Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has been churning out updates recently. Q&A batch #28 is here and it’s a fully featured one: An insightful Gameplay Blog and six very informative answers. Without further ado:

Chat with Devs: It has been a busy week, in which I had a chance to talk to multiple Devs this and I am happy to say that we have finished recording for our second episode of BlizzCast. We have also added a mini Q&A section to the show, to get direct answers straight from the developers!

Gameplay Blog: Following up on the last game I played in Batch 27, I had mentioned the Terran Marauder being a huge factor in my defeat. This new Terran unit visually looks similar to the Firebat, but instead packs the punch of dual Concussion Grenades (also able to be Stim Packed), which slows the movement rate of biological units, and also does additional bonus damage to armored units. These units are excellent at supporting any pack of Marines & Medics, with the ability to slow charging Zealots, as well as fast moving Zerg units. Playing as Terran, there is a sense of relief, when you watch an incoming army slowed down considerably, to be mowed down by your Stim Packed Marines. In addition, because the Marauders are able to be built at a Barracks with a Tech Lab, they are considered formidable early support units, able to pick off units of a weaker early game army.

Karune’s Gameplay Blog again provides great, up to date information about the hot issues of StarCraft 2. After neglecting to mention anything about the Marauder last time, he now explains exactly what this Firebat replacement does: it further increases the destructive potential of the dreaded M&M (Marines and Medics) combo.

Terran Marines, especially when under the Stim effect, excel at mowing down enemies from a distance, often before these get a chance to hurt the fragile Marines at all. However, Terran infantry don’t last long once they do come under attack.

This is where the Brood War Medic comes in. The Medic is there to increase the Marine’ survivability, making them useful even when the enemy units are right on top of them.

The StarCraft 2 Marauder further improves the role of the Marines: by slowing down enemy biological units, they allow the Marines to hurt and kill even more of those before being exposed to any damage. Furthermore, the Marauders’ bonus damage to armored units will help the M&M&M squad stay relevant throughout the entire game.

1. I noticed the Stalker “Blink” ability looked as though it was on a cooldown (similar to many abilities in World of Warcraft). This seems appropriate for some abilities, but is this restricted to the Stalker or will other units have abilities on cooldowns rather than energy?

 

Currently, the Protoss Stalkers Blink ability is on a 15 second cooldown and is one of the only abilities that do not require energy. One of the reasons this was done for the Stalkers Blink, was to make sure that players wouldnt have the problem of having only part of their Stalker army blink up on a hill with some left behind. The Protoss Phoenix also carries an Overload ability, which is based on a cooldown timer rather than energy. Whether the Stalker or the Phoenix will use energy or not, will be mostly determined through much more balance testing.

2. The Thor now is anti-aircraft unit, but will it continue to have surface-to-surface attacks?

 

In the current build, the Thors role has been changed to exclusively hit ground units, putting the transforming Viking back in the primary role as an air to air fighter. The Terran Viking is also now built from the Factory rather than the Starport.

Last time we heard about the Thor, it took over the Cobra’s role as the “heavy and air unit counter”. It has now been been stripped of its ability to hit air units. We’re hoping the Thor has been given its Barrage ability back, at least.

3. In the original SC, powers like Irradiate and Psionic Storm affected cloaked units and killed them even if you couldn’t see them. Will the Phoenix’s Overload ability target cloaked units as well?

 

Yes, the Phoenixs Overload ability does affect cloaked units, such as Terran Banshees. The Devs are all for these types of soft counters.

These types of counters are part of what makes StarCraft the unique and challenging game that it is. We approve.

4. Does energy regenerate at about the same speed as in normal SC? Since the game goes faster, has that been speed up too?

 

Energy regenerates at the same speed as the original StarCraft. At the fastest game speed, both StarCraft II and the original should feel the same in terms of speed.

While things such as energy regeneration and unit speeds may not have changed, the overall pace of the game has clearly been increased. As we already know, and like we had suggested way back, StarCraft is now an even more intense game thanks to changes such as increased mobility, increased shield regeneration speed, improved user interface, and many other improvements and refinements that the 10 year old game lacks.

5. Now that the Force Field ability has been moved to the Nullifier, what other abilities does the Templar have? Does he still have Hallucination?

 

The Hallucination ability has been cut from the High Templar. Instead, it will have an Anti-Gravity ability in addition to its classic Psi Storm ability. This ability will allow a High Templar to lift up buildings and units in the air, disabling their movement and attack, while also making them an air target.

