These have always been an issue for a custom melee mod.
Because the mod is using campaign keys something as fundamental as select warp gates is hindered. Right now it is shift+w. Me and Xia haven't found where to change this quite yet.
There is also a big debate: grid hotkeys vs command card layouts.
To make it easier for grid hotkey users we'd have to drastically alter command card layouts to be more grid friendly. The result is some very ugly looking command cards on production structures.
Are there people who care enough about how the arrangement of command cards at the expense of inconveniencing grid users?
Or is it tolerable enough for grid users?
I need some input here.
Frenzy As for spells go, this is still a very poorly designed spell. It only serves to make battles occur quicker, and the only decision is the tug of war for energy between itself and dark swarm.
Me and Xiphias would love more suggestions on a spell for Viper. I'd be fine with a utility spell, Xiphias would love a more interesting spell that is geared towards protoss.
On May 18 2013 08:39 decemberscalm wrote: Me and Xiphias would love more suggestions on a spell for Viper. I'd be fine with a utility spell, Xiphias would love a more interesting spell that is geared towards protoss. Thank you!
I think it would interesting to try Abduct (single target though, AoE Abduct would be weird). It would make our Viper a little more like the HotS Viper for familiarity.
While we're at it messing with the Viper spell line-up can we switch Consume over to targeting units instead of buildings? I think almost everyone agrees it would be better that way.
The nullifier has made its entrance. It is a zippy flying robotics bay unit designed to help control the map. It can place wards that cloak 2 seconds after placement. These wards can either rupture dealing 15% life damage, create a null space field (all units in the null space can only hurts units in null space. Vice versa). Or you can leave the ward there for map vision. It has a weak ground attack for its cost, dealing 10 damage. Fight units that are isolated, or units that can't fight back with it.
The viking now functions like a ground valkyrie. On its own it is not much of a combat unit, but one or two of these can force a giant flock of mutalisks back. Its transport mode (previously fighter mode) is unlocked when a starport is built, and moves at a pretty fast speed. While in this mode it is very vulnerable so be careful.
I recommend keeping this unit out of direct combat if possible. If Zerg manages to snipe this unit a mutalisk switch can be very deadly.
Other big changes: It is time to test 7 gas per trip instead of 8. In addition, 1 gas per trip when the guyser is depleted.
The firebat has had its aoe reduced substantially, but now deals 20 instead of 10(10+light). Where you position your firebat is more important now.
Medics no longer require matrix research.
Reapers no longer require a tech lab.
Scout now has a speed upgrade on the fleet beacon.
The banshee has been given a very low damage anti air attack, and made a tad bit more agile. It still packs a mean punch to ground. In addition it now has a 5 second burst cloak instead of energy based.
Cloak no longer requires research. Snipe now has no cooldown, costs 25 energy and deals 40(+20 light) per shot. This could be either broken or perfect.
Lockdown is now a projectile that can miss. 100 energy. 13 Range.
Ghost academies can now hold three nukes.
Firebat attack no longer ecompasses the entire screen. It now deals 20 damage instead of 10(+10 light).
The marauder has not been added.
New cost for Nexus, CC and hatcheries. 375, 375, and 275 respectively.
Science vessel now costs 250 gas.
Reaper G-4 charges are back to detonating after 3 seconds.
Reaver range is now 9, reduced back to pre HOTS status. Its mover is 1 speed slower.
Supply dropdown now costs 75 energy (also back to pre HOTS status).
Guardians now move at 2.5 speed.
Spider Mines not play a sound when placed.
Dropships now have a death animation.
Tanks in siege mode are now immune to brutal charge.
Dark Swarm now properly vanishes afters its expiration.
Vultures now hover (not detonating mines).
Blink cooldown back to 20 seconds from 10
Gravitic Thrusters is now an upgrade in the fleet beacon. It gives the scout an additional point of speed and acceleration. It costs 100/100 and takes 60 seconds to research.
Gas guysers now give 7 gas per trip instead of 8.
Gas guysers now give 1 gas per trip when depleted (haven’t tested yet).
Matrix now costs 75 energy but does not recquire an upgrade to use.
Reapers no longer require a tech lab to be built.
Viper’s Frenzy now costs 75 energy down from 100.
