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Having gotten a HOTS beta key I was excited o try out the new unit and abilities. Upon playing it I was struck by the recurring design decisions which I felt were trying to be too clever for their own good or were implemented poorly. However besides this one or two issues I believe that HOTS the design choices are better than some of the ones that were made in WOL (e.g. roaches , marauders and immortals) [btw marauders are the most broken of the 3 imo].
The unit that highlights this in my mind is the vipers consume ability which seems to be rather out of character for the race (its consume ability absorbs life from a friendly structure and then converts it to energy). Zerg buildings tend to be few and far between compared to the other 2 races. Zerg is the highly mobile race that tends to be out on the battlefield not waiting in their base to receive an attack. So this ability is practically useless, if one takes into account the abilities of the viper and the relative cost of their function and short duration in the case of blinding cloud then it becomes even more useless once the energy has been spent it has to be sent back to the base in order to recoup the energy used. This is at odds with how Zerg operates i.e. as the mobile out on the map force and makes it harder to push out as the further they move from their base the less effective the viper becomes. To me this seems like people trying to be clever or mixing the old with the new with the result that rather than getting the best of both worlds the result is a rather bland and uninteresting unit that is not overly advantageous compared to existing units.
My second big issue is with the use of reapers and their passive regeneration ability and their passive ability to see up cliffs, before going further I should highlight that this ability does not work like Zerg regeneration it works more like protoss shields i.e. it doesn’t heal instantly but when it does heal it happens really quickly. Combined with its an ability to see what is at the top of the cliff and their very ability to jump up cliffs it results in a reduction of the defenders advantage and allows the putting of a disproportionate amount of pressure for cost. Though this could be fixed if the ability to see what is at the top of cliffs is removed as this would allow the defender to have an advantage which skilled players could use in order to make economic builds more viable but not absolutely risk free. Additionally if the regeneration ability were reduced rate so that it functions closer to Zerg regeneration ability rather than protoss shields as the faster shield regeneration rate for protoss is balanced out by the fact that hull damage cannot be repaired while in the case of the reaper if it escapes with one hp no damage has been effectively done as it regains the lost health so quickly as to make the damage irrelevant.
On a side note those people that say that the auto rally of workers and the showing of the number of workers on minerals and such forth it really isn’t that big of deal in the first case because most people from gold above know to send their workers asap and most players above platinum know or most probably should keep track of the number of workers at each base and be able to adjust accordingly all this change does is provide more information to the player about something that is already in front of them which can assist in the making of decisions faster and require players to checking more regularly to ensure that their workers are optimally distributed and that it will actually result in a widening of the skill gap between player tiers as those players who are constantly monitoring their economic situation will be able to adjust it in order to obtain the highest possible income while those players who do not make use of the information afforded by the interface will find themselves having less economy then they would otherwise have and thus be a disadvantageous position.
 
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Consume fits with zerg. Zerg is like a bug infestation it infests and thrives off of other people's energies. Don't you see how zerg works in the campaign? Spread their creep and move the spine crawlers closer to your base and nydus worms and stuff..
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On October 02 2012 09:15 meteorskunk wrote:
Consume fits with zerg. Zerg is like a bug infestation it infests and thrives off of other people's energies. Don't you see how zerg works in the campaign? Spread their creep and move the spine crawlers closer to your base and nydus worms and stuff..
I swear HOTS is trying to remake a lot of BW spells...haha consume in particular
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what the hell that last sentence
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I'm not entirely sure that the Zerg always engages in the open, it seems to me that in most games the Zerg will take more expos than the T or P, then the opponent will push at the nearest expo trying to take it down. In such an engagement the viper would have plenty of buildings nearby to suck life from.
This consume skill also synergizes perfectly with the queen's heal btw.
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the point I think he was trying to make is that with the new consume, you need to eat bases, which are available when you're being defensive.
In BW, you ate zerglings, which could be used both offensively and defensively, since you can take zerglings with your defiler. Now, unless you bring some drones and make a proxy extractor, you can't recharge energy out on the battlefield.
Question to OP, can you eat extractors that are still building? or do you have to wait until they finish? If you can start consuming while it's still building, then it shouldn't be an issue for good players that can remember to bring a few drones along. Extractor had a good deal of health for its cost if I remember correctly.
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On October 02 2012 12:18 a176 wrote:
what the hell that last sentence
lol my thoughts exactly... However I think having auto mine workers in the beginning and worker counts is just ridiculous. Doesn't matter if everyone above plat knows to send their workers in the very beginning or to counter their workers mid game, its just plain ridiculous. Really doesn't mesh with Starcraft.
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On October 02 2012 13:00 GenesisX wrote:lol my thoughts exactly... However I think having auto mine workers in the beginning and worker counts is just ridiculous. Doesn't matter if everyone above plat knows to send their workers in the very beginning or to counter their workers mid game, its just plain ridiculous. Really doesn't mesh with Starcraft.
was making the point that by giving more information the player must use it in order to achieve the most efficent outcome possible otherwise an opponenet who distributes their workers in a more effective manner will gain a slight economic advantage which can be leveraged in order to create a larger advantage.
On October 02 2012 12:51 FakeDouble wrote:
the point I think he was trying to make is that with the new consume, you need to eat bases, which are available when you're being defensive.
In BW, you ate zerglings, which could be used both offensively and defensively, since you can take zerglings with your defiler. Now, unless you bring some drones and make a proxy extractor, you can't recharge energy out on the battlefield.
Question to OP, can you eat extractors that are still building? or do you have to wait until they finish? If you can start consuming while it's still building, then it shouldn't be an issue for good players that can remember to bring a few drones along. Extractor had a good deal of health for its cost if I remember correctly.
Yes that was the point i was trying to make that consume as it stands is defensive ability compared to broodwar were it was alot easier to use both offensively and defensively.
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On October 02 2012 12:18 a176 wrote:
what the hell that last sentence
yeah lol just read it i was doing this in the 5 minutes i had before going to work so i didnt really read over it for proper grammer :/
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On October 02 2012 13:00 GenesisX wrote:lol my thoughts exactly... However I think having auto mine workers in the beginning and worker counts is just ridiculous. Doesn't matter if everyone above plat knows to send their workers in the very beginning or to counter their workers mid game, its just plain ridiculous. Really doesn't mesh with Starcraft.
Why is it just plain ridiculous? It makes sense to me as I see some people having a lag when transferring from the loading screen to the game, myself included. It sucks when you lose that 3-4 seconds worth of mining time and can lose you games.
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Interesting take on "consume"
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EPT
