Re: Protoss and Terran information from a German Magazine

[ImaGiNe.]

YES! DESTRUCTIBLE DOODADS AND ENVIRONMENT! Oh... the Thor is the BattleCruiser of the ground.

[GuiMontag]

the capturable observatories sounds very interesting, it will put more emphasis on map controll.
I thought we had seen all the screens from this article allready, or is this another new one?

[burkid]

yay more new stuff!
yay star relic has passive cloak, but does the sationary thing apply to the units or the relic?
yay the cost for the mothership (minus abilitys) isnt obscenly high!

[burkid]

oh i wasnt saying that the relic could cloak, i was just asking if it was the relic you were talking about that needed to be stationary to cloak other units or if the other units couldnt move with their cloak.
i see what you were saying now with the parentheces (or however you spell it)

[zeratul11]

thumbnail pics of the thor B and C. the marine looks so small compared to the thor. if only it move faster then we got transformers. thor is the most badass unit of all. wow, you can hide on tall grass and destory rocks etc. now thats COOL.

[Outcaster]

This game gets more and more incredible
GG

[capthavic]

Good stuff but the viking has less armor when on the ground?

[proswimma]

dam thor looks sexy

[10-Neon]

If the Colossus costs 2x the Reaver, assuming the Reaver still costs 200/100(which is a weak assumption, I admit), the Colossus costs almost as much as a Mothership. Jeez.

I still don't like the Thor. It's too much like a Commander unit from SupCom: going for human proportions instead of a proper combat chassis.

[Alukard]

Star Relics "Detonation" ability sounds horrible. First of all the hole idea doesnt sound like something Protoss would do. Putting an expensive unit into danger just to kill of one unit like that is unreasonable. If the time it takes to kill one unit depends on its size or amount of health then it will be useless. This kind of reminds me of Queens brudlings but those were more useful because it didnt taker time to kill the unit. In my opinion id rather use my mana on some other skills Star Relic has to offer.

also iv noticed that in the damo and other pictures we've seen there is no sign of the black mist (the uncharted areas) i hope that will bring more depth to the game

[Hito]

With all these great units comming. You kinda start wondering, how the hell are they gonna pull off an expansion to this. Considering Blizz always make an expansion to their games, and the expansion in it self always make the game better, imo.
To early to talk expansions I know, the thought just hit me ;P

Wouldnt a army of Star Relics just pwn everything with there "Detonator Beem"? ^_^

Anyway, nice post. Good going Blizz!

[ninerman13]

I think that the Star Relic's detonator beam is its default attack, not an ability that requires mana. (I think it was implied in the PC gamer article, or elsewhere on this forum).

Every new piece of information added gets me more and more excited about Starcraft II!!!!

[ArchLimit]

Hey great job on the translation and find guys. This is awesome stuff!

One thing occurred to me though regarding the almighty Thor: due to the fact that it's built by SCV's as if it was a structure, does it cost any supplies? Or if you're rich enough it means you can have an unlimited amount? I'd think that they'd HAVE to cap it somehow cuz theoretically I could just build about 50 of those mothers and pummel through just about any base... especially if it's a money map like ZC or somethin...

[eclipse]

so how do you transport star relics to where you want them? Will you have to warp them there?

[JudicatorPrime]

Damn thor looks freaking amazing, the minerals look nice too, got a nice glow

[Griffith]

Just a minor thing you forgot to mention, it says that there are still forges for upgrades.

Also the german guy claims that the zerg are still in the concept phase so it's safe to say they won't be playable at blizzcon.

[Griffith]

The interview with Dustin Browder has been translated aswell at blizzforums. Nothing new except that they are refining the engine.

http://blizzforums.com/showpost.php?p=236205&postcount=9

[MyWifeforauir]

is it just me or do i see some random gibs on the first screenshot? Them Thors did really pulverize those poor marines...

