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Another batch of Q&A has been posted by Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager. This Gameplay series post also includes the recently introduced ScreenCraft; screenshots taken as per fans’ request. This time, it’s a Protoss versus Zerg shot titled “Psi Onslaught“.
As requested by the community, the Protoss have brought their heavy hitters in this psi onslaught upon a developing Zerg base. In retaliation, the Zerg counter with a ravaging pack of Ultralisks and Zerglings upon the advancing Templar army. While the epic battle begins, the Protoss player cleverly sneaks a group of Stalkers to raid the Zergs economy as well.
Chat with Devs: After the Zerg release, I have been asking Dustin what types of changes are being made to the other factions during this process, and one of the most interesting ones that have been added has to do with the Terran Ghost. In order for the Terrans to counter the various new casters that have been introduced to all sides in StarCraft II, the Ghost can now detect units with energy in a 30 yard radius. This passive ability works similarly to the Sensor Tower, revealing their location even within the fog of war. This ability could also no doubt open up some interesting assassination type single player missions as well with the Ghost.
The Ghost’s Snipe ability has just become a lot more useful: The Ghost can now detect spell casting units in a radius around it, operating like a Sensor Tower for casters (somewhat similar to the WoW Hunter tracking mechanic). This will allow the Ghost to go on hunting missions with specific targets in mind, taking out critical units like the High Templar and the Infestor before engaging in full battle with the weakened enemy.
When asked about the Ghost’s ability to detect non-energy-based abilities, such as the Stalker’s Blink, Karune clarifies:
Currently, the Ghost’s new ability only applies to units with energy.
On to the Q&A:
1. What upgrade type (assuming these are returning) is the Viking using? Vehicle or ship? (Or perhaps infantry?)
The Viking is built from the Starport again and will use ship armor rather than vehicle armor.
2. What will Zerglings be able to do against new Jackal?
Attacking Jackals efficiently with Zerglings will take a bit of micromanagement, making sure that Zerglings are spread out or attacking from different directions. The Jackals hit points have also been reduced from 125 to 75 with a slight increase to their speed. This will make them more vulnerable to Zerglings if you can get them close to surround the Jackals.
The Jackals’ strength lies in their ability to line up their targets. Their weapon’s area-of-effect only extends directly in front of them, creating opportunities for skilled players to surround the Jackals, effectively eliminating their advantage over small units. This will cause players to either utilize the Jackals’ improved speed to get out of the disadvantaged position, or quickly lose the unit, which now has 66% fewer hitpoints.
3. If a unit is being produced at a Protoss building while it becomes unpowered, does it continue production or pause until re-powered?
If a Protoss building becomes unpowered, all production including research at that building will pause until re-powered.
4. In lieu of the Nydus Worm, will the Zerg Overlord maintain its “Ventral Sacs” upgrade? Will the Ultralisk have any sort of unit carrying capacity?
Currently, the Overlords original Ventral Sacs ability has been taken out. With the introduction of the Nydus Worm, the Zerg will have more than enough mobility to keep their enemies on their toes. On that note, the Ultralisk will not be able to carry units.
This issue has already been extensively covered in the reports following the Zerg announcement. Karune posted some more information about the Nydus Worm in response to a question:
Currently, the Nydus Worm can carry any ground unit from any faction (yes, this includes your teammate’s units), including Ultralisks. In regards to the Nydus Worm, I cannot stress enough that this is still work in progress, as this can easily be an overpowered ability. Nonetheless, the Blizzard Devs are working hard to get this balanced, as it is a very fun mechanic to play with. You never know when you’ll have a huge Nydus Worm bust out in the middle of your base, spewing hundreds of Zerglings out.
Detectors will be able to detect Nydus Worms traveling underground to their destinations.
This addresses the question that the SC2Blog had in the last Q&A - teammates can indeed use each other’s transports, or at least the Nydus Worm, to travel!
5. To what degree will StarCraft II allow for remapping - limited remapping a la Warcraft III, or complete remapping of key bindings?
We are planning to support key-mapping for StarCraft II. The extentof the ability for remapping keys is still to be determined. Even in current experimentations, we have found that there are often many issues with conflicting key bindings as there are very few open unmapped keys to be swapped in and out.
Q: Karune, are those templar in the screenshot channeling psi storm, or are their hands only glowing because the shot was taken right after they cast it?
Psi Storm is still instant cast, like the original StarCraft. The glow from their hands are the animations that occur when they cast Psi Storm. The animation can also be seen in my avatar as well.
