EPT And Then There's the Mothership...
![[image loading]](http://www.sc2blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/concept.jpg)
The last worst unit in StarCraft 2
The last worst unit in StarCraft 2
When the beta first came out, general consensus was that Protoss was the most polished of the 3 races. It had seemingly the most viable strategies, a strong non-linear macro mechanic, and it seemed that every unit had its own little mechanic to it, with basically 0 units that didn’t have something special to it. People like me raged about how Zerg were so horribly designed compared to Protoss, and that Protoss was so perfectly designed compared to Zerg. Today I feel like Protoss is still a bit ahead of Zerg, but they have one glaring problem, one party pooper ruining the parade; the Mothership.
In 2007 when StarCraft 2 was first announced, the Mothership was one of the big new units that Blizzard was showing off. It had a bunch of very powerful spells (I believe it was vortex that just instantly killed all air units, planet cracker that did a shitload of damage to ground, and time warp that was basically disruption web but real fancy looking). It was hyped as a super unit that was key to protoss late game play and had the gimmick of "being so mighty that there can only be one mothership at a time on the battlefield!" 3 Years later when the beta first came out, it was drastically different. It was basically just a pretty good base defender (albeit very very expensive) and anti-harass unit. The wormhole transit allowed it to cover all your expansions at any moment and so was removed because it made protoss too strong vs harass. It was replaced with Mass Recall and now we have the big flying pylon-heart-of-a-unit that is the modern Mothership.
![[image loading]](http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2007/138/939643_20070519_790screen009.jpg)
Remember that? That shit was cool!
The Mothership requires a fleet beacon, costs 400/400, takes up a whopping 8 supply (the most in the game), takes 160 in-game seconds to build and there can only ever be 1 mothership at a time. It has 350 hp and 350 shields, it does 6x6=36 damage. It cloaks all units and buildings around it within a radius of 5 and has 2 spells: Vortex and Mass Recall. It is essentially just a super Arbitor except for the eye-gougingly slow speed it has.
The biggest problem with the Mothership balance-wise is that it costs a ton of money, requires a tech pattern that is never used, takes forever to build, and serves no crucial role in a standard protoss army composition. Currently the Mothership is so slow that it can only really be used defensively, supposedly at one's most vulnerable expansion (and assuming that you actually want to spend that much money for an 8 supply unit to just sit at an expansion all day). Both of its spell basically serve the same defensive purpose; buy time for your army to come back to the location of the mothership and defend (either by vortexing the attacking force or recalling your army back home). Offensively, Vortex and Mass Recall overlap with other Protoss abilities far too much (and are actually in fact less interesting and engaging from a gameplay perspective).
Vortex is basically just like Stasis from Brood War (although different "enough" with how any unit that walks into it becomes "stasised" until it's over), with the main goal of breaking up the opponents army so you don't have to fight it all at once. Unfortunately for Vortex fanboys, Forcefield largely serves the same purpose, and is a far far more interesting and engaging spell in just about every way. While Vortex is a simple "point and shoot" spell like psi storm, Forcefield requires much more APM and thought behind its use to be effective. Every good Protoss always makes several sentries in their army and forcefields in every battle (forcefield also has the added versatility of being able to block ramps and chokes quite easily). To sum it up: Forcefield serves the same purpose of Vortex but has more depth to it making it serve even more roles and be harder (funner) to use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_rK5sCmR4
This was the only good thing about the Mothership until Patch 12
This was the only good thing about the Mothership until Patch 12
Recall in Brood War allowed Protoss to be mobile and attack Terran from any place on the map. In SC2, not counting Mass Recall, Protoss is already far more mobile than they were in BW. Not just because of warp-in (which is actually the biggest reason Protoss is so mobile now), but the average protoss army is much faster than it was in Brood War, Colossi and Stalkers can move up cliffs, and it's just a lot easier to get your army places faster in general due to better pathfinding and improved UI. As an offensive spell, Mass Recall is not only unneeded, but entirely unfeasible vs a competent opponent when considering the Mothership's snail-like speed. Defensively Mass Recall overlaps with warping-in reinforcements to any danger zone, and it (defensive warp-in) is something that every protoss does in every match-up and doesn't cost 400/400.
From a design standpoint, the Mothership is one of my biggest letdowns in SC2. Originally designed to be a super unit capable of changing the tide of the battle and being a crucial part of any late game protoss army, the Mothership had several highly original spells that have since been either removed or changed drastically or moved to other units, and currently is one of the most unoriginal and boring units in the game. When I first saw that there could only be one Mothership at a time, I thought (besides that "Mothership" is a horribly lame name and I STILL can't believe that it's still called that!) that it was a horrible idea that was completely "un-StarCraftey" and some stupid idea stolen from Command and Conquer or one of those “other” RTSs. As time passed though I thought it could be a neat idea. It definitely makes Protoss more unique from the other races, and if done right it could be really cool. Unfortunately I subscribe to the idea that the Mothership right now does NOT do it right and not only is a useless unit, but a horrible missed opportunity to make a really cool unit.
If the Mothership truly was what it was originally designed to be (a large super unit that was key to Protoss lategame), it would allow for several different playstyles and be accessible in the late game and also a viable follow-up to several early and mid-game strategies. I believe the Mothership should be able to serve several (or at least more than ONE) different roles in the late game (either as a great support unit AND a great defensive unit, or at least a decent one of each), and to truly make the investment to get a Mothership worth it.
![[image loading]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4369897584_90666c655f.jpg)
Sorry Blizzard but no one does this outside of the Bronze League and FFA
Here is a small list of suggestions (some small some large) to help make the Mothership something other than the lamest unit in the game:
- the easiest and laziest way to fix the Mothership is to just boost its speed and lower its costs. It would still just be a fat Arbitor and boring gameplay-wise but at least it can properly support the main army with Vortex/cloak and have SOME potential to successfully pull off an offensive recall.
- to remain a primarily defensive unit, the Mothership should be made available earlier in the tech tree (probably just once stargate is out, although that just feels really really weird and could be slightly IMBA without more stats changing). I'd feel easier about taking quicker expansion if I could have a mothership out in time to actually help defend it.
- Ideally both of the Mothership's spells should be replaced with something else. I know it's pretty dumb to just say "well it should have 2-3 new spells that are awesome and balanced and interesting!" But really that's what it needs lol. I would settle for just the removal of Mass Recall and something else to replace it (I dont want to just come up with 10 different specific Mothership spell ideas and list them all because that isn't really what this thread is about, although it is very fun to do that sorta thing and I encourage you to name some of your own ideas in the thread if you want).
![[image loading]](http://www.sc2blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/mothership2.JPG)
The Mothership can be cool again!
The Mothership is a broken unit both balance-wise and design-wise, horribly ineffective in any game and horribly uninteresting in every respect. If the Mothership is not somehow reworked before the final game is released in July, it will truly be a great tragedy and a glaring scar on the Protoss race. There is still time left to fix this unit with so much potential and even if Blizzard uses none of my suggestions, I really hope that they somehow address the issue of the Mothership before release, as it truly is in my opinion the last great "horrible unit" in StarCraft 2.
