Starcraft Junkie

Karune, Blizzard’s RTS community manager, has posted a request for feedback for one of the Zerg’s most evolutionary unstable and important “tools” – the Nydus Worm. As witnessed during BlizzCon 2008, the Nydus Worm is no longer a unit, but a transportation gateway which can be planted by an Overseer.
This “summoning” ability only requires energy – aside from the Nydus Canal, this operation does not require any resources – and the worm will pop up after a short delay.
This represents a mild deviation from the StarCraft 1 implementation that was observed during WWI in July 2008.

Here’s what Karune had to say:

Zerg Nydus Worm

The Nydus Worm is a unit that has undergone several changes since its unveiling and we are curious to the feedback on the latest round of changes shown at BlizzCon.

For those who do not know, the Nydus Worm is a tunnel opening to a network in which you can store your army. When the Nydus Worm springs from the ground, it can allow that whole army to start pouring out from that position as seen here: http://starcraft2.com/screenshot.xml?s=84

 

Nydus Worm prior to BlizzCon

Prior to BlizzCon, the Nydus Worm had to be summoned from the Nydus Canal, and only on creep. Thus, in order to do a drop, an Overlord was usually needed to drop creep, and then the Nydus Canal could spawn a Nydus Worm at that position. Also, because of the cooldown, typically for a mass drop, a Zerg player would need multiple Nydus Canals, to spawn multiple Nydus Worms at the drop position, to make sure the enemy couldn’t easily destroy the Nydus Worms before the Zerg army could come out.

Nydus Worm at BlizzCon

In the BlizzCon build, the Nydus Worm no longer is spawned from the Nydus Canal. Additionally, it no longer needs to be spawned in on creep as well. Instead, the Nydus Worm is spawned in from the Overseer, and is based on energy cost. Thus, if you have multiple Overseers, you could easily spawn multiple Nydus Canals (which will have a ‘build time’ before the worm erupts from the ground) and ensure a higher success rate of getting your units out.
Let us know your thoughts on the new changes. Also keep in mind, most of the discussion here is about gameplay mechanics, rather than the “numbers and stats” as those will always be changed to balance mechanics (i.e. changing build times for the Nydus, energy costs, hitpoints, etc).

 

Karune has also posted the following clarification:

When units enter the Nydus Worm opening or the Nydus Canal, they are in the Nydus network. They can exit at any opening, including the Nydus Canal building. There is no actual “tunneling,” and is actually more similar to loading units in a dropship. When all entrances/exits are destroyed, all units in the network will die, so if you are a Zerg player, make sure you don’t let that happen

The above note describes a very safe mode of transportation for the Zerg; as long as the player ensures that at least one Nydus Network Node is alive, the transported units are not in any danger of being lost without a fight.

Despite the fact that Karune’s request for feedback is a simplistic Like/Dislike poll, which you are welcome to vote on, the SC2Blog would like to guide the discussion to a slightly more technical side:

1) Do you consider a certain Nydus Worm implementation the best one, and if so, which one?

2) If you could implement any plausible Zerg transportation method, what would it be?

3) What additional “buffs” or “debuffs” would you see fit for units after Nydus Worm transportation?

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Visitors of BlizzCon 2008 got a chance to play the latest StarCraft 2 build, and  as expected, this one is not without an abundance of changes, just like the one fromlast year’s event. As we get closer to the beta and the eventual release, these changes become more and more important, as they are more likely to stick through to the end. Without further ado:

* Banelings no longer require any gas to be produced, after the initial 150 gas investment in a Baneling Nest. Previously, Zerg players had to decide whether to invest in Banelings, which have an early-game crippling potential, or to use the gas to tech up. With this change, using Banelings does not inhibit the Zerg’s player tech advancement.

