Had the UED fleet of BW always meant to be only a very small amount of the whole military force? Alexi says to Duke "We represent the "combined might of the UED", and I'm not sure, but I think something was said at the BW epilogue about the UED been crushed or something like that. So were they a gigantically large army at the time that Broodwar had been developed, or did Blizzard just make it up afterwards?
Originally it was to turn the overmind into a weapon for Earth, but that plan failed. Earth is a very long way away, so is it safe to assume that they have the tech, resources and real estate that they won't be expanding to the Dominion sector in a hurry? Then there is the possibility of revenge, but that would hardly be a reasonable thing to do when they have an empire to run and their own domestic conflicts.
How did the UED know about the second overmind but not Zeratul? It wouldn't make much sense for the UED to have sent human spies because no one could possibly have an incentive to volunteer for such a job.
How is the UPL so amazingly efficient that they turned into the UED, amassed a fleet, trained the people to kill Zerg, invent specialised anti-zerg weaponry including a pharmaceutical that is able to control the eternal will of the swarm and spent weeks or months travelling all the way to Braxis? We're told that the UED mobilized in response to the second overmind, so they must have done all of this in a few months at most.
Have the UED even met a zerg prior to the events of SCI?
If the UED could make a a serum for the overmind, then why didn't the confederates have something like it? They at least understand how psi emitters work, and they ran experiments on Sarah...
Why has no one attempted to build a new psi disruptor these past four years?
Why did Blizzard need to bring the UED into SC anyway? Wasn't there some mention of the Umojan Protectorate or Kel Morians in SC during the terran campaign? Why introduce a brand new group of humans when there are already two other which have barely been sketched out and are dying for development?
I don't remember ever getting the SC manual with my battlechest, so maybe these questions have offical answers already.
I'd really like to visit a SC lore panel with a couple of hours of one one one questioning.
The UED is far larger than the Confederacy or the Dominion ever were. Their army in Brood War was basically a scouting party, and look at what they did.
Also, new psi disruptors weren't built because Kerrigan took the Zerg and hid for 4 years. With the Overmind gone, the UED went home and Mengsk was like "they aren't around so who cares?"
On October 13 2010 22:59 tofucake wrote: The UED is far larger than the Confederacy or the Dominion ever were. Their army in Brood War was basically a scouting party, and look at what they did.
How does that answer my questions regarding the amazing ability of the UED to be seemingly all knowing and with more Zerg expertise than the locals?
The UED is far larger then the confederacy as tofucake said and they're more technologically advanced then the confederacy as well because when the confederate colonies crash landed they were in a cold sleep for some sixty something years or something like that pushing their technology back even further while the technology on Earth advanced at a rapid pace. The UED never met a zerg prior to the SC1 events. If you listen to the converstation Stukov and Dugalle have in the Brood War intro, you'll hear Stukov reference how they've "all seen the tapes a hundred" clearly indicating that they've never come in contact with the Zerg.
Here's an interesting fact I think you guys should know.
The UED was actually suppose to be a fourth race in Starcraft. With completely different units then the Terrans. However, Blizzard found it too time consuming while they faced a limited schedule to get brood war released. The UED units would have all had russian type accents and the Valkyrie was the first unit created for the new UED race before they stopped the project. Besides that, I don't think the UED units could run off of vespene since they've only recently found out about it on their arrival of the Koprulu sector. Which explains why they "Hijacked" all of those dominion battle cruiser from the shipyards. The UED were only interested in pacifying the Zerg and using them to neutralize the protoss and to overthrow Mengsk corrupt governement (which they did) and with a very small branch of the UED army too. Mengsk couldn't find the Psi Disrupter, but somehow the UED went straight to it. I think the confederate scientist who innovated the Psi Disrupter and it's infrastructure died when the Zerg swarm overran the planet.