 

This ability can be cast on Supply Depots blocking choke points, as well as incoming Thors, or other threatening units. This has been the first ability the Devs have been comfortable with, in giving players a real choice to be made, to use Psi Storm or the Anti-Gravity ability. This ability is still being balanced, in terms of the duration units and buildings will stay in the air, energy cost, and if it will be a channeling spell (which means the High Templar will be unable to move or cast other abilities while casting the Anti-Gravity ability).

Protoss players usually ignored Hallucination, the other High Templar spell, in favor of the ultimate StarCraft 1 ability – Psi Storm. The purpose of Anti-Gravity is to provide a worthy alternative to Psi Storm, which competes for the same energy pool – a fight Hallucination lost in StarCraft 1.

Karune later addresses a concern about the abusability of this new spell:

The Anti Gravity ability will not be able to lift the any of the resource collecting buildings such as the Command Center and the Nexus

How awkward will Zerg buildings, detached from Creep and flown into the air, look like?

6. Will there be an icon on the left hand side of the screen to alert the player of idle workers?

 

Yes, we currently have the ability to select idle workers built into the UI.

We’re glad to see this now-standard RTS feature making it into StarCraft 2. In StarCraft 1, only the top players could boast about a 100% SCV employment rate. For others, SCVs (and other peons, to a lesser extent) tended to slack off, with players neglecting to issue the command to return them back to their duties, focusing on the more important aspects of warfare instead.

That’s it for today’s voluminous batch.

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23 Comments to “Q&A 28: Marauders Explained, AntiGrav, Thor Changed Again”

1. Bernard — February 4, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
   

   “Unfortunately, they neglected to mention whether units that are stuck in the air can still use their attacks and/or abilities.”

   “This ability will allow a High Templar to lift up buildings and units in the air, disabling their movement and attack, while also making them an air target.”

   I think that does say that the units will be unable to attack.

   Otherwise thanks for the updates.

2. Anderson Mccutcheon — February 4, 2008 @ 3:54 pm
   

   Bernard is correct.
   Content has been adjusted – RSS and Email subscribers will get the correct version.

   Thank you

   Cheers

   Anderson Mccutcheon

3. Dill — February 4, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
   

   The marauders seem like a more interesting unit than the firebat the way they are described, since it seems the type of unit that will be useful in a lot of unusual ways.

4. Kane — February 4, 2008 @ 4:26 pm
   

   I agree. However, I’m afraid that the M&M&M combo will be way too powerful. Especially if the Marauders are buffed up like the Firebats were. Will there even be an alternative for the Terran or will all games start with these squads?

5. Lonia — February 4, 2008 @ 6:45 pm
   

   M@M woo i don’t like this italic effect!

   M&M combo was fun to watch in SC1 but should not be too powerful in later games.

6. Mike — February 4, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
   

   lol

7. Ken — February 4, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
   

   Marauders and Nullifiers are becoming interesting to me…

   also, the new Templar ability “anti-grav” is very new so we will be expecting a lot of situational questions about it like what Bernard mentioned.

   lol… imagine a group of Marauders pushing into a toss base then saying, “What the hell! Those Mother****ing Immortals are in the air!”

8. BarGamer — February 4, 2008 @ 7:26 pm
   

   Somebody likes their three flavors of M&M&M: Spicy Hot, Soothing, and Gunpowder. XDDD

   If a Terran player sees an Anti Gravity coming, can they Lift-Off their buildings, and then drop it back down? How does Anti-Gravity affect buildings ALREADY Lifted-Off?

9. Dill — February 4, 2008 @ 7:39 pm
   

   Maybe it will just prevent them from coming back down, and/or turn them into equivalents of buildings that were lifted off from the ground (So they wouldn’t be able to move around.) Or at least that seems to me to be the simplest solution.

10. JMM — February 5, 2008 @ 1:17 am
    

    Anti-grav is such a radical spell. Weird to see buildings ripped from the ground, especially the Zergs.

11. THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — February 5, 2008 @ 4:51 am
    

    Could the anti-gravity pull you and your house to a strange and magical land where you make your entrance by landing upon an evil spell-caster?

    But seriously, will there be some in-game mechanism to prevent buildings from “falling” upon other units?

