Improved Terran Macro Mechanic

Description:

1. Imagine that orbital center is protoss carrier, then mules are just interceptors that can only gather minerals rather than attack.

2. Mules are produced through a separate production line, meaning you can produce one SCV and one mule simultaneously in an Orbital Center.

3. Once a mule is ready, it will go out of the Orbital Center and gather minerals nearby automatically.
(Just imagine what an interceptor will do when it is ready and there are enemy units around).

4. Mules gather minerals in a totally different way from that of SCVs, so they won't affect SCVs' mineral gathering and vice versa.

One mule deals with two mineral patches at a time, bringing back 12 minerals every 15 seconds if it is at full capacity. You need 4 mules to fully cover a mineral line with 8 patches, and an Orbital Center can hold up to 5 mules.

5. The most important thing is that Mule have a maximum energy reserve of 20 points, and mineral-gathering cost it 10 energy per trip.
Once there is not sufficient energy, mule will stand still, doing nothing but waiting for its energy to recover.

6. It is worth noting that mule's energy regenerates extremely slow, and won't regenerate at all when mining, therefore one of the Orbital Center's skill, the "Distant Energy Charge" is essential if you want to get the most out of mules.

Description:

1. An example of how it works:
Select an Orbital Center, press “A” and left click a factory, then the tank currently built in the factory will be produced 20% faster.

2. The acceleration effect fades away as soon as this tank is completed.

Description:

1. How it works:
Select an Orbital Center, press “C” and left click an allied psionic unit, then it will have up to 75 energy restored instantly, while other allied units around it will gain up to 25 energy.

2. Note: Once a unit is Energy-Charged, it cannot be charged again within 20 seconds. That is to say, if you "Energy Charge" a ghost three times in succession, it will only gain 75 energy at most rather than 225.

Description:

1. Use this skill on a single ground unit, then a drop pod will land nearby in seconds, from which spawns a small squad (taking up 4 supply at most) of the same units as the one you target.

2. This skill need not only energy but also minerals and maybe gas, which equal to the actual cost of the troops you summon.

3. Since the limit supply for a reinforcing troop is 4, you can call down a squad of one of the followings per drop:
- 4 scvs or marines or reapers (4 supply);
- 2 marauders or hellions (4 supply);
- 1 ghost or tank (3 supply).

4. Examples of how it works:

Select your Orbital Center, press D and left click a marine of your own, then you'll see a drop pod with 4 marines inside coming down from the sky. At least 200 minerals and 4 surplus supply are required.

Doing the same thing on a tank will bring you a drop pod with 1 tank in it, costing 200 minerals / 100 gas and 3 supply.

5. The drop pod itself is a permanent structure with 200 hp that grant you visual field around. It won't disappear for no reason.

6. Note: if you cannot produce an unit, you cannot call down any of them. For example, Reinforcing Drop Pod won’t work at all if you use it on a ghost while all of your Ghost Academies are destroyed.

1. This macro mechanic focuses on not only mineral gathering, but also troop producing, decision making and tactics employing. I think it may add to the depth of the game as well as encourage exciting and even radical game play, while it is not hard to be balanced.

2.When watching battle report 3, Many of my friends who don't play Starcraft said that Terran's macro mechanic was kinda weird, you just called down an awesome drop pod, yet to see the dull mules coming out. And I myself think that things with a timed life such as the current mule are not of Terran style. Besides, the current Orbital skill, the "Supply Drop" is not useful and inventive enough that you cannot expect too much out of it.

3. The basic way to use the mechanic:
Produce 4 mules as soon as possible then go back to your Orbital Center every 30 seconds, use "Instant Energy Charge" on a mule, to make sure that all mules in this mineral line are benefited as well, thus you can keep the mules working all the time and make the most out of them, to expect for a good amount of extra resource in return.

4. The basic way is far from being the only way, for you may often tend to use other skills, or use “Energy Charge” on other units. Here are several examples:
+ Show Spoiler +
Combing the “Reinforcing Drop Pod” and “Production Acceleration” with your imagination means infinite tactics, while the “Distant Energy drop” is not Mules’ private treasure, it belongs to all units having energy. It may mean longer cloaking duration for ghosts/banshees, more hunter missiles for ravens, to be able utilize Yamato Cannon more often for battle cruisers, etc. So you may not deem it as a boring skill to just increase macro, I think even casual gamers may like it.

5. Note that Reinforcing Drop Pod cannot replace medivac dropship, for it only drop corresponding units near the current one, to say that you cannot call down a tank on the cliff if there’s no tank there, or you cannot call down SCVs on an island unless you have at least one SCV there.

6. You may realize from above that the new drop pod mechanic is not over-powered. It partly is a Terran answer to Protoss’ warp-in and Zerg’s Nydus cannel, not as powerful but still cool and useful. And the ability of Production Acceleration can be seen as a solution to MBS. Rather than hotkey all your barracks/factories/starports to a single key and click X repeatedly to produce units, you need interact more with production buildings if you want more from them, which is also an important part of macro, or more exactly here, the base management.

7. Adding to the mule mechanic, mules are Orbital Center’s “interceptors”, so all mules will return to its “Carrier” once OC lifted up; and if an OC is destroyed, all its mules will be killed too. Besides, one mule occupies one transportation slot, thus if you build 5 mules for an Orbital center, it won’t be able to transport SCVs anymore.

8. You don't have to go back to mineral lines and charge mules all the time. There is a upgrade called Neo Reactor in Fusion Core. After the research is completed, all Terran psionic units, inculding mules, will gain an additional restoration rate of 1 energy per second. Thus, mules will keep working by themselves most of the time.