Zerg > Queen???

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:55:01 +0000

Btw, the blizaboys are taking out the motherships black hole ability AND i was just wondering…for a last resort of a nuke, would a time bomb help?

***Zoooosh***

Nuclear Launch Aborted

Zealot:”So what do we do with a foating nuke right ontop of us?”

Stalker:”Let’s shoot it”

Zealot:”NOOO——”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

gg…rm…

By: SC:2 Blade

SC:2 Blade — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 19:15:31 +0000

Well I think that the black hole shouldstill be a part of the
mothership. Suggestion:
1.You could make the black hole smaller so it doesn’t affect
much and have it only destroy air units.
2.You could always make it that you have gather a huge amount of energy, like nuke(use it once then make it again).
But Make it so that it costs a lot to gather the energy aand that it takes a lot of time. Or you could just make it that it takes out all the energy that the motherships got for the black hole(instead of a lot of time of gathering).

By: kill-em-all-god

kill-em-all-god — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:33:26 +0000

theres not realy super weapons but units a biobomb kinda sounds
greatly overpowered for wat it dose, broodlings were made from organic ground units in sc1, lots of banelings seem to be a like a nuke of some sorts.

By: OrangeKing

OrangeKing — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:23:04 +0000

For the zerg i think a great superweapon would be some kind of bio bomb that would turn all enemy units into broodlings similar to the queen ability in SC 1. give it like the radius of a nuclear missile.

Also I think that it would a great way to balence superweapons if they could backfire.

For instance destroying a nuclear silo with a nuke in it would make it explode then and there. Or have a killed mothership create a black hole and suck in all nearby units.

Or for my suggestion for the zerg the weapon could attack everything nearby and “go crazy” attacking the owner.

By: DomZ

DomZ — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 01:43:18 +0000

Planet cracker is more like Planet tickler. We don’t mind putting a bit more power to the mothership, its not named mothership for nothing you know.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:13:33 +0000

Retain the HP and shields, but maybe tone down its damage potential. So food-wise it is not as practical damagewise, as say a Carrier or Zealots. After all, we still have the other protoss units to deal the heavy damage. The mother ship could be like what Aaron said really well, the ultimate support ship. This could then replace the Arbiter, and Shield battery. Plus Sheild or HP regen aura, plus Time Bomb.

By: Ken

Ken — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:55:52 +0000

hmmm… I like Aaron’s ideas. If the Blizzboys had auras for WC3, then why not in SC2 Protoss, right? endowing an aura on the mothership will greatly increase its usability in the battlefield especially in a low quantity-high variety army.

The shield battery is also great. Think of it this way, if you put yourselves in the shoes (or hooves) of a Zealot in the midst of battle, how would you feel if a Mothership is right above you? a Mothership that can recharge your shields, slowly regenerates your life when your damaged, slightly increases your attack damage and can render enemy missiles useless with time bomb. Wouldn’t you feel a little more comfortable then? wouldn’t you feel more confident in facing the swarm or even those pompous terrans? Wouldn’t you feel prouder to be calling yourself “the blades of Aiur”?

Kudos to you Aaron, solid work on the mothership analysis, man! Entaro Adun!

By: Mantaar

Mantaar — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 21:56:10 +0000

“Perhaps a transport ability should be included as well — especially colossi transport.”

I don’t think that would be a good idea. The Terrans can’t transport their Thors, the Protoss can’t transport the Colossus. Plus, the Colossus is already very mobile in that it can absolutely ignore most choke points. Imagine a combined Colossus/Mothership/Drop attack. Woah, don’t like that coming near my base.

This would leave the Zerg as the most mobile race since they don’t have units that are tied to the ground. I’m a Zerg player, so I like the idea.

While this transport thingie fits into the general concept of the mothership, it would again make it to powerful.

If it’s going to act as a shield replenisher this should really drain its mana fast and render its other abilities useless if you do it a lot – Protoss would be the only race that could repair their units *that* fast right in the middle of a battle.
Perhaps reloading the shields of another unit could drain the mothership’s own shields…

Timebomb is certainly nice and as you could see in the demonstration, some missiles were coming through… Only problem is, it’s totally useless against BCs.

By: aaron

aaron — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 16:36:16 +0000

Personally, I think that the mothership needs a major overhaul. Although it adds another visually impressive unit to the already awe-inspiring Protoss fleet, its actual implementation appears a little too complicated. The reason for this is that, unlike every other unit in Starcraft, motherships are not designed to be built in bunches (in fact, many argue that only one mothership should be allowed).

Its abilities all have major issues: time bomb is either too powerful or merely a glorified disruption web; planet cracker seems only effective when the mothership is in the heart of a battle; black hole is currently very overpowered; cloak seems strange for a unit of its size. Personally, I think that black hole should not be used, or be nerfed. An ability that can destroy capital units in one “hit” is out of keeping with the starcraft aesthetic and merely annoying.

In addition, the “mothership” unit description is a little weak. I feel as though its abilities don’t follow from its background.
So, here is what I’d do if I could completely redesign the mothership:

The mothership should be the ultimate support unit. Since its original function was as a “colonizing” ship, it should retain elements of that function. Abilities I would advise for the mothership:
The mothership should be a mobile shield battery. Think about it — you have a ship that can reinforce your beleaguered capital ships in one of the most important ways possible.

The mothership should have an “aura” of life regeneration.
At the moment, protoss don’t have any way to repair damaged units. But if you were ever exploring distant reaches of the galaxy, this would be a critical ability to have.

One more aura that either improved shields or attacks, making
the fleet around it that much more effective.

In addition, the mothership should be a detector, since its original role had it navigating through deep space.
Perhaps a transport ability should be included as well — especially colossi transport.

Lastly, some offensive ability, like the “time bomb”, should be given to the mothership to make it more fun to play with. Otherwise, you just have an overly large, boring support ship.

Having some aura-based abilities would resolve the one-or-many problem. There wouldn’t be any point in building tons of motherships.

For those of you who are wondering, I like Starcraft much better than the warcraft games, but I think this would be one point where introducing auras would make sense.

Those are just a few ideas to make the mothership a more “realistic” unit, and also one that adds something to game balance aside from just being “cool”.