* The Queen is no longer a unique unit. As such, it is no longer upgradeable by itself, instead relying on global upgrades, and is treated like a normal spell caster. Its abilities now include:

• Mutant Larva: Create three large Larvas that are not attached to the hatchery. Bring them into battle with you to create adaptive reinforcements.
• Razor Swarm: Creates a cloud of Zerg insects, controllable by the player, which damage units caught in it over time.
• Create Creep Tumor: Extends the range of Creep, similar to a Creep Colony.

Dustin Browder, lead game designer, commented that players saw the Queen as too much of a defensive unit and neglected investing time and resources into developing it, instead choosing to focus on the offensive in most games.

* The Mothership currently has the following three abilities:

• Cloaking field: As the StarCraft 1 Arbiter ability, this bestows the cloaking effect to all friendly units in a small radius surrounding the Mothership.
• Vortex: A nerfed Black-Hole, this ability only disables the units it pulls into its event horizon for the period of the spell.
• Timebomb: This ability disables all units, enemy and friendly, who enter it for the duration of the spell.

* The Nighthawk’s (formerly Nomad) abilities are:

• Deploy Auto-Turret: Deploys a permanent Turret on the field.
• Deploy Spider Mine: Deploys a “burrowed” mine on the field, ready to pop out and explode on any passerby.
• Deploy Targeting Drones: Deploys cloaked drones which fly around the targeted unit, lighting it up with a targeting laser. This adds 50% to any damage that unit receives, and provides sight around its location.

* The Vespene Geyser mechanic has changed again. As we suggested, and no doubt partly thanks to feedback from our readers, the “Replenish Gas” process is now Auto-Cast. When the gas in the Vespene Geyser is depleted, it automatically goes through the replenishing process, which takes 60 seconds – during which the workers are unemployed, and can be utilized for something else at the cost of the player’s attention. Unfortunately, this process cannot be turned off.

Dustin Browder has commented that the current gas mechanic isn’t liked by many of the developers and will likely be changed. Perhaps our full suggestion will be implemented – allowing the automatic repleneshing to be turned on and off and the player’s volition – or just scrapped altogether, in place of a system that does not require much action from the player.

* The High Templar has gained a new ability: Phase Shift. Affecting single units, this takes them out of the battle by shifting them to another dimension for a short period. Effective for both enemy and friendly units. This ability joins the Templar’s two other abilities, the Infamous Psi-Storm and Archon Warp.

* The Colossus now has an upgrade, Extended Thermal Lances, which increases its attack range from 6 to 9. This is a major upgrade for the Colossus, allowing it to dish out damage from protected locations enemy units can not get to, like heightened terrain spots and fortified positions. Its attack animation has changed yet again: the beam focuses on a single position while intensifying, then sweeps across the field quickly, scorching everything in its path.

* Upgrading Protoss Gateways to Warp Gates now costs 50 minerals and 50 gas. This allows warping units built from it to any powered-up location on the map and reduces some of the build time, but removes the option to queue units.

* The Lurker’s spines and the path of destruction they form are now much wider. As well, it also receives a bonus against armored targets.

* The Infestor does no longer actually infest. It has also lost its famous Dark Swarm ability, and can no longer cast Disease. It now has the following abilities:

• Fungal Infestation: Infests a single, non-massive unit, slowly reducing its hit points until it dies – creating an explosions that damages nearby units.
• Neural Parasite: Takes control over a unit for 10 seconds.
• Spawn Infested Marines: This somewhat senseless ability allows the Infestor to hatch five eggs, out of which Infested Marines pop out, regardless of the Zerg’s current enemy on the field.

The Infestor now possesses the ability to use his special abilities while burrowed. Coupled with his natural ability to move while burrowed, this makes the Infestor a very interesting unit for the Zerg.

* The Nydus Worm is no longer a unit. The player must now build the Nydus Network building and then “plant” a Nydus Worm with an Overseer.

* The Phoenix now possess the old Nullifer ability, Anti-Grav. It can now lift up units off of the ground, throw them into the air and attack them with its anti-air attack.

