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![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/pNyd8Gp.jpg)
INTRO
The goal of this post is to look at few unit designs and unit mechanics that aren't working perfectly and learn from them. This is not meant to be a critique. We can learn a lot from StarCraft II, whether it is from its successes or failures. The ability to directly compare to Brood War, which shares a lot of characteristics, is very valuable as well. This post is posted on my blog as well.
StarCraft II isn't perfect. There is design baggage carrier over from Brood War, and not all new things worked out perfectly. That said, StarCraft II development team did a lot of great work to improve things since Wings of Liberty was released, leading to arguably the best game state StarCraft II has ever been in.
Force Fields, while originally very problematic, are in a good state today. Death-balling has been greatly reduced compared to Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm due to economy changes and good unit design. Similar thing has been done to the strength of air unit compositions. The economy model received improvements in Legacy of the Void, even if it's still in some ways inferior compared to certain double harvest models and Brood War economy model.
I'm including these units not because their design is bad altogether. I'm including them because despite some parts of their design aren't good, these units work surprisingly well in other aspects, and often lead to good interactions and fun game dynamics. This contrast makes them more interesting.
WIDOW MINE
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/sJHXJyq.jpg)
Widow Mines are great when micro is involved. Splitting, target firing, target switching, Stalker Blink micro, Mutalisk micro, all those are fun to execute as a player or watch as a viewer. I would even say the randomness tied to Widow Mines is good for spectating. "4M vs Muta-Ling-Bling" is one of the best parts of StarCraft II.
However, especially in TvZ you often see the most impactful damage to be done when neither player is paying attention or microing with or against Widow Mines. Nobody wants a potentially game deciding thing to be a random Widow Mine that one player didn't see and the other forgot about. This is likely even more frustrating for casual players that will not micro and forget detection.
Another thing is that the most execution burden falls on the defending player. That's not inherently a bad thing, and it's good that there are counterplay options. But if the execution is mostly on the defending player, the mechanic will feel more punishing and kills by Widow Mines will seem more undeserved. Note that I'm not saying they are undeserved, only that it will seem more that way.
If the execution is more on the player using a unit, the result will feel more deserved. However, there still should be some counterplay through skill on the defending side. It's all about the right balance. In this case execution a bit too focused on the defending player, and randomness a bit too high.
NUKES
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/YFixlUd.jpg)
From today's perspective and general recognition of the importance of accessibility in games, adding a game mechanic that is based around looking for a red dot somewhere on the map would sound a bit crazy. But seeing it as a legacy mechanic from Brood War makes it at least understandable. If you aimed to make nukes more mainstream, you would have to make changes this mechanic.
It's even worse if we consider color blindness, which affects roughly 8% of men. As you can see the red dot is significantly less visible, and that's placed against a dark background. Putting the dot directly on the Nexus would make it close to invisible. StarCraft II has built-in color-blind mode, but its effect is very limited.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/w12g68a.jpg)
Cloak and burrow mechanic are in a similar situation. Units should be either visible or not. Whether you will spot a cloaked or burrowed unit is too reliant on your vision and game settings. Neither of them should be a deciding factor in a competitive setting.
SWARM HOST
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/mJE8cAH.jpg)
People often complain about "free units", but difficulties with Swarm Hosts will apply to any unit that can deal almost guaranteed damage while being safe. If you as player are taking damage and can't do anything about it, it will always feel frustrating even if the game is balanced.
Moreover, the balancing itself will be more difficult with units like these as a situation can snowball very quickly. With Swarm Hosts often the first two waves are the most important.
From the historical perspective the Swarm Host redesign patch was quite interesting. It came very late to Hearth of the Swarm when Legacy of the Void beta has already started. Previously Swarm Hosts served as a core unit that enabled Zerg to fight Terran and Protoss lategame armies. And while many players didn't enjoy games with Swarm Hosts, game balance was decided by individual maps.
The patch changed this core unit into a harass unit with a high supply cost. They do fit into Legacy of the Void now, but at that time this change left a gaping hole in the design of Zerg race. However, one could argue that given the already running beta of Legacy of the Void, and how close the release was, making such change was reasonable, and the meta didn't have a time to reach a degenerate state.
