Kudos to Filter for making this video, which I feel raises some very good points. Yes he talks a bit about BW but the fact is that BW is a great example of a game with great gameplay. So is Counter Strike, which he also talks a little bit about. We need to make Blizzard realize that there are still some very obvious gameplay faults with SC2 that they NEED to make their top priority, above anything else. I hope the community will stand behind him, he's also contributed an amazing piece of work for new players to the game (his Bronze to Masters series).
I want to see HoTS focused on gameplay, and how the game plays. Not balance. I don't care if you need to reduce the damage of a certain unit after the fact. I don't care if the game launches and it's slightly unbalanced because a protoss reaver that happened to make it in the game, from the gameplay stuff, is just a little bit too strong. We can fix that. What we can't fix is if HoTS comes out, Terran has nothing new and exciting, Zerg has all this cool new stuff, and Protoss players don't even play the game cause their race is still terribly designed. We need to fix this stuff and now is the time to fix it, while the game's still in beta.
I think Blizzard is listening to the community, and it's important that they do, because we can't just sit here and talk about balance; "Well you know, the Swarm Host is good but, let's reduce the range from 3 to 2." No! Figure out if it's a good unit. Should we put a different unit in? Is that unit effective? Is that unit a specific counter to something else? If it is, why is in the game? Get it out.
i completely agree with filter and everything he said. he seems to know what hes talking about and has a good understanding on how to fix sc and make it the that it used to be rather than the generic noobfriendly activision game that it has become.
I agree with Filter 100% on this. I really hope Bliz listens to this. Also, his B=>M series made my play much better. I can't recommend that series enough.
I completely agree that gameplay design should always come first. But since it seems clear (and reasonable) that they don't want to make a BW 2, i hope they will at least focus their attention on big flaws (infestors, vortex, ffs) while trying to make other units/spells more skill rewarding and entertaining (colossus, phoenix ..ye i personally find range upgraded phoenixes quite sad to watch, the rare times we have them).
I did only watch up to 10mins, but I absolutly didn't want to watch any further, as I just completly disagree. Awesome gameplay is created by units that are balanced in ways so that they are used actively all the time.
Just using his examples: Reaper: 5rax reaper was completly overpowered, but it was awesome to play with, awesome tense to watch and even playing against it, was in a way awesome, because it felt soooo good when you could beat it, while it was sooooo tense all the time. What they did with the reaper was nerf it into an underpowered state. What they should have done, is BALANCE IT in a way that reapers would still get used! Find that sweetspot that creates tense gameplay, where most of the time a player will get an advantage of it, but not wins or loses straight up. Tempest: it's a unit that shoots the opponent. Always (not anymore with 15range, but I'd hope it gets a little bit more again throughout the beta). If properly BALANCED. How does that not create tense moments? What the game needs is more units that can attack even if you don't allin.
The HotS units are some of the best ideas because if we look at them: Oracle: fast harass unit; support unit for hit squads against fungal - introduces more active play Tempest: long ranged unit; when properly used, it should shoot the opponent and force a reaction that is not "turtle harder) - introduces active play MS Core: Allows Protoss to walk out on the map early; introduces active play Swarm Host: Sends Units to the opponent from long range; Should always do that, because the unit should be safe itself. - introduces active play Battle Hellion: allows the hellion to be a better combat unit if need be; producing more fast harass units means more active play.
Basically the only unit that is somewhat questionable in terms of more active play is the widow mine, as it could turn out that the best way to play against it would be to sit back and not move until you are ready to clear the map from minefields with a huge army (though for that the widow mine would have to be properly balanced first)
What blizzard needs to do, is balance units in ways so that they actually can do more stuff, even if the opponent turtles, while diminishing their all-in potential. In WoL, mostly just the 2nd one has been done. It's not a question of design, if the reaper is overpowered. It's a question of "how close is the battle between reapers and the defender".
On September 20 2012 23:53 Big J wrote: I did only watch up to 10mins, but I absolutly didn't want to watch any further, as I just completly disagree. Awesome gameplay is created by units that are balanced in ways so that they are used actively all the time.
Just using his examples: Reaper: 5rax reaper was completly overpowered, but it was awesome to play with, awesome tense to watch and even playing against it, was in a way awesome, because it felt soooo good when you could beat it, while it was sooooo tense all the time. What they did with the reaper was nerf it into an underpowered state. What they should have done, is BALANCE IT in a way that reapers would still get used! Find that sweetspot that creates tense gameplay, where most of the time a player will get an advantage of it, but not wins or loses straight up. Tempest: it's a unit that shoots the opponent. Always (not anymore with 15range, but I'd hope it gets a little bit more again throughout the beta). If properly BALANCED. How does that not create tense moments? What the game needs is more units that can attack even if you don't allin.
The HotS units are some of the best ideas because if we look at them: Oracle: fast harass unit; support unit for hit squads against fungal - introduces more active play Tempest: long ranged unit; when properly used, it should shoot the opponent and force a reaction that is not "turtle harder) - introduces active play MS Core: Allows Protoss to walk out on the map early; introduces active play Swarm Host: Sends Units to the opponent from long range; Should always do that, because the unit should be safe itself. - introduces active play Battle Hellion: allows the hellion to be a better combat unit if need be; producing more fast harass units means more active play.