The Viking is now built from the factory with armory. It’s flight mode is enabled when you have built a starport. It costs 200 minerals and 100 gas. It’s beefier and has 1 life armor now. While in assault mode, it shoots a volley of ten low damage splash rockets, effective at clearing abosrbant amounts of light air units. Fighter mode has been renamed to transport mode, as it now has no attack while in the air.
Fungle Growth impact model fixed.
Warping in now takes 10 seconds up from 5.
Banshee, 140 HP, 9 dmg per rocket, Movement speed 3,5, Escape cloak = 5 sec (cooldown 30 sec)., Reduce build time to 50 sec. Give anti air attack, viking rockets, 5 dmg per rocket, weapon speed 1.5 Range 4. Removed tech lab requirement. Damage point set to 0.
Archons now hover. They used to tank all of the spider mines that the zealots would have taken.
Infestor Neural Parasite range set to 8. It is no longer benign during its use. The Infestor can now use Neural Parasite while burrowed at 3 range.
Known bugs, not fixed yet: -Viper nest building size radius when selecting it. - Vultures are counted twice in the production tab when produced in a factory with reactor?
I have thought about this one. It would be better vs terran than toss I think (although it could might work vs late-game carriers), but this is mostly for tanks and science vessels I think. I might be wrong here.... hmmm archons.....
@ Consume.
I agreed for the longest time that consume on units are better than buildings, but here is an interesting observation in why we might keep it on buildings: When you have consume on buildings you have to consume BEFORE you move your Viper to the rest of your army. If you spend your energy and need more energy you can't just instant consume your units but have to travel back. This require more careful planning from the zerg player and punishes less thoughtful play more. He should make two Vipers (at least), one slightly after the other and have one consuming buildings as the other is in the battlefield and the switch them up.
This is not the "ultimate reason" as there are pro's and con's to both abilities, but this is why we are keeping it on buildings for now at least.
Also: Let's get some games going tonight!
2. also: Let me share a little secret with you. Come closer... OK ... that's too close...Rapture (exploding the nullward thingy) deals 15 % of maximum life of any unit (not its current life). With some math, that's exactly 7 raptures to kill ANY unit. E.i they are good at killing ultras, and bad for worker harass (unless you just use its normal attack). But there is a greater secret.... It also deals dmg to buildings.... So if you can get 7 nullifiers inside your opponents base (most likely, that won't happen...) then you can INSTANTLY (almost) kill any buildings inside the field!
Keep an eye on this. If it's broken, we can change it to only do dmg vs units.
Firebat still does 10 + 10 vs light. 7 wards, using rupture, destroy all (including mineral field, geyser, xell naga tower and other ^^).
Edit: Cool! Nullifier with reavers make a greath sinergy, because Nullspace (by ward) not work on scarab, and reavers are invulnerable to external units. However there are still counter to reavers inside the Null Space, as ghost (lockdown) and air units.
About that Snipe: -) right now it works against nonbiological units, is that intended? -) 45damage on 200/100/2 ghosts was broken in SC2, 40+20vs light on a 50/100/2 (or whatever its costs are right now) ghost is insanly broken. Sure, you need a ton of APM and good mechanics to make it work and maybe no starbow player will ever be good enough to rely on pure ghost. But on paper it simply counters everything zerg has (and if it's not bio only, it simply counters everything). Even more as it is not affected by Dark Swarm and there is no fungal to reveal cloaked ghosts and no IT to combat energy spam with energy spam.
On May 18 2013 23:18 Big J wrote: About that Snipe: -) right now it works against nonbiological units, is that intended? -) 45damage on 200/100/2 ghosts was broken in SC2, 40+20vs light on a 50/100/2 (or whatever its costs are right now) ghost is insanly broken. Sure, you need a ton of APM and good mechanics to make it work and maybe no starbow player will ever be good enough to rely on pure ghost. But on paper it simply counters everything zerg has (and if it's not bio only, it simply counters everything). Even more as it is not affected by Dark Swarm and there is no fungal to reveal cloaked ghosts and no IT to combat energy spam with energy spam.
Woah. Okay, Snipe needs to affect Bio only, that's ridiculous otherwise.
The ability also needs to have a cooldown. You can't have spammable damage with smartcasting. Personally I think it should have only a cooldown and no energy cost, as energy doesn't make sense for an action as simple as looking down a scope and shooting.
