This posting attempts to explain the physical world of Starcraft 2. The explanation aspires to fulfill known laws of physics as good as possible, and being compatible with the official lore.
The post is not made to retell official lore even though it sometimes uses lore. It covers the basics of each race as an aid to maintain the suspension of disbelieve.
Every race is now online. Most holes should be fixed by now.
Please feel free to comment, suggest, or correct. Please also feel free to help me improve wording as I am no native english speaker.
So far I included contributions from L6-636536 (#1, #2), Telenil (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7), FeyFey (#1), turdburgler (#1), Killcycle (#1, #2), Scryedo89 (#1, #2, #3, #4), Simberto (#1, #2), Autofire2 (#1), Bswhunter (#1), julianto (#1, #2), Kinetik_Inferno (#1), Teivospy (#1), Malhavoc (#1), OsoVega (#1), kunstderfugue (#1), Satallgeese (#1) and Aelip (#1). Thank you!
ShamTao provided (via PM) great additions about the zerg evolution and how they incorporate genes of different life forms to the swarm.
Satallgeese provided many new zerg details, some of them are directly copied from his posting.
orotoss (#1) and flavorless (#1) noticed some holes which are now filled.
colanderman (#1) and Scryedo89 (#1) helped to improve wording.
Extra contributions from Kinetik_Inferno and Morfildur are available at the bottom of the running text.
How could Starcraft work if it would be real?
Possible view from the Koprulu sector into the stars
Several hundred years from now and with multiple breakthroughs in understanding the fundamentals of space and time, mankind set sails to the stars.
How a Terran base works
The Terran war machine implies that you have endless recruits available for which you just need to build the weapons as armor suits, rifles, or complete tanks to muster them. Terrans descend from us, humans, and just recently arrived in the Starcraft part of the galaxy which is labelled the Koprulu sector. The harsh life on alien planets and conflict between several Terran factions, as well as being in war with two powerful alien races, forced the Terrans to build an insane military-industrial complex to survive.
Any Terran base is set up near mineral crystals. Those crystals often grow in arcs. The cause of this is not completely understood. The crystals contain various minerals which can be extracted and directly used, or be transformed to substitute virtually any other material. Around those minerals one can often find geysers. Maybe the geology causing geysers somehow influences the appearance of mineralized crystals, too. In some cases, crystals are extra rich mineralized. The high amount of mineral substance tints them yellow, while normal crystals shimmer in blue.
All those crystals have an amazingly similar composition. Terran astronomers assume that the minerals in the crystals are leftovers from the supernova of a single very big star system – because all crystals have the same spectral signature and the same trace element mixture.
This alien planet at least provides some minerals to mine.
A Terran force arrives in a Hercules ship or similar transport, often guarded by armed battle cruisers. The frigates then turn away to protect the next military transport while the supply ship stays in orbit. The command center is dropped on the planet, performs a soft landing and releases some pioneers.
The base cannot be set too close to minerals or geysers as the weight of the massive headquarter building would interact with the sensible geology often found close to either of the resources.
The Terran commander begins with this command center as his base of operations. It provides radio stations to communicate with every unit to give them orders. Six initial space construction vehicles (SCVs) are also provided. Any Terran commander can gain access to a Terran satellite which orbits above the base and was installed there prior to the landing of the command center as part of the Terran military.
The SCV – as the name implies – can work in space because it includes life support for the driver. An SCV is outfitted with multipurpose tools. It can mine minerals, transport vespene canisters and even build new structures. This unit hovers over the ground to reach any location when it builds a construction.
The command center has all facilities needed to produce new SCVs. It uses minerals to transform those into materials required for the manufacture of SCVs. The power needed for the transformation and assembly is provided by a power generator in the command center itself.
To further expand a Terran base, supply depots must be constructed. They offer various provisions for everyday life as well as additional fuel which is automatically regenerated and transported to where it is needed. The transportation of materials to the construction sites has no visualization on screen to keep base management clear.
While there can be as much supply depots erected as resources and space is available, the upper limit of supply consumption is at a size of 200 workers or basic soldiers. Most units need more supply than a basic one. This limit marks the maximum a Terran general has facilities to control.
Coming through!
The basic Terran soldier is the marine, a “re-socialized” criminal fitted with a full body armor to withstand enemy fire, and to operate in space. His weapon is a gauss rifle (coil gun) which uses magnetic fields to accelerate a projectile.
Since most Terran generals recruit a lot of marines, it is only reasonable that engineers developed quite a roster of possible combat improvements. Upgrades include basic refinements as improved weapons which deal more damage, better armor suits which can sustain more damage, a combat shield which absorbs some damage and even adrenaline-based drug use. The drug improves reaction time and walking speed for a short amount of time, but is bad for the health. Hey, marines are convicts, right? They serve to pay their debts to society. For most generals, a marine's life is of little worth. When a marine dies, their only regret is that they need to pay for the gear of the next conscript.
Some recruits and pilots land within the inital command center. The rest of the soldiers – all had at least basic combat training – wait for deployment in the transport ship in orbit and are called down via drop pods. Rumor has it that the food on the transport contains a soothing drug to keep the recruits in line. As the commander should not be distracted by unnecessary information, he does not get notified upon the arrival of the FNGs. Once they got their equipment and a final drill, the general in charge will be informed that the soldier is ready to move out.
Like us humans today, Terrans are masters when it comes to graze natural resources in no time. Engineers developed thrusters to lift the command center and reposition it, to exploit another location. This also became the standard for any other production building, allowing entire bases to move. To reduce the expenses, upgrade research structures and supply depots come without thrusters.
We always need more minerals!
Unit production facilities can be augmented with an add-on. Recently, the Terrans agreed to standardize add-ons for use on any production complex. To fuel the war machine, a reactor can be added. This device delivers enough power to operate an additional assembly line. But still only basic units can be produced. All advanced weaponry requires a tech lab. This laboratory creates all the high-tech parts like complex instrument panels up to stealth technology. Since the production of those parts is time-consuming, the production hall actually uses multiple assembly lines – but for the same unit.
Many high tech units and structures are so complex, that the default power supply from the command center and supply depots cannot deliver enough juice. Luckily, all planets and even space platforms in the Koprulu sector evaporate vespene gas. This type of chemical substance has not yet been discovered in our parts of the universe close to the Sol system. Nevertheless, vespene contains enormous amounts of energy. Because it is so volatile, Terrans must build a refinery to convert it to a liquid which can be safely transported. An SCV inside the refinery operates it and collects the canister to drive it back to the command center where it is stored for later use.
The vespene even glows through the half-transparent canister hull.
While some planets provide additional energy sources, all scientific effort pushes the use of vespene which acts as petrol of the future because vespene offers the best energy density. Some Terran cities are built without having the ground geysers correctly sealed. Through corrosion in the funnel systems, some vespene gas is emmitted through air vents on the roof of sky scrapers.
For a positional advantage, some generals decide to upgrade a command center with additional armor plating and an auto targeting twin cannon able to shoot ground targets. This upgrade adds so much weight, that the command center – now called planetary fortress – is no longer able to lift off.
The tracking device can separate friends from foes.
The other upgrade option is an antenna system to establish a communication link to the satellite in the orbit. Due to the additional electronic equipment in the command center, the now-labelled orbital command has no room left to let SCVs in for their protection when the base is under siege.
Since the satellite is far above the sky, we need quite a large dish.
Any radio command to the satellite costs a lot of energy which the orbital command slowly regenerates. Depending on the environment, sources can be sunlight or geothermal energy. The battery capacity of the orbital command is limited. Available commands are:
1 2 3
1) Establish a high-resolution, multi-spectral video feed from anywhere on the battle field using the camera system in the satellite. This provides vision of the targeted area and even detects stealth units and burrowed zerg creatures. The satellite’s energy supply limits the video feed to few seconds. The orbital command station needs quite some energy, too, because the high-bandwidth video feed is distributed to any unit on the battle field.
2) Call down a mobile utility lunar excavator (MULE.) This robotic unit needs no supply and can mine minerals much better than an SCV, it can do so even while an SCV already works on the same mineral cluster. The MULE is outfitted with multi-purpose tools, allowing him to repair mechanical units and structures. Being still a prototype, it does not function forever. Soon the MULE will break apart.
3) Call down supply. Every supply depot can be upgraded one time. The extra supply increases the supply by 8 (doubles it from 8 to 16) but does not add durability to the depot. Both MULEs and supply drop pods have to be guided on their way down, this is why the orbital command consumes as much as 50 energy. MULE and supply pods are provided by the large supply ship the Terran forces arrived with, with so many calldowns available that a Terran commander can never use them up even in large-scale conflicts.
In the 27th century, technology is amazing
Upgrades work in a way that any unit gets the benefit instantly once the research is completed. A marine does not need to go back into the barracks to change his old rifle or armor suit for the improved one. In the field, no-one is able to make a scientific breakthrough. The research is just done to adapt already known concepts to the field. This way, a weapon can be fine tuned to provide more punch. Armor can be improved to offer better protection in the specific environment. Additional hardware needed for upgrades like the marine combat shield is distributed by drop pods from the orbital supply transport. To avoid clutter on the screen, the drop pod upgrade distribution is not shown.
The stim upgrade research, which allows drug injection, does not actually invents the drug in question but rather how to dose it so that the soldiers cannot use it at their will. The research determines the exact dose needed for different infantry troops depending on the environment conditions in the field.
In times of war, the commander-in-chief's last concern is that every soldier gets happily back to his family. He just need the soldier to survive long enough to perform the task at hand. Medical treatment therefore will keep the soldier on his feet as long as possible but cares little about long term consequences.
The green "healing beam" of a medivac provide first aid provisions through nanobot technology. The beam communicates with the body armor which tells the medivac about the injuries of the soldier. The healing ship then sends the right nanobots through a lock in the armor inside the soldier's body. Because medivacs play a crucial role in supporting our men at the front, they must be deployed with no delay. In this haste, the energy supply of the medivac was compromised. To get the full potential out of the flying field kit, engineers can use the tools in the starport tech lab to improve the medivac equipment for additional starting energy. Of course only newly assembled medivacs get the extra initial capacity.
Any tank produced could engage in siege mode. But this stance is forbidden until the factory tech lab instruments analyzed the environment condition in detail. No tank pilot wants to fall over when he fires a shot in siege mode! Once the research of the gravitational abnormalities on the planet or platform is completed, the tech lab airs the adjustment for the hydraulics to all tank pilots.
Bunkers can be salvaged.
Some building names are misnomers. A ghost academy does not train these special operatives, instead it houses ghost equipment. However some actual research can be done in the academy. Stealth technology requires exact information about the spectrum of the surrounding light, this research can be done to determine all necessary data for the cloaking suit.
After the Brood Wars, Terran engineers reworked the bunker schematics. Bunkers are now made of recyclable parts. If the dugout is no longer needed, it can be completely salvaged by a build-in waste recovery – even if the bunker is already on fire.
Of course, the Terran base is largely maintained by SCVs. Since they often must work overtime and are sent to dangerous combat areas to douse and repair burning structures, they are notorious for their cynical reaction to any instuction from the commander in chief. Some SCV drivers even claim that once there were ordered to attack zerglings with their toolkit!
Nightmarish invaders from outer space
Oh no ...
The Terrans thought the first hundred years were the hardest, since they started a new life off crashed prison star ships. But then, they came ...
Autopsies of several zerg bodies prove that the zerg swarm incorporates the genes of many different life forms from various planets in the Koprulu sector. Having the evolutionary result of so many species at disposal, today’s zerg creatures can survive in almost any environment and regenerate health even on volcanic planets. They are also capable to survive very long with nothing to eat. The known main weakness is vulnerability to very high doses of radioactivity.
The original zerg were genetically engineered by the Xel’Naga, an obviously extremely powerful race which is now believed to extinct. Most zerg units are believed to have little – if any – consciousness. The zerg leader does have consciousness, any “general”, also called cerebrate, is assumed to be conscious at some proportion. The current structure of the zerg as a whole is unclear as the Overmind was killed an replaced by an infested terran “ghost” (special psi operative.)
Zerg are notorious for their ability to adapt evolutionarily, much more rapidly than other organisms. The protein responsible for DNA replication in cell division (zerg DNA Polymerase III), is an inefficient and faulty protein in comparison to that of many organisms. Because the zerg operate with large quantities of organisms, occasionally mutations will occur that will generate an advantageous trait in certain organisms that may will drive selection to replicate this trait, as these are the members of the swarm that will survive.
Zerg infestations were sighted anywhere in the Koprulu sector, demonstrating space-traveling capabilities and therefore resistance to cosmic rays. Overlords are propably in a state of hibernation during the travel. The cold in the space drastically reduces their heartbeat. Additional zerg genes are capsuled into an extremely contaminous virus transported in his ventral sacs. This explains the small infrared footprint, able to slip through Terran sensor technology. Once the destination has been reached, the light provided by the nearest star alarms certain nerves of the Overlord to wake up. Native lifeforms of the destination planet can be used as host for the virus and feed the zerg with their own lifes. Anyone infested by zerg will be thankful to die.
How the zerg base works
To establish a new brood, an Overlord transports a “base construction kit” to the surface. A proto-hatchery, delivered with the “kit”, quicky growths in the creep provided by the Overlord. This proto-hatchery seems to be a state of a drone already half-way morphed. Some zerg worker units are also part of the payload. Broken free from their protective shells, they are now available to be commandeered for the new brood. The process of setting up the base is so exhausting for Overlord, that he loses both transport and creep spread abilities. With the proper evolution, the zerg brood can regain these features.
The center of any zerg base is the hatchery. It produces new larvae which can be used to morph into a pupal state and evolve to various zerg units. Some zerg units can evolve further since the zerg mastered the capability to create stem cells which can grow into any other cell type needed. Cells of the old unit which are left over are used as additional nutrition while the new unit is morphing.
The zerg hatchery spreads creep. Creep is a sort of skin, or muscle vaguely similar to moss but covered with biologic goo. Creep grows and coats the ground, potentially even creating roots that are capable of absorbing nutrients. Despite its ability to sustain itself, creep cannot extent past a certain limit without overexerting itself. To expand it further, a tumor can be planted which induces controlled cancer to boost cell division. The creep tumor proves an "anchor" which both promotes creep spread and allows it spread further via allowing the creep to link back up to the parent hatchery and keep itself sustained past a certain distance from the mineral and gas income that keep it alive. The tumor also acts as a nerve center and can sense nearby units.
The creep has many veins which distribute several body fluids. Common creep is gray or purple colored, hinting waste recycling as well as limited blood transport. The creep covers the ground and provides life support for all zerg structures both on planets and orbital platforms. It draws its energy from any source available including oxygen in the atmosphere and certain substances underneath the creep.
A zerg base also begins with three larvae and six drones. Drones are genetically optimized creatures to do all menial tasks. They have mandibles so sharp that they can cut small mineral pieces from crystals. They also sacrifice them self to morph to any zerg structure which is in fact a living organism.
To start this process, the drone crawls into the creep. An injection of an unknown biological compound causes the creep to to produce an abscess which is further bloated with a salivary substance coming from the creep. As long as the morphing is in place, the drone – though degenerated – is still living, swimming around in the liquids within the large boil.
The drone already lost its flesh between the "wing bones".
The organs from the drone evolve into other organs which are needed to operate the new structure. Since the new organs are much greater than the original drone, it needs to eat a lot before it can finish the transformation. The chow contains a lot of minerals which are devoured by the sturdy maw of the drone. The drone’s stomach even digests liquid vespene as an “energy drink” to boost the generation of the proper cells types. For this process, some compounds found in vespene act as a catalyst to accelerate chemical reactions.
Once the morphing completes, the drone is fully consumed as there is no original organ left. Many structures however are housing small little creatures. Zerg experts consider them parasites which are released once a building is destroyed. Since they rely on their host, broodlings getting on the surface survive just few seconds.
As a hatchery is essential to establish a brood, every drone has the complete DNA incorporated to morph into this structure. It can do so even without existing creep because the hatchery has a creep-generating organ which is active during the transformation already. Even when the drone is ordered to cancel the morphing and gets back to its original form with a very fast retrogression of its organs, some creep is left on the ground.
Vespene resorption requires a drone morphing over a geyser into an extractor. The extractor’s guts reach deep into the geyser and automatically transform the gas to a gel. Other drones access that structure, web a cocoon around a vespene portion and carry it home.
A long gut pierces the geyser to soak the vespene
To expand the swarm, Overlords must be morphed because zerg units are useless without control over them. Overlords are slaves to the zerg intermediate commander who acts on behalf of the zerg leader. Any other zerg unit is considered an underling to the Overlord. Even the mighty Brood Lord, who breeds broodling parasites he sends to attack any enemy of the hive, lives a heteronomous life. Terran scientists are in awe of the zerg ability to adapt: Instead of purging the swarm from parasites, the zerg intentionally use a broodling strain to serve as weapon projectiles.
It is not yet fully understood how this telepathic link from Overlords to their underlings works, even though some mind control devices were already build. Zerg experts assume that the zerg evolved – or were genetically engineered to have – a part of their brain or even a dedicated organ to be a biological radio wave transmitter. Analyzing and recreating some patters was enough to get some zergs under control or to slow down a small group of zergs.
Controlling the swam, generating creep or transporting entire armies: Even with no attack of their own, they are key for the zerg
Evolutionary upgrades are distributed as the according new gene. The Overlords air the additional gene sequence to all underlings which have the ability to recombine given deoxyribonucleic acids in their epithelial stem cells the in proper order. Those cells replicate the new DNA for further cell division.
Any strain has its own frequency to communicate, this means Overlords can tell a roach from a hydralisk. Due to biological variance, any individual zerg also has a unique pattern which his master recognizes to address a single underling if necessary.
An advanced brood needs an advanced center of operation.
Genetic enhancements beyond the most basic strains require a spawning pool. That pool is filled with disgusting snot in which other zerg strains are bred. Most advanced zerg genes need additional structures. If the spawning pool is killed, the strains enabled by additional structures can still be bred. Higher-tier upgrades also require an improvement of the hatchery to the lair and eventually to the hive because advanced units with advanced minds also need a more powerful superintendence to control them.
Some "buildings" seem to be a monstrously deformed version of the strain it enables. The newly found zerg strain which was labelled "roach" due to its high regeneration capability, offered Terran scientists some insight into the breeding process as the roach warren houses a roach mother who constantly produces new ovum.
The upgrowth of a larva to a zerg is amazingly fast. To begin the process, the genetic code of the desired unit taken from the proper structure which breeds those genetic sequences. As the larva itself does not contain all the necessary DNA to start the evolution process, the hatchery clones the DNA strand inside the structure itself to replicate more strands for further production, while injection into the larva starts the evolution to the specific unit that is encoded in the DNA. This replication is mitosis which does not require sex cells, as we have yet to see "female" zergs except queens.
The larva also gets a shot of a certain chemical that starts the fetal phase: The larva builds a cocoon around itself and begins to grow. Using creep veins, the fetus is fed with all the substances it needs. Source materials for the nutrition are minerals and often times vespene, too. Zerg experts assume a pouch organ within the hatchery which generates easy to digest food for the small zerg pup.
To improve visibility on screen, every cocoon is rendered as a small one while in fact it can grow so large that it fits an Ultralisk.
Need another marine leg to bite ...
The basic zerg unit is the zergling. This predator – at the size of a large hound – has a mind so simple, that a single Overlord can control up to 16 of them. Because zerglings are quite small, the swarm always produces two at once. This is done by forcing the birth of twins, which share the same cocoon. As basic as a zergling is, it can evolve its legs to run faster. It also growths some wings which proves that the zergling evolution is still in progress. Zerg experts are discordant about the question if further evolved zerglings will ever be able to flutter for longer distances.
Another improvement is an increase of the adrenaline concentration in the zergling's blood. It enables him to fight better at the cost of his life span. Because they serve as cannon fodder anyway, the decreased life will not come into effect. To break a fortified stronghold, the swarm recently managed to evolve zerglings into a banelings filled with explosive acid. The volatile nature of vespene obviously plays a large role in this tincture.
Must ... grow ... the swarm ...
Zerg brought symbiotic life to perfection. A hatchery can give birth to a hive queen. The queen possesses strong motherly instincts and is relentless to nourish and protect the swarm – even from airborne foes. A zerg queen can breed seeds and inject them into the hatchery for additional larvae. The creep around the hatchery however maintains only up to 19 larvae at the same time. The queen also has the ability to transfuse a portion of its own blood, enriched with substances to improve clottering to stop further bleeding. This way, an injured zerg – regardless if unit or structure – regains health very fast.
Hatcheries even have limited “telepathic” capabilities. It is just enough to control a single queen to suppress her instinct of self preservation. No matter how many Overlords are added, the control limit of any zerg brood equals to 200 workers or 400 zerglings. More units would make it impossible to maintain the order of the hierarchical structure of the swarm and discern individual “telepathic” link frequencies. Terran scientists proved that an new zerg hive with the initial Overlord can only control 10 drones. Some SCV drivers who where sent to scout the infestation, reported 11 or even 12 drones near a new zerg hatchery. We safely can assume they smoked the contraband cigarettes again.
Oblivion descends
Can there be anything more frightening than a mutalisk swarm darkening the sky? What about a race which excels at hunting the zerg?
The Protoss claim to be originated by the Xel’Naga, the “Gods” which raised the current civilization from the Protoss ancestors. Protoss further claim that they are the first race of the Xel’Naga while zerg came second. The "Firstborn" live in a caste society with a rich, yet violent history. They possess technology so advanced that it it often appears as true magic to the human eye. The superstitious race values religious concepts like the “Khala”, the right way to live as a Protoss. They manage to link an entire caste together using psionic power.
While the scientific laws behind psi powers are not discovered by the Terrans as of yet, a few humans also show some psionic capabilities. Many physicists suggest modifications to the string theory, allowing the existence of a force which could explain the effects of psi energy. The military instantly begun to exploit the psionic capabilities with a special command where the soldiers are called “Ghosts”. The newly found “Terrazine” substance, vaguely related to Vespene, is suspected to amplify those powers. Since Protoss have access to Terrazine since ages, this could explain their psionic ability – if only the Terrazine itself could be understood!
