Blizzard’s Macro Mechanics follow-up poll was the community managers’ way of guiding the discussion to focus on the significant changes introduced in the recent Q&A batch. This is the developers’ second major shot at introducing additional macro mechanics to the StarCraft 2 gameplay, after first trying out the not-so-well received Vespene Gas mechanics – a babysitting chore for players that had the patience, APM and will to keep regular Vespene Gas production going.

With each race receiving a distinct macro-related ability, the poll (over?)simplified the matter at hand. While the obvious intention was to introduce significant decision making processes  into resource and production management, the tools received by the Terran, Zerg and Protoss races differ greatly.

Protoss Dark Pylon:
• Proton Charge: an area-of-effect ability that gives all targeted Probes additional charge for their Proton-Cutters. Probes that have an additional charge gather additional minerals per trip when collecting resources. The Proton Charge lasts only a short time before dissipating.

The Dark Pylon’s limited range effectively forces the player to either place the structure in the mining line’s vicinity and use the Proton Charge repeatedly to get the maximum possible economy boost, or not use the Dark Pylon for that purpose at all. The Energy boost and cloaking  provided by the Argus Link and Null Shield abilities are unlikely to see much use in the hands of a player that has placed the Dark Pylon at the mining line in the first place. If Proton Charge could be set to Autocast, a significant portion of players would do just that, due to the minimal presence of a trade-off.

The obvious alternative is to give the Dark Pylon abilities so powerful, that it would force players to make decisions regarding its energy use, and not default to the Proton Charge.

On the other hand, the Terran have received quite an intriguing macro buff that shares neither the simplicity nor the single-purposeness of the Proton Charge.

Terran Orbital Command:
• Calldown Mule: sends a single automated mining robot by drop-pod that assists SCVs in collecting resources by working around current SCV mining operations. Unfortunately the Mule is still in the prototype phase and has a limited battery supply (timed life).
• Calldown Extra Supplies: sends additional supplies to a targeted Supply Depot. Generally used by Terran commanders only in an emergency to allow them to support additional troops.

The Terran Orbital command upgrade itself forces the Terrans to make a major tactical decision and forfeit the defensive Planetary Fortress upgrade option – not a simple decision to make in a close 1v1 game. The structure’s abilities are not limited to just macro twists, and include the popular and often essential Scanner Sweep ability.

Scanner Sweep: using a satellite in high-orbit, the Terrans reveal a large area anywhere on the map and detect all cloaked units within the target area.

A Terran player which has made the decision of upgrading to an Orbital Command and does not need a Scanner Sweep at the moment is still left with a decision: Mules are not just innocent mining machines. The Calldown’s unlimited range allows the Mule to be used to repair Siege Tanks on a remote cliff  or to scout a large remote area. The Mule can be even used offensively against Banelings and splash-damage dealers.
Unlike the Dark Pylon’s Proton Charge, the Terran’s resource mining buff is not an “autocast decision” by any means, and the player is forced to make significant tactical decisions in order to use it efficiently.

The Zerg’s macro buff differs from the straightforward Dark Pylon mechanic and the long decision route that precedes the Terran Mule.  The Queen is virtually a default Zerg unit, and is likely to be produced and used by most players due to the unit’s broad arsenal of useful offensive and support abilities.

• Spawn Larva: by injecting Queen ichor into a Hatchery, Lair or Hive the Queen can cause the Zerg structure to undergo a startling metamorphosis. The Hatchery starts to throb and green sacks swell up on the structure. Eventually four additional larva burst out of the Hatchery and land next to whatever larva are already wriggling around nearby. While a Hatchery hosts more than 3 larva, the Hatchery will not spawn additional larva, until that number drops below 3.

Spawn Larva opens the door for endless tactical choices on the Zerg’s behalf. Karune has mentioned several of the key routes:

Karune:
Being able to spawn additional larva can potentially help Zerg production quite a bit actually. Prior, when a Zerg player hatched offensive units, they were always sacrificing the creation of more drones. This ability allows more bandwidth to create even more offensive units for a big push, build more balanced with more drones and additional units, or double up on the teching effort with all drones. There are a lot of options to play with that will surely inspire many new strategies.

