Heart of the Swarm (details, discussion, etc) - Page 46

On August 28 2012 17:20 mikethenewman wrote:
I think my points and ideas touch alot on the lore panels and what has been discussed.

+ Show Spoiler +

I think you are attacking the massager and not the message here.

I presented the fact that Kerrigan will leave Raynor and them, and that it will happen after Nova assaults them, it is clear as she will set out on her path of destiny, the uniting of the swarm, dealing with Mengsk and preparing for the hybrids.

her Zerg abilities she will regain with the help of the Zerg NPCs in the story, however her Terran/Ghost abilities she will regain with interacting/fighting with Nova and the other Ghosts and Spectres, and relearn/regain her past aspects of her human side through these experiences. I do not abandon the fact that most of her strength will come from being with the Zerg, I did not present this information as it was already quite present.

The story needs to inter/over-arch for the next chapter, LOTV and that is why Kerrigans motives are not only to gather the swarm again to rid of Mengsk, but to prepare for the coming of the Hybrids, you need to look further than the present foe in the picture.

Valerian will leave Warfield, as he sees that Warfield is loyal to Mengsk and the Dominion, he will side with Raynor and crew in order to achieve his own prophecy of becoming the next leader of the Terrans. While Warfield did have a truce with Raynor on Char, it was a common purpose, to dispose of a greater threat, but now with that out of the way, the Dominion still wants to get rid of the Raynors Raiders and other rebels, so Warfield will go back to being against Raynor, he is just following orders.

I have read and watched some of the lore panels, and I can see what you mean by them, but you also need to take into consideration, that until the game is not shipped, its not done, blizzard is constantly changing the story of the game just like the multiplayer units. They also dont have the best history of accurate lore presentation themselves sadly, as much as i like them. I dont think my theories are too farfetched or out of bounds with that has been presented, and i think some very valid points can be taken from them. Im happy about your feedback though, thank you

On August 29 2012 10:32 Forikorder wrote:
im not attacking anyone you asked for feedback and it seemed like you werent as caught up in what Blizz has said so i told you some stuff thats been released nothing more

also i think Warfield and Raynor bonded a good bit on Char

On August 29 2012 13:20 mikethenewman wrote:



I mistook your words then, my apologies. I think you could theorize then, that Mengsk being a paranoid man fearful of his position may have installed the same device on Warfield and other high ranking members of his Dominion as on Tychus, should they get out of line or rebel he just hits the button and they go to sleep for a very very very long time.
We'll see how it turns out though...

On August 28 2012 17:20 mikethenewman wrote:
I think my points and ideas touch alot on the lore panels and what has been discussed.

+ Show Spoiler +

I think you are attacking the massager and not the message here.

I presented the fact that Kerrigan will leave Raynor and them, and that it will happen after Nova assaults them, it is clear as she will set out on her path of destiny, the uniting of the swarm, dealing with Mengsk and preparing for the hybrids.

her Zerg abilities she will regain with the help of the Zerg NPCs in the story, however her Terran/Ghost abilities she will regain with interacting/fighting with Nova and the other Ghosts and Spectres, and relearn/regain her past aspects of her human side through these experiences. I do not abandon the fact that most of her strength will come from being with the Zerg, I did not present this information as it was already quite present.

The story needs to inter/over-arch for the next chapter, LOTV and that is why Kerrigans motives are not only to gather the swarm again to rid of Mengsk, but to prepare for the coming of the Hybrids, you need to look further than the present foe in the picture.

Valerian will leave Warfield, as he sees that Warfield is loyal to Mengsk and the Dominion, he will side with Raynor and crew in order to achieve his own prophecy of becoming the next leader of the Terrans. While Warfield did have a truce with Raynor on Char, it was a common purpose, to dispose of a greater threat, but now with that out of the way, the Dominion still wants to get rid of the Raynors Raiders and other rebels, so Warfield will go back to being against Raynor, he is just following orders.

I have read and watched some of the lore panels, and I can see what you mean by them, but you also need to take into consideration, that until the game is not shipped, its not done, blizzard is constantly changing the story of the game just like the multiplayer units. They also dont have the best history of accurate lore presentation themselves sadly, as much as i like them. I dont think my theories are too farfetched or out of bounds with that has been presented, and i think some very valid points can be taken from them. Im happy about your feedback though, thank you

On August 30 2012 08:23 phantastron wrote:

how the hell did you get that leak info?

Gaming Insight: Getting to the Singleplayer for a moment: In Wings of Liberty, the player had lots of choices, in regards to both the technology he wants to develop and sometimes what missions he wants to do next, shaping the story with it. Compared to WoL, how many choices will we have in HotS?

