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Cavez, Blizzard’s lead designer, and Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, have taken the time to answer a few questions that had popped up on Battle.Net. While this type of information is usually released in Q&As, the last few posts actually contain more new, interesting facts than the last few batches.
First up, a detailed explanation of how Protoss Warp-In actually works, by Cavez:
- You build Gateways.
- You purchase the Warp-In upgrade on the Cybernetics Core.
- You select your Gateways and transform them into Warpgates. This is extremely fast.
- You may select your Warpgates and transform them back into Gateways (also fast) any time you want. You would mostly do this if you wanted to reduce your Macro and rely on queues. Skilled players never go back to Gateways once they have Warpgates.
Now that you have Warp Gates:
- Select a Warpgate.
- Select a unit to build.
- Target anywhere within a power radius.
- Unit begins to warp-in where you selected.
- Warp-In is very fast.
- Unit is vulnerable during the warp-in process and can be killed before the warp-in is complete.
- Warpgate must now “cooldown” with a time equal to the build time of the unit created before it can warp-in again.
That’s how it works right now. In games it is extremely effective with Immortals and Dark Templars though I have seen it used with everything at one time or another.
The StarCraft 2 Warp-In actually teleports units into the battlefield immediately - and why shouldn’t it, if the Protoss unit constructing buildings are just big intra-dimensional gates? The time it takes to build, or “Warp-In”, a unit is reflected in the cooldown of the building after the unit has already been delivered. Warp-In differentiates the Protoss from the Terran in terms of constructing units - this was identical in StarCraft 1, with only the Zerg having a unique Hatchery/Larvae system.
The mobility and availability this grants the Protoss, especially considering the Phase Prism, is completely game-changing. It’ll be interesting to see how the game shapes up when the Protoss can send an instant army to any powered point on the map.
Next, Cavez discusses a few RTS issues and how they are addressed in the forming StarCraft 2:
We totally agree that terrain and position is key for StarCraft 2. We actually have a good amount of it now with our current units as well as our new terrain mechanics. If we find that the Reaper/Viking/Colossus/whatever are ruining our game play experience and have destroyed strategy then they get the boot. That hasn’t been our experience so far with these units, but we aren’t in beta yet so our pool of feedback is limited.
The rock-paper-scissors relationships are slowly being ground out. Some of them were never that real anyway. Since it is more exciting to show those relationships in a demo, we sometimes pushed them over-the-top just to show off units. As time goes by we have fewer and fewer rock-paper relationships. We will keep working on this issue.
We do have some big units, but then Ultralisks and Battlecruisers were big units in the original StarCraft. Thors are no worse than Battlecruisers in the current build and we will see what happens to the Mothership. She is not currently very dangerous for cost with her weapons or health (though her spells still need some tuning).
Cavez nails all these issues beautifully, leaving no room for doubt. Cavez later further elaborates about the Mothership:
We are still working on the Mothership, trying to make it as cool as possible. It currently is not a super-unit by our defenition (its health and damage are balanced for cost) though you are allowed only a single Mothership.
Its powers are pretty epic and are currently way too powerful. Nerfs are in-coming but we are focused on the Zerg so we havent put a ton of work into her for several weeks. When there is something worth updating on this unit, we will update.
Overall the unit has some promise, but she has a long way to go to be worthy of StarCraft 2.
We, too, are too focused on the Zerg to comment on the Mothership…
Neither the Immortals nor the Reapers can attack air units. Immortals are currently awesome counters to any high damage unit, and are able to be countered well by any type of rapid attacking unit, such as Zerglings or M&Ms with Stim. The Immortals’ bonus damage against armored add to their ferocity against many Terran units going into Tier 2 and beyond. Nonetheless, bringing in Terran Banshees will ruin any players’ day who masses Immortals.
Karune clarifies the role, advantages and weaknesses of the Immortal. We haven’t heard a lot about this unit recently, probably because it hasn’t really changed since its inception.
Lastly, Cavez talks about a non-gameplay related matter and details his thoughts about the forums and the fans’ role in StarCraft 2’s development.
I don’t know what this forum is “officially” for but I know what I use it for. I come in to this forum to see what you guys think about the game, to listen to you guys talk about the original StarCraft and to read some ideas/suggestions. I know a lot of other developers on the team do the same thing.
I have on occasion taken an idea from this forum and brought it with me to the next design meeting. Sometimes I have to modify the idea to fit it into our current needs. Often these ideas get shot down, but then a lot of ideas get shot down. I have taken concerns from this and other forums directly to people on the team to see how we can address them. Sometimes we decide that the concerns aren’t valid. Sometimes we decide that they are and we make a fix.
As developers we don’t get a chance to post a lot, so it may not seem like we aren’t here with you, but we are.
I have learned a lot from the StarCraft community, both here and in other forums as well as through face-to-face with fans from around the world. StarCraft has a great community, filled with passion, knowledge and enthusiasm.
StarCraft II is lucky to have you guys watching over it.
We love you too, Dustin.
17 Comments to “StarCraft 2 Gameplay Info from Cavez and Karune”
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“We love you too, Dustin.” — Oh Dustin… mmmm… I love you too, and your sexy zerg.
Well, will all this information of the Warp gate being brought and shown to the public once again. I can’t help but wonder if you can take existing units, such as Zealots, Stalkers, Dark Templar, etc. And then place them inside an active Warp gate, like bunkers house marines, and then warp those units straight in. Is this possible?
<3 Karune,Cavez and Xordiah!
ooooh Zerg! they’re coming.
