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Several representatives from US-based StarCraft fansites have gotten the chance to visit Blizzard’s Headquarters in Irving, California, and reported back with plenty of clarifications concerning gameplay, balance and unit roles.
The reports shed new light upon key units such as the Zerg Queen, Protoss Colossus and the Terran Thor. They also discuss other interesting adjustments made in the current build, including the total removal of the Medic and the ability to infest Protoss buildings.
The following summarizes StarCraft2Forum.org’s impressions from the visit to Blizzard’s HQ:
Protoss:
Most mature race at this point. Fully playable with well thought-out abilities and unit roles. Despite constantly being tweaked, the Protoss have not undergone any drastic changes in quite a while, unlike the ever-evolving Terran which lose and gain units on a weekly basis.
One unit stands out, however: the Nullifier keeps raising eyebrows, as it has been doing over the last few Q&As. The Anti-Grav ability affects not only units, but also buildings. This effectively nullifies both siege and defense formations, hurting production and causing a general havoc on the battlefield as key units are removed from battle, WarCraft 3 Cyclone style.
The Colossi are reported to have become the Zerg’s nightmare (as can be seen in the recently released gameplay video), with a fast firing rate and a horizontal AoE attack
Terran:
Blizzard’s latest change to the Terran race is the complete removal of the Medic and the introduction of the Medivac Dropship, a flying healing unit. Combining the Dropship and Medic roles into a single unit have made Terran infantry raids far more effective, increasing the amount of offensive units per drop.
The Thor has become a powerful anti-air weapon, employing WW2-Flak-style AoE guns against its aerial foes, but with a far less potent ground attack - removing any role overlap between the Thor and the Crucio Siege Tank.
While both the Terran and Protoss exhibit many deviations in this build (for instance, the Mothership has its Black Hole ability back, now termed “Void“) , such development builds are produced at a very high rate, and many drastic changes have little to no importance due to the slim chances of making it to the Beta or Gold release version.
Zerg:
The most intriguing Zerg unit is the new Queen. Unlike any other unit in StarCraft 2, the Queen has been compared, by Karune himself, to the Heroes of WarCraft 3. The comparison is unsurprising, especially considering the common traits:
- A player can have only one Queen
- The Queen evolves as your base and army become more advanced
- An additional penalty for getting killed - the Queen’s upgrades are eliminated upon death.
The Queen, being a unique key unit for the Zerg, will undoubtedly be the subject of many changes and adjustments. Her current abilities include the following:
(courtesy of http://starcraft.wikia.com)
* Burrow
Like many other Zerg ground units, the Queen can burrow.
* Creep Tumor
The Queen can create a Creep producing node. The Creep Tumor can be upgraded at the Evolution Chamber to produce Shriekers, which increase the range of the Creep produced by the Tumor.
* Deep Tunnel
This ability enables the Queen to [instantly] “teleport” underground from one friendly structure to the next.
* Regeneration
The Queen can enhance the regeneration speed of Zerg structures. This ability heals most of a structure’s health.
* Shriekers
The Queen can produce the Shrieker, a detector unit. It enhances the range of the Creep Tumor and Swarm Clutch abilities.
* Sunken Cluster
The Queen can produce a powerful defensive turret.
* Swarm Clutch
The Queen lays eggs which spawn when the Hive is attacked; they gain a range bonus from Shriekers.
* Swarm Infestation
The Queen can alter any Zerg structure to grow an organic turret, which attacks enemy units. The attack appears as small blue flies.
* Toxic Creep
This ability enables the Queen to “poison” a small area of Creep, injuring[harming? hurting? killing?] enemy units over the affected area.
Two of the most interesting new units are without a doubt the Nydus Worm and The Infestor. The Nydus Worm is clearly somewhat influenced by the dreaded Shai’hulud of Dune. It is a permanently cloaked (but detectable) unit, which at this point is the only transport unit available to the Zerg - as neither the Overlord nor the Overseer possess the Ventral Sacs upgrade anymore.
The Infestor has been confirmed to be able to infest Protoss structures, a rumor which has been circulating ever since it was introduced. This should make the Zerg’s many fans happy - Blizzard’s aim to make infestation part of Zerg’s standard strategy can add a lot of depth to the game, especially if the Infested units’ abilities are worth the trouble.
20 Comments to “Fans Visit Blizzard’s HQ, Return with Answers”
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i wonder if so many abilities can work with one unit, the queen. its not too player-friendly to use so many abilities. i think this abilities will be moved two 2 units, or they create a base turret building for this as in sc1, and that will be upgradeable.
the thor is now fast the same as goliath. void is great. anti-grav… bad news for me (i am zerg a fan :).
One slight unintentional irony in the post: After mentioning the Thor’s alterations (making it a killer anti-air unit but much less useful against ground targets), you linked to Wikipedia’s article on the infamous German 88mm gun. However, even though the 88 was intended as an AA gun, it was also adept at tank-killing.
