# of Larvae

[didd293]

Do you think Blizzard should change the number of larvae per hatchery. i think they should increase it to about five or six for that swarm feeling, though that couild make it too unbalanced

[Skylark]

It would make it grossly unbalanced. In fact, I thought about this one day and realized that the zerg, number of available resources aside, can produce about 10 worker units in the time it takes the protoss and terran to make 5. Now, the longer this goes, the smaller the gap becomes percentage-wise, because the zerg start out with three larvae (and by that token, three eggs with which to immediately spawn).

However, the fact that the zerg need to sacrifice a worker unit every time they produce a structure makes the aforementioned statistic somewhat fair, as they need more worker units than their protoss and terran counterparts. So...unless they place a greater burden on the workers (or something along those lines), I think it would be a huge balance issue if they raised the number of larvae.

[didd293]

make the delay time between each new larvae longer maybe? and make all the build times longer

[Lord David]

I'd probably just add towards the number of larvae with each Lair/Hive upgrade...

Hatchery: 3
Lair: 4
Hive: 5

This is obvious for those that dislike a whole base full of hatcheries... maybe even a hatchery equivalent (as in stacking) for any hatchery/lair/hive? Just a thought...

[burkid]

that would be kinda unbalanced david, having 5 larvae. it should either go 3-3-4 or the spawning speed should noticably increase at hive level

[Zergme]

I'd probably just add towards the number of larvae with each Lair/Hive upgrade...

Hatchery: 3
Lair: 4
Hive: 5

im with you there that sounds so cool

[Meloku]

I have no comment on how they will make it in starcraft 2, because I honnestly have no idea. However, I did always find it fascinating how they balanced 3 races that even build differently. GJ blizz.

[mc2]

I'd like to see either lord david's idea
OR
have a max of 3 larvaes at all times but increase the spawning speed, so instead of one every 20sec, make it one every 15sec

[Zergme]

yea thats also a good idea i like that too lol

[Dxun]

well i do believe blizzard wants to give us bigger swarms, so which ever idea they use I'm sure it'll be awesome :powerup:

[josh]

i wouldn't recommend increasing the spawn rate and number. zerg is already quick in building and cheap.

totally unbalanced. a cheaper hatchery is my suggestion.

[Ych9]

I think Blizzard might have an upgrade during mid-late game that would increase the growth rate of the larvaes. That, or increase the max of larvaes of each hatcheries to 4 larvaes.

Blizzard said that they want to make each and every unit overpowered. But in the end, it balances out. We have seen that the Protoss are getting many new overpowered Toys. So having this kind of upgrade to increase the larvae rate (or max amount of larvaes) will of course sound overpowered also. But in the end, it's going to balance out, which is Blizzards formula of making SC2.

[mc2]

The required for zerg to mass units is high at mid to late game. Because there'll be multiple hatcheries, and hence allow a zerg players to alter unit strategies quickly.

However (unless the player goes for the 4/6 pool-ling rush) the zerg are usually fairly slow to start in early game. Because overlords take up larvaes. And it's always a hard to decide whether to morph a drone or a ling with the ever precious larvaes in the early early game.

[UchihaItachi0129]

congrats on the legend well soon to be mc2 and i think the larva count is fine is it is right not. i mean all you need to do is build more hatcheries geez.

[10-Neon]

Maybe the player can research a special ability that temporarily causes the Hatchery to produce larva at an accelerated rate for say, 30 seconds in times of emergency, but require a few minutes to recharge, or hit it with a decreased spawn rate afterwards (like the Phoenix's Overload.)

[burkid]

that would be nice, if you need larva now kinda steal the spawn rate of larva from later in the game, so more now, less later.

[DontHate]

yea. an upgrade to do that would make more sence.

[marinepower]

What if you upgrade the queen to have an attack that is similar to broodling except you typically use it on your own units. What you do is research the spell "infestation", and when queen has 175 energy, you can cast it on a unit and in 5 seconds 5 larvae will burst out of it, killing it.

It sounds creepy, but it kinda goes along with the whole planet infestation thing. This can also be cast on an enemy unit, but if its not a zerg opponent chances are the larvae will just die off the second they're on the ground. What do you think? ;D

[Wlck742]

It won't really be all that useful if all the larvae just died the second they popped out, since you might as well just use Spawn Broodling. At least they have about 20 seconds of life.

[marinepower]

That's why you have both spawn broodling and infestation. Spawn broodling makes units when cast off the creep, while infestation can be cast on units while they are on the creep. When used in an enemy zergs base, 5 larvae can be a big distraction, especially if u start morphing them into 5 200 hp eggs :)

[capthavic]

I'd probably just add towards the number of larvae with each Lair/Hive upgrade...

Hatchery: 3
Lair: 4
Hive: 5

This is obvious for those that dislike a whole base full of hatcheries... maybe even a hatchery equivalent (as in stacking) for any hatchery/lair/hive? Just a thought...


That was what I was thinking since I didn't like having to build multiple hatcheries. Maybe if they do that they could off set it by limiting how close you can build them or number of them.

[Trooper_Lozer]

3, 4, 5, no. To many because already we see people massing zerg which is wut they are for , but in some games the other players get like 30-40 hatcheries. now they could do this with 10 - 20 hives. i think it would be sort of rigged.

-Trooper

[capthavic]

That's why I said limit the number and/or distance to help keep it balanced.

[UchihaItachi0129]

chances are the larvae will just die off the second they're on the ground. What do you think? ;D

>< that's what i hate about larva. when they aren't on creep they die. what's with that? (don't answer...) >< eh. that'd be pretty cheap...then you'd just stayed bunkered down at your own base where there is creep. unless 1) they're zerg. 2) you've built a hatchery in their base 3) somehow there's creep where you're fighting.

[burkid]

i thought larva just die a minute or so after the hatchery they came from dies, not from creep...

[LJYLJ]

i thought larva just die a minute or so after the hatchery they came from dies, not from creep...


larvas can theoreticly live forever...they die the moment they hit "non-infested" terrain aka creep..


but remember guys, the hatchery are like a universal gateway / barrack / factory w/e.. so if u increase max larva number for each hatch / lair / hive u must also reduce build-time for all other races...and btw, if u even let ur hatcheries produce more then 2larvas u dont got enough macro anyways =)

(try making a FE - hydra bo now in sc:bw vs a toss who does a 2gate goon build and see that with ur normal larva count of max 3larvas u still will outnumber the goons with about 4 to 1...now imagine this with lesser spawn time / more larvas, the toss wouldnt stand a chance even with mothership)

[UchihaItachi0129]

that's the whole point ;) ZERG FTW :D