Milker: We definitly spent a lot of time in WoL trying to provide a lot of player-options. Everything from the tech-purchases that we had and mercenaries that you can purchase. When we went to HotS we really wanted to carry some of those ideas forward, but put a new kind of zerg-spin on them: First of all we have Kerrigan playable on almost all of the 20 missions in HotS. So she is leveling up as you play through the campaign and she is gaining new abilities, that you can kind of pick and choose, as you are playing through the campaign. So you got a lot of variety there on her.

But on the army side we actually let you individually kind of upgrade and modify each unit in the zerg swarm. So you have got everything from the zergling to the Ultralisk in your evolution chamber and you are able to select them individually and as you unlock certain abilities you can get individual upgrades.

And then ultimately there is actually a unit split, where you can choose from for every unit as well. Things like on the baneling you get to choose to be a splitterling, which is a baneling, which once it explodes two smaller banelings are spawned and then they go on to do additional damage versus the Raptor, which is a baneling, that can leap over things and then detonate. So each unit you get to make that kind of choices. So cool upgrades, and then really cool split and then actually visual change as well as getting really unique new features. And of course there’s all sort of crazy stuff that we never could do at multiplayer, but we get to go to town in the campaign and really provide a lot of interesting gameplay like that.


Gaming Insight: Is the storyline for Legacy of the Void already done?

Milker: So do we know what’s gonna happen in Legacy of the Void? When we sat down and began working on StarCraft 2, we definitely knew the overarching story that we wanted to tell. So the general outline of where that’s going is definitely established, but as we get to each chapter in the trilogy, we’re able to kind of decide how we wanna flesh out the in-between of those major plot points. Obviously we’re completely focused on HotS right now. We’re in the final development stages, polishing it up. Adding all of our final Blizzard touches to it. Putting easter egg right now in, actually. And while we’re doing that stuff, we’re able to - through the missions - decide what kind of extra stuff we wanna add on to that core story that we’re trying to tell.

(...)

Gaming Insight: Can you tell us something about the release date of the Beta or HotS itself?

Milker: So how close are we to actually finishing HotS? We are actually in the very final stages right now of polishing HotS. On the campaign side, all the missions are done, we’re basically just tuning difficulty on it. Like I said, adding that final level of Blizzard polish, that we’re so famous for. All those little details and like I said easter eggs and fun stuff like that that we’re putting into it. On the multiplayer side we’re actively working on locking down the balance to get a beta build together. And once we have that, we’ll go into beta. And the beta process will take as much time as we need to kind of make sure that the multiplayer balance and the units are where they need to be. And once we’re feeling confident that things are set for esports and for people to start playing, we’ll solidify a release date and announce it.

On August 31 2012 22:26 nerak wrote:
Oh, so you want info? OK then.



I think it answers most of out doubts: the story is finished, but they're polishing the campaign, LotV isn't on production yet (but what are the voice actors being called for? All Stars?). The Raptor's now a baneling! (nooooo)

I actually think that, since they're still tweking difficulty, neither the evolution chamber upgrades nor Kerrigan's powers are settled yet. I really hope they balance the missions and abilities in a more clever way. WoL felt so gimmicky, every mission had the right unit and ability that would solve your problem. It didn't feel like there was much versatility involved.

The thing with RPG-like games is that when you make bad decisions about where to place your "points", you start losing and that frustates you. Blizzard has this extreme zero-frustation policy nowadays... I feel like there can be no "wrong choices" in the Armory or Evolution Chamber, since they don't want their costumers to be frustated at any point of the experience. This means no upgrade can be too weak, nor too powerful compared to others, nor too specific. In other words, none of them can actually make so much difference in the way you'll finish the missions. The upgrades are more flavour then anything.

And that frustates me XD

Kerrigan being able to switch "modes" like we do in Diablo 3 is a good thing. But why not punish us for making bad decisions when choosing her powers and the army's upgrades? Maybe a RTS game shouldn't be about the decisions you make outside the battlefield? What you guys think?

On September 01 2012 15:47 Supert0fu wrote:
I'm hoping Kerrigan dies and a new overmind takes over (mayne the hybrid's/duran takes over and controls the zerg.) If Kerrigan doesn't die this series is just going to end so poorly.

On September 02 2012 08:42 Forikorder wrote:

good guys need someone who can control the Swarm, the Swarm is hands down the strongest army in existance, nothing has been able to hold against the actual might of the swarm jsut slip around the bulk of its strength

On September 02 2012 18:05 schmutttt wrote:


Tyranids >>>>>> the swarm