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How Zerg Eat - Page 2

Forum Index > BW General
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Jealous
Profile Blog Joined December 2011
10358 Posts
November 15 2016 22:38 GMT
#21
On November 15 2016 22:08 Jae Zedong wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 15 2016 22:05 razorsuKe wrote:
This is actually addressed in the manual/campaign story.

Zerg supply isn't really food like for terran, it's control. The overmind controls all zerg units and to assert its control over smaller groups, they use overlords. If an overmind is killed, all zerg units under its control become mindless and just wander around aimlessly.


That is why you should lose control over your units when you get negative supply as Zerg. Lore wise.

This is too real. How I salivate at the thought of Corsairs making the entire Zerg army useless.
"The right to vote is only the oar of the slaveship, I wanna be free." -- бум бум сучка!
imp42
Profile Blog Joined November 2010
398 Posts
November 16 2016 00:40 GMT
#22
if we forget about SC2 and look at BW only:

overlords do not constraint control of units, but creation of units (same mechanic as supply depots or pylons). More exactly, larvae cannot be morphed into other units if without enough overlords present. But how to explain the correlation between required overlords and army size?

In an intermediate step it makes sense to imagine an overlord holding some resource which depletes after usage ("one-time usage"). Let's briefly examine terran, because it follows the same principle while it is easier to follow:
A supply depot does not only provide food to existing units, but contains the supply required to train additional units. For example, it contains rifles for marines. If you construct a new supply depot it comes with the material to build 8 rifles.

You might ask "if that is true, why can I train 8 marines with 1 depot, and if they all die, train another 8?"
Well, that's obvious: because you can re-use the 8 rifles you collected on the battlefield from the 8 dead marines.
You might ask: "But how is it possible to maintain an army (of say 100 units) with negative supply (e.g. 0 supply depots?"
That is a very good question. The answer lies in the fact that the required supply to create a new unit is a function of the size of the existing army. This can be visualized as follows: Assembling a weapon from raw materials requires a workbench. Every unit gets its own personal workbench to work with. If suddenly supply depots get destroyed and we're required to rebuild them, the existing units, being seniors and veterans, have priority when assigning the new workbenches. After all, they need a place to clean their weapons, polish their shields, and refill ammunition (but unlike food, workbenches are not required for an army to remain operational). Only when each existing unit has a workbench again we can proceed to assemble weapons for new units. Of course workbenches can be inherited from heroes who fell in battle.

Much like the behavior of light can only be explained by two models of light as a wave and light as a particle the nature of the supply depot can be described as a container of supply required to create units and a container required to maintain units.

Now back to the overlord, the same principle applies. You can imagine them holding an ingredient required for morphing in a container. After a unit has morphed, it still owns its now empty container.

The fact that overlords are natural detectors hints that they are responsible for providing the swarm with intelligence. This attribute can be observed in both models, independent of the "wave" or "particle" view. The terran analogy is the secondary function of a supply depot as a wall.
50 pts Copper League
miercat
Profile Joined November 2011
394 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-11-16 01:21:39
November 16 2016 01:18 GMT
#23
On November 16 2016 09:40 imp42 wrote:
if we forget about SC2 and look at BW only:

overlords do not constraint control of units, but creation of units (same mechanic as supply depots or pylons). More exactly, larvae cannot be morphed into other units if without enough overlords present. But how to explain the correlation between required overlords and army size?

+ Show Spoiler +
In an intermediate step it makes sense to imagine an overlord holding some resource which depletes after usage ("one-time usage"). Let's briefly examine terran, because it follows the same principle while it is easier to follow:
A supply depot does not only provide food to existing units, but contains the supply required to train additional units. For example, it contains rifles for marines. If you construct a new supply depot it comes with the material to build 8 rifles.

You might ask "if that is true, why can I train 8 marines with 1 depot, and if they all die, train another 8?"
Well, that's obvious: because you can re-use the 8 rifles you collected on the battlefield from the 8 dead marines.
You might ask: "But how is it possible to maintain an army (of say 100 units) with negative supply (e.g. 0 supply depots?"
That is a very good question. The answer lies in the fact that the required supply to create a new unit is a function of the size of the existing army. This can be visualized as follows: Assembling a weapon from raw materials requires a workbench. Every unit gets its own personal workbench to work with. If suddenly supply depots get destroyed and we're required to rebuild them, the existing units, being seniors and veterans, have priority when assigning the new workbenches. After all, they need a place to clean their weapons, polish their shields, and refill ammunition (but unlike food, workbenches are not required for an army to remain operational). Only when each existing unit has a workbench again we can proceed to assemble weapons for new units. Of course workbenches can be inherited from heroes who fell in battle.

Much like the behavior of light can only be explained by two models of light as a wave and light as a particle the nature of the supply depot can be described as a container of supply required to create units and a container required to maintain units.


