After a couple of posts dealing with map making, Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, is back with some more gameplay-related information, straight from the latest build of StarCraft 2.

A topic that has brought up some concern, revealed in the last gameplay Q&A, is the new abilities-inside-Bunkers mechanic. Here’s a short recap about the new Bunker:

• Holds and protects 4 infantry units
• Units inside can use special abilities
• Can be salvaged like other Terran buildings, enabling an inexpensive “Bunker-Push” strategy

Karune posted some new bits of information about the abilities available inside a Bunker:

The Null Void ability currently prevent units inside bunkers from casting.

 

Repairs can only happen from outside of the bunker.

 

Medics inside bunkers will be able to heal units inside a bunker, but Medics outside of a bunker will not be able to heal units inside a bunker.

While Medics will be able to heal units from the safety of the Bunker, SCVs will not be be allowed do the same for the Bunker itself. Of course, with medics being protected in the Bunker and able to heal SCVs outside of it, the SCVs themselves will receive part of the protection the Bunker offers by extension. Will Medics become the main inhabitants of Bunkers from now on?

A few more important questions remain about the Bunker and the abilities units have inside it, as we have mentioned in the last post. Mainly, whether or not powerful abilities, such as the Ghost’s Nuclear Launch, will be allowed.

Karune then discusses the Nullifier’s Null Void ability further. We have voiced our gripe about its unintuitive effect on burrowed units in the past, and this answer doesn’t serve to elucidate the matter.

Null Void only stops abilities that costs energy, which does not include abilities mentioned above, such as Blink, Overload, Repair, and Build Interceptor. On the other hand, Null Void will act as a detector, allowing cloaked units to be seen in its area of effect.

The Null Void ability will not affect “innate” abilities that facilitate the core function of a unit. The Burrow ability is an exception: it does not require energy, meaning Null Void should not have an effect on it. On the other hand, it does count as a contingent cloaking mechanism, although an obviously non-psi/technological one. Allowing Null Void to reveal burrowed units would make this ability more magical than technological – making its name, and its use in StarCraft 2, somewhat unfitting.

Moving on, Karune explains the changes the Colossus has recently gone through in greater detail:

The current attack is a modification of the original beam attack. Visually, it fires a wide beam on the battlefield, able to kill 5 Zerglings standing in a row horizontal to the Colossus.

 

In terms of micro, you will be more focused on not ‘clumping’ your units together, rather than any actual dodging. The beam fires at one time and will not be a moving beam from one side to another.

Some more info about the Colossus’ ability to walk over buildings:

The Colossus can currently walk over smaller buildings such as Supply Depots, but not over large buildings such as Command Centers. At the end of the day, what the Colossus will or will not be able to walk over will be determined through balance.

Lastly, Karune reveals another Medic ability and its effect and gameplay use:

Medics in StarCraft II currently have an area of effect Flare ability (50 Energy), which allows the player to see an area near the Medic. This Flare will not act as a detector, but is great for attaining vision of high ground to spot for the Siege Tank, allowing it to hit targets otherwise not targetable.

The StarCraft 1 Medic’s Flare ability had a different function: blinding enemy units. This ability did not see much use, aside from in virtuoso plays, and has been replaced with something more relevant. Aside from gaining higher-ground vision to allow friendly units to fight back against hidden attackers (remember, StarCraft 2 Siege Tanks no longer reveal their location when attacking), the new Flare also has importance for other abilities:

Q: Is vision needed for Reapers to jump up cliff? If so, does Optic Flare come in handy?

 

Yup, this will be great for Reapers to back door, or in team games for Stalkers to Blink to strategic positions.

Units that can travel through different heights will require vision of higher destinations. This means that for early game Reaper raids, Flare will be absolutely essential – at least until Starports are available and the Terran air force comes into play.

An exception to this rule is the Colossus, which is tall enough to view the higher ground himself:

The Colossus will be able to see on top of cliffs, allowing it to climb up without a ’spotter.’

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18 Comments to “Karunology: Bunker Info, Colossus Mechanics, Medic Abilities”

1. Kane — February 20, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
   

   1) Sneak in an SCV behind the enemy base, close to the mineral line, and construct a Bunker.

   2) Tech to Medics and Reapers.

   3) Build a Barracks near the Bunker and begin training Reapers and Medics.

