- zerg has powerful tech switches, if you could identify what the zerg is building more easily then this is a bit more balanced - it steals a fun aspect from sc2: identifying units building in the stargate - a giant ultralisk coming from a tiny egg is stupid
Just curious if it's technically possible/feasible.
Small bug-fix patch (v0.521). Thanks to Ahli for fixing most of this:
- Attack button should no longer automatically unbind when the game starts. Let us know if it still happens. - Goliath death model is now the correct size. - Increased the lateral acceleration of vultures. The value had been set to 3 by a mistake some patches earlier which caused them to behave oddly. They may still behave oddly in some circumstances. Let us know if that is the case. - SCV's repair speed is increased by 12,5% (was overlooked for the 12,5% patch earlier).
Are there any plans to continue to overhaul some of the sounds to BW sounds? I am only asking because almost all of them have so much more oomph than the SC2 versions of the same sounds.
That and the vulture voice actor in SC2 is just sooo awful.
The BW sound is not priority atm and I don't think a sound should be BW just because it is BW and not SC2, I think sounds most players feel were "better" in BW should be BW, but that will always leave someone disappointed.
For example. Currently the drone mining suond from BW is in the game. I personally think that sound might be better in SC2, but like the other two mining sounds from BW over SC2.
Also, we had a small patch which should be added here I guess
Smaller band-aid patch before the EuroBow (v0.522)
Nullward cost 75 energy
Stalker speed reduced to 3.16 and high ground vision removed.
Upgrade added to bring it back to 3.65 speed and regain high-ground vision. Cost 100/100 and 120 sec.
Duality charge only gives +1 upgrade to stalkers.
Reaver range decreased form 9 to 8.
Upgrade to Khyladrian Citadel takes 20 sec.
Roaches now need a cheap tunnel upgrade on the roach warren to move while burrowed and to use their speed boost.
Hive upgrade added to roaches on the roach warren to make the flame effect deal double damage.
Tunnel upgrade on roach warren requires lair, cost 50/50 and takes 40 sec.
Ensnare now reveals cloaked units but only decreases movement speed by 30%.
Baneling debuff effect now scales with upgrades. +1 per melee attack upgrade.
Goliath ground attack range increased from 5 to 6.
Upgrade to Orbital command takes 20 sec.
"Most important" here was the 75 energy nullward as early sentinel seems to upset PvZ too much atm. We are still working on a new spell to replace the nullward in its current state, but we are not settled to replace it yet.
The least tested change is the roach hive upgrade, but seeing this is late in the game on a unit which barely sees any play atm I don't think it will upset the game too much.
Reavers just had their splash damage increased from 50% to 100% so this "nerf" is not that much of a nerf.
Well, I think it's very important to make starbow easily accessible, in order to increase in popularity.
The starbow ladder is awesome, but the setup takes quite some steps. Seriously, that along would be enough to deter the majority of people from trying the game. Every time I search on ladder, there are always less than five ppl, idling around not playing.
I would suggest: make it easier 1. to ladder 2. to play starbow custom maps 3. to create fan-made starbow maps
We're currently working hard on making the ladder really easy to use. I'm afraid we can't do much on the other side, but I'll leave other guys comment on that.
For last night's episode of Monday Night Starbow I sat down with tehredbandit and took an analytical look at 3 replays from each non-mirror matchup. If you're interested in Starbow but maybe you don't have a good idea of how to play the matchups, this video could be very informative! But even if you're a Starbow veteran you might find it beneficial to hear what TRB has to say about each of these games. Enjoy!
VOD from MNS #13: Analysis with TRB
For a look at TvZ, start from the beginning. PvT starts at 40:16 and ZvP is 1:28:30.
Big shout-out to Fen1kz for a lot of the aesthetics connected with some of the new units. Another shout-out to the LotV custom alpha mod group for letting us use their Herc model, and finally a shout-out to Ahli for again helping with a lot of editor work. Also thanks to all who have found and reported bugs, they have mostly been fixed but I won't include all bug fixes in this list. Some units still cannot deal friendly fire though.
General
Archon's, Dark Archon's, Reaver's and Ultralisk's are now calssified as "massive" units. (why?, see infestor change)
Units felt too bulky in many instances and splash effects seemed to be under-preforming. This fixes both.
Cast range on many spells increased. This affects high templars, defilers and science vessels. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
Spellcasters in general are getting some buffs.
Zerg
Infestors no longer have neural parasite but can morph to Viper's for 75 energy. This requires an upgrade at the infisation pit after Hive is complete. The Viper has the same two spells as the Infestor but also has "Spawn Broodling" for 150 energy. Same spell as in Brood War. Works on all non-massive ground units. Vipers do not have consume. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
We wanted a spell for zerg which could deal with single targets on an air unit as the neural parasite on infestors felt like a range war between siege tanks and infestor neural cast range. Adding such a spell to the overseer was problematic for reasons explained in the balance forum. This is our solution atm. So far we are quite happy with it as similar spells on an air caster will change how the spells are used in an interesting way without the opponent having to memorize a lot of spells.