Now back to the overlord, the same principle applies. You can imagine them holding an ingredient required for morphing in a container. After a unit has morphed, it still owns its now empty container.

The fact that overlords are natural detectors hints that they are responsible for providing the swarm with intelligence. This attribute can be observed in both models, independent of the "wave" or "particle" view. The terran analogy is the secondary function of a supply depot as a wall.


The Overmind generates directives, which are interpreted more generally by Cerebrates, which are then more specifically relayed by Overlords (to the Zerg units).

Overlords were evolved from the Gargantis proximae, a species of giant space-faring and semi-intelligent creatures[1] which volunteered to be assimilated in order to avoid extinction.[2] Once assimilated, they were used to help cerebrates control and coordinate their broods and scout using their enhanced senses.

Overlords possess a large, bulbous brain which is protected by a heavily armored weave of bone and cartilage. It is a large organ, with millions of nerves and synaptic contacts.[3] The overlord's cerebral structure is complex with neural pathways woven throughout the body;[4] but is heavily concentrated in its lower section and legs. It is through this system that overlords relay commands to the Swarm.

Unlike most other zerg breeds, overlords have a greater capacity to act on their own judgement, though their mental flexibility is still severely limited.[6] Overlords typically only relay orders. They are technically capable of directly controlling lesser zerg, but only with extreme difficulty. After Kerrigan's defeat at Char, some overlords attempted to form pockets of organized zerg in the same manner as broodmothers. However, this was a token effort, and most zerg regressed to a feral state.[7]

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Overlord
ninazerg
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States7291 Posts
November 16 2016 02:43 GMT
#24
The defiler eats the zerglings.
"If two pregnant women get into a fist fight, it's like a mecha-battle between two unborn babies." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
halomonian
Profile Joined January 2012
Brazil255 Posts
November 16 2016 06:01 GMT
#25
The way I see it, zergs absorb creep in a similar fashion to how frogs breathe through their skin. The bigger units can chew at the creep to eat it, or maybe creep colonies really are big zerg restaurants
thoughts in chaos | enjOy[dream]
L_Master
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States8017 Posts
November 16 2016 06:12 GMT
#26
On November 16 2016 11:43 ninazerg wrote:
The defiler eats the zerglings.


But what does the ultralisk eat? I can't believe you get that fat spontaneously!
EffOrt and Soulkey Hwaiting!
abuse
Profile Joined April 2011
Latvia1945 Posts
November 16 2016 09:22 GMT
#27
On November 16 2016 15:12 L_Master wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 16 2016 11:43 ninazerg wrote:
The defiler eats the zerglings.


But what does the ultralisk eat? I can't believe you get that fat spontaneously!


Terrans and protosses mostly.
I don't believe you.
Heartland
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Sweden24604 Posts
November 16 2016 11:33 GMT
#28
On November 15 2016 23:51 c3rberUs wrote:Protoss armies don't eat psi, they photosynthesize.


So why aren't Protoss green?
RedW4rr10r
Profile Joined January 2010
Switzerland749 Posts
November 16 2016 11:37 GMT
#29
On November 16 2016 20:33 Heartland wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 15 2016 23:51 c3rberUs wrote:Protoss armies don't eat psi, they photosynthesize.


So why aren't Protoss green?

I don't think photosynthesis is the correct word here. According to the Dark Templar trilogy (by Christie Golden i think), Protoss units have to be outside at night to absorb some kind of energy from the stars in the sky, otherwise they starve after a while (I don't know how long they would survive without the stars though).
Rip & Tear until it is done!
IntoTheStorm
Profile Blog Joined October 2016
116 Posts
November 16 2016 12:07 GMT
#30
On November 16 2016 20:33 Heartland wrote:
So why aren't Protoss green?

Even on Earth, not all plants are green but they all use photosynthesis for their energy needs. There are trees with red leaves. Also, red seaweed is abundant.
The green pigment, Chlorophyll, is what absorbs the light. But I don't remember which spectrum now. But chlorophyll is still there, in the red leaves too, it's just that our eyes can't see it, it is kind of hiding.
N0
Profile Blog Joined October 2016
154 Posts
November 16 2016 12:22 GMT
#31
On November 16 2016 21:07 IntoTheStorm wrote:
The green pigment, Chlorophyll, is what absorbs the light. But I don't remember which spectrum now. But chlorophyll is still there, in the red leaves too, it's just that our eyes can't see it, it is kind of hiding.

Can mantis shrimp eyes see it?

[image loading]
Signups for [T]Define [b][blue][N#][/blue][/b]ormal Code Mafia now open!
Jerubaal
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States7684 Posts
November 16 2016 14:40 GMT
#32
On November 16 2016 18:22 abuse wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 16 2016 15:12 L_Master wrote:
On November 16 2016 11:43 ninazerg wrote:
The defiler eats the zerglings.