Little information about the everyday life of a Protoss is available. Cliches include the search for ancient artifacts, traveling through space to bully harmless Terran explorers and being merciless when it comes to cleanse a zerg infestation.
Female Protoss do exist and can get highest ranks even in the military hierarchy.
How a Protoss base works
A Protoss colony ship lands – or launches a smaller lander unit – and releases probes, which are robotic worker units. One of the probe marks an entry point to warp in a Nexus which serves as the base for further Protoss military expeditions and to amplify psionic energy for a communication over very long distances.
Protoss warp technology relies on the access to higher space dimensions which allows to create a shortcut through the common three-dimensional space. Terrans use a similar technology, though much less refined, to fly apparently faster than light while in fact they travel below light speed. While related in their fundamentals, warp-jump and warp-in differ greatly in the technology needed to control them.
Even Protoss technology has its limits, though. Warp-in does now allow instant deployment. For Nexuses and Assimilators, the probe generates the space rift containment field. While this adds to the cost, it has been deemed necessary as both buildings are required to gather more resources and are therefore essential. To warp in any other building, a structured psionic energy field, called psionic matrix, is required to help to keep the space rift contained. Psi energy also powers these structures. With the psi source lost, buildings will cease to function until the psi energy matrix is restored. Assimilators get their energy directly from the vespene, any Nexus has a build-in power plant which generates and stores energy.
The psionic force field required to operate all non-resource-gathering buildings can generated by a Protoss pylon which is a rotating Khaydarin crystal hold by a collar. The crystal is of extreme purity. It gets its energy from the Nexus and refracts it to the pylon’s proximity. The collar acts as battery, allowing the Pylon to maintain the Psi matrix even if all nearby Nexuses are destroyed. Protoss consider all mountains which contain Khaydarin “sacred” and forbid access to any infidel. Hence, nothing further about the crystal source is known.
As Protoss are advanced, they don’t drill out pieces from crystals with carving tools, but cut them using a plasma ray. This is also true for common mineral crystals. The Protoss also don’t condense vespene gas to a liquid substance like Terrans, but assimilate it with another material to bring it in a cube-shaped crystal form which can be transported. All mundane work is performed by the probe robots which can be rebuild in the Nexus.
First, a space rift is created and contained. It provides a look into nothing, therefore dubbed “Void”. Then the Void gets blurred by the force field as it aligns to the proper point in space. Once the field has been properly aligned, the structure materializes in its new location. Finally, the Gateway is available.
The numbers of Protoss are few, so they developed technologies to save time to compensate. One technology is the aforementioned warp-in. A probe can open a rift in the space. This rift can be viewed as an artificial rotating black hole with a white hole twin. For Terrans, white holes are still speculative solutions for field equations, Protoss however can create them. These singularities, contained in very strong force fields to keep a vacuum to avoid further growth of the black hole, do not directly transport the matter as it would destroy any structure because the gravity would tear anything apart. Instead its capability to bend space allows access to higher space dimensions with the accuracy needed to grip even small objects.
Imagine an ant living on a circle border and knowing only one dimension. It can move forward or backward. If it had access through a second space dimension, it could just go through the circle area to reach the opposite side, saving some travel time compared to wander all around the half circle. With orthogonal alignment of space dimensions, possible savings of the route are limited. Since the higher space dimensions have a different layout, better shortcuts are possible.
However it takes time to align the shortcut. That is why an object cannot be warped in instantly. Once the warp-in is completed, both singularities are moved together and they cancel themselves out. Prior to the warp-in process, the probe sends the required amount of minerals and vespene to restock the supplies of the manufacturing facility – any resources around them were depleted long time ago. The probe also needs some material to create the rift in the first place.
Most “production buildings” serve as stationary warp center. The Gateway, employed to warp-in basic units, can be upgraded to a Warp Gate. The Warp Gate focuses the rift to anywhere within a psionic field created by the same Protoss tribe. Because different tribes use different psi modulation frequencies which they keep secret, one tribe cannot warp-in to matrices of others.
Warp Gates also allow a very fast rift alignment and thus faster warp-in. After the warp-in is done, the Warp Gate mechanism which acts as “focus lens” must cool down as extremely high energy flew through it. Because Gateways and Warp Gates are optimized for smaller units, Protoss need a dedicated Stargate for large air vessels.
Do we accelerate the inside of the bubble, or are we slowing down the rest of the universe?
Another time-saving invention is the chrono boost capability. For this amazing technology, the Nexus uses its energy to set up a bubble in the space-time continuum and phases it outside of our time. Higher gravity slows down the flow of time, as mankind knows since 1915. Protoss discovered how to create negative gravitation, which, if concentrated, accelerates the flow of time noticeably.
Anti-gravitation force is exploited by a new Protoss air fighter which can create a bubble around a unit and free it from the graviton field of the planet. Since the Phoenix generates just enough anti-gravity to lift that unit, the effects on the time elapsed for the lifted unit is insignificant. Anti-gravitation force used in the drive and turn mechanism also allows extreme mobility in flight and aerial combat.
My life for Aiur!
The basic Protoss warrior is a called Zealot. These individuals did not get highest positions in their caste. Their training therefore attempts to make them the first and the last line of defense for all who already mastered the Khala. The Zealot fights with two blades which emit psi energy. This equipment and countless years of combat training allow a single Zealot to fight like a small army. The armor suit can be upgraded to improve walking speed and allow charge attacks.
All protoss warriors, cybernetic units and structures feature a personal shield which absorbs any kind of damage until it depletes. It is not clear yet how a Protoss force field can keep non-magnetic and non-electrically charged objects on distance. Possibly this is done again by anti-gravitation force. However, a strong electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) can severely damage or even completely negate Protoss plasma shields, hinting electromagnetism at least being part of the shield generator. The energy source is believed to be Psi energy, yet Terrans still fail to explain how Psi forces can be used as an energy source for physical defense.
Better shields absorb even more damage.
Using surrounding non-structured psionic energy as source, the shield automatically regenerates. But this invention led to the complete negligence of tools to repair and treatments to heal wounds while the Protoss are on a military mission. However a Zealot is not allowed to die in battle. Even though he is the most basic fighter, many years of combat training made him quite valuable. In the very last millisecond, when the body armor is almost broken, a cybernetic part of the armor activates a personal transporter – using small-scale warp technology – to get the warrior out of the field. Templars also use this kind of technology. Other units are too large for an instant long-range teleport. To deploy these individuals again, another complete set of gear must be warped in, thus costing the full price of the initial unit.
All upgrades are instantly installed once the research is completed. The improved hardware is warped directly to all according units. Sometimes the upgrade is nothing more than an encoded adjustment for the existing cybernetic equipment which is aired to all units.
A cybernetics core enables a robotics facility which in turn enables a robotics bay.
A few units are not warped in, but assembled in robotics facilities. They require so many adjustments that is is simpler to produce these cybernetic parts in the field.
Even with the best training of his or her psionic capability, no Protoss executor can command more than 200 workers or just 100 basic warriors. While modest in numbers, the quality of Protoss military ensures the survival of this proud race even after the loss of their home planet, Aiur, which is now desecrated by the zerg.
If you have something to say or to suggest – for any race – please don't be shy!
The Ultralisk serves as the hard-hitting monstrosity for all advanced hive colonies. Ultralisks not only have unimaginably tough carapaces, but innately have the carapace equivalent to the first terran armor upgrades. Specialized armor upgrades exist at the Ultralisk cavern, which make a fully evolved Ultralisk practically invincible, and can easily absorb Terran damage classifications of 6. The Ultralisk generally leads the charge against almost every army, be it Terran, Protoss, or a rogue Zerg Brood. Their immense size lets them literally trample smaller enemies into the ground, and toppling foes of larger size. When assaulting buildings or other massive enemies, they use their bone-like scythes to cut enemies to pieces before they can deal any damage. They move fast enough that they can get into melee range before range before ranged enemies can take advantage of this.
The Ultralisks huge expanse of muscles, ligaments, and its killing engineered brain requires almost an entire Overlord to control. The Ultralisk gene has been extracted, studied, and replicated by Terran scientists, but to no avail. The only full code exists in the Ultralisk Cavern and the Ultralisks, the former used only to mutate larva into new Ultralisks.
Ultralisk Scythes are so gigantic that an attack against a single enemy also deals massive hurt to nearby units, which suffer damage from the in-stroke of the attack. Due to this, very small numbers of Ultralisks rip through small Terran units like butter, and the standard Marines and Marauders are notoriously afraid of exterminating a Zerg Infestation that has been left unchecked. Most kill squads sent to do this don't come back alive. Heavy firepower mechanical units need to be brought to deal with this.
Looking at a Hydralisk, even a weathered and experienced Terran Scientist wouldn't suspect that it was evolved from the docile herbivore, the Slothien Caterpillar. The original Overmind saw the hidden potential in this hapless and weak creature and mutated it into the subservient killing machine aptly named the Hydralisk. The armored crest behind its head houses a simple organ that produces Needle-like spines at a phenomenal rate, and the Hydralisk uses its extensive musculature system of nearly 4000 muscles to fire the keratin spines at speeds that pierce the toughest standard issue Neosteel even at maximum range. Marines are under direct orders to never approach massed groups of Hydralisks without support.
Unfortunately the slow wormlike movement of the Hydralisk makes it better fit as a defender, where it has Queen support and can move more freely on the creep of the Hive Cluster. It is also suited as an ambusher, unburrowing to catch an army when its not expecting to be attacked.
Hydralisks also have thick claws that allow them to pin infantry down and kill it, or deal massive damage by slashing enemies with its talons. Because the Hydralisk has all the muscles of its arm behind its melee attacks, it does as much damage at melee as its spines do when shooting enemies down at range.
The laws of physics state that anything invisible cannot see anything because the light that would reach the things eyes are passing around it. Throughout human history, this has been proven true. Banshees use specialized goggles that feed battlefield information to the pilot, and even though the pilot cannot see anything outside of the cockpit, him or her can still find and destroy its targets. Satellites pinpoint the banshees position and feed radio information through sensors on its hull, and vice versa. This way, the satellite is "Seeing" what the banshee sees, even though the banshee itself is effectively blind. Ghosts use specialized goggles that can see objects on every wavelength, just not the visible spectrum, as the visible spectrum bends around the ghost. Banshees are also equipped with similar sensors. Dark Templar can psionically sense everything around them, and Observers function the same way ghosts do. They simply see all other spectrums but the visible spectrum.
They have small gas vents on their wings that allow them to release pressured gas to propel them, like organic rockets. They flap their wings to release the gasses in exactly the right direction to make small adjustments to the position and to keep balance so they don't end up flying upside down.
On planets with atmosphere they use almost fully wing-powered flight, but they can still use the rocket function to stay on one position.
ShamTao knows the details how zerg include alien DNA into their own strains:
To increase the zerg ability to adapt fast, all organisms in the swarm have incorporated a retrovirus into their genome. While all cells critical to the organisms structure and vital function are immune to the retrovirus, the virus is accommodated and secreted in special glands in their mouth linings, claws, hydralisk spines and mutalisk spores. When a an other than zerg organism is attacked and killed by virtually any zerg creature, this retrovirus infects their still-living cells. While the majority of the viruses will simply destroy the cells they infect, a small amount of them will incorporate parts of that organisms DNA and RNA instead of its own DNA. This process is known as transduction. The creep absorbs these viruses and returns them to the hatchery, where they infect the larvae and can thereby alter its genome by creating reverse transcripts (known as complimentary DNA) of the messenger RNA in the cells. Because of the low rate of transduction, this process is slow, but after an entire ravaging of a planet, billions of fragments of foreign DNA will be able to be incorporated into future organisms of the swarm.
The OP has more details about some Protoss units (Sentry, Stalker, plus all units from the robotics facility.)
The Protoss took the shield technology development to new heights with the Guardian shield which can be generated by a Sentry. It protects all nearby units by slowing down enemy missiles. Really showing a passions for shields, Protoss engineers also developed a tactical force field which is also deployed by the Sentry through very small robotic cells. Those have enough energy to maintain a nearly impenetrable force field for 15 seconds. This energy is taken from the Sentry’s main battery prior to the launch of the force field cell.
To complement the Immortal modification, the Dark Templar caste operates another Dragoon-based combat walker development, the Stalker. They took the idea of a personal teleporter further to teleport the entire unit. However the use is limited to a short range.
An Observer must be fine tuned prior to its launch, as even small details like the density of the air – if there is any – play an important role in keeping the silent witness cloaked. With so much configuration needed, it is only logical to produce these units on the location.
Previously crippled Zealots serve as a driver for a Dragoon in which he got implemented. The implementation of the occupant was previously done in the Gateway. Recently the Protoss refined the Dragoon to muster the Immortal which is able withstand heavy enemy fire at the cost of air raid defense. This modification is done in the robotics facility. The improved shield of the Immortal tolerates insane amounts of damage. However, smaller projectiles are able to pass the additional defense. Since the number of Dragoons is limited and the schematics are lost, they act as last resort in the Protoss defense.
Warp Prisms are a delicate matter at these prisms offer mobile psi energy refractions. Similar to the Observer, a default unit would not be able to provide the necessary precision.
The Colossus is so tall that warping him in would raise some issues even for Protoss technology. The Colossus also needs additional parts assembled in the robotics bay. His walking mechanism must be calibrated for the ground consistence to optimize weight distribution to each leg. Walking a meadow on an inhabitable planet is not the same as walking over boulders of a small moon.
On April 20 2011 06:34 Topazas wrote: This is just cute. Waiting for Zerg base guide.
And protoss too. Can a protoss even explain how their tech works?
Haha, the problem is that even in the official fluff it's basically "magic," because we can't reasonably explain the psionic matrix or the Khaydarin crystals the protoss use for everything. Basically, everything works through some modulation of the psionic matrix through Khaydarin crystals.
Raynor bears his stim wounds like a crown He calls his child Sarah 'Cause he likes the name And he drinks her at the only bar in town
Raynor, Raynor likes his money He needs a lot you see To buy upgrades and units From mechanics at the armory
He was once a marshall of the law On a vulture bike He was pale and bald But loved to fight Then the wars begun And then some dropships came to save the day
And he shall be Raynor And he shall be a good man And he shall be Raynor Though he'll fall in love with Kerrigan
And he shall be Raynor And he shall be a good man He shall be Raynor
Raynor keeps some samples in his lab His tech and research thrives Sarah starts arguments and rage Sits on the barstool watching them fight
But Sarah She's no longer a Terran Leaves Raynor far behind Just left for dead By Arcturus While Raynor Raynor slowly dies
He was once a marshall of the law On a vulture bike He was pale and bald But loved to fight That's how it begun And then some dropships came to save the day
And he shall be Raynor And he shall be a good man And he shall be Raynor Though he'll fall in love with Kerrigan
And he shall be Raynor And he shall be a good man He shall be Raynor
Of course, the Terran base is largely maintained by SCVs. Since they often must work overtime and are sent to dangerous combat areas to douse and repair burning structures, they are notorious for their cynical reaction to any instuction from the commander in chief. Some SCV drivers even claim that once there were ordered to attack zerglings with their toolkit!
Lol good read but the main reason why any terran building is designed to lift off is because of the terran's constant need for supplies that they actually strip mine entire planets bare before moving on. They became so effective at it that rather then rebuilding entire bases and leaving behind used resources that it just became smarter to literally move their base to the next area or planet instead. Not sure where I saw it but I think it was in Blizzards intro to Terran.
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?
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.
On April 20 2011 15:59 L6-636536 wrote: Lol good read but the main reason why any terran building is designed to lift off is because of the terran's constant need for supplies that they actually strip mine entire planets bare before moving on. They became so effective at it that rather then rebuilding entire bases and leaving behind used resources that it just became smarter to literally move their base to the next area or planet instead. Not sure where I saw it but I think it was in Blizzards intro to Terran.
This sounds very reasonable. I rewrote that part and expanded it with explaining the add-ons.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
When everything is put this way, it seems extremely plausible.
Considering that this is supposedly 500 years in the future, I could easily see humans accomplishing these things. Now, you better damn get cracking on the zerg one. I don't want to wait. Actually, I am willing to write parts of the zerg or protoss ones for you.
Okay, here is the stuff I could find in the SC1 manual about protoss warp-ins:
Warp Gates (as in warp in general, not the SC2 building) + Show Spoiler +
The Protoss are a meticulous species, and their manufacturing techniques and tools have been developed over generations by Khalai workers. Protoss structures are produced on the Protoss Homeworld of Aiur. Robotic Probes use special warp beacons to provide an anchor and entry point for a special warp gate that brings in the fully functional building from Aiur. This allows the Protoss to quickly establish a base once they have created a Psionic Matrix.
Protoss buildings and units, to a lesser extent, draw their energy from a great psionic energy matrix that emanates from Aiur. While the Nexus provides a link to this matrix, Pylons are needed to actually tap into the energy required to provide Psionic energy (Psi) to new colonies. Each Pylon generates a short-ranged aura of Psi, which can provide the power needed by buildings and warp gates. If a Protoss building loses its connection to the Psionic Matrix, it will shut down until it is reconnected, and new units cannot be gated in if there is insufficient Psi to provide them with power.
The Nexus serves as a psychic anchor, allowing the Protoss to access their psionic energy matrix from across the galaxy. The Nexus also manufactures the small robot Probes that gather precious resources and lay down the warp beacons required to teleport in other Protoss buildings.
Carved from the sacred Khaydarin Crystals found only on the Protoss Homeworld, Pylons act as focal points for the Psionic Matrix emitted by the Nexus. The floating Pylons can power any Protoss buildings within a large radius around them, and establishing a network of Pylons is essential to properly expanding a new Protoss colony.
The mighty warships of the Protoss fleet require a much stronger warp link than the Gateway provides. The immense Stargate is capable of calling ships from high orbit around Aiur to distant planet surfaces. Easily recognized, the Fleet Beacon is built around a huge sphere painstakingly carved from the largest and purest of Khaydarin crystals. The Beacon focuses Psi through this sphere to strengthen and magnify the warp rift created by the Stargate, allowing it to teleport the largest of the Protoss warships.
It is also said that minerals and vespene gas are used not only for crafting, but also to start the warp-in process.
TL;DR: the nexus provides a link with the central psi warp matrix on Aiur (probably on Shakuras today). Pylons are relays that connect other buildings to the warp matrix and allow them to teleport stuff. Gateways are the most simple form of warp travel, while you need stargates to bring massive ships. So it seems the basics are: protoss first establish a nexus on a planet to connect it with their warp matrix, then use the nexus to bring pylons, and then bring various teleporting devices.
I am still working on the zerg part, I hope I can release it tomorrow or the day after to expand the OP. The protoss part is just drafted at this time. Thank you for looking up the lore part, Telenil.
On April 21 2011 03:41 TuxThePenguin wrote: 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. =)
On April 21 2011 04:04 enigmaticcam wrote: Nice read. I'd like to hear about the technology behind banshee/ghost cloaking and medivac healing.
Before I think about that, I think one should establish a base to work on. I wrote he terran part first because terrans are well explained through the campaign. Then I started with zerg as I play zerg in multiplayer. When both parts are done, I feel ready to finalize the protoss part. I mostly keep it to low-tier technology. Once one accepts that this low-tier technology could work in reality, it is easier to maintain the suspension of disbelieve for the other parts, too.
On April 21 2011 03:35 turdburgler wrote: 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.
This sounds too reasonable to not include it. Thanks.
Very awesome post! I definitely want to see more. Also, I don't know if you used some information from the Beta Site that has little writeups on some of the units and whatnot... If that's still even up...
On April 21 2011 04:32 VarpuliS wrote: 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).
As the direct boss of a hive I assume the initial overlord takes that part, but he is acting on behalf of a greater power. This could be the queen of blades or an enhanced overlord as another part in the zerg hierarchy. If the initial overlord is lost, this poses no issue as anyone in the swarm can be easily replaced.
On April 21 2011 05:42 Wargable wrote: Very awesome post! I definitely want to see more. Also, I don't know if you used some information from the Beta Site that has little writeups on some of the units and whatnot... If that's still even up...
Anyway very cool!
I consider short stories released on the website as official lore. My attempt is to fill some holes in the lore.
So where do all the people come from in the Terran army? How many people are in the command center when it lands on a planet? When a barracks or factory are created, do people just walk over there and get suited up to fight? Also, how does research work? Are there actually scientists learning how to increase medivac energy or how to make tanks with siege mode?
On April 21 2011 05:52 orotoss wrote: So where do all the people come from in the Terran army? How many people are in the command center when it lands on a planet? When a barracks or factory are created, do people just walk over there and get suited up to fight? Also, how does research work? Are there actually scientists learning how to increase medivac energy or how to make tanks with siege mode?
The number of recruits is virtually endless. Soldiers and pilots are already trained, they just get their suit and rifle or their vehicle – and may be a final drill – to move out. While conscripts must be transported to the base anyways (you cannot breed them in time), having all military armament available, too, would be too expensive. The gear which is needed in the battle at hand therefore is manufactured in the military facilities.
The research is no actual research in the sense that a scientific breakthrough is made. The medivac energy upgrade with the Caduceus reactor means that those reactors are getting actually operated. It is similar to the purchase of a device which requires you to by accessories to get the full out of it. Siege mode is a common feat of the tanks, but to use it, military scientists need to adjust it to the environment condition before it is safe to engage in siege mode. You don't want your tank fall over when you fire a shot. (The real reason to have upgrades is of course unit balance.)
Not bad but the whole mineral based economy never mare any sense to me.. Why would you send a 400€ CC directly in a battlefield and expect it to gather it's own resources om the spot? It would be much more logical to create a strike-group somewhere safe and just drop-pod it on the planet.. 6pool? Pff.. I am going for 0/200 battlecruiser rush!
From the lore point of view, the Dawn of War games made more sense in this aspect.. No resources scattered on the battlefied, but strategical points, that, when held, allowed the commander to request more units for their defence..
Don't even let me start om the campaign missions.. If resources are that important, WHY OH WHY didn't the Tal'Darim mined them a long time ago if they were on that planet for thousands of years? They were right there! 1km away!!