* The Nullifer, which lost its Anti-Grav ability to the Phoenix, now has these three abilities:

• Force Field: Creates an impenetrable barrier on the field which lasts for 15 seconds.
• Hallucination: Like the StarCraft 1 High Templar spell, this creates a fake version of the targeted unit, serving as a decoy.
• Molecular Displacer

* Siege Mode for Siege Tanks is now researched at the Armory, pushing this ability further up the tech tree.

* The Hellion (formerly Jackal) has received a boost in stats and efficiency. When microed well, it can now outrun most enemies while still being able to stop and fire off a quick burst of flame.

* The Hydralisk has been reduced in tier, hit points, damage, and overall efficiency. It is now mainly used as the Zerg’s anti-air unit.

StarCraft 2’s latest playable multiplayer build coupled with the surge of details about the Campaign, along with the StarCraft 2 beta key, are all clear indications that StarCraft 2 is entering a mature presentable stage, soon to culminate with the much anticipated Beta.

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BlizzCon, the yearly celebration of all things Blizzard, has come to a close. Unlike last year, in which Blizzard fleshed out many new details about the StarCraft 2 gameplay, in this event, the focus was mainly on the single player portion of the game.

Of course, as with all Blizzard events, the latest StarCraft 2 build was playable in the convention hall, and some changes to the gameplay and unit design have been spotted as well. Check out the last part of the post for the new screenshots.

The StarCraft 2 single player is going to be a completely different experience from StarCraft 1. As we now know, the three campaigns – Terran, Zerg and Protoss -  will be separated into three packages, and each is expected to offer as much content (if not more) than the entire original game.  The first package to be released will contain the Terran campaign, along with full multiplayer capability, featuring all three races, while the next two will be released as expansions in the future.

This new strategy gives Blizzard the opportunity to accomplish a few things, all quite positive (unless you were really anxious about playing all three campaigns without paying more than 50$ for it!):

• The game, with full Battle.net 2.0 and multiplayer capability, will be released sooner
• Blizzard will not attempt to rush the single player campaign to satisfy the anxious players waiting for the game’s multiplayer and esports aspects, having time to perfect it up to Blizzard standards
• The single player campaign will offer a new, unique experience, instead of being a rehash of the same predictable formula we’ve been playing for more than 10 years
• As full expansions for StarCraft 2, they will also introduce new units, make balance changes, and improve the StarCraft 2 multiplayer game

While this may be disappointing for players who were eager to get their hands on the Zerg or Protoss campaigns, the vast majority of players will likely be excited to be able to play StarCraft 2 sooner, rather than later, and have an assurance that two more expansions are coming in the not-too-distant future. Moreover, for those single player fans, the campaign should be much more satisfying than if it was released in cut-down form.

With beta keys for StarCraft 2 being handed out to BlizzCon attendees, it is safe to say that the beta is fast approaching. Blizzard have had a long time to develop all three races for multiplayer, and according to Chris Sigaty, lead producer, they are now finishing “Wings of Liberty“, the Terran campaign. Since the other campaigns will be released at a future time, the first package should not be far away itself – there isn’t much left to accomplish before it is released. Chris also puts the ballpark for each new expansion at around a year of development.

Moving on from the technical details, we also have some fresh tidbits about the game and story:

In each campaign, the player will control a major character and follow it throughout the game. As you might have guessed, these will be Jim Raynor for the Terran, Kerrigan for the Zerg, and Zeratul for the Protoss. Controlling your character means more than just moving a hero around on the battlefield, though – the non-RTS portions of StarCraft will resemble more of an RPG.

The game will also provide the player with choices to make about how to proceed in it and perhaps even pose dilemmas that will affect the course of action and plot, but likely not the final outcome. It will feature many more missions – some optional – and allow interested players to explore the StarCraft universe in greater depth and detail. For the Terran campaign, Blizzard have revealed the Starmap, with which the player will navigate and reach chosen missions.

Unfortunately, it is doubtful that this aspect of the game will reach the magnificence of other similarly themed games, such as the other SC2 – Star Control 2, and will more likely stay at the same level of the Command & Conquer inter mission breaks.

