EPTIf you're in this thread, you already know that Blizzard plans to "trial" heavily modified macro mechanics in the upcoming Legacy of the Void patch. This change has caused a rather large response from the Starcrfat 2 community, with a number of people passionately supporting the change and many others decrying it even more passionately. (If you aren't intimately familiar with Blizzard's suggested changes and their implications, please excuse yourself from this thread and do your research before posting.)
About Me: (Spoilered for ease of skipping.) + Show Spoiler +
I've been a TL lurker since WoL Beta and though I haven't laddered SC2 since then, I've watched thousands of hours of streams and professional matches (HerO, Snute, Demuslim, Grubby back in the day, Dreamhack, Homestory Cup, GSL, GSTL, and MLGs of old). I am by no stretch of my own imagination an expert, but I am knowledgeable and I've got a lot of #passion for the game. I also dabble in game design and though I'll never do it for money (I'm a far better engineer...), I enjoy tweaking things and testing them until they feel JUST right. In short, I'm just a fan who likes to hear himself talk, lol. But I've lurker TL for over 5 years, and this is the first topic that I have had a strongly enough feeling about to emerge from the shadows.
My Idea
Blizzard plans to nerf inject and turn it into an auto cast ability while eliminating the chrono boost and drop mule abilities. I suggest that instead, we leave all three abilities as is and make them all autocast abilities with the caveat that they only activate when the energy reaches a level high enough to cast it twice. (Of course these abilities could be set to not autocast, just as many abilities functioned in Warcraft 3.) For example, if Drop Mule is set to autocast, your orbital drops 1 mule at the nearest mineral patch with an SCV on it when it reaches 100 energy. When a nexus has 100 energy, it casts chrono boost on the the nearest producing (or cooling down) building, most likely itself in the early/mid game. Queen hits the nearest uninjected hatchery (within a set distance)when it reaches enough energy for two injects.
Implications
By doing this, we preserve the decision making of mule vs scan, or the boost vs risk of having your chronoed twilight council give away your fast blink. For Zerg, macro mechanics still absolutely matter, but if you slip up on injects in diamond league during a 2 minute drop heavy mid game, you are punished, but not dead. In professional play, the Zerg is probably still dead. But that's the idea, a smoother skill curve. And if this change proves too good for Zerg in the mid or late game, then a minor adjustment such as making inject take 5 seconds longer for 5 more energy, while also adding a point or two of queen attack damage could be trailed to balance it back out at a later date. Keep in mind that at the highest level of play, these abilities would probably never be set to autocast. But at the lower end for casual players who aren't atop their macro, it's a no brainer to activate. The orbital will still have enough for an emergency DT scan if you don't manually mule, the Queens will still have an emergency transfuse to save their sisters from hellion harass, and each nexus will always keep one chrono in reserve for when you really want to push out that +2 attack upgrade.
Your Thoughts
I'm just going to drop a quick poll here to tally up opinions on the idea of a compromise. If you have deeper feedback, obviously feel free to post it. (That is what forums are for, after all.) My hope is that enough voices come out in support of compromise to get Blizzard's attention. I'd like to think that out of the nearly infinite number of possible solutions, one can be found that doesn't heavily alienate X% of the community.
Poll: Macro Mechanics (mule, chronological, inject) - what to do?
Get rid of them. They are an unnecessary barrier to entry for new players. (23)
62%
Leave them alone. For the love of God, David Kim, don't ruin LotV already! (8)
22%
Compromise is good. There must be a way to smooth the skill curve with something other than a sledge (6)
16%
37 total votes
Leave them alone. For the love of God, David Kim, don't ruin LotV already! (8)
Compromise is good. There must be a way to smooth the skill curve with something other than a sledge (6)
37 total votes
Your vote: Macro Mechanics (mule, chronological, inject) - what to do?
(Vote): Leave them alone. For the love of God, David Kim, don't ruin LotV already!
(Vote): Get rid of them. They are an unnecessary barrier to entry for new players.
(Vote): Compromise is good. There must be a way to smooth the skill curve with something other than a sledge
