Mmm... I dunno if I like the idea. Doesn't feel as zerg as it does say, Starship troopers or something. Meh, regardless, it's an interesting idea. But if that's all overseers have mana to do.... ew. Seems sort of like an extra feature added to do nothing but add macro.

Also seems sorta silly from a fluff standpoint. Wouldn't really work vs zerg, as all of the zerg are part of a collective hive mind. I think they'd spot the outsider pretty quickly. The protoss are have a strong psionic connection with each other, and that one zealot who doesn't seem to be telepathically communicating would instantly gain suspicion. Seems like it might work on terrans, and then result in an awesome BSG-esque "who's the intruder!?" scene.

Cygnus

United States850 Posts

July 04 2008 16:34 GMT

#45

Eh, seems too far fetched for zerg, honestly if they wanted to incorporate a mechanic like this for zerg id say make it like a parasite where you can control the unit you cast it on, just don't allow this "mind controlled" unit to attack so its, urr, not a copy of mind control.

edit: on second thought even that seems bad, If I was a zerg collective I would certainly want the units I assimilated to be able to attack, but then it IS mind control... eh... I vote parasite is fine...

caution.slip

United States775 Posts

July 04 2008 17:08 GMT

#46

well mind control isn't on toss anymore so...yeahhhh mind control!

MrRammstein

Poland339 Posts

July 04 2008 17:13 GMT

#47

but never used :/ and when it is, like I think in some last Jaedong vs Bisu game? 1-2 units during the whole game get parasited?

Talking about lore Terrans learned to imitate Zerg communication waves so why wouldn't Zerg confuse other Zerg? And still direct question htf are you reveals them.

Talking about Protoss Zeratul got in brief contact with the Overmind so can we really say they ways of communication are so different? Overlords control the Swarm through some ranged telephaty because if they don't why they don't have to follow Zerg units everywhere?
Yet again direct check works

And they die after few minutes so all this mimicking has to be kind of exhausting ;P

ImgGartok

United States216 Posts

July 05 2008 00:05 GMT

#48

My problem with it isn't concept or anything, because that can be changed. But the basic premise of the ability just isn't very effective. Anyone above low tier will never mistake a unit that isn't theres for their own. So the unit will probably just be a way to scout expos and such without spending resources, and the morphing ability will just be a novelty. I like the direction it's going to give zerg some sort of scouting ability that isn't overlords, but I feel it could be executed better.

MrRammstein

Poland339 Posts

July 05 2008 00:14 GMT

#49

It can be less about noticing or not noticing it and more about how fast can it be noticed and how fast can all of them be killed, when few of them appear in different places IMO...

And successfully mixing them in someones (big) army with move order on some unit, can do to.

ImgGartok

United States216 Posts

July 05 2008 00:16 GMT

#50

That's true, but like I said that just means the shapeshifting thing is still ineffective. What makes the ability good is that it costs energy and no resources, so you have many expendable scouts. I just think there might be a better way to make the unit very unique at scouting instead of just an expendable scout.

One possible idea is to give them an ability similar to the red alert spies where they can infiltrate buildings, giving you information about what is being constructed at that building when you click on it. And perhaps if you infiltrate a command center it'll tell you how many resources the player has. To balance this out, make it only last a minute or so, or have some way to remove the parasites.

HeavenS

Colombia2259 Posts

July 05 2008 00:51 GMT

#51

as long as you can't see it in your minimap......cuz then it would be kinda useless....are there dark archons in sc2 ?? i forget

well if there are, sc2 should also make it so that mind controlled neutral animals like the kakaru remain undetectable in minimap. it would make it viable. and killing the animals is fun...so..yea

raga4ka

Bulgaria5679 Posts

July 05 2008 08:35 GMT

#52

I like the idea , but hate the name of the unit !!!

poor newb

United States1879 Posts

July 10 2008 01:44 GMT

#53

zerg seems like they are getting too many toys to play with, put this on ghosts instead?

combine with cloak for uber infilration

DTDominion

United States2148 Posts

July 10 2008 02:35 GMT

#54

Depends on how it's balanced, but it could be fun. The key is that it has to be feasible to kill them before they transform. Otherwise it's basically a free map hack for Zerg later in the game.

EmeraldSparks

United States1451 Posts

July 10 2008 02:49 GMT

#55

In terms of an in-world mechanic this seems to make between little and no sense.

Klive5ive

United Kingdom6056 Posts

July 10 2008 02:57 GMT

#56

Lot's of people saying it's going to be an end-game maphack?!
Do they honestly believe pro players aren't going to spot a unit standing still in a second.
If it's with the army it won't move with hotkeys etc...
This is gonna be relatively easy to spot for good players, you'd need sick micro to make it look like an enemy unit.

Sounds very cool, and yeah it's zerg-like.

zobz

Canada2175 Posts

July 10 2008 03:15 GMT

#57

Doesn't sound very useful at all, kind of pointless...

Cloud

Sexico5880 Posts

July 10 2008 04:32 GMT

#58

Oh man, having a unit that the enemy has to pay close attention to to detect it, not to mention manually kill it doesnt seem to fit so much into sc for me i mean it seems soooooo sloww for some reason. The name is lame too for crist sake, get original on it.

Oh and by the time this thing could be researched, i mean overseers are lair right? zerg already has the pretty fucking best scouting units in the game, fast ass mutalisks, cheap ass zerglings, and now some kind of gay harmless sneaky unit that doest feel zergish at all. A zerg spy???, give me a break.

Showtime!

Canada2938 Posts

July 10 2008 04:40 GMT

#59

I'd like it if they gave overseers something similar to ensare, but perhaps a little bit better. It would be great if they spit sludge at a group of units to slow them down and make them stick to the land X_X Just an example. I like the changling idea though.

On July 04 2008 21:47 Straylight wrote:
Even if the changeling doesn't make it into the final build for SC2 it better be in the map editor.

Anyone played The Thing UMS on SC1? Yeahhh.

Yup.

They said they would include every unit and special ability in the map editor, so yeah you'll see it there.

Kuja900

United States3564 Posts

July 10 2008 06:43 GMT

#60

while i do think this unit needs some offensive capabilities i think this could lead to some awesome pimpest plays where like the zerg opponenent tricks the terran into thinking he has more units then he really does and attacking early or something like that