EPTForging a Protoss Capital Ship - Page 2
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Shady Sands
United States4021 Posts
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AlpacaFury
United States3 Posts
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AzureD
United States320 Posts
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jetburger
United States87 Posts
According to Blizzard, the Tempest is designed to... Use an extremely long range attack to force opponents into unfavorable engagements by damaging or destroying high priority units from a distance. Serve more as a "strategic" unit rather than a "tactical" unit, thereby functioning in part as a form of zone control and map presence What if the Tempest... 1. has an AoE attack that does full damage to targets within close range and gradually less and less damage to targets farther and farther away. In other words, the projectile loses potency as it travels. Rough numbers as an example: 100% AoE damage to targets within range 3 75% AoE damage to targets between range 4 and 5 50% AoE damage to targets between range 6 and 8 25% AoE damage to targets between range 9 and 11 This would allow it to do long range gradual siege and do zone control at closer range, I believe. (Remember in BW how players would run units away from reaver scarabs to minimize damage? Maybe the same could be done here) -or- 2. has a chain lightning attack (like d2 or wc3). Except instead of lightning, it would probably be some kind of reflective/refractive laser that bounces and hits up to 4 or 6 targets. Each bounce would reduce the damage by 10% or 15%. (Now that I think about it, it's a lot like Glave Wurms, isn't it?) I'm thinking the range of the attack should be 7 to match Turrets/Cannons/Spores. But what gives it the ability to siege is the bouncing effect. Imagine if you could place a sacrificial zealot within range of the static defenses and then attacked it with your own Tempest in order to initiate the bouncing attack. This would effectively extend the range of the Tempest and allow it to attack far off targets without being in range itself as long as the zealot lasts. Maybe the zealot takes reduced or no damage from your own Tempest (as long as it has shields?). Maybe you could use a hallucination instead. Maybe the Tempest has a spell that can place a temporary stationary mirror or prism to bounce off of. Maybe the Tempest suffers no damage penalty or maybe even a damage boost if the initial target is a Pylon or Warp Prism. Getting too complicated, perhaps? I think this would be another way for the Tempest to fulfill both the long range siege and zone control roles. Anyway, just some rough ideas. | ||
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Vindicarian
United States22 Posts
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Telenil
France484 Posts
Siege tanks deal direct damage at long range - every shot does something. Swarm hosts send free units at a fast rate, so even if every locust is shot down before it does any damage, no big deal. Broodlords do both. But if the interceptors are not free, trying to engage in the same way will drain your resources. If they are not fast to build, then their destruction means it will be some time before you can "punish" the troops entering the area again. If the interceptors are free and fast to build, they become something akin to locusts. Not sure how important of an issue it is, but it hasn't been covered as far as I can see. | ||
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MrASAP
United Kingdom63 Posts
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Vindicarian
United States22 Posts
On August 24 2012 21:05 Telenil wrote: With the definition of zone control as punishing enemies that enter a fire range without offensive intents, wouldn't the vulnerability of the interceptors be a problem? Sufficient fire power can destroy interceptors fairly quickly or force them to retreat - cost-effectively, if the interceptors are not free. So they wouldn't prevent a large force from sitting in a given area. Siege tanks deal direct damage at long range - every shot does something. Swarm hosts send free units at a fast rate, so even if every locust is shot down before it does any damage, no big deal. Broodlords do both. But if the interceptors are not free, trying to engage in the same way will drain your resources. If they are not fast to build, then their destruction means it will be some time before you can "punish" the troops entering the area again. If the interceptors are free and fast to build, they become something akin to locusts. Not sure how important of an issue it is, but it hasn't been covered as far as I can see. An excellent point. I opted not to address this in the initial post, as I figured it was a secondary design concern. There are many different ways this can be circumvented. We could develop the Interceptors such that they deal large amounts of damage as a cost for this fragility. We can look also look at their range and speed to see if we can slightly remove them from the thick of enemy fire. Tweaking the "numbers" of an Interceptor might address this problem. Alternatively, one of my Interceptor ideas mentioned in the write-up was "less, bigger, manually controlled Interceptors." This also help counteract the Interceptors fragility, as they can now be controlled manually so as to focus fire/avoid enemy fire and thereby increase their effectiveness. We can also front the notion of Interceptor control/micro in an automated Interceptor model as well via commands the Carrier can issue to its deployed Interceptors. This would require some very sleek, intuitive design but it could theoretically work. We can pick and choose these options (and many of the others I've introduced) in order to better tailor what we want our Interceptors to be effective against and vulnerable towards. | ||
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Bobnoble
Luxembourg52 Posts
Lets say I have a fourth base and I want to protect it. I'll tell my 3 carriers to deploy at the ramp that leads to the expo and then take the actual carriers with my deathball. When a major battle occurs I recall my interceptors and I can use my carriers as a straight up fighting unit. This has a few very cool effects: - While my interceptors fly back my carriers are helpless in the fight so you sccrifice quite a lot but on the other hand you get a great defence at my imaginary ramp. - An opponent will be able to abuse this and so time his harrassing (lets say a ling runby). He'll fake an engage but run away but during this he makes his runby. Actually I don't like the fuel idea. First you won't be able to send you interceptors towards a main army anyway. Marines/infestors/... will kill them quite quickly without taking to many losses. And even if you see an unprotected high value target you'll always commit your interceptors since there could be 20 marines or some burrowed infestors nearby to kill them. If this happens your carriers will have to rebuild the interceptors and thus be less effective for a while. My idea of handling it would be giving the carrier a certain range for deploying (10 comes to mind but I'm no balance expert). As soon as the carrier moves away from this range, "reinforcing" interceptors will stay inside the carrier. So you get close once, but then once your interceptors get shot at they will become fewer in numbers and thus less effective. Also I believe interceptors would then need to be cheaper but have fewer hitpoints to make playes less hesitating to use but on the other hand not making them overpowered. In any case carriers will be a great zone control tool as they can control key areas without beeing there but in exchange they are helpless once they must fight because their interceptors might be too far away. As a siege unit they still won't function as the tempest does BUT in combination with collos or even phoenix and voidrays they can have a siege supporting role: Delpoy your interceports in front of an opponents army -> draw some shots/spells THEN move in with your attacking units or lift key units. Would kinda function like infested marine eggs against siegelines that take a few shots while your lings run in. This adds a lot of skill cap on both sides, T/Z has to focus fire your colossi instead of fighting against interceptors while deploying then attacking + lifting key units + possilbly storm/FF/guardian shield becomes more of a task for protoss. One addition just came into mind: What if carriers would function exactly the same way they do now but they gain an ability of placing a control drone. This drone would have a certain radius that interceptors can't leave but in exchange the carrier doesn't need to stay colse by. If the drone gets destroyed the interceptors will fly back. Well so much about my two cents! I really enjoyed reading your blog and I hope it gets a lot of attention as your ideas are really solid! 5/5 | ||
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Vindicarian
United States22 Posts
On a side note, this write-up was originally part of a more comprehensive piece on all the HOTS units, but I decided to work on the units one at a time given how long it takes to properly look at, analyze, and explore even a single unit. Given how warmly this first blog was received I'll definitely keep writing these for other units as well though. Hopefully I can improve my writing and arguments to where these write-ups can get spotlighted/featured and eventually get enough attention to wind up on someone's monitor at Blizzard. | ||
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Rorschach
United States623 Posts
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