Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has blessed the Battle.net forums with another Q&A session. This is a barebones batch, featuring seven questions without any specific theme.

1. By the current look of the game with spectacular death animations you could worry that you can get slightly distracted by dead units while playing. You could for example waste precious APMs (Actions per minute) trying to click on a spliced Space Marine that you thought was still alive. The wrecks of some larger units or deaths for some others could block your sight in-game too. Could this fear be a real issue and will there be the option to toggle down these model details in the settings?

 

Yes, this is an issue we are looking into. For multiplayer, we want to make absolutely sure that players can clearly see visually what is happening on the battlefield. Currently, we are looking to have different types of death animations available for multiplayer than will be present for the single player campaign. A lot of people do still love watching intricate death animations when not in a competitive scene.

2. Battlecruisers do employ more than one gunner right? So will they be able to attack both air and ground at the same time?

 

Battlecruisers will only be able to attack one unit at a time.

3. What happens with the units inside a Nydus Worm if it gets killed? Considering it can carry 255 units, would they all die?

Units inside the Nydus network will only die when all entrance/exits are killed. This includes the Nydus Warren building, the prerequisite to build Nydus Worms, as it also acts as an entrance and exit to the Nydus network. Nydus Worms that are not deployed as an entrance/exit will not count as an entrance/exit to the network.

As we learned in Q&A 39.5, Nydus Worms don’t exactly function as transports. Instead, they open up tunnels through the map, through which units can travel. As long as deployed Worms or the Warren (prerequisite building for Worms, which also serves as an entry point) are up, no unit will ever be lost when a Worm dies.

4. So far the map editor seems to be a very powerful tool which doesnt constrain the map makers creativity at all. Will it even be possible to edit critical abilities like path finding? If so, there would be really no limits, or at least none we can imagine at this point.

 

Pathfinding, the method in which a unit will determine how to move, is handled by code, and will not be able to be edited within the map editor. Nonetheless, map makers will be able to edit things such as footprints, speed, and the size of units, which will affect the movement rates of units.

5. Why were Plasma Torpedoes added to the Battlecruiser when the Banshee has virtually the same attack?

The Battlecruiser no longer has Plasma Torpedoes that hit ground. Instead, they can be equipped with a Missile Barrage which will be an air-to-air area of effect attack ability. This ability will make the Battlecruiser even more effective against lightly armored air units, as the attack also gets additional damage points versus light armored units.

The Battlecrusier has lost some of its effectiveness against ground units. In StarCraft 1, Battlecruisers had a hard time facing robust ground units with strong anti air attacks, such as Hydralisks, Dragoons or Goliaths. The Plasma Torpedoes made life easier for Battlecrusiers in StarCraft 2 for a while, but now Blizzard has decided to shift the Battlecruiser to a slightly more specialized role.

6. In SC: BW we have terrain bonuses for units, for example standing behind a tree or being on higher ground while shot from lower. Are you keeping or maybe even improving such this feature and what happens with large units that are more massive (Thor) or simply larger (Colossus) than a tree or even a cliff?

 

Terrain bonuses are no longer present in StarCraft II. Instead, line of sight will be vastly more important. For instance,units firing from a higher ground will not be able to be seen by ground units without line of sight vision, and thus the ground units will not be able to fire back.

Another question that’s been answered a short while ago, this one deals with terrain bonuses (which no longer exist) and the new line of sight (LoS) system. This is a major change to the StarCraft 2 gameplay, which will have a greater impact on the game than all the rest of the issues we’ve been dealing with lately.

7. If a Zerg player corrupts a Dropship/Medivac, will they get control of the units inside?

 

No, the unit’s contents will be destroyed when it becomes corrupted.

Corruptors attack other units by launching organic projectiles at them, which slowly grow and infest the unit they attach to. When the unit is completely infested (as determined by its hit points) it becomes corrupt and turns to serve the Zerg as a stationary unit. When transport units are corrupted, the infestation leaves no room for other units on board the ship.

Related Posts:

• » Indestructible Charges, Disruptor, New Hero Page, Fan Art
• » Micro-Updates: Queued Construction, Unit Types, Mothership
• » StarCraft 2 - The Year of 2009: Milestones, First Award Given
• » Karunology and 4Players.de StarCraft 2 Fansite Q&A

17 Comments to “StarCraft 2 Q&A 40: AA Battlecrusiers, Death Animations”

1. Yank31 — June 11, 2008 @ 4:23 pm
   

   Operational!

2. Anonymous — June 11, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
   

   Goliath online!

3. BarGamer — June 11, 2008 @ 9:30 pm
   

   IMHO, if they’re gonna make the Battlecruiser the ultimate Anti-Air, they should go back and make the Thor Anti-Ground, as that was it’s original concept. Otherwise, the Thor overlaps roles AGAIN. But hey, it’s only the most current build, right? :-p

4. Johan — June 12, 2008 @ 2:37 am
   

   Bargamer:

   Yes youre right.

   But both the siegetank and the thor would be to much anti ground units i think. It would be to hard for others, if they dont fly.