Throughout each campaign’s non-linear ~30 missions, the player will also gather resources, with which he will be able to purchase single player-specific upgrades and technology. Players will have to make smart choices with their upgrade paths and pick the right units and technology to fight their chosen battles with. Missions are promised to be much more diverse, as Blizzard tries to avoid the normal “build up a base and kill everything” dead-end formula.

The expanded campaigns will also include many other interesting characters, some of which we’ve seen before, and quite a few new ones. Some new names that have been mentioned are:

• Valerian Mengsk, son of Arcturus Mengsk from the original StarCraft
• Tychus Findlay, who we first met in the original StarCraft II cinematic
• Rory Swann, a former Kel-Morian worker who lead a unsuccesfull revolt. Saved by Jim Raynor, he now serves on the Hyperion as the main engineer, trying to keep the war-torn battlecruiser in fighting shape
• Gabriel Tosh, a Ghost with supposed ties to Nova of StarCraft: Ghost fame, provides Raynor with his expertise
• Dr. Ariel Hanson, a young scientist who is also Raynor’s love interest (until he runs into Kerrigan again, at least)

Blizzard is trying to create something new and exciting for the single player portion of the game. This type of game development is new to Blizzard as well, and it is not surprising that it is taking a long while for them to meet their high standards. By separating the process and releasing the multiplayer game with only a portion of the single player campaign, they are giving themselves the opportunity to perfect the game without delaying it further. The result should please most fans, and provide everyone with a great gaming experience – or so Blizzard, and everyone else, hope.

Finally, Blizzard have also released a few amazing in-game screenshots, featuring new tilesets and giving us a glimpse at the newest unit redesigns.

Here are some notable excerpts:

* A Thor guarding the entrance to the Terran stronghold, completely surrounded by lava

* Jackals, now called Hellions, roasting a huge pack of Zerglings to a crisp with a few fell swoops

* The Battlecruiser unleashes its new Missile Barrage on a few poor Zerg fliers

* The Medivac Dropship in action, healing Marauders, who come under attack by Roaches

* A group of Nighthawks, the new design for the old Nomad, come under attach by Archons, who have also received a small facelift

* A few more shots of the new Nighthawks, which seem to have borrowed their design from the more sleek and less square and bulky Protoss, alongside their deployed Auto-Turrets

That’s all for now. When the dust settles and all reports from our operatives are handed in, a complete gameplay follow-up piece will be published.

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As most of our loyal readers must have noted, September’s updates were somewhat irregular. Truth be told, we were traveling a LOT and now we’re back to our somewhat sane lives. In this post, we re-cover September, and set things straight prior to the much-anticipated news barrage that usually accompanies Blizzcon .

September’s newsworthy items include the 44 Q&A, multiple Protoss and Terran unit changes, new artwork and several interesting Battle.net posts. Starting with the somewhat insignificant, Blizzard opened September with several new artwork images, which were added to StarCraft 2 Official site’s gallery. The official gallery now spans eleven pages and almost a hundred hi-res images.

Karune has posted healthy amount of interesting information concerning the current build on the Battle.net forums, clearing several interesting aspects like Overlord creeping and Xel’ Naga Watch Towers.

• Overlords must remain immobile to generate creep.
• It takes 15 seconds to unload a Pylon radius worth of creep.
• Creep takes 30 seconds to recede after Overlord’s “removal”.

Maxed out creep range from one Overlord is a little bigger than the range of a Pylon’s power radius, and will take about 15 seconds to reach max range and generally recede within 30 seconds(subject to balance) after the Overlord is destroyed or stops unloading creep

….Overlords are immobile when they are unloading creep – and I don’t think the opponent would appreciate you painting up his base with ‘taunts’ written in creep either 

Marine shields are not just a graphic perk, but a vital part of the Terran arsenal, making the Marine a far more viable late game choice. Considering the amount of heavy-hitters introducedom StarCraft 2 (Thor, MotherShip, Colossus, Queen, better Ultralisks), the Shield upgrade is must for late game infantry.

