Establish 3-way balance at least close to what SC1 was. THEN, make race 4. Not a tad earlier. Oh, and when balancing race 4, DON'T touch races 1-3. At all.

dybydx

Canada1764 Posts

August 30 2008 08:20 GMT

#42

there is NO WAY they will add a race in an expansion. the risk of insta killing game balance is too great, not to mention all the lore and campaign that they need to add to the mix.

expansion is something they wanna do with the least amount of additional money yet earn the most profits by the end of the day.

BlackStar

Netherlands3029 Posts

August 30 2008 08:32 GMT

#43

From a multiplayer point of view a 4th race is very good. Just count the number of unique matchups. It adds a lot of stuff to learn and master.

Problem is balance since that also gets harder and harder for the same reason.

Also, there is no candidate for a 4th race lore wise.

Also, the argument that an expansion needs an added race because otherwise it's too silimar is also nonsense.

MrHoon

10183 Posts

August 30 2008 11:29 GMT

#44

4th Race?
Awesome for Singleplayer
Terrible Terrible Idea for Multiplayer

gravity

Australia1847 Posts

August 30 2008 11:37 GMT

#45

I think adding a 4th race after the first 3 are already (hopefully) balanced makes sense, and I'd like to see what Blizzard can come up with. I do agree that there are possible issues with overlap between the races, though.

edit: I agree with BluzMan - the way to do the balancing without an unmanageable explosion of complexity is to just implement the 4th race to be balanced with the others, without changing the original 3.

DownMaxX

Canada1311 Posts

August 30 2008 11:41 GMT

#46

The return of the Xel'naga?

I don't think they would add a whole race available for multiplayer through an expansion though... then they would have to rebalance the other three races. I can only seeing it happening for plot reasons in the campaign mode.

Plexa

Aotearoa39261 Posts

August 30 2008 12:58 GMT

#47

I dont see any real point in this thread - blizzard have never been known to make dramatic changes in expansion packs (at most adding about 25% more content) and adding a whole new race just isn't like them. In addition to that we have this continual stupid debate between warcraft and starcraft going on again (with undercurrents linking back to the topic at hand). Plus some people are getting a little heated about a stupid issue.

Liquid`Jinro

Sweden33719 Posts

September 03 2008 09:59 GMT

#48

I disagree about closing this, as it's from an official source.

omninmo

2349 Posts

September 03 2008 10:04 GMT

#49

On August 30 2008 10:23 moebius_string wrote:
If they keep the 4th race like the Naga thats OK, but including a playable multiplayer 4th race for the expansion could be a disaster for balance and is best left alone.

this is pretty much all there is to say. of course, everyone wants SC2 to have 10 cool races.. if that were viable. but to maintain balance 3 will always be the best number.

Telemako

Spain1636 Posts

September 03 2008 10:35 GMT

#50

“I’m sure in the event that we decide to do an expansion set it’s a feature that’ll come up for discussion,” said Pearce, in an interview with VG247.

So, in the event(1) that they decide(2) to do an expansion set in the future(3), they will discuss(4) adding the 4th race. IMHO, this is pointless, we don't even have the game yet and we are discussing about a future event they may decide to discuss. C'mon guys... come back.

Liquid`Jinro

Sweden33719 Posts

September 03 2008 11:15 GMT

#51

Blizzard IS going to make an expansion tho. That's not a question, it's a fact ;p

freelander

Hungary4707 Posts

September 03 2008 11:40 GMT

#52

I am not against adding a 4th race.

But problems are:
-balance: maybe they can do this. Balancing 4 races are much harder then 3, because there are 6 non-mirror matchups as opposed to the previous 3. But it seems possible. Any more than 4 races cannot be balanced in my opinion.

-variety: The first 3 races, terran, zerg , protoss couldn't really be any more different. I mean.. these are like archetypes.. How can you fit in a 4. unique race?

PobTheCad

Australia893 Posts

September 03 2008 13:11 GMT

#53

its impossible to balance 4 races
3 is hard enough

jjun212

Canada2208 Posts

September 03 2008 14:41 GMT

#54

4th race would be cool

if there are balence issues, im sure we'd find it, complain and they'd fix it and we'd get a super new cool sc

isnt that how sc2 is working right now? ><

meegrean

Thailand7699 Posts

September 03 2008 14:56 GMT

#55

Gonna be messed up like War 3.

milly9

Canada325 Posts

September 03 2008 15:46 GMT

#56

I don't think 4 races works, regardless of who is making the game. It just forces the game to use tons of overlapping units. Honestly whats different about footmen and grunts besides some random stats like hp and dmg? they're the exact same unit

CTStalker

Canada9720 Posts

September 03 2008 15:52 GMT

#57

On August 30 2008 14:48 freshtowers wrote:

And why in the world would the race number have anything to do with those games being imbalanced?

Because the more races, the more permutations of unit combat to account for, and more matchups to balance. It's a fairly simple concept, and shouldn't really broach argument.

Infact wc3 is fairly balanced it's not nearly as bad as people make it out to be and dawn of war isn't created by blizzard so it has nothing to do with anything.

Actually, you were the one who insinuated that other games had successfully achieved balance with other races, by implying that people who only played starcraft had a misconstrued idea about RTS games with more than 3 races.

Balancing 4 races is very very easy and doesn't take long especially with input from pros. It's just up to how commited blizzard is to balancing it, if they are they can balance 6 races, it will take time but the finished product would be alot funner than 3 races. How are you going to be playing the sc2 ladder with a mirror matchup every 2 games or so? Going to be really boring

You're completely wrong, balancing a game with 4 races is not easy. WC3 isn't balanced, and it never really was. It took Starcraft a long time to become balanced with just 3 races.