EPTI must admit after over a year of playing Starcraft 2 I had become complacent myself, but fortunately a chain of events has occurred that has inspired me to start a movement. Firstly I watched a Broodwar game for the first time in a few months, even one I had seen before and thought something is different. It wasn't the cool lurker tactics or the muta micro, although missed they are just something from a different game, no something was wrong on a deeper level. As I looked at Jaedong's drone count I asked myself man why doesn't he just pop like 20 more drones they pay for themselves in about a minute.. So I talked to my friend about it and he said "You remember how dota had EM mode?"
-I said "EM mode?"
-He said "Oh right your not a noob, well all the crappy dota players play this mode where u get twice as much gold and the towers are weaker."
-So I said "Wouldn't that make the game really unbalanced clearly that would help some heroes way more then others."
-He said "Remember when they nerfed CLinkz even though he wasn't overpowered at all, well in EM mode he was just insane, the noobs couldn't handle him."
-"Gosh that must be ridiculous trying to balance a game based of EM mode."
-"Well just look at Starcraft 2"
Because of the chronoboost, mule, and inject larva abilities, Starcraft 2 is to Starcraft, as easy mode dota is to regular dota. It feels gimmicky and massively luck based.
I know a few things:
-This post belongs on a Blizzard forum.
-The likely hood of this ever changing anything is almost zero.
-Blizzard has done really well trying to do the impossible, balancing an inherently broken game. It isn't TvZ thats unbalanced or ZvP, its Orbitial command >>> expansion.
-How ridiculously hard and how many balance issues a change like this will be/create.
I am posting this here to start a community movement, to see if it is even possible to get people to realize how important this is.
My proposed solution:
-Removal of mule, chronoboost, and inject larva from the game.
-Cost of drop supply depo from 50 energy to 75 or 100.
-Protoss gateway units all 10% faster build time, Robo bay units 15% faster build time, Stargate 15% faster build time. Warp gate research 160 --> 120.
-Hatchery generate larva 15% faster. Hatchery build time reduced by 10 seconds.
I am prepared to be shot down, but I wanted to be able to say I tried, because "All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing" -Albert Einstein.
Theory:
-This will drastically reduce the amount of viable all ins, and potentially make expanding much more valuable.
-It will allow bigger maps without causing huge balance issues, allowing for better games.
-This will drastically reduce every races income, making games where you have 200/200 because you need it to stay alive then you end up sacrificing your units to get out better tech, much less common.
-Instead of reducing the skill cap, which is why I believe these mechanics were implemented, I truly believe it will raise it.
Why bother:
-Almost everyone of my friends who has played Starcraft: Brood War, has stated loudly and clearly this is the best game I have ever played. It is something else, its almost like a sport.
-There is no reason to give up on Starcraft 2, with this change it could someday replace Starcraft as the best game ever, and I want to do my part so that happens.
Note:
I will be posting this on blizzard forums when/if I can get support and see if this change can ever be possible. Blizzard you made the PTR for a reason, lets see if we can put it to its first real test.
Edit:
using mules/chronoboosts/larva injects consistently and efficiently adds apm, this hightens the minimum mechanics apm. By removing it and adding the same basic effects (larva come faster protoss builds faster) you are actually making EM starcraft.
At the bronze level I agree, but what I think is more relevant and yet forgotten is that there is no reason not to use these mechanics. Chronoboost you start with, and the other two are so powerful they have been gotten every game played since the first game of beta to the last game played today, (except maybe for 1 week when day9 did no queens for monday). These add slightly to your required APM however they are not true skill. True skill is when you have to decide whether or not to engage and army or go in for SCV kills with your muta. These are not apm they are TACTICAL decisions making it a strategy game. If something is so strong it is a must it isnt a test of skill just an unnecessary game mechanic. By your argument you should remove auto-mine and multiply building selection from the game. Beating someone shouldn't be about putting workers on minerals better it should be about making correction decisions in APM demanding situations.
