Cloaking

[reject_666_6]

What do you guys think will happen to cloaking in the sequel? Will it be as important as it was in Starcraft 1? Will DTs and Observers still be perma-cloaked? Will the Arbiter remain? If it doesn't, do you think they plan on introducing the cloak field to another unit? Will the Terran ComSat still exist?

[orphean]

Only cloaked unit shown for sure is the Ghost. We don't even know if DT or the Observers are in the game much less if they are cloaked still.

No way to know for now :-\

[mc2]

Yes the protoss will definitely have a detector-unit like all other races....
I personally think that protoss will have units that are permenatly cloaked....

It's rather impossible for Blizzard to replace High Templar and Dark Templar because they are part of their history and story.......

[orphean]

High Templar

With the fall of Adun maybe there's a major shortage of High Templar? That would be crazy if there was no more psionic storm. I'm probably off base but I guess I could see a justification for no High Templar in the game.

[gr3ykn1ght]

then if they take away the arbiter what will happen to the protoss specialty of multi cloaking units? its what i use... of else my zealots, dragoons and carriers won't get proper cloaking without them... damn... i'll hate them if they take away arbiters... it's not as if they really unbalanced the game anyway.

[mc2]

just like the phase prism, where it can generate an warp field anywhere, and teleport units to anywhere

there's probably a new unit for the protoss that can cloak multiple other units, most likely a spell or something...

[reject_666_6]

Yeah, I'm thinking that they'll give some unit a Mass Cloak type spell. It might be the Dark Archon or something (I know Maelstrom is useful but I never use it ;D)..

[Dreadnought]

There are observers in the game if you look closely at the gameplay videos you will see one hovering off to the left. Too lazy to check which video it was i saw.. prolly the leaked video. Im sure they will still have Dark Templar because they were just too cool. Maybe give them some sort of cloak that allows them to completely dissapear (in other words they cant be detected) for a few seconds.

[didd293]

the arbiter seems to be gone, but there also seems to be a substitute for it as well - the star relic (cloaks units and buildings). As for the observers and the DT's, they'll probably have perma-cloak

[Protoss Kills Infinitely]

if they keep the star relic :good: then i could just make a base with big defense, cloaked by a star relic, then reveal it and then my enemy would be thinking uh oh!!! :powerup:

[Meloku]

so far all we've seen cloaked is the ghost. Final or not, you'll notice that the ghost doesn't have a rippling outline like cloaked units did in SC1.

[Ych9]

Cloaking will probably play a similiar role like it did in SC1.
From what we know off right now, Ghosts, Dark Templar, and Observers can cloak. Star Relic also has an ability that can cloak all surronding units/buildings.

[Remy]

It wouldn't make much sense for the "rippling" visual effect for cloaking to be in SC2. It would kinda make star relic cloaking buildings rather pointless.

I never really liked the idea of being able to tell where cloaked units were anyway.

[Dxun]

agreed it just made the cloaked units "un-attackable" until detected. plague :powerup:

[Remy]

Exactly.

In some cases, you could even just prevent DTs from coming to attack your base by blocking off chokes when you notice the "blur."  Kinda stupid in my opinion, that's some cloaking my ass.

[kingsky123]

at least the cloaking in sc isnt like the one in wc3 when you hit something and it dissapears = =''.

[10-Neon]

Well, the cloaking is good enough to stop units from attacking, and stop players from seeing them on the minimap, and stop players from seeing them at all if they aren't watching closely enough. That's a pretty big advantage if you ask me. Look at what they were going to do with SC: Ghost with cloaking. You had to pretty much stick to the shadows, totally still, if you didn't want even basic non-detectors spotting you!

[I)4rk]

From what I am hearing, I think star relics cloak units and buildings?

[Nikzad]

yeah and I think it is active, as opposed to passive like the arbiter

[burkid]

it might not be default, like the star relic has to research cloaking field

[for-glory]

maybe the star relic's unit cloaking ability would be a passive ...or it has some type of "ultimate" spell where it can cloak everything around it.

I'd be very surprised if cloaking did not play a similiar role in SC2 as it did in SC. Maybe there will be new game features on cloaking: cloaking percentage is based on how much dmg has been sustained ie unit near death has almost no cloaking ability. or something.

i have mixed feelings on the blur. i dont mind if they keep it or change it

[kehmdaddy]

I just thought I'd mention that the Terran Banshee, a new air-to-ground bomber unit with an area of effect attack similar to the Valkyrie, also apparently has the ability to cloak. I think that's going to make for a hell of a unit, it almost sounds like a cloaked Guardian to me!

[Itsmyship]

Hahaha, it actually more reminds me of the B2 Spirits. I personally love this idea! Maybe that'll replace the wraith as the cloaker.

[Remy]

The Banshee is the direct replacement of the Wraith in my opinion. Except that it's been specialized a bit, but that's a good thing in this case.

[Peter.Hong]

Exactly.

In some cases, you could even just prevent DTs from coming to attack your base by blocking off chokes when you notice the "blur." Kinda stupid in my opinion, that's some cloaking my ass.


I think that was intentional. Based on the skill level of the player early detection of DTs was crucial in defending your mineral deposits if you didn't invest into turrets early game (but then most high level players tend to have AT LEAST 1 turret early on)

I never had a use for cloaked units for the most part in my gameplay. The only time I used it was for nuclear attacks. Or advantage of having a cloaked detector (observer). DTs never played an essential part in my game play unless it was to rush an exp. that had not been equipped with detectors but even then with a comsat station a bunker of marines/firebat could easily get rid of a team of DTs because of their low shield/hp.

Edit: I noticed that one situation where DTs were useful was to defend a base because most attacks early/early-mid game don't include detectors.

[Remy]

Depending on the results from your recon, you can sometimes go straight for the comsat, and even the turret if you have enough DTs and they only have one or so turrets. It doesn't matter how badly hurt your DTs are or if you only have a few afterwards, if the Terran let it get that far it looks pretty bad for them.

Well, since I'm a Zerg player, I don't have access to true cloak strats. Lurk rush/drop is the closest thing we got.

[Peter.Hong]

Lurkers have a disadvantage in their cloak that is unfair IMO. The fact that they have to remain stationary to sustain cloak makes them not even remotely cloaked. If they are in SC2 the ability to move underground would make them much more comparable to the other cloaked units of the other races. I think there needs to be some balance changes there but i could be wrong.

[Remy]

I've stated my opinion many times elsewhere as to why lurker cloak is fine and why it would be OP to give lurks burrowed movement.

Lurk rush/drop works just like most other cloak strat for the most part. You take out the comsat, take out the turret, GG.

[Peter.Hong]

I don't remember seeing as how i haven't played in so long but do lurkers deal aoe dmg? if yes then i retract my previous statement because i think that would make them the only cloaked unit that deals aoe.

[Remy]

Yes, lurkers deal AoE melee with a range of 6, which is different from all other splash in the game in that it doesn't do less damage the further out the distance from the center of radius.  It's for that reason thay I argued against burrow movement for lurks.

I think it's been brought up a few times, I guess you missed it while we had these discussions going on.  Who knows, they might find a way to make it work in SC2, but based on SC1 facts it is OP.

[Peter.Hong]

Haha yeah I probably did missed it. I'm new to the forum and haven't looked into SC into a while until my friend told me about the new SC2 coming out. Up until now most of my gaming time was playing DOTA.

[Remy]

I've welcomed you to the forums in another thread but welcome again.

You should take a look around and pick up some info, a lot has been going on.