5. Dill — June 12, 2008 @ 5:41 am
   

   To me this change seems like one of those “trying a bunch of stuff out” changes.

6. Joe — June 12, 2008 @ 6:34 am
   

   The consideration regarding the death animations is good, but I don’t like the ‘on/off’ switch for multiplayer. Just find a happy medium. Don’t offer different games to online and solo players – keep it the same.

   The nydus worm stuff is really awesome. And of course the corruptor should kill units inside a dropship on corruption – i mean they just turn into tentacles too!

   Still waiting for power rangers for Thor! I think theres a mixed reaction to this large mech across the board – seems to me like he just doesn’t fit…

7. Lakshan — June 12, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
   

   Have different animations for deaths, but give the option to toggle between intricate and basic.

8. anonymous — June 12, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
   

   LOL @ Question #2. What a waste of Q+A space.

9. redrach — June 12, 2008 @ 9:20 pm
   

   Isn’t the Battlecruiser’s anti-air AoE ability awfully similar to what the Phoenix has ? And like BarGamer above says, doesn’t the B.C.’s role overlap a bit too much now with the Thor’s current role?
   A lot of units in Starcraft 1 are not seen in competetive play (Scouts, B.C.s, Queens etc.) and I’d hate to see Blizzard make the same mistake with SC2. Make Battlecruisers more useful, please.

10. meo123 — June 12, 2008 @ 9:48 pm
    

    Can a Battle Cruiser kill a Marine or a Zealot with one hit? It would be ridiculous if a massive spaceship fires about 7 to 8 laser shots to an infantry and doesn’t kill him. Or does Blizzard want to say that the infantry can actually dodge the laser shots and takes some damage from the “explosion” when laser hit the ground so that he doesn’t die?

11. Dill — June 13, 2008 @ 6:12 am
    

    Can a Battle Cruiser kill a Marine or a Zealot with one hit? It would be ridiculous if a massive spaceship fires about 7 to 8 laser shots to an infantry and doesn’t kill him. Or does Blizzard want to say that the infantry can actually dodge the laser shots and takes some damage from the “explosion” when laser hit the ground so that he doesn’t die?

    If infantry could survive a few hits of getting sliced and diced by zealots and ultralisks, getting blasted by siege tanks without enough upgrades, etc., than game mechanics wise it makes sense that they could survive some battlecruiser hits.

    In addition, zealots in the original game had the HP+shields of vehicles, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they would be able to take the damage.

12. Dill — June 13, 2008 @ 6:13 am
    

    oops, the last two paragraphs above should not be in italics.

13. sarge52 — June 13, 2008 @ 2:25 pm
    

    plz: cut the thor… the first impression was really good. but multiple thors just look clumsy on the field. terrans are nomads! and dont build mega-mechs that are completely untransportable :>. the massive units for the terran faction should be able to fly.

    and i dont like the barrage-ability of the bc’s. wether it is anti-air or anti-ground. if you want to make them more effective vs small, swarming units, i’ll favor the idea of giving them more attacks while splitting the attacks up on two targets. so i dont think question #2 is a waste of space!!!

    considering the BC as a massive spaceship, it is not degressive to let it fire at multiple targets (with less firepower, because not every shoot hits the same target). this should give the balance-team a good foundation to balance the BC as well. just cut a shoot or give it a shoot more while decreasing the dmg of every shoot… there are plenty of possibilities, i am sure you can figure out easliy^^.

    unfortunatley, with the “multiple shoots mechanic” the BC is very weak vs heavily armored units in general. i dont like the fact, but perhaps you could weaken the power of the yamato and therefore reduce its cost? that would be sweet *g*.

    bc operational :>

14. meo123 — June 14, 2008 @ 9:02 am
    

    Yeah, I noticed that the Protoss Mothership can shoot at multiple targets with its light blue beams. I guess it would be nicer if the BC can do it too.

15. blue_ignisECX — June 14, 2008 @ 9:10 am
    

    I’d like to see the BC’s role kept as anti-air, but still with its ability to attack ground like in SCI. and the multiple shots is a good idea too.
    as far as the Thor and Siege tank overlap, what if the Thor became the anti ground unit for the terrans and the siege tank was kept more for defense and/or the purpose of shelling enemy buildings and bases? I’ve always kind of like the idea of having siege tanks on a ridge overlooking a base or battle while the other units duked it out on the low ground…

16. Ken — June 19, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
    

    … this maybe a weird question, but what about making like 2 wraiths attach to the BC? and u can repair them while on the way….(Armory in the BC, like the Hyperion) =0 like the warcraft elf ppl…?? lol i know it is ridiculous…>,< or can u put that in map editor? so that we can do those creative stuff =P

17. Kishan — January 23, 2009 @ 7:08 pm
    

    This is a map-making related question. In the original Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War, a player could only have one “Wait” trigger going on at a time. In SC2, will players be able to have more than 1 wait trigger in effect? I found this inconvenience really irritating while making RPG maps for Brood War!