[A] Starbow - Page 296

The new Ghost ability has barely seemed play yet.

Lets look at the two older spells Ghost had:
- Snipe (Cheap to cast, spammable, direct dmg on any biological unit.)
- Lockdown (Expensive to cast, powerful effect that stuns a target mechanical unit.)

Snipe did the same thing as Yamato gun and Irradiate. Just in a less sophisticated way. Pew pew pew pew. Dead.

Lockdown was "supposed" to be the reason Ghosts would see play in TvT and TvP. There were quite few targets Lockdown was actually useful on: BC, Carrier, Reaver. MAYBE Siege tanks. 100 or 75 energy to stun one Tank? Or one Stalker? Is it really worth it?

I decided to merge those spells. For 25 energy, the Ghost can almost always cast Shock. Instead of just killing a target, or completely stunning it, it does something in between: It disarms it temporarily.

Exact stats if someone has missed it:

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Potential units to use Shock on, that probably would be useful:
- Unsiege enemy Sieged tanks. (This and Nerve Jammer can be a good way to break enemy siege lines.)
- Help Goliaths fight vs enemy Battlecruisers and Carriers
- Catch Warp Prism and Reavers so the Vikings or Marines can move forward and kill them.
- Prevent HTs and Arbiters from casting their spells.
- Make Corsair cancel Graviton Beam.and Sentinel cancel Safeguard (If the latter spells actually becomes useful at all >.<)
- Make Lurkers unable to burrow.
- Catch Vipers and Defilers. Also prevents their spells from being casted. (Temporarily.)
- Slow down Ultralisks so the Marines can dance around them.

This is of course just theory. Maybe it turns out that there are far more important things to do in game than wasting APM on Ghosts trying to Shock enemy units. But hopefully it will see more play than Lockdown did.

A scenario similar to this often occur in bio battles:


(NIce quality picture ^^ )

The Medics stand in a clump and heal or cast Matrix, while the Marines are the ones who benefit from the actual micro.
It is as if the Medics position in a fight barely matters.

With Pacify, Medics do not generate threat from enemy units when standing still, which means that it is possible to use the Medics as a "wall" in front of the Marines, or block ramps, block passages near mineral patches etc. The Firebat is no longer in the game, instead the Medic can "block."

Todays new small uploaded patch has shortened the delay between the time Medics stand still to the time they generate no threat. So it is possible to instantly hold position in combat with the Medics to force Zealots/Zerglings/Banelings to "run" around them, which gives more time for Marines to shoot. It becomes even better if Terran moves the Medics in a formation...

Of course this is not the most useful or important ability in the game. There are more important aspects to focus at. But even the small things can matter...

I agree. Terran can turtle or be defensive and just mass them. Once he reaches a high enough number he can counter EVERYTHING Zerg can do. T does not need to tech switch. Irradiate kills everything, no matter what Zerg do. Vessel is the counter to everything.

Vessels can of course be nerfed in different ways.
But I still think that Z should have something in the tech tree that makes T fear it!
If he T turtles and just masses Vessels without doing anything, he knows he will be in trouble if Z reaches a certain tech.
And I think Devourer can be that unit.
Give it some kind of "immunity" to Irradiate/spells, and some kind of way to deal with spellcasters and energy units.
I would not mind to redesign it again, if that redesign could help to bring life into stale game dynamics.
I will look at different solutions. Please do it you too

I like the new splash upgrade since it really gives the Reaper some more potential.
It is NOT only a harassment unit that becomes worthless later in the game.
BUT atm it kinda comes late in the game. I watched some replays of TvZ from today, and everytime the Reapers got there, Z already had Queens + Zerglings out.
So I agree that Reapers should be built much earlier. Not require tech lab.
This gives nice harassment options for T at all stages in the game:
Early early game - Reaper
Early game - Vulture
Midgame - Banshee or Dropship

If Reapers are built earlier and are more massable, the splash upgrade must be moved up a bit in the tech tree. Maybe require factory? This upgrade then helps to make Reapers viable even later in the game.

A fine example of getting my own head too far up my ass. What looks good inside my head does not always look good in real life... After playing with this for two days, I have found many flaws with the design.

Yes, the spells can be rebalanced and maybe fit into the game.

But the problem is much deeper:

- The Sentinel is too complicated. I must explain the unit. People do not get it. How to use it? What to do with it? Why? What did that ability do again you said..? A good unit explains itself. ESPECIALLY since it is an early midgame unit. Had it been a lategame caster, there is more room for advanced stuff.