“the thor is now fast the same as goliath”
Thats what I thought as well. But I guess it kind of looks like a big, slow version of the goliath, so it fits! I’m actually surprised its still in the game; a part of me thought it would have been taken out ages ago.
What is Void even?
I will be so upset if the Thor gets removed, not because of its role for the terran armies but it just looks so freaking awesome. (I heart giant robots) I’m hoping that the Thor becomes a role similar to the siege engine in WC3 just a bit more anti air, range the same of an upgraded marine, and still mows down buildings like a S.O.B.
The queen is why I don’t play WC3 anymore. Way to many abilities to hot-key.
Oh and the colossus beam attack while being a great and well thought out weapon looks kinda crappy. 9 or so individual beams all coming out of the left side just doesnt look right to me. Maybe if it was a translucent wide beam or a beam on each side swiping back and forth at a rapid pace would be more visually appealing (to me anyway).
Why doesn’t anyone focus on the ROACH? its the new tier 1.5 unit and the Hydralisk is now tier 2. If a Zerg player can get roaches that fast, then I think its imba. Because collosi are Tier 3 and aside from the Warp Ray, that’s the only thing with concentrated. continuous fire - which means that it the onlt thing effective against Roaches. Good thing for the Terran coz they have a tier 2 jackal. My point is, ROACHES ARE IMBA!!!
I am impressed if they could make this balanced.. so much units and spells.
please dont remove the thor and wtf, no medic?
If they make an flying medic, why not flying marine and flying firebat and flying SCV and everyone can fly, and just hav mega laserbeams that kills all unit on the map.
just kidding.. I liked the 5 marine rush with 3 medics. and now i have to wait for an flying aircraft to build a flying medic. will that be like an reaver base attack? just swirl around the map and find the other base, a medic air filled with firebats? and just put them out and blastois them and heal at the same time? can you heal a unit inside the medic air? omg..
Hey, no medic is bad news flavour-vise. C’mon I dig their distinctive death-screams. Flying unit to heal ground units - complete meh if you ask me.
no… you can’t take out M&Ms.
thx for this post!
Roaches may or may not be imbalanced, tier 1.5 is short enough to get ranged units for all races, which gives a better ability to focus fire on the roaches. The imbalance of course depends on whether roaches continue to be useful, and on their cost and combat statistics, though that is just like any other unit.
Even without ranged units, it’s not like you can’t micromanage a few melee units to engage a single Roach. Much like you’d do with Zerglings against Zealots: Zealot 1v1 Zergling = healthy Zealot with regenerating shield. Zealot 1v4 Zerglings = dead Zealot with 2 remaining Zerglings (IIRC).
Well, one thing’s for sure. You sure can’t cram a flying unit inside a Bunker. o_O;
Similar to the Medic in a Bunker, it would be silly for the Medivac Dropship not to be able to heal units inside of it. As for whether they HAVE to be inside them in order to heal will determine whether the fans will all board the WAAAAAHMbulance.
(Just kidding. XD)
Was starcraft2forums.org up at some time in the past? I haven’t been able to access it.
Of course everything is imbalanced, that’s why we’re speculating instead of playing =). By the way, if health regeneration becomes too intense, they can lower the Roach’s HP. The only thing that looks like a problem to me is that Roaches and Zerglings seem to fill the same role…
And I agree that Medics shrieking are a must =)
quoting Arthur Santana:
“… The only thing that looks like a problem to me is that Roaches and Zerglings seem to fill the same role…”
Zerglings and roaches fill the same role??? i don’t think so. A roach has a “battering Ram role” for a defensive cannon grid or bunker-Siege tank front. zerglings can’t do that, only Roaches can. Hypothetically.
I’d find it strange if the Medic was removed, as some other units have been designed to counter M&M. I think the medic should stay, and have some counter infestation abilities, or even biological warfare abilities. Blinding a whole pack of mutalisks would be effective, or poisoning a building. That, and give her Lockdown, and yay she’s effective against protoss also! hehe hmm maybe not
Oh please just keep the medics!!! They are my most favorite units in Terran army beside the Battlecruisers…
you know I looked at the thor as a tier 3 siege unit, and the tank as a tier 2 weapon… the thor anti air? sorry man I’ll just mass rines with viking support thor is useless as an anti air platform, too many resources spent on 1 and not mobile enough like vikings and dropped rines to be effective at anti air. make the thor a do anything besides be agile machine capable of aoe seige, descent anti-air and have massive one hit kill atacks up close with the arm guns similar to a arcons attacks. the terrans need a technilogical terror like that to compete in late game it seems. the damn thing will be expensive of course… so just balance it resourse wise instead of changing it’s traits to much.