   You now have a protected healing station and a dedicated raiding force that can harass the enemy economy constantly, jumping down the cliff to avoid enemy forces and restore HP when needed. GG next map

2. martix — February 20, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
   

   Thats a nice take on that new mechanic.
   And a nice post too. And agree on burrow too.
   But I am wondering about the colossi – does this mean is basically just a splash attack? Thats kinda unoriginal. They could have left the sweeping attack and maybe come up with a simple estimation system, so that you don’t have to manually order them how exactly to attack.
   I never did understand why they removed it.

3. MechaBeast — February 20, 2008 @ 2:16 pm
   

   Colossus was changed because toss needed a unit that kills like the old reaver used to(lots of death at once).

   So now the Colossus has a Lurker attack? meh.

   What if the Collosi beam a unit for a certain period of time (reletive to the units HP) then that unit Asplodes causing splash dmg to near by units (also reletive to the units HP).

   Thanks be to Karune. Kittens everywhere rejoice.

4. Dill — February 20, 2008 @ 2:42 pm
   

   Some other people were pointing out how some attacks obscure the view of units, it seems this new colossus attack will do so more than the older one did.

5. martix — February 20, 2008 @ 3:09 pm
   

   Ugh, I’m beginning to hate that e-sports attitude. For me SC2 is supposed to be mostly enjoyable – nice graphics and cool FX. Fun to play with friends and with lots of possibilities. Kinda what blizz is making now and what you are trying to make them change. So what if a 3-4 pixel line obscures your 10 pixel unit for like 2-3 seconds? You aren’t gonna die or lose just because of that.

6. jibbiajabba — February 20, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
   

   I think sc2 blog misinterpreted what Karune was saying.
   “Medics in the bunker can heal units inside the bunker”, but I don’t think the medics can actually heal units outside (such as the SCV sc2 blog was referring to). I think what Karune meant was that if you want to heal that scv, it needs to go in the bunker in order to be healed by the medic inside.

   So from that interpretation, players need to have really wicked micro to pull what Kane mentioned.

7. SteelVelocity — February 20, 2008 @ 8:04 pm
   

   God…. dammit. Why did they nerf the Collosus? It was perfect the way it was. Can the moderator please complain about this?

8. Ken — February 20, 2008 @ 8:30 pm
   

   They didnt nerf the Colossus dude! its just different strategically. I think its even better now than before!

   And Karune failed to mention if it is true that Medics that are INSIDE a bunker can heal units that are OUTSIDE the bunker… Bunker pushes are becoming too powerful with the medic and ability use of infrantry from inside.

9. THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — February 21, 2008 @ 12:40 am
   

   “Q: Is vision needed for Reapers to jump up cliff? If so, does Optic Flare come in handy?

   Yup, this will be great for Reapers to back door, or in team games for Stalkers to Blink to strategic positions.”

   This isn’t clear to me. Is it *necessary* for the reapers to see over the hill to fly to it? This wasn’t the case in the playable demo at blizzcon. If this is the case, as the blog seems to assert, then it seems to me that the maneuverability of the reaper has been over compromised. Medics cannot traverse over higher/lower platforms so they cannot follow the reaper in his path over really texturized terrain. I can envision terran players clumsily separating and holding reaper groups for ’spotters’ so that reaper groups can traverse over valleys and hills. … That sentence didn’t make any sense †_†

   .
   .

   ******
   Flame comment:
   How does sc2blog deal with these commenters who do not know what they’re talking about?

   Matrix — “So what if a 3-4 pixel line obscures your 10 pixel unit for like 2-3 seconds? You aren’t gonna die or lose just because of that.”

   Yes. You will indeed die or lose just because of that. This occurs even at the amateur level of play.

   Medics and the bunker:
   Yes. Karune did explicitly state in an old announcement that medics can heal OUTSIDE the bunker. Scroll down a few entries on the sc2blog to read about Karune’s personal encounter with this balance change.

   I don’t know why I’m clarifying these points. If you guys haven’t done your research, chances are you won’t carefully follow updates in the future and will continue to yield useless posts. I worry that your frequent ignorant voices will flood out the voices that have educated things to say. I mean I suppose there is some merit in having these extremely lay person posts heard — in that Blizzard can learn to be clearer in the messages they send, and in that understanding the concerns of the lay-person Blizzard can internalize how to better market to this consumer bloc.