In other news, Blizzard has exhibited StarCraft 2 in Taiwan a few days ago, and a few pictures have popped up on a local site.
The most interesting picture is this one, where the new Mothership “Vortex” spell can clearly be seen. It’s easy to understand why this ability is no longer called “Black Hole”, although we’ll have to see it in action before we can decide if it is actually an improvement.
A close up on the new Zealot:
A laser-heavy picture with a lot of action. A new building that looks like the Queen’s Nest is apparent on the lower right corner of the screen.
Check out the rest of the pictures over at sc2.sgamer.com.
21 Comments to “Q&A 33: Hunter Ghosts, Shared Nydus Worms, Taiwan Build”
Karunology: Unique Units, Offensive Queen, Bigger Banelings »
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The big bone on the Ultralisk butts is kinda funny to me hehe, but great screenshot
” 3. If a unit is being produced at a Protoss building while it becomes unpowered, does it continue production or pause until re-powered?
If a Protoss building becomes unpowered, all production including research at that building will pause until re-powered.”
Scratching my head…
Didn’t we already know about this?
why waste time in such an stupid question? of course we all know that when a building goes unpowered it pauses whatever it’s happing inside the building (production, upgrades,etc…)
Archons look great, but they should attack with BOTH HANDS, give us that or at least make them able to cast Kame Hame Ha
Everything seems great but I want to know what Blizzard is going to do against hacking. Hacking is one of the biggest issues in the original Starcraft cuz it kills the fun.
Re: qustion 3 - of course we knew it already.
The blog usually mentions stuff like that but I guess this one’s too obvious to bother. It’s funny that the fans follow the Q&As and other Blizzard information better than Blizzard themselves.
I really liked the black hole warping animation and the fact that it sucks units into oblivion. I hope the vortex won’t disappoint after that.
So here’s my question. I think Blizzard’s doing a wonderful job diversifying the unit roster and honing in on the look ‘n feel that we all love–Jackal’s a great new addition, it’s great to hear that they’ve redesigned the Nomad, Corruptors are stupendous, love the Banelings, etc.
But each time we get introduced, either through official announcements or caught on screenshots, to new buildings, all I get is a sinking feeling of disappointment. They’re just not… new. At all. They don’t even have different graphics–at least Carriers and Zerglings got graphical revamps, what with wings and such. The only gamechanging buildings we’ve got are in the Terrans–with the Sensor Tower, lowering Supply Depots, deployable Turrets and the add-ons system. Those are significant multiple changes that really feel like a dynamic expansion on the original Terran capabilities–which is what I was hoping to have for all the races. The only Protoss change involving buildings seems to be the movable Phase Cannons… and next to all the other changes made from SC1, the change feels… well, minor. I don’t want to see a Cybernetics Core or a Forge anymore, I want some new buildings! Do we seriously still have a Gateway? I love the Warp Gate dynamic, but seriously, you’ve designed all these buildings already. Give me something new.
And don’t even get me started on the Zerg–Queen Hive? Spawning Pool? These are old hat.
zoomed-in zealot looks weird…
Great info, great site. You’ve been bookmarked; I’ll be back daily. =)
zoomed-in zealot looks weird…
Yes, kind a spandex+welder helmet protoss look.
Though from far away they look pretty good, so no issue either way.
I do agree that a lot of the buildings part of the game is a bit of a letdown, though warp gates and the terran stuff is pretty neat. The current roles of buildings seem to still pretty much be supply, upgrades, or unit production, which may or may but be all that changeable. (I could see zerg buildings associated with particular units having extra functions, though, such as allowing faster production of that particular unit, adding different types of defense, healing or otherwise assisting particular units in combat, or something along those lines.)
About the nydus worm … Can they be used to access “islands” on a space platform map, you know like when the island is separated by SPACE ? I know gameplay > realism but that would really look stupid. And since they currently do not have any alternative transport … well …
I also want to give comment on the animation of Terran’s structures in flight mode and that of the drop ships as well. The jet engines of those things look like horizontal burning flames. It’s just weird and not realistic.
What about this for an idea:
Queens are only unique before Tier 3, or you can only have as many queens as you have lairs or hatcheries.
Regarding the nydus worm being overpowered….Just increase the size of the nydus worm (perhaps barracks size). You cant use nydus worm in tight places and not in bases that is clumped up together.