[Ghost]

man, those terran units look mean! My main might change ot terran in SC2

[Fenix]

That's what the German post said but it didn't really make sense to me so I put question mark. Why would it have less armor?


Simple. In the Flying mode, it has large plates of metal over everything. In Robo form, a lot of conduits are exposed because it's simply not feasible (Maybe not even possible) to put in enough hinges to cover everything.

[kehmdaddy]

Some good information, although it was kind of confusing since they mentioned several things contradicting earlier "confirmations," such as Cybernetics Core/Twilight Council hubbub. I'm worried about the Colossus' cost. They look so awesome, I'm going to want to have them in my army every game... but at approximately (300-400)/(150-200) a pop, that's going to be a pain.
-edit- Completely forgot to address a couple things I found interesting... the Reaper's time bomb ability sounds pretty cool. I wonder if one bomb is going to be enough to destroy most buildings, seeing that it takes 30 seconds and can be destroyed, I'd figure it would have to do a lot. I wonder how hard they'll be to pick out or if you'll get some kind of warning in the same realm of -Nuclear Launch Detected-. Destructible environment sounds great, I just hope they don't half ass it and make two kinds of rock attackable and that's it.

[Ych9]

Wow nice job :powerup:
Terrans and Protoss are looking as polished as ever.

It's sad that Zergs are still in the development stage. But hopefully they would probably at least show some of their new toys at BlizzConn.

Thor is looking very bad ass.

[Griffith]

I figure the time bomb will just be powerful enough to destroy minor buildings like supply depots and certain tech buildings but not enough to destroy a cc. Makes me think of Tanya from Red Alert :P

So far I'm liking all the new abilities except the star relic's detonator. It seems to me that depending how it works it could be incredibly worthless or incredibly overpowered. Also I'm not too fond of the ghost's reinforcement ability cause the ghost has always striked me as a loner type assassin and not as a squad leader, but it does give him added functionality as a base raider so I could manage to like it eventually.

[Ych9]

I agree with you Griffith on the Star Relics Detonate ability.
It sounds like a soaped up Version of the Warp Rays attack. I hope that the Detonate ability works like a spell instead of its passive attack. Because if it is itz passive attack, it just sounds like a soaped up version of the Warp Rays attack, and it may prove to be overpowering. And of course, Star Relics are suppose to be casters, not fighters. Even without the Detonate ability, itz cloak and hallunication ability would be more than enough to prove its use.

[zeratul11]

i wonder how many seconds does it need to trigger the detonation? cuase it may seem imba. like if you see a starrelic, it will be one of your priority target, you need to destroy it quick or else. if you panic and forget about the relics then your battlecruisers are toast. i think 7 seconds is fair enough.

must see thor now in gameplay. i wonder how they walk and attack. im sure it would be awesome.

[Exvasion]

The interview with Dustin Browder has been translated aswell at blizzforums. Nothing new except that they are refining the engine.

http://blizzforums.com/showpost.php?p=236205&postcount=9


Well I guess I just wasted a lot of time translating that interview in the other thread :(.

Anyway, all this stuff sounds awesome. I think the Thor is probably the coolest thing I've ever seen. So is the reaper time bomb ability a complement or a replacement for the reaper mines mentioned earlier? I think I'd prefer the mines if I had to choose (I guess they'll probably be seperate upgrades). Oh yeah, and I knew that medics returning wasn't "confirmed."

[Griffith]

Well I guess I just wasted a lot of time translating that interview in the other thread :(.


Terribly sorry, didn't realize it was posted already.

[Itsmyship]

Huh....I found how the Viking being able to attack air units on ground but have less armor rather interesting. It's definitely a different approach than usual.

That Reaper time bomb though...is it invisible unless you have a detector? And also, I wonder if it'll have much use in late game when you have more detectors.

I love Thor's ability! Thor has become my 3rd or 4th favorite new unit :P That might change though once I get to B.net though where im guessing i won't be using him too much.

