EPTI've had this suggestion in my mind for quite some time, but i've never really bothered to sit down and actually write about it. As a terran player since the beginning of the beta, I've always felt that way mule works could be changed. In my opinion, the mule should be based off a cooldown, rather than the energy. The energy should still be in the game, although it should be entirely devoted to calling down supply depots and scans.
To start things off, what I'm suggesting is this
- Make the mule dependent on a cooldown timer that unlocks at the same rate of which the accumilation of 50 energy would take now. Remove the energy cost, but limit the terran to only call down 1 mule per cooldown/CC. In other words, if the terran player has 2 OC:s, he'll only be able to call down 2 Mules every time the cooldown is finished. The energy on the OC remains, due to reasons stated above.
How does this effect the game, is it a nerf, is it a buff?
I've been thinking through this question a lot. And from what I can tell, this isn't actually a huge nerf per se. What it would do is that it would punish the player who mess up their CD timings (much like a zerg player who misses out on a larva inject), but it also kinda deals with the whole terran being able to call down 8 mules at once thing in mid to late game, making their mineral income shoot through the roof for an extended period of time. Also, the benefits from grabbing a gold would be somewhat equalized across the races as the terran would no longer be able to grab a gold expansion as third, save up 3-4 mules and then drop them all on the gold just to get a sick window where their macro is unreal. This does of course impact the game kind of negatively for our casual terran player, as I see this change as something that would help separating good terran players from the bad ones. Basically what it does is making missing a mule sooo much less forgiving than what it is now.
One could argue that even missing a mule now is terrible. This is true, but only to a certain extent. Again, by comparing it to the Larva inject ability; If you miss an inject, thats an inject you'll never get back. If you miss a mule, you're missing a window of oppertunity where you economy could've been stronger, but you can actually make up for some of that by just dropping two mules at once later on. Zerg can't inject twice, to do that they need an additional hatchery. Do you see my point?
What about the scan? Terran players will have even more maphacking abilities now!
I think that the scan should be something separated from the mule mainly due to how intel is gathered in Sc2.
First off
1. The information you get off your initial worker scout is very limited. For example, a scv/probe/drone is no longer as fast as a zergling, it's noticeably slower than a non-speed zergling on creep. This is troublesome, because if we take BW in comparison, spending time on actually microing your worker was worth something. It had the same speed as zerling/marine/zealot - If microed properly you could gain even more value of intel. Versus lets say zerg in Sc2, this is close to impossible, the zerglings catch up even when they're not on creep. Also, the trick was to micro your scout properly while doing everything else that was necessary in your base. It was one of the things that truley separated good players from bad players.
2. The intel to be gained midgame for a terran often relies on getting air units. Which basically means an early starport is almost always the best option if you're opting for intel, but can also come back biting you in the arse. There's no way around this if you're up against a good player. Xel Naga towers has limited the midgame worker scout tremendously, everything is so much faster than the worker so that even if you let it slip a little too far out on the map, it would still die before obtaining any information. Zerg & Protoss have ways around this, these are observers and overlords/overseers. Terran has the scan, but it's on a fixed duration of time, you can only check one or two places at once, and it's wasting a potential mule. Both the observer & overlord/overseer are permanent scouts that can be anywhere on the map for as long as you want, they're so much more valueable than a scan.
I feel like the terran is at disadvantage in the Economy vs Intel department. At least past the early game. By nerfing our economy abilites in the midgame (limiting it to 1 mule per CD) and giving us more energy for scan, I think it'd add an interesting element to the game. Terrans right now are often choosing to just drop that mule, because most of the time, the scan is not worth it. The point where you can actually scan and not feel anxious about it, is when you are fully saturated and on at least 2-3 OC's.
Also, I feel like this needs to be emphasized, giving us more scans doesn't mean that the element of surprise is taken away from either protoss nor zerg. Zergs have very capable ways of hiding their tech (Cancelling a building, build on the creep thats left from it, drop creep with an overlord on an awkard spot, lay down a spire) The protoss can basically hide any tech where they want as long as they make a pylon to provide for it.
I admit it forces the zerg & protoss to be a little more creative when they want to rely on elements of surprise. If you don't want your DT-tech to be scouted, don't build it right next to your nexus or expo, same thing goes for the zerg.
This does not mean that the terran player all of a sudden is immune to cheese either. A scan can miss, buildings can be cancelled, scans can be thrown at the wrong time (Like when a DT is seconds away from your base) You will still need a raven or an ebay, or both, to be completly safe from the types of shenningans that can be thrown at you.
To summarize what I think this will do;
- Allow the Terran players to play a more reactionary style, rather than being blindly overly safe or just trust in their all-ins.
- It punishes players who can't keep up with their Mule CD's, missing a mule should hurt just as much as missing a larva inject.
- It fixes the sometimes ridiculous income advantages terrans can gain in the midgame if they take i.e a gold, and somewhat equalizes the worth of a gold expansion for the races.
Other things worth thinking about
If this was to be implented, would it require a change to let's say, how fast energy is accumlated on the OC? Maybe slowing down the process a little would help in the way that terrans wouldn't have 4 scans ready super early.
Feel free post thoughts/changes to the idea. Would be awesome if we could keep this flame free. It's merely a suggestion, nothing I feel is an absolute must, and for the record Im not saying the game is imbalanced in favor of the zergs or the protoss, just saying it might add another element to the way terran is being played
I have not discussed this seriously with anyone else before, so I might have a limited view becuase of a few things, such as me being a Terran player, which by default makes me biased even If I try not to be.
That's why I want to hear what you guys think about it, i'm sure it will lead to ideas/views I haven't even considerd. Zerg players & Protoss players; if you feel this is a huge buff for the terrans and that it will break the game, please say so, but it would be awesome if it was followed up by a motivation.
Please discuss!
And T late game is bad as it is