Baneling now deals 36 concussive damage on impact and cost 25/25. The de-buff effect has been removed. Banelings must either connect completely or use their explode ability in order to deal damage. Remember, 36 concussive damage is 9 damage to buildings and armored units, so don't ever try to baneling bust down a wall
One of the main roles of the roach was to make earily game zvz not be all about zerglings. It did not do this in a pleasing manner and any addition to the roach in order to make them deal more effectively with zerglings would also make them buffed in ways we did not like for the other match-up's. Baneling with 36 damage does the trick in zvz and we are also trying to make sure that mass banelings in zvt mid and late-game is not a preferred strategy at the same time.
New upgarde on defiler mound. It increases the maximum energy of defilers, infestors and Vipers by 50. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
Irradiate and storm is getting buffed. Instead of just making the dark swarm cloud bigger, we thought it would be interesting to indirectly buff defilers by rewarding more consume, making it possible to plauge and dark swarm in the late-game from the same defiler.
Hive is now required for nydus worms and nydus network. Each nydus worm will now exit their units quickly as if they were upgraded. The upgrade is now removed. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
Connecting far away bases for zerg and lair tech with instant reinforcements is not something we have seen too much but it seems quite broken from the little we saw of it. Zerg can already drop at lair tech, so the nydus canals are not really needed until hive tech anyways.
With gas cost to macro mechanics, the early masses of corsairs have gone down. The separation buff the scourges received a while back seems strong enough.
Protoss
Dark Archon added to the game. Must be morphed from two dark templars. Has feedback, and can research to get Maelstrom and mind control. Same stats as in Brood War except Maelstrom is much smaller in size and does not last as long. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
We wanted to add a bit more for each race for the late-game. The Dark Archon was a natural choice for Protoss. We are keeping Maelstrom in for now, knowing that it is not the most exciting spell out there, but it needs to be a powerful spell if making this unit should be worth it.
They are already medium instead of armor which is a big buff compared to BW as most AA ground units deal explosive damage.
Sentinel null ward has been reverted to its original form with some modifications. It can now be shot while moving, has more life, moves slower and can fire from further away. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
The old nullward has a special place in many Starbro's a heart, but was hard to balance right with their permanent cloak. This is an attempt to bring them back without changing them too much. The testing we have done of this has been positive, but not extensive, so please test and give us feedback.
Scout fleet beacon requirement removed and cost decreased to 200 minerals (same gas cost). It also has a longer vision than other air units. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
This sends the scout back to mainly being an AA anti-armored ship. We are fine with this for now.
Duality charge on stalkers now gives them +2 range. (Yeah, we are going in circles here..)
Psionic storm values fixed. They have been bugged for a long time and was never buffed with neither the 0% patch nor the 12,5% patch. This will be stronger.
Reaver's now deal splash damage in 100% / 50% and 25% areas. Most in the middle and least at the edges. It also has a very small delay between when it detonates and when the damage is dealt. This results in units escaping the reaver shot taking less damage and resembles how the reaver worked in BroodWar much better than the previous one. It now deals 100 damage and 125 after damage upgrade.
Terran
Merc's added to the game. Cost: 100/50 with 35 second build time. 125 hp, 30 damage explosive with a 1,5 weapon period. They can grapple on to units and if it's an enemy unit they will deal 30 explosive damage on impact. Movement speed 2.4. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
We've already talked a lot about the merc's in the forums and on streams. Feel free to ask specific questions about this here or in the balance forum and we'll try to answer as best we can.
Science Vessel hp increased to 200.
Science Vessel now shoot off their abilities much more smoothly. They still need to stand still, but I think terran players will find the this much better than the old patch.
Irradiate changed from 4 damage per 0.5 sec to 4.5 damage per 0.5 sec resulting in total damage increase from 176 to 198 (22 seconds). + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
Again, buffing spellcasters. We might also change the viking later, so this makes the SV slightly better at dealing with masses of mutalisks.
Battlecruiser damage increased from 15 to 25. Attack speed adjusted so their dps stays about the same. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
The battlecruiser attack had nothing interesting going for it at all. It was as bland as possible. We could have given it many smaller lasers like they have in SC2, but vikings already kinda have that in form of missiles. The hard punch of the BW battlecriuser made more sense in Starbow.
Ghost seeker drone missile now lasts until it hits target unit. Units hit will still only be frozen for 12 seconds. They no longer take double damage while locked down. + Show Spoiler [explanation] +
These are quite underused and after some testing with this change, it did not seem as imba as one would expect. Mostly due to the slow speed of the missile making it easy to place target unit in a relatively safe location until the effect wears off.
Firebats AOE is slightly longer and the flame animation is adjusted (decreased) to match the actual hitbox. The flame in the old patch looked x4 times bigger than the actual damage area.
We are in general adding a little more options for the late-game with a focus on zerg and protoss atm. We will look at some options for terran in the next patch. We have some ideas we will share and test later.
And thanks to SoaH for making an awesome looking banner.
Forgot to add this to the patch-notes, it is added now, but I'll add it here as well so you don't have to look over the patch-notes to find it:
Reaver's now deal splash damage in 100% / 50% and 25% areas. Most in the middle and least at the edges. It also has a very small delay between when it detonates and when the damage is dealt. This results in units escaping the reaver shot taking less damage and resembles how the reaver worked in BroodWar much better than the previous one. It now deals 100 damage and 125 after damage upgrade.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vfnhPOO.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/lQHdTm5.png)
EPT
