Cannibalism

[LimaBeanMage]

There have been a few suggestions to make zerg fit the swarming insect type species that they are. Some have been creep suggestions or new infestation options. I think something that fits their image a little better would be cannibalism. Maybe not a direct rip off of the WC3 Undead's ghoul ability but something of the sort. The zerg seem as if they wouldn't waste anything. Partially from the traits of mass insects or mass anything that they possess, really. Nothing is wasted, everything that can be salvaged will be recycled and used for the greater good of the colony/brood.

I would think that for all the resources that go into producing units the zerg wouldn't just let masses of them die and be lost, but rather they would go for efficiency if possible. The area where this is most prominent would be that of dead units. I was thinking that some sort of ability could be given to all zerg ground units that give them a benefit for being around a bunch of other dead zerg units. Maybe they could receive increased regeneration for standing in pools of their dead buddies. If not health then what about regaining a small percentage of resources lost on those units with drones. I'm not sure what would fit best but just something that gives them more of organic feel and make them more innately efficient, as their image suggests.

[Itsmyship]

Omg! Just send like 50 zerglings to a spot then just send an Ultralisk is to bathe in their blood then pwn everyone to shreds...that would be some insane and imbalanced pwnage :P

[LimaBeanMage]

Well, I never said it would be that powerful, just some benefit on the battlefield that gives zerg players incentive to risk staying in the battle area or using the enemies strength against them.

[Itsmyship]

Eh, I'm not much a zerg player, so i can't give much incentive that'll have some bearing, but for me, the zerg's personality is just "send send send die die send more send more" It just kinda seems odd that they'd be particularly wanting of efficiency when they got legions upon legions of things that were born to die. Then again, there's the whole mutation/evolution thing, so maybe they developed said aspect...I can't really say for sure though.

[SirBaron]

Playing Zerg as a player should be incentive enough to just go with the "ICANAFFORDTOBUYYOUBACKSOJUSTGOIGOTLINGS". No need for extra reg, or "powerups"... the Zerg should be acknowledged not for "buffs", but for the massive, never-ending type of organic, ravenous mass we know as the Swarm. A Terran or Protoss player should not go like "ok i better take out these b1tches so they don't reg this large cloud of zergling that clot up the map", they should be like "OH F*CK THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! HAVEN'T HE REACHED POP CAP YET?"
Like this "ok you 100000 guys go over there, you 277573 guys go over there, the mass of infinity of 'lings standing over there... yes you, go bite anything that dares move - oh and don't mind they siege tanks, they sting a bit but that's about it"

[LimaBeanMage]

For some reason I've never imagined the zerg as sending forces upon forces to die... just to send some more. That really doesn't fit the insect colony/mass organism image. It would seem more like a Terran strategy to send forces that aren't really salvageable and gather more resources just send more of the same. If anything, zerg would be the most efficient race out of all three races. They are spawned from an organic nature and science hybrid with heavy influence from biology and evolution. And I'm pretty sure biology and evolution are still some of the most efficient concepts around.

[Ghost]

Don't quote anything larger than your message please. You could say "SirBaron, [praise]" and it would work just as well.


No one has EVER given me a better explanation of the Zerg... EVER!

[burkid]

^thats pretty much what i was thinking.

[Ghost]

Anyway, defilers can SORT of cannibalize, with consume, (or devour w/e its called) which replenished psi depending on the consumed units HP.

[opm]

this would create such massive imbalances that i have to say nay. imaginitive though.

and yes, this is exactly why i love zerg

"yes you, go bite anything that dares move - oh and don't mind they siege tanks, they sting a bit but that's about it"

[Major Willy]

Cannibalism?

THIS.
IS.
STARCRAAAAAFT. *Kicks into a pit... of Zerglings*

[DontHate]

okay... it seems to useless to cannabalise. i mean with ur mass amount of armies and they regerate health. also most units are too small and dont need to cannabalise. for example... do you REALLY need to waste ur time and make a jerglign with 20 health have 40 health? i mean it would only take a couple mins for it to regerate by itself. also the extra bodies would lag like a dell.