I don't think the UED will return to the sector even though they're the strongest force. Blizzard knows this and that if that were to happen then the story would be to one sided. If this were to happen; blizzard would have to create an entirely new terran race and I don't think their willing to invest time in doing that since balancing three races is very time consuming and hard. However, there's a possibility of two more races being added into the Starcraft engine (The UED & Hybrids). But, we'll see if blizzard actually decides to take this route.
On October 13 2010 23:18 StunnerZ4 wrote: I don't think the UED will return to the sector even though they're the strongest force and could rival the hybrids with ease. Blizzard knows this and that if that were to happen then the story would be to one sided. If this were to happen; blizzard would have to create an entirely new terran race and I don't think their willing to invest time in doing that since balancing three races is very time consuming and hard. However, there's a possibility of two more races being added into the Starcraft engine (The UED & Hybrids). But, we'll see if blizzard actually decides to take this route.
Hope this helps
Strongest force and rival the Hybrids with ease? As far as I know (referring to Metzens statements) they are more advanced than the Koprulu Terrans, but I don't think that this would necessarily mean that they are more advanced than the Protoss for example. Their actions and their knowledge does not seem to indicate that in my opinion. Am I mistaken here?
Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
I think you are correct in your assessment, LBo. Whatever might have been Blizzards intent for the UED at one point they obviously did not choose to take them that way. In the end, OP, I think your questions are going to be best answered by running through the campaign in SC1/BW again, and make sure you read the books that came with the games. You can delve into the novels if you want, but I don't know if the answers you are looking for are in there (I've never read them). One thing that I've read in discussions about this in the past and that can be infered from the game (think the secret mission) is that the Xel-Naga have for whatever reason been influencing Terran advancement (at least in the UED). I think (hope?) more of this will be brought to light as we get through the next two installments of SC2. Does that answer your questions? No, probably not in any concrete and satisfying way, but I don't think Blizzard wants you to have a complete answer yet so you buy the next two installments.
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
And I saw a topic earier speaking about the whole "Stukov de-infestation" mission being canon. However, this actually did happen in the Starcraft Universe. Since a lot of you are arrogant and full of self pride and seek self pride by calling me a liar, then I'll start linking you.
true that the ued was far more advanced that the domian or confederates, but rivaling the hybrids? not a chance lol. the telepathic abilities of the protoss and the genetic perfection of the zerg? purity essence and purity of form. they're nearly godlike.
On October 14 2010 03:12 StunnerZ4 wrote: And I saw a topic earier speaking about the whole "Stukov de-infestation" mission being canon. However, this actually did happen in the Starcraft Universe. Since a lot of you are arrogant and full of self pride and seek self pride by calling me a liar, then I'll start linking you.
Sry, but I do not think that my post was arrogant and full of self pride. The interview you linked doesn't say something about the alleged allmightiness of the UED you mentioned. I know some of the stuff on sclegacy and I never read something like your statement above. Metzen said something like "Oh, they let their pretty advanced stuff at home" (jokingly referring to Über Tachyon lasers if I remember right) but he did not say that they would overpower the Protoss or something like that.
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
I'll look, but results are mired by SC2 beta images now.
Anyway, I haven't seen a rep post on TL before. Also, your grammar was quite poor. Also, people like to say they are Blizzard reps to try and make themselves feel important. Also, most reps aren't quite as arrogant as you are. In fact, spouting a bunch of stuff in a random post on TL with poor grammar and no confirmation that they are, in fact, a Blizzard employee by TL staff (who confirm statements like that with mod edits) is not something Blizzard would do.
[edit] Early alpha
Very early beta
Playable beta
PS, not to mention that Blizzard reps don't sign posts with "~ Blizzard rep"
Without commenting on the arguments back and forth, I'll definately second the statement that no Blizzard employe would ever sign a post on a random starcraft forum with "Blizzard rep". That's just absurd and I don't know why you're seeking attention and confirmation this way.
As far as I understand the UED did only send a scouting party but their final army was NOT their scouting party. Their scouting party secured the shipyards and basically stole a battle cruiser fleet out from under the dominion. They brought along some tech they thought would be most useful like Valkyries and medics but because it would have been too difficult for them to move an entire fleet over they just sent a scouting party. They also probably wanted to keep their actual fleet in reserve incase they were attacked or something.
