Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has posted this month’s official discussion on Battle.net, requesting fan feedback for a highly interesting topic, and a fundamental mechanic of the game - the Zerg’s new and improved creep.

The StarCraft 1 Creep only slightly benefited the Zerg race, having little importance during actual combat. The StarCraft 2 Creep has been designed to be nothing like that - its effects have already been mentioned in the past, and using this opportunity, Karune revealed even more juicy details about the new and improved mechanics.

One of the distinct features of the Zerg is their fast movement, quick reactions and their large numbers. With the newest changes to the StarCraft II build these attributes are bound to reinforced once more.

Here are a couple of changes to the Zerg:

• Zerg units except Drones can now move 30% faster on creep
• Creep Tumors are smaller and burrowed

Creeping down the ramp

The above improvements join a long array of advantages that the StarCraft 2 Zerg have received in their home turf. Considering the Swarm units created by destroyed buildings, the omnipresent Zerg Queen, which can turn buildings into turrets via its Swarm Infestation ability and has a multitude of other defensive abilities, and the additional stationary defenses, defeating a Zerg army inside its base may become a very difficult task. Another important thing to remember is the Overlord’s creep laying ability, allowing the Zerg to take advantage of Creep even on the offense.

Here are this month’s official questions from Blizzard:

What do you think of the speed increase on Creep?

n

How do you think this change will effect Zerg, Protoss and Terran?

n

Do you like or dislike the change? Why?

Additionally, the SC2 Blog’s questions are:

1) Should creep affect enemy units as well?

2) Do you feel that this adds an additional, unneeded tactical aspect to the game?

3) Should Protoss units enjoy similar buffs when in Pylon energy range?

As with last month’s discussion, Blizzard has selected a major, fundamental topic to receive feedback from fans for. Like the Vespene Geysers, Creep will have a major impact on many aspects of matches involving the Zerg race in StarCraft 2. As always, this is your chance to influence the direction the game is heading to.

Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has taken some time off from his preparations for Blizzard’s next event in Leipzig to satiate the fans’ hunger for knowledge with an interesting Q&A session.

Unfortunately, Karune informs that the next few batches will feature “lighter” questions, to give the devs time to prepare for Blizzard’s upcoming events and to… well, work on StarCraft 2.

… the development team is working extremely hard on the single player campaign, which we will be talking in more detail about at a later time. In the meantime, questions will be ‘light’ over the next couple of batches, to give the Dev Team ample time to work on their latest design challenges. There are also many preparations being made for both the Games Convention coming up in Leipzig, as well as BlizzCon, to make sure the StarCraft II community definitely gets their feed of info.

In the mean time, here’s today’s Q&A, which is not light by any means.

1) What happens if a Nullifier targets a Colossus with the Anti-Gravity ability?

When Anti-Gravity is used upon a Colossus, the Colossus will still be immobilized and lifted up, which will still allow it to be hit by units that can attack air targets. Colossi will not be able to shoot while under the effect of Anti-Gravity.

2) How many critters will there be available and will they have attack animations?

There will be critters, but there have not been any detailed discussions yet about their attack animations. On that note, there is a possibility that BlizzCon panels may fill the community in a bit more on what type of critters there will be.

3) Can the Infestor infest any building, or only specific ones, such as Barracks or Gateways, if the Protoss can be infested?

This is actually a mechanic they are currently testing quite a bit. It is undecided if the Infestor will be able to infest Protoss or Zerg buildings, as there are gameplay and lore reasons which support many different options. Either way, at the end of the day, the development team will choose an option that will be balanced and fun in terms of gameplay for multiplayer.

The above question has been asked time and time again, and so far, the developers have replied positively regarding the Protoss and negatively about the Zerg each time. Does infesting Zerg structures make sense? Will a free supply of infested Zealots be balanced? These are indeed difficult questions to answer, and it’s not surprising that the issue is still under scrutiny.

4) What units are currently undergoing major art changes?

There are several artistic revisions every week, though the two newest units to get some artistic updates are the Nomad and the Stalker. The Terran Nomad is getting a complete artistic redesign from any versions the community has seen thus far. Furthermore, the Protoss Stalker is also being updated to look more similar to the concept art piece as seen here: http://starcraft2.com/art.xml?s=6

The Terran Nomad has received a lot of criticism for its look. Here’s what some of our readers had to say when its official unit page was launched:

But WHY is it so ugly?

Yes, ugliest unit yet.

The flying clamp.

The original Science Vessel, its prototypic predecessor, was one of the coolest looking, non-combat support unit in StarCraft. The old Nomad design is a complete departure from the Sci-Vessel’s look; it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard sticks with the basic Nomad design or goes for something completely different for this unique unit.

Likewise, we feel that the look for the in-game stalker could use a shift in the direction of its concept art, which is devastatingly superior.

5) How do Zerg vs Zerg games play out in SC2? Is it still mostly a battle of mutalisks and zerglings or have the new units changed things around?

ZvZ (Zerg vesus Zerg)matchup usually opens up in 2 different ways, Zerglings or Roaches. Aggressive players can use Zerglings mobility to take control of the early game, whereas going Roaches is more of a defensive strategy. Zergling vs. Roach relationship is such that for cost, Zerglings wins out in the open, Roaches win at chokes, but in mid/late games when numbers are greater, Roaches can stand up to or even beat Zerglings for cost out in the open. Hydralisks dont have much use in ZvZ early game, as they are more of an anti air unit in StarCraft II.