   But still! Your uneducated assertions on the game drive me mad.
   *This* consumer has followed every update since the game’s announcement, and he is quite satisfied with the evolutionary direction developers have taken the game.

10. Spiral Architect — February 21, 2008 @ 4:08 am
    

    Take it easy, dude. Not everyone has a SC2 fetish like us (and the blog) and memorizes every bit of infomation. Karune didn’t mention the medic ability again in the post, but it can be found in Q&A 29:

    “To my disbelief, the Medic inside the Bunker was healing the SCV outside of the Bunker.”

    (http://www.sc2blog.com/2008/02/10/qa-29-bunker-evolved-nomad-mines-starcraft-2s-fair-ai/)

    The blog does a great job putting things in context, exactly for the purpose of informing even those who don’t follow each and every update religiously. You just have to trust them, I guess. =)

    Also, I disagree about the reapers – I think it adds a nice dimension to them. Don’t forget that other units can give them vision too. Worst case scenario, you sacrifice an SCV to scout ahead (while pulling off a diversion on the other side of the enemy base).

    All that assuming that this is really the case, since Karune (as usual) was a little obtuse about his words.

11. jibbiajabba — February 21, 2008 @ 7:09 am
    

    Okay fine Banana Republic, I misinterpreted what Karune was saying, big whoop! Now you don’t need to write a whole gramatically correct essay just to prove one measly point.

12. Rob — February 21, 2008 @ 8:22 am
    

    i don’t like the colossus change either… the original concept had so much style…

13. Lonia — February 21, 2008 @ 9:26 am
    

    Banana republic// I believe at the blizzcon demo, reapers jumped from higher ground to lower one which won’t need vision issues. so once reapers can get up there. they can come back down.

14. THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — February 21, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
    

    Thanks for the clarification Lonia,

    But I’m referring to when they’re trying to get back up.

    In order to traverse over a valley, the new changes make it seem as though the reapers will not be able to make it to the other side unless they have a “spotter” kept at a previous altitude. Here’s an ASICC art demonstration:

    the valley:
    _|…|_
    _|…|_
    _|…|_

    reapers:
    x

    Reapers above valley on one side can jump down to the lower:
    1.
    _|…|_
    _|…|x
    _|…|_

    2.

    _|…|_
    _|.x.|_
    _|…|_

    But once down, they cannot ascend up to the other side because they do not have the vision to see what is above them:
    _|…|_
    _|.x.|_
    _|…|_

    So, in maps where such valleys are narrow, such that a reaper on one side of the valley can have vision onto the other, a spotter reaper will need to be kept on the previous side of the valley grant passage.

    1.
    _|…|_
    _|…|x
    _|…|_

    2.
    _|…|_
    _|.x.|x
    _|…|_

    3.
    _|…|_
    x|…|x
    _|…|_

    To reunite the reaper group, the group will have to wait at the new end for the spotter to make his way over and return to the group.

    1.
    _|…|_
    x|…|x
    _|…|_

    2.
    _|…|_
    x|.x.|_
    _|…|_

    3.
    _|…|_
    x|…|_
    _|…|_

    My point in this new balance being: in order to traverse terrain, clumsy maneuvers like these will have to be employed. To bring another spotter unit like an SCV or medic seems troublesome in large maps where there may be many hills and valleys so that SCV’s and medics take a long time to get to the desired ’spotting’ zone. Reapers, in my opinion, should be able to cruise around the map on their own without this clumsy restriction.

15. JMM — February 21, 2008 @ 2:08 pm
    

    It does prevent it from being overpowered however.

16. Lonia — February 22, 2008 @ 12:51 pm
    

    nice ascii art but think about this way, banana republic.
    Reapers aren’t like transports/air units and they don’t need to travel every terrain. You don’t have to retreat in the same way as you came from also. What you propose, i think will give too many advantages for reapers. But I mean if the terrain level isn’t too different, jumping up could work.

17. §t4lk3r — February 22, 2008 @ 7:42 pm
    

    Haven’t you thought about using the new “Surveillance Station” in conjunction with reapers?

    For example your reapers are in lower ground, and the enemy’s peon line is on higher ground next to them, so you use the Surveillance Station to reveal the terrain over the reapers and they jump and destroy your opponent’s economy.

    Sounds easy, right?

18. ^_^ — July 25, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
    

    could reapers use there throw grenade thingy on to the cliff above and then jump up before the grenade thingy blows?