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Updates:
Marine added. Sept 22
Reaper added. Sept 23
Wraith added. Sept 28 *New*
Poll on what unit you would like to see next:
+ Show Spoiler +Poll: Which Terran unit's next for me to analyze?Science Vessel (20) 25% Thor (19) 24% Command center series (PF/Orbital) (9) 11% Ghost (6) 8% Raven (6) 8% Marauder (6) 8% Medivac (5) 6% Battlecruiser (5) 6% Viking (3) 4% 79 total votes Your vote: Which Terran unit's next for me to analyze? (Vote): Medivac
(Vote): Ghost
(Vote): Raven
(Vote): Science Vessel
(Vote): Command center series (PF/Orbital)
(Vote): Thor
(Vote): Viking
(Vote): Battlecruiser
(Vote): Marauder
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Hey guys,
Ever since Ponera published his ideas on Anatomy of Starcraft in analysing Zerg morphology, I had this burning urge to analyze the Terran units in terms of functionality, structure, and army role. I'm a second year science student in pharmacology, so my knowledge may not be in depth, but I'll try my best to rationalize in context of the lore and general graphics within the game.
This is not a discussion on balance, but rather to ask:
Why are these units designed in these fashion? What mechanics allow them to function? Why did Terran army stop production of certain units?
I hope to answer and discuss some of these questions in qualitative fashion. And I would love any feedbacks & comments & disagreements to whatever I post.
So without further ado, allow me to present to you:
![[image loading]](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081221031459/starcraft/images/e/e2/Hellion_SC2_DevRend1.jpg)
Hellion
The Hellion is an odd beast of war. Moving at high velocity, they attack with intermittent massive bursts of flames. These "fire cars" can effectively leave a settlement in flames and leave unscathed within minutes of their arrival.
However, compared to equally agile Brood War-era Vulture bikes that provided both raiding potential and zone control with hazardous minefield against a large ground force, many impartial observers were left scratching their heads: Why would Terran switch out an effective weapon of war for something that is somewhat weaker?
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/d/d5/Vulture_SC2_Rend1.jpg)
I believe the answer to the question is that vultures were too powerful in absence of major war. The Dominion Terran realized after the end of the Brood War, vultures even in small numbers provided a highly efficient vehicle for small rebel factions. Packs of vulture bikes can move into Dominion compound in the cover of the night, use their fragmentation grenade launchers while the bikes were still in motion to sabotage much as possible without slowing down. Then as the Dominion forces group up, the vultures can simply lay down spider mines and escape with relatively few losses whereas the Dominion army would need to carefully remove the deployed mines or risk death. Vultures and spider mines became too much of a liability than an asset.
Upon the end of Brood War, the Dominion stopped the production of vulture bikes, started destroying the blueprints, and scrapped any bikes confiscated from the rebels. Soon Vultures were no longer seen on battlefields, not due to their weakness, but due to their sheer power and cost-efficiency.
So you may wonder, where on earth Hellions come from then?
I believe hellions are designed not necessarily for war, but rather as tools of oppression. These flame cars are flashy in combat, showing massive fireballs that are only effective versus lightly armored marines or thinly plated vehicles (which are the major components of dissident forces). Also, they leave a trail of scorched rebel villages, leaving a clear warning to any dissatisfied civilian populace to fear the Dominion. People just simply fear death by fire.
Finally, these mobile vehicles in the hands of rebels do not pose as much of a threat to the Dominion army as vulture bikes did due to lack of mine-zone-control and motion-based firing.
Now onto the structural design of hellions. Hellions are four-wheeled, very thinly plated with some sort of titanium-alloy or other light metal alloy with extremely high melting point that can withstand its own firepower. I'm guestimating top speeds of 200km/h, but this is just a wild guess since relative move speed is not clear from just the gameplay. It seems to have one major flamethrower on top of the vehicle above the driver's seat.