 
Yup, the Marines still have upgradable shields, making a huge difference late game against more high damage units. As long as those Marines can survive that initial hit, the Medivac Dropships does an awesome job of bringing them back to full health in no time.

Xel’ Naga Watch Towers don’t detect invisible units, however, the Terran Vulcan does. Terran Vulcan is the Nomad’s new name, one that was probably received due to the recently rumored significant change of appearance.

The Xel’Naga Watch Towers do not grant ‘detection’ of cloaked units, nor does it move around like an Observer.

Nomads, also now known as the Vulkan, is still a detector. Actually, it is probably the most powerful mobile detector in the game, considering it can also rapidly deploy a medley of Terran defenses used to both support an attack or raid the enemy.

The Nomad was not the only unit to have its name changed, as the Jackal is now know as Hellion. Jackal was initially introtuced is StarCraft 2’s incarnation of the Vulture, eventually distanced from it by its Buggy-like design and the friendly friendly-fire AoE.
Hellion’s role has distanced the unit even further, by making it a mobile Flamethrower, not entirely unlike C&C’s Flame Tank.

The combination of :

• Speed
• Friendly AoE damage
• Affordability

Make the Hellion seem as a perfect Worker-line raider, on par with the Terran Reaper, which costs more Gas and is significantly more fragile.

The Jackal, now known as the Hellion, only has the flamethrower weapon. In previous versions, there was a railgun hover vehicle, but that will no longer be in multiplayer.
Think Firebat on wheels!

The Hellion is currently one of the best units for “micro” since it is faster than all other units in its tier, and also does splash damage in the form of a line with the flamethrower.

Protoss units were not neglected by Blizzard’s Naming Officers, and the Warp Ray is now officially known as Void Ray – fitting its Dark Templar roots.

Warp Rays, also known as Void Rays now, are especially good against high hit point units, as well as buildings.

 

And last but not least, the missing Q&A 44.

Chat with Devs: Something I noticed during our recent shows at Games Convention in Leipzig and PAX in Seattle is that many new players trying out the game who played Zerg built several creep tumors, thinking they were either defenses or going to morph into defenses. This eventually lead into a conversation with Dustin about why Creep Tumors no longer morph into base defenses. For those who dont know, a Creep Tumor is a building which expands creep around it significantly. Building this building is an excellent way to cover additional ground with creep, allowing for many new strategies, including aggressive Spine Crawler pushes (the mobile Sunken Colony).

Dustin brought up two scenarios to why Creep Tumors no longer morph into other Zerg defenses: 

 

1) You would be able to creep across the map by moving your creep-spawning base defenses.

 

2) It would be easier to accidentally end up with buildings off of creep because the creep-generator moved away.

 

Thus, since the development team definitely wanted to give Zerg mobile defenses, they decided to split the roles of the Creep Tumor and the other Zerg defenses. This also allows for the team to make these Creep Tumors burrowed and very cheap in the latest build.

 

     

 

 

If you haven’t read the above paragraph, you should, especially if you are a Zerg player. This pretty much puts an end to the massive TheoryCraft around Zerg’s mobile defenses, the turtling and offensive towering possibilities, and brings Zerg’s defensive arsenal to a somewhat sane level.

On to the questions, which are mainly clarifications and glimpses into the mild adjustments that are present in the currently tested build.

1) Is it possible for replays to contain more in depth player statistics such as average clicks per minute, number of hotkeys used, etc.. ?

 

Replays will have much more info available in them that will include more detailed stat tracking, as well as other useful eSports related features.

 

 

2) Terrans currently appear to be at a disadvantage in terms of troop mobility, (as compared to ‘Warp-in’ and ‘Nydus Worm’) are there any plans to bring back the, ‘drop-pod’ or other new transport mechanic?