I still want to know if Snipe is passive or you have to activate it. Cuz if its taking the place of Lockdown as a non-passive ability I don't really know what to think of it.

[Griffith]

I think you will have to activate snipe but it will cost very little energy. I figure Blizzard's intention for this ability is that you cloack your ghost, snipe a bunch of lings/hydras, withdraw when you run out of energy, regain energy and repeat. Could be a good harrasing tactic but I doubt there will be many opportunities when you have the time to micro your ghost like that since they are tier 3 and in late game you will be worrying about other things.

[zeratul11]

i think snipe is passive and has a long cooldown(maybe 4-6 seconds). you need to research it first though.

i dont know how they balance snipe. right now its kinda overpowered passive or not, cuase you can mass ghost and kill marines, zerglings (or hydras and reapers) at ease. like if you have units at front and you have ghost at the back let say they have long range, it will be unfair to your opponent. if the skill is passive you can build 6 or more ghost and you can take out 6 small units in an instant and then you reload again and kill 6 more. if the skill is active, that will cost you energy its kinda imba too. you can mass snipe if you have full energy and a lot of ghost.

but if the skill is active which in most case you use and micro them all the time, thus they will be like heroes against basic enemy units which is not what starcraft is suppose to be. so im betting taht it would be passive. but i have no idea how they balance this skill.

[burkid]

by making it suck vs vehicals. and it never said it was a 1 hit kill, it just said massive damage.

[zeratul11]

oh, i thought it was a one hit kill. i think ive read it somewhere. lol

yah making it not a 1 hit kill but just deal heavy damage against basic units makes it fair. 8)

[alucardx]

mmm... I think Thor can be even better than what it looks so far... I don´t know if Cobras or Banshees are replacing Vultures ( please... mines are cool. don´t erradicate ´em hehe).

[ArchLimit]

Thor looks alright to me. Doesn't need much work on it. I just prefer the somewhat rusty look to most of the Terran structures/units in general, just cuz they look much more realistic/untoy-like. Although I understand that chronologically and narratively this problem doesnt fit the plot all too well.

[burkid]

... I don´t know if Cobras or Banshees are replacing Vultures

why would banshees replace vultures? bashees are air units with a ground aoe, vultures are gound units with no aoe and mines. Cobras are the vulture replacement, and mines were given to reapers.

[Lombar]

Ok, if that's the case (Motherships at 400/400 + upgrades) then probably bc's costs have been halved (as minimun) or it will be freaking unbalanced.. just check the video.. :S

[T-man]

Remember, Blizzard hasn't even begun balancing the units yet. Balancing includes costs and build times as well. All this talk of costs may be true right now, but will most likely change.

[SirBaron]

I wouldn't say no to a Terran gameplay vid, i actually got a bit excited when facing the prospect of maybe seeing the Thor in action.

[DontHate]

Awesome. i was camping so i missed some neat things. Thank god the soul hunter's scrapped.

[madmatg]

i can definitely see it now, terran attacking an enemy base from the main entrance, all the sudden air comes in from the side and clears a landing zone for a command center, only the command center is a planetary fortress! the command center begins to blow away at the evil enemy base while scvs are able to pop out and repair it as needed. MWAHAHAHAHAHA DIE EVIL SCUM!

[burkid]

planetary fortresses probably arnt that powerful.

[zeratul11]

.....at the evil enemy base while scvs are able to pop out and repair it as needed. MWAHAHAHAHAHA DIE EVIL SCUM!


no need to repair, let them(scvs) combine their power and become thor.

[madmatg]

i bet they'll have a good punch on them, maybe not thor style but i bet they can do some good damage, specially considering its HPs

@commander, i thought about that but i'm betting it will take forever to construct one of those beasts. whereas this idea is mildy fantastic that would be enormously fantastic lol.

[Darktemplar_L]

Zerg... only in concept stage? That's disappointing!