![[image loading]](http://images.wikia.com/starcraft/images/e/e1/InfernalPreigniter_SC2_Game1.png)
The flamethrower is a peculiar weapon. In an anoxic environment, flames are quickly squashed due to lack of oxygen. So my conjecture is that the flamethrower uses a composite of pressurized hydrocarbon source, superoxidants, and thermite mixture (all of which are likely to be by-products of mineral mining) to create a beautiful wave of orange or blue flame. The quality of thermite likely dictates the potency of fire and the colour of the fireball. The recipe for thermite is kept top secret and very precise, that's why we need to research "Infernal Pre-Igniter" within each game. The flamethrower seems to have a range of few hundred meters, but once again this is a wild guess from the gameplay.
The fun part about this vehicle is that it likely uses the same hydrocarbon source for it's motor fuel. This design was implemented to minimize the mass of the hellion. This means that the hellion must slow down nearly to a stop to fire its weapon. When firing the giant burst of flame in direction of driving would not only mean that the thermite flame would burn the hellion itself, but also risk an explosion due to thermite-superoxidant backdraft into the engine.
In short, hellion is much harder vehicle to operate. Its primary design was never meant for war but subjugation. It's even more expensive in terms of minerals compared to the vulture, but as this crazy said:
+ Show Spoiler +
So upon the return of the war against Raynor's Raiders, Zerg, and the Protoss, these hellions are not considered as the best weapon of war compared to the old school vulture bikes. However, they still are brutally efficient versus the thin exoskeletons on the drones and zerglings. So every day, hellion drivers are called to either terrorize civillians or assault Zerg mineral fields. Survival rate of the latter mission is approximated to be 15%.
Hope you enjoyed my little interpretation!
-Dessarisc
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Reserved for comments/ future posts on other Terran units.
Poll on what unit you would like to see next:
+ Show Spoiler +Poll: Which Terran unit's next for me to analyze?Science Vessel (20) 25% Thor (19) 24% Command center series (PF/Orbital) (9) 11% Ghost (6) 8% Raven (6) 8% Marauder (6) 8% Medivac (5) 6% Battlecruiser (5) 6% Viking (3) 4% 79 total votes Your vote: Which Terran unit's next for me to analyze? (Vote): Medivac
(Vote): Ghost
(Vote): Raven
(Vote): Science Vessel
(Vote): Command center series (PF/Orbital)
(Vote): Thor
(Vote): Viking
(Vote): Battlecruiser
(Vote): Marauder
Edits:
Added Marine 09/22/2012.
Added Reaper 09/23/2012.
Added Wraith 09/28/2012.
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All this did was remind me of all the plot holes SC2 introduced.
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Well I personally found this a pretty interesting read. I like your explanation for the hellion as a rebel suppression tool, and I'd like to see more, so keep up the good work!
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i didnt knew dustin browder drove a vulture
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Nice read.
Good luck trying to explain why the Crucio does less damage than the Arclite though....
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Yay! I like these threads. Keep it up!
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On September 21 2012 14:18 Zombo Joe wrote:
All this did was remind me of all the plot holes SC2 introduced.
True.
Good analysis on the use of flames by the hellions. 5/5 if blog.
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United Kingdom20293 Posts
I believe the answer to the question is that vultures were too powerful in absence of major war. The Dominion Terran realized after the end of the Brood War, vultures even in small numbers provided a highly efficient vehicle for small rebel factions. Packs of vulture bikes can move into Dominion compound in the cover of the night, use their fragmentation grenade launchers while the bikes were still in motion to sabotage much as possible without slowing down. Then as the Dominion forces group up, the vultures can simply lay down spider mines and escape with relatively few losses whereas the Dominion army would need to carefully remove the deployed mines or risk death. Vultures and spider mines became too much of a liability than an asset.