 

 
Actually, the Terrans have many units and mechanics that empower them with more mobility than the original StarCraft. The Reaper and Viking is a good example of new units that extend the Terrans raiding capabilities. Furthermore, Medivac Dropships offer more incentive to build lots of Dropships, which translate to more mobility for their entire army. Salvage is also another mechanic that helps in terms of rebuilding and moving a Terran base to new locations. Lastly, the Terrans are still the only side that can pick up and move their whole entire base, as well as being able to load SCVs in their Command Center now, allowing for quicker fast expanding strategies.

Blizzard’s answer to the Terran mobility question is a great example of how the StarCraft Universe works, and how a Blizzard’s developers approach RTS : Balance does not imply having the same tools. Balance does not imply having the same firepower abilities or speed.

3) With the new high ground mechanic in place, an army can’t fight units that are on higher ground anymore until they get a spotter up the ledge. Both Zerg and Terran have the possibility to spot units on high ground with Overlords and floating buildings right from the start of the game, but the first Protoss unit to fly up there would be the Phase Prism. Could it be that Protoss players have a significant disadvantage on some maps because of this?

 

In the latest builds of StarCraft II, the Protoss no longer need an Observatory to build Observers. Observers will be able to be built straight from the Robotics Facility, allowing earlier eyes on the battlefield.
We definitely saw that especially on certain maps, Terrans were able to block their choke point early, taking away much of the scouting portion of the game from Protoss, and are trying out this new solution for it. Additionally, we felt that Observers were too a crucial to the Protoss army to have them that far up the tech tree.

 

 
4) Will the Unit Portraits in SC2 be pre-rendered high quality video clips like in SC1 ?

 

The unit portraits will be shown in much higher quality than the actual units on the screen, similar to the original StarCraft and Warcraft III. They will not be video clips, but will be animations rendered in game. There will be several examples of their unit portraits in the next BlizzCast, where we have Dustin and Sammy discussing the process of creating a unit.

 

5) We all know how important it is that tier 1 units be effective at later tiers, which has prompted different unit abilities like the Zealots Charge. But it seems that the Protoss have a leg up in that they have Charge while the Zerglings have only their traditional speed boost without any AI enhancements. Is anything being planned for the Zergling?

 

Due to the new game engine, Zerglings have much better pathing in StarCraft II, meaning they move much more efficiently. Zerglings are able to both surround enemy units easier and are more easily selectable as well, being able to control more than 12 at a time. Furthermore, Zerglings are also slightly smaller than their original StarCraft counterparts, and able to be morphed into Banelings, which are extremely effective against Zealots. Lastly, Zealots have also had their shield hit points reduced by 10, as compared to the original StarCraft Zealots.

And in case you haven’t been following, BlizzCon’s coverage starts this Friday, October the 10th.
Last year, Blizzcon build included radical changes, and it wouldn’t come as a surprise if this year’s event will include some sort of a significant StarCraft 2 announcement or gameplay adjustment.

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According to an anonymous source from Battleforums.com, the popular RTS Starcraft 2 might be released later than Blizzard’s popular franchise Diablo 3. According to the source:

[Starcraft 2] is still being worked on, but only by a minuscule amount of people compared to what [Blizzard] put on the Diablo 3 team.

This would go against common thought, because Starcraft 2 was announced earlier than Diablo 3, yet may be released later.

[Update] Blizzard has declined to comment after being questioned about the rumor by VideoGamer.com

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.

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Karune has just let loose the latest monthly discussion topic, this time covering all things related to the Zerg Creep mechanic. Some interesting changes are currently in development including a 30% increase for Drones while moving on creep.

Let your voice be heard and tell us what you think of the current Creep mechanics!

Karune released his latest Q&A with batch 44 this week and covers various aspects of the game. He discusses game replays, unit portraits and much more.

Will the Unit Portraits in SC2 be pre-rendered high quality video clips like in SC1 ? willygundersen (Battle.net)

The unit portraits will be shown in much higher quality than the actual units on the screen, similar to the original StarCraft and Warcraft III. They will not be video clips, but will be animations rendered in game. There will be several examples of their unit portraits in the next BlizzCast, where we have Dustin and Sammy discussing the process of creating a unit.