For the arc of minerals: Minerals originate as highly dense remnants of dead stars ejected during a nova event or any kind of star death. They have a kind of polarity (similar to electromagnetism but on a lower level, say on the nuclear weak / strong level) that draws the pieces together into roughly spherical objects that float through space much like comets and meteors. Upon entering the magnetic field of sufficient strength (such as the field of a planet) these spheres will rupture along the line of this unknown polarity in layers; through flight to the surface, these layers (now hollow shells) will expand further and further until it impacts the surface.
(Very large images of planet surfaces would show circular formations of crystal formations across large areas.)
You can also say that gold minerals are randomly distributed in low quantities through all these floating spheres, and only appear at the true death of a star (a death resulting in a white dwarf would still retain the gold minerals, because they would be formed only directly at the center), where there is nothing left. That's why they're rare.
Take that if ya like. Unfortunately I'm not as up to date on the 'toss lore as I'd like to be, so maybe you can insert whatever it is that makes their warp gates work as the "unknown polarity" and you'd be set.
On April 21 2011 05:52 orotoss wrote: So where do all the people come from in the Terran army? How many people are in the command center when it lands on a planet? When a barracks or factory are created, do people just walk over there and get suited up to fight? Also, how does research work? Are there actually scientists learning how to increase medivac energy or how to make tanks with siege mode?
The number of recruits is virtually endless. Soldiers and pilots are already trained, they just get their suit and rifle or their vehicle – and may be a final drill – to move out. While conscripts must be transported to the base anyways (you cannot breed them in time), having all military armament available, too, would be too expensive. The gear which is needed in the battle at hand therefore is manufactured in the military facilities.
The research is no actual research in the sense that a scientific breakthrough is made. The medivac energy upgrade with the Caduceus reactor means that those reactors are getting actually operated. It is similar to the purchase of a device which requires you to by accessories to get the full out of it. Siege mode is a common feat of the tanks, but to use it, military scientists need to adjust it to the environment condition before it is safe to engage in siege mode. You don't want your tank fall over when you fire a shot. (The real reason to have upgrades is of course unit balance.)
edit: Added information to the OP.
Addition to the siege mode environmental adjustments: Planets are bigger or smaller. Gravitational forces are thus different, larger or smaller, depending on which planet. I'd think mechanics (or scientists) would have to adjust the hydraulics and etc. so that it can actually get up, without putting too much force to blow the pistons.
Assuming hydraulics. They're too awesome to not use in 500 years
On April 21 2011 05:52 orotoss wrote: So where do all the people come from in the Terran army? How many people are in the command center when it lands on a planet? When a barracks or factory are created, do people just walk over there and get suited up to fight? Also, how does research work? Are there actually scientists learning how to increase medivac energy or how to make tanks with siege mode?
The number of recruits is virtually endless. Soldiers and pilots are already trained, they just get their suit and rifle or their vehicle – and may be a final drill – to move out. While conscripts must be transported to the base anyways (you cannot breed them in time), having all military armament available, too, would be too expensive. The gear which is needed in the battle at hand therefore is manufactured in the military facilities.
The research is no actual research in the sense that a scientific breakthrough is made. The medivac energy upgrade with the Caduceus reactor means that those reactors are getting actually operated. It is similar to the purchase of a device which requires you to by accessories to get the full out of it. Siege mode is a common feat of the tanks, but to use it, military scientists need to adjust it to the environment condition before it is safe to engage in siege mode. You don't want your tank fall over when you fire a shot. (The real reason to have upgrades is of course unit balance.)
edit: Added information to the OP.
Addition to the siege mode environmental adjustments: Planets are bigger or smaller. Gravitational forces are thus different, larger or smaller, depending on which planet. I'd think mechanics (or scientists) would have to adjust the hydraulics and etc. so that it can actually get up, without putting too much force to blow the pistons.
Assuming hydraulics. They're too awesome to not use in 500 years
Hydraulics are useful and efficient enough to still keep up with 2500 technology. You can see this when you view the units in the single player armory. Pistons can be seen moving the banshee rotors to control the vehicle.
So THAT'S how the addons work! Such a cool post by the OP and all contributors. Can't wait for the other two races...
Also, starting from sc2, I imagined the terran commander could be in the raven due to its unit portrait. That guy could be playing starcraft on his screen!
On April 21 2011 04:32 VarpuliS wrote: 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).
As the direct boss of a hive I assume the initial overlord takes that part, but he is acting on behalf of a greater power. This could be the queen of blades or an enhanced overlord as another part in the zerg hierarchy. If the initial overlord is lost, this poses no issue as anyone in the swarm can be easily replaced.
as shown in the SC and BW campaign, the zerg commander is the cerebrate, which is a lesser version of the overmind and controls a whole brood.
this cerebrate controls the zerg directly by the use of overlords, which create a telepathic hive mind for the brood.
If you have established that the marines themself carry drug "packs" those packs can in theory be moduled or made into somthing else depending on the injury that the "Marine" has, and the Medivac is there to as a "Command and control" senter for the medical system, so for instants 1 medivac is good, but 10 is better seeing as they would progress faster through the info that the Marines "suit" sends to them. You can tie in Basic (organic) chemistry, + given 500 years of advances in tech. this will make the suits quite heavy in the end, you will also note that the "suits" are basicly a exo skeleton with a "liveable" habitat for the operator.
Why would you send a 400€ CC directly in a battlefield and expect it to gather it's own resources om the spot? It would be much more logical to create a strike-group somewhere safe and just drop-pod it on the planet.. 6pool? Pff.. I am going for 0/200 battlecruiser rush!
As the OP said, this post tries to sustain the suspension of disbelief. Ultimately, not everything is realistic, so if you look thoroughly at the mechanics, you may find something that still doesn't make sense. But it usually doesn't matter because you have to believe a few things in every story, it'es just that these things shouldn't be too obvious.
Why would you send a 400€ CC directly in a battlefield and expect it to gather it's own resources om the spot? It would be much more logical to create a strike-group somewhere safe and just drop-pod it on the planet.. 6pool? Pff.. I am going for 0/200 battlecruiser rush!
As the OP said, this post tries to sustain the suspension of disbelief. Ultimately, not everything is realistic, so if you look thoroughly at the mechanics, you may find something that still doesn't make sense. But it usually doesn't matter because you have to believe a few things in every story, it'es just that these things shouldn't be too obvious.
Yes. There is another reason I don't try to find an explanation for everything: If I play, I don't want always think 'wait a second ... could this actually work? Can this be real?'
If I have an explanation for the base mechanics, I am in the mindset "Okay the rendering on screen distorts unit/structure size by a logarithmic function and some things are even completely left out, but it could work overall." This mindset helps to assume a "real" explanation (which I just don't know) even for things which were just needed to make the game work.
On April 21 2011 10:32 Killcycle wrote: For the arc of minerals: Minerals originate as highly dense remnants of dead stars ejected during a nova event or any kind of star death.
This is of course actually true, that those materials are created with the absurd force of a nova which is able to melt atom cores together.
But if a nova would happen near a planetary system, the radiation would kill all life. I would like to envision the growth of mineral crystal arcs more of an organic process. I still will incorporate parts of the explanation (all minerals are probably from the same star or star group, explaining similar composition through the entire sector.)
On April 21 2011 10:38 Killcycle wrote: Addition to the siege mode environmental adjustments: Planets are bigger or smaller. Gravitational forces are thus different, larger or smaller, depending on which planet. I'd think mechanics (or scientists) would have to adjust the hydraulics and etc. so that it can actually get up, without putting too much force to blow the pistons.
If you want, i can look trough some of the stuff i got here from physics, chemistry and math / mech to check some of this stuff out, i know i have read about a exoskeleton before somewhere, the idea of a mobile HQ is prob somthing more align with basic military tacs or somthing like that (Anyone from the military with a tactical education might be of help on that part).
For the terran weapon atleast there seems to be a big indicator that it works like a Railgun Wikipedia entry: Wikipedia Railgun Also a video of a real test of the Railgun Railgun test youtube
Medivacs think of them as a computer, they a set amount of "energy" for the lack of better wording, do'h they work like a battery you need to charge it up to get a "bolt" of to the marines.
I think it would be a good idea to specify that all, and not just some, research is adaption to the local circumstances. So basically, you have some scientists with your original strike force, but a scientist can not do a lot of science without any equipment, which your SCVs manufacture in an Armory/Engineering Bay/Techlab etc.. Then, those scientists go inside those buildings, and are ordered to adapt specific technology to local gravity/atmosphere/microbiotic lifeforms/underground etc...
Obviously, you wouldn't have your top of the line military scientist on a pioneering expedition to some backwater planet, so all research they perform is usually not an improvement of the baseline equipment, but just a localisation, and thus does not provide any benefit at different locations. Also, this research can only be performed at location by a part of the drop force because only there they can actually see the exact local circumstances, and test which adaptions are needed for the baseline equipment to make it more effective there.
Also, i assume that the baseline weaponry and armor are usually quite adaptable, so this research performed in many cases only provide a very exact setting for whatever interchangable parts those thingies have, so for many upgrades, there is no need to actually deliver anything to your forces, but only to broadcast specific data.
Much of this is already in the original post, but i think it would be useful to state that you do not develop cutting edge technology in a military strike force to the edge of the sector.
Also, as far as "invisible worker lines go" I think it would help to view Minerals and Gas as very powerful, all encompassing unobtanium off two different types.
1) Minerals can be transmuted to any form of MATTER. The amount of minerals required depends upon two factors: the size and complexity of the thing being built. Therefore, a factory, which is very large, nevertheless may need less minerals than a Thor, which is also huge but far more complex than a factory. Once collected in the CC, Nanomachines (For the Terran) break down the minerals into their base components and stream them over to whichever production facility needs it. The speed and small size off the nanotech is so great that it is nearly instantaneous over short areas (future battlefields, even Taldarim Altar, are MINISCULE compared to the sizes of planets, cities or even towns) and is completely invisible. As there is no way to disrupt this process, no indication of the stream is shown on the commanders display, as it is a vital but for all intents and purposes invincible supply line. It is not a vulnerability.
The zerg would use very small bio agents for the same purpose, explaining why they can only be built on the creep bio-carpet, through which the agents flow and the Protoss would perhaps use a pure energy breakdown and simply "beam" them into the range of a pylon. So advanced is the protoss psionic potential that simpler units can be warped directly onto a battlefield, with no need for specialized psionic "assembly".
2) Gas can be transmuted to an all powerful ENERGY source, the petrol of the future. The marine suit may be simply an armor with force-amplification through conventional means, such as an exoskeleton, hydraulics and lesser energy sources, but the marauder suit is so massive it has to be powered by vespene for the user to be able to move at all. The Zerg baneling is the purest usage of this gas: it simply ignites it all at once, showing the power of the gas along with zerg adaptability, to be able to evolve a species that can hold that destructive power in such a pure form within its shell without dying.
Protoss Psionic Web
As far as the Protoss go, the psionic web seems to fit in very well with the way they were designed, with a "purity of form". They waste no time or energy in eating and then converting that food into fuel (as any bio students know, it is a startlingly inefficient process). They draw and share energy straight from a power source, usually a pylon (see what they did there) that keeps them nourished and provides their machines with power.
will post again soon, this is a very fun topic! Hope i gave you something you can use.
EDIT: RESEARCH
To expand my support for the "research" aspect: it makes perfect sense that Terran units and vehicles etc. have some modular parts, various settings that maybe can even be remotely set. however, in a new planet and environment, you would have to be insane to fiddle with them randomly.
So you have these scientists who are more like "tinkerers" really, running rapid fire tests (with the aid of gas and minerals) to find out ways to better and better "optimize" their equipment. It doesn't take them much time, but gas, minerals and time are incredibly tight in the middle of a battle. For every upgrade, there are a standardized series of tests that must be run, and the equipment calibrated remotely based on the results of those tests.
Combat shields are interesting cases. I'm going to go ahead and say that really the physical "shields" you see are impractical in a future setting like this, and are merely "icons" for the benefit of the commander. In truth, these shields are like electromagnetic repulsors (again, the research time indicates trying to find a good way to have them up given the electromagnetic spectrum on that particular planet). They are unaffected by the EMP because, as Terran are the only ones with EMP, they have designed around it.
Great read, was inspired by it and decided to add my own thing. Also, feel free to correct me, as my SC knowledge is a little rusty.
-Ghosts/Ghost acedemy. Ghosts are brought with the main fleet when moved to a new planet,kept in some form of statis, due to the fact that they require certain mental conditioning (especially out on the field of battle) it is unwise to bring them into the fight until a "Ghost Acedemy" has been constructed (Acedemy in this sense means keeping in line and conforming, rather than an actual training place) The acdemy also allows for certain protocols to be utilized by using minerals to increase the control of the ghost, allowing it to use cloaking and other things.
As far as the Protoss go, the psionic web seems to fit in very well with the way they were designed, with a "purity of form". They waste no time or energy in eating and then converting that food into fuel (as any bio students know, it is a startlingly inefficient process). They draw and share energy straight from a power source, usually a pylon (see what they did there) that keeps them nourished and provides their machines with power.
will post again soon, this is a very fun topic! Hope i gave you something you can use.
While i Do agree with this statement, there is some referance with zeratul that he spent years away from the other protoss while he was searching for clues to the hybrids, see source / link at the end, and there would not be that much light in the "void", you can almost see this as the "old part of a galaxy / dieing part, where there is allmost like a graveyard of stars reforming of the old ones, that would be more in line with how zeratul could survive the long journey and with how Protoss physiology gathers and process nutrients.
There also seem to be a way that Protoss Gathers nutrients, they gather the sun light itself, even going as far as moonlight (sunlight reflected of the moon).
I think I will add some suggestions from Scryedo89, Simberto, Autofire2 and Bswhunter. But I am not looking for too detailled technical explanations as it would get very long and could raise new questions. The main goal is to offer an explanation how at least the basics of base management could actually work in a real world.
Haha, taking a page out of Artosis' book, what about salvaging bunkers? Specifically, deconstructing a bunker very quickly in enemy territory, while it is damaged and on fire, surrounded by zerglings AND getting a full refund for it. I'm curious how it's done.
On April 22 2011 10:21 SolveN wrote: Haha, taking a page out of Artosis' book, what about salvaging bunkers? Specifically, deconstructing a bunker very quickly in enemy territory, while it is damaged and on fire, surrounded by zerglings AND getting a full refund for it. I'm curious how it's done.
Hmm. Could be that they use sheet metal on either side of thick mineral plates (i.e the minerals weren't changed into anything else, they're still the crystals - just formed into plates) for the bunkers, so when they need to be salvaged they can just remove the minerals directly?
As for how they're salvaged in the heat of combat, i'm not sure.
On April 22 2011 10:21 SolveN wrote: Haha, taking a page out of Artosis' book, what about salvaging bunkers? Specifically, deconstructing a bunker very quickly in enemy territory, while it is damaged and on fire, surrounded by zerglings AND getting a full refund for it. I'm curious how it's done.
Hmm. Could be that they use sheet metal on either side of thick mineral plates (i.e the minerals weren't changed into anything else, they're still the crystals - just formed into plates) for the bunkers, so when they need to be salvaged they can just remove the minerals directly?
As for how they're salvaged in the heat of combat, i'm not sure.
Perhaps they use a quantum singularity charge to teleport back all the internal components. The debris when refunding is nothing but cheap exterior and empty bear bottles.
EDIT: Come to think about it the bunker must have some internal components to aid soldiers. How else they get an +1 range if it weren't for target finding/spectrum analyzing devices in bunkers.
This is really cool. Didn't think it would be possible to make it realistic but this is a pretty decent job.
Does it belong in the single player forum though? Seems more like a general observation of Starcraft 2 than something that only applies to single player.
On April 22 2011 10:21 SolveN wrote: Haha, taking a page out of Artosis' book, what about salvaging bunkers? Specifically, deconstructing a bunker very quickly in enemy territory, while it is damaged and on fire, surrounded by zerglings AND getting a full refund for it. I'm curious how it's done.
Hmm. Could be that they use sheet metal on either side of thick mineral plates (i.e the minerals weren't changed into anything else, they're still the crystals - just formed into plates) for the bunkers, so when they need to be salvaged they can just remove the minerals directly?
As for how they're salvaged in the heat of combat, i'm not sure.
Perhaps they use a quantum singularity charge to teleport back all the internal components. The debris when refunding is nothing but cheap exterior and empty bear bottles.
EDIT: Come to think about it the bunker must have some internal components to aid soldiers. How else they get an +1 range if it weren't for target finding/spectrum analyzing devices in bunkers.
Welll, It does not need to be anything specialy techy. A simple socket that lets you rest your gun on it is probably enough to increase the accuracy of the soldier when compared to him running around, and shooting with only his arms as stabilisation.
Also, i think it would be a generally good idea to refrain from using too much technobabble. It usually only leads to additional problems, and tends to look stupid to anyone who has a slight idea of the actual physics you are referencing to.
I think it is safe to assume that the terran military has no access to teleportation devices, otherwise they would probably find many additional better uses for that than teleporting back salvaged bunkers.
On April 22 2011 20:45 Simberto wrote: Also, i think it would be a generally good idea to refrain from using too much technobabble. It usually only leads to additional problems, and tends to look stupid to anyone who has a slight idea of the actual physics you are referencing to.
Yes. A Star Trek type of "explanation" just replaces holes with other holes which just sound more sophisticated.
A bunker is made of recyclable parts which can be easily disassembled. Even if they are on fire, they still can be salvaged. Other structures are not made for recycling as it would make them more expensive and producing structures can fly anyway.
I will add it later to the Terran part ... right now I am off to eat something.
Also, i think it would be a generally good idea to refrain from using too much technobabble. It usually only leads to additional problems, and tends to look stupid to anyone who has a slight idea of the actual physics you are referencing to.
This. Keep it simple, and if you can't, forget it. Salvaging bunkers that are on fire in a few seconds for a full 100% cost refund when surrounded by hostiles isn't something that should be considered, because this is plain impossible unless using custom-made explanations that are usually more trouble than they're worth.
The original zerg were genetically engineered by the Xel’Naga, an obviously extremely powerful race which is now believed to extinct. Most zerg units are believed to have little – if any – consciousness. The zerg leader does have consciousness, any “general”, also called cerebrate, is assumed to be conscious and to have free will at some proportion. The current structure of the zerg as a whole is unclear as the Overmind was killed an replaced by an infested terran “ghost” (special psi operative.)
Zerg infestations were sighted anywhere in the Koprulu sector, demonstrating space-traveling capabilities. Overlords are propably in a state of hibernation during the travel. The cold in the space drastically reduces their heartbeat. Additional zerg genes are capsuled into an extremely contaminous virus transported in his ventral sacs. This explains the small infrared footprint, able to slip through Terran sensor technology. Once the destination has been reached, the light provided by the nearest star alarms certain nerves of the Overlord to wake up. Native lifeforms of the destination planet can be used as host for the virus and feed the zerg with their own lifes. Anyone infested by zerg will be thankful to die.
The "stated" fact about the flight that the zerg does while in transit between solar systems / planets are more in line of a warp / bending of space to allow faster than light "flight".
The "normal" strain of Zerg has a natural (evolutionary path) resistance against almost every kinda of pressure, vacuum, but are weak against Radiation ( Does not say what kind, but i am gone take a wild guess and Alpha and beta + gamma radiation are dangerous, but to what limits there are no info atleast not that i have seen), if your gone include this, you might want to shorten it down a bit cause it is way technical.
There is also some very interesting parts about the zerg if you read "kerrigans" bio.
edit: Zerglings could just split from 1 larva simply because that's how zergling development is supposed to happen. For example, identical twins don't come from 1 zygote because their "DNA is simple/short". Actually, there's a logical gap when you say that "2 individuals come from 1 egg because DNA is short enough for that to happen".
Instead, the Overmind could have forced zergling embryonic development that way (1 larva into 2 lings) simply because there is enough minerals to create 2 lings. That's a simpler explanation, and simpler explanations are usually better (Occam's Razor).
On April 23 2011 03:29 julianto wrote: edit: Zerglings could just split from 1 larva simply because that's how zergling development is supposed to happen. For example, identical twins don't come from 1 zygote because their "DNA is simple/short". Actually, there's a logical gap when you say that "2 individuals come from 1 egg because DNA is short enough for that to happen".
Instead, the Overmind could have forced zergling embryonic development that way (1 larva into 2 lings) simply because there is enough minerals to create 2 lings. That's a simpler explanation, and simpler explanations are usually better (Occam's Razor).
The SCC (http://classic.battle.net/scc/zerg/units/zergling.shtml) states "Their DNA structure is so simple that two Zerglings can be created from a single Larva." I still like the twin explanation and will include it.
The original zerg were genetically engineered by the Xel’Naga, an obviously extremely powerful race which is now believed to extinct. Most zerg units are believed to have little – if any – consciousness. The zerg leader does have consciousness, any “general”, also called cerebrate, is assumed to be conscious and to have free will at some proportion. The current structure of the zerg as a whole is unclear as the Overmind was killed an replaced by an infested terran “ghost” (special psi operative.)
Zerg infestations were sighted anywhere in the Koprulu sector, demonstrating space-traveling capabilities. Overlords are propably in a state of hibernation during the travel. The cold in the space drastically reduces their heartbeat. Additional zerg genes are capsuled into an extremely contaminous virus transported in his ventral sacs. This explains the small infrared footprint, able to slip through Terran sensor technology. Once the destination has been reached, the light provided by the nearest star alarms certain nerves of the Overlord to wake up. Native lifeforms of the destination planet can be used as host for the virus and feed the zerg with their own lifes. Anyone infested by zerg will be thankful to die.
The "stated" fact about the flight that the zerg does while in transit between solar systems / planets are more in line of a warp / bending of space to allow faster than light "flight".
The "normal" strain of Zerg has a natural (evolutionary path) resistance against almost every kinda of pressure, vacuum, but are weak against Radiation ( Does not say what kind, but i am gone take a wild guess and Alpha and beta + gamma radiation are dangerous, but to what limits there are no info atleast not that i have seen), if your gone include this, you might want to shorten it down a bit cause it is way technical.
There is also some very interesting parts about the zerg if you read "kerrigans" bio.
loved the part about scvs spotting 11 or 12 drones :D
i remember reading back in the sc2 beta that ultralisks had mono molecular points in their blades, so that they could cut through almost anything in only one swing.
hydralisks store their spines in the area avobe their head, flexing around 200 [?] muscles to send the spine at high velocity. the spine contains venom, many times causing limb paralysis (presumably) to marines -- the warfield case --.
