Dustin “Cavez” Browder, StarCraft 2’s lead designer, has posted a few new details about two units we’ve been hearing a lot about lately: The Thor and the Nomad.

Before getting to the meaty part, Cavez mentions that the Cobra is out of the game completely.

The Cobra is out, the Thor is in, but it’s not a “replacement” in the ways you guys are thinking of it since the Cobra and the Thor do such very different things.

Goodbye, Cobra, and see you in the map editor.

This is what Cavez had to say about the Thor:

But here’s what I can tell you about the Thor in the current build:

 

- He is big, but the art is smaller than what we showed in the last demo, so he takes up less space and he can path a little better.
- He turns fairly quickly. Turn speed is not a balance factor.
- He has a lot of health (400 right now).
- He’s not super expensive (250/200 right now).
- He has a good bonus vs. armored units on the ground and he tends to waste a lot of damage on small units.
- His AA missiles are effective but not crushing. You can over-whelm him with enough air. His pathing size does limit his mobility when trying to chase fast moving air units.
- His shoulder guns are not currently in opperation. If we keep the current design the art will change.
- He does great against Stalkers, and several secret Terran and Zerg units. He also does well against most (but not all) air units.
- He is balanced so that if you kill him and then leave him disabled while he burns down you will do pretty well. If you fight both the Thor and the Disabled Thor then things tend to go pretty well for the Thor (for cost).
- The current Thor is countered by range, mobility or certain powerful anti-armor units.

Right now he’s kind of fun. I don’t know if he’s fun enough for StarCraft 2 or not. That will take a few more weeks at least.

The Thor has gone through a lot of changes already, and we doubt this will be the last. Currently, it seems that Blizzard is gearing the Thor to function as an anti-tank tank. He will be useful against large, armored targets – both in the air and in the ground – but will no longer have a long range attack and the barrage artillery ability.

An interesting twist is the new dead-but-not-dead mechanic, which will give the Thor an “extra life” as an immobilized turret. Balancing the unit to the point where it is cost effective when used fully (until its second death) but not so when only killed once and left to rot is a new, interesting concept. Of course, leaving an undead Thor lying on the battlefield might mean you will have to face him again after an SCV fixes him up to full health.

If there’s one thing we’re going to miss about the old Thor, though, it’s this:

Moving on, the Nomad:

Yeah, we’re still working on the specifics on this guy. For those of you who made it to BlizzCon you saw some of the ideas that are in the works but things have changed a bit since then.

 

The Science Vessel abilities are great but we are trying to provide new strategies as well. We’ll have to see what happens with the specifics on the Nomad as we continue to test. The Nomad is starting to feel pretty different from the Sci-Vessel since his abilities are based around constructing things and those things can be destroyed.

 

EMP is in the current build of the game. Irradiate is not, nor is the old style D-Matrix.

 

Irradiate isn’t gone, it’s just “Not in right now.” Those are very different places to be. I can’t tell you how many times EMP has come and gone only to come back again.=)

We have recently discussed the issues of the old Science Vessel’s abilities in the post about the Nomad’s new official page. Nothing has changed since, but Cavez is hinting that Irradiate might possibly return in some form, like the EMP and the altered Defensive Matrix.

Irradiate or not, the Nomad is shaping up to be a crucial unit for the Terran race.

Related Posts:

• » Two Massive Q&A Sessions: Battle.Net and Beta In-Depth
• » StarCraft 2 Beta: Protoss Strategies Overview
• » StarCraft 2 Beta: Yo Mommaship Got Nerfed
• » One Week Into The StarCraft 2 Beta: New Patch, Blizzcast

23 Comments to “Dustin Browder Talks About the Thor and the Nomad”

1. Anonymous — December 20, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
   

   Several SECRET units… my interest is peaked

2. Lonia — December 20, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
   

   Of course there are secret units.
   That’s how marketing works. Tada~

3. Ken — December 20, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
   

   Wow, ok, that is definitely good to know. The Thor specifically described and the Nomad is put on the cauldron for more tests… and the cobra – out! Interesting.

   But just one question, Dustin:

   WHERE , O WHERE IS THE DEMO FOR ZERG?

4. Anonymous — December 20, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
   

   they should have kept the bombardment ability for the thor.

5. Anonymous — December 20, 2007 @ 5:46 pm
   

   Too many units already have too many special abilities. Im glad there is no more barrage.

   R.I.P Cobra.

   Im saddened that the Thor is using missles for AA. I was hoping for a flak cannon AoE.

   Also, Karune seriously need to address what do the pilots on the Battle cruiser eat.