BATTLECRUISER
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/OHBathl.jpg)
Battlecruiser might be the most interesting unit to look at. There are design issues with the unit and its abilities. However, it's also arguably the most interesting capital ship in StarCraft II and closest to its Brood War counterpart. Let's first look at the abilities.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/W31PoZp.png) TACTICAL JUMP – 71s cooldown / 4s casting time
The main issue with Tactical Jump was the lack of counterplay. Fortunately, this was significantly improved after Battlecruisers had become more used, and the casting time was increased. Before that a professional player should have never lost a Battlecruiser on the opponents side of the map with Tactical Jump off cooldown.
Other than this delay only Infestors with Neural Parasite or Fungal Growth can help to stop Battlecruisers from escaping. I wouldn't consider this ability a big issue anymore, but it's tied with high front-loaded damage of Yamato Cannon, which puts this closer to the Swarm Host issue where the damage is guaranteed and comes with a minimal risk.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/18zp2HG.png) YAMATO CANNON – 71s cooldown / 240 damage / 2s casting time / 10 initial casting range
This ability has again very limited counterplay and doesn't have high skill ceiling. In MOBAs we see a lot of skill shots as they provide much better opportunity on both sides to show off skill. Guaranteed damage and minimal risk doesn't help in this case. However, this is again understandable as design baggage carrier over from Brood War, and as an intention to preserve this iconic ability.
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So why do Battlecruisers still work well in StarCraft II? There are few reasons for it. Even if there are issues with those abilities, they still provide higher skill ceiling and options for making decisions than for example Carriers have. Those abilities also enable Battlecruisers to be effective early and in few numbers, and not just as a part of death-balls.
This is closer to Brood War, where for example in TvZ few Battlecruisers are used to put the Zerg off balance. The Zerg player has to balance anti-air and anti-ground more, and is likely to take worse fights because of that. This is similar to early game Battlecruisers in StarCraft II's TvZ which again test the Zerg player in balancing proper response against both air and ground threats.
QUEEN
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/fcIm2Sz.jpg)
I'm including the Queen here mainly to show the contrast between local design issues and global ones. With Battlecruisers the local design of its abilities has issues, but the unit fits well into the global game design.
Here we have a Queen, a unit which many players will argue is too well-rounded for defense. However, it's not due to any design of the Queen, instead the unit was slowly forced into this role over the years by the lack of other Zerg units that could come early enough and defend against enemy threats. So the problem is not directly with Queens, and solutions would have to come from looking at other Zerg units and tech progression.
CARRIER
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/oi2JhBh.jpg)
There is nothing inherently bad about Carrier's design but nothing great either. The unit had difficult time finding its place in the grand scheme of things despite it being such iconic Protoss unit.
This is partly because of lacking micro potential compared to Brood War's Carrier, partly because of Protoss tendency to death-ball in StarCraft II, and partly because of lacking interactions it had with Brood War's Goliath.
As with Battlecruisers, Carriers in Brood War forced the opponent in PvT to carefully balance its anti-air and anti-ground. Plus their main counter being a ground unit added more depth to the game as they had to take advantage of terrain. StarCraft II moved a lot of anti-air to air units (Vikings, Corruptors, Void Rays, Tempest, Battlecruisers, Liberators) and this dance between air and ground units is less common. And so Carriers in StarCraft II were left in a position with fewer interesting interactions, and a place that's more difficult to balance.
CONCLUSION
StarCraft II isn't perfect, and we should learn from it.
● Widow Mines show the effect of execution on how the result is perceived.
● Nukes remind us that accessibility shouldn't be overlooked.
● Swarm Hosts present the difficulties of units with close to guaranteed damage and minimal risk.
● Battlecruisers highlight the importance of counterplay, and that despite local design issues the unit can still work well.
● Queen is an example of how global design can affect one unit.
● Carrier is a unit seeking its place after having lost its interesting interaction.
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How are nukes a problem and not disruptors? Unnecessary AOE which much more impact than the Window Mine? The design of that unit feels so wrong due to the lack of counterplay, especially for P and T.
Get ready for PvP and TvP becoming even more of a dance of blowup-balls
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It was a nice read, you made a lot of good points that I can relate to after playing the game for many years.
I always feel like most of my frustration caused by plying SC2 comes from unit interactions which are not balanced in regards to mechanical skill needed to use them vs their counters. Almost all of the units that you mentioned feel relatively easy to use for one side while requiring heavy micro gymnastics from the opponent.