I've read that the zerg tech building carry the DNA information the larvae need to morph into a specific type of zerg and spread it to the rest of the zerg. If you look closely at some buildings (ultralisk cavern, hydralisk den...), some buildings look like they are one of these units who has grown fat and turned into a building. May be worth mentionning.
Lately, a new type of Zerg flier has been monitored, which hints to another interpretation of the phenomenom of these Broodlings, and gives evidence that they are not actually a parasitic infection, but that there actually is a symbiotic relationship where the naturally defenseless Zerg buildings feed those Broodlings to deterr their enemies from destroying them, in fear of retribution from the angry released Broodlings, similar to how many poisonous plants and animals are safe from being eaten because of their poison.
These gigantic flying so-called Broodlords takes this relationship to an abusive extreme as the Broodlords use the Broodlings as ammunition, and they are able to launch them at enemy targets over a very long distance, where not only do they impact with hard force, but the angry broodlings also attack the targets with razor-sharp claws and teeth. Of course, being dependend on their host to live, the broodlings die shortly afterwards.
On a totally unrelated note, i think it would be a good idea to use the full term of "Hatcheries", instead of the abbreviated "Hatch", to make the whole thing sound more science-ish.
On April 23 2011 16:31 Telenil wrote: I've read that the zerg tech building carry the DNA information the larvae need to morph into a specific type of zerg and spread it to the rest of the zerg. If you look closely at some buildings (ultralisk cavern, hydralisk den...), some buildings look like they are one of these units who has grown fat and turned into a building. May be worth mentionning.
The roach warren houses a creature which resembles a roach. May be this is a kind of "mother roach". I will mention this idea.
On April 23 2011 18:52 Simberto wrote: Very nice Zerg part again.
Suggestion: Broodlords:
Lately, a new type of Zerg flier has been monitored, which hints to another interpretation of the phenomenom of these Broodlings, and gives evidence that they are not actually a parasitic infection, but that there actually is a symbiotic relationship where the naturally defenseless Zerg buildings feed those Broodlings to deterr their enemies from destroying them, in fear of retribution from the angry released Broodlings, similar to how many poisonous plants and animals are safe from being eaten because of their poison.
These gigantic flying so-called Broodlords takes this relationship to an abusive extreme as the Broodlords use the Broodlings as ammunition, and they are able to launch them at enemy targets over a very long distance, where not only do they impact with hard force, but the angry broodlings also attack the targets with razor-sharp claws and teeth. Of course, being dependend on their host to live, the broodlings die shortly afterwards.
On a totally unrelated note, i think it would be a good idea to use the full term of "Hatcheries", instead of the abbreviated "Hatch", to make the whole thing sound more science-ish.
Since building broodlings and broodlord broodlings do not share upgrades, it sounds logical that their are not exactly the same creatures but used for their specific purpose. I am thinking about expanding the broodling part a bit, but don't want to go too deep for a high-tier unit. But because it is a mystery at the first look – why do we have broodlings, the brood lord attack units when a structure is killed? – I will use some of these ideas to elaborate a bit further.
The suggestion about wording (hatchery instead of hatch) is very good. Thank you.
The Ultralisk serves as the hard-hitting monstrosity for all advanced hive colonies. Ultralisks not only have unimaginably tough carapaces, but innately have the carapace equivalent to the first terran armor upgrades. Specialized armor upgrades exist at the Ultralisk cavern, which make a fully evolved Ultralisk practically invincible, and can easily absorb fire from Standard Issue C-14 Gauss Rifles and Zergling claws. The Ultralisk generally leads the charge against almost every army, be it Terran, Protoss, or another Zerg Brood. Their immense size lets them literally trample smaller enemies into the ground, and toppling foes of larger size. When assaulting buildings or other massive enemies, they use their bone-like scythes to cut enemies to pieces before they can deal any damage. They move fast enough that they can get into melee range before range before ranged enemies can take advantage of this.
The Ultralisks huge expanse of muscles, ligaments, and its killing engineered brain requires almost an entire Overlord to control. The Ultralisk gene has been extracted, studied, and replicated by Terran scientists, but to no avail. The only full code exists in the Ultralisk Cavern and the Ultralisks, the former used only to mutate larva into new Ultralisks.
Ultralisk Scythes are so gigantic that an attack against a single enemy also deals massive hurt to nearby units, which suffer damage from the in-stroke of the attack. Due to this, very small numbers of Ultralisks rip through small Terran units like butter, and the standard Marines and Marauders are notoriously afraid of exterminating a Zerg Infestation that has been left unchecked. Most kill squads sent to do this don't come back alive. Heavy firepower mechanical units need to be brought to deal with this.
Looking at a Hydralisk, even a educated and experienced Terran Scientist wouldn't suspect that it was evolved from the docile herbivore, the Slothien Caterpillar. The original Overmind saw the hidden potential in this hapless and weak creature and mutated it into the subservient killing machine aptly named the Hydralisk. The armored crest behind its head houses a simple organ that produces Needle-like spines at a phenomenal rate, and the Hydralisk uses its extensive musculature system of nearly 4000 muscles to fire the keratin spines at speeds that pierce the toughest standard issue Neosteel even at maximum range. Marines are under direct orders to never approach massed groups of Hydralisks without support.
Unfortunately the slow wormlike movement of the Hydralisk makes it better fit as a defender, where it has Queen support and can move more freely on the creep of the Hive Cluster. It is also suited as an ambusher, unburrowing to catch an army when its not expecting to be attacked.
Hydralisks also have thick claws that allow them to pin infantry down and kill it, or deal massive damage by slashing enemies with its talons. Because the Hydralisk has all the muscles of its arm behind its melee attacks, it does as much damage at melee as its spines do when shooting enemies down at range.
On April 24 2011 03:03 Fredoq wrote: Why dont you place your Command Center as close as possible to the minerals?
How would you explain that? Why you need to mine your resources from a distance and not plant your CC ontop of the minerals?
I just took this from the top of my head ok?
Because the Mineral Nodes and Vespene geysers are too unstable to place a massive command center too close to without risking a a collapse in the veins of soft minerals. Raw vespene is far too volatile to place a command center too close to.
i dont know if any of you guys have read the book star ship trooper (written in 1959) but i think blizzard took some of the ideas alongside as well when making Terran and Zerg.
the only reason i bring this up is because Robert A. Heinlein did a very good job of describing futuristic military humans in mechanic suits fight a race of bugs.
the more and more i think about i feel the guys at blizzard were a Heinlein fan
Thank you for the link but I will not read it until this OP is completed. Otherwise I may be steal ideas from that article without noticing it as I may be think it was my idea while it was incited by that article.
Kinetik_Inferno,
I think that the OP should not include too detailed descriptions of higher-tier units as it is not the intention to explain everything. A complete guide for any race would result in a long text with too much information. It also would make it necessary to carefully check the canon lore to avoid contradictions. I think that I will include a link to your two posts as an optionally expansion to the OP.
I elaborate a bit on the basic fighter unit as it reflects much qualities of the according race, but I mention higher-tier units only to explain the interaction of upgrades and other stuff.
On April 24 2011 03:03 Fredoq wrote: Why dont you place your Command Center as close as possible to the minerals?
How would you explain that? Why you need to mine your resources from a distance and not plant your CC ontop of the minerals?
I just took this from the top of my head ok?
Because the Mineral Nodes and Vespene geysers are too unstable to place a massive command center too close to without risking a a collapse in the veins of soft minerals. Raw vespene is far too volatile to place a command center too close to.
This is a good idea. I will mention it in the OP. While it is clear that the real reason is balance to create the need for 2-3 workers per resource, it does make sense to explain it with sensible geology near resources.
On April 24 2011 05:04 integrity wrote: i dont know if any of you guys have read the book star ship trooper (written in 1959) but i think blizzard took some of the ideas alongside as well when making Terran and Zerg.
the only reason i bring this up is because Robert A. Heinlein did a very good job of describing futuristic military humans in mechanic suits fight a race of bugs.
the more and more i think about i feel the guys at blizzard were a Heinlein fan
I think, his book is more about political views. He did describe – as you wrote – the power armor which in plays only a small role in the movie of the same title which in contrast focuses on the bugs. I would say that Blizzard got inspiration from Warhammer 40000, Starship Troopers (both book and film) and the Alien franchise.
As Heinlein set the hallmark of military science fiction, he of course had an influence to all later franchises in the same genre. I still need to read The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress.
On April 23 2011 21:22 [F_]aths wrote: Since building broodlings and broodlord broodlings do not share upgrades, it sounds logical that their are not exactly the same creatures but used for their specific purpose. I am thinking about expanding the broodling part a bit, but don't want to go too deep for a high-tier unit. But because it is a mystery at the first look – why do we have broodlings, the brood lord attack units when a structure is killed? – I will use some of these ideas to elaborate a bit further.
The suggestion about wording (hatchery instead of hatch) is very good. Thank you.
"They" are actually the same unit on the ground and use melee/ground carapace upgrades. The air version is another unit, but that one is used just for the visual effect.
On April 24 2011 07:10 [F_]aths wrote: Kinetik_Inferno,
I think that the OP should not include too detailed descriptions of higher-tier units as it is not the intention to explain everything. A complete guide for any race would result in a long text with too much information. It also would make it necessary to carefully check the canon lore to avoid contradictions. I think that I will include a link to your two posts as an optionally expansion to the OP.
I elaborate a bit on the basic fighter unit as it reflects much qualities of the according race, but I mention higher-tier units only to explain the interaction of upgrades and other stuff.
On April 24 2011 03:03 Fredoq wrote: Why dont you place your Command Center as close as possible to the minerals?
How would you explain that? Why you need to mine your resources from a distance and not plant your CC ontop of the minerals?
I just took this from the top of my head ok?
Because the Mineral Nodes and Vespene geysers are too unstable to place a massive command center too close to without risking a a collapse in the veins of soft minerals. Raw vespene is far too volatile to place a command center too close to.
This is a good idea. I will mention it in the OP. While it is clear that the real reason is balance to create the need for 2-3 workers per resource, it does make sense to explain it with sensible geology near resources.
K I'll make it prettier and better worded then.
When Terrans first arrived in the Koprulu Sector, their Command Centers were placed as close as possible to Mineral and Vespene nodes and geysers. Even though this severely cut down on Mining Time, dangerous collapse of the unstable veins beneath became far more common. When mineral arcs impact on a planets surface, it creates severe enough shockwaves beneath the impact to form caverns and sinkholes. Command Centers, Nexii, and Hatcheries are all far too heavy to be safely placed too close to Mineral Nodes. Likewise, Raw Vespene Gas is too explosive and volatile to safely place a heavy building such as this too close to a geyser.
whoever wrote the part about an organ responsible for "reordering" DNA and injecting RNA needs to wikiresearch harder, also lol about DNA being translated from RNA. Definitely putting the fiction into science fiction I suggest changing that paragraph completely
Also, add a note that zerg is the only species that goes Larva -> egg -> birth -> kill stuff -> die. AFAIK on earth an animals life cycle is always Egg -> Larva -> birth -> reproduce -> die
The part about the extractor trick made me ROFL. In fact any part that referenced the physical impossibilities of the race mechanics made me ROFL.
Anyways, Suggestion:
On April 23 2011 05:53 [F_]aths wrote:
The radiation as a weapon versus zerg was used in SC1, so I will include it.
Doesn't the SC2 Campaign's Psi Disruptor (slows Zergies down) use gamma radiation? Stetmann's final log in the Zerg research tube mentions that he dosed the Zerg samples with gamma rays and it greatly inhibited growth. Maybe you could mention that as well?
Many people have suggested that the Nydus Worm tunnels underground and transports Zerg troops to the exit. This hypothesis, although simple and attractive, seems untenable because we have observed them working on isolated space platforms. No long fleshy appendages have been seen leading to these space platforms.
What actually happens is like this. The Zerg Swarm travels through warp space by the Overmind creating warp rifts using its huge psionic powers. Currently Kerrigan does the same thing by channeling the aggregate psionic power of the Zerg Swarm which is largely contained in the countless Overlords. The Nydus Network is a specially grown organ used to create small warp rifts and control them so that they do not expand and engulf the landscape. Such control is necessary, which is why normally Terran and Protoss spacefleets as well as Zerg broods must be a certain distance from a planet before they enter warpspace, as gravitational fields have a distorting effect on warp rifts. The Protoss control warp rifts on planetary surfaces through their advanced technology and psionic control. Terrans lack the advanced technology and individual psionic control of the Protoss, nor the ability to combine psionic potential as the Zerg do, so they cannot open warp rifts near planetary surfaces.
The Nydus network has a specially grown gravity-proof membrane which channels Zerg psionic power to achieve this effect, so a small warp rift can be created to pull units through.
2. Banshee
Many military enthusiasts in the Korprulu Sector have wondered about the design of the Banshee, as it seems to fly using turbofans even in environments with no atmosphere present.
However, a highly classified report shows that the Banshees are actually fitted with a secondary propulsion system, fitted under its chassis are two small rocket engines, which allow it to fly in areas with no or extremely sparse atmospheric gases. In these conditions, the turbofans are still kept spinning in order to confuse enemy units of the true nature of its propulsion, serving as decoys for enemies to shoot against.
We suspect that the same rationale may apply to the Mutalisk's wings.
3. Broodlords
The Broodlord is one of the most feared weapons in the Zerg arsenal, yet its immense power is limited by the sluggishness of its movement. Terran scientists who have dissected fallen Broodlords have discovered the reason for its slowness.
The Broodlord contains huge internal gestation chambers for the rapid incubation of Broodlings, which in their formative stages are prone to injury when subject to rapid acceleration or acceleration, Owing to this, the Broodlord limits itself to a rather slow speed of flight.
On April 24 2011 16:58 targ wrote: Let me make a few suggestions for extra material:
1. How the Nydus Worm works.
Many people have suggested that the Nydus Worm tunnels underground and transports Zerg troops to the exit. This hypothesis, although simple and attractive, seems untenable because we have observed them working on isolated space platforms. No long fleshy appendages have been seen leading to these space platforms.
What actually happens is like this. The Zerg Swarm travels through warp space by the Overmind creating warp rifts using its huge psionic powers. Currently Kerrigan does the same thing by channeling the aggregate psionic power of the Zerg Swarm which is largely contained in the countless Overlords. The Nydus Network is a specially grown organ used to create small warp rifts and control them so that they do not expand and engulf the landscape. Such control is necessary, which is why normally Terran and Protoss spacefleets as well as Zerg broods must be a certain distance from a planet before they enter warpspace, as gravitational fields have a distorting effect on warp rifts. The Protoss control warp rifts on planetary surfaces through their advanced technology and psionic control. Terrans lack the advanced technology and individual psionic control of the Protoss, nor the ability to combine psionic potential as the Zerg do, so they cannot open warp rifts near planetary surfaces.
Actually if you would go to Starcraft wiki, and read up on the "lore" behind zerg it is stated (doesnt mean that it is true though) that the zerg got warp "tech" after "assimilating" a another race refered to as "Behemoth" that is atleast how they got themself into a position to survive the vacuum of space, it is also stated (Again we are assuming that this is "fact") it took thousands of years to get to the sector where the protoss is / are currently inhabitis.
Atleast to me, the Behomoth would be more in lines of the travel time, with a speed very high up against the speed of light ( tricky part is that relativity comes into play and the time that the zerg actually traveled would be view as more from the outside, and less from the "actual" object doin the traveling).
Again, this is my opinion of it and any constructive criticize to the info above.
Now on to the Nydus worm, why i do agree with you on the fact that the worms in space are a bit "funky" i have a alternative to it (unless you find a island / far away from the other sentral part of the map in space), most of the "maps" are asteroids or spacestations so it would be reasonable ( ? ) to think of a cavern system or the interior of the spacestation to work as a "nydus network".
On April 24 2011 16:58 targ wrote: Let me make a few suggestions for extra material:
1. How the Nydus Worm works.
Many people have suggested that the Nydus Worm tunnels underground and transports Zerg troops to the exit. This hypothesis, although simple and attractive, seems untenable because we have observed them working on isolated space platforms. No long fleshy appendages have been seen leading to these space platforms.
What actually happens is like this. The Zerg Swarm travels through warp space by the Overmind creating warp rifts using its huge psionic powers. Currently Kerrigan does the same thing by channeling the aggregate psionic power of the Zerg Swarm which is largely contained in the countless Overlords. The Nydus Network is a specially grown organ used to create small warp rifts and control them so that they do not expand and engulf the landscape. Such control is necessary, which is why normally Terran and Protoss spacefleets as well as Zerg broods must be a certain distance from a planet before they enter warpspace, as gravitational fields have a distorting effect on warp rifts. The Protoss control warp rifts on planetary surfaces through their advanced technology and psionic control. Terrans lack the advanced technology and individual psionic control of the Protoss, nor the ability to combine psionic potential as the Zerg do, so they cannot open warp rifts near planetary surfaces.
Actually if you would go to Starcraft wiki, and read up on the "lore" behind zerg it is stated (doesnt mean that it is true though) that the zerg got warp "tech" after "assimilating" a another race refered to as "Behemoth" that is atleast how they got themself into a position to survive the vacuum of space, it is also stated (Again we are assuming that this is "fact") it took thousands of years to get to the sector where the protoss is / are currently inhabitis.
Atleast to me, the Behomoth would be more in lines of the travel time, with a speed very high up against the speed of light ( tricky part is that relativity comes into play and the time that the zerg actually traveled would be view as more from the outside, and less from the "actual" object doin the traveling).
Again, this is my opinion of it and any constructive criticize to the info above.
Now on to the Nydus worm, why i do agree with you on the fact that the worms in space are a bit "funky" i have a alternative to it (unless you find a island / far away from the other sentral part of the map in space), most of the "maps" are asteroids or spacestations so it would be reasonable ( ? ) to think of a cavern system or the interior of the spacestation to work as a "nydus network".
Based on my understanding of the reading, the Behemoth gave Zerg the capacity to withstand vacuum, and later served as huge troop transports. The ability of opening warp rifts still seems to me to stem from the Overmind channeling the Zerg's group psionic potential.
After reading the Nydus Network description though, Blizzard does state clearly that it uses itself as a tunnel. So I suppose the only explanation is that when passing through open areas it generates a kind of cloaking field that keeps it invisible. Maybe Kerrigan taught it a couple of tricks.
On April 24 2011 13:25 Jhohok wrote: The part about the extractor trick made me ROFL. In fact any part that referenced the physical impossibilities of the race mechanics made me ROFL.
The radiation as a weapon versus zerg was used in SC1, so I will include it.
Doesn't the SC2 Campaign's Psi Disruptor (slows Zergies down) use gamma radiation? Stetmann's final log in the Zerg research tube mentions that he dosed the Zerg samples with gamma rays and it greatly inhibited growth. Maybe you could mention that as well?
Source: Campaign's research lab.
Sending you a link to the psi disruptor it sends out "sigma" radiation.
You might be thinking of the Hive mind emulator but that again is a sort of "mind control" that emulates the Zerg overmind.
On April 24 2011 12:45 Teivospy wrote: whoever wrote the part about an organ responsible for "reordering" DNA and injecting RNA needs to wikiresearch harder, also lol about DNA being translated from RNA. Definitely putting the fiction into science fiction I suggest changing that paragraph completely
Also, add a note that zerg is the only species that goes Larva -> egg -> birth -> kill stuff -> die. AFAIK on earth an animals life cycle is always Egg -> Larva -> birth -> reproduce -> die
edit - molecular biology errors aside, good read
Please correct me about RNA and DNA. As far as I know, RNA is DNA with the mirror part left and used to copy the DNA.
On April 24 2011 16:58 targ wrote: Let me make a few suggestions for extra material:
1. How the Nydus Worm works.
I already need "warp" and "rift in space" for the Protoss. For the Nydus I assume an inner tube which can choke units through. As my goal is to maintain suspension of disbelieve, i try to go into detail only when it is necessary.
Your suggestion for the Banshee is nice, but currently I like to leave those high-tech units out. If we establish "facts" how the Banshee works, it must not contradict any later addition. That is why I begin with the basics.
I am glad that the OP sparks a lot of ideas about the Starcraft world. For the time being however, the OP should keep to the basics.
Based on my understanding of the reading, the Behemoth gave Zerg the capacity to withstand vacuum, and later served as huge troop transports. The ability of opening warp rifts still seems to me to stem from the Overmind channeling the Zerg's group psionic potential.
After reading the Nydus Network description though, Blizzard does state clearly that it uses itself as a tunnel. So I suppose the only explanation is that when passing through open areas it generates a kind of cloaking field that keeps it invisible. Maybe Kerrigan taught it a couple of tricks. [/QUOTE]
hmm, you might be right there but i still find it strange that the lore would say, there is a few of the articles that actually support you, i have read a little about "queen (belly of the beast)". but did the zerg get this after they started to assimilate humans ? or did they have this from the start ? theoretical questions, hehe. There seems to be support for both theories at this point, if you got any other material / sources i would be glad to read trough it.
"The Dark Voice's control forced the Overmind to seek out the protoss.[3] The Overmind believed assimilating the protoss would make the zerg "perfect", and directed the Swarm into space in search of Aiur, the protoss homeworld. Along the way it assimilated multiple species in preparation for the confrontation. As the Swarm neared the Koprulu Sector and the volume of space under protoss stewardship, they discovered the terrans. Of the species encountered, the terrans were unique in having psionic potential. With such abilities the zerg would be able to combat the protoss on even terms."
I do realise that this is more "lore" than other parts of the "text" / and the thread starter might not want it this, but background info is a good way to find / get into the creative writing, your doin a excellent job of it !
DNA and RNA in the most basic way is that DNA is double stranded whereas RNA is single stranded. The next difference is that DNA is made from deoxyribose and RNA is made from ribose. Ribose has a hydroxyl group attached to it, making it less stable. The third difference is in the complementary nucleotides that DNA and RNA encode for. DNA has thymine (T), guanine (G), adenine (A) and cytosine (C). G is always paired with C and A is always paired with T in DNA. In RNA, there is no thymine, so adenine is paired instead with uracil (U). DNA is contained within the nucleus of a cell and cannot leave. The job of RNA is to copy a strand of DNA in the nucleus to carry out the manufacture of a specific protein, carry the code outside into the cytoplasm of the cell, where it attaches to a ribosome that manufactures amino acids. Each strand of RNA can carry the recipe for several amino acids.