I think it would be cool if as you upgrade units, those upgrdes are shown. EG: if you upgraded zerglings to get those wings (which they currently always have), then they morph these wings and can jump up and down cliffs.
and yeah, I think zerg needs SOME kind of flying transport for space platform maps. WAIT! or you can see the body of the Nydus worm extending between the islands. Now THAT would be cool, seeing a wriggling line stretching across space to this other island…
I agree with Nattaboy about the Nydus worms should show their bodies between space platnforms. The jump ability for zergling wings is also cool, I think Blizzard can add it as a late upgrade.
I see that they still haven’t changed the attack visuals for the colossus, the spread-out lasers are coming out on only one side of their head, wierd considering that protoss technology always considers symmetry in their designs (immortal, stalker, pheonix, etc.). I hope that changes.
quoting Phil Alford at #10:
“What about this for an idea:
Queens are only unique before Tier 3, or you can only have as many queens as you have lairs or hatcheries.”
This is a bad idea, dude what are you talking about?
Yeah, dude, seriously
I like the idea of the Zerglings which can have the wings as later upgrades. Imagine a chase between Zerglings and Reapers…cool…
There is a small thing that Blizzard has to think about and yes, it is the Nydus Worm in space platform. Seeing the body stretching out is a nice idea, but remember, the Nydus Worm is suppose to travel undetected. Just imagine fighting against Zerg and just when you were about to send a Dropship/Medivship(spelling) to attack, you see a weird looking body between the islands. First thing that comes to your mind ; Uh-oh… and THAT would spoil the fun of Nydus Worms
Well, this is all very cool to see. The Zealot is kind of weird, but then again, i’m not going to be zoomed in on my zealots at any point in the game. Also the Vortex looks pretty cool, but seeing it in action will show whether it is worth it. But, I have a few questions about the nydus worm. First off, is it reusable, like, can i send units out in it and then after they are dropped off and the worm has a cooldown period can i call it back and restock it? Or can i just send units through it once it has shown itself? And if neither of these things are possible, then that means i have to just keep making those nydus worms, which seems kind of inefficient if i have to just keep pumping out nydus worms to transport units faster.
In the Psi Onslaught… is that an infested Ziggurat? O_o
An idea, since the zerglings have wings, can’t they jump on buildings and attack. Instead of zerglings just circling the building and clawing it down with, and instead of zerglings jumping off cliffs because its already overrated and is not distinct any more, the zerglings climb to give space to other melee units. Maybe effectively making them both ground and air targets, and a limit of zerglings on top of a building in correspondence to it’s size? And maybe include a Thor, Ultralisk and Colossus into this ability, as they are obviously more massive than the zergling.
Plus, why are psi storms hitting the bottoms of those Ultralisks? Or are they psi storms?
And, the only awesome zerg building that I can see is the hatchery… or lair. The others are ok, but didn’t they “evolved”, as denoted by the Matriarch (Guess who) during their four year silence? Shouldn’t they have new building desgins? =D The picture of the zerg and the colossus attack, the building beside the hatchery/lair other than the spawning pool, that would be an awesome-er extractor than the current one…
The ‘nothing new’ issue for me is quite uncalled for - questions like “didn’t they evolve?” and statements like “They’re just not new at all” is to me a little frustrating. Sure, you are right to think whatever you so would like, and I’m not speaking for/defending Blizzard, but according to me, StarCraft 1 was a really good game with really balanced races, not often seen in other RTS games. The graphical upgrade is something astounding, but there is many changes in what the buildings do, and how they affect units of which there are a fair amount new ones. I’d rather see nothing new and really good gameplay (in new graphical clothes), then all new and lousy balance, lost the feeling.
In my own opinion the races seem to have evolved, but why change all the races static buildings instead of having them do and build new things? Why not put effort into making the old crappy waypoint system better, and finally have them stupid goons become smart Stalkers?
And Starcraft was never a game of 100 not different units doing the same thing anyway
On to the Ghost, and the spotting caster system.
“Currently, the Ghost’s new ability only applies to units with energy.”.. And keep it that way. The psionic Ghosts should rightly so sense other psionic creatures, but not those who depend and act on the mysterious Void - that is just too deep for any human (bio-enhanced or not) to understand.
Also the nydus worm would be great if it would be seen between platforms, that will make microing it away from eager spotters a much more rewarding and feel-good achievment then if it just were “randomcloaked” in case the map was split fully in two. The worm doesn’t have to take as much time between the platforms though, as it could shoot out quicker than travelling in solid ground.
- Hope for feedback