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I posted something on this subject in another (largely unrelated) thread which was quickly closed, but I've seen enough people say things to the effect of "why doesn't SC2 add more races like WC3 did?" that I thought it would merit a thread.
Simply put, a 4th race has no place in Starcraft. Not in terms of gameplay, not in terms of lore, and most importantly, not in terms of themes.
There are 3 clear niches in SC, both in terms of balance, and in terms of themes--
If its weak and can be built quickly and en masse, and if it is just some sort of monstrous alien thing, its Zerg. They are inspired by Tyranids, Bugs from Starship Troopers, Xenomorphs, etc, and there are loads of other examples that have come since (e.g. the Covenant the Flood in Halo, the Locusts in Gears of War, etc.) If its a space monster, its Zerg.
If it is of medium-level strength, efficient and generally useful, and fits into a "realistic"/human-oriented SciFi setting, its Terran. Battlestar Galactica, Mechwarrior, Space Marines (not just from 40K but pretty much every other scifi game as well), Firefly, and pretty much any other scifi setting where people use guns instead of lasers, all fit into the Terran aesthetic.
If its an incredibly powerful, highly specialized unit that is absolutely amazing at one role, its Protoss. Any really "far future" Scifi, or SciFi which is more "fantastical" rather than realistic (esp. if psychic powers are involved), fits into this--Predators, Eldar, Jedi Knights, War of the Worlds, "Greys", Flying Saucers, Tractor Beams, Time Manipulation and Teleportation, Robots/Droids, even Star Trek with their phasers and "beaming" (which looks just like warping), all fit into the themes of Protoss.
Weak, medium, strong. Alien, Realistic, Far Future. All are covered by one of the Starcraft races. Saying, "but what about a race which is even weaker and more numerous than Zerg" or "what about a race that is even more powerful than Protoss" is just stupid. Zerg are the *embodiment* of the swarm, and Toss are the *embodiment* of individual power. Adding more would just dilute that and undermine the core concepts of the races.
And in terms of thematic niches, if you think about it, *all* Science Fiction (outside of earth-centric or near future stuff like cyberpunk, which obviously wouldn't fit) can be placed roughly into one of the races. Anything you can point to from another scifi movie, book or game, that you think would be cool in Starcraft, can already be fit into one of the thematic niches the established races already fill.
Thats what people tend to miss about the difference between SC and Warcraft.
Warcraft is about different races, not about different themes. Warcraft isn't pitting "realistic" fantasy, or swords and sorcery, against high fantasy or something. Every single Warcraft race fit into a classic High Fantasy aesthetic. It is, basically, the video game version of D&D.
But Starcraft is about "hey what if these 3 different recurring genres of scifi all fought each other?" A new race would also have to fill a new thematic niche, and really, no such thematic niche exists.
Beyond that, of course, balancing 3 races is already difficult as hell. As we've all seen from other games, from both Blizzard and other developers, if you add more races, balancing becomes increasingly impossible. Dawn of War couldn't do it, Warcraft 3 couldn't do it. What would make anyone think it would work in Starcraft?
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On September 12 2010 10:58 awesomoecalypse wrote:
But Starcraft is about "hey what if these 3 different recurring genres of scifi all fought each other?" A new race would also have to fill a new thematic niche, and really, no such thematic niche exists
Are you kidding? How much of Wings of Liberty was "Meet the Xel Naga?"
Nevertheless, Blizzard won't add a fourth race. People don't want it, and it'd be a balancing nightmare for everyone, a surefire way to ruin the game.
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On September 12 2010 11:01 The_Pacifist wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2010 10:58 awesomoecalypse wrote:
But Starcraft is about "hey what if these 3 different recurring genres of scifi all fought each other?" A new race would also have to fill a new thematic niche, and really, no such thematic niche exists Are you kidding? How much of Wings of Liberty was "Meet the Xel Naga?" Nevertheless, Blizzard won't add a fourth race. People don't want it, and it'd be a balancing nightmare for everyone, a surefire way to ruin the game.
Wouldn't the Xel Naga fill the same niche as Protoss. Per the OP claim?
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I think WC3 had good balance for 4 races. The issue was never updating the map pools, so 1/2 races always dominated. Different maps = balance for races, as is shown in BW.. without new maps, BW would be terran dominated more than it already is (imagine if everygame was Lost Temple still on BW???)
Other than that, I agree that SC should stick with 3 races. but disagree with many of your other points, such as 4 races in a game is not possible to balance. It just takes more work, and with WC3 being more reliant on other factors to balance the game such as heroes and creeps, racial balance was easier to achieve (like I said, outside of the lame map pools/maybe some very minor balance things, but overall it was solid and each race had multiple top tournament titles, which you can argue is more balanced than BW which has only had like 3-4 protoss victories in OSL/MSL's in the past what.. 6 years?)
