[D] Zerg creep: Killing the Zerg spirit?

For a hundred-odd responses on this topic, see the TeamLiquid thread here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=144836

This has been bugging me for some time, and while I am not a particularly good player I feel that the point is still a legitimate one: creep, as it stands now, runs counter to everything Zerg, and is hurting the gameplay of the race. Zerg is the swarm, an overwhelming force that is summoned seemingly from thin air and that is gone just as swiftly, leaving behind only corpses to tell of their passing. They strike fear into their foes that dare leave the sanctuary of their base, striking at anywhere and everywhere and melting away before reprisal can come. Their army might break under the full might that the other races can bring to bear, but it doesn't matter after a thousand pinprick strikes have left them crippled before the final battle can even begin.

Except, with creep, this does not happen; it cannot. The only ground unit that is truly mobile off creep is the Zergling, a unit that is simply too weak to deal with defenses before the army arrives. In the early game Zerg pressure is reliant on overwhelming force rather than mobility, considering that off creep Roaches don't swarm, they lumber. That the only early attack a Zerg can attempt is a Baneling bust, a sudden and overwhelming burst of damage, is at least in part because even if units DO get into the enemy base, Zerglings are too feeble to do much damage, and Roaches are too slow. They can get kited into the ground while reinforcements crawl across the map.

It isn't until mid game that your creep network can really start claiming a significant part of the map, considering that the cost in larva for a single early creep tumor is debilitating to your economy and to your army. You need a second queen, and a third once the requisite early expansion claims the second. If left entirely unhindered, which is unlikely considering that a push or harass is likely to come soon after your expansion rises, then you should be able to creep up a good part of your side of the map. This lets you defend, but at the same time the true disadvantage of creep becomes clear when your first Hydra, lost and confused, stumbles off the creep and becomes one of the least mobile units in the game. In mid game creep hinders Zerg because an otherwise equal Zerg army off creep isn't equal at all, lacking the speed to flank or the ability to retreat. You don't try to harass at this point because the mighty swarm will be caught by the enemy if it attempts to flee.

And then, when we leave the mid game and enter the late, it all comes undone as detection hits the field and fifteen minutes of work is undone by creep tumors being sniped at will. The game has to end here for the Zerg, because even if they defend the push they have lost all mobility. They will be unable to defend their expansions or reinforce their army as they need to. And the Zerg will have had the creep pushed back hopelessly from their opponent, and certainly away from the wall at the front that they cannot hope to assault with their lumbering force.

The reason that Zergs so rarely attack until they have soundly defeated an enemy push is that they have to be certain of their advantages when going into a battle, seeing as how they know full well of the disadvantages.

I like the idea behind creep, that the Zerg are literally infesting the map itself, claiming if for the Swarm and marking it as an undeniable danger to those who would intrude. But making the Zerg army flatly stronger on the creep undermines their nature, forcing them to be defensive rather than offensive and crippling their attempts to pressure the enemy or punish him for being too greedy and spreading too far. When Zerg players feel the need to only engage on creep then something has gone terribly, terribly wrong with the race.

There are ways to fix this. Even without speed the vision it provides and ability to delay expansions it enables make creep worthwhile to spread. But creep giving a bonus to the swarm itself is something that should stay, just not through speed. I'd personally prefer something that encourages hit and run tactics rather than discouraging them as it does now. Two suggestions I've seen are to give Zerg faster regeneration on creep, or to allow them to build Nydus Worms faster/cheaper/free on creep. With either Zerg would feel the need to return to the creep whenever possible, but it would not make their army any weaker when they leave. The regeneration would allow small strike forces to nurse their wounds before returning to a new location to wreak further havoc. My favorite result would be the synergy that creep would have with burrow, by allowing units to be both invisible and recuperating, safely encompassed by purple goo. This is not without risks; a zerg that haphazardly burrows their army after a battle will be helpless if detection arrives. A Terran quick with a scan could burn out a great deal of the army that thought it had bought time to heal. Perhaps this synergy could go even further by removing the visible movement of Roaches and Infestors moving under creep, giving the Zerg ambush a new life on their home turf.

Improved Nydus Worms on creep would give the Zerg later in the game that feeling of being anywhere at once. At that point you should have the ability to find and destroy tumors nearby, and you would want to do so so that you don't find the Zerg army hitting you while out of position and vanishing when you pull together to fight them. It would also give a bit of synergy between overlord creep and Nydus Worms, as Overlords can reach further and faster than tumors and would thus allow a greater range of mobility than a simple speed boost now does. It would also give Zerg players a choice; risk being more visible when building an offensive worm by having the Overlord there to build faster, or take the slower route without an Overlord and face the threat of being overwhelmed by simple workers before it completes?

One other suggestion that should be applied even if the speed mechanic remains is allowing tumors to gain health the longer they are left untouched. This would entrench the Zerg creep in areas it has held for longer and reward them further for spreading creep as soon as possible.

I'm certain Blizzard considered most if not all of these ideas before deciding on the speed boost, so I'm also curious as to why you think they would have chosen not to implement them.