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On October 28 2020 02:06 Slydie wrote:
How are nukes a problem and not disruptors? Unnecessary AOE which much more impact than the Window Mine? The design of that unit feels so wrong due to the lack of counterplay, especially for P and T.
Get ready for PvP and TvP becoming even more of a dance of blowup-balls
I would definitely add Disruptors to the list as well.
Nukes are not a problem in themselves I think, but how they are announced. I agree with the OP that it should be either clearly visible where the nuke will land or not at all. Same with invisible units being partly visible which depends on your graphic settings - that should not be the case.
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Bisutopia19393 Posts
As a colorblind person, I agree with the difficulty of vision issues. However, I am not trying to earn a living of this game and just assume that while I have this weakness my opponents have other physical or mental weakness that they also have to deal with when playing this game. That is why I've never outright called for changes regarding vision. I think it is hard to balance a game around all of the imperfections of human beings and maybe it makes more sense to balance around the perfect human being and the dominant player can exemplify how much better they are physically and mentally then everyone else. That sounds much more appealing to me.
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So, the Broodlord... Isn't that just a shittier swarmhost in many ways? It does effectively the same thing as SH, can't go into a nydus, requires a corruptor as a first step, and is in many ways easier to counter than SH. Why do we even need broods in the game? They are IMO the worst hive tech unit, and possibly the worst T3 in the whole game.
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I was thinking the other day about the best designed unit in Starcraft 2, and I settled on the phoenix. It's a harass unit, counters mass light air, and it can lift ground units which can make a major impact in a fight. Phoenix are definitely not overpowered and lose to other air units.
Does anyone else have a different idea what the best designed unit is?
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I think phoenixes are too easy to use. Units that shoot as they move shouldn't also be able to move faster than everything else.
EDIT: Thankfully their range upgrade isn't completely broken, because if they outranged everything, they would be the most OP PoS unit.
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On October 28 2020 02:32 dUTtrOACh wrote:
So, the Broodlord... Isn't that just a shittier swarmhost in many ways? It does effectively the same thing as SH, can't go into a nydus, requires a corruptor as a first step, and is in many ways easier to counter than SH. Why do we even need broods in the game? They are IMO the worst hive tech unit, and possibly the worst T3 in the whole game.
They're pretty bad right now, because their counters have been buffed and their primary synergies from the past are basically dead (infestors). I agree that they're somewhat useless, because they're slow as fuck. They also lead to those drawn out games, because it's impossible to anything interesting with them. You either go for a slow push or you turtle behind a forest of spores. Boring.
Personally, I'm quite happy that lurkers have seen a resurgence in the past months. They're cool units and provide interesting scenarios in all matchups.
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On October 28 2020 03:40 virpi wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2020 02:32 dUTtrOACh wrote:
So, the Broodlord... Isn't that just a shittier swarmhost in many ways? It does effectively the same thing as SH, can't go into a nydus, requires a corruptor as a first step, and is in many ways easier to counter than SH. Why do we even need broods in the game? They are IMO the worst hive tech unit, and possibly the worst T3 in the whole game. They're pretty bad right now, because their counters have been buffed and their primary synergies from the past are basically dead (infestors). I agree that they're somewhat useless, because they're slow as fuck. They also lead to those drawn out games, because it's impossible to anything interesting with them. You either go for a slow push or you turtle behind a forest of spores. Boring. Personally, I'm quite happy that lurkers have seen a resurgence in the past months. They're cool units and provide interesting scenarios in all matchups.
Personally, I was shocked that it took Blizzard until LotV to put lurkers into the game. When the swarmhost was first put into the game, my thoughts were "Oh, so this is Blizzard's redesign of the lurker? Pretty terrible... Why does it hit air? Why does it do the same thing as a broodlord? How was the broodlord not simultaneously redesigned?". Then they removed the air attack of the locust, and called it a day.
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Excellent read! I'm happy with the state the game is in currently, but this post really gives some new perspectives.
One of my friends is playing very widow mine-heavy, and there have been numerous occasions where I lost a gush of banelings due to some random mines. So that one struck a chord with me 
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To the point of widow-mines and the perceived fairness they bring to or remove from the table, there's a reason why land-mines are banned in warfare. They are known to be unfair, and in the realistic sense, they will kill allies, enemies, and civilians equally. Luckily, it's humans vs aliens 2/3 of the time, so the Geneva convention goes out the window with the nuclear disarmament.