The added “bandwidth” provided by the Queen will allow the Zerg to continue having an advantage over the other races when it comes to production flexibility. Since the Hatchery and the larvae it produces are the basis for all available Zerg units, the Queen’s new ability will complement the Zerg race nicely as an integral part of the production process.

The new macro-related features have gathered a quite a lot of feedback, and it seems that they were much better received than the previous Vespene Gas mechanism in the eyes of the community. Since Blizzard is determined to complicate the macro portion of the game somehow, it will not be surprising to see some, if not all, of these features making it into the final game.

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12 Comments to “StarCraft 2 Macro Mechanics Poll: Feedback and Analysis”

1. SikTh — March 2, 2009 @ 6:00 am
   

   The Queen abilities sound much more powerful than the other two races’. No need to get a billion hatcheries anymore, and since every player with have a few,… = instant army or instant resource gathering boost.

   Calling down offensive Mules will be priceless if done right, though.

2. John mo — March 2, 2009 @ 8:50 am
   

   now the whole protoss mineral gathering speed will be balanced with the dark pylon in function as a norm.

   meaning, if a protoss doesn’t use it, they will likely lag behind the other two races in a normal battle after balancing is done…. this is what I want to avoid… it is never good when an ability becomes a ‘must have’….

3. Juliano — March 2, 2009 @ 10:11 am
   

   The dark pylon can also cloak all probes when under harass. I think it’s a very cool option, of course that the pylon must have energy to do that, but still..

   It’s very hard to evaluate these new mechanics without playing the game. BETA AHH!

4. evglmg — March 2, 2009 @ 11:50 am
   

   yep nice mechanis ideas but when is bet coming out??? by the way nice post new ways to collect more fast in short time.

5. ADest — March 2, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
   

   If it’s not broken.. Don’t fix it. These are all cool sounding ideas, but what’s the reasoning behind them? Is resource gathering and unit production broken in BW that it needs to be fixed in SC2? These are much better than that whole vespene affair, but honestly, I don’t think they bring anything new to the table. The Queen’s ability is very obviously broken and bound to vanish before Beta, and The Planetary Fortress upgrade is now much weaker than the alternative. The rest of the the abilities are just glitter. The only plus to this is one addresses something that is broken, and that’s Terran Supply. Supply Depots were grossly inadequate in the first two games, and Pylons weren’t much better. Burrowing depots was a huge step in the right direction. But a method for increasing supply without reducing map space is really needed. Otherwise they should stick to introducing new innovations like they did when they made units that can traverse different terrain heights.

6. Anonymous — March 2, 2009 @ 4:48 pm
   

   Players were complaining that the introduction of MBS would take too much away from the macro portion of the game, so they are trying to make up for it with these mechanics.

7. Elokane — March 2, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
   

   This is bullshit. The RTS world is moving towards streamlined interfaces and the removal of useless “bureaucracy” that bogs the game down. Is mindlessly clicking something over and over fun? Does it show skill? If there’s no decision involved and it’s just there to take up your time and focus, it doesn’t belong in a game.

   Why is it a problem to remove all the ideas of old – namely, supply structures and outdated control schemes – without replacing them with artificial means to “complicate” the game? Why add “features” to the game if they don’t involve any strategic thinking? When is it a bad idea to click “make my probes bring back more minerals”?

   Let me play with my units! Let me bring them into battle, position them tactically, inflict maximum damage on the enemy, and then decide what to do next. Don’t force me to babysit my base! The only time I should be looking at it is either when I 1) want to advance in tech or build a new unit producing building 2) need to defend it. Let me build units from the field by clicking a key that cycles through the available factories/gateways/hatcheries! Put small icons on the screen that correspond to them! Make the building I select pop up on the minimap so I know where it’s being built, and let me set a rally point so it goes where I want it to when it’s produced.

   Hello! Has Anyone at Blizzard played any recent RTS game?!?