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3 Races = 3 non-mirror matchups to balance
4 races = 6 non-mirror matchups to balance
Easy as that.
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I disagree. Magic the Gathering had five distinct flavours. White strengthened their armies through support spells, red hit hard with spells, blue was about counters, black was about reviving, and green was about strong heavy units mixed in with light units.
Factions could be modeled with strengths and weaknesses coming from Magic and I think it would still be balanced.
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Are you kidding? How much of Wings of Liberty was "Meet the Xel Naga?"
If Xel'Naga were a playable race, in what way would they fulfill a distinct thematic role from the Protoss?
Ancient? Check
Super-technology/borderline magic powers? Check
Incredible power? Check
The Xel'Naga may appear in the campaign in some sense, but they will never be playable, because then there would be two "ancient, super powerful, far future" races. And racial overlap is unStarcraft.
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You could easily have an entirely machine based race work with different mechanics (ZING!). For instance it could have interchangeable parts and merge/collapse in order to be more effective. Like all units come from one base type (kind of like larva) or any sort of crazy machine idea.
You could also make magic/spirit based race that doesn't really die but losses its ability to manifest itself in our universe.
The options aren't limited to biological, human, and advanced alien at all not even counting hybrids.
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I disagree. Magic the Gathering had five distinct flavours. White strengthened their armies through support spells, red hit hard with spells, blue was about counters, black was about reviving, and green was about strong heavy units mixed in with light units.
Magic the Gathering "flavours" are *exactly* like Warcraft "flavors"--they are a matter of appearance and playstyle, not genre or thematic role. Magic the Gathering, much like Warcraft, is High Fantasy. Black is High Fantasy. White is High Fantasy. Blue is High Fantasy. Red is High Fantasy. Green is High Fantasy.
Starcraft doesn't work like that. It is a clash between different genres of science fiction, not simply different races.
For MtG to be equivalent, there would need to be a color which was "gritty and realistic" and didn't use magic, a high fantasy color which had tons of magic in the d&d sense, and, I dunno, maybe a color modeled on classic fairy tales which had magical elements but not in the "wizards tossing spells" sense. Obviously, this isn't how it works, and its not how Warcraft works either.
But thats how Starcraft works.
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On September 12 2010 11:03 Yurie wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2010 11:01 The_Pacifist wrote:On September 12 2010 10:58 awesomoecalypse wrote:
But Starcraft is about "hey what if these 3 different recurring genres of scifi all fought each other?" A new race would also have to fill a new thematic niche, and really, no such thematic niche exists Are you kidding? How much of Wings of Liberty was "Meet the Xel Naga?" Nevertheless, Blizzard won't add a fourth race. People don't want it, and it'd be a balancing nightmare for everyone, a surefire way to ruin the game. Wouldn't the Xel Naga fill the same niche as Protoss. Per the OP claim?
I'm going to admit. That was a badly worded and explained post of mine. Let me try again:
The "hybrid" theme. And there's million and one ways to do it. The greatest strengths of Protoss and Zerg. And, their weaknesses as well. Creepy crawlies clad in a layer of psionic armor. Endless resurrections of the swarm. Etc. etc.
I used to think "Pokemon will never get past the second generation. How many themes can you have for those monster things?" I was wrong. If Blizzard wanted another race, they'd make it happen. The reason there isn't a fourth playable race isn't because it can't fit a "theme," it's simply that Blizzard doesn't want it. Neither do most people.
On September 12 2010 11:06 awesomoecalypse wrote:
And racial overlap is unStarcraft.
Not according to the Xel Naga. And yes, we saw racial overlap in the secret mission all the way back in Brood War.
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You could easily have an entirely machine based race work with different mechanics (ZING!). For instance it could have interchangeable parts and merge/collapse in order to be more effective. Like all units come from one base type (kind of like larva) or any sort of crazy machine idea.
Mech are already Terran. Robots are already Protoss. Larva mechanics are already Zerg.
You could also make magic/spirit based race that doesn't really die but losses its ability to manifest itself in our universe.
Protoss are already the spiritual race. By lore, they even have the "don't die" thing covered, being teleported off the battlefield so their spiritual essences can be turned into immortals.
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when you go for 4, it becomes exponentially harder to balance
wc3 players correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't orc vs undead possibly the most imbalanced matchup in a blizzard RTS (to the point of retardation)
3 is good for Starcraft, keep it classy
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It would be very difficult to have a 4th race, but idk if that means there "should never' be one. There probably will never since its too much work, I dont think it's impossible or would be bad if they had the time or inclination to do it. (Not saying they need one, 3 is fine for me.)