The tier 2 battle continues with Banelings that can dominate Zerglings, but with micro, Zerglings can actually come out ahead in Zergling vs. Baneling battles. Similarly, Lurkers counter Roaches for cost, but Roaches have the mobility advantage. Mutaliks counter Zerglings/Roaches since these units cant hit air. Whats different in StarCraft II is that Hydralisks counter Mutalisks extremely well, meaning something like Roach/Hydralisk combo can stand up to the classic Zergling/Mutalisk combo. Also, another great way to fight vs. mass Mutalisks is to tech to infestation pit (same tech level as the Spire), and make Corruptors or Infestors. Infestors have the disease ability that is great for fighting vs. units that clump really well such as the Mutalisk, and Corruptors are Zergs anti air air unit.

Due to the fast pace of the ZvZ game, most games dont end up in tier 3, but ultralisks, with their cleave attack, or swarm guardians that use swarms to soak up a lot of ground vs. ground damage are great options if the game does happen to go into tier 3.

Overall, StarCraft II has a variety of options even in a mirror match such as Zerg vs. Zerg. Players can use different unit compositions to counter the classic Zergling/Mutalisk strategy that is a still powerful but not the only option.

Blizzard seem to be fulfilling their promise to create more options in every match up in StarCraft 2. Lets go over some of the new Zerg match ups:

Zerglings win against roaches in the open because of their new “ability” to efficiently surround their targets, quickly taking down unit after unit, while roaches win in choke points because they can limit this capability while still being able to focus their ranged attack. In the late game, with more units, and perhaps the Roach’s increased regeneration upgrade, Roaches can take down more Zerglings before they close in and take more of their damage before dying.

Banelings, which come out at Tier 2 to counter masses of small units, like the Zerlings, will pose much less of a threat to skilled micromanagers - these will spread out their forces, preventing the Banelings from killing enough enemies to be worth the economic sacrifice. As well, smart usage of small Zergling groups will allow these to pick off the Banelings before they reach the heavier unit concentrations.

The StarCraft 2 Hydralisk, unlike its predecessor, is much more effective against Mutalisks. Previously, its “explosive” attack only inflicted 50% of the damage to Mutalisks, which were “small” units. With this system gone, the Hydralisk can now take down Mutalisks much more quickly with its more punishing damage.

This change allows Zerg versus Zerg battles to escape the standard Mutalisk/Zergling combo of the early-middle (and even late) game, since the Roach/Hydralisk combo can stand up on its own.

Of course, with Corruptors and Infestors thrown into the mix, even these match ups will constantly be varied. With the Infestor playing a larger role in StarCraft 2 than its old counterpart, the Defiler, we are bound to see Diseases, StarCraft 2’s version of the Plague, cast around much more often. However, there might be less incentive to build those in StarCraft 2, depending on whether or not Infestors can Infest other Zerg buildings.

Before even mentioning the third tier, it’s clear that the Zerg versus Zerg game has been expanded considerably. Hopefully, these additions, which look great in Theorycraft, also function in a balanced and fun way in the game itself.

Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has been active on the forums lately, posting bits and pieces of new information about StarCraft 2.

First, Karune posted concept art pictures from two, now-cut units from StarCraft 2, and one picture of the evolution of one of those.

* Click for big

This is the original art concept for the Firebat, which is operating a small mechanized armor. The Marauder has slipped into the Firebat’s old shell, keeping most of its armor, but replacing the flame weapons with grenade launchers.

Next up: can you guess which cut unit this concept art picture belongs to?

This is the Purifier, the old name for the now-defunct Soul Hunter. Perhaps if the Soul Hunter had been this magnificent in-game it would not have been cut.

Next, another old concept art picture:

The Ultralisk originally had spiny tentacles, as Karune mentions, and as this picture illustrates so well. The spines, which apparently flailed around randomly, skewering marines in their path, were eventually cut due to the random nature of their damage output, which doesn’t fit StarCraft’s professional, competitive nature.

Karune further promises that during Blizzard’s upcoming mega-event, BlizzCon 2008, new artwork changes will be shown. Specifically, he mentions a “planned community event around the Dark Templar in which we hope to get much feedback about the models in-game of these units“.

Finally, an interesting change to the Warp Ray has been described by Karune:

Yes, the Warp Ray can fire while moving. Once it begins firing at a target, the Warp Ray will follow the target if it begins to move, keeping at a close proximity since the Warp Ray’s range is currently quite short.

The Warp Ray, whose beam increases in intensity and damage output the longer it is being focused on a target, currently has a relatively short range for its devastating attack. To compensate for the cut in weapons range, which used to be quite long, and to make it harder for units to break away and eliminate the Warp Ray’s deadly lock, the Warp Ray will be able to keep firing at its target while it’s moving - even if it means it has to follow it itself.

This means that the only way to avoid the Warp Ray’s damage barrage is to destroy the Warp Ray itself. This eliminates an aspect of micromanagement, in which the player would constantly move his units out of the Warp Ray’s range to avoid its attack, just as it’s gaining focus. Fast units would probably still be able to outrun the Warp Ray, but these are not the units that should fear the Warp Ray’s attack - its juicer targets, units and buildings which possess many hit points, generally move very slowly.

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.