- It requires too much control to even function. It is useless unless heavily microed.
This means that there is barely any reason to get more than +5 of them.
And it is suppose to be a cheap early game caster! Kinda like the Sentry.
And the Sentry had "easy" spells to use:
Force field. Bam. Bam. Bam. bam.
Activate the Shield. Click. Done.
Hallucaination. Click. Choose. Go go go.
All spells on the Sentinel are "hard" to cast since it requires so much positional play.
All of the spells require that only one Sentinel is selected.
Again, this would not be a problem if it was an expensive late game caster!

- It is no threat and has no purpose. The enemy does not give a fuck about them. They can not kill anything anyway. They can not HELP Protoss kill things! And if they could kill stuff they would just fly into the enemy mineral line and wreck everything. Why bother go Starport and lift up enemy workers in the mineral line, if the Sentinel can just go there and unleash hell?


Yes. the spells have potential to be quite fun and tricky. But if we assume players play the game to win, why wasting time and resources on units that do not help you to win? Either must the spells be greatly boosted, or the entire unit be redesigned.

There goes my night sleep >.<

I might aswell throw my incomplete ideas out here so the wolfs can butcher them.

I talked about it in the above post.
I want static defence to stop deathballs and larger armies.
Not make harassment impossible. Not so easy at least.

"Solution" for Protoss:

- Cannons attack real slow. Boom...... Booom............ Booom............ Boom.......
- When Chrono boosted, they become MUCH better and deal splash dmg.

This means that even a few Vultures, a Banshee, some Reapers, a group of Mutalisks, some Lurkers, even a DT, will be able to do quickly run in and do some damage to the workers. Preferably before the P player Chrono boosts.
On the other hand, If P is gosu he will quickly Chrono boost and the harasser will be dead.
Similar to how a PF work. But still let the cannons have a weak attack always active.
The splash damage would help P to ESPECIALLY stop the annoying unstoppable mass Mutalisks. >.<



"Solution" for Terran:

PF is already fine.
I consider to apply a similar solution to Turrets.

Turrets have a strong attack and deal splash damage.
But they must be activated.
When activated they can attack for 10-30 seconds.
Then they "sleep" for 10-30 seconds.

Are you insane? Shall players click and activate every Turret?! OMG I'm leaving this shitty project!

The Turret has auto-cast. As soon as an enemy air unit comes close, it will auto-activate the attack!

1,

2,

3,

4,

5,


Gosu players can turn off the auto-activation and just activate them manually. Whenever they want. Put everything in a control group. BAM! Do not get fooled by the enemy player. Use it when needed.

Imagine what this would do in TvT and TvP:
MOAR ZEALOT BOMBS, MOAR REAVER HARASSMENT, MOAR BANSHEE SHENANIGAN, AND MOAR MIND GAMES!1!1!!1

And some bla bla bla for the Zerg defence

Nullifier is renamed into Sentinel.
It is built from the Robotic facility.
Costs 125/100 and uses 3 supply.
It is a flying unit.
It has no attack.
It has three spells and one passive ability.

Serenity:

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Rupture

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Null ward

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Safeguard

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Why?

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I think it is hard to play vs Terran siege lines.
I rarely dare to attack as Protoss vs T, or as Zerg vs T, if I know he goes mech.
As soon as I send in my army, and the siege tanks start to hit my army, I retreat.
No matter if there only is 2 or 10 tanks.
I've seen this behavior in many games by many players:
Zerg or Protoss got a larger army, they attack, and retreat even if there are only few siege tanks defending.

Why?

Z or P has no way of knowing how much stuff T has!
They always have to attack into the darkness.
I think this can be annoying for newcomers and lead to stale games.

If T has Tanks, Spider mines and Turrets at an area, P or Z can not scout it.
Any type of unit they send to scout will die immediately: Zergling, Overseer, Observer.
I think each race needs another scouting ability.

Suggestion:
Zerg gains back Changeling at the Overseer.
Protoss Observer gains an ability that allows them to "scan" into the nearby darkness.
(It used to be on the Scout before HoTS)

Thoughts?

We've seen quite a lot of Baneling play lately. They really do dominate battles, especially in TvZ vs bio.
I think Banelings should remain in the game cause there are some unique advantages with them.
But I would prefer to make them less dominant in straight up combat, especially in TvZ.

Simple suggestion:

Bring back the old version of Combat shield. Make it require Factory.
It reduces splash damage to Marines by 50%.
Makes Bio more viable vs Archons, Reavers, Banelings, Siege tanks, Spider mines. (Not Lurkers or Psi Storm!)
We had it in the game for 6 months ago and it seemed to work quite well.
Banelings really got less cost efficent. Not completely worthless. Just not as dominating.
I don't remember why it got removed.
Could have been with the transistion into HoTS...

Unintended consequenses with such an upgrade?