Edit 2:
First of all I have to apologize, when I realized what a problem these mechanics create I jumped straight straight into the implications of removing them, what changes would have to be made in order to keep balance in the game. This was foolish and wrong, I completely skipped the most important step of explaining why this should be done.
I certainly agree with everyone that Starcraft 2 and Starcraft are different games, and I am not trying to make SC2 into Broodwar or state that dislike SC2 and want to play Broodwar.
To everyone worried about removing something that adds skill, something should not just be about adding mindless apm. If everyone would benefit from having larva injected, why isn't it just made autocast. I love automine and MBS, even though I am probably better then 99% of the community at setting my starting 4 workers to mine and dealing with no MBS, that is not how I want to win. Why is it ok for me to win off something mindlessly stupid like injecting larva? Why not make it so you have to do 10 push ups before your allowed to set a hotkey, or 20 sit ups before your allowed to build air units? This would obviously make the game harder and raise the skill cap, but it is clear as day that it is freaking stupid.
Now on to the real point: Why should these mechanics be removed, what is it they do that makes the game worse? The reason 4-warp gate was so deadly is 100% because of chronoboost. I understand most of the community doesn't see this so I will try to explain. The way it worked was because of warpgate making you able to catch up on unit production quickly and at your opponents base, you could spend all your CHRONOBOOST on probes untill 20 or so probes when you abruptly stop, then because you have done nothing but econ you can then outproduce your opponent right at his front door. Without chronoboost you would be stockpiling minerals while waiting for warpgate tech to finish, then you would need 5-6 gates to spend it abruptly enough for it to be affective, however with less overall resources from less probes and the extra gates you would never be able to catch up with the production of someone building units/workers constantly at their own base. Further, Chronoboost allows for abrupt changes with rapidly being able to produce higher tech units, and allows for super fast upgrades. All in and all it makes the game much more gimicking by giving you potentially stupid options which make scouting near impossible. For example up until the point you have a stalker out and can kill a worker a fast expand and a 4 warp gate look roughly identical. In other words scouting a no aggression fast expansion, and one of the scariest looking all ins look exactly the same, and you have to GUESS which one is coming.
With zerg almost the same concept is true, simply because of the inject larva mechanic. You can save up tremendous amounts of production potential, allowing for abrupt changes making it completely into a guessing game for your opponent as to whether your about to pop 20 drones or 20 roaches. Also because of the inject larva ability bad play can be rewarded with great success. Even a lot of higher end Koreans are complaining about late game muta switches because there is constant fighting where the zerg doesnt produce anything, but as long as they hit they larva injects they can save up to 4000 4000 minerals then bam mass build whatever unit you arent prepared for. For example you are constantly fighting off ling roach agression as protoss even tho thru many favorable exchanges you might have a slight econ lead or an army advantage because of an abrupt tech switch to mass mutas, you find yourself dead in the water. The Koreans are right to be worried about this, and once again its 100% because of larva injects. (Note: some people were complaining that queens make zerg feel really zergy and to that I would say yah I love creep tumors and transfuse having a queen is great, but what made zerg feel zergy was 10 hatches sorry but ggnore).
As for terran, contrary to what everyone thought of me, I think terran for the most part is pretty great in SC2, the 1-1-1 is a little stupid and yes it is made possible by the mule but in general I was just removing the mule to compensate for the huge blows the other 2 races would be receiving. As for everyone saying the nerf was hardest for terran, I can assure that you are dead wrong, supply depo call down is equal to about 125 minerals (100 for the depo 25 mining time) so it is about half as good as a mule and doesnt destroy your mineral line.
For everyone saying I was just trying to buff Protoss, I think people fail to understand what chronoboost really does. It roughly increases your income by 50% and makes it so every upgrade or unit produced out of a non-gateway structure comes out in half the time.
Finally elimination of these mechanics will allow for builds that require so much skill and precision, I can't even begin to explain it to justice. Until I have the right words I'll just say "Less is more."
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/userfiles/92255.jpg?1323487280)
