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Q&A 34 is here. Plenty of new post-Zerg information is presented, but everything is far from being final. Here’s how Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, introduced this batch:
So now that all three races are out of the bag, you may have thought you’ve seen it all- nope! The Dev Team is still working very hard to add even more innovation and clever balance affecting design changes that will indeed polish out the gameplay of StarCraft II that much more.
The “Chat with the Devs” section reveals a new mechanic for the Carrier:
Chat with the Devs: As of recent, the Dev Team has added a new ability to the Protoss Carrier that will give it a little more Umph! versus Zerg Corruptor attacks or Viking raids. In the past, the Carrier simply had a large swarm of Interceptor fighters which you had to build from scratch. Carriers now come built with 4 Interceptors already loaded (which is also the max number of Interceptors currently). They also have the new ability to have Escorts built for a temporary power boost to focus fire. Strike Fighter Escorts cost resources to build and last only 45 seconds, but add a decent amount of firepower to a Carriers attack. A Carrier can have a maximum of 4 Escorts. Escorts are given attack orders to focus-fire on whatever the Carrier is attacking and they can be destroyed independently of the Carrier or each other. The cost for these Escorts will be significant enough to where players will not want to just have the max number all of the time, as that would bleed your economy needlessly. Thus, players will have to pick and choose their battles in where they want the full force of the Protoss fleet present.
The Carrier, which aside from a new look (burrowed from the Tempest) had been completely identical to its StarCraft 1 version, has now gotten some attention. The ability to warp in Strike Fighter Escorts gives it more than the Umph it needs to counter enemy units - it makes it much more interesting.
The StarCraft 1 Carrier started with no Interceptors at all, and could construct up to 4 of them (8 with the Carrier Capacity upgrade). The StarCraft 2 Carrier now comes with 4 ready Interceptors, making it immediately effective upon production. The Strike Fighter Escort ability allows the Carrier to become even more devastating for a short period - for a small cost - making their usage ideal for situations where the enemy either has nowhere to run or is committed to an attack.
It seems that the enemies of the Protoss will be able to spot the fighters warp in to battle, which will help them decide whether to stick around for the fight or make a calculated retreat.
The escorts for the Protoss Carrier in its current state, hits both ground and air. Furthermore, they take about 1 second to warp in to battle alongside your Carrier after you make the order to summon them.
What happens to Interceptors when they’re destroyed? A Mechanic burrowed from Dawn of War has been implemented:
Building Interceptors can be toggled to ‘auto-build’ or be set to manual build. Like the original StarCraft, the Interceptors will cost resources to build (when you lose any from the original 4).
A most important question remains: will Interceptors continue looking like flying binoculars?
On to the Q&A:
1. An important aspect of any RTS game is for all races to have a way to siege fortified island positions, do the Protoss and Terrans [[and Zerg]] have a unit that is capable of doing so?
All factions will have units capable of attacking from a longer range. Zerg have the Swarm Guardian, Terrans have the Battlecruisers Yamato Cannon, and the Protoss have the Carrier (which has gotten some additional abilities since we last talked about it). However we are not at all sure that these are enough to deal with fortified islands. More testing will tell us if this is sufficient or if we need more.
2. The Infestor is a very impressive unit that enchanted the community, because we all wanted to see a unit that is able to move while it is burrowed. Nevertheless there are still pending questions. Can the Infestor even infest Zerg buildings? Are infested marines produced as fast as it is shown on the gameplay trailer? Do you have to train them manually or will they pop out automatically? Do they cost minerals?
Like many Zerg units the Infestor is still under development. It cannot infest Zerg buildings though that is something we are still discussing. The speed at which Marines are generated changes frequently as we work on the ability. Sometimes its fast, sometimes not so fast. They will (probably) pop automatically. They do not have any cost associated with them.
The StarCraft 1 Infested Terran was rarely seen on the battlefield. Strategies relying or even just involving them were completely unrealistic due to the scarcity of burning Command Centers, Queens, and the cost of producing the Infested Terrans.
Now that Infested Marines are free, and infesting is as easy as sneaking a burrowed Infestor into an enemy base and spewing some Zerg goo on it, we will surely see an increase in infested units on the battlefield.
3. The Medivac is a very interesting Unit, but there are not many information given to us so far. Can you tell us any more details about it? At which tier can it be found? How does the healing work? Can it even heal multiple units at once and how fast does it heal compared to the medic?