Read on for the rest!

Blizzard’s co-founder, Frank Pearce, has come out with a statement sure to excite StarCraft fans in an interview given to VideoGaming247.

When asked about the possibility of a 4th race in StarCraft 2, Frank deals the usual response:

We talked about the possibility of a fourth race early on, but we felt like we had a finite amount of great ideas and wanted to make sure we focused all the cool, best ideas on the existing three races rather than diluting those ideas across four races.

However, for the first time, Frank gives hope when it comes to the inevitable StarCraft 2 expansion:

We don’t have the resources or time to add a fourth race to the launch of StarCraft II, but I’m sure in the event that we decide to do an expansion set it’s a feature that’ll come up for discussion.

This is the first time a Blizzard representative has not completely denied the possibility of adding a new playable race to StarCraft 2. Blizzard have been very adamant in their choice of sticking with the three original StarCraft races, which they decided to further explore and differentiate between. It will be interesting to see how they tackle the challenge of introducing a completely new race to the delicate balance currently evolving amongst the three existing races in StarCraft 2.

Next up, we have a few bits of information about StarCraft 2’s most recent gameplay tactics, straight from the mouth of Blizzard – Karune, Blizzard’s community manager. First up, Karune discusses a sneaky tactic employed by the Terran.

Thought I’d share with you guys that in internal gameplay, we’ve had some poor souls find out the hard way that apparently if you are playing Terran and you immediately lift off your command center to a close by high yield mineral field, you will easily make up the difference of the time lost from collecting minerals during that period, and essentially be able to out produce any other race very quickly. Thus far, it seems like it is easy to defend this new fast expansion strategy. Nonetheless, I’m sure it will be balanced in the coming weeks, but thought it was funny so I thought I’d share.

The yellow, high yield minerals currently provide 50% more resources than the normal, blue variants. Since the Terran Command Center, like all Terran buildings, has a natural ability to lift off, maps with a closeby yellow mineral patch make this almost a crime not to abuse.

Karune has received a few suggestions to “fix” this issue on the forums and responded to them:

Making lift off a researched ability and hard coating the minerals both seem like interesting ideas – I’ll be sure to forward that along to the devs. Like I said before though, this has only worked on ‘certain’ maps. If anything, those maps could be modified slightly and it would probably fix it.

Knowing Blizzard, this strategy will likely still be viable on certain maps, but in a balanced way that allows the other races to respond to it without being at an obvious disadvantage.

Karune’s next post discusses the Mutalisks’ ability to bunch up tightly and function like a single unit, attacking targets for very high damage, as well as utilizing their attack cool-down time to move. This tactic requires some micromanaging skill to accomplish, and has become a favorite discussion point in Q&As. This is what the situation is like, currently:

There has not been extensive testing of this yet, but in terms of Mutalisks, players will be able to stack, but it will be much harder to keep them clumped up. As more info surfaces about this, I will keep you informed.

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Also, Mutalisks at first in StarCraft II while slowed down a bit before they attacked, but the code has been fixed to allow it to attack on the move like the original StarCraft.

It seems like Mutalisks will still be able to attack and move if used by skilled, agile players, but creating a Korean Mutalisk super-unit will be significantly more difficult.

Moving on the the Protoss side, Karune talks about the Immortal’s effectiveness against the difference races.

In my opinion, Immortals are better against Terran but definitely still useful in PvZ matchups, especially against armored units that are harder to kill, such as Ultralisks and Roaches. Furthermore, Immortals are almost always the unit to be sent in first while laying siege to an enemy base, eating up all the initial base defense pounding.

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The most effective counters to the Immortals are units that have fast attacks up to 10 damage per attack.

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Actually, recently I played a game realizing that Psi Storms are actually quite effective against them as well, as they fit that counter perfectly, doing a set X damage every second while the unit was under in the area of effect.