Basically the only unit that is somewhat questionable in terms of more active play is the widow mine, as it could turn out that the best way to play against it would be to sit back and not move until you are ready to clear the map from minefields with a huge army (though for that the widow mine would have to be properly balanced first)
What blizzard needs to do, is balance units in ways so that they actually can do more stuff, even if the opponent turtles, while diminishing their all-in potential. In WoL, mostly just the 2nd one has been done. It's not a question of design, if the reaper is overpowered. It's a question of "how close is the battle between reapers and the defender".
sure balance is good, but if everything is already balanced in the beta or even before it, why not just release the game? Considering that you said that you stopped listening 10 minutes in means that youdidnt hear anything else that he had to say regarding the issue.
Great video in general and I really hope Blizzard pays attention to the concept of being bold with beta changes.
Now is the time to take those risks and see how they play out, please take heed Blizzard.
I want to talk further about a few things that Filter mentions. Sometimes I get a bit opinionated, so be warned.
1) The Marine.
I have hated this unit since day 1, and I have offered a simple solution to it's broken numbers for at least a year now. -5hp. That's it. Filter brings up the mechanic of unit spread during movement and I think this moreso adds to the power of the marine rather than takes away from it. Marines having the highest DPS per cost in the game isn't as much of an issue as their extreme cost-effectiveness is. The cost-effectiveness comes from their tankiness, not their damage output.
Bio was non-existant in BW TvP not because Tanks and Vultures were awesome, but because Marines simply died too damn fast. They did great damage, but 1 small mistake and the whole game was over. This is why mech was the standard in that MU and the late-game standard for every MU.
Marines doing great damage is fine. Marines having 55 hp, being able to tank Zealots, Banelings, Archons, and Siege Tanks is not. Marines need to be squishier for the health of the game and the Terran race specifically, they are currently too good in WoL and need to be addressed in a direct manner. IMO, this unit is responsible for 90% of the balance problems in SC2 right now because it is too powerful and artificially inflates the power of the other races units simply because they need ways to deal with the Marine.
2) Specific counter units. A LOT of units in SC2 suffer from this problem, too many to name, so I want to just grab 1 or 2 of them and focus on the aspects of these units that are problematic.
The Immortal, specifically it's Hardened Shield contribute to the lack of great Mech play in TvP. Immortals are a fine unit IMO, and if they were the only method Protoss had to fight against hard Siege containment, I would be ok with it. But currently in the game of SC2, the Immortal acts as an icing on the cake the really puts the nail in the coffin of TvP mech. Siege Tanks struggling against Zealots is fine, trading equally against Blink Stalkers is right about where they should be, and being slow and unweildly when pushing is perfect; but adding in the Immortal, which can take an ungodly 13 siege tank shots before going down really just causes mech to be too risky and unrewarding. Coupling that with the lack of zoning mechanics that BW style spider mines provided really shuts down any opportunity for us to see some of the best positional-based gameplay I have ever seen in any RTS come to SC2. Mech in BW TvP was somewhat unique and beautiful in the RTS world, Blizzard should be pulling out all the stops to bring something like that back in HotS.
The Void Ray on the other side of the spectrum has become a unit without a cause. It seems to originally have been designed as a snowball unit which was quickly decided to be too powerful of a mechanic and does not fit within the realm of SC. It then became some sort of an anti-armored unit and has since, slowly changed into a generalist Air unit akin to the Mutalisk but it suffers from all the same things the Scout did in BW. Too expesive, too slow, too useless. To make matters worse, Blizzard seems intent on adding the Tempest to the game, which sadly enough, seems to be becoming more and more of a Void Ray itself. Now we have 2 useless Protoss Air Units!
Protoss Air in general, and the Void Ray (and now Tempest) specifically needs to be addressed in a meaningful way. These units suck and either need to be given a meaningful role or removed from the game.
3) Where does balance come in?
Filter brings up the fact that Balance should not be the leading discussion right now. And I totally agree with him there. We should be looking for fun and interesting mechanics. Ways to make existing things more engaging and what cool ideas can be added to them. The community needs to stop worrying about whether or not the numbers themselves are right, that's Blizzards job.
Filter also mentions the reduction of the locust range from 3 to 2. I actually think this IS a meaningful number that the community has a right to be worried about, and I bring about the example of the Roach. This unit had it's range increased from 3 to 4 and that one small increment changed the unit in ways that the vast majority of the community had written off; even immediately after the change. 3 range Roaches struggled vs pretty much everything and were largely useless. 4 range Roaches gave Zerg a meaningful means to fight Protoss armies in the middle of the map, apply pressure to Protoss bases, and are generally just a solid unit that gives Zerg a robust core unit throughout the midgame (sometimes a bit too robust IMO).