The Medivac is currently available from the Starport (no add-ons required). The healing works just like the medic. We will (if we keep the mechanic) be adding a graphic of the Medivac deploying medical drones to heal friendly biological units. It will only be able to heal a single unit at one time. The speed at which it heals changes frequently as we try different balance options.
4. There are many ambiguities concerning the Roach due to the much different information that has been given to us. Many users are quite unsure about its kind of attack. Is it a melee unit or is it ranged? Or is it kind of a crazy mix of both? And most important: can it hit air as well?
The Roach is ranged. He has been melee in the recent past (hence the art with the big claws) but he is currently ranged. This gives him added utility at chokes where he really shines. We have tried it as ground only and we have tried it as being able to hit ground or air. Currently it is ground only.
5. Can a Zerg Corruptor infest lifted-off Terran buildings, Colossuses, and other Zerg units such as Mutalisks or other Corruptors? Can Corruptor infest Thors, Siege Tanks or Marines if they are lifted-off by Anti-Gravity?
Yes, Corruptors can infest anything that flies or is forced into the air by abilities such as Anti-Gravity. In the situation of a unit being lifted by Anti-Gravity, the unit will return to the ground when the anti-gravity effect ends and sit on the ground. The corrupted unit is only allowed to attack air units and will do so if an enemy air unit flies by.
Corruptors can Zergify any airborne target, which will remain corrupted even after returning to the ground. This is somewhat counter-intuitive, but gameplay considerations always come first. Will Corruptors be able to attack Colossi, which, while staying on the ground, can be attacked by both anti-ground and anti-air attacks? No answer to this question has been given.
6. What is the reasoning behind changing Colossus’ ’sliding’ thermal lances (from 1st gameplay movie) to an array of beams (zerg trailer)? Balance? Visuals? Will it be possible to choose such sliding or array (or is it just ‘horizontal’ line?) fire mode from the Map Editor (available also for any other unit)?
The array of beams give a more interesting AOE template for players to attempt to micro. The sliding beam looks cool, but ultimately doesnt produce any new gameplay. The current visuals on the beam are temp to see if we like the mechanic.
52 Comments to “Q&A 34: Strike Fighters, Free Marines, Corrupting Clouds”
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Why can’t they just make the original beam make a quick sweep over the field, repeatedly?
“A most important question remains: will Interceptors continue looking like flying binoculars?”
hahahhahahaha….!!
I hope the infestor units will find use in zerg versus zerg matches.
I like the look of the original War of Worlds beam attack over new version.
Jesus Christ….. 4 interceptors? And they have a flying medic? I have a bad feeling about this….
Zerg vs. Zerg use of Infestor:
Infests tree doodads. Creates infested night elves, and infested wisps. Maybe even the Infested Keeper of the Grove.
=D Yay for us!
They definitely need to upgrade the graphics for the current collosus attack. it needs to come from both sides, not jus the left.
Also, Jim Raynor makes a cameo appearance in the carrier screenshot, behind the tree.
I still don’t get why they replaced the Medic with the Medivac Dropship. Last I heard, it was to help them support Reapers. But if you have a Dropship that can heal, why bother with Reapers? You may as well load up marines in the Dropship.
omg because reapers can jump!
btw anyone who knows something about the characters which will remain in scII?
Jim Raynor - of course.
Sarah Kerrigan - she never runs away^^
Emperor Mengsk… right on
Zeratul - we saw him already
what about other “famous” terrans / infested terrans / toss?
what about nova terra / ethan stewart / artanis?
Artanis (and his female side-kick!!!) are confirmed to be in SC2 by Metzen at the last blizzcon. It is unknown if these characters will be playable “hero” units.
Infestors don’t look like Zerg! They look like Undead!
I hope that the Archon whose origins were of several most evil templars show up(refers to the First Born book). I forgot the name…
I hope the reaper wouldn’t get cut out… darn medivacs… The medics are dying from starcraft with their shrill screams.
What do people think of the idea of strike fighters? They sound like summoned spells from Warcraft to me. Not that I mind cross-overs (Tauren marine was cool!) but why would the strike fighters only last for a short period of time? Would be cool if they had an animation where they came out off the sides of the carrier, flew around, and then went and clamped back on to refuel.