Here is how a protein is made. First, messenger RNA (mRNA) goes into the nucleus of the cell and copies the recipe for a specific protein. The mRNA brings the recipe outside the nucleus to the ribosome; the site of protein synthesis inside the cell. Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) with the help of transfer RNA synthesizes a single amino acid.
Working on the protoss shield / how it fits into our current tech level / physics.
On April 24 2011 20:41 targ wrote: After reading the Nydus Network description though, Blizzard does state clearly that it uses itself as a tunnel. So I suppose the only explanation is that when passing through open areas it generates a kind of cloaking field that keeps it invisible. Maybe Kerrigan taught it a couple of tricks.
Originally Blizzard wanted to have a Nydus worm and considered to visualize its travel through space. Then they decided to use a Network instead, probably to "solve" the issue of rendering a worm floating through space.
Now I would say, the tube of the network is still there, but not visualized. In the "real" world, the network would create tubes to the space island. Since the maps and units are out of scale anyways, I would say that the worm (network) is so small compared to the rest that one don't have the chance to find it. Assuming cloak technology would raise more issues than it solves.
Scryedo89
Can you phrase 2-3 sentences of how the genetic sequence is taken from the structure and implemented into the larva for DNA replication?
edit: I try to keep out the Dark Voice stuff at least until it is clear who/what the Dark Voice really is. The political games of the superpowers in the Koprulu sector is lore. While the OP should not contradict the lore, it should contain mostly original ideas.
About the Protoss: I hope I am ready to release it beginning of next week. Overall it will be more to define the structure of the this part, not too much to offer "explanations" yet because as of yet I need to use many tricks which are currently just speculations in the real science. Often times I just replace something unexplainable with a purely speculative concept.
On April 24 2011 16:58 targ wrote: Let me make a few suggestions for extra material:
1. How the Nydus Worm works.
I already need "warp" and "rift in space" for the Protoss. For the Nydus I assume an inner tube which can choke units through. As my goal is to maintain suspension of disbelieve, i try to go into detail only when it is necessary.
Your suggestion for the Banshee is nice, but currently I like to leave those high-tech units out. If we establish "facts" how the Banshee works, it must not contradict any later addition. That is why I begin with the basics.
I am glad that the OP sparks a lot of ideas about the Starcraft world. For the time being however, the OP should keep to the basics.
Haha I think you covered the basics pretty comprehensively already then. By the way, you explained Terran research and upgrades becoming effective in the field, but not how Zerg does so. Unfortunately right now I cannot think of a good explanation for them too.
On April 25 2011 00:17 targ wrote: Haha I think you covered the basics pretty comprehensively already then. By the way, you explained Terran research and upgrades becoming effective in the field, but not how Zerg does so. Unfortunately right now I cannot think of a good explanation for them too.
Overlords air the genetic sequence which is replicated by each zerg and incorporated into their stem cells to grow additional muscles for example.
The hatcheries works as "injector" for the larva, as the larva itself does not contain all the necessary DNA structure to start the evolution process in the larva, the hatcheries clones the DNA strand inside the structure itself to replicate more strands for further production, while injection enough into the larva to start the evolution to the specific units that is encoded in the DNA strand. (This is called mitosis (no sex cells), as we have yet to see a "female" Zerg except the queen of blades and queens ).
This might be more of a representation than anything, again i dont have that much background with the Biology of it, i work mostly on chemistry.
Interesting read... instead of the minerals being magically produced into something for the army... I always figured it was used to pay the soldiers for doing the dirty work (kinda like mining for gold and selling it for moneyz then paying people the moneyz for labor).
Zergs are mining resources for the queen of blades... now as to why they actually need money for larva to morph into a unit I have no idea. Could have to do with some combination of a compound in the minerals.
But for Terran and Protoss I always imagined the resources being gathered to hire the army etc..
On April 25 2011 00:43 Scryedo89 wrote: The hatcheries works as "injector" for the larva, as the larva itself does not contain all the necessary DNA structure to start the evolution process in the larva, the hatcheries clones the DNA strand inside the structure itself to replicate more strands for further production, while injection enough into the larva to start the evolution to the specific units that is encoded in the DNA strand. (This is called mitosis (no sex cells), as we have yet to see a "female" Zerg except the queen of blades and queens ).
This might be more of a representation than anything, again i dont have that much background with the Biology of it, i work mostly on chemistry.
Thank you. I took the liberty to slightly shorten and rephrase it as I included it into the running text. I also shortened my own part about replicating "aired" genes for the upgrade distribution to avoid contradictions with real biology.
If anyone still finds something which are not covered by real biology, please state it in this thread so I can improve the text further. Even minor errors should be taken out.
On April 25 2011 01:01 BigJoe wrote: Interesting read... instead of the minerals being magically produced into something for the army... I always figured it was used to pay the soldiers for doing the dirty work (kinda like mining for gold and selling it for moneyz then paying people the moneyz for labor).
Zergs are mining resources for the queen of blades... now as to why they actually need money for larva to morph into a unit I have no idea. Could have to do with some combination of a compound in the minerals.
But for Terran and Protoss I always imagined the resources being gathered to hire the army etc.
In the campaign, Terrans actually can hire soldiers. Other than that I think the minerals are needed to outfit recruits.
As the larva is very small compared to the zerg unit, it needs to eat a lot. The nutrition is made from minerals and vespene. (The larva is not actually chewing a rock of the mineral crystal, but is given an organic substance which requires minerals and vespene to be made.)
As far as I know, Protoss don't "hire" their soldiers, they are trained to follow the Khala and then warped into the battlefield to serve.
On April 23 2011 05:53 [F_]aths wrote: The SCC (http://classic.battle.net/scc/zerg/units/zergling.shtml) states "Their DNA structure is so simple that two Zerglings can be created from a single Larva."
Alright, but just note that blizzard's explanation makes no sense. It's like saying cars in Japan are painted black because your local car dealer became a goth and loves black. No where in real life is the splitting into 2 or more individuals due to the "complexity"/"simplicity" of DNA structure. It is simply due to the genome's instructions.
On April 25 2011 01:01 BigJoe wrote: Interesting read... instead of the minerals being magically produced into something for the army... I always figured it was used to pay the soldiers for doing the dirty work (kinda like mining for gold and selling it for moneyz then paying people the moneyz for labor).
Zergs are mining resources for the queen of blades... now as to why they actually need money for larva to morph into a unit I have no idea. Could have to do with some combination of a compound in the minerals.
But for Terran and Protoss I always imagined the resources being gathered to hire the army etc.
In the campaign, Terrans actually can hire soldiers. Other than that I think the minerals are needed to outfit recruits.
As the larva is very small compared to the zerg unit, it needs to eat a lot. The nutrition is made from minerals and vespene. (The larva is not actually chewing a rock of the mineral crystal, but is given an organic substance which requires minerals and vespene to be made.)
As far as I know, Protoss don't "hire" their soldiers, they are trained to follow the Khala and then warped into the battlefield to serve.
if you go to the wiki page for minerals you will see terran a protoss us mineral (becaus of this hardness and other rich qualities) as material to make ships and armor. and vespine gas is used just like we use gasoline today. and zerg use minerals to harden their carapaces and develop strong teeth. and gas is so they can adapted themselves to use raw vespene as a source of nourishment to drive their greatly accelerated metabolisms.
OP: i feel like you are trying to do a lot of "lore" work that blizzard has already done. A lot of these things are explained in detailed on the Starcraft wiki page.
On April 24 2011 13:25 Jhohok wrote: The part about the extractor trick made me ROFL. In fact any part that referenced the physical impossibilities of the race mechanics made me ROFL.
Anyways, Suggestion:
On April 23 2011 05:53 [F_]aths wrote:
The radiation as a weapon versus zerg was used in SC1, so I will include it.
Doesn't the SC2 Campaign's Psi Disruptor (slows Zergies down) use gamma radiation? Stetmann's final log in the Zerg research tube mentions that he dosed the Zerg samples with gamma rays and it greatly inhibited growth. Maybe you could mention that as well?
Source: Campaign's research lab.
Sending you a link to the psi disruptor it sends out "sigma" radiation.
You might be thinking of the Hive mind emulator but that again is a sort of "mind control" that emulates the Zerg overmind.
Gah, you're right about the sigma radiation! Went back into the campaign research lab. Says "sigma".
But "The slowing properties of the radiation" was not "discovered by the United Earth Directorate" alone, the ones used in SC2 were developed by Stetmann, independent of the UED. So SC1 by UED scientists, and SC2 by Stetmann?
Like the Zerg stuff. Small note: you might want to replace "lotion" with "gel" under the section on Extractors. Lotion is something you use to soften your skin, a gel is a partially solidified chemical. I realize you are not a native English speaker but I think this is what you meant
On April 25 2011 13:06 colanderman wrote: Like the Zerg stuff. Small note: you might want to replace "lotion" with "gel" under the section on Extractors. Lotion is something you use to soften your skin, a gel is a partially solidified chemical. I realize you are not a native English speaker but I think this is what you meant
For the Protoss part I would assume that some actual construction is done in the field, requiring the cybernetics core to have hub for further cybernetic (robotic) facilities and using the robotics bay to assemble robotic fighters (and implant injured Zealots into Immortals.) Is this compatible with the lore or are robotic units warped-in like the other units? The lore I found so far is not very specific.
The robotics facilities build the units, according to the manual. I suppose they could be warped, just like anything else, but it is explicity stated that the facilities build some of the protoss war machines.
I always looked at zerg a little differently. I assume that at the start of a game my zerg pieces are toned for space travel and/or the previous conquered planet/environment and, the zerg upgrades tweak the anatomy of the zerg, to be best suited to the knew environment, giving the units faster speed on icy surfaces etc.
Thanks to everyone who finds the OP useful. It takes a bit more effort that originally expected, but with the positive reactions it looks like it worth it.
On April 23 2011 05:53 [F_]aths wrote: The SCC (http://classic.battle.net/scc/zerg/units/zergling.shtml) states "Their DNA structure is so simple that two Zerglings can be created from a single Larva."
Alright, but just note that blizzard's explanation makes no sense. It's like saying cars in Japan are painted black because your local car dealer became a goth and loves black. No where in real life is the splitting into 2 or more individuals due to the "complexity"/"simplicity" of DNA structure. It is simply due to the genome's instructions.
I now changed it and put it to the zergling's small frame that a cocoon fits two of them.
On April 24 2011 23:21 [F_]aths wrote: Please correct me about RNA and DNA. As far as I know, RNA is DNA with the mirror part left and used to copy the DNA.
SOrry for not elaborating, had to run out at the time.
RNA and DNA are similar in concept but they are extremely chemically different. You used the phrase "translated" but translation refers to RNA -> protein (no need to get into detail). If you want to use your explanation the correct term for RNA -> DNA is reverse transcription via an reverse transcriptase protein.
Still... organs are like actual massive tissues that perform a specific physiological function (ie lungs) while DNA tells a given cell how to operate. DNA is much smaller than organs so I don't see how an organ can direct changes in the DNA and then proceed to inject them into stem cells in order to develop a new structure.. instead I'd imagine epithelial stem cells in a given region would recombine their own DNA (recombine = shuffle around DNA) after receiving the signal from the overlord (ie a specific type of radiation) to do so which then would cause the physiological changes to occur.
I now rephrased it to "The Overlords air the additional gene sequence to all underlings which have the ability to recombine given deoxyribonucleic acids in their epithelial stem cells the in proper order. Those cells replicate the new DNA for further cell division."
As you see I avoid too much detail to keep this part short; is it now at least possible or still nonsense from a biological point of view?
There is no air in space, so even if they can breath without air they can't fly without air. If they use telepathic powers to move themselves like overlords or guardians/broodlords then why do they even have wings?
On April 27 2011 14:46 BlackMagister wrote: How do mutalisk fly in space?
There is no air in space, so even if they can breath without air they can't fly without air. If they use telepathic powers to move themselves like overlords or guardians/broodlords then why do they even have wings?
They have the wing animation because the space tile set was introduced later and it is just a graphical tile set to offer a variety of different map settings. This of course breaks through the fourth wall.
It should be telekinetic power (not telepathic) but anyway, it does not really explain how they can fly in space.
This is why we need suspension of disbelieve. Mutas on Shattered Temple? Yes, it is possible. Mutas on Scrap Station? Hrm ... Since we already can believe that a swarm of species like the zerg could exist for real, we are going to believe that mutalisks are able to fly in space, we just don't know, how.
It is similar to fantasy movies. You believe that Gandalf actually is a powerful magician. He still needs material for a firework (he cannot conjure it out of nowhere) and he is just calling his white horse, not summoning it out of nowhere. This is enough for us to "explain" it.
For mutalisks in space we assume that there is a fully reasonable explanation even though we don't know it. For a long time, no human could fully explain how a bird flies. Of course the bird uses its wings and it probably has something to do with the air to somehow generate an ascending force. For the mutalisk we assume that they are able to store a lot of energy so they can hold breath in space for a looong time, and that there are somehow can use other mediums than air to fly.
Yeah I know it doesn't really make sense, just always like to point out mutalisks when someone tries to make sense of Starcraft. If mutalisk were like overlords then the explanation would be telekinetic powers. However mutalisk are given wings as the explanation for why they can fly and if you're going to give an explanation that we can understand it should make sense, but at times it doesn't. If it's something like telekenetic powers it's the same as saying it's magic which is done with Gandalf and the audience doesn't really attempt to go further for an explanation because it's clearly made up, wings and flight however do exist.
This is absolutely amazing. The detail of every little thing of the starcraft universe is described. Well done.
Any Terran base is set up near mineral crystals. Those crystals often grow in arcs. The cause of this is not completely understood. The crystals contain various minerals which can be extracted and directly used, or be transformed to substitute virtually any other material. Around those minerals one can often find geysers. May be the geology causing geysers somehow influences the appearance of mineral crystals, too. In some cases, crystals are extra rich minarelized. The high amount of mineral substance tints them yellow, while normal crystals shimmer in blue.
All those crystals have an amazingly similar composition. Terran astronomers assume that the minerals in the crystals are leftovers from the supernova of a single very big star system – because all crystals have the same spectral signature and the same trace element mixture.
Holy crap. Just one of the several amazingly described parts.
I have an idea to explain how zerg regenerates their health so quickly compared to other organisms such as humans. The zerg race, unlike any other biological organisms, can regenerate their health at extremely fast speeds. A zergling, for example, can go from nearly dead to completely healthy in a matter of seconds. DNA replication and condensation into chromosomes is significantly faster than that of other organisms. Not only that, but the anaphase, metaphase and cytokinesis parts of mitosis are also extremely quick. Scientists are still struggling to understand why this is so. These fast rates results in extremely quick mitosis in the zerg, helping them to rapidly replace cells which were lost in battle, such as parts of organs, bones or the skin.
The Protoss can wrap in their units into pylon power by forwarding the signal received by the gateway. (like how radio/tv beams can be reflected by satellites ps. Could use better wording
On April 27 2011 14:46 BlackMagister wrote: How do mutalisk fly in space?
There is no air in space, so even if they can breath without air they can't fly without air. If they use telepathic powers to move themselves like overlords or guardians/broodlords then why do they even have wings?
They have the wing animation because the space tile set was introduced later and it is just a graphical tile set to offer a variety of different map settings. This of course breaks through the fourth wall.
It should be telekinetic power (not telepathic) but anyway, it does not really explain how they can fly in space.
This is why we need suspension of disbelieve. Mutas on Shattered Temple? Yes, it is possible. Mutas on Scrap Station? Hrm ... Since we already can believe that a swarm of species like the zerg could exist for real, we are going to believe that mutalisks are able to fly in space, we just don't know, how.
It is similar to fantasy movies. You believe that Gandalf actually is a powerful magician. He still needs material for a firework (he cannot conjure it out of nowhere) and he is just calling his white horse, not summoning it out of nowhere. This is enough for us to "explain" it.
For mutalisks in space we assume that there is a fully reasonable explanation even though we don't know it. For a long time, no human could fully explain how a bird flies. Of course the bird uses its wings and it probably has something to do with the air to somehow generate an ascending force. For the mutalisk we assume that they are able to store a lot of energy so they can hold breath in space for a looong time, and that there are somehow can use other mediums than air to fly.
Well, it could be that they have small Gas vents on their Wings that allow them to release pressured Gas to propel them, like organic rockets. They flap their Wings to release the gasses in exactly the right direction to make small adjustments to the position and to keep balance so they don't end up flying upside down.
On Planets with Atmosphere they use almost fully wing-powered Flight, but they can still use the rocket function to stay on one position.
It would also explain why they explode, even if they just got hit by marine guns. It also explains why they are so easy to kill, the fuel gasses are highly inflammable and a bullet at the wrong place can blow up the whole Mutalisk.
Well... it is _an_ explanation, maybe not the best, but at least it's a try.
On April 27 2011 21:48 Morfildur wrote: Well, it could be that they have small Gas vents on their Wings that allow them to release pressured Gas to propel them, like organic rockets. They flap their Wings to release the gasses in exactly the right direction to make small adjustments to the position and to keep balance so they don't end up flying upside down.
On Planets with Atmosphere they use almost fully wing-powered Flight, but they can still use the rocket function to stay on one position.
It would also explain why they explode, even if they just got hit by marine guns. It also explains why they are so easy to kill, the fuel gasses are highly inflammable and a bullet at the wrong place can blow up the whole Mutalisk.
Well... it is _an_ explanation, maybe not the best, but at least it's a try.
This is a very reasonable explanation. The Mutalisk is too high-tech to get an explanation in the running text, but I will link your posting in the part which offers further details.
Mutalisks cost a lot of Vespene wthi is normally is a gas. Probably they have some liquid Vespene stored in themselves and can convert it back to a gas form using special glands.
The Protoss took the shield technology development to new heights with the Guardian shield which can be generated by a Sentry. It protects all nearby units by slowing down enemy missiles. Really showing a passions for shields, Protoss engineers also developed a tactical force field which is also deployed by the Sentry through very small robotic cells. Those have enough energy to maintain a nearly impenetrable force field for 15 seconds. This energy is taken from the Sentry’s main battery prior to the launch of the force field cell.
To complement the Immortal modification, the Dark Templar caste operates another Dragoon-based combat walker development, the Stalker. They took the idea of a personal teleporter further to teleport the entire unit. However the use is limited to a short range.
An Observer must be fine tuned prior to its launch, as even small details like the density of the air – if there is any – play an important role in keeping the silent witness cloaked. With so much configuration needed, it is only logical to produce these units on the location.
Previously crippled Zealots serve as a driver for a Dragoon in which he got implemented. The implementation of the occupant was previously done in the Gateway. Recently the Protoss refined the Dragoon to muster the Immortal which is able withstand heavy enemy fire at the cost of air raid defense. This modification is done in the robotics facility. The improved shield of the Immortal tolerates insane amounts of damage. However, smaller projectiles are able to pass the additional defense. Since the number of Dragoons is limited and the schematics are lost, they act as last resort in the Protoss defense.
Warp Prisms are a delicate matter at these prisms offer mobile psi energy refractions. Similar to the Observer, a default unit would not be able to provide the necessary precision.
The Colossus is so tall that warping him in would raise some issues even for Protoss technology. The Colossus also needs additional parts assembled in the robotics bay. His walking mechanism must be calibrated for the ground consistence to optimize weight distribution to each leg. Walking a meadow on an inhabitable planet is not the same as walking over boulders of a small moon.
According to the lore, the nexus is a link to the core psionic matrix, I've considered chronoboost as a "surge" in the power field, which would allowed a unit to be warped quicker than usual. It doesn't explain why researches are faster, but it makes sense for unit warping.
The SC1 manual states that the reason why Protoss aren't able to repair their units is that their hardware (and presumably the parts used in the robotics facility) are optimised and delicately crafted back on their home planet, before being warped where needed. The components are too complex to be repaired on the field - while terran stuff, on the other hand, is made to be simple and efficient, which is why their buildings can be repaired (and burn down where they are in the red). In SC2 SCVs are able to repair protoss units. I don't think there is any lore explanation behind it, but I suppose it can be taken both ways.
Last, you will notice that zealots, high templars and dark templar turn into a sort of vapor when they die. A Blizzard writer said that protoss battle armor have the equivalent of an "eject" command which teleports the bearer somewhere around. No other official info was given, but it is safe to assume that this free, emergency teleportation is highly dangerous and is only used when the soldier's vital signs are critical (so that it's dragoon for the lucky ones and Khala for the rest).
I've always suspected that the phoenixes' engines might use some sort of anti-grav technology. Back in the alpha, the phoenix pilots could redirect the energy of their engines into the weapons to overload their for an AoE attack, so maybe the current models do the same. Also, this explains why phoenixes can accelerate backwards and stuff.
As far as I know - lore wise - zealots who are seriously harmed in combat can now be "transformed" into Stalkers, thanks to the Dark Templars' teachings. Immortals are things of the past, their schematics lost forever, and in fact a fixed amount of them exist, and for this reason they are a sort of "dying race".
At least this is what I've read some weeks ago in one of the articles published on the official site.
The reason for zealots being able to warp out before death should not be their value, but their small size. High Templar warp out too and I am not sure about DTs.
according to the beta SC2 site (if i remember correctly), the dragoon crafting shrine was destroyed when the zerg razed aiur, so the remaining dragoons modified their skeletons to become immortals, hence their scarcity
The Immortal lore was obviously created before he was moved from Gateway to Robotics. With a Gateway it would be easy to explain that the numbers are limited, with the Robotics it is a bit harder. I will still try to incorporate that.
edit: I now moved the entire Immortal thing to the "Additional details" and rephrased it. Now the robotics just modifies existing Dragoons and not builds Immortals from scratch.
edit2: Telenil, I will try to incorporate at least some of your suggestions. Especially the Phoenix mobility suggestion fits very well.