1. The UED must have scouted Char (and yes, people are always willing to do anything), and since learning about the Overmind in the first place I think that one of their primary goals at the outset of Brood War was to control the Overmind. They were all there after all to pacify the Koprulu sector and bring it under UED control, which they did until Kerrigan got pissed off about it. Also while Zeratul is quite the world traveler he has no way of knowing if there was a new Overmind or not. Psionic powers aren't the Force - after all, Zeratul couldn't sense Kerrigan BEHIND HIM in SC2.
2. I think the UED mounted up as soon as either the Zerg threat became known or as soon as the Confederacy fell. They must have had an information source on Tarsonis, even since the founding of the sector. Also the travel to Braxis took YEARS, because the Koprulu sector is FAR from Earth. They must have even left sooner than the Zerg becoming known. And don't you worry about the logistics of the matter. Never underestimate the production ability if dictatorial Russians. Remember that this is an expeditionary fleet, not even close to the size of the main forces at Earth.
3. No, the UED had not encountered the Zerg before (neither had anyone else, for that matter). The Protoss might have known, hence their rather disproportionate response to the invasions of Mar Sara and Chau Sara, but the Terrans definitely didn't.
4. Who ran experiments on Sarah? The UED basically capitalized on every piece of anti-Zerg technology available in the sector. Other more advanced technology they either researched or acquired themselves.
5. The Zerg disappeared, and the technology was lost with the last one. The Dominion at least focused on anti-Zerg tech in the form of the Odin program and the Hybrid experiments...
6. The Umojans keep to themselves, hence the 'Protectorate' part, and then Kel-Morians are really only concerned with mining and business. Since the Dominion had pretty much unified the majority of the sector outside the other two Terran factions, Blizzard needed some other TvT conflict for the Terran campaign, hence the UED. It couldn't have been the Dominion, because they're bad, so they made up a new faction with equally dubious Terran morals, and fought the Dominion. Plot-wise there is not much to develop with two stagnant factions.
7. I've read the both manuals front and back. It helps. I love the lore behind pretty much anything I get into.
On October 14 2010 06:09 TheGiz wrote: 2. I think the UED mounted up as soon as either the Zerg threat became known or as soon as the Confederacy fell. They must have had an information source on Tarsonis, even since the founding of the sector. Also the travel to Braxis took YEARS, because the Koprulu sector is FAR from Earth. They must have even left sooner than the Zerg becoming known. And don't you worry about the logistics of the matter. Never underestimate the production ability if dictatorial Russians. Remember that this is an expeditionary fleet, not even close to the size of the main forces at Earth.
I guess they took a French and a Russian as commanders of the fleet just to emphasise the fact that these people are actually from Earth where the cultures of the different countries didn't get mixed up by putting them all in a couple of spaceships set for deep space. French, Russian and German (Valkyrie) accents are perhaps the most known and easily recognizable accents for an English audience. The UED is of course an multinational organization but their propaganda and their aesthetics reminds me of the Soviet Union too.
On October 14 2010 06:09 TheGiz wrote: 3. No, the UED had not encountered the Zerg before (neither had anyone else, for that matter). The Protoss might have known, hence their rather disproportionate response to the invasions of Mar Sara and Chau Sara, but the Terrans definitely didn't.
What bothers me is the intro of Brood War where we can see a colony under Zerg attack with the UED monitoring it. It has been stated that they let a Dominion world overrun by Zerg on purpose just for their studies, but how did they do that? Do they have the ability to lure Zerg to a certain goal (without the Confederate Psi Emitter technology) or did they just search for a random colony that was already under attack?