6. Atican — December 20, 2007 @ 6:47 pm
   

   Dude, they weren’t referring to the bombardment guns. They were referring to the guns on the inside shoulder that clearly aren’t firing in any of the videos. They’re tiny and barely even noticeable.

   “His shoulder guns are not currently in operation. If we keep the current design the art will change.”

   The bombardment guns on his back are clearly in operation.

7. Atican — December 20, 2007 @ 6:49 pm
   

   Also, the Cobra was such a stupid unit. Didn’t seem StarCraft-like at all.

   To the first poster: the word is piqued, not peaked.

8. D.Man — December 20, 2007 @ 6:52 pm
   

   I like the new thor and its second life, dieing in a burning hep idea, but i also wish that they would come out with a unit to replace the cobra, dare i say one more like a vulture.

9. Anonymous — December 20, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
   

   I did not like the role of the cobra, and found myself bypassing that unit completely when I sampled the game at blizzcon.

   I miss the super-ness of the ’superunits.’ With the mothership no longer being as powerful as it used to be, and now the thor stepping down just a little, I wonder how far the game has evolved from its original intent. I am sure that whatever changes were made, however, will make the game more enjoyable.

10. THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — December 20, 2007 @ 7:43 pm
    

    Oh, and that was me who wrote the last comment.

11. Anonymous — December 20, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
    

    @atican
    thanks for clearing the whole thor gun thing

12. jibbiajabba — December 21, 2007 @ 9:01 am
    

    I think Blizzard should have kept the Cobra b/c it was the only terran reconnaissance unit (we know so far).

13. Dill — December 21, 2007 @ 10:12 am
    

    I also hope they keep a unit similar to the cobra, a fast anti-air and anti-ground unit. (The cobra design is flexible enough that they could make any sort of fast, medium/low hit point unit out of it.)

    It’s also now a goof that they stuck the thor on the features page, thanks to all it’s features getting changed around. (They probably should have stuck something like the medic or siege tank up instead, Siege tanks are a 99% sure unit in terms of abilities and being in the game, Medic may not be as sure, but they still seem quite likely, and their main ability is fixed already.)

14. Dill — December 21, 2007 @ 10:15 am
    

    Addition to above post: by “Cobra design” I mean “Cobra appearance/back story”, by “any sort of fast…”, I am referring to anti air, anti armor, anti-light unit, move or not move while shooting, etc.

15. Starcraft 2 fan — December 21, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
    

    @jibb : i think the reapers will be enough for terran recon

16. SCV_Operator — December 21, 2007 @ 2:11 pm
    

    I wonder with the secret units, whether there will be some units in the game that will not have information released before the game itself.

    @Dill – the blizzard team have said all along that all the units are up for changes, and that whatever is posted on the features page is not final.

17. Dill — December 21, 2007 @ 6:42 pm
    

    I know that, it’s just a lot of changes for one unit on the features page. (If, say, ghosts had nukes and drop pods changed, it would not effect the features page much, for example.)

18. Elfyn Modakye — December 22, 2007 @ 8:44 am
    

    pity i liked the cobra

19. Mercutio — December 22, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
    

    Hmm, with no more Cobra I wonder if the Vulture will be back.

    The Terrans seem to be slow as molasses right at the moment. Nothing wrong with that I guess. And lord knows in SCI the Vulture was basically a ‘you mean I can buy three mines and get a FREE unit?’ purchase rather than a fast-attack purchase. And they do have the Reapers, who are quick little buggers. Still, one wonders.

20. Eros — December 22, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
    

    I’m kind of scared with the Thor, i mean, a really strong, hard to kill, cheap and unlimited-built unit… I hope some of these “secret units” of both protoss and zerg will be relativelly as tough as well.
    I really was like “OH i loved that” in the first Mothersship idea, then they changed, and now they brought the Undead Thor with superstrenght… the only thing it was missing it giving to him the EMP and a supershield, then I would learn how to play w/ Terran instead Zerg/Toss.
    GG all.

    PS: Enlgish is not my mother language.
    PS2: I’m having trouble playing SC1 in my new comp -.- that sucks.

21. i luv guardians — December 23, 2007 @ 2:25 am
    

    Im terribly upset with the removing of thor’s shoulder guns as much as when they made the mothership lousier than it used to be. Terribly upset.. And pls the nomad is realy ugly but…..nice concept art and auto turret

22. jibbiajabba — December 23, 2007 @ 7:35 am
    

    @starcraft2 fan and @ Mercutio, yeah, i guess reapers are suitable.

23. Lonia — December 23, 2007 @ 4:30 pm
    

    oh believe me. Thor will not be cheap.(who said it will be cheap? nonsense!)