More than a year after its introduction, the Mothership persists in posing a challenge for Blizzard’s developers. As Dustin Browder mentioned in a recent interview, the Mothership is still a unit with no distinct role on the battlefield. Neither overpowered nor blatantly weak in its current form, the Motership’s flaws are not that obvious. Unfortunately, Blizzard’s designers simply don’t receive enough feedback from testers to ameliorate them.

… once in a while it happens and then we’ll get some data but it just makes it a lot more complicated.

While the majority of the community isn’t able to provide feedback regarding the current build, additional pointers from StarCraft fans just might save the Motership from ending up as a glorified arbiter. Up until now, gameplay reports by fans haven’t been positive either, and it appears that even a month of discussion wasn’t enough.

Concerning the Mothership, it’s pretty much useless. It comes with all its abilities fully upgraded, but since you build it from the Nexus, you’d have to go all the way across the map to get into your enemy base.

The SC2Blog will be conducting a poll, designed to let the community voice its opinion on what it considers to be the role best suited for a MOTHERSHIP - one that’s positioned at the top of the Protoss tech tree.

Here are the options. Choose wisely.

1. Straightforward Capital Ship. Massive shields and armor, high-damage output and a few combat abilities. A supreme offensive tool.
2. Disruption and Damage. An offensive support tool, with significant AoE damage and punishing abilities like the Black Hole and the Planet Cracker.
3. Mega-Battery. The ultimate mobile support unit, feeding mana and shield energy to the army. Can absorb a lot of damage, regenerates quickly.
4. Air Domination Station. A flying AA fortress of damage and disruption. Anti-air AoE damage, Force Field and Lockdown type of spells, a disease-like aura that causes AA damage.
5. Support Fortress. A flying castle with an array of battle control and support spells that can protect/recharge/hide friendly units. Also possesses abilities to disable/slow/lock down enemy units.
6. Super Troop Carrier. Highly armored and with multiple defensive abilities and teleportation. Able to transport entire fleets and armies across the battlefield.
7. Flying Factory. The Mothership can build ANY Protoss unit and warp it to the location it’s at. “Production” costs 110%.
8. Base Breaker. Focused on abilities which cause significant damage to buildings, locking down production, disabling defenses and paving the way for attackers.
9. Annihilator. The Mothership has a 5 minute “recharge” timer. Acting as a superweapon, the Mothership is equivalent to a Nuke in terms of damage output. Once charged and removed from its dock, the Motership’s “Unleash” ability becomes available.  An “unleashed” Mothership delivers massive damage to air and land units around it for 15 seconds.
10. Power Plant. The Mothership has a wide radius aura, which: powers buildings, accelerates production by 15%, adds 40 energy points to all shields, doubles regeneration rate, and stops all enemy regeneration and healing abilities.  

Cast your vote in the poll to the right, and leave any additional feedback down in the comments, especially if you voted for the “Other” option.

A few gameplay videos have popped up over the net recently. These are all products of Korean exhibitions in which lucky observers had managed to film the computer monitor with their video cameras, resulting in horrible quality, short clips of gameplay.

First up, a video showing the Jackal and Nullifier in action.

Unlike the previous Vulture replacement, the Cobra, the Jackal is unable to attack while moving and has to stop before firing off its weapon. This allows the engaging Zealots to catch up with the Jackal and put in a few hits from time to time.

The Jackal, at first glance, operates exactly like a Vulture that’s been equipped with a Flame Thrower instead of Concussion Grenades. The Jackal in the video is eventually overwhelmed by the two Zealots, but a similar battle between a group of Zealots against a greater force of Jackals would obviously end differently. When taking the Jackals’ AoE attack and great speed advantage into account, a micro-capable player would scorch the Zealots and leave the battle relatively unharmed.

The next couple of videos are a longer cut of the Terran versus Terran match we’ve reviewed a short while ago. This video shows the surrounding gameplay, and also features some more action:

* A Medivac Dropship dropping two Jackals and a Siege Tank right on top of the enemy’s mineral line, followed by another dual Tank drop.

* Near the end of the game, a Terran force, composed of Battlecrusiers, Thors, Siege Tanks and Jackals completely decimates the enemy’s main base.

Next up is a short video of a Terran versus Zerg match. Notably, at minute two, the Zerg player futilely attempts to engage a large group of Marines with Mutalisks. A bit later, Swarm Guardians make an appearance when they come under attack of a Battlecruiser. (This is where the picture we discussed a while ago was taken from)

The most interesting thing happens at 2:54, where a group of Ultralisks get hit by a Nuke head on and survive.

The last video is a long one, at 22 minutes. It’s a fight between a human Zerg player and an AI Terran, with the Zerg player experimenting with the abilities of the race.

Not a lot of action in this one, but a few interesting highlights are:

• Near the end of the 8th minute, an Overlord can be seen evolving to an Overseer.
• A small group of Ultralisks walk over entire Terran forces at the end of the 10th minute, and then proceed to raise their base to the ground a bit later. It’s clear that the Ultralisks have a hard time navigating through the clumped base.
• At 12:30, a group of Overlords extend the base’s Creep using their Excrete Creep ability. This takes a while for the Overlord, which remains in positions and drops purple goo to the ground for some time.
• Infestors use their Infest ability on a Terran Command Center that’s under construction at 16:00. The Command Center becomes infested despite not being complete, and Infested Marines pop up immediately.
• A short while later, the Infestor feasts on a nearby Ultralisk, consuming his hitpoints for energy until it’s eventually eaten up entirely.