Upon the end of Brood War, the Dominion stopped the production of vulture bikes, started destroying the blueprints, and scrapped any bikes confiscated from the rebels. Soon Vultures were no longer seen on battlefields, not due to their weakness, but due to their sheer power and cost-efficiency.
Those engineers should get their asses to work on a new blueprint ASAP
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Very awesome analysis, great read!
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10387 Posts
On September 21 2012 14:18 Zombo Joe wrote:
All this did was remind me of all the plot holes SC2 introduced.
bahahahaha seriously
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Nice short story about SC. :p
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This was awesome. Very nicely done.
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aaa. i really enjoy the StarCraft lore. I think it has the same potential as the Halo Expanded Universe, and maybe it already has reached that because for some reason i'm always extremely disinterested in the Starcraft novels.
has anyone read a significant number of the series? and more importantly: are they good?
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obviously the vultures were retired because they had outdated navigational computers which only allowed them to move in 8 directions
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On September 21 2012 14:21 X3GoldDot wrote:
i didnt knew dustin browder drove a vulture
Dayum, just realized that now too. :O
On September 21 2012 14:41 Cyro wrote:+ Show Spoiler + I believe the answer to the question is that vultures were too powerful in absence of major war. The Dominion Terran realized after the end of the Brood War, vultures even in small numbers provided a highly efficient vehicle for small rebel factions. Packs of vulture bikes can move into Dominion compound in the cover of the night, use their fragmentation grenade launchers while the bikes were still in motion to sabotage much as possible without slowing down. Then as the Dominion forces group up, the vultures can simply lay down spider mines and escape with relatively few losses whereas the Dominion army would need to carefully remove the deployed mines or risk death. Vultures and spider mines became too much of a liability than an asset.
Upon the end of Brood War, the Dominion stopped the production of vulture bikes, started destroying the blueprints, and scrapped any bikes confiscated from the rebels. Soon Vultures were no longer seen on battlefields, not due to their weakness, but due to their sheer power and cost-efficiency. Those engineers should get their asses to work on a new blueprint ASAP
Haha, I believe that Dominion probably has copies of the blueprint in their defense facility. Also, some raiders/scrapper factions still have few copies of the blueprint. That's why there was easy technology for the Dominion to modify the Spider Mine into the Widow Mine, which is just rocket propulsion system copied from the Vulture grenade launcher + standard target detection system and its walking design copied from Spider Mine.
Diamondback from the campaign I believe held the spirit of vulture, but it too was deemed to be too strong at raiding, and scrapped.
On September 21 2012 14:21 Nazza wrote:
Nice read.
Good luck trying to explain why the Crucio does less damage than the Arclite though....
Challenge accepted. I'll definitely do seige tanks later. (I think Crucio and Arclite refers to cannons on tank, otherwise how embarassing).
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Thanks for your support! Is there a particular Terran unit that you want analyzed in terms of lore + mechanics? I'll try to stay close to what Blizzard intended in conjunction with my extrapolation of the army functions of specific units.
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What about wraiths to banshees and vikings? I loved wraiths in bw, such a badass looking unit.
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On September 21 2012 14:21 Nazza wrote:
Nice read.
Good luck trying to explain why the Crucio does less damage than the Arclite though....
Improvement in Zerg body composition and Protoss technology or something? :D
But hahahaha yeah, so many plot holes :X
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United States577 Posts
I liked this, a nice read. Although for all the parts you are unsure of you should probably make up something out of thin air to make it sound more serious. Would love to see the other units 
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United States577 Posts
On September 21 2012 16:53 Aerisky wrote:Show nested quote +On September 21 2012 14:21 Nazza wrote:
Nice read.
Good luck trying to explain why the Crucio does less damage than the Arclite though.... Improvement in Zerg body composition and Protoss technology or something? :D But hahahaha yeah, so many plot holes :X
Perhaps the upgrade in targeting from BW to SC2 came at the cost of firepower. At least they are wasting 20 shots on a single zealot
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.qkme.me/3qchj5.jpg)