On October 14 2010 06:09 TheGiz wrote: 6. The Umojans keep to themselves, hence the 'Protectorate' part, and then Kel-Morians are really only concerned with mining and business. Since the Dominion had pretty much unified the majority of the sector outside the other two Terran factions, Blizzard needed some other TvT conflict for the Terran campaign, hence the UED. It couldn't have been the Dominion, because they're bad, so they made up a new faction with equally dubious Terran morals, and fought the Dominion. Plot-wise there is not much to develop with two stagnant factions.
I guess you're right that two stagnant factions that were just introduced to bring variation and TvT elements to the story can't serve as main enemies/protagonists in a Terran war because that would mess everything up unless it's not a very essential conflict for both sides. But it really bothers me that Blizzard never seems to care about the Umojans and the Kel-Morians anyway. Even a couple of missions focusing on conflict with them or fighting along side them (like the one in Episode VI) would add so much depth to the story for WoL and the upcoming add-ons.
On a sidenote why didn't they make decals for the Combine and the Protectorate available at least!? They are not even in the Editor and I guess anyone familiar with the lore would appreciate if you could actually get their symbols on the Terran army just like you can get the Dominion badge. As for know there are really some meaningless Terran decals.
On October 14 2010 06:09 TheGiz wrote: 7. I've read the both manuals front and back. It helps. I love the lore behind pretty much anything I get into.
I don't understand this talk of taking years to get to braxis etc...
Can't it's a fairly safe assumption that the UED had access to the same warp technology of the Confederacy/ Dominion or would have access to it during their campaign atleast.
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
None of your other posts every mention that you are a blizz rep
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
None of your other posts every mention that you are a blizz rep
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
None of your other posts every mention that you are a blizz rep
What is in it for the UED to return to the sector? Originally it was to turn the overmind into a weapon for Earth, but that plan failed. Earth is a very long way away, so is it safe to assume that they have the tech, resources and real estate that they won't be expanding to the Dominion sector in a hurry? Then there is the possibility of revenge, but that would hardly be a reasonable thing to do when they have an empire to run and their own domestic conflicts.
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
None of your other posts every mention that you are a blizz rep
Because, frankly speaking, if the UED were to send a full fleet to the sector, there would be not much of a game to be played, would it? Mengsk, let alone Raynor's Raiders, would look like a pipsqueak next to the UED (again). The Zerg, having been defeated by a rag-tag crash-landing bunch of dominion forces as well as the superhuman Raynor & Co (and you!), would be the equivalent of pet poodles if the UED were to visit Char for a tour.
Imagine this - an expeditionary force had totally crushed the dominion and usurped control over the Zerg. If the UED were to gear up for full-fledged war in the interbellum, they would dominate the storyline. Perhaps they will appear when the galaxy is on the brink of destruction as the 3 races unite to defeat the hybrids. Remember, the dominion should be under the control of the dark voice.
Had the UED fleet of BW always meant to be only a very small amount of the whole military force? Alexi says to Duke "We represent the "combined might of the UED", and I'm not sure, but I think something was said at the BW epilogue about the UED been crushed or something like that. So were they a gigantically large army at the time that Broodwar had been developed, or did Blizzard just make it up afterwards?
Updated the OP with this new question which onl occurred to me just now.
On October 14 2010 02:11 tofucake wrote: Slightly off topic, but UED was not going to be a 4th race. The Valkyrie was a unit cut from StarCraft Alpha which was readded in Brood War. Also, I highly doubt you're a rep.
The UED was in fact going to be a fourth race in the starcraft brood war expansion but was discontinued due to time consumption. I'll link you once I recover the source.
Thanks for going out of your way to attempt to prove me wrong and call me out of my job title.
And the Valkyrie was never a physical unit that was created in StarCraft alpha. Only a "damage counter portrait" of the valkyrie was created not an actual unit.
If you can prove me wrong, please link me to an image of the unit.
None of your other posts every mention that you are a blizz rep
Amazing. The blog about his "problem" was just disgusting btw.
On topic: the UED was a bad idea imo. They didn't need it and it kind of sucked anyway.