StarCraft 2 updates are scarce, but Karune has released quite a bit of Information last week on Battle.net’s official StarCraft 2 Forum. Karune’s comments, once compiled, provide decent amount of insight into the current build, being informative and on-topic even more than some of the Q&As.

The first group of answers deals with the Terran Infantry, specifically its new additions - the Marauder, Reaper, Ghost’s Sniper ability, and the Medic’s replacement, the Medivac.

…is it ever useful for them to just hang out with marines or are they exclusively harassers, and if so does any other race get something harass with?

Reapers can be used with your army of Marines and/or Marauders as well, as they do extra damage to light. The biggest challenge will be keeping them protected, as they don’t have many hit points. If the player is able to do that, the Reapers tear through most light units including Zealots and Zerglings.

…And most importantly, workers. Reapers truly emerge as the ultimate worker line raiders - this infantry’s arsenal includes Jet-packs, mines and ability to deliver heavy damage to light units.  The full list of known information regarding the Reaper’s mines has can be found in this post.

If they are marauders, can those be put in bunkers or are they classified as mechanical and are too big to be placed in them?

 

  Yup, that is a Marauder, and they are able to enter Bunkers.

 

  

i wonder does the ghost snipe deal damage to units under the dark swarm because it’s an ability or doesn’t it deal damage because it’s a ranged attack?

  

Units under Dark Swarm do not take damage from Snipe in the current build of the game.

 

Medivac Dropships heal much faster than Medics from StarCraft Brood War. Also, players using Marines in the original StarCraft still used Stim Pack often. Now the Marines have more health with the upgrade and is still very effective while stimmed. Combined with Marauders’ slow ability means additional shots with Stim Pack often leading to that unit’s death before it can do damage.

  Despite the fact that the beloved Medic is no longer part of the M&Ms, StarCraft 2’s developers have obviously not forsaken this important aspect of Terran Infantry. Medivac’s role and abilities are tailored to fit the new Terran arsenal, which features considerably tougher marines, the heavy Marauder,  the raid-oriented Reapers and the still unstable incarnation of the Terran Ghost (which recently lost its Drop Pod ability). 

…can u explain the actual role of the thor? Please Karune!!! Does his 10range AOE attack only hit Air? We all wanna know :]

 

The Thor will primarily be an anti-air unit, but will also be able to attack ground units as well. The Thor will not be cost effective against air unless the enemy move in tight groups.

This answer will disappoint quite a few of our readers - many have been expecting the Terran Thor to be the ultimate bomarding heavy-hitter, with ability to both dish and absorb massive amounts of punishment - a new backbone for the Terran offensive. Not a mere Goliath 2.

Up next, two Zerg clarifications, one being quite surprising.

Creep will not do damage to enemy Zerg buildings.

 

 

So I guess Broodlings won´t spawn if you attack buildings=?

They spawn when you attack buildings as well.

You read that right - the long announced but just recently spotted Swarm Guardian, will be able to produce broodlings for the Swarm… out of buildings. While we won’t bet on this ability to make to the Gold version of StarCraft 2, it does create quite problematic scenarios for the Anti-Air heavy expansions and Supply Depot/Pylon clusters.

 Source : Karune’s B.net Forums postings.

It’s time for a new monthly discussion topic, created by Blizzard for the purpose of gathering fan feedback. This month’s topic is the Baneling, a Zerg unit that’s been revealed way back, during the initial StarCraft 2 announcement in Korea. The Baneling has changed since, but Blizzard is still unsure about its role on the battlefield and requires your opinions.

Here’s a list of the changes the Baneling has gone through recently:

Now

 

190 damage per Baneling (40+150 to building)
Increased splash range (100% damage taken throughout range)
Can be well positioned to hit multiple buildings
Larger & Movement Speed Slower (possible to defend with focus fire)
Counters Zealots, Zerglings, base Marines (not upgraded) -More Narrow window of use

 

Before

 

Fast and small- Unable to defend against (focus fire)
Countered virtually all ground units

The Baneling has transformed into the Zerg’s anti unit-spam measure. Able to take on and harm multiple small enemies, it has enough direct impact damage and splash to take out multiple Marines and Zerglings in a single hit. Not only that, it is extremely dangerous to buildings, especially if they’re clumped up. Suicide runs, aimed at critical buildings or concentrations of defensive structures, will likely be very common - and with the incredible amount of damage each Baneling can inflict, very few of them will actually have to connect with their target. A Phase Cannon, for example, will only survive a single Baneling explosion; the second one will destroy it.

However, since the Banelings are now slower and bigger, players who have their hand on the pulse and can micromanage their forces well enough will be able to take the Banelings down before suffering the explosive consequences. There’s one important thing we don’t know about the Banelings, though, that will ultimately decide how often it is used: how much does it cost?

Blizzard has a few specific questions about the Baneling:

Questions for fans:

 

* How do you like the new Baneling?

 

* What possibilites do you see for using the Baneling, what strategies could be viable with the Baneling against the different races?

 

* What are the pros/cons for this new Baneling?

 

* Additional feedback you might have

Additionally, the SC2 Blog’s questions are:

1) How much should the Baneling cost? Remember, it’s an evolution of the Zergling which already costs 25 minerals.

 

2) Should the Baneling be able to mutate back into its original form?

 

3) How many Banelings should fit inside a single Nydus Worm?

Please structure feedback as follows:

<question you’d like to answer>

 

<your answer>

 

<question you’d like to answer>

 

<your answer>

The Baneling joins two others units, the Ghost and Mothership, in receiving its own dedicated monthly topic. Both units have received major changes since - and the Baneling will too, depending on your feedback!