Actually, the post above does sound like a better way to handle them (in terms of making sense with carrier backstory), strike fighters could be launched for a period of time by the carrier, but would have a long cooldown (fuel, repairs, etc.) that would require players to pick carefully when they would use the fighters. (or perhaps this would just be a “retreat from carriers, attack when strike fighters go back in” setup over and over.)
I like the idea SCV_Operator came up with. It reminds me of Homeworlds. You had giant Carriers (unit producing building that can move) and when you were fighting around carriers it was common to see damaged fighters land on the carrier for repairs and refueling and then take off again. it makes much more sense than having them warp in, fight, and then warp out.
I hope carriers still have the capacity increase upgrade. 4 interceptors were a minimum to make a carrier useful but they didn’t really get strong until you had at least 6. A carrier w/ 4 ints can’t take on a battlecruiser alone. I’d hate to have to always spend the money summoning strike fighters every time I run into other capital ships.
nice idea, SCV _operator!
it would be kind-of like more powerful versions of intercetors, except piloted by live toss.
mistake in last post (interceptors)
4 interceptors may be enough, depending on the statistics of the carrier and interceptors (HP, damage, and such), just like all units with these sorts of changes made.
This batch of Blizzard replies further demonstrates their commitment to depth and variety of gameplay. Good on them.
I don’t know…. I like the giant battle of 4 carriers with like 32 interceptors blasting the place apart. It seems like carrier battles will be less…. spectacular.
carriers kick ass!!!
I’m pretty sure there will be an upgrade to get more interceptors. They wouldn’t be fun without it.
On the carrier… I think the clamp on striker idea is better too. On top of that, why not make the carrier more strategic with more options?
example: Interceptor equipping.
(obviously, you cannot change Interceptor equipping on toggle, it will be like a 60 sec change, and meanwhile the carrier cannot attack. and all interceptors will change together per carrier)
This will allow the interceptors to deal with different scenarios,
Option 1, ATA Interceptors, equipped with anti-matter pulses, this option of interceptors does very well ATA, but of course, these interceptors cannot attack ground.
Option 2, ATG Interceptors, equipped with Positron bombs.
In this version, the range of the attack is longer, and inceptors will deliever Air to ground targets with a scarab like bomb (of course, much less damage then a scarab, but the animation was cool maybe like 15damage a hit splash.) This option of interceptors are great at taking out seige points without worrying losing units as cannon fodders, (though we will expect Thors to cover their range).
Option 3, Penetrating Interceptors, equipped with Psi-wing-blades, flies really slow, but can do better on heavily armored units, like battlecruisers or Ultralisks. Both air and ground, but a rather expensive equip.
All options can be refitted when they are no longer needed, but each time you change the setting, it will cost minerals and gas and will also cause your carrier to be inable to attack, so you better strategically think about what you want before you go into the battlefield.
Reason why I suggest this, is that right now, the protoss air doesn’t look that great, I like the warp-ray the most, but the fact they are so ‘limited’ in use will probably make them not seen until mid-late game. With a better carrier, it fits better with protoss’s ‘capable’ unit theme.
Ok.. some one… deleted my commentary. It’s alright then -.-
lololololololololol
Hello Eros.
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Hello … just my two cents .. imho opinion, the carrier design needs some consideration also along with the ‘flying binoculars’.
yea, customizable interceptors, thats a pretty neat idea.
Maybe the strike fighter, if it clamps on, could act as the penetrating interceptors?
medivac sounds bad to me…though realistic but cmon…medics are defintely better
Isn’t it obvious that Blizzard is changing Terran’s gameplay? Right now Marine & Medic combo is already giving zerg player (I’m a zerg player I know) headache, zerg player has to micro a lot to counter m&m combo. If they keep medic and give terran Jackal (which I assume is about same tier as vulture.) what will happen? Let’s see, 18-24 zergling run towards a Terran troop which contains 6 marine 3 medic and 3 Jackal: A pile of zergling blood on the ground. And terran probably won’t lose a single unit. And the ones that are fortunate to land few attacks on the least HP unit: Marine, won’t be able to kill it due to medic’s healing ability. Majority of zerglings will die before they could land one attack on marine/jackal, reason being Jackal’s attack is extremely similar to lurker, and we know how “effective” zerglings are against lurkers. Jackal seems to be better than lurker since they could dodge storm much easier than lurker, and they don’t require to be burrowed to deal dmg. Jackal was made to kill mass units. They are like firebats with longer range.