EDIT: Humanity's greatest weapons against advanced ETs would most likely be the weapons we deem immoral or inhumane to use against one another. This is why I want a unit that uses irradiate again.
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Mexico2170 Posts
On October 28 2020 03:23 dUTtrOACh wrote:
I think phoenixes are too easy to use. Units that shoot as they move shouldn't also be able to move faster than everything else.
EDIT: Thankfully their range upgrade isn't completely broken, because if they outranged everything, they would be the most OP PoS unit.
Phoenixes are a pretty bad unit imo. They have niche uses here and there, but overall they are the most useless AA unit.
In PvP they are kind of annoying, but once you get archons they just inmediately stop working. The range upgrade was suppoused to help vs mutalisk, but by the time you get that you already died to mass mutas, and if you havent the zerg just insta tech-switches to literally anything else and stomps you. I actually wish they buffed phoenix indirectly by making the viper a light unit. Then alongside the range it would help against the BS abducts.
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On October 28 2020 05:35 [Phantom] wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2020 03:23 dUTtrOACh wrote:
I think phoenixes are too easy to use. Units that shoot as they move shouldn't also be able to move faster than everything else.
EDIT: Thankfully their range upgrade isn't completely broken, because if they outranged everything, they would be the most OP PoS unit. Phoenixes are a pretty bad unit imo. They have niche uses here and there, but overall they are the most useless AA unit. In PvP they are kind of annoying, but once you get archons they just inmediately stop working. The range upgrade was suppoused to help vs mutalisk, but by the time you get that you already died to mass mutas, and if you havent the zerg just insta tech-switches to literally anything else and stomps you. I actually wish they buffed phoenix indirectly by making the viper a light unit. Then alongside the range it would help against the BS abducts.
It's sort of what I mean. The phoenix is so dynamically good, that it's intentionally weakened in too many ways, making it a worthless core unit, but a great tool. It is almost irrelevant against armored air (with exceptions), due to range and damage-type restrictions. It can't lift massive (which is why archons can zone them out, but not kill them, if they are pulled back). It's limited to its maximum energy worth of lifts, or lacks lifts when it has no energy, and can't attack buildings, making it a paperweight or pure scout at times.
Therefore, I too disagree that it is the best designed.
EDIT: Can we really objectively say something is the best designed anything? I like the idea of smh making something in the air arsenal counter vipers, other than warp prism templars, or some madness.
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The queen part sounds like what might as well be reverse causality (especially given zerg dominance for a long time). If there is a defensive unit that is cheap and so well-rounded that it can defend against anything, it leaves all larvae to turn into drones. There are many units that could defend early aggression, like zerglings and roaches, instead we usually see queens fighting off the aggression alone (ie threataning creep) while droning continues.
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Can I nominate the Hellbat for another reason. It's not really that it's egregious in any particular way, but it's just such a dumb unit.
It comes from the Hellion, but requires an Armory to morph into. You can then both chose to make the Hellbat out of the Factory or the Hellion. If you lose the Armory this technology is lost on the unit. Hellbat is also biological and mechanical, where Hellion is only mechanical. So suddenly the guy in the vehicle can get healed and repaired at the same time. The Medivac can pick up 4 Hellions, while only picking up 2 Hellbats, even though it's the same guy in the same car, in both cases. Oh yea and the Hellbat cannot fit into a Bunker even though it's biological.
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On October 28 2020 06:23 ejozl wrote:
Can I nominate Hellbat for another reason. It's not really egregious in any particular way, but it's just such a dumb unit
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It comes from the Hellion, but requires an Armory to morph into. You can then both chose to make the Hellbat out of the Factory or the Hellion. If you lose the armory this technology is lost on the unit. Hellion and Hellbat life is different, so it should be cheaper to repair a Hellion and then morph it to Hellbat, rather than the other way round. Hellbat is also biological and mechanical, where Hellion is only mechanical. So suddenly the guy in the vehicle can get healed and repaired at the same time. The Medivac can pick up 4 Hellions, while only picking up 2 Hellbats, even though it's the same guy in the same car, in both cases. Ohyea and Hellbat cannot fit into a Bunker even though it's biological.
lol, but when it folds out to expose the man, it is as wide as a siege tank, and slower. Hellbats were an afterthought in medivac design.