The way the "emergency teleportation" is phrased, it sounds like the zealot may activate it himself, while I would assume the process is automatic.
About the anti-gravity: gravitation pulls things down, if you want to make something float, then the simplest way to make it float is to generate a second force that pushes up. "Anti-gravity" is more of a gravity in the opposite direction, calling the process that somehow accelerates the flow of time "anti-gravity" may be misleading. Besides, movement speed has the same effect as gravity as far as time is concerned (for us, an unstable particle flying at light speed will exist for far longer than it should). It might be better to phrase it like "[Sentence about slowing time], however, Protoss have also found a way to accelerate the flow of time [etc]".
Yes, a Zealot or Templar could just forget to activate the teleporter in time. I rephrased that part.
About the chronoboost: To be honest I don't know the formula to calculate how much gravity slows down the time. With this formula one could check if a negative value for the gravity would lead to a faster flow of time. I just found a formula for an approximation, this one would hint to a faster flow of time.
t2 = t1 * (1 + g*h/c²)
g is gravitational acceleration on "zero" height, h is height in meters and c is of course the speed of light. The height difference just points to different local gravitational accelerations. This formula is supposed to be good enough for small values for gravitational acceleration.
However, the chrono boost could be explained with no time affection at all: It is just an energy boost, allowing the structure to operate faster than normal. Shield recharging is accelerated, warp field alignment, too and upgrades as well. I have to think about which explanation would better fit the Protoss.
To be honest I don't know the formula to calculate how much gravity slows down the time. With this formula one could check if a negative value for the gravity would lead to a faster flow of time.
I dunno if this is relvent, but Protoss Zealots and Stalkers don't actually die in combat, they are teleported out at the last second by a thing in their suit which recognises when they are near death / dieing.
Anti-gravitation force is exploited by a new Protoss air fighter which can create a bubble around a unit and free it from the graviton field of the planet. Since the Phoenix generates just enough anti-gravity to lift that unit, the effects on the time elapsed for the lifted unit is insignificant. Anti-gravitation force used in the drive and turn mechanism also allows extreme mobility in flight and aerial combat.
No, this aint right. Seeing as if you could "release" somthing from the gravitasional pull of a celestial body Like say "The earth" Gravity pulls things towards it, but we pull the earth towards us to because of our mass, but the planet is so much bigger aka it has more mass so it has a bigger pull on us than we have on it.
For eks. say you hade no gravity ! what would happen ? 1 you would start going away from the earth at a rather fast pace, the earth is not pulling you towards it, and you are not pulling it towards you, you would fly off into space at an alarming rate.
Any tech leap is based of tech / science that is all ready stated, So 10.000 years from now, they still have to use Netwon's laws because they are good at what they do. this is how Einstein proved he's relativity theory cause you can use the mathematics behind newtons's laws to prove the relativity theory, This would be "1/2mv^2" = Ek where m is the mass and v is the velocity, and mGh = Ep, where m is mass, G is the acceleration from the gravity, and h is the attitude measure from a horizontal plane aka 0m on earth. ( Ep = Energy potential) think of a ball at the top of a cliff.
toogether these to form Ek + Ep = E.
If you release me from the earth where would i go ? the earth is moving around the sun, the solar system is moving around the senter of the galaxy and the galaxy is moving towards "the great attractor".
Hey, I loved reading this, it was alot of fun, but being the science nerd I am, I noticed some holes and have some suggestions that you could implement, ^.^
Caution, wall of text incoming!
Oh, and because I main zerg, they're all focused on Zerg, hahaha.
I'm going to use a spoiler system just to keep everything systematic and organized, ^.^.
They are also capable to survive very long with nothing to eat. The known main weakness is vulnerability to high doses of radioactivity.+ Show Spoiler +
We don't know this for certain. Seeing as how the Zerg are capable of space travel (refer to the cutscene in the original SC), we must assume that, while the zerg are affected by radiation to a much higher degree (it's space, they have to fly by something radioactive at some point), they are unaffected by it. Maybe their genetic composition is so volatile that any errors or mistakes caused by the radiation are assimilated into the makeup of the being in question or the being is capable of fixing the mistake quick enough to nullify the problem.
The zerg leader does have consciousness, any “general”, also called cerebrate, is assumed to be conscious and to have free will at some proportion.+ Show Spoiler +
The Overmind, in fact, did not have freewill. He explicitly states (to either Kerrigan, or Zeratul in a memory, I don't recall) that he was consumed by a complete hunger to assimilate everything and create "perfection" (as also seen by the Protoss. The Xel'Naga were attempting to genetically engineer the perfect race, which was their offspring, the Protoss and Zerg. Theoretically, assimilation of the two together would create the perfect being, but thats more lore, then science, ^.^). Kerrigan's purpose, in taking over the swarm, was to give it free will, so that it might fight against the terror of the Dark Voice from deep space. The Overmind purposely died and gave the swarm to Kerrigan so that he might save the Zerg race that they might continue their goal and achieve "perfection", not because he wanted to save the universe or because he liked Kerrigan. He was following his biological objectives, as defined by the Xel'Naga.
The process of setting up the base is so exhausting for Overlord that he loses both transport and creep spread abilities. With the proper evolution, the zerg brood can regain these features.+ Show Spoiler +
If the Zerg are able to regenerate so quickly, than the overlord would be able to, given time, regain his abilities of creep spread and transport. Rather than through exhaustion, we can assume that the overlord already has the genetic information for the upgrades, stored within the "proto-hatchery" and any subsequent larvae. Upon "research" (read evolution, maybe even subconscious research, in the scientific sense), the overlord can genetically manipulate himself (not necessarily consciously), to create physical change that will affect his body. Instead of being the overlord carrying the hatchery, we can say it was the "hatchery that carried the overlord." In the campaign, we saw several biological "drop pods" that contained creep tumors and some units, it isn't impossible to think that the zerg can send a larger pod containing a proto-hatch, several drones, and an overlord to colonize a planet.
Creep is a biologic carpet, covered with biologic goo.+ Show Spoiler +
I like the idea, but the wording is poor. Rather than a biological carpet, we can state that creep is a sort of "skin", or "muscle", for the Zerg, vaguely similar to moss. Creep grows and coats the ground, potentially even creating roots that are capable of absorbing nutrients. Despite its ability to sustain itself, creep cannot extent past a certain limit without overexerting itself (like a muscle needs a point to attatch to on the bone). The creep tumor proves an "anchor" which both promotes creep spread and allows it spread further via allowing the creep to link back up to the parent hatchery and keep itself sustained past a certain distance from the mineral and gas income that keep it alive.
On a side note, heres something you didn't consider, move speed bonus on creep. As seen in the example above, creep could be considered a muscle, requiring an anchor to spread and get stronger efficiently. What we could propose is that the creep is capable of "flexing" itself, making itself tighter and tenser, and in some places looser. The control provided by the tumor and Hatch allows the creep to "flex" only in certain spots, for example, under the feet of certain units. Using their innate telepathic communication, zerg ground units could be capable of commanding the creep to flex and propel them forward when they walk.
It is not yet fully understood how this telepathic link from Overlords to their underlings works.+ Show Spoiler +
Yes it is. Thats what the psi emitter was designed and built for, thats what the hive mind emulator was designed and built for, and thats what the psi disruptor from the first campaign was designed and built for. To modern science we could say... Well, this is a bit of a stretch, but it would be suitable. First the concept. Einstein proposed that there existed a quantum anomaly among certain particles in space. Among these particles, there existed a complete and definite link that allowed for instantaneous and complete control over both particles, while only having direct physical control over one, of the two. Example: Take two baseballs with this quantum connection. One of the baseballs happens to be on the other side of a field on the ground, while the other is in front of you, at your feet. Now pick up the ball at your feet. On the other side of the field, you would observe that the ball was also lifted off of the ground, with nothing to actually lift it. The ball on the other side of the field lifted because the ball you had, lifted. Were you to throw that ball, the other ball would follow the exact same pattern, also getting thrown, once again, by nothing.
Now expand this concept to space. It is possible that the Overmind, or swarm leader, has several of these such particles within its body, and is somehow capable of controlling them physically. Moving down one rung on the zerg heirarchy, the cerebrates have their own set of these particles. One of the particles goes directly to the Zerg leader, the Overmind. The rest go to the next layer of the rung, the Queen, which has its own set, one to the cerebrate, and the rest to overlords, and the overlords to the bottom rung, the actual units of the swarm. Using this model, we can create a tree demonstrating the control of zerg units. The physical movement of the particle could be interpreted by the body of the creature hosting it, allowing for instantaneous knowledge based on a language within ones own body.
By extending this idea, we can also explain why the zerg can only populate a planet to "200 supply". Scientifically speaking, these particles are incredibly difficult to find and are hardly understood in modern physics. As such, we can assume that the Zerg cerebrates, Queens, and overlords can only maintain a certain amount, simply due to the scarcity of this particle. Now take two planets, one in which the zerg conquers the planet in 200 supply, and one in which the zerg conquer the planet in 400 supply. The planet that conquers in 200 supply only spends 200 supply worth of resources AND only takes up 200 supply worth of the particle. The 400 supply planet consumes twice as much of both resources and quantum "supply", leading it to be half as efficient, and by consequence, half as perfect. As such, we can see the Zerg Brood viewing the 400 supply planet to be superfluous and a waste, why send 400 supply worth of quantum "supply" to one planet, when you could send 200 "supply" of a more efficient brood to two planets.
The upgrowth of a larva to a zerg is amazingly fast. To begin the process, the genetic code of the desired unit taken from the proper structure which breeds those genetic sequences. As the larva itself does not contain all the necessary DNA to start the evolution process, the hatchery clones the DNA strand inside the structure itself to replicate more strands for further production, while injection into the larva starts the evolution to the specific unit that is encoded in the DNA. This replication is mitosis which does not require sex cells, as we have yet to see "female" zergs except queens.+ Show Spoiler +
I believe that somewhere, it was stated that the zerg larvae actually do have all of the DNA of all of the races, buildings, and upgrades in the zerg race within them. However, the physical implementation of such a being utilizing all of this DNA at once would truly be horrific (see Overmind). Instead, we can see that larvae containing an abbreviated section of the DNA and only utilizing a certain portion to keep itself simple and alive (as a worm). The drone, in creating a building, "expands" upon the basic information that is already there. As an example, imagine an archive on a computer. To save space, the archive is small and compressed, but by taking time and using a pattern to expand upon information that is not explicitly stated, you can recreate the uncompressed end product. As such, we can see the zerg buildings providing the complete genetic code for the actual units, and upon their completion, they allow the zerg larvae to become the units using the completed DNA from the buildings. This is why the larvae can become any unit that it has the complete DNA code for, even without the need for a hatchery.
As basic as a zergling is, it can evolve its legs to run faster. It also growths some wings which proves that the zergling evolution is still in progress. Zerg experts are discordant about the question if further evolved zerglings will ever be able to flutter for longer distances. + Show Spoiler +
On the topic of "research and upgrades". It is not necessarily evolution that creates the wings or changes a lings claws to do more damage, that genetic information is already there in the spawning pool, but just needs "extraction" from the building. In its most basic form, the zergling is capable of physically altering itself by assimilating the completed DNA from the building upon completion of its "research". This is true for all Zerg units.
It is just enough to control a single queen to suppress her instinct of self preservation.+ Show Spoiler +
This is just a tiny tiff, but queens may not even have an instinct of self preservation. She may be physically dedicated to that task, and more than willing to sacrifice herself for the swarm. Self-preservation implies free will, and the only Zerg with that capacity that we know of is Kerrigan.
Anyways, sorry I completely overanalyzed this thread haha, its 5 Am, i'm kind of drunk and can't really sleep, so this is my method of calming myself for the night, ^.^
Keep up the great work with the thread and I look forward to your next updates, xD!
Thank for anyone who pointed out some lesser or greater holes. I will try to fix as many of them as i can, doing so step by step. I credited the posting from Scryedo89 and Satallgeese in the OP even thought the OP will change over the course of the next days and not just reworked in a blink.
Edit: Some of Satallgeese's explanations are so good that I include them with little modifications to keep the structure of the OP. But I don't rush it because I need some time to think it through how I can fix the holes without making the OP too complicated.
The green "healing beam" of a medivac is actually wireless energy transfer which enables the combat suit to provide first aid provisions. Because medivacs play a crucial role in supporting our men at the front, they must be deployed with no delay. In this haste, the energy supply of the medivac was compromised. To get the full potential out of the flying field kit, engineers can use the tools in the starport tech lab to improve the medivac equipment for additional starting energy. Of course only newly assembled medivacs get the extra initial capacity
Your explanation does not explain how Zerg units are affected by the medivacs healing beam, heres an alternate explanation
Medivac's Wireless energy transfer works by sending energy directly to individual cells that allow amplifying the clotting process greatly and rushing mitosis for the cells that would otherwise have to take hours to finish mitosis. his Wireless energy transfer also repairs basic armor, such as for suits of Terran infantry and Zealots.
I like the idea, but the wording is poor. Rather than a biological carpet, we can state that creep is a sort of "skin", or "muscle", for the Zerg, vaguely similar to moss. Creep grows and coats the ground, potentially even creating roots that are capable of absorbing nutrients. Despite its ability to sustain itself, creep cannot extent past a certain limit without overexerting itself (like a muscle needs a point to attatch to on the bone). The creep tumor proves an "anchor" which both promotes creep spread and allows it spread further via allowing the creep to link back up to the parent hatchery and keep itself sustained past a certain distance from the mineral and gas income that keep it alive.
On a side note, heres something you didn't consider, move speed bonus on creep. As seen in the example above, creep could be considered a muscle, requiring an anchor to spread and get stronger efficiently. What we could propose is that the creep is capable of "flexing" itself, making itself tighter and tenser, and in some places looser. The control provided by the tumor and Hatch allows the creep to "flex" only in certain spots, for example, under the feet of certain units. Using their innate telepathic communication, zerg ground units could be capable of commanding the creep to flex and propel them forward when they walk.
if the creep can flex itself, then why doesn't an Overlord command it to flex under something such as a Marine(tripping a Marine lol)
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?
Here's my theory. The combat shields are already in the suits of marines, but they use a special technology that deflects damage. This technology requires a different calibration on every planet, or it could malfunction and explode, which is what's going on when you research combat shields. Once calibration is done, marines can safely pull the shields out of their suits.
nice read, but the zerg section explains just how drones create buildings on creep. From your explaination, hatcheries can only be built on creep, or by the initial overlord. Please make a plausible statement that a drone morphing into a hatchery gets extra energy from the 300 minerals or something and creep is not needed for initial building placement.
The original zerg were genetically engineered by the Xel’Naga, an obviously extremely powerful race which is now believed to extinct. Most zerg units are believed to have little – if any – consciousness. The zerg leader does have consciousness, any “general”, also called cerebrate, is assumed to be conscious and to have free will at some proportion. The current structure of the zerg as a whole is unclear as the Overmind was killed an replaced by an infested terran “ghost” (special psi operative.)
Zerg infestations were sighted anywhere in the Koprulu sector, demonstrating space-traveling capabilities. Overlords are propably in a state of hibernation during the travel. The cold in the space drastically reduces their heartbeat. Additional zerg genes are capsuled into an extremely contaminous virus transported in his ventral sacs. This explains the small infrared footprint, able to slip through Terran sensor technology. Once the destination has been reached, the light provided by the nearest star alarms certain nerves of the Overlord to wake up. Native lifeforms of the destination planet can be used as host for the virus and feed the zerg with their own lifes. Anyone infested by zerg will be thankful to die.
The "stated" fact about the flight that the zerg does while in transit between solar systems / planets are more in line of a warp / bending of space to allow faster than light "flight".
The "normal" strain of Zerg has a natural (evolutionary path) resistance against almost every kinda of pressure, vacuum, but are weak against Radiation ( Does not say what kind, but i am gone take a wild guess and Alpha and beta + gamma radiation are dangerous, but to what limits there are no info atleast not that i have seen), if your gone include this, you might want to shorten it down a bit cause it is way technical.
There is also some very interesting parts about the zerg if you read "kerrigans" bio.
Actually the zerg cannot create warp rifts, rather, these warp rifts exist in many places throughout space and when the zerg attacked the Xel' Naga Worldship back in Zerus, they learned where these rifts were
And yeah, everything is going to have some holes in it, but I'm just alot more satisfied with the general look of things now, haha! Also, feel free to take your time, I don't even care if you use any of my input, ^.^, I was less then sober at the time of writing, hahaha.
Keep up the great thread and the great work, loving everything!
On May 02 2011 04:31 Dragom wrote: One correction the Hercules transport is acutally a class of Battlecruiser
The battlecruisers from Sc1 were Behemoth class
the battlecruisers from Sc2 are minotaur class. However, In Lord the Hercules class Battlecruisers are often used
Could you be more specific about the Hercules transport? As this ship comes with little or no defense, I would be surprises if it is a battlecruiser class ship.
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?
Here's my theory. The combat shields are already in the suits of marines, but they use a special technology that deflects damage. This technology requires a different calibration on every planet, or it could malfunction and explode, which is what's going on when you research combat shields. Once calibration is done, marines can safely pull the shields out of their suits.
The OP was previously changed to assume that upgrade hardware is distributed by drop pods. These drop pods are not visible on screen to avoid clutter.
On May 02 2011 05:12 Dragom wrote: Your explanation does not explain how Zerg units are affected by the medivacs healing beam, heres an alternate explanation
Medivac's Wireless energy transfer works by sending energy directly to individual cells that allow amplifying the clotting process greatly and rushing mitosis for the cells that would otherwise have to take hours to finish mitosis. his Wireless energy transfer also repairs basic armor, such as for suits of Terran infantry and Zealots.
That is right, nor does I explain how a Queen can heal terran bio units. I kept these holes to keep each race more consistent.
If the Medivac (according to the campaign somehow performing micro-surgery) would act on a cellular level, I would have to explain how that works, and how it gets through the armor suit.
I could make up explanations like that Terrans are genetically altered and now a certain kind of radiation helps to heal on a cellular level. But this would make the OP more complex, too.
On May 02 2011 05:12 Dragom wrote: if the creep can flex itself, then why doesn't an Overlord command it to flex under something such as a Marine(tripping a Marine lol)
In a balancing sense it is the same (either Marine slower or zergling faster) so I can live with having this not explained. I imagine that the speed bonus relates to the familiar surrounding / ground for zerg units or with giving additional energy through high-energy nutrition which is depleted when the zerg leave the creep.
On May 02 2011 06:14 MindRush wrote: nice read, but the zerg section explains just how drones create buildings on creep. From your explaination, hatcheries can only be built on creep, or by the initial overlord. Please make a plausible statement that a drone morphing into a hatchery gets extra energy from the 300 minerals or something and creep is not needed for initial building placement.
The initial creep is either spread by the initial overlord who lost this ability afterwards or the protohatch came in a bubble with creep or protocreep, so some of it splashed onto the ground and very quickly grew to common creep. Another explanation would be that the overlord arrives with 7 drones and 350 minerals and one drone builds the hatch, but I think that the zerg have faster ways to establish a new base.
The initial hatchery is created without creep as the drone was genetically engineered to have this ability because hatcheries are essential. I will include an explanation in the OP which assumes that the hatchery has a creep-generating organ which functions already during the morphing so when the construction is cancelled, some creep is still left on the ground.
On May 02 2011 11:08 HardCorey wrote: Queens were fashioned from Kerrigan. They are one of her creations.
Yes; but this is lore. I try to avoid to get too much into the lore details. I kept this queen of blade stuff out because it implies a lot of lore.
To explain the origin if the queens (which are now real hive queens and not just misnomer queens like the old SC1 queen unit) with Kerrigan would explain it within the lore world. It makes perfect sense that the Queen of Blades added zerg queens to support the swarm, so this Blizzard explanation sounds reasonable. But the OP focuses on the role of units. I did include some bits of the official lore for marines and zealots because I could keep it short. Having Kerrigan in the OP (I just mentioned her once, indirectly) would require to elaborate on that. I also kept out lore for other zerg units ("This one comes from planet XYZ and looked originally so-and-so, but now was forced into this-and-that.)
On May 02 2011 09:29 Satallgeese wrote: Sweet, glad you liked the input, ^.^
And yeah, everything is going to have some holes in it, but I'm just alot more satisfied with the general look of things now, haha! Also, feel free to take your time, I don't even care if you use any of my input, ^.^, I was less then sober at the time of writing, hahaha.
Keep up the great thread and the great work, loving everything!
You pointed out some things which required a fix to avoid obvious contradictions with lore or game mechanics. Even though I cannot use everything, I am happy that the OP gets a bit better thanks to community contributions like yours.
Could you be more specific about the Hercules transport? As this ship comes with little or no defense, I would be surprises if it is a battlecruiser class ship.
The description of the Hercules research that those battlecruisers were "retro-fitted" to be used as massive transports. They were once battlecruisers (or at least engineers planned to used them as such) but at some point the weapons systems were removed.
Thank you – I slightly rephrased that part so that the Hercules is no longer called a Hercules class ship.
I also modified the "telepathic" link part and included mind control devices. However I still feel that this part is a bit weak so I am open to suggestions. The mind control should just be mentioned to be possible within limits.
If pylons use energy from the nexus' crystal, why do they continue to work even after the nexus has been destroyed? I don't have an idea, I'm just pointing this out.
The Protoss shields where actually explained before their body? exhibits so much psionic force that when trained and honed along with their superior reflexes they can forcibly erect a shield before impact but it causes a large amount of mental strain hence why they run out of shields. And the EMP disrupts their ability to effectively channel said psionic energy.
Oh and Zealots arint exactly valuable they're the lowest caste in the Khala who train expressly to channel their rage hence why they always sound so angry or boisterous as well as their name Zealot for their tenacity and fervor.
On May 04 2011 07:30 flavorless wrote: If pylons use energy from the nexus' crystal, why do they continue to work even after the nexus has been destroyed? I don't have an idea, I'm just pointing this out.
Good question. I used lore for that part. May be the collar around the Pylon acts as battery which can store some Psi to bridge the time until a Nexus is up again. I think I will add an explanation into the OP.