I think blizzard noticed with Jackal and Medic co-exist, Zerg will die horribly which makes game imbalance. Instead of telling people, “Terran’s too strong, we’ll take medic away from them.” They say, “Hey guys, how about instead of a boring ground medic, let’s give you a FLYING medic which can go with Reaper ANYWHERE (whisper: and it will be in tier 3 or so) Aloud: YOU GUYS MUST BE THRILLED!!! FLYING MEDIC!!!.
So in conclusion the game should be balanced and I am glad medic is gone. However “Flying” medic might give me much more headache and I might then pray they remove medivac and bring back old Medic.
They could always just push the medic back tech wise, so that it appears at the same time as lurkers, immortals, and such (assuming these are actually around the same tech level.) if medics cause a lot of problems.
I think Blizz is trying to make SC2 more different from SC1, which is good, the medic thing.. I feel is part of this direction. If there’s a balance problem with the medic, they can always just slow the healing of medics to snail pace to balance it… so I doubt combos too strong is the one reason behind it. (though it can be in part)
But I do agree.. the flying ariel unit.. well.. I have to see it first, right now.. it sounds ODD, having an airplane heal you? I rather give the drop ship an upgrade with Medi-lab, so if you load in your marines, they quickly heal… micro micro there, but much more realistic to me.
Battlarmd has a good idea-an upgrade to the dropship that makes it heal units inside it.
I agree, a dropship with a medical ability beats all proposals for now. This way the dropship will have a ‘role’ in battle too, and not just.. another drop ship.
I second that.
I wonder if the medic dropships will be more expensive than the original dropships. If so, we will waste a bit more mineral or gas using more expensive ships to carry more expensive siege tanks around to bombard enemy bases and the healing skill just doesn’t work here.
I reckon it would be a cool graphic if when a dropship was carrying a siege tank you could see the siege tank strapped underneath it, kinda like how you sometimes see warthogs under pelicans in halo.
but I think it would be better to keep the old medic, and give the dropship a echanic where it can SLOWLY heal units INSIDE it (after an upgrade). maybe this could be upgrading again to increase heal speed, but it would still be better to build medics that heal much faster.
mistake in last post: ‘echanic’ should be ‘mechanic’
I also think that they should keep the old medic. Not that I love them because they are the most feminine units of the game, but they make very good combo for Terran assault. If Blizzard really want the healing dropship, they could simply make a merge option when a medic is transported inside a dropship, this option will combine the two unit like two templas of the Protoss. This will somehow make some dropships specilized to aid infantry units as well as keep other dropships with transoportation role only.
will marines in medivacs die or be corrupted when the medivac is attacked by corruptors?
First off, the Carriers initial 4 interceptors is not a bad idea - it now is fairly efficient, as they say, right when it’s built. Anyhow, the ’strike fighter’ lasts for 45 seconds, but what then? Is it bluntly destroyed or does it just un-warp again? I’d just like a logical explanation to why it is unsummoned (apart from the “or else it’s too powerful” explanation). Also, the Colossus attack gfx change is quite refreshing, but I’d rather see it attack simultaneously from both “thermal chargers” at the same time, not changing from one to another, that does not make a lot of sense.
The Medivac dropship is a subject of much discussion - and rightly so. I have some ideas aswell, some new, some changed and some worth to be mentioned again. For example: The usual dropship can be ordered to carry a few medics, and they will then carry on healing units in the closest vincinity. If 4 medics is carried, 4 marines will be healed simultaneosly.
Maybe perhaps: Following the “add on” style of the Terran, you would be able to add a ‘medivac unit’ on a regular dropship. It would then proceed to drop medic drones, or why not heal infantery units transported inside of it? The ‘medunit’ could be upgraded from each dropship, or something as unusual as built fairly quickly on ground, and as soon as a dropship landed on it, the unit would cling to that DrpShp.
