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On April 20 2011 16:33 Telenil wrote:
Excellent post, I always enjoy that sort of guesswork.
Since this post is about physics, maintaining the suspension of disbelief and the such:
it sounds a bit strange to have a fully functionnal combat shield built on the field from spare parts. I don' t know, could the gear be brought to the soldiers by untrained military personnel or something of the sort? I thought about it. One could assume a weaponry distribution which is just not visualized on screen. But would those guys enter combat zones? How can they reach islands? Why is the upgrade cost for few marines as high as for entire divisions?
My spare part explanation however is not too reasonable, too. I don't have too big issues with the assumption that the combat shield is actually build on the field during a break. I think I will rework this part slightly to propose that the marines leave the barracks with various parts a field pack and then got radioed how to build a shield in the field.
On April 20 2011 16:33 Telenil wrote:
About the high number of MULEs and supply in a satellite: I think it would feel more natural (IMHO) to assume the orbital command uses the satellite to request for a drop, with the mules or the extra supply being stored somewhere else on the planet, or even in orbit but not necessarily in a permanent satellite. Whatever terran compounds stores the stuff then launches a drop-pod towards the location of the orbital command. Perhaps the OC also has to keep a connexion active with the satellite in order to guide the drop-pod (so it doesn't have to land near the OC or crash in the nearby zerg base), which is why you can't ask for 100 drops with the "energy" of one high definition video. This is a good idea to explain why a simple "drop pod" command takes quite a large amount of energy.
My greatest issue with calldown is the fast arrival. It should take much longer to travel through the atmosphere. Similar to the marines who can build a combat shield in the field during a (non-shown) combat break, I accept this fast arrival as part of space/time distortion in the visualization to keep the game responsive.
Another assumption of mine is that also a battle cruiser orbits the base. This is how the Terrans arrive in the first place and a cruiser could store almost infinite amounts of small robots or supply provisions. But then we have the question why the battle cruiser does not contribute to the battle.
Your thoughts brought me to a possible explanation is that some kind of a big supply ship is used to store all these extra stuff. This keeps the Terrans agile on the battle field.
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Interesting stuff. Things are explained pretty well here.
I've always wondered how does a lowered supply depot work. Why is it that a burrowed roach can crawl underneath a lowered supply depot, but not a normal one?
I also got a question for you for the zerg one that Tastosis themselves have been asking often: where does the scorpion go?
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On April 20 2011 18:05 slmw wrote:
Interesting stuff. Things are explained pretty well here.
I've always wondered how does a lowered supply depot work. Why is it that a burrowed roach can crawl underneath a lowered supply depot, but not a normal one? I am thinking about an explanation but it would be an obviously made-up explanation.
Why can't a zerg travel underneath any building? Probably the weight of the buildings presses the sand so tight that a roach or infestor cannot pass. Being however able to tunnel under a sunken depot is an obvious continuity issue.
On April 20 2011 18:05 slmw wrote:
I also got a question for you for the zerg one that Tastosis themselves have been asking often: where does the scorpion go? The defiler?
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Nice read, looking forward to the zerg guide.
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Another assumption of mine is that also a battle cruiser orbits the base. This is how the Terrans arrive in the first place and a cruiser could store almost infinite amounts of small robots or supply provisions. But then we have the question why the battle cruiser does not contribute to the battle. Then it doesn't have to be a battlecruiser, it can be a Hercules-style transport. Something used to transport men and materials, and to be protected by the rest of the fleet.
I think there should be ways to write interesting things with the Protoss, too. Despite the infamous prophecy and magic artefacts that dot the WoL campaign, protoss technology is still technology. If I remember correctly, the Starcraft manual explains that nexus are a link to the psionic matrix on Aiur, with pylons then relaying this energy to the various protoss building. I'll try to do a bit of digging on this when I have time.
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On April 20 2011 20:25 Telenil wrote:Show nested quote +Another assumption of mine is that also a battle cruiser orbits the base. This is how the Terrans arrive in the first place and a cruiser could store almost infinite amounts of small robots or supply provisions. But then we have the question why the battle cruiser does not contribute to the battle. Then it doesn't have to be a battlecruiser, it can be a Hercules-style transport. Something used to transport men and materials, and to be protected by the rest of the fleet. I think there should be ways to write interesting things with the Protoss, too. Despite the infamous prophecy and magic artefacts that dot the WoL campaign, protoss technology is still technology. If I remember correctly, the Starcraft manual explains that nexus are a link to the psionic matrix on Aiur, with pylons then relaying this energy to the various protoss building. I'll try to do a bit of digging on this when I have time. I would be thankful because my Protoss explanation will be the shortest. (edit: Removed "by far". By now I wrote down a sketch with is not too short.) It still is mainly "technology so advanced it appears as magic to the human brain" and "they are warping resources to distant planets and they warp back the assembled units" and "gates can somehow focus the warp to it is possible to materialize those units anywhere in range of the 'psi' energy matrix".
