Karune has replied to 4 gameplay related threads on Battle.net Forums, taking suggestions, clarifying mechanics and disproving some wrong impressions left from the Blizzcon 2008 build.

Starting with the misconceptions:

Karune has confirmed once and for all that there is no accelerated Protoss shield regeneration. Regeneration takes places once the unit is out of combat, and while being significantly faster than StarCraft 1, it does not accelerate over time.

The rate of shield regeneration has been increased significantly from the original StarCraft, but will be a fixed rate, rather than an increasing rate over time. The shields will not increase until the unit is out of combat.

It is measured by an X number of seconds in which a unit has not attacked nor was attacked. X being a number determined through balance.

It has also been confirmed that Nydus Worms will receive their significantly prettier “bursting” delivery form back. The current animation is nothing more than a placeholder for the actual implementation.

Right now there is a build time after you drop a nydus worm, the thing that bugs the heck out of me is that the nydus worm grows from that squiggly thing that drones morph into when they turn into buildings.

Yes, that is placeholder. In one of the previous builds, maybe it was WWI, the rock actually starts breaking and then the Nydus Worm comes out. It will probably be more along those lines.

The Ghost has found itself fulfilling a rather surprising auxiliary role: it is described as an awesome counter for Mutalisks. Thanks to his improved StarCraft 2 abilities, range and light armor damage bonus, the Ghost has joined a long list of Terran units which have already been confirmed to be great Zerg air counters.

Thors and Marines (with stimpack and the additional hp upgrade) are quite effective against mass Mutalisks. Additionally as mentioned already in this thread, BCs are also very effective, especially with its new missile barrage ability (but of course this is at a later tech).

There is one other counter, which is not mentioned in this thread, which is the Ghost! The Ghost is awesome at taking out Mutalisks as well, since they get a bonus to light armor, and have a very long range. Add that to snipe, cloak, or a bunker and it is quite a formidable counter as well.

And to make sure Zerg players don’t develop any expectations from their TheoryCrafted Mutalisk fleets, Karune also reminds us that Protoss Archons are still the ultimate stacked Mutalisk poppers.

Archons still have their splash damage and are still quite the beasts they were in the original StarCraft. There is no better feeling than watching a group of Archons instantly pop a stacked group of Mutalisks.

An interesting suggestion (and a question) came from another poster, who proposed an upgrade to unload speeds for the Terran Medivac Dropship. Considering the fact that some players are fond of shock raids and mass infantry drops, such an upgrade is a legitimate idea.

do medivac dropships still load units at the same time but unload one at a time? or can dropships unload all their cargo at once?

if it can only unload one at a time, i have a sugestion, make it so that infantry can unload two at a time (researchable?) or at least at a much faster rate than vehicles so that the drops can b faster. it takes forever to unload 8 marines in comparison to unloading 2 tanks which are much more deadly

 

Loading is instant, but unloading has a delay between units. Will bring up the suggestion, but do note that the rate in unloading is already quite fast, and mass drops do usually include several dropships at the same time.

That’s all for this week’s Karunology.

11 Comments to “Karunology: Shields Clarified, Everything Owns Mutalisks”

1. Ledah — November 13, 2008 @ 10:56 am
   

   Mutalisk seems to be glassier than ever before.
   so many units can own mutalisk which kinda bad for zerg players.

   <>

2. NigDaMan — November 13, 2008 @ 5:35 pm
   

   Yeah true Ledah, but now this means that zerg players need to show some mix of different units now before they transition to Starcraft2. They are really going for that balanced and unique feel for the games units.

3. kent — November 13, 2008 @ 6:46 pm
   

   Protoss game play is now veryvery different, rather than queuing units like the terrans.. now the protoss will likely want to have around 6-8 warp gates, and keeping them in a cool state for a quick deploy… I applaud this, as now all three races are very distinguished at production.

   that being said. with balance asisde.
   I think I am finding the protoss’ option in troops rather limiting.. Stalkers are the prime choice, probably mixed with zealots and later Archons. Then you add a colossus there… and… that’s it right? Immortals seems rather limited in use, (unless they can hit air).

   terrans has marines, hellion, marauders, reapers, seige tanks, and a nighthawk to drop turrets.

   zergs has hydra, zergling, ultra, lurkers, roaches.

   Just thought the protoss can have 1 more ground unit to make the strategy richer. Right now, zerg regen and fights faster on creep, terrans can heal during battle.. and the protoss can ONLY heal out of battle… seems like they are changing the fact that the protoss units “are made to last”.

4. Just a Nigger — November 13, 2008 @ 8:31 pm
   

   Does anyone else know other good sc2 sites?

5. redrach — November 14, 2008 @ 1:45 am
   

   I mourn the death of Muta-micro.
   SC2 seems to have cut out so many things that I love to watch in pro-SC1 matches.
   Reaver drops
   Muta raids
   Scourge chasing down Corsair/Shuttles.

6. Spiral Architect — November 14, 2008 @ 4:56 am
   

   It’s pretty obvious that SC2 will have just as much micro, if not more now that macro is less of an issue.

7. Ledah — November 14, 2008 @ 10:00 am
   

   i think protoss should be able to generate shield within pylon/phase prism power field even in the heat of a battle.

   Only when they are outside of the power field than the out-of-combat shield regenerating mechanic apply.

   whatcha all think?
   (oh noes our forces in under attack! *drops a phase prism power field* beefier protoss units that can withstand more damage before bailing out)

   ((protoss biological units bail out when they run out of health, what type of honor is that…xD))

8. Joe — November 15, 2008 @ 1:38 am
   

   Hmm I like the idea of the shields waiting until not combat to recharge.

   However, when not in combat, I think they should recharge faster when in pylon range. At least then you could micro your zealots out of battle around buildings and such, and then in a short time return to the fight with full shields.

   For this to happen while not in pylon range would be a little unfair in my opinion.

   The goodness behind playing with the shield mechanic is you can balance using the amount of shields per unit. Stalkers for example may seem to benefit most from faster regen when not in combat, because they can probably blink to higher terrain and wait. In this case you can just change the total shield points to make the advantage more or less.

9. redrach — November 15, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
   

   @Spiral Architect:
   I wasn’t complaining about a lack of micro, but about the fact that a lot of “crowd-pleaser” things are no longer in the game. Watching a clump of Mutalisks weave in and out of a Terran base ripping up Marines and SCVs is far more exciting and fun to watch in a pro-game than say… watching a player dance his Roaches back and forth so they don’t die.

   I have hope for the Infestor, but I’m worried that it may fall to the side like SC1’s Queens.

10. Alex — November 16, 2008 @ 11:13 pm
    

    Guys, the game is still in alpha.
    We have to wait until beta to see how the unit mix feels and if new units are needed.
    Beside, Broodwar w. medics, sairs and lurkers- only then was the game polished.

11. Joe — November 17, 2008 @ 5:04 am
    

    We know

    But hopefully with community comments and periodically open development, we wont have to wait until the sc2 expansion to enjoy it again

    Some good ideas pop up in here from time to time!