[Fenix]

I just wanna say SirBaron rox.

[LimaBeanMage]

okay... it seems to useless to cannabalise. i mean with ur mass amount of armies and they regerate health. also most units are too small and dont need to cannabalise. for example... do you REALLY need to waste ur time and make a jerglign with 20 health have 40 health? i mean it would only take a couple mins for it to regerate by itself. also the extra bodies would lag like a dell.


So then they wouldn't have to cannibalize directly. They could in fact be just standing in pools of their buddies absorbing health intravenously by special pores on their hide. Or when zerg units die they release pheromones that, in sufficient amounts, drive other zerg units into even more of a raging frenzy than they were before.

And as for SirBaron, I completely disagree with that. Not from a player's stand point but a story point of view. As a player, yes, that sums up how you play zerg. But from the zerg's concept, they are anything but wasteful. Just because they drove in numbers does not mean that all of that is wasted. The Zerg would certainly not be so callous when it comes to battle. As I said before, Zerg are obviously the most efficient of all three races because their main stead is evolution and their harbinger was biology; or at least I think anyway.

[DontHate]

so they cannabalize AND get frenzy? are these zerglings or ghouls?

[LimaBeanMage]

I suppose I should change the topic the topic name, if I could. Like I said, something 'like' cannibalize or maybe not at all. Just something, anything, that makes use of dead zerg ground units.

[Gorythax]

Ah, cannibalizing and regeneration, maybe not, since they already have it, it would be too uber. But what would be nice to do with the concept of endless recycling would be to take the dead bodies and use them to make protective walls or just use them as some kind of food for your armies? You know, like gather 20 bodies and you get to have a free pig farm-ish building or something, assuming they don't use "Control" anymore as their food system.

[Major Willy]

Zerghouls.
Ghoulings.

And Gorythax, like a Meat Wagon?

[Gorythax]

Yeah, kinda. I was thinking of some kind of unit that could get a couple bodies, to a max of 20, and when it does, you like "deposi them" in some space, to have the pig farm, or cantina or w/e it would be called.

Or just some kind of Stockage place that you build, with a worm, and when your guys or enemies die, you select the building, click "gather body", and click on a body and then a giant worm goes there and picks the body up. Then that would make 1 more food. I think a good idea would be like, a max of 8 food per building, like an overlord, cuz with the amount of dead bodies it would be way too uber.
Anyways... It would be like a feature that lets you use larvas to make lings or something instead of overlords. I don't know, it's just some random idea. Overlords are more useful but if Blizz can find some good use to a cantina... I really don't know.

Or apart from that, just, like, some kind of worm that gathers bodies and when he reaches a substancial amount he gets to build some kind of unit that would have extra armor and attack, because it's been reinforced with other body parts. It would be like a new super unit that requires body. Even though Blizzard said there wouldn't be a zerg or terran "mothership", it's my little concept of one :P

Anyways, as I said, I don't know about the idea's usefulness.

[[LightMare]]

way too much warcraftesque. the two don't mix! it's like water and fire...

[Gorythax]

Liquid-fire. ;P

Not my point anyways...

You're right, it is warcraftesque...

I just thought zergs could have something more special than MASS ZERG HIM MUAHAHA HE PWN and then get ripped by 24 carriers + 4 arbiters. It would be nice, since I think playing zerg is pretty much repetitive and boring.

[shanodin]

They should make the Drones able to carry dead Zerg bodies to the base to feed Larva. That would temporarily increase the Larva generation rate of your Hatchery. Maybe even permanently but by a small amount. If more than 10 dead bodies would be turned in, the Hatchery would eventually produce one extra larva (Just to make it actually worth it to risk the life of your Drones.) ;D

Collecting dead bodies around the map might be time consuming, and while you are busy with other things you rarely have time to walk to the dead bodies with your drone and click click click all the time. That is why the Drones should have a passive ''Auto harvest dead bodies ability'' that could be turned ON and OFF. This would make the Drone automatically detect dead units and collect them (starting from the closest one). Basically works in the same way as mineral farming.