Why would you want to do that, Anonymous2.0?
immortal cant attack air..a good day for bc fleets users but a bad day for noob protoss players….muz build stalkers and other things for air attack…..i used to build dragoon armies coz of its versatality..now…no more
also…immortals prove a bad day for terran defense….OMG…tanks cant stop them….
Anon: The way I read it, each unit has a “Warp In” cool-down, it’s not set by the Phase Prism itself. So yes, it would make total sense for pre-existing units to be able to Warp In, since effectively, they’re already built. And once the battle is over or however long the cool-down is, they can warp back to base or onto the next Terran outpost.
However! The cool-down does mean that if you Warp In a bunch of Units into another Protoss (or other race) Base and they Warp In to your’s… Well, you’re stuck there. Better kill them first! LOL
Anyways, I noticed that from the Protoss Gameplay Demo, the Warp In takes about 6 seconds to deliver a unit, regardless of whether it’s a Zealot or a Stalker, and you can Warp In multiple units at a time. From Karune’s news, they may or may not have shortened the Warp In delivery time, but essentially, they’re free hits. So while the rock-paper-scissors balance might hold, it’s best to use Warp In in a safe spot, or you might as well be suiciding your units.
Even in Star Trek, transporter beams aren’t infallible. XD
Wonderful comments by Anonymous2.0 and BarGamer.
Is there a limit to how *many* units can be “held” in transport meta-space? Is there a cap on how *long* they can be held?
Presumably, a player could hold onto a large secret intangible army. It would be a good way to hide forces and to bluff an opponent.
The warp technology truly distinguishes the protoss from the other races. Did anyone create that one starcraft map from the sc1 strategy guide? It was called something like, “so-n’-so’s gods of war.” The proposed map further distinguished the races with certain abilities: Protoss had teleport access points on the map; terrans received hero units based on the number of kills the accumulated; and zerg had all costs and build times reduced by half, but also lost half their hit points. This warp-in technology reminds me of the old starcraft 1 custom map.
Am I to understand that you can only warp 1 unit (that can only be built from a gateway) per warp gate? Toss will be running out of room in their bases with these gate clusters.
MechaBeast: I believe that Warpgate is better form of gateway. the only differences is that when the loading bar is full, warpgate can warp it anywhere with pylon power while gateway can’t. They have the same waiting time for a nit to show up.
Mecha: In simpler terms, without a Warpgate, units pop out of their normal buildings. With a Warpgate, you can Warp In multiple units, as long as they haven’t been Warped since their last cool-down. To make a Warp Gate that can only Warp one unit at a time would make as much sense as a one-use revolving door. Read the above comments again, this time with some caffeine in your system. XD
Banana: As for how many, the Gameplay video showed 16 Zealots queued up for Warp In, but whether that was how many that was in Ctrl+1 Group, or truly the max number of units you can hold, there is no way to tell. It wouldn’t make sense for there to be a limit to how long they’re in ‘warp-space’, altho I would sure get bored after the first 5 minutes. XD
It would make much more sense, and take less steps, for available Zealots simply to be waiting in your base, within Pylon Power, and be Warped In via another Base’s Pylons or Phase Prism. Otherwise, you just get the Warhammer40K Eldaar issue of “Darn, where did I put that platoon?? I can’t find them!” and “Oh snap, they destroyed my Warp Gates first, all my units are gone!”
Also remember that stuff in the demo is described as having stats or times for things to occur changed around to better show off the units, so the warpgate as likely as not was changed around for the demo to allow things to occur faster.
Maybe I’m being dumb, but the way I read it was:
Make a warpgate from a Gateway. When you go to make a new unit (eg. zealot) instead of it popping into existence next to the warpgate, and maybe moving to a gather point, it automatically materialises wherever you want on the map. The warpgate then has a cool down period, equivilent to the build-time of the unit, and then the next unit in the queue would be made and sent out.
If you were watching the spot where the units were materialising, it would look something like:
Empty - Zealot - Pause (equivilent to build time) - 2 Zealots (Pause) - 3 Zealots
If you built 4 warpgates, then you could have something that looked like
Empty - 4 zealots - Pause - 8 Zealots - Pause
Have I got this right?
I think that the building queue is removed in a warpgate. Which is why a warpgate can still return to a gateway.
“BarGamer — February 3, 2008 @ 2:43 pm
Mecha: In simpler terms, without a Warpgate, units pop out of their normal buildings. With a Warpgate, you can Warp In multiple units, as long as they haven’t been Warped since their last cool-down. To make a Warp Gate that can only Warp one unit at a time would make as much sense as a one-use revolving door.”
OK, now you read it, but in english.
Warpgate is on cooldown., not the units you warped. Warp gate is not a shuttle. They are not loaded.
You trade the ability to have a running queue for a instant unit that teleports to any powered point on the map. In order to warp in several units at a time you will need several warpgates.
I think the last two comments got it right, from what I understand from the blue and the blog. Why can’t they just record a short movie for us?..
from the thread:
- You may select your Warpgates and transform them back into Gateways (also fast) any time you want. You would mostly do this if you wanted to reduce your Macro and rely on queues. Skilled players never go back to Gateways once they have Warpgates. -
So with Warpgates you can’t just queue up a whole long list of units and have them arrive one after the other: makes sense, as this would be way too strong!!
at last, it got clearer now with the gateways/warpgates.
as i remember, the warp gates warp the units from a distant outpost, so it would be strange to ask them to warp units from one place on the map to another. Instead, i think i have heard that the phase prism is capable of carrying units in an energy form, so that it effectively does what you call “putting the pre-built units back into the warpgate”, if i got you right.
one thing i can’t figure out from the clarification: will the good old gateway work in a new manner - first deploy a unit nearby, and then cool down for a time needed to build the unit?