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Following last week’s somewhat boring Q&A, this week’s session is much more interesting. Posted by Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, it features answers regarding important gameplay mechanics and other issues fans have been inquiring about for a long time.
Even the “Chat with Devs” section brings up an interesting dilemma:
Chat with Devs: The StarCraft II team is trying out what it would be like to have the Ghost as a Tier 1.5 unit without stealth, keeping the stealth ability as an upgrade at a later Tier.
This will be quite interesting since their snipe ability could provide much support to a group of Marines, picking off key units such as Medics, Templars, etc.
This will surely make Ghosts appear in more games, even 1v1s, and increase the available number of infantry units the Terran can normally field. Will they be useful inside a Bunker?
On to the Q&A!
1) Will there be Vespene Gas deposits that yield better rates, the same as yellow crystals?
It is very likely that there will be higher yield Vespean Gas deposits, though we are being very careful in balancing this, since gas collection is based on a more linear rate of collection (3 collectors) versus mineral collection.
Interesting news. This creates even more options and decisions for players to make in every match of StarCraft 2. Do you expand to the natural, easily defendable, normal-resources expansion, or do you risk taking over one of the higher quality expansions, either with yellow crystals or the higher quality Vespene deposits? Such a decision could affect gameplay directly, especially if you have to choose an expansion with just one of the two higher quality resources.
* Our long time readers might remember our exclusive find of the Yellow Crystals
Traditionally, in StarCraft 1, more mineral resources would allow a player to create a large army of basic units, and use his gas to upgrade their abilities. On the other hand, a player who takes hold of gas reserves could tech up quickly and field high end units.
2) What happens if you initiate the warp-in of a Protoss Stalker but the pylon providing power is destroyed before warp-in completes?
If you lose the pylon providing power for the unit warping in, you will lose that unit, and the purchasing credits will likely be refunded.
Is a harsher penalty not warranted? If you manage to successfully cut off Pylon power while your enemy’s units are warping in, why not punish him accordingly and take away his spent credits?
3) Could the Colossus be transported by the Phase Prism, since the Prism’s crystal can turn any matter into energy?
Yes, the new Phase Prism now transports by changing the unit they wish to transport into energy, which is stored in the Phase Prism for transport. This allows the Phase Prism to be able to transport even gigantic units such as the Colossus.
Previously, Blizzard had stated that the Colossus could not be transported in any way. In fact, this is one of the main issues players have with it replacing the Reaver, as it could never fill its infamous role, sneaking up behind enemy territory and devastating the worker line in seconds. This opens up new options for the Colossus - an already mobile unit, capable of traversing physical obstacles few units can manage. We are left to wonder whether Phase Prisms will still be able to “carry” Colossi in energy form in the final game, an ability that might prove to be extremely powerful.
Another consideration, now that the Colossus is transportable, regards the Thor - another unit that we’ve been told is too large to be transported. Now that transporting huge units is fair game, we expect a similar solution to come up for the Terran as well. Perhaps a Dropship could could give up its entire cargo space for the Thor, which it would lift, tied to its hull?
4) What happens if a Terran Battlecruiser targets a Protoss Stalker with the Yamato Cannon but the Stalker blinks away before the shot is completed?
Currently, the shot from the Yamato Cannon will still track and hit the Protoss Stalker.
Yamato shots used to track fleeing StarCraft 1 units to infinite distances, and this will not change in StarCraft 2.
5) Will Dark Templars be invisible when warping in, or susceptible to attack for a few seconds before it fades out?
No, currently the Dark Templar will be invisible the instant it begins to warp-in, though of course we are still testing this for balance as it makes the Dark Templar quite strong in back door drops.
Another way for the Protoss to disrupt their enemy’s economy easily. Making the Dark Templar visible and vulnerable for a brief period while materializing would make for a good gameplay mechanic, however.
6) Do the bunkers have any visual indication as to whether or not they’re occupied?
Currently the bunkers do not have any visual indications to whether it is occupied or not, but this is something we would like to change.
That’s it for this week’s excellent update, which somewhat compensates for the lack of news recently. Where’s our new unit page, Blizzard?
11 Comments to “Q&A 14: The Answers You’ve Been Wating For”
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If the Colossus can be transported.. things are a bit different. That might allow the colossus to fill the reaver back door drop roll.
However, as of now, except for the warp ray, the protoss still lacks a unit that can deal anything around 100 damage per hit. (Terran has seige, thor, Banshee that SPLASHES, snipe and Yamato for big one hits) Warp ray takes from the video, up to 5 seconds to get that damage up.. so it still don’t help against zerg storms as the reaver was able to.
I sure hope Psi-Storm won’t be the only protoss skill that can do more then 100 damage (in 4 seconds of time too)
I agree that we could use more unit pages (I’m surprised siege tanks haven’t made it up yet.)