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On October 28 2020 06:23 ejozl wrote:
Can I nominate Hellbat for another reason. It's not really egregious in any particular way, but it's just such a dumb unit
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It comes from the Hellion, but requires an Armory to morph into. You can then both chose to make the Hellbat out of the Factory or the Hellion. If you lose the armory this technology is lost on the unit. Hellion and Hellbat life is different, so it should be cheaper to repair a Hellion and then morph it to Hellbat, rather than the other way round. Hellbat is also biological and mechanical, where Hellion is only mechanical. So suddenly the guy in the vehicle can get healed and repaired at the same time. The Medivac can pick up 4 Hellions, while only picking up 2 Hellbats, even though it's the same guy in the same car, in both cases. Ohyea and Hellbat cannot fit into a Bunker even though it's biological.
I second your statement for all the reasons you just mentioned. But tbh, i think we could go back to medivac being able to transport 4 hellbats.
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Northern Ireland27464 Posts
On October 28 2020 05:57 dUTtrOACh wrote:Show nested quote +On October 28 2020 05:35 [Phantom] wrote:On October 28 2020 03:23 dUTtrOACh wrote:
I think phoenixes are too easy to use. Units that shoot as they move shouldn't also be able to move faster than everything else.
EDIT: Thankfully their range upgrade isn't completely broken, because if they outranged everything, they would be the most OP PoS unit. Phoenixes are a pretty bad unit imo. They have niche uses here and there, but overall they are the most useless AA unit. In PvP they are kind of annoying, but once you get archons they just inmediately stop working. The range upgrade was suppoused to help vs mutalisk, but by the time you get that you already died to mass mutas, and if you havent the zerg just insta tech-switches to literally anything else and stomps you. I actually wish they buffed phoenix indirectly by making the viper a light unit. Then alongside the range it would help against the BS abducts. It's sort of what I mean. The phoenix is so dynamically good, that it's intentionally weakened in too many ways, making it a worthless core unit, but a great tool. It is almost irrelevant against armored air (with exceptions), due to range and damage-type restrictions. It can't lift massive (which is why archons can zone them out, but not kill them, if they are pulled back). It's limited to its maximum energy worth of lifts, or lacks lifts when it has no energy, and can't attack buildings, making it a paperweight or pure scout at times. Therefore, I too disagree that it is the best designed. EDIT: Can we really objectively say something is the best designed anything? I like the idea of smh making something in the air arsenal counter vipers, other than warp prism templars, or some madness.
Phoenixes are great outside of metas where you can mass them. Require a lot of babysitting, precise micro as skirmishers, they kind of almost exactly fit the role they’re meant to which I guess means they’re well-designed.
I don’t really like how lift energy works especially though, not sure how I’d retool. It’s clear they want it to be a decision but I’m not sure how I like how it works. You end up with situations where the Toss catches a mineral line completely naked and is low on energy and can’t punish it.
I’d like them to have some graviton charge ability which temporarily boosts their energy, but cuts their regen rate for a period afterwards.
That way you could choose to boost it to get a few extra drones, but your phoenixes are wiped and dead weight for a while after so it would be a risk/reward thing to use
Great post OP by the way!
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Bisutopia19393 Posts
On October 28 2020 06:23 ejozl wrote:
Can I nominate the Hellbat for another reason. It's not really that it's egregious in any particular way, but it's just such a dumb unit.
It comes from the Hellion, but requires an Armory to morph into. You can then both chose to make the Hellbat out of the Factory or the Hellion. If you lose the Armory this technology is lost on the unit. Hellbat is also biological and mechanical, where Hellion is only mechanical. So suddenly the guy in the vehicle can get healed and repaired at the same time. The Medivac can pick up 4 Hellions, while only picking up 2 Hellbats, even though it's the same guy in the same car, in both cases. Oh yea and the Hellbat cannot fit into a Bunker even though it's biological.
I’ve actually never tried killing an armory to see what happens to hellbats. Do they stay morphed? If they stay morphed when you morph back to hellions does the hellbat option go away?
How about mines and fusion core? Do they become visible again?
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EPT