On May 04 2011 08:09 L6-636536 wrote: The Protoss shields where actually explained before their body? exhibits so much psionic force that when trained and honed along with their superior reflexes they can forcibly erect a shield before impact but it causes a large amount of mental strain hence why they run out of shields. And the EMP disrupts their ability to effectively channel said psionic energy.
Oh and Zealots arint exactly valuable they're the lowest caste in the Khala who train expressly to channel their rage hence why they always sound so angry or boisterous as well as their name Zealot for their tenacity and fervor.
Since robotic units have shields too, I wanted to "explain" the shield without using psi energy too much – as I cannot explain what Psi is in the first place.
But with your input I will modify the Zealot part of the OP.
edit: I now mention Psi energy as possible energy source for the shield.
If pylons use energy from the nexus' crystal, why do they continue to work even after the nexus has been destroyed?
The lore states that pylons are realys of the nexus, which is itself connected to the central warp matrix, so if we strictly follow the texts, they shouldn't. Pylons and assimilators should require a nexus, too. But this post is all about finding explanations to things that don't seem to make sense, after all
"Psi" is some sort of mental power that some living being possess - all protoss do, some humans have psionic powers as well though they are much more limited. It is genetic, the first "psionic human" appeared among the Terran because among the criminals who were sent to the Koprulu Sector were also people who had minor mutations, either natural or artificial, and were arrested for this reason. So the original population had a particularly unusual pool of DNA to being with, and as far as I know there should be very few (if any) ghosts on Starcraft's Earth.
Protoss warriors originally used their psi energy to create shields around themselves, but protoss engineers were eventually able to use technology to improve them and give them their current form. There is obviously a "shield battery" (as the Starcraft 1 building) technology , but how exactly it charges is unknown.
Cool thread! I have two questions though: 1. If the base cant be constructed near the mineral crystals because its weight would harm them, why doesnt a nuke harm them? My explanation: The crystals have electro magnetic properties which would mess with commuunication of all 3 races.
2. How comes we hear the marine rifles fire if its an electro magnetic propulsed fire? Should be silent. So no its not electro magnetic. Its the good ol' firearms.
Also I have 1 big question where I have no explanation: How comes that on open space maps we can hear explosions/shoting? In vacuum there is no sound.
On May 04 2011 20:21 jungeMann wrote: Cool thread! I have two questions though: 1. If the base cant be constructed near the mineral crystals because its weight would harm them, why doesnt a nuke harm them? My explanation: The crystals have electro magnetic properties which would mess with commuunication of all 3 races.
2. How comes we hear the marine rifles fire if its an electro magnetic propulsed fire? Should be silent. So no its not electro magnetic. Its the good ol' firearms.
Also I have 1 big question where I have no explanation: How comes that on open space maps we can hear explosions/shoting? In vacuum there is no sound.
The sound in-game might not be that "correct" sound when we are trying to explain how the tech / stuff works given the parameters that we workout off ( given our universe and understanding of physics, math, science).
Given a metall piece accelerated to a high velocity would perhaps break the sound barrier with quite extensiv force, as a normal gun shot can vary from as low as 600 feet per second up to 5000 feet per second.
This is the basic of Newtons law, the energy a round gets is depended not only on the mass of the "bullet" but also the potential energy that is behind the bullet (the gun powder, the magnetism etc).
edit,1 You can also work in the force the earth pulls on the bullet that makes it go down and hit the ground after X amount of time, if it is a lighter bullet with a higher Ep ( potential energy / read gun powder mix) then the bullet will generally reach farther down range, Note sniper rifles with a special cartridge that have a very high range on them.
You also have to figure out which way the earth is spinning, the pressure from where you shot, the pressure your target is at, the wind, there are alot of variables in any experiment, so we "dumb" it down to a basic rather than take in all the variables.
Terran forces out in the field for prolonged amounts of time use energy in the form of a hyper compressed liquid compound derivative of Vespene. Small cores power the smaller functions of Combat suits, Siege Tanks, Hellions, and small aircraft. BattleCruisers and Ravens operate at such immense levels, and require so much energy that using these cores are simply impractical. Mixes of Vespene, Hydrogen, and Helium create sufficient energy via fusion in the core of the vehicle. The Fusion is contained in such a way that it can be shut down in moments. In particular, the moments right before the systems of the craft fail, so as to eliminate fallout.
The smaller cores of Vespene create an electro magnetic field whenever gamma rays hit them. This energy is so consistent and constant that a VERY powerful current can be harnessed from it.
The cores appear in CMC suits as such:
Jump to 3:05 seconds, and the blueish vespene core can be seen. The vespene is hot enough to lose its greenish tint and become white hot.
On May 04 2011 20:21 jungeMann wrote: Cool thread! I have two questions though: 1. If the base cant be constructed near the mineral crystals because its weight would harm them, why doesnt a nuke harm them? My explanation: The crystals have electro magnetic properties which would mess with commuunication of all 3 races.
2. How comes we hear the marine rifles fire if its an electro magnetic propulsed fire? Should be silent. So no its not electro magnetic. Its the good ol' firearms.
Also I have 1 big question where I have no explanation: How comes that on open space maps we can hear explosions/shoting? In vacuum there is no sound.
The sound is that of the hyper compressed air in front of the bullet breaking through the air.
To expand it further, a tumor can be planted which induces controlled cancer to boost cell division.
Wait... Isn't cancer defined as uncontrolled cell division? Lemme find some other definitions.
Wikipedia: "Cancer /ˈkænsər/ ( listen) (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth"
ncbi: "Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body"
Replace cancer with something like"drastically accelerates cell division"? Or am I just being nit-picky?
To expand it further, a tumor can be planted which induces controlled cancer to boost cell division.
Wait... Isn't cancer defined as uncontrolled cell division? Lemme find some other definitions.
Wikipedia: "Cancer /ˈkænsər/ ( listen) (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth"
ncbi: "Cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the body"
Replace cancer with something like"drastically accelerates cell division"? Or am I just being nit-picky?
Actually you're right. But a creep "tumor" isn't necessarily a cancer. It could be a benevolent tumor subservient of the hive mind.
Not really something that needs to be changed just some information really.
You say "That rifle needs no oxygen to work." and that's true. But regular rifle's don't require oxygen in the atmosphere either, gunpowder contains potassium nitrate (usually) which has lots of oxygen in it, it's needed for guns to work. But yeah, as said, not really something that needs to be changed since it's true. But yea, no guns, well none of the guns we use, require ozygen in the atmosphere.
Above poster is correct, a gun itself does not need Oxygen to fire. unless your using a musket ( not likely) more in the lines of "the rifle needs no chemical reaction to start the bullet down the barrel, seeing as the magnetic / rail does it the same job req only energy in the form of electricity to function, the required energy is still worrying cause anything launching a bullet is going to require a energy that is quite huge, and this might not be plausible.
May be the geology causing geysers somehow influences the appearance of mineral crystals, too. In some cases,
change the space mark between may and be so you get maybe,
minarelized ---> mineralized
provided by a power plant in the command center itself. might want to go with a fission or fusion power plant or somthing in the lines of that, just so there aint any misshaps.
Also adding that exposure to vespene gas might be the reason that humans have ghost and civilians with "psi" abilities, the scientists are unable at this time to say if it has any long term bad side effect for the user, but a increasing number of ghosts / psi population are known to be eccentric ( dolls, etc)
Scryedo89, I improved the wording according to your suggestion. About the power plant type I don't want to go too much into specifics, but I now changed it to "power generator". The Protoss part already mentions Terrazine as a source of psionic power. Since neither Terrazine nor the related Vespene really explain the Psi force, I try to keep those parts short in the OP.
On May 02 2011 06:14 MindRush wrote: nice read, but the zerg section explains just how drones create buildings on creep. From your explaination, hatcheries can only be built on creep, or by the initial overlord. Please make a plausible statement that a drone morphing into a hatchery gets extra energy from the 300 minerals or something and creep is not needed for initial building placement.
The initial creep is either spread by the initial overlord who lost this ability afterwards or the protohatch came in a bubble with creep or protocreep, so some of it splashed onto the ground and very quickly grew to common creep. Another explanation would be that the overlord arrives with 7 drones and 350 minerals and one drone builds the hatch, but I think that the zerg have faster ways to establish a new base.
The initial hatchery is created without creep as the drone was genetically engineered to have this ability because hatcheries are essential. I will include an explanation in the OP which assumes that the hatchery has a creep-generating organ which functions already during the morphing so when the construction is cancelled, some creep is still left on the ground.
was referring to the hatcheries drones create after initial hatchery OP only explains building on creep, whereas drones can build other hatcheries off creep
you are correct in that, as we can't predict what the "gas" for the lack of better wording is ( what kinda compound), It might be wise to leave it out.
On May 06 2011 05:30 MindRush wrote: was referring to the hatcheries drones create after initial hatchery OP only explains building on creep, whereas drones can build other hatcheries off creep
Recently, the OP was extended:
"As a hatchery is essential to establish a brood, every drone has the complete DNA incorporated to morph into this structure. It can do so even without existing creep because the hatchery has a creep-generating organ which is active during the transformation already. Even when the drone is ordered to cancel the morphing and gets back to its original form with a very fast retrogression of its organs, some creep is left on the ground."
Just wanted to point out something I consider impossible:
It is not yet fully understood how this telepathic link from Overlords to their underlings works, even though some mind control devices were already build. Zerg experts assume that the zerg evolved – or were genetically engineered to have – a part of their brain or even a dedicated organ to be a biological radio wave transmitter. Analyzing and recreating some patters was enough to get some zergs under control or to slow down a small group of zergs.
Problems I see:
The only way I know (correct me if I´m wrong!) to get biological molecules (proteins, DNA, lipids, whatever) to emit energy in the radio wave spectrum is during spin relaxation of atom nuclei in the molecules (see the NMR method for this). And this only occurs in measurable amounts in magnetic fields of high strength. Even though some bacteria are know to have organelles they use to "feel" the magnetic field of earth (the so called "magnetosomes" of Magnetospirillum magnetotacticum) I really can't see an overlord produce a magnetic field strong enough (we talk about super-cooled magnets , weighting several tons)
Even if any organism could produce radio waves in whatever way, there were several other problems To mention a few: Information transport is nearly impossible, since you cant modulate the signal wavelength, and turning it on and of takes a long time. Also, the overlord itself would absorb most of the signal. The signal would be extremely weak. Due to the thermal noise (waves emitted by stars, the planets, the air, the organisms etc. in the radio wave spectrum) the signal would be extremely easily lost.
More conventional solutions to this:
If I were you, I would think about the overlord "telepathic link" more in the directions of sound and light. Light producing organs (or organisms) are well known, some fish incorporate bioluminiscent bacteria in special organs. Light pulses could be used to transport information easily. Overlords could also produce ultrasound (like bats), to "sing the song of mind-control". Easy information transport etc.
All units with connection to the ground could also use infrasound to spread information in areas of some squarekilometres easily (see elephants for example). The zerglings themselves could act as a swarm by feeling the vibrations of their surrounding and tapping with their legs (this is typical for many insects). So it would be sufficient for the "telepathic" signals of overlords to reach very few units, and then be relayed by other means.
The laws of physics state that anything invisible cannot see anything because the light that would reach the things eyes are passing around it. Throughout human history, this has been proven true. Banshees use specialized goggles that feed battlefield information to the pilot, and even though the pilot cannot see anything outside of the cockpit, him or her can still find and destroy its targets. Satellites pinpoint the banshees position and feed radio information through sensors on its hull, and vice versa. This way, the satellite is "Seeing" what the banshee sees, even though the banshee itself is effectively blind. Ghosts use specialized goggles that can see objects on every wavelength, just not the visible spectrum, as the visible spectrum bends around the ghost. Banshees are also equipped with similar sensors. Dark Templar can psionically sense everything around them, and Observers function the same way ghosts do. They simply see all other spectrums but the visible spectrum.
hegeo, yes, the radio wave explanation raises some issues. But electromagnetic rays work in space, too; while sound does not. Light is a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. I admit that the current explanation with a biological transmitter / receiver has some weak points, but I rather would try to fix the weak points instead of making it more complicated with using a variety of possible communication options.
Since zerg were altered by the Xel'Naga, we can suspect a kind of "intelligent design" to create this ability. If we look at the eye of mammalians (the eye senses a part of the electromagnetic spectrum) with a focusable objective lens and automatic aperture, all this with very high resolution – isn't that amazing? Even better, our brain automatically detects a lot of stuff like different movements and also filters out things which we don't need to see. If we look at a human face, we instantly detects its emotion, often we are not able to explain how we can do it. Higher mammalians are also able to interpret the emotion of others.
Similar filters in zerg could be able to use a weak signal with incomplete information to still follow the Overlord's orders.
How can the Overlord create a oscillator circuit? I have no clue, but I just assume he can. And that he has body parts which can be used as an antenna. If he uses short wave, he can broadcast to a great area with little energy. Even without reflection of the space wave at the ionosphere, the ground wave should be reaching far enough to control any underling on the battle field.
Kinetik_Inferno, I would assume that the Banshee stealth technology works with very small cameras which film the surrounding area and project it on the hull which acts as monitor. But your explanation nicely avoids questions like "if it uses cameras, we should see at least the camera lenses and hence, be able to locate it." I added it to the "Additional details" section.
On May 07 2011 18:39 hegeo wrote: Just wanted to point out something I consider impossible:
...
More conventional solutions to this:
If I were you, I would think about the overlord "telepathic link"
yada yada
It'd be more reasonable to assume that overlords command their underlings using evolved pheromones. Obviously this only works over a few miles even after stretching one's imagination, so cerebrate-overlord communication would have to be psionic (ie a wizard did it).
Pheromones need a medium to be transported. Overlords need to give specific commands to their underlings, they need something with quite high information density.
@ Eiviyn Yeah, thought of that too, but pheromones would diffuse way to slow for what the OP wants the overlords to be. He imagines more of a direct link between two units to allow the overlords to directly control every single zerling.
@[F_]aths If you really want the zergs to have radiowave communication, so be it. Just thought this thread was intended to describe the starcraft universe as realistically as possible (just kidding ;-) so I just proposed ways of communication well established in nature, which could make the whole overlord-communication sound more "organic", Radio frequencies, encoded for every single unit sounds extremely technical and somewhat non-biological to me. I think with this you also underestimate "swarm intelligence" and the self organization of large groups of animals (see ants for example, or hunting wolves etc.). A simple order (attack, retreat) by an overlord would be sufficient for the whole group of zergs to obey in a highly logical and "intelligent" fashion.
Another thing: I think there should be a section to explain why gravity and atmosphere are (at least nearly) equal on every planet and especially every space station. Since Xel'Naga-watchtowers are found on every map, it would be straightforward to assume that they invented a system that allowed them to have an environment equal to their homeworld wherever they settled (powered by the same source as the watchtowers perhaps? idk). Why do we need atmosphere and gravity? a) without gravity (especially on these flying rocks like scrap station) marines would just fly away when shooting, tanks would shoot their projectiles into space (no parabolic trajectory), etc. and since the range of the tanks doesn't change from one planet to another, gravity should be the same everywhere. b) an atmosphere is needed for the banshee to fly (helicopter rotors!) as well as for the mutalisk and the broodlords (wings). And we need an atmosphere, since we hear all the gunshots and explosions on every map, so there needs to be a medium to transport sound waves.
I'm not sure if this has been pointed out, but in regards to medivacs transferring energy it doesn't make sense in relation to the idea that medivacs can heal zerg units (also seen in the campaign w/ mind control towers) / protoss bio as well
On May 09 2011 02:52 hegeo wrote: Yeah, thought of that too, but pheromones would diffuse way to slow for what the OP wants the overlords to be. He imagines more of a direct link between two units to allow the overlords to directly control every single zerling.
Pheromones are actually surprisingly fast.
Even if they were slow, however, I envisage overlord commands to be rather simplistic. Ant pheromones offer such simple commands as attack, run away and regroup, which is about the level of complexity that I imagine overlord commands would be. Like ants, the individual creatures would fill in the blanks themselves (how and what to attack).
Even if they were slow, however, I envisage overlord commands to be rather simplistic. Ant pheromones offer such simple commands as attack, run away and regroup, which is about the level of complexity that I imagine overlord commands would be. Like ants, the individual creatures would fill in the blanks themselves (how and what to attack).
You're right, I already wrote exactly the same in my post:
I think with this you also underestimate "swarm intelligence" and the self organization of large groups of animals (see ants for example, or hunting wolves etc.). A simple order (attack, retreat) by an overlord would be sufficient for the whole group of zergs to obey in a highly logical and "intelligent" fashion.
I still would think the addition of other means of communication (as in bee hives etc.) have to be considered additionally, since pheromones will need at least a minute to diffuse through air (We talk about an overlord flying like 250 feet over the battlefield - even though this time is just a rough estimate, since I really don't want to calculate the diffusion of these small molecules). The pheromones could be used for more or less "general" commands and control of zerglings, while sound could be for short term reactions (which is by the way of course nothing unusual in nature).
I don't think looking at "real-life" communications is relevant. In Starcraft, the terran use "psi" disruptor or emitters to mimic zerg communications, so whatever link the zerg have with one another is psionic in nature - aka something fictionnal that is not directly related to radio waves. And psionic signals are known to reach across worlds. Besides, the Overmind was a hive mind, the collective conscience of all zerg - he didn't command the zerg as much as he was the zerg. The Overlords, and to a lesser extent the Cerebrates, were mere relays. I don't think the Overmind's commands were technically "orders", just as you don't "order" your fingers to move - they just follow your will. Bees or ants colony are a lot more complex that each individual insect, but there is no such conscience.
In other words, I'd rather consider the Swarm as a single entity, with the Overmind being the equivalent of the brain, the zerg as the various limbs, and the overlords as the nerves - though they don't have to be in physical contact with the zerg to transmit orders, as they use psionic calls. Of course each individual zerg also have its own brain and limbs, which makes things a little confusing, but the "Swarm" works on a higher level.
Anti-gravitation force is exploited by a new Protoss air fighter which can create a bubble around a unit and free it from the graviton field of the planet. Since the Phoenix generates just enough anti-gravity to lift that unit, the effects on the time elapsed for the lifted unit is insignificant. Anti-gravitation force used in the drive and turn mechanism also allows extreme mobility in flight and aerial combat.
No, this aint right. Seeing as if you could "release" somthing from the gravitasional pull of a celestial body Like say "The earth" Gravity pulls things towards it, but we pull the earth towards us to because of our mass, but the planet is so much bigger aka it has more mass so it has a bigger pull on us than we have on it.
For eks. say you hade no gravity ! what would happen ? 1 you would start going away from the earth at a rather fast pace, the earth is not pulling you towards it, and you are not pulling it towards you, you would fly off into space at an alarming rate.
Any tech leap is based of tech / science that is all ready stated, So 10.000 years from now, they still have to use Netwon's laws because they are good at what they do. this is how Einstein proved he's relativity theory cause you can use the mathematics behind newtons's laws to prove the relativity theory, This would be "1/2mv^2" = Ek where m is the mass and v is the velocity, and mGh = Ep, where m is mass, G is the acceleration from the gravity, and h is the attitude measure from a horizontal plane aka 0m on earth. ( Ep = Energy potential) think of a ball at the top of a cliff.
toogether these to form Ek + Ep = E.
If you release me from the earth where would i go ? the earth is moving around the sun, the solar system is moving around the senter of the galaxy and the galaxy is moving towards "the great attractor".
And what has that got to do with the Phoenix graviton mechanism? Plus, the galaxy moving towards the "great attractor"? Big Bang Theory and stellar drift phenomenon doesn't agree with that notion. I'm sorry I am not a Physics major but are what I said right?
Very nice science-crafting here. What a good read! May I write about Protoss' Psi-powered shielding?
According to the Blizzard official SC website, Protoss shields are plasma shields. (http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Shield_battery). And according to existing OP information,
"The Protoss took the shield technology development to new heights with the Guardian shield which can be generated by a Sentry. It protects all nearby units by slowing down enemy missiles. Really showing a passions for shields, Protoss engineers also developed a tactical force field which is also deployed by the Sentry through very small robotic cells. Those have enough energy to maintain a nearly impenetrable force field for 15 seconds. This energy is taken from the Sentry’s main battery prior to the launch of the force field cell."
I'll expand upon this concept. The ability of the Protoss' shields' ability to absorb damage comes from the fact that it slows down projectiles and dissipates the energy of energy weapon attacks upon contact. Hence, it defends against bullets, spines, acids, and lasers.
Drawing upon the Psi power (drawn from their shield batteries), Protoss units are able to create a localized telekinetic forcefield around it. Just like Dr Jean Grey (The Phoenix of X-Men), but much more controlled and utterly condensed into a shell around it.
The force field will trap a layer of invisible plasma in it, to increase the effectiveness against projectiles. Some projectiles which carry too much kinetic energy cannot be totally stopped by the telekinetic energy alone (think of Invisible Girl in Fantastic 4 getting impaled by Dr Doom through her shield), hence the plasma will flare as the projectile contacts it, vaporising it into plasma and dissipating.
It is important that the projectile be turned to plasma and not gas or liquid, as high velocity gas can still do a lot of damage. Plasma can be dissipated and controlled much more easily by the shields than regular states of matter.
In short the shields are just another form of manifestation of the Psi energy by Protoss units, just like the zealots' psi-blades and the HT's psi-stoms. As for special shields like guardian shields of the Sentry, as explained in the OP, it's conduit is the robotic cells, as the Protoss mind in the Sentry will be responsible of maintaining the personal shield and its beam weapon.
For non-biological Protoss units (units with no Protoss consciousness inside), the Protoss had also succeeded in grafting Khaydarin crystal fragments into the armor of their mechanical units like Collosi etc, allowing them to have psi-plasma shields too.
Strength of shields and proficiency of Protoss units' ability at combat depends entirely on the conditioning of the conduit - the warrior's mind. The more focused the warrior, the better he is at harmonizing himself with the psi energy (Khalai for light protoss, and void energy for dark protoss), then the more proficient he is at combat. Compare stalker shields vs Archon shields and you get what I mean.
You might add that all of the convicts sent into battle are equipped with radio collars with the commanding officer can detonate should they refuse orders. This would be the reason you sometimes see marines running towards certain death.