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Katowice25012 Posts
On September 12 2010 11:06 DetriusXii wrote:
I disagree. Magic the Gathering had five distinct flavours. White strengthened their armies through support spells, red hit hard with spells, blue was about counters, black was about reviving, and green was about strong heavy units mixed in with light units.
Factions could be modeled with strengths and weaknesses coming from Magic and I think it would still be balanced.
And, just like War3, Magic has incredibly huge problems with balancing the dynamic between each flavor. Remember when they had to completely redo the color wheel a few years ago because they realized every good ability belonged to blue?
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On September 12 2010 11:06 DetriusXii wrote:
I disagree. Magic the Gathering had five distinct flavours. White strengthened their armies through support spells, red hit hard with spells, blue was about counters, black was about reviving, and green was about strong heavy units mixed in with light units.
Factions could be modeled with strengths and weaknesses coming from Magic and I think it would still be balanced.
Magic is a good example of how much can be encompassed in the 5 colors. Notice that there hasn't ever been an addition to the color pool since the game was first released; each takes good care of having its own theme. Although there are plenty of traditional cards, there are also many more cards that overlap "traits" of the colors. You pointed out regeneration, but green has a decent amount of regeneration as well. Black and Blue share many of the same traits of control. White and Green are involved in a lot of life regen. Black and Red have plenty of direct damage spells and creature destruction.
Starcraft, on the other hand, is defined my how niche each of the races feel. Workers aside (who build VERY differently), each of the races has it's own definitive flavor to it. I thought long and hard about a 4th race that could work for Starcraft, and it just isn't there. There really isn't a theme that can be totally branched out and unique in-universe.
I am open to ideas, though, I would love for someone to prove us all wrong 
On September 12 2010 11:16 heyoka wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2010 11:06 DetriusXii wrote:
I disagree. Magic the Gathering had five distinct flavours. White strengthened their armies through support spells, red hit hard with spells, blue was about counters, black was about reviving, and green was about strong heavy units mixed in with light units.
Factions could be modeled with strengths and weaknesses coming from Magic and I think it would still be balanced.
And, just like War3, Magic has incredibly huge problems with balancing the dynamic between each flavor. Remember when they had to completely redo the color wheel a few years ago because they realized every good ability belonged to blue?
I am very glad they made that decision, the game (in my opinion) has gotten much better since then!
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It would also ruin the simplicity. And simplicity of the basics means more meaningful complexity of the strategy; higher quality.
Blizzard understands very well the need of simplicity to make the multiplayer truly entertaining and deep -- so they deliberately throw away many units that they have in their platform.
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On September 12 2010 11:15 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
when you go for 4, it becomes exponentially harder to balance
wc3 players correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't orc vs undead possibly the most imbalanced matchup in a blizzard RTS (to the point of retardation)
3 is good for Starcraft, keep it classy
yeah fiends with auto web to counter any air and destroyers, was just pff but thats when i played it years ago, dunno what changed since then, maybe balanced now for all i know. wouldnt mind a 4th race, but only if blizz could balance it immediately without fail which isnt gonna happen xD
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The "hybrid" theme. And there's million and one ways to do it. The greatest strengths of Protoss and Zerg. And, their weaknesses as well. Creepy crawlies clad in a layer of psionic armor. Endless resurrections of the swarm. Etc. etc.
This is in no way a "unique niche" in the sense of a different sci fi genre.
I used to think "Pokemon will never get past the second generation. How many themes can you have for those monster things?"
Pokemon isn't about different genres fighting each other
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first of all, warcraft only had 2 races at first, orcs n humans, the otehr races in warcraft are added as the sotryline gets more indepth, but you'll notice warcraft is still alliance/horde, basically humans vrs orc...
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On September 12 2010 11:01 The_Pacifist wrote:Show nested quote +On September 12 2010 10:58 awesomoecalypse wrote:
But Starcraft is about "hey what if these 3 different recurring genres of scifi all fought each other?" A new race would also have to fill a new thematic niche, and really, no such thematic niche exists Are you kidding? How much of Wings of Liberty was "Meet the Xel Naga?" Nevertheless, Blizzard won't add a fourth race. People don't want it, and it'd be a balancing nightmare for everyone, a surefire way to ruin the game.
This 100%.
If I know anything from blizzard is that if they were going to implement a 4th race, they would've planned it years ahead so if they've made that decision (which I'm sure they have by now) then threads like these are just a tad late.
The deathknight (from WoW) is a GREAT example of how introducing a new class/race/etc can completely fuk up your game if not done perfectly which in terms of gaming lingo, a product by blizzard is about as perfect as its gonna get in terms of game balance.
TLDR: If blizzard wants to make a new race, they're better off making a new game and putting the race in that game then trying to force it into sc2.
also (smilies) cuz I'm having a good day lol.
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