Anyone know if there are really only 3 races?

[ZerglingRUSH]

I have a feeling that there are going to be surprises. I'm sure Blizzard will end up putting another race in! Why wouldn't they?

[Senator]

It's already balanced, they don't need another race. I think 3 is perfect. It allows for a a scissors paper rock tactical gameplay style. :)

[mc2]

it seems like there's no way that blizzard will tell us EXACTLY how many races will be in the game before it gets released. i personally think that there'll only be 3 races, reason being the same said by Senator: they are well balanced.

perhaps the Xel'Naga and the protoss-zerg hybrid will appear in the game as non-playable races.

[markus]

mc2, I agree. having additional races as NPCs would be cool. But the main game should stick to just 3 races.

From the gameplay videos going around, the protoss look awfully strong... but I'm sure the other races have some things still up their sleeves. I don't think blizzard will announce a new race, but don't really mind either way!

[gnom]

I am not sure about this.. Blizzart has a really hart job to do.
On the one hand blizzart has to put some completely new thinks inside the game for example: New Races ; Hero usage like In Wc3 (i do not hope this) or never seen elements in strategy game like adding some shooter elements.
If they wont add some new thinks Sc2 is just an Sc1 update and a lot of players will be disapointed.
But on the other hand , if they put a lot of new thinks inside the game. Hardcore sc1 fans will be dissapointed
because they doent get the feeling this game is really an Starcraft.
So blizzart has the hard job to find the Middle way. Is the middle way only 3 races? i really doent know

[orphean]

I think a fourth race is likely if they want to change the flavor/tone of the game. Having a whole other race in there with different strengths and weaknesses would really change the dynamic. However since they've stated they really want it to BE starcraft who knows...

[Fenix]

I think they'll be only three races, but I'm sure they'll put in other NPC races able to be Mind Controlled. Maybe even a builder unit. Remember the secret mssion Dark Origin? Duran said you'll never find 'em all before they awaken....Maybe they do awaken and are a whole new race with all kind of units and buildings, able to be Mind Controlled. Won't be the first time Blizzard has made us think something, then totally amazed us.

[orphean]

I just hope they don't do a goblin workshop type of thing. One of the aspects with WC3I never much cared for.

Edit: Fixed my stupidity.

[Fenix]

I just hope they don't do a goblin workshop type of thing. One of the aspects with WoW I never much cared for.


War 3 you mean.

You don't like hiring mercs?

[orphean]

Yeah never cared for mercs at all. I also wasn't a huge fan of the npcs on the map you had to bash. I'm weird I know.

[Fenix]

I only used the spellcaster mercs. And the creeps are awesome!

[ZerglingRUSH]

Yeah, I'd love to see creeps! Not so much mercs but definitely love creeps ;p

[orphean]

I'm in the minority on the creep hating. C'mon, someone else must hate those things like me? Anyone? Please? Bueller? Bueller?

[Bumbaloe]

I think that there will be only 3 playable races, but that SC2 will have the zerg-protoss hybrid as an NPC race. Hopefully they will also be in the map editor! :D

[iBliss]

maybe the hybrids will be a part of the terran race? I think I'd like that.

[mc2]

maybe the hybrids will be a part of the terran race? I think I'd like that.


it's very unlikely they'll make the hybrid as part of the terrans...............there'll be HUGE imbalances in the game

[orphean]

I agree with Mc2, it'd be super unbalancing. Maybe it might be a story plot (parasite in the terran high command or something) but I really don't think it'll get down to units on the field.

[10-Neon]

I am sure Blizzard could handle balancing four races, but that isn't the question. The question has already been answered by Blizzard themselves, who have stated clearly that there will only be three playable races.

[ZerglingRUSH]

Yes, blizzard have done it fine with warcraft 3. The four races are very well balanced, and given time, through more patches, it should be perfect.

But 3 races for starcraft is enough. Stick to what is true and tried!

[orphean]

only be three playable races.

Is there a source for this?

[FlamingTemplar]

I think that in the campaign you will only be able to play the 3 original races but in multi-player you will have the option of Xel-Naga and the Hybrid

[markus]

I think that in the campaign you will only be able to play the 3 original races but in multi-player you will have the option of Xel-Naga and the Hybrid


Actually, I think that the Xel Naga and hybrid races could happen but probably in an expansion, that would make sense.

[orphean]

That's an interesting idea, sort of a Dawn of War approach to the whole thing. I'm not sure if people would like that though. Apparently Blizz has already stated that there are only going to be 3 playable races.