I think this would boost the Zerg's ''Swarming'' nature especially in games that last longer than average.

[Fenix]

If you are what you eat, aren't we all cannibals?

[Remy]

The whole use dead Zerg bodies thing could be nice if they come up with something good I guess. Yes to the general idea, but would have to be specific to what it is. Can't be something too good.

But having been a Zerg player for as long as I have, I've never really thought of Zerg as having throw-away units any more than the other races, other than zerglings. I think of hydras roughly as marine equivalents, and that we just have one more(lings) that's cheaper below that.

I really think that's an over-exaggerated misconception about Zerg. Zerg players don't really throw anything other than lings away, and not even really lings very early in the game. It's only the less skilled players who are too lazy to micro that just send and forget.

[Gorythax]

@Remy don't you mean macro? I hear people write it micro every day yet I think the correct word is macro... I've been meaning to ask for that. Intriguing, eh? :P

[Major Willy]

Macro is control of your base and economy and spending of resources.

Micro is control of your individual or small groups of units to get more out them.

[Patuljak]

Sorry, but I don't like your idea. Nor any of the others suggested here. It just don't see it fitting in with zerg. Or Starcraft, while we're at it.

[Ghost]

so they cannabalize AND get frenzy? are these zerglings or ghouls?


Well, adrenal glands are like frenzy so...

[Gorythax]

Thanks Major Willy. And yeah, they get full frenzy when you upgrade... I'd see it fitting with the zerg, I mean the whole carcass thing...

[Remy]

@Remy don't you mean macro? I hear people write it micro every day yet I think the correct word is macro... I've been meaning to ask for that. Intriguing, eh? :P


I hope you got the answer from Major Willy's explanation. I do mean micro, the correct word here would be micro, not macro.

[10-Neon]

About gathering bodies, and getting bonuses, and all that good stuff: don't corpses, as far as we've seen, vanish in about 3 seconds anyway? You'd think they'd hang around longer if Blizzard intended to use them for anything.

[Remy]

A very good point. I don't think Blizz would like having a lot of bodies around possibly bogging down slower machines that could otherwise run the game pretty well.

[Gorythax]

Hmm... true. Since Starcraft obviously is way more massy than WC. And yes, I got the explanation :P.
I shall go to bed less stupid tonight :)

[Remy]

No one knows everything right from the start without first learning about it, don't feel bad, and I hope you didn't take any offense.

Micro, macron, bah~ you knew what I was talking about anyway.

[LimaBeanMage]

About gathering bodies, and getting bonuses, and all that good stuff: don't corpses, as far as we've seen, vanish in about 3 seconds anyway? You'd think they'd hang around longer if Blizzard intended to use them for anything.


That would be why it could also go as just a passive effect that is only useful in big battles. I wouldn't want bodies all over the place either but a beneficial effect could be triggered when a good number fallen are in close vicinity to living Zerg forces. This would mean that it wouldn't work for eight to twelve zerglings but when you start pushing the tewnty unit envelope that there would be enough to trigger this effect.

I think this over all would give a sense of fear for larger Zerg forces. The army grows stronger when more units are added, not just in number though. I think this fits the idea that you fear Zerg growth even though you would have an army to match.

[Gorythax]

Nah, it's ok Remy. And to continue the discussion, it would make the game laggy... unless there were only like 1 unit on 20 that stays for like 1 minute?

[marinepower]

In response to this talk of gathering bodies, this might work: It would be nice if you could infest dead infantry when you cast a researched infestation spell by a queen. This would look like green goo and might successfully reanimate 1/4 the marines/ghosts with 20 h.p. minus his finishing blow. So if a marine was killed by a zergling, and had 3 hp left right before it died, then a queen could reanimate it with 18/20 hp. The longer the body is on the ground, the lower the cap goes (20/20 15/20 10/20 5/20)

Bob:Phew that was a tough fight, but we finally managed to destroy this infested hive.
Joe:Oh **** is that a queen?!?
Bob+Joe: AUGGHH ZOMBIES!!!