Dark Swarm should also counter it. If you can't see something you can't snipe it, that just makes no sense, it's like being able to shoot a cloaked unit without detection.
We do however have fungal, I'm not sure why you think there's no fungal? And IT is completely irrelevant.
It was intended, since we did not want it to be an ability that was purely vs zerg. It migth be broken number-wise and I agree on the dark swarm (did not even think about that one, good idea ), but let's try it before we say it's broken. I'm not saying it's not broken, just saying that we need to test it.
Also, it is not "spamable" in the sense that the faster you click the more shots you get off. When you reach a certain point it has a "reload" time.
Edit: I know the hatchery cost is wrong (325) atm, will be fixed. Also in the patch notes it should say: "Nexus and CC are 350"
I just don't think Snipe should be the kind of ability that is used in rapid succession. It should be a pinpoint, high burst damage low rate-of-fire precision strike to eliminate single targets one at a time, with a solid delay between them to allow the opponent time to react. And it definitely needs to be bio only, Snipe against mechanical units makes very little sense. All three races have Bio units that make good targets for Snipe, it wouldn't relegate it to Zerg only. High Templar, DT's, other Ghosts, SCVs and maybe even Zealots in early engagements would all be fine targets. If you're playing against Mech or Protoss, that's what Lockdown is for. Making Snipe affect Mechanical makes Lockdown almost completely redundant and useless, that's terrible design for a spellcaster.
Yeah, I agree with SmileZerg. SC2 has way too many <hotkey> + click, repeat spam type spells. EMP is a great example. It just coats a Protoss army. It really is meh to watch, and, while it does take some mechanical skill to execute, "pinpoint, high burst damage low rate-of-fire precision strike" is more impressive. While it is true that this sort of repeat spam is kind of (negatively) necessary in SC2, since it is largely deathball versus deathball and things need to be done right when they clash, I feel there should be something different/better for Starbow.
nullifier wards are "visible"... Only part of the model gets blurry, so you always know where the wards are as an opponent (though you still need to have detection to attack it)
On May 19 2013 02:33 Big J wrote: nullifier wards are "visible"... Only part of the model gets blurry, so you always know where the wards are as an opponent (though you still need to have detection to attack it)
Not solve this. Opponent needs to know if there are or not the wards. Otherwise, he will be playing of luck.
On May 19 2013 02:33 Big J wrote: nullifier wards are "visible"... Only part of the model gets blurry, so you always know where the wards are as an opponent (though you still need to have detection to attack it)
Not solve this. Opponent needs to know if there are or not the wards. Otherwise, he will be playing of luck.
Its going to get tuned down a bit. I want it to be like widow mines. If you are looking for them you can see them. If you are just glancing over you will most likely not. edit: might need to just use a different model. Its got blue parts that don't actually cloak.
On May 19 2013 03:59 Xiphias wrote: that's the point though, same with spider mines. Force to waste scans, or bring SV
Spider mines can be destroyed (without detector) using micro (example stalker micro). Having the ability to watch wards is good because the player knows that there are and must choose 2 options: make a detector or outflank wards. If it pass over wards, his army will be damaged.
Force the enemy to outflank ward can be interesting, to prepare a trap / ambush or trap in a vise the opposing army
On May 18 2013 23:18 Big J wrote: About that Snipe: -) right now it works against nonbiological units, is that intended? -) 45damage on 200/100/2 ghosts was broken in SC2, 40+20vs light on a 50/100/2 (or whatever its costs are right now) ghost is insanly broken. Sure, you need a ton of APM and good mechanics to make it work and maybe no starbow player will ever be good enough to rely on pure ghost. But on paper it simply counters everything zerg has (and if it's not bio only, it simply counters everything). Even more as it is not affected by Dark Swarm and there is no fungal to reveal cloaked ghosts and no IT to combat energy spam with energy spam.
Woah. Okay, Snipe needs to affect Bio only, that's ridiculous otherwise.
The ability also needs to have a cooldown. You can't have spammable damage with smartcasting. Personally I think it should have only a cooldown and no energy cost, as energy doesn't make sense for an action as simple as looking down a scope and shooting.
Dark Swarm should also counter it. If you can't see something you can't snipe it, that just makes no sense, it's like being able to shoot a cloaked unit without detection.