    The marauder is my new favorite dryad unit. Too bad they’re not immune to spells.

    Are the reapers still in?

12. MechaBeast — February 5, 2008 @ 7:29 am
    

    Marauders chuckin’ ‘nades sounds fun. And its about time the Viking started from the factory. Antigrav…. um k? Id agree it should lift small – medium units but Thors and buildings? come on. Terrans rely on supply depots choke points. Now a toss comes up and just says “nope thanks” Starcraft buildings shouldn’t be effected by 0 grav anyway, they’re are built on space platforms which I’d imagine have limited gravity anyway.

13. Dill — February 5, 2008 @ 8:27 am
    

    The spell is “anti-grav” meaning it will produce an upward force (plus it fits in with the other “how do those units move on space platforms” type issues that are that way for gameplay.) lifting up some buildings does seem iffy, though.

    It would make sense that reapers are still in, since they do something different than the other terran units, though of course I only know as much as the rest of you on that.

14. WayneInc — February 5, 2008 @ 9:20 am
    

    Okay nice idea this anti-grav spell but some of the terran structures already CAN fly
    so the next questions would be:
    What does happen to the lifted structure/unit? What are they and what arent they able to do?

    —–
    my live for the swarm. but where is it?

15. Lonia — February 5, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
    

    why would you want to cast that speel on already lifted buildings!
    Use it when it’s going to come down.
    The spell is to clear the path for zealots and other ground attack units.

    Darktemplar+this spell would be a good combo.

16. Dill — February 5, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
    

    This is some neat information to continue tiding us over to the zerg, though.

    On Marauders, I wonder how quickly they attack, and how long the slow works, as well. (What this really means is “I wonder how many will be needed per marine/per enemy unit to keep them slowed enough to make a big effect.”) I’m also wondering whether the “biological unit” description really means “small biological unit”, since if the zerg get any big units it, as usual, wouldn’t make sense for some grenades to stop a huge ultralisk type creature, or even a lurker sized one.

17. warlock0402 — February 6, 2008 @ 6:22 am
    

    I guess… after the Anti-Grav fades out, will the lifted units and/or buildings take damage for hitting the ground??

18. Chaoswotn — February 24, 2008 @ 4:16 am
    

    Well, the nutering of thor is very disapointing, I was looking foward to having a terran unit that could get into a slug fest with the Arcons and Ultras. Also the thor with its bombardment ability finally give the terrans an offensive weapon in witch to drive a spear into the heart of the enemy. instead of having to STOP deploy The undeploy move an so forth. Terrans need an offensive ground unit period

19. Tim the guy — March 30, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
    

    i agree with #18 the terrian seem to be weeker and weeker after the unvailing of the zerg and the nullifer, what i really am saying is concerning the terrans is “WHERE”S THE BEEF?!” or am i just being stupid…
    and concering the triple M combo, i agree that it seems too powerful but it would be helpful against the roach and the swarm.

20. thehumanelement — May 19, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
    

    I hope Zerg buildings decay when they’re in the air, like they do when they’re not on the creep now. Otherwise this will be a bug and an interesting tactic.

    Unfortunately Marauders don’t replace the ability of Terran infantry to defend a bunker very well against mass spammage of Zealots, Firebats are great at that because all the bunched up Zealots take cross-fired splash damage from every Firebat. With the Marauders’ movement rate slowing ability, when defending a bunker the Terrans will just get a couple more shots in as the Zealots advance. Hopefully this will come out in the wash, as it were.

    Also, what does a Marauder look like? I can’t make it out from the pictures! Anyone post a link?

    Could Blink be made to auto-cast? Then it could be used to dodge attacks like incoming siege-moded tank fire.

21. Joe — May 20, 2008 @ 8:46 pm
    

    @thehumanelement – “Could Blink be made to auto-cast?”

    Hmm, why not just let the game have all the fun? I’ll sit and watch.

22. thehumanelement — May 21, 2008 @ 4:18 am
    

    @Joe – “Hmm, why not just let the game have all the fun? I’ll sit and watch.”

    Damn good point there , I didn’t think of that! Having it as an option against only particular types of attacks would make it a different ability, which would be unnecessary and make the game more complicated!

23. Lonewolf — June 9, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
    

    a friend of mine had a very good question thats the moderaters of the forums would not answer maby you know, will the thors be able to be picked up in the drop ship or esle what would be the point of having thors on island maps?

    thx