Also agree on colossus not completely replacing reaver, as of now, it’s a unit that fights well in general vs. ground units, but isn’t really an “anti-swarm” unit that the reaver was, or an artillery unit that the reaver was. (Colossus and high templar may cover all the role,s but not completely.)
I hope that they are somehow able to still fit the Reaver in the starting line-up, but so far things aren’t looking good for the poor Reaver
I’m adopting a wait-and-see opinion towards the Colossus and, indeed, the Protoss in general. The Terrans are a pretty straightforward faction; big armor, big hits, somewhat ponderous at the high end. The Protoss, being the Eldar ripoffs that they are, are all about freaky hit-and-run maneuvers and cloaking and fragile-but-powerful ultra-specialized units, and it seems like Blizzard is having a tricky time nailing down exactly where they want the faction to go.
As far as the Colossus goes, it might turn out not to be a unit you deploy against the Terrans. I would like to see how it preforms against the Zerg; if it turns out that two or three Colossi can shred a swarm of Hydralisks into so much goo on the battlefield without even trying, the whole dynamic of the unit changes.
I do agree with Mercutio.
Blizzard seems firm with the Terrans, heavy machines, Long Range bombings, but in general somewhat specific, tanks for long range, firebat for short, and really needs ‘each other’ to be a full army.
But when it comes to the Protoss.. it used to be “Expensive but Strong” units, and most units have some sort of stand alone ability, like the dragoon, archon, etc. But so far, the Protoss seems rather handicapped and ‘over specific’ like the Terrans, like IMMORTAL have heavy shield against Heavy fire, but can’t hit air… (talk about niche, so basically you don’t need much of them. Since when will Terrans only bring out seige tanks.) Colossus has lasers but cannot hit air. Mothership for crying out loud, was said to have no air attack…. I do wonder what happened to the protoss, with all these Terran like weakness introduced.
We don’t know yet how much damage it takes to activate the shields, so immortals might end up being useful against stuff like cobras and stalkers as well as the heavy attack units.
Well in StarCraft relying on Macroing only 1 type of unit really best suited the Zerg. Example: Mass lings or mass hydras, when Toss macroed usually you would see Zealots/Goons or Zealots/Goons/Temps so yes their units have that standalone power, but good players mixed them up always.
In SC2 we may be seeing a lot of Zealot/Stalkers and with their upgrades that will be a very mobile quick response force with Charge and Blink. Throw in a few temps and its pretty much the good ole, Zealot/Goon/Temp build.
Quoting Battlarmd:
“Mothership for crying out loud, was said to have no air attack….” & “IMMORTAL have heavy shield against Heavy fire, but can’t hit air… (talk about niche, so basically you don’t need much of them. Since when will Terrans only bring out seige tanks.)”
No way. If you’ve read the description of the Mothership, it states that the unit was used for outer space exploration of new worlds during Aiur’s golden age. The Protoss aren’t dumb enough not to put Anti-air weapons on the Mothership. And IMMORTALS aren’t just for siege tanks alone. If you’ve read Karune’s previous interviews, IMMORTALS TOTALLY OWN ARMORED UNITS. That includes cobras, mech-mode vikings, siege tanks, Thors, Colossi, Stalkers, Ultralisks, Lurkers, Desalisks, Catalisks, Planetary Fortresses, Phase cannons, sunken colonies and other what-nots that are armored. Making them very useful in mid-game land skirmishes.
How useful Immortals will be, will be on how much damage it takes to activate the shields, but yes, they read that don’t hit Air, and somehow I read somewhere else too that the Mothership doesn’t hit air too… I cannot recall where I read it, so I will just not discuss that aspect of the mothership for now.
If the stalkers hits air and can blink, in a way, they are an upgraded dragoon, don’t worry. Just that the ‘tough’ part of the dragoon is not taken out for the immortal, and the ‘versatile’ bit was reserved for the stalker with a penaulty of less hit point. Blink is great for macro-ing, and going through narrow chokes.
Blizz WILL balance the stalker as it is the Protoss primary Ground-To-Air attacker. (Terran = Marine, Zerg = Hydralisk, Protoss was Dragoon) So don’t worry, the Stalkers or immortals will end up hitting air, I strongly feel.
To me, for the Protoss the greatest lost is still the Reaver, and the reaver only. As some of you have rightfully stated, so far, there is yet to be a unit that does more then 100 damage + splash for the Protoss, which is somehow a huge leverage in fighting against swarms of marines and zergs.
The Pylons have become more of a target than ever, it seems like the great weakness in the Protoss arsenal.
I’m missing the Reaver already also…
just a heads up, batch 15 of the blizzard Q&A is up