[PlatnumCy]

ten bucks says they trash the infested terrans...OR MAYBE...there is a whole new race with in the zerg dealing with infestation

[CaptainSuperAmazing]

My money is definitely on having only three races, but apparently Blizzard already stated that O_o I'll have to check that out... Although, if there was a new race, I'd like to see the zerg/protoss hybrid. It'd be so bad ass... even though I'm a Terran player.

[KoN17]

maybe a hybrid race will be npc like in the naga's from WC 3 :o

[Bumbaloe]

maybe a hybrid race will be npc like in the naga's from WC 3 :o


That's what I was thinking... It would be kind of cool to make maps with hybrid units too. ^_^

[Fenix]

maybe a hybrid race will be npc like in the naga's from WC 3 :o




I think that there will be only 3 playable races, but that SC2 will have the zerg-protoss hybrid as an NPC race. Hopefully they will also be in the map editor! :D



Just a tad a head of you, KoN ;)

[10-Neon]

only be three playable races.

Is there a source for this?


Yeah, at the round table discussion after the announcement, it was covered.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6171172.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;1
From the article: "The panel also confirmed that the sequel will have only the three factions of the Protoss, Terrans, and Zerg; there will be no fourth faction."

I also saw the video of the discussion, and they said that while the Hybrids and Xel'Naga might play a role in the game, they will not be player-controllable races.

[Gold]

I think in single player there will be more than 3, but you wont get to play them.

In warcraft 3 the frozen throne,The Naga, the dreanai and some others i cant remeber all have a basic skeleton of builder units and buildings, warriors etc, but you cant play them actually in multi player (you can open up world editor and put them in if you want but there horribly imbalanced) this is probably the most likely scenario

[qtpay]

There will only be 3 races in sc2; but I got a feeling that they may surprise us with a new race in the expansion.

[TheDarkTemplar]

Never mind the expansion, just make sure this one makes it to the shelves asap!

[reject_666_6]

Never mind the expansion?!?!? Lord of Destruction was a major improvement over Diablo 2, the Frozen Throne really made Warcraft 3 an easily scriptable and modable game, Brood War put in a few more units and doubled the storyline... And the Burning Crusade added 2 more crappy races, bla, bla, bla...

[feeder]

There will probley be the three basic races where u can play, im going with blizzard will make u face the hybrid-race and make them ungodly powerful so u really have to use statgey to beat them ,then in a later expansion theyll town down the hybrids and let u play em. they might do the same thing with the xnegal or w/e but i doubt it cuse the idea of being able to use them is odd, they did creat 2 of the races so it would only make sense if they can kick everyone eles ass.

[Jistyr]

only be three playable races.

Is there a source for this?
A number. You can first see it in the FAQ section of Blizzard's StarCraft 2 site: http://www.starcraft2.com/faq.xml
You can also watch the hour long questioning conference at WWI from this link: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/vids_1.html
The second one answers not only the question concerning races but a number of others, except it can be a tad annoying with all of the Korean translations, without them it'd be as half as long.

[reject_666_6]

I think that it's impossible for the Hybrids to get their own playable race. It's downright silly for a few scattered specimens to start a varied and balanced race. The Xel'Naga, on the other hand could come as a scouting force at first, so they'd be NPCs. In the expansion, I think that they'll come with a war-fleet and capture Aiur or something and THEN make it playable.

[slugonice]

Don't fix what aint broken. Let's stick with Terran Protoss ZERG

[GrahamTastic]

There might be a fourth race in the expansion, but they have defended their reasoning for only having 3 races in StarCraft II many, many times, and I would be very surprised if they added another one at this point.

[Sagathox]

i hope they add the xel-naga and the hybrids as playable races, many of you guys are just affraid of change, and that is lame, if aint broken dont fix it? well if you are not going to add anything new then dont do anything at all, its the big changes the ones that act as gas to lit the fire of greatness, rock paper, sissors?, well there are many ways to balance this, there is a pre stablished context in wich those two races fit perfectly, we have the tecnology, blizzard had 10 years to think some pretty cool units, strategies, dinamics
etc, so what if they said that there will be no fourth race? if you dont remember a few weeks before the wwi, they were still STRONGLY denning the fact that they were working on starcraft 2, its blizzard, they are geniuses, they wont give us all the surprises in the beta stage of the game!
And having them as a non playable race as the naga? that would be lame, it could be as not having them at all, yeah i know about the map editor, but even the best map cannot compare to a blizz made race.