While tweaking numbers is largely the responsibility of Blizzard, those small changes can cause units to have vastly different feels to them. Blizzard HAS to get these numbers right, even during the beta, or we as a community cannot give meaningful input on how the units play out together and how the overall game feels. Numbers matter, even from a "mechanics and interactions" point of view.
I agree with much of what he says, but I really disagree about the auto-spreading units part at the end. Spreading units is one of the things that actually takes skill in SC2. If you get a large clump hit by a fungal or storm, it's your own fault for not spreading well enough. Shouldn't be taking micro out of the game, should be adding more.
On September 20 2012 23:53 Big J wrote: I did only watch up to 10mins, but I absolutly didn't want to watch any further, as I just completly disagree. Awesome gameplay is created by units that are balanced in ways so that they are used actively all the time.
Just using his examples: Reaper: 5rax reaper was completly overpowered, but it was awesome to play with, awesome tense to watch and even playing against it, was in a way awesome, because it felt soooo good when you could beat it, while it was sooooo tense all the time. What they did with the reaper was nerf it into an underpowered state. What they should have done, is BALANCE IT in a way that reapers would still get used! Find that sweetspot that creates tense gameplay, where most of the time a player will get an advantage of it, but not wins or loses straight up. Tempest: it's a unit that shoots the opponent. Always (not anymore with 15range, but I'd hope it gets a little bit more again throughout the beta). If properly BALANCED. How does that not create tense moments? What the game needs is more units that can attack even if you don't allin.
The HotS units are some of the best ideas because if we look at them: Oracle: fast harass unit; support unit for hit squads against fungal - introduces more active play Tempest: long ranged unit; when properly used, it should shoot the opponent and force a reaction that is not "turtle harder) - introduces active play MS Core: Allows Protoss to walk out on the map early; introduces active play Swarm Host: Sends Units to the opponent from long range; Should always do that, because the unit should be safe itself. - introduces active play Battle Hellion: allows the hellion to be a better combat unit if need be; producing more fast harass units means more active play.
Basically the only unit that is somewhat questionable in terms of more active play is the widow mine, as it could turn out that the best way to play against it would be to sit back and not move until you are ready to clear the map from minefields with a huge army (though for that the widow mine would have to be properly balanced first)
What blizzard needs to do, is balance units in ways so that they actually can do more stuff, even if the opponent turtles, while diminishing their all-in potential. In WoL, mostly just the 2nd one has been done. It's not a question of design, if the reaper is overpowered. It's a question of "how close is the battle between reapers and the defender".
sure balance is good, but if everything is already balanced in the beta or even before it, why not just release the game? Considering that you said that you stopped listening 10 minutes in means that youdidnt hear anything else that he had to say regarding the issue.
Yeah, listened to the rest now. All he talks is stuff that can and should be achieved via balance. Thors are too bad anti air vs anthing but mutalisks? Buff it against other things. AoE is too good? Nerf it. Marines are too good in big balls now? Nerf the big balls. There are a lot of simple parameters that are responsible for that (supply, range, dps, upgrades, production)
There is literarily nothing that he mentioned, that could not be dealt with by balancing.
ehm i think you got it wrong, tvp in wol playing mech is not viable(at any level), what they are trying to make is make mech viable. The most easy way would just remove thor cannons and its mana. guess what? instead of 200hp 300min/200gas unit, you have 400hp unit.. problem solved tvp mech viable. Second your comment about positioning is bullshit, because there is no positioning in low lvl games, terran mech armies lose in straight up battles. For example terran is sieged up, toss a moves, both players does zero micro, toss wins. Now can you explain a noob why he cant make high tech unit in certain mu and must really on first avaible bio units? And why is that not imbalanced. As far as i am aware both ZERG and TOSS pretty much can make all units in every mu, especially on low level. So why cant terran make half of there tech tree units. Your logic is flawed.
On September 21 2012 00:07 Jermstuddog wrote: 2) Specific counter units. A LOT of units in SC2 suffer from this problem, too many to name, so I want to just grab 1 or 2 of them and focus on the aspects of these units that are problematic.
The Immortal, specifically it's Hardened Shield contribute to the lack of great Mech play in TvP. Immortals are a fine unit IMO, and if they were the only method Protoss had to fight against hard Siege containment, I would be ok with it. But currently in the game of SC2, the Immortal acts as an icing on the cake the really puts the nail in the coffin of TvP mech. Siege Tanks struggling against Zealots is fine, trading equally against Blink Stalkers is right about where they should be, and being slow and unweildly when pushing is perfect; but adding in the Immortal, which can take an ungodly 13 siege tank shots before going down really just causes mech to be too risky and unrewarding. Coupling that with the lack of zoning mechanics that BW style spider mines provided really shuts down any opportunity for us to see some of the best positional-based gameplay I have ever seen in any RTS come to SC2. Mech in BW TvP was somewhat unique and beautiful in the RTS world, Blizzard should be pulling out all the stops to bring something like that back in HotS.
The Void Ray on the other side of the spectrum has become a unit without a cause. It seems to originally have been designed as a snowball unit which was quickly decided to be too powerful of