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?

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

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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.

Four months have passed since the last discussion topic, which focused on the Baneling. This month’s topic moves the spotlight from the single unit to a core gameplay mechanic which will affect every aspect of StarCraft 2.

At the Worldwide Invitational in Paris, we had the opportunity to show you a new StarCraft II client. With this client we introduced a new idea on how our Gas Mechanics work. This would give the player more options and more economy choices. In the following days, Dustin Browder went more into detail on how these new mechanics can affect the game-play and we were able to get even more questions answered in the following Batch of the StarCraft II Q&A. Now we would like you to give us your feedback on the way Gas collection works now.

For more information about the new Vespene Gas mechanics, make sure to read our earlier posts on the subject. First, the original post with Dustin Browder’s introduction of the changes, and second, the Chat with Devs part of Q&A 41, which contained a detailed explanation with updated numbers.

To recap (current numbers, subject to balance changes, in parenthesis):

Each resource location now has two Vespene Geysers. These start with a relatively low amount of gas (600), which allow workers to carry a full load in each trip (6). When the geyser is depleted, this number is reduced (2), and the player is offered a choice to replenish the geyser for a mineral cost (100).

The repleneshing process requires the player to select the geyser and hit a button (or shortcut key), which takes the geyser offline for a short period (45 seconds), during which workers can not extract gas at all. This pumps gas back into the geyser (600), allowing workers to resume Vespene Gas extraction at full efficiency.

Our thoughts on this matter remain unchanged from previous discussions:

All these major changes have been implemented to StarCraft 2 for one purpose: complicate the “macro” portion of the game, which has been downsized severely with the introduction of new and improved user interface aspects, and mainly, Multiple Building Selection (MBS).

 

These changes will steal some of the added focus to the micromanagement portion of StarCraft 2, which pro-gamers, who’ve had a chance to play the game extensively, have reported about, and divert it back to base and economy management.

The monthly discussion topic is an excellent opportunity for StarCraft 2’s fans, be they pro gamers or causal RTS players, to voice their opinion about this change to the resource system - a central part of StarCraft 2.

As always, Blizzard has three specific questions they wish to receive answers for:

* What new strategies and choices do you think the player would have and have to make with the new Gas Mechanics?

 

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

 
* Do you like or dislike the change? Why?

 

* Additional feedback you might have

Additionally, the SC2 Blog’s questions are:

1) Do you think the need to “babysit” the Vespene Geysers adds to the depth of the game, allowing players to put more thought into the resource management process, or is it going to become a dull, mindless chore?

 

2) Resource collection in StarCraft 1 has always been very straightforward. With the introduction of Yellow Minerals and the complication of the Vespene Gas collection process, this aspect of StarCraft 2 has been expanded. Would you like to see StarCraft 2’s economy simplified, or perhaps complicated further?

 

3) Unlike in StarCraft 1, Workers can now be automatically ordered to start harvesting resources as soon as they are produced, using a rally point, without requiring further action from the player.

Should it be possible for “Replenish Gas” to be set on Auto-Cast, making this process automatic as well?

The new Vespene Gas mechanics are likely to become an important and significant part of every StarCraft 2 game, regardless of race or skill level. Blizzard has proven time and time again that they listen closely to fan feedback - this is your chance to leave your lasting impression on StarCraft 2.

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.

Time has come to conclude another SC2Blog Poll. Just like the previous poll, concerning StarCraft 2 fees, this one ran for enough time to reach a large audience and has stayed up through multiple important announcements over several months - the WWI event, the Zerg unveiling, and numerous build changes.

 2746 unique votes have been cast, which constitute more than enough for a significant statistical representation of SC2Blog readers. Keep in mind, however, that the average SC2Blog reader is not the average Blizzard gamer - our audience is composed of the sort of people who follow news about Blizzard games in the pre-beta stage.

The results are in, and we are delighted to report that only a mere 12% are disappointed with what they’ve seen so far. The most popular choice was actually “Better than I could ever Imagine“, which hopefully makes a few Blizzard employees happy in their pants.
For most readers, the impressions of StarCraft 2 can only truly be judged against two reference points, and both are Blizzard games - the masterpiece predecessor, and the Micro-oriented WarCraft 3. Despite the fact that StarCraft 2 is heavily influenced by multiple successful titles, the games Blizzard create tend to reside in a league of their own, each serving as the gold standard of its genre.