With their Hardened Shields, the Immortals cannot absorb more than 10 points of damage per hit, making them somewhat less effective against the Zerg and their impressive arsenal of small, fast attacking units which don’t deal a lot of damage. It’s interesting to note that the Protoss High Templar’s Psi Storm is actually a good counter to Immortals, since the damage it deals, despite being quite high, comes in small portions.

Another post from Karune deals with the scrapped Protoss structure – the Dark Pylon.

The Dark Pylon is not in the multiplayer version of the game. Originally, when it was being tested, it would cloak buildings in a radius around the building, making it more difficult for enemies to scout out ‘tech’ buildings in a Protoss base, to determine how they were teching. Additionally, it also hid base defenses until they began firing.

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The Dark Pylon was taken out because it was not found as useful as what was intended. There are discussions of finding a possible replacement building that would also serve as a base defense, but nothing has been confirmed yet.

Dark Pylon’s role was “borrowed” from the Command & Conquer universe – its intended functionality greatly resembles the various base stealth devices found there.

Lastly, Blizzard has opened an online store, where they sell Blizzard universe related “memorabilia” in the form of wallpapers and mobile ringtones. All your favorite characters, scenes, and battlecries are available for purchase and download. Unfortunately, at this time, only wallpapers are available for the StarCraft universe. If you’re looking for a free StarCraft wallpaper, check out the one we featured on the SC2 Blog.

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Three new videos, all in high definition, have emerged from the Leipzig Gaming Convention. Although players were given the chance to play for 15 minutes at a time, so far, these short videos contain the only worthy StarCraft 2 gameplay footage from the event.

The first video shows a Protoss base, as it is being built, up close. Nothing majorly interesting happens, but one can’t help but notice how pretty it all looks.

The next one is the most interesting of the bunch. It features a Terran attack on a minimally-defended Zerg base.

The two defensive buildings in place, the Spine Crawlers, are quickly taken out by Siege Tanks in siege mode, and the reinforcements being hatched come too little and too late. The Swarm units are making their first appearance – these can be seen when the Terran army destroys the Spawning Pool at 0:47.

The Swarm are the same units that emerge from the Swarm Guardian’s new attack, and are basically StarCraft 2’s Broodling units. They are very fragile, deal little damage – 4 points at melee range, and die off by themselves after a few seconds. However, they serve to keep an attacking enemy busy for a short time, which can be precious under some circumstances. In this video, we can see another great benefit – they close the distance to the attacking Marines quickly, drawing Siege Tank fire to them, and this greatly damages the friendly Marines themselves.

The Swarm are only created when major buildings are destroyed – the more important the building is, the more of them will come out. This is very reminiscent of the Command & Conquer games, where basic, wounded infantry units have a chance of popping out of destroyed buildings.

The rest of the video shows the slow and painful death of the Zerg base by the remaining Terran Siege Tanks. Two Reapers make an appearance before the end, moving in on the mineral line, quickly mowing down Drones with their dual guns. It’s clear that these units were designed with devastating the enemy economy in mind, as evident by the amazing speed in which two of them completely obliterate all the workers.

The last video is another short one, with a few brief, interesting bits. A few seconds of the living, breathing Zerg base are seen, and the video quickly jumps to show Protoss units abusing an unhatched Zerg egg. Later, a group of Zealots and a Stalker are captured at the moment when they destroy a neutral barrier, moving on to attack another Zerg base.

Throughout the videos, and especially in the Zerg portions, it’s very easy to see how alive everything looks. The creep is constantly shifting underneathe its purple skin, buildings have protruding, constantly undulating tenctacles, and everything seems to breath. Everything in StarCraft 2 is always in motion, enhancing the sense of immersion,  yet such high level of passive activity might impede the player’s ability to focus on meaningful animations . Either way, it’s highly apparent, with each new demonstration, that the graphical aspects of StarCraft 2 are being constantly honed and adjusted, just like the gameplay.

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