But what does the ultralisk eat? I can't believe you get that fat spontaneously!


Terrans and protosses mostly.


Invis protis snipers.
I'm not stupid, a marauder just shot my brain.
JieXian
Profile Blog Joined August 2008
Malaysia4677 Posts
November 16 2016 15:37 GMT
#33
On November 15 2016 23:37 Jae Zedong wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 15 2016 23:33 Miragee wrote:
On November 15 2016 23:07 Jae Zedong wrote:
On November 15 2016 22:49 riotjune wrote:
What they do is put it in their mouth and let the meat slide down their throat hole.

Whoa. But what if the meat isn't perfectly tender? Then they might need "teeth" and a "digestive system". Glad I'm not a zerg


Some zerg species do have teeth, don't they?

You are right, I just checked some official BW artwork. I wouldn't count anything SC2 related as official since that's basically fanfiction as far as I'm concerned.


hahaha so true
Please send me a PM of any song you like that I most probably never heard of! I am looking for people to chat about writing and producing music | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noD-bsOcxuU |
outscar
Profile Joined September 2014
2832 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-11-16 15:52:14
November 16 2016 15:52 GMT
#34
This shit got nothing to do with RTS but really helpful for World (aka. Universe) of StarCraft plot?
sunbeams are never made like me...
nojok
Profile Joined May 2011
France15846 Posts
November 16 2016 16:04 GMT
#35
Warcraft is a plagiarism from warhammer, which is based on Tolkien, based on Nordic mythology. Starcraft is also based on the futuristic warhammer which is probably inspired by multiple sci-fi books. I remember reading an interview about Blizzard wanting to use the warhammer universe but did not for whatever reason. So all in all you could probably find a reasonnable answer by an original author but I don't think it will be better than yours.
"Back then teams that won were credited, now it's called throw. I think it's sad." - Kuroky - Flap Flap Wings!
pebble444
Profile Blog Joined March 2011
Italy2503 Posts
November 16 2016 17:40 GMT
#36
This thread is the kind of quality posting i like to see on tl. Even do it arises more questions than it answers, those questions drive to new horizons of consider-rings, therefore propelling the circle of life foward;

What i reached as a conclusion about the 3 races is this:
Protoss represents higher counciousness
Zerg represents higher animal counciousness
Terran represents the middle ground of the two


"Awaken my Child, and embrace the Glory that is your Birthright"
Highgamer
Profile Joined October 2015
1470 Posts
Last Edited: 2016-11-16 19:48:56
November 16 2016 19:48 GMT
#37
On November 17 2016 02:40 pebble444 wrote:
This thread is the kind of quality posting i like to see on tl. Even do it arises more questions than it answers, those questions drive to new horizons of consider-rings, therefore propelling the circle of life foward;

What i reached as a conclusion about the 3 races is this:
Protoss represents higher counciousness
Zerg represents higher animal counciousness
Terran represents the middle ground of the two




Going by what I learned about lore from playin the campaigns partly:

Protoss represents homeless, perfidious, bigheaded scum.

Zerg represents scum.

And Terran represents mankind in all their vain and glory.
phodacbiet
Profile Joined August 2010
United States1740 Posts
November 16 2016 19:59 GMT
#38
Zerg doesn't need to eat, they drink. They get their source of water from the tears of Terran and Protoss QQ.
ninazerg
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
United States7291 Posts
November 16 2016 20:24 GMT
#39
On November 16 2016 15:12 L_Master wrote:
Show nested quote +
On November 16 2016 11:43 ninazerg wrote:
The defiler eats the zerglings.


But what does the ultralisk eat? I can't believe you get that fat spontaneously!


I think the average lifespan of an ultralisk is like two minutes, so they don't really need to eat.
"If two pregnant women get into a fist fight, it's like a mecha-battle between two unborn babies." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Heartland
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
Sweden24604 Posts
November 16 2016 20:39 GMT
#40
On November 17 2016 01:04 nojok wrote:
Warcraft is a plagiarism from warhammer, which is based on Tolkien, based on Nordic mythology. Starcraft is also based on the futuristic warhammer which is probably inspired by multiple sci-fi books. I remember reading an interview about Blizzard wanting to use the warhammer universe but did not for whatever reason. So all in all you could probably find a reasonnable answer by an original author but I don't think it will be better than yours.


There is actually a lot more than just warhammer in the game. I was going to make a blog about the sci-fi influences (and the nods, the parodies, etc) that went into specific units, the storylines in the campaigns and stuff.

But then I got high.

+ Show Spoiler +
(no actually I wrote an rpg campaign instead but that doesn't sound so cool)
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