The zerg part will probably be the largest as I describe some processes in detail.
The reference to the Hercules is another great idea, I will mention it for the terran part.
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Nice read!... Remember reading 100 debate page on SClegacy by reading this.. xD
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Congrats! The descriptions are very cool.
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well from the 3 races the protoss are probably the closest to their warhammer40k conterpart in terms of lore. Especially in terms of buildings and saving the wounded. But i guess for the most parts you will have to rely on the blizzard explanations.
as for the suddenly appearing marine shields. shuttles can drop lil supply boxes for the troops on the battlefield, as long as the fleet is controlling parts of the orbit above the battlefield. The stable price and duration might be the cost and time it needs to distribute the shields.
I mean the high tech weapons are already there, but why supply your troops on some backwater planet with it as long as the threat of the enemy isn't high enough. So once you got the approval from your superiors its just a matter of time until the supplys arrive
Why the price of the troops doesn't increase i can't really help you with. Better material means higher price normally, but maybe since you get the tech it means there is an approvement that your region is more dangerous, so you will get more material per mined crystal as some sort of bonus for to be able to make the region saver (crystals are used to produce energy, so you can't really do anything with them and need to trade them for material, or if you go with the you can make anything out of it, it means you get a free upgrade making the outcome per crystal better)
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I just don't understand how Humans can survive on planets such as Char with their visor open.
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On April 20 2011 22:38 FeyFey wrote:
well from the 3 races the protoss are probably the closest to their warhammer40k conterpart in terms of lore. Especially in terms of buildings and saving the wounded. But i guess for the most parts you will have to rely on the blizzard explanations. I try to keep the lore out of it when possible as there are already many lore guides. There is much lore especially for Protoss but little explanation how it "really" works. I try to make that up.
On April 20 2011 22:38 FeyFey wrote:
as for the suddenly appearing marine shields. shuttles can drop lil supply boxes for the troops on the battlefield, as long as the fleet is controlling parts of the orbit above the battlefield. The stable price and duration might be the cost and time it needs to distribute the shields.
I mean the high tech weapons are already there, but why supply your troops on some backwater planet with it as long as the threat of the enemy isn't high enough. So once you got the approval from your superiors its just a matter of time until the supplys arrive
Why the price of the troops doesn't increase i can't really help you with. Better material means higher price normally, but maybe since you get the tech it means there is an approvement that your region is more dangerous, so you will get more material per mined crystal as some sort of bonus for to be able to make the region saver (crystals are used to produce energy, so you can't really do anything with them and need to trade them for material, or if you go with the you can make anything out of it, it means you get a free upgrade making the outcome per crystal better) About the combat shield price I assume that for every marine, the barracks also produce some spare parts and not only the rifle and suit. This is reasonable as the armor suit would need some repair from time to time anyway. The upgrade price is needed for the research how to use existing parts to build a combat shield.
The explanation with drop pods to distribute them sounds reasonable, too. Since Terrans have some stuff in the orbit anyway, they should be able to use it as a distribution system for their troops. I insert this in the OP. Blizzard originally even considered to give the Ghost a marine drop pod calldown ability so this is a reasonable explanation.
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Thanks [F_]aths! Just, lovely! Keep it up, its this sort of stuff that amps me up to play more starcraft.
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On April 20 2011 18:21 [F_]aths wrote:
The defiler?
Nope. The scorpion can be seen inside hatcheries and spawning pools when they are building.
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ive always imagined the upgrades to be to the combat suit and not to the marine himself. like in his combat suit he probably has some aiming assistance from a computer etc. the damage units deal folds in their accuracy, and so by upgrading the computer (which is easy to do wirelessly) the marines performance can be increased, even while out in the field.
stim would be a similar thing, the drugs were always in the suit, but with the ability to use them disabled so marines dont just get wasted on drugs while not fighting, only once it is clear that this is a large scale conflict are the marines allowed access to the stim pack.
combat shields, i have no idea 
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On April 21 2011 02:48 slmw wrote:Nope. The scorpion can be seen inside hatcheries and spawning pools when they are building. I will cover that, it is the drone with degenerated "wings". Currently I need to reorganize the zerg stuff to make it readable.
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Entertaining read can't wait for the next one.
Looking forward to seeing how someone will explain how a nydus network can transcend time and space. =)
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Nice read. I'd like to hear about the technology behind banshee/ghost cloaking and medivac healing.
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This is almost like a tutorial written for Terran
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nice read! well done  keep it up.
also, explain how banshees fly in space
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The one thing that I always wonder: When you're playing as the zerg, who are you?
As terran I'd imagine you're the commander sitting in the battlecruiser in high orbit giving orders from above (that's why it's an overhead view)
As protoss it's the same, except that you're an executor in a Carrier.
In BW, I always imagined that you were a cerebrate, but they're all dead now, aren't they? My current theory is that you're a special overlord (an Ultralord, if you will).
I'm posting this here because this is the only thread where that thought could be even a tiny bit relevant.
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EPT
