[I] Dustin Browder, HotS + General Q&A - Page 14

On August 03 2011 03:54 Probe1 wrote:
You know that's actually a pretty damn good idea. Lore wise it's all fucked but .. well you could say that about SC2 in general ^_^

For a very long time I've thought that if they were to add in the lurker it would be completely screwed up. You can't build the tech structure until Lair.. Then you build the structure, make the units and evolve lurker aspect all at the same time? .. nah

But Lurker from Roach actually sounds like the perfect solution Gheizen.


Edit: Sixes I have no response that isn't a flame on your knowledge of playing starcraft so let me say I completely disagree with either what you're saying or how your saying it. However I would rather remain silent on then fight about something where nothing is to gain.

On August 02 2011 11:04 RogerChillingworth wrote:
4) zerg may get a siege unit (not necessarily the lurker, but a similar role)

On August 02 2011 22:27 AmericanUmlaut wrote:

I would really like to see Blizzard at least experiment with a higher unit supply cap. It's a change that obviously has the potential to completely unbalance lategame, so I'm not sure if it's possible without being compensated for in other ways, but playing SC2 I always feel like my army caps out a bit too early.

It would be really cool if such a change worked well from a balance standpoint and did in fact allow for more lategame harassment as toss. The question is whether you can get a supply cap at which lategame armies start to suffer from diminishing returns sufficiently that having an extra 20 supply in a fight doesn't mean an autowin. Otherwise you're just increasing the size of the Protoss deathball by 7 Colossi O.o

On August 02 2011 11:55 Turbo.Tactics wrote:
I wonder how the Terran players feel about maybe not getting a new unit in Hots... I for one am excited to see some new Swarm additions :D

...Terrans still being too flexible. The latter's the most persistent one for the longest time. That's almost a design flaw not a balance flaw.

On August 03 2011 04:28 pwadoc wrote:


I have been saying this for months. I guess obvious things are crazy until Browder says them. The terran race is built in a way that makes it fundamentally difficult to balance the TvX matchups.

On August 03 2011 03:39 Sixes wrote:

The big issue with making Zerg "Swarmy" is that it makes Zerg more and more vulnerable to splash damage and choke points.

Let's make a quick list of units Zerg complained about: tanks, thors, colossi, forcefields ... they all annihilate swarms.

Now I agree that Zergs need to be more swarmy but then you can't have solutions that are as simple as 3 forcefields on a choke or "I sieged 3 tanks" or "I have a couple thors, bye bye 15 mutas". The reason why Zerg players don't use 150 lings to destroy things is really map architecture. Take Shakuras for example. No way you can get a surround unless a Terra/Toss is sitting right on your front door because the whole map is a hallway with less width than tank range.

A swarm is cool but if the units just block each other and get mowed down like the Zerg from the WoL campaign, people won't play that way.

The big issue with making Zerg "Swarmy"

On August 02 2011 13:49 Falcor wrote:
if p gets reavers its almost guranteed that p will lose colli, archons or ht..no way tehyd give prot 4 aoe units would they?

I'm pretty biased for Protoss here obviously, but I do think Zerg needs some work as well. My only suggestion is to give the Roach a morph at Lair tech. Whether it is the Lurker, the Lurker 2.0, or a completely new unit, it doesn't really matter. Simply put, it's similar to the Protoss' issue of not getting enough out of investing into a tech path. Roaches are very powerful in certain phases of the game, but as the game progresses, faster speed and burrow movement just aren't powerful enough upgrades to truly utilize them in a mid-late game army. Giving them a morph that's powerful in both the mid-game while also supporting their late-game units will give Zerg much more consistency and allow their transitioning to flow much smoother.

On August 02 2011 14:48 Gfox wrote:


With the unit pathing and how well units clump in sc2 the reaver would literally break the game...

On August 03 2011 05:25 Zuxo wrote:


I only want the Roach to be a 1 supply unit and weaker. I don't get why you are bringing up when I never said anything about it not being a big issue. I simply just want the Roach to be more like it was in the beta but fixed (regardless of the implications on balance at first).

On August 03 2011 03:54 Sixes wrote:


I meant vision on creep regardless of the overlord or tumor still being there. A Terran/Toss can do a quick advance killing tumors and end up on creep that you don't have vision on.

And a massive ling surround on creep can be extremely destructive and is effectively a zoning tool. I never claimed it was as effective as tanks. Quite frankly I think tanks should be taken out of the bleeding game just like hydras but they are iconic of BW and consequently are kept. Anything that has a tactical description that reads "if it's there you can't ever attack cost effectively" seems rather silly.

I would like to see something that makes creep more resilient and a better zoning tool, now how to do that is up for debate, I just see it as an existing foundation that seems like it could be expanded upon. It is also much more interesting than just adding a unit like the siege tank/lurker/colossus which just sits there and does obscene damage without any micro or control required.

Creep requires consistent spreading and has a very high skill (or APM I guess) cap.

Instead of a siege unit I'd prefer a zergling "leap" (as they seem to have added to the single player) which could actually get the swarm into combat. now if that leap had range 6 off creep and range 12 on creep, you have a crazy zoning tool that would make opponents very careful about attacking on creep. If the leap just allowed to skip cliffs in the downwards direction it could be a lot of fun (so lings can't jump up into main bases but they can swarm down onto lower ones or out of a base after a drop or they can swarm an army from a cliff-top).

Come to think of it there is also no way to reduce larvae cost ... what about an upgrade (at Hive?) to make lings be 100 minerals for 4 from 1 larvae? This would make them a much more valid late game unit.

Anyways, I'm just throwing out ideas which don't involve drastic overhauls or porting in a BW unit while hopefully feeling swarmy (and avoiding the downsides of chokes and splash to some extent).

On August 03 2011 04:05 Deltablazy wrote:

And when that happens, lore fans will cry rivers saying that roaches mutating into lurkers ruins sc2 and demand a reverse change or swap roaches and hydras to respect the lore. =\

My problem is protoss getting a harass unit. First Blizz kills the reaper and then is going to give one to toss, which assuming is as good as the reaper, will keep terran in their base. Terran loses their early game advantage and the 15 minute mark is easily reached, after which we all know what happens.

On August 03 2011 05:54 Wrongspeedy wrote:


They also already said they are buffing the Reaper in HOTS.