Also, leaving the extra races to the expansion? well thats a cheap resourse to sell their game isn´t it? they fit now, perfectly, both of them, it´s not like the hybrids are just a few 1000, duran said that he planted the seed in thousands of worlds, and i bet that if they are like zerg, a few hundreds will do enough so they are pretty numerous right now. Dont go with the wave of developers that make games just to sell them, not in this game at least, all that balancing issue almost everybody seems to have here, it´s just "mental", i mean, yeah it´s a very important factor in the game, but seriously, many have taken blizzards work as godly, and to be honest it never was, so let them try NEW things, if you want your 3 base races, well, just play with them, dont play with people that use the others, or just playu starcraft 1, there is a "perfect" balance there!, its a game people! i want to have fun! not live to play the game!, i want to return from a party and if i still have energy kick somebody´s ass in starcraft 2 you are using the balance thing as a huge barrier, no im sorry as a huge boulder to block every new thing, every cool concept, every new unit, "it´s not starcraftish", well it´s starcraft 2ish (lol), keep an open mind my friends, i think that great things remain to be seen, and a new race could be of course, in my opinion, perfect for this game.

[zeratul11]

Don't fix what aint broken. Let's stick with Terran Protoss ZERG


yah. but we are just improving want aint broken. and well said sagathox.

dont forget the UED race for the expansion too. 2 human faction in starcraft 2.

i think xelnaga will be a race composing mostly of hybrid units?

NEW races for starcraft 2 expansion please!

[nijigasumi]

well, since this is the Story and Races section, might I add that THERE ARE dozens of other SENTIENT races... most of them aren't capable and oblivious to everything that's happening in the galaxy...

proof of this is that in the Protoss race history, the Protoss have taken the "stewardship" from the Xel'Naga... and now, they're trying to take care of other races... the Terrans were once put under the stewarship too...

[JudicatorPrime]

I'm pretty sure EVERYONE here knows there are only 3 races. If there is a fourth, then its a lie, not a surprise. Blizzard had only been seriously working on SC2 since around WC3... not 10 years.

No one is afraid of change, its just no one wants lame races in an already good game. Especially if its Xel' Naga or Hybrids, and the UED has the same tech as the Dominion.. So I don't really care for them.

[AcE_01]

so....what is the hybrid>??

[Hunter]

Actually I think Xel Naga or the hybrid will appear in some of the missions, but it won't be playable.

[Hunter]

so....what is the hybrid>??

It's the protoss Zerg hybrid Zeratul found in the secret quest of Brood war:)

[Drafter]

Funny why theres Terran units in the secret mission...owned by Duran?

[-LT-]

so....what is the hybrid>??

It's the protoss Zerg hybrid Zeratul found in the secret quest of Brood war:)
What secret quest?

[Lenga]

i guess the xel'naga and the hybrid are gonna be like the naga in W3X

[AcE_01]

there a secret quest?

how do u get to the secret quest?

[Lenga]

by finishing one of the last zerg missions with more than 5 minutes left, if you have a copy it wont work and crash your computer :upset:

[Protosscommander]

Is it true that it wont work and crash your computer :)

[Lenga]

yeah, after that i bought starcraft on konniningendag(dutch holiday), for 0,50 euros

[Sagathox]

thats not true, power down for lying! naa just kidding, ive personally seen how that mission is played with games that are a "copy", if the game could tell that your copy is illegal why in the hell would it allow you to play at all? that has no logic man, so you just got screwed even for .50 euros lol so please spend more money and buy legal games they always work and have some cool stuff, like manuals posters and lots of other interesting stuff (wich im waiting to come in starcraft 2)

[ShdwyTemplar]

I would have to agree with a majority of the people in the thread with the idea that their will be a definite three playable races and to the fact that the Hybrids will most likely be a npc race. I think that they will to a degree not have the same aspect of so much a race, but, a faction in SC2. The Naga are a good example of this from WC3 that being said I go now to WoW where their civilization was expanded upon. The idea that a race apart from being playable can be diverse is always good to a game. As that aspect makes you want to continue to learn more about what they are and how they got to the point where they are. The spine for which Blizzard has constructed their Skeleton has been placed by Duran and the Xel'Naga. IMO going over to Brood War set the whole scene for the Hybrid's as the story from SC1 looked like it was gonna be a Zerg Dominate all. So, I can agree 100% that the basic story and ability to portray the Hybrids as a race is very possible and very likely, but, not so much as to the extent of the Terran, Protoss, and Zerg. The Hybrids would not have a complex system of buildings and structures as Duran had began his experimental process during a certain time period. If his Hybrids appear in SC2 they will most likely be two-four different units types as their story has only begun.