We do however have fungal, I'm not sure why you think there's no fungal? And IT is completely irrelevant.
I agree with you that snipe isn't a good ability and boring to watch. However, I would like to modify your statement regarding spammable abilities: I don't think they are neccesarily always bad (with smart-casting). IMO it depends on whether the opponent has an opportunity to react to the ability (with micro). If that's the case then the ability can be quite entertaining to watch + we can actually balance it across various skill levels. Snipe on the other hand can't be balanced. At bronze level it will require too much APM too use, at like diamond level it may be balanced, but at GM/korean level players will simply be too fast and thus be too efficient at spamming at. The opponent will regardless of his skill level take the same amount of damage. So a GM/korean opponent won't be better at "countering" snipe than the bronze player. That is a huge design problem IMO.
That was why I suggested to make snipe a projectile (so you could avoid it with fast reaction), and remove lockdown. However, at this point I actually have to say I enjoy Lockdown more than snipe (it's more interesting to see a unit locked in the air than just dead), and as both abilites kinda overlap I would recommend just removing snipe for now and rework Lockdown slightly;
1) Slightly decrease projectile speed. I don't think you can intentionally avoid the projectile after it has been casted. You need to predict where the opponent will cast it and then move your units away from the expected location before lockdown has been casted. I prefer a projetile speed where you can move your units away from the location after Lockdown has been casted. 2) Visually show the location of where the Lockdown projectile will hit. 3) Lockdown now works on all units that aren't massive (not just mechanically) 4) Lockdown doesn't work on burrowed units (don't know if thats the case now though - but this will reward zerg players for quickly borrowing before they get hit by the projectile). 5) Increase ghost cost from 50/100 to 100/100. 6) Increase ghost HP from 60 to 80. 7) Decrease Lockdown energy cost from 100 to 75 8) Ghost supply increase from 2 to 3
Why the 4 latter suggested changes are neccesary With a cost of 50/100 you can get a lot of ghosts, which means that Lockdown becomes spamable, and if you can spam 5-10 lockdowns in a battle, then the opponent won't have any chance to remicro against it. I want to see 1-4 Lockdowns casted over the duration of an entire battle. By reducing energy cost from 100 to 75, the terran doesn't have to wait untill he has enough energy in order for him to attack. Instead, he can put pressure on the protoss player constantly. Also, this change is neccesary if snipe gets removed as ghosts with less than 100 energy won't have any real utility. One could argue that this will recreate the "spamable" problem, but that will only occur if the bio player "turtles" with his ghosts, and as I believe that turtling with bio is/should always be a suboptimal strategy, this likely won't be a real concern. The supply increase is neccesary as bio must never be supply efficient (that will incentivize turtling as we some times see in TvP in Sc2).
The HP increase is simply to make the ghost slightly better in a battle as it probably would be too UP at 100/100 with only lockdown as its ability.
The second ablity I am not really sure, and at this point I don't really feel like terran actually needs more ability-based stuff. Bio already has so many various abilities so there may not actually be a need for one. I would actually just give it stim so that bio doesn't lose its mobility after ghosts are out. Right now Ghosts works as a "slow-down" unit, which bio IMO shouldn't be about. If you want to increase the cost efficiency of your army as a terran player at the expense of mobility, then you add in mech-units. I prefer that all bio units are quite mobile.
Making bio even more mobile by giving ghosts stim will make the protoss w/ "mass" reaver vs. bio with ghosts matchup more exciting as the terran player will be able to abuse the immobility of the protoss army. This will almost make protoss feel like its playing mech vs bio which IMO is very exciting to watch.
At the same time stimmed ghost's "main attack" won't make a big difference in the actual battle. It's not like bio will become cost effective just because you can stim ghosts, so I see the potential unintended consequences as relatively small.
Furthermore, I believe this will buff it as an harassment/tactical unit as the ghost will now be able to escape better as it can stim away. On the other hand snipe is removed so there is no more one-shotting of workers.
Regarding Nullifier: Can anyone actually kite marines with them? I just died to like 4-5 unstimmed marines when trying to. I think it could use a 1 range buff or something like that.
EPT
), but let's try it before we say it's broken. I'm not saying it's not broken, just saying that we need to test it. 