Imagine an ant living on a circle border and knowing only one dimension. It can move forward or backward. If it had access through a second space dimension, it could just go through the circle area to reach the opposite side, saving some travel time compared to wander all around the half circle. With orthogonal alignment of space dimensions, possible savings of the route are limited. Since the higher space dimensions have a different layout, better shortcuts are possible
I just love how that sounds like the guy in the 10th dimension youtube, makes it feel mystic but still scientifically explained even though it's beyond human(or terran in this case) comprehension.
Amazing write-up I'd love if you added every unit in the game as well as the Xel'Naga and the
On May 10 2011 06:06 thenerazim wrote: if the zerg units are controlled by the overlords how come they don't go crazy if they for example is 200/192 supply??
because that is in game and not lore accurate, just look at how big carriers are in game.
Imagine an ant living on a circle border and knowing only one dimension. It can move forward or backward. If it had access through a second space dimension, it could just go through the circle area to reach the opposite side, saving some travel time compared to wander all around the half circle. With orthogonal alignment of space dimensions, possible savings of the route are limited. Since the higher space dimensions have a different layout, better shortcuts are possible
I just love how that sounds like the guy in the 10th dimension youtube, makes it feel mystic but still scientifically explained even though it's beyond human(or terran in this case) comprehension.
Amazing write-up I'd love if you added every unit in the game as well as the Xel'Naga and the
On May 09 2011 02:52 hegeo wrote: Another thing: I think there should be a section to explain why gravity and atmosphere are (at least nearly) equal on every planet and especially every space station. Since Xel'Naga-watchtowers are found on every map, it would be straightforward to assume that they invented a system that allowed them to have an environment equal to their homeworld wherever they settled (powered by the same source as the watchtowers perhaps? idk).
A large nearby asteroid – or a different mass – provides at least some gravity for orbital platforms. In the "real" Starcraft world, the gravity is of course much weaker than on a planet, but the game uses the same gravitation value for all environments because of balance issues.
On May 09 2011 02:52 hegeo wrote: b) an atmosphere is needed for the banshee to fly (helicopter rotors!) as well as for the mutalisk and the broodlords (wings). And we need an atmosphere, since we hear all the gunshots and explosions on every map, so there needs to be a medium to transport sound waves.
My (unofficial) explanation: Banshees can use small jets in no-atmosphere conditions, but need more fuel this way. The game still renders rotating rotors to not distract the player. The game also omits the need to fly back to refeul / the transport to refuel the Banshee.
since I try to maintain suspension of disbelieve, I don't think it is a good idea to mention X-Men or the Fantastic Four. A descriptions like "a layer of invisible plasma" don't really explains how it works. What is "plasma" in this sense? A gas so hot that it turns to a plasma? How can it be invisible? Many new questions arise.
As I had the issue to have no real scientific and sound explanation, I kept those parts quite short. The entire Protoss part has that issue, that I assume technology which does not exist (as of yet) and explain things with the yet-to-be-explained technology. Going deeper into the shield technology just points out how little actually could be explained. Your posting would be good if the OP tried to make up some lore, but it attempts to offer (more or less) believable explanations instead of science fiction lore.
In other words, I try to make the Protoss technology believable. This requires to keep weird things as the Plasma shields quite short to avoid that the OP just raises new questions.
On May 10 2011 06:06 thenerazim wrote: if the zerg units are controlled by the overlords how come they don't go crazy if they for example is 200/192 supply??
because that is in game and not lore accurate, just look at how big carriers are in game.
Size is rendered with a logarithmic scale. Also unit power and unit cost is approximating a logarithmic scale.
On May 10 2011 06:06 thenerazim wrote: if the zerg units are controlled by the overlords how come they don't go crazy if they for example is 200/192 supply??
If the case of an emergency, Overlords can control more units than normally. If the gap gets too large (lets say 120 / 36 supply) that brood will probably be eradicated soon anyway.
On May 10 2011 00:08 mikkelinen wrote: Amazing write-up I'd love if you added every unit in the game as well as the Xel'Naga and the
Dual Zerg/Toss race. (Can't remember their name at the moment)
To add every unit would make the posting very long and extremely difficult as every explanation must not contradict any other explanation. The game currently has 43 units. Any change must be checked to not contradict explanations for the other 42 ones. If Blizzard add things with new lore (for example in the expansions), greater parts would be required to be rewritten.
How can zerg units burrow in metal ground? How can ultralisks do so? The more one gets into details, the more obvious the explanation holes get. This is a reason I started the OP because if one can believe that the basic things can actually work, it is easier to assume that the other things could work too, even though they are not explained.
They are simply factories for airships, but the building has to be a different shape because you can't really test a banshee on the roof of a factory. Banshees and raven are a little more technical, mainly for their respective cloaking and detection abilities, so they require a techlab assembly line.
A battlecruiser requires a fusion core, not for the engine of the BC, but for the starports'. The battlecruiser descends upon the surface of the starport, where it must be transformed from interstellar to interplanetary mode. The immense weight of the BC requires fusion energy lifts to suspend the ship in the air as the reformatting is done.
Barracks and Supply depots. The supply depot is basically a combat closet along with scv construction tools. Food can be stored anywhere, and a command center usually houses 200 civilians. The amount of combat and technology gear that a commander can bring is limited to 200 as basic risk management. basically incase his base is overrun, or if the planet is depleted of minerals the faction does not lose a huge chunk of their gear. The command center a commander brings can house 200 civilians. It has a production facility for scvs where people are given basic construction training.
A barracks is a military training camp, where a convict from the CC will go for basic training. A supply depot is required for a barracks because it does not make sense for a combat training camp to exist without arms.
A factory requires a barracks because it is neccesary for a tactical officer to instruct scvs how to format the assembly line for helions to drive on. the preigniter and siegemode upgrade have already been researched, but the scientists must research what works and what wont work on the planents before a program is sent to all helion/tank/thor pilots' computers to modify their preignitor/siegemode/250mm upgrades.
A starport only requires a factory for viking ground form. After a tactical vehicle commander instructs how the bipedal augments on a viking should be made.
I am not sure if I can add this to the "Additional details" section as it is not completely compatible with the OP. It assumes that marines already got its combat training somewhere else and are just outfitted in the barracks (may be their are also getting a final drill.)
The battle cruiser question (why can my battle cruiser not fly into space and only hover some meters over the ground?) is left out in the OP. I would guess that there are battle cruiser models capable of flying into space while others are made for planetary combat. But those questions should be cross-checked with lore. Overall, it would get quite complicated.
[QUOTE]On May 09 2011 19:24 Setev wrote: [QUOTE]On May 01 2011 10:56 Scryedo89 wrote: [quote]Anti-gravitation force is exploited by a new Protoss air fighter which can create a bubble around a unit and free it from the graviton field of the planet. Since the Phoenix generates just enough anti-gravity to lift that unit, the effects on the time elapsed for the lifted unit is insignificant. Anti-gravitation force used in the drive and turn mechanism also allows extreme mobility in flight and aerial combat.[/quote]
And what has that got to do with the Phoenix graviton mechanism? Plus, the galaxy moving towards the "great attractor"? Big Bang Theory and stellar drift phenomenon doesn't agree with that notion. I'm sorry I am not a Physics major but are what I said right?
[/QUOTE]
You most likely are, but with no gravity at all we would probably not exist, gravity is an essential part of this universe, i aint no physics major either, so we would need to get a smart guy in here to fix that up so that it is more in line with how quantum physics / astrophysics actually works.
We have yet to branch in on Pheonix graviton mechanism, and for that matter Stellar drift, so as i said you are most likely right.
As far as I know, Anti-Gravity does not exist in our universe. The Anti-Graviton is used in Science Fiction to "explain" certain effects. I am doing the same here.
Awesome write-up. One thing that you haven't explained is how splash damage affects friendly units (banelings/hellions/colossi/archons)
You should mention something about how banelings don't do friendly splash damage to their own army, but can kill enemy banelings. Maybe each zerg swarm uses slightly different chemicals and they have developed a resistance to their own type.
And maybe for team games, the protoss or terran forces that are allied with the zerg have developed an armor that is also resistant to this corrosive acid.
The archons probably can control their attack so well so it only splashes the enemy.
Hellions probably just shoot over each other when they fire in groups.
It could also be argued that colossi beams are so precise that they actually dodge any non-enemy units.
The green "healing beam" of a medivac is actually wireless energy transfer which enables the combat suit to provide first aid provisions.
What about when a medivac heals a zealot or a roach?
On May 20 2011 10:25 orotoss wrote: Awesome write-up. One thing that you haven't explained is how splash damage affects friendly units (banelings/hellions/colossi/archons)
You should mention something about how banelings don't do friendly splash damage to their own army, but can kill enemy banelings. Maybe each zerg swarm uses slightly different chemicals and they have developed a resistance to their own type.
And maybe for team games, the protoss or terran forces that are allied with the zerg have developed an armor that is also resistant to this corrosive acid.
The archons probably can control their attack so well so it only splashes the enemy.
Hellions probably just shoot over each other when they fire in groups.
It could also be argued that colossi beams are so precise that they actually dodge any non-enemy units.
The green "healing beam" of a medivac is actually wireless energy transfer which enables the combat suit to provide first aid provisions.
What about when a medivac heals a zealot or a roach?
This is not explained in the article because it would get quite complicated. How can Terrans heal aliens? If Terrans have this kind of technology, why not the aliens? (Ok, zerg have with the Queen, but Protoss do not.)
Why don't Banelings do splash damage to friendly units? Acid is acid. If you can somehow resist a certain mix of acids, you should also resist similar mixtures.
All those things which do not make sense are of course balance considerations. My approach is: Now were it has been explained how Mutas fly in space (though it was a community contribution, not my own idea) we should assume that the rest could be somehow explained, but we look no further to actually explain it.
Imagine a scientist explains a rocket drive to you. He demonstrates how oxygen and hydrogen, mixed together and ignited, lead to an explosion. You now understand that the mixture of two certain chemicals react in a way which set much energy free. So now you know the basics. You don't understand exactly how the rocket drive is controlled, but you assume this could be explained to you as well of only you had a degree in rocket science.
On May 20 2011 10:25 orotoss wrote: Awesome write-up. One thing that you haven't explained is how splash damage affects friendly units (banelings/hellions/colossi/archons)
You should mention something about how banelings don't do friendly splash damage to their own army, but can kill enemy banelings. Maybe each zerg swarm uses slightly different chemicals and they have developed a resistance to their own type.
And maybe for team games, the protoss or terran forces that are allied with the zerg have developed an armor that is also resistant to this corrosive acid.
The archons probably can control their attack so well so it only splashes the enemy.
Hellions probably just shoot over each other when they fire in groups.
It could also be argued that colossi beams are so precise that they actually dodge any non-enemy units.
The green "healing beam" of a medivac is actually wireless energy transfer which enables the combat suit to provide first aid provisions.
What about when a medivac heals a zealot or a roach?
This is not explained in the article because it would get quite complicated. How can Terrans heal aliens? If Terrans have this kind of technology, why not the aliens? (Ok, zerg have with the Queen, but Protoss do not.)
Why don't Banelings do splash damage to friendly units? Acid is acid. If you can somehow resist a certain mix of acids, you should also resist similar mixtures.
All those things which do not make sense are of course balance considerations. My approach is: Now were it has been explained how Mutas fly in space (though it was a community contribution, not my own idea) we should assume that the rest could be somehow explained, but we look no further to actually explain it.
It's okay, I got this:
1. I would posit that the "healing beam" of the medivac is, in actuality, a low-level radiation, which encourages cell regeneration. The downside is that, as a result, those exposed to the healing beam suffer a much higher risk of cancers. We already known terrans don't consider their troops worth much, as seen with the stimpack.
Other races don't have it because the average protoss is too valuable to risk like this and the average zerg isn't worth the trouble.
2. Baneling splash utilises not an acid, but a splash of aggressive micro-organisms that eat directly through armour. They use a similar tagging system to mitochondria to ensure that friendly units are not damaged, but even enemy zerg units are attacked correctly.
3. Archons deal splash damage keyed to the psychic resonance of the protoss cala from which they were birthed, since they have been, quite literally, born of that psychic energy. The splash will damage anything not keyed to the same psychic force.
this is wel-thought-out. The issue is that it contradicts the official lore. I already have some contradictions in the OP. I am not sure how many it can bear while it still claims to describes the Starcraft world. The healing beam performs "micro surgery" according to the WoL campaign, I deviated at this point in the OP. The baneling weapon is acid according to lore.
The archon attack could be explained that he warns allies before he strikes so they can cover when the splash hits.
I am currently watching Enterprise (the fifth Star Trek TV series) and notice a lot of contradictions both within the series as well with older Star Trek lore. I really have issues with the immersion and suspension of disbelieve. Overall I think it is easier if the lore makes no sense (in a scientific manner) but is consistent through the entire story.
Holy shit bump. Completely forgot about this one, and I shall read it through again.
Though bumping any 7 month old thread is kinda... stupid. Even if it's a good one. If it was 7 years old, then it's funny. If it's 7 days old, nobody cares.
One mistake I noticed is that it says Zealots are not part of the Templar caste which is wrong. All Protoss warriors belong to the Templar caste (Aiur Protoss at least). They're not part of the Judicator caste (ruling class) or Khalai caste (working class).
Marine's suits have a hit counter system that reconyze what unit is attacking the user the and what damage he is taking over time.When system reach the limit it overloads and destroy the suit, thats why marines always die after 9 ling's attacks ^^, no more no less. They fired that engineer, too bad there was a contract with the army already and the suit was already in mass production line, so they keep it like that....
Wow. That was more scientific than I expected, and it was really funny xD Great read! I'm impressed you managed to come up with explanations for so many Starcraft mechanics...
On November 28 2011 10:31 Gaspa wrote: Well, second paragraph in "How a T base works" there's the word minarelized, that should be mineralized.
Thank you. I now fixed this spelling error.
On November 30 2011 22:38 xinxy wrote: One mistake I noticed is that it says Zealots are not part of the Templar caste which is wrong. All Protoss warriors belong to the Templar caste (Aiur Protoss at least). They're not part of the Judicator caste (ruling class) or Khalai caste (working class).
Woah, didn't read the whole thing as it's rather huge but small bits here and there and I must say I'm impressed, as much as that counts for. Nicely done!
Zealots in SC2 are supposed to be filled out with Khalai Caste artisans/dancers... which might explain "Charge" tech, as well as being generally slower than their Templar Caste Warriors... It's an accidental lore answer for why Charge but not leg enhancements exist.
On December 02 2011 23:57 NubCheese wrote: in the lore, medivacs actually shoot nanobots that can repair armor and act as a catalyst for normal regeneration (for zerg)
Yes, this is inconsistent with official lore. I will try to make something up which at least does not directly contradicts official lore.
edit: This part is now changed to nanobot use and I added a paragraph about terran's army medical care keeps the soldier on his feet for the time being, instead of really taking care about his health.
On December 05 2011 14:39 DYEAlabaster wrote: I think this is really great... but was I the only one who read it as an epic satire?
It is not meant to be a satire. Many things in Stacraft are in obvious conflict with the real world. But if one can make sense of the basics of each race, it should be easier to maintain the suspension of disbelieve through the entire game.
In a recent GSL cast, Wolf brought up the question why a medivac deploys soldiers one-by-one, while it is able to load all troops almost instantly. To maintain the suspension of disbelieve, we need to assume that there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this (beside gameplay mechanics, of course) which we just don't know.
It gets its energy from the Nexus and refracts it to the pylon’s proximity. The collar acts as battery, allowing the Pylon to maintain the Psi matrix even if all nearby Nexuses are destroyed.
Doesn't really make all that much sense, as you can still build pylons even if you don't have a nexus. Is it not more likely that the crystal emits some sort of psionic power field and the "collar" contains powerful magnets that focus the field into the radius of the pylon? A nexus could also be powered by an internal smaller pylon, the range of which only extends the area of the nexus itself.
It is not clear yet how a Protoss force field can keep non-magnetic and non-electrically charged objects on distance.
Anything made of matter contains electrically charged particles. Super-powerful magnets can affect them. A shield could simply be a psionically powered super-conducting magnet that can slow down or stop any incoming particle by acting on the protons and or electrons in the atomic nuclei of the particles. This would also explain why a strong electromagnetic blast would cripple the shield, as it would flood and disable the power system that powers the magnet. Advances in technology to increase the power provided to the magnet without overloading it would result in increasingly strong shields.
It gets its energy from the Nexus and refracts it to the pylon’s proximity. The collar acts as battery, allowing the Pylon to maintain the Psi matrix even if all nearby Nexuses are destroyed.
Doesn't really make all that much sense, as you can still build pylons even if you don't have a nexus. Is it not more likely that the crystal emits some sort of psionic power field and the "collar" contains powerful magnets that focus the field into the radius of the pylon? A nexus could also be powered by an internal smaller pylon, the range of which only extends the area of the nexus itself.
I am not 100% sure, but I think I referred to official lore at that point. However, don't be suprised if I use some of your ideas in a future overhaul of the OP The idea that the nexus contains a small pylon is too elegant to pass.
The personal shield thing however is not that clear. Some issues are: Can a human (terran) EMP really kill a protoss shield even though protoss technology is that advanced? Shouldn't an EMP of this magnitude also completely shut down out any terran electronic equipment? I rather like to not get too specific about shields to avoid questions of this type.
On November 25 2011 11:02 DeepElemBlues wrote: What I'd like to know is,
How, in four years, did the Dominion go from having a decimated military at the end of BW to having one big enough in WoL that half of it was strong enough to blitzkrieg right into Kerrigan's primary Hive cluster on Char. That's some rebuilding program Arcturus went on.
Hey guys, I wonder how you incorporate "creep-poop" from Overlords in your creep theory?! Maybe I overread it, than I'm sorry! I really like what your doing btw.
Some Zealots become rogue and allied with the Dark Templars becoming stealth assassins. The High Templars after they have drained their energy, they find other templars and perform the fushion dance (DBZ reference) and become an Archon. The Stalkers, as time passed, later became an immortal and it's only purpose is to tank and attack ground forces.
On December 11 2011 18:16 Surikizu wrote: Some Zealots become rogue and allied with the Dark Templars becoming stealth assassins. The High Templars after they have drained their energy, they find other templars and perform the fushion dance (DBZ reference) and become an Archon. The Stalkers, as time passed, later became an immortal and it's only purpose is to tank and attack ground forces.
^ DTs left aiur during Aeon of strife, Stalkers are AI constructs designed to aid the protoss in war, immortals are the dragoons from BW fallen zealots who refused to perish and get given new more powerful bodies
Idk if someone already noted, but some more of how the zerg survive: They actually eat, as in some sc books (dark templar saga) they are seen by the remaining protoss of Aiur eating the bodies of their fallen brethren, showing some kind of post-death cannibalism. Also, the little chimney on top of the hatcheries could possibly be a sub-product of the digestion that may also be a component for proper zerg atmosphere, like the one originally found in zerus. This atmosphere may provide a better evolution, thus making the broods stronger and healthier, also can explain how zerg can live outside of creep, as they get nourishment from the atmosphere components as well as the creep nutrients. Just some random brain-storming, nothing exceptionally thought If someone would add something, go on, im here and listening. Awesome post, I looove doing this kind of guesses to figure out how things work in fiction.
My friend came up with an interesting concept of how protoss shields might work. This is a direct quote:
"a shield could be supercooled ionic matter trapped within a strong electromagnetic field. So, physical damage, like a marine's bullet or a hydralisk's spike would be stopped by the supercooled matter. it would flow slowly in most cases, but when faced by a sudden force or shockwave, it would solidify and block it. energy weapons, like a stalker's beam, would be deflected by the electromagnetic field. in both cases, the stress placed upon the shield generator would weaken it temporarily (depleting the shield), but it should power up again quite quickly once it stops getting hit (shield regen). now, how are 'hardened' shields different from normal ones? while normal shields just adsorbs damage, a hardened shield deflects it over the expanse on the shield, and if enough energy remains, scatters it. let's take the immortal's for example. a damage of 5 isn't enough to get deflected, and so the shield just takes the damage. a hit of 50 would only damage the shield 10 though, as the rest of the energy gets deflected. if that is true, how does an emp work? an emp IS an electromagnetic pulse, so would disrupt the shield generator, temporarily weakening or even taking it out of action. finally, how does a protoss person fire anything past their own shield? well, the shield could run at only a certain frequency, so energy of the same frequency would just pass through the shield. as protoss units all use energy weapons, this actually works. but this also means that an enemy blast of your frequency would just pass though your shield..." I believe it works quite well. Maybe it can be implemented into this'"Real" Starcraft
That explanation raises new quesions. Which ionic matter is used? How gets it supercooled? How can it actually absorb zergling bites and gauss rifle bullets? The frequency explanation also does not really explain things. (Is the shield vibrating? Why?)
I think it is better to be unspecific about shields. The goal is to suspend the disbelieve, so that we assume that there is a perfectly scientific explanation for this but even some hundred years from now, humankind don't understand it yet.
I think that each unit portrayed in the game, in real life, wouldn't simply represent a single unit, but rather a batallion, squad, or something. This, of course, would exclude units like the Carrier, Battlecruiser, Broodlord, etc. Because if each map is a world, or whatever, it would just make sense to assume that each unit represents a greater army.
^ Thats how I think about it too. Its fun to think that 140 vs 150 food battle is symbolizing a much larger battle. It also makes it easier to explain things like "Where did that scv get the materials for the bunker all the way across the map?" or "Why is that tank bigger than the ramp it just drove down out of the factory?" also my favorite "How is that jetlike aircraft hovering in place?"
If you go with the squad/battalion representation of each unit then that scv is actually a small army of construction vehicles creating a bunker out of whatever they haul with them and salvage/harvest from their surroundings. The tank is really a squad of artillery/tanks driving down that ramp. The Viking is actually a large fleet of Vikings on patrol in a quadrant, similarly a large group of stationary vikings can be thought of a HUGE fleet of Vikings on patrol over a large quadrant.
It would be so cool if they went with some spherical maps to simulate true planet-scale warfare. I'd hate to be the guy who had to design that minimap though.
What a great post!! The entire OP was just a joy to read! I was constantly amazed by how much detail you were able to incorporate into all of your descriptions! Great work, keep it coming! <3