You are trying to find coherence in a video game scenario, that won't happen. Most videogame with sequels are basically uncoherent mess when it comes to the storyline. Remember the warcraft serie, I mean, Azeroth was supposed to be a kingdom, then it disappeared and turned out to be the name of the whole planet! Or Throne of Bhaal in Baldut's Gate, when "revelation" in the pocketplane go against the entire plot of the first episode.
Even a movie like Star Wars where the storyline is supposed to be the work of professional artists and not random fantasy script writer is a complete mess:
(watch this if you have spare time, that's the most amazing thing ever.)
Just accept that it's not perfectly done, that it's illogical sometimes, and that's it. It's very hard to make a really coherent sequel, their writers are not especially amazing, and they don't really care. And probably they even changed their team at least partially.
its just not possible that earth would send most of its military to a doggone location zillions of light years away from home and abandon self-defense in the process. besides, what does an expeditionary fleet tell you about it?
On October 17 2010 14:09 shadymmj wrote: its just not possible that earth would send most of its military to a doggone location zillions of light years away from home and abandon self-defense in the process. besides, what does an expeditionary fleet tell you about it?
From the dictionary.
an excursion, journey, or voyage made for some specific purpose, as of war or exploration.
Says that a part of the military stayed at home. I'm just curious as to how much. The nature of the objective and Alexis comment on "the combined might of the UED", suggests that the UED gave the Zerg everything that they could spare. Fact that they're the "united" earth directorate could mean that Earth is more or less, well, united. So putting two and two together suggests that the invasion fleet was not half assed. But I'm only commenting on what I noticed in BW, I don't know if I'd take the word of a wiki site that anyone can edit over what I saw in the game.
Says that a part of the military stayed at home. I'm just curious as to how much. The nature of the objective and Alexis comment on "the combined might of the UED", suggests that the UED gave the Zerg everything that they could spare. Fact that they're the "united" earth directorate could mean that Earth is more or less, well, united. So putting two and two together suggests that the invasion fleet was not half assed. But I'm only commenting on what I noticed in BW, I don't know if I'd take the word of a wiki site that anyone can edit over what I saw in the game.
"The combined might of the UED" could very easily refer to the fact that it's the combined might of the various countries on Earth that have formed a UN-like group which is called the UED. It doesn't hint at the amount of resources used in any way.
The Future of the UED
The failure of the offensive and the loss of the expeditionary force was a temporary setback for the United Earth Directorate, the expeditionary force being but only a small fraction of the UED's total strength.[15] The United Earth Directorate remains active in its base of operation on Earth, but it lost interest in the Koprulu Sector, although it hopes to do more in the future.[16]
Here's a quote from the Starcraft Wiki, the source is Chris Metzen at a Blizzcon lore panel in '07. Pretty conclusive statement.
On October 19 2010 10:29 Billy_ wrote: So it was not originally intended then, but one of Chris Metzins infamous revisions.
That's what I wanted to know.
$20 says that the new Blizz IP is called Universe of Starcraft, and that it will be UED vs Hybrids.
Blizzard said quite a long time ago that the new IP isn't anything in the Starcraft, Warcraft, or Diablo universes.
Oh, and absolutely nothing in the UED's story suggests that the fact that the Expeditionary Fleet was only a tiny part of the UED's army was a retcon. You're just claiming it is based on your own definitions/interpretations.
On October 14 2010 07:05 LBo wrote: What bothers me is the intro of Brood War where we can see a colony under Zerg attack with the UED monitoring it. It has been stated that they let a Dominion world overrun by Zerg on purpose just for their studies, but how did they do that? Do they have the ability to lure Zerg to a certain goal (without the Confederate Psi Emitter technology) or did they just search for a random colony that was already under attack?
I believe they just picked up a random distress beacon and went and checked it out. That's why the marine in the intro was asking the firebat where the help was, and why it seemed like the UED had come to help.
It's possible that the UED didn't even know about the destruction of the First Overmind in the first place, so they didn't even know it was the second Overmind they were controlling.
EPT
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