8. Dark NFX — March 2, 2009 @ 11:50 pm
   

   Geeeee…… things here are getting cooler and cooler. but its going to be similar to the GENERALS.. you dont have to make your armies bigger.instead you have to level up first to increase your rank.then youll unlock a lot of back up weapons..like “cluster bombs”.. i suggest that they must put these new features to the “Campaign Mode”..cause where’s the challenge?if you had these new powerful features?

9. Apharion — March 3, 2009 @ 4:26 am
   

   fraid I agree these late changes adds not much.

   but I suppose blizz is trying…
   hopefully they will do it right…

   people want battle micro/marco, want cool things to happen.. these latest ‘click or lose the game’ add-ons aren’t really blizzard material… I have no idea what they were thinking, unless we are all missing a big picture.

   Let the starport transform into a star-fortress, a slow flying battlestation. (limit two per player), that’s another cool thing I think people might like.

   Or have the Nexus transform into the mothership once you have reach a certain level of tech, that’s also cool too.

10. hotclaw — March 4, 2009 @ 11:55 pm
    

    I don’t understand the Starcraft community. People bitched about MBS and automining so much that it prompted Blizzard to add meaningless junk to the game to replace the meaningless junk they removed. Now people are complaining that the stuff Blizzard added is meaningless junk.

    In all honesty, I like the Terran thing. They should have to choose between multiple Command Center upgrades. Far-away expansions can get the Planetary Fortress and the main and natural could get the Orbital Command.

    The Dark Pylon isn’t all that, but Protoss already have semi-compulsory Warp Gates. Personally I think the latter are the best “macro complications” so far. They give you a big bonus for keeping a close eye on your production.

    The Queen larvae thing is interesting and could easily be balanced and lead to interesting choices if it’s limited by a huge energy requirement or something.

    Overall I like these changes and think they add somewhat meaningful choices to the game. Although, like the first game, Blizzard will probably only get everything right in one of the expansions.

11. maK88 — March 6, 2009 @ 7:13 am
    

    Elokane << correct!

    I have to admit, I’m a Toss player all the way, but choosing between the three – Larvae is the only one that doesn’t have me seeing a lot of repetitive gameplay. And also, it fits the species of Zerg (aka “Swarm”) the best.

    When seeing DP at first glance, I admit I liked it. But as I thought more about its ability; proton charge, I found some repetitive gameplay elements. Since the Terran Mule have a similar function – gathering more minerals, that is – my thoughts adresses this ability aswell.

    Now, I have not played this game, so my views might be somewhat inaccurate, but seeing as both of these abilities are energy based, and both are made for increasing workers mining capabilities, it seems that the DP and the Call down Mule are dependant on ones victory. I do not think matchup differences will apply, you will still have to use the abilities as frequently as possible to gain the upper hand.

    I’m all for macro, as I’ve seen many are, but to strengthen my argument, I ask you to find an ability in SC1, apart from your own (such as perfect worker split), that gave you the upper hand in worker mining economy. Take all the time you want.

    I also know that SC2 isn’t SC1. That all became clear when they removed (or improved) some of the mildly entertaining things like bad pathfinding, retarded AI and other things that made you have to gain certain skills to try to avoid, such as, again, the worker split. And I’m all for improving and removing things that doesn’t need to exist in an RTS game. If I were a worker, I’m sure I could figure out how to move to my very own tasty mineral.

    But removing the meaningless aspects of macro, and then completely reinstating it again with an ability that you have to totally depend on? And if you as Zerg match up against either Protoss or Terran, I’m almost certain that you will have to make Drones asap, unless you want to get behind in economy.

    Leave the economy aspect to its perfected core: Build workers constantly and transfer them timingly to get ahead. Since it’s SC2 the high yield minerals should be enough as an economy change in gameplay.

    Focus more on the good aspects of macro and micro. The abilities could be a lot better, imo race specific on a deeper level (Heavier armor on Terran and faster warp in for Protoss perhaps, just to throw something random out there), and not as spoon feeding and simple as the ones we currenly see.

    Remove them.

    Otherwise and also – Great job with the game, and I hope to see more intriguing ideas as beta kicks off.

12. Kareem David — May 27, 2010 @ 7:46 am
    

    If only I had a greenback for every time I came to http://www.sc2blog.com! Great read.