Another fun way could be to build stationary drones on the ground, and then have a dropship come carry them around, unloading them as see fit, some sort of “immobile medic” who the marines would fall back to when serverely damaged, healing themselves. I like the way the dropship, which I see is the most used battle transportation, could be used in so many other different ways. Instead of a new medivac dropship - a regular dropship with different add ons or ways to utilize. If any of this sounds good - please second
I second that, its a really cool idea
I like the ‘medics healing from within in normal dropship’ idea better than ‘medivac’. This unit’s appearance is obviously an effort at reducing the number of terran infantry units.
Maybe let the medic be anti-zerg (irradiate) and the ghost be anti-protoss (emp)! I’m glad I’m not on the blizzard design team
But on to the graphical side of things, I would love to see very quick land animations from unit’s deployed with whatever flying transport unit is used! It might also be cool to have siege tanks visibly attached at the bottom of the transport ship (only 1 per transport) and for the flying transport unit’s movement speed to be decreased when carrying a heavy load. Just a thought!
Oh, and the Strike Fighter Escort ability does not sound very exciting to me. Temporary units are harder to fall in love with
Maybe give it a beam attack that takes a while to charge up. Or INCREASE the total number of interceptors as well as population so that less carriers are more dangerous but also vulnerable?
Nattaboy >> Thanks
Joe >> I kinda get the hang of your anti-zerg and -protoss idea, though I feel the Ghost should be a versatile assassin, since they are the ’super-human’ that they are
Also, the Strike Fighter Escort lasting only 45 secs as a temporary unit, and the “Harder to fall in love with” - I really agree on that, but having this beam would be kinda too much like the terran yamato and the mothership pl.cracker imo.
Increase the total number of interceptors would be a cool idea, but make every interceptor a little less powerful, though a little variation in the carriers interceptors would be welcome then - as in post 22 (Battlarmd) but a change - being able to create two different kinds of interceptors (not three and no toggle equip, I don’t want to make it too complicated).
Otherwise, the S.F.Escorts 45 second limitation is almost like a spell (what SCV_Operator said) from WarCraft, and the in game logic of it only staying 45 secs is confusing for me. I’d like a new, permanent fighter or an explanation for the “warp in, but oh lets go back home, warp out” - it kinda ruins a bit of the feeling.
Maybe rather than warping in new fighters, the carrier could “charge” its old fighters to do more damage? It would have basically the same effect, but make more sense.
As per maK’s suggestion, although things don’t have to be realistic, they should conform to some sort of logic. The carrier may even be one of those “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” units. Why not just keep it as it is?
The idea of having the interceptors “charged” or somehow amped up for the 45 seconds rather than the strike escorts would be really good, I think… maybe something similar to the Phoenix’s ability to attack multiple targets at the same time?
My thoughts are: Carriers come preloaded with 4 interceptors. You can upgrade an additional 4 for a total of 8, but you have to command-build those (they shouldnt just appear out of nowhere!). Then, the carriers could have an “interceptor swarm” ability that either increases the attack rate and speed of the interceptors, or a phoenix-like ability to attack multiple targets at once, for a short period of time.
or another option would be keeping the carriers with normal interceptors, and instead of the ability to warp in escort fighters, you can “purchase” and call down a bombing run - an AOE attack on ground targets in the carrier’s sight range, carried out by protoss-piloted fighters that are docked to the carrier itself. This would have a cost and possibly also a cool-down timer. what do you guys think?
sure I’ll go with the carrier idea being cool, but they should be built and remain on the carrier once summoned or whatever and make them “real” strike fighters that do massive damage on assault then have to go back to the carrier for a period of time, not desummon.
medivac dropships? dumb dumb dumb, if and real player plays you as zerg, they will just send one of there suicidal things to kill them instantly making them noneffective. as toss, toss have so much crap that can shoot in the air, and the stalkers can easily be microed to atack these while your main force mows down the remaining infantry….. plus what if i just want a transport for my tanks? I have to spend the extra credits for something I’ll never use. and to the zerg player who said m&m gave you hell I used to get 4-5 mutas and micro kill there medics and fly away leaving there poor rines helpless this tactic will still apply here. terrans are going to get wasted in 3-5 minutes 1 on 1 with anyone who knows what there doing with toss or zerg… without medics to heal there rines, rines are too weak to take on zealots or lings in the early game.
Will there be infested protoss??? Some say yes some say no I don’t know who to trust. And also I don’t think there should be infested zerg buildings. Zerg infesting zerg! It doesn’t make sense. It’s like flood infecting other flood in Halo.