A new batch of questions and answers, fresh from the oven, has been posted by Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager. This is a pure batch - no Chat with Devs, no Gameplay Blog - but quite a few interesting answers.

1. What was the main reasoning to shifting the Hydralisk backwards one technology level? How does this affect the Zerg early-game, especially since the Zerg will have absolutely no anti-air units before the Hydralisks?

 

Actually, the Hydralisk has been brought back down to Tier 1.5, giving Zerg early anti-air capabilities without upgrading their Hatchery to a Lair. The test originally was to put Hydralisks at a later tech and have Corruptors be buildable earlier without a prerequisite building other than upgrading to the Lair. To make this happen, the Corruptors had to be nerfed appropriately to fit that tech, which made it very weak and much less fun. Additionally, without a prerequisite building, opposing players could not scout the Zerg player to see when they were going air, which did not fit the gameplay style we were shooting for.

The Hydralisks have returned to their original, StarCraft 1 tech level, after Blizzard’s little experiment with them as higher-end units. The decision process described above is noteworthy - it shows what Blizzard considers to be important for the game, and how tweaks are made to implement these considerations.

2. What kinds of cheats will be included in Starcraft 2, and how will they be accessed/unlocked?

 

There will be cheats, but you wont know what they are from us sorry.

Thereisnocowlevel.

3. Concerning resources there is one big issue for mapmakers: There are only two of them. For many UMS-maps you need more different resource-types than gas and minerals, thus mapmakers were forced to use even civilians as a sort of resource. So will mapmakers be able to place their one, gather-able resources on the map such as lumber or gold?

 

Yes, we have recently added support for one additional custom resource type. Additional custom resources types may be implemented in the future, but there are no plans at the moment.

4. With the Battlecruiser’s new ability dealing splash damage to lightly armored air units, you could fear that the Thor has once more fallen into a role void. Is this the case or are the Battlecruiser ability and the Thor’s anti-air capabilities tactically different enough?

 

 The overlap is really no more different than a Siege Tank and the Yamato Gun ability or the Reaver and the Psi Storm from Brood War. The new ability helps the Battlecruiser against a specific group of units, which are units the Battlecruiser is already good against, rather than making it effective against all units. The last thing we wanted is for the Battlecruiser to kill groups of units that are supposedly effective at countering it, such as the Warp Ray.

StarCraft has always had “overlap” between natural unit abilities and spells/energy based abilities. However, energy based abilities are much less dependable, and can not serve as a long term solution or be solely relied on when facing a dedicated enemy. Likewise, Abilities like Psi Storm and the Battlecruiser’s new Missile Barrage are avoidable by skillful players, while the Thor’s flak cannons are not.

5. Does the Battlecruisers new AoE affect friendly units in the area?

 

No, the Missile Barrage does not affect friendly units.

6. Will it be possible to use the full 3D cinematics mechanic from the single player campaign in the map editor?

 

Yes, we are looking forward to seeing some awesome custom cut scenes from the community.

This is the second map-making question in this batch. Could this mean the Map-Maker series has come to an end?

7. Most users know that even invisible units can be seen by experienced players since they cause this nice little blur effect while in Warcraft 3 invisible units are indeed invisible aside from leaving footprints on the ground. So what about transferring the ‘real’ invisibility into the World of Starcraft by allowing mapmakers to choose from those two different invisible modes for each unit?

 

Map makers will be able to remove the blur effect that is currently on StarCraft IIs invisible units.

9 Comments to “Q&A 42: Hydralisks / Corruptors Switch Tiers, New Resources”

1. Johan — July 25, 2008 @ 4:56 pm
   

   I dont really like the new cloak look.. its blue? its not invisible.. in starcraft 1 its invisible.. not now.. its still blue.

2. aaron — July 25, 2008 @ 7:29 pm
   

   They’re going to have to modify that invisibility–it’s either too visible for opposing players or too invisible for you. Also glad to hear the hydralisks are tech 1.5 — definitely one of the funnest units from SC1.

   I’m curious about the corrupter though. Putting it at tech 1.5 would have put it way below the mutalisks, which were the zerg mass air unit from SC1. Will the zerg really have two medium-level air units in SC2? Also, it seems as though the corrupter will be stronger against massed air forces, and maybe will be effective against your own units? Corrupting units when they are nearly dead seems like a potential trick.

3. androo — July 25, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
   

   it’s probably a screenshot from the blue protoss perspective. i always found it a pain keeping track of a single dark templar, so i don’t mind the effect as long as it’s only for the player that controls the units.

4. Kent — July 25, 2008 @ 8:59 pm
   

   I still think that the BC and Carrier should come in a slightly Larger size Art. I know realism doesn’t apply, I am talking about intimidation of a capital ship instead.

   Right now it looks like a larger Wraith with tumors.
   And the carrier looks like something from a Kid’s meal.

5. THE_BANANA_REPUBLIC — July 26, 2008 @ 6:32 am
   

   But you can’t see me because I’m just dotted lines!

   Great questions posed by the community. What I am most content with, as the sc2blog has noted, is the level of experimentation the development team has had. I’m glad that they tried moving the hydralisks from the less traditional roles — but its good to see that we have a revitalized and firm base.

6. Raylen — July 26, 2008 @ 7:33 am
   

   Alright Blizzard! Hydralisks in tier 1 is the way to go!

   (Wondering if they still cost 100 gas)

7. brainlessant — July 28, 2008 @ 8:00 am
   

   would the hydralisk get to keep their damage bonus and such…since they r back in tier 1.5…?

8. kpollo1 — July 29, 2008 @ 8:58 pm
   

   wait is there no more reavers

9. captnawful — August 4, 2008 @ 10:28 pm
   

   click my webst for 3 new resrsz