As far as we know there can be countless other races in the SC2 universe. Does Blizzard plan to add them? Most likely not as most have said 1. 3 is balanced and 2. This is SC2 not SC+3 New Races! So, bringing it some new races would be pointless and imo taking the easy way out. (Even adding 1 would be like that imo (playable).) Ya....

[Sagathox]

hey man i dont agree totally with you look,yeah every body has said what you have, but still it makes no sense to me, you say:

"1. 3 is balanced" ohhhhh so 3 is the magic number for the balance huh??? why not 4? that could make 2 vs 2, or 5, another impair number, where in the hell does it says that 3 IS BALANCED 4 NO?????????!, ive seen that phrase over a million times, it doesnt make sense!, you just got used to having 3 races, its not that there can only be 3 races, get over it!, all of you, after 10 years i guess at least one of the geniuses at blizzard could have come up with at least one idea of how surpass this ENORMOUS 3 races limit, let them use their imagination id like something totally new! and i know its not gonna be some stupid looking race, its blizzard, but nooooo you just want starcraft 1.5 (im not talking about you only my friend) to my understanding the most commonly used term of balance is used in the elements, fire, water, earth and wind, its a cicle, BUT even this cicle can be broken and re-arranged, including i dont know, say, lightining, or light and shadow, hell there is a world out there!

now you said: "and 2. This is SC2 not SC+3 New Races! So, bringing it some new races would be pointless and imo taking the easy way out."

ohh yeahhh? well this is not sc1 + new graphics you know? so, bringing one new race would be totally acording to the plot, the time (yeah 10 years), and my dreams (lol), and no, for me at least the easy way out is what most of you are doing, using barriers as "imbalance, out of place, un blizzardish, too command and conquerish" the easy way out is saying its imposible without not even trying or giving the chance to prove that it COULD work.

so that is one of the things i wanted to say, well see ya dudes

[Drafter]

woo wall of text,you tune looks like its declining after every single words.you must be sleeping comfortably after writing so many words...so your point is?Don't conclude before trying the real thing?If it is then your are a bit off here...see this forum is made up from people who are desperate(well not that desperate I guess) and waiting too long for the game to be released,so its only normal for people to bring up topic......I know cause I for one said that the banshee looked too C&C-nish =X

[CheddarCheese]

I hope they leave it at 3 races. They would mess up the gameplay if they added another. Maybe a campaign race. that be cool.

[StarCraft144000]

No no no no only 3 not 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 352 no no no no no no thats final!

[Sagathox]

i recomend that you read again, you get my idea totally on the other side i wanted to show, also i think that not all of us are "desperate" for a game, well at least im not, its a game, im sure it will be a great one, but i want it to be cool, its been 10 years, those absurd arguments about imbalacing are nothing but a way to try hurry up blizzard to finish the game, after all you are all desperade arent you? lol, so it doesnt matter what you get if you get it fast? and yes its normal that we create topics about anything that we like, its your own problem that you tought that i was the one who say that, just to make it clear for you, my point on the first post was to state that people should stop building imaginary barriers around tabus, such as the balance of only 3 races ( that wich i dont know where in the hell does it says that there can only be 3 races or it will be imbalanced) and let blizzard try new and different stuff.

and yeah i agree that the banshee including the name is copied from command and conquer, but i like the unit, and there is no game that is 100% out of any influence, mhh sorry if you had to get trought another "wall of text" probably the next comments will be 2 lines long, so you can have a more healty reading lol! :D

edit, ohh i was right like the last comment XD very... mhh well based? naaa just opinions i guess like any other in here

[Drafter]

Oh God my eyes and yes another wall of text but I read it anyway(I feel so ashame for that but I did).
If people just say its their own problem and don't post about it then there won't be so much topic going on.

[BirdofPrey]

You have to ask yourself "How well would a fourth race even fit?"

If it was the Xel Naga what would be their thing since the Protoss already have hign tech but were mostly wiped out anyway by the Zerg so they would fit less well storywise.

The Hybrids what whould they get? How would they fit?

[Drafter]

Maybe they hate every single race and try to destroy the three races so the races would probably team up?

[CheddarCheese]

If the Xel'Naga came back, with an army, wouldent they own all three races? I mean, they traveled space, made temples of mass destruction, and evolved speicies a few what... umpteen thousand years ago? Imagine what they could do now!... with their armies!...

Not sure bout the hybrids though...

[SOGEKING]

No fourth race according to me, but special units, just in the campaign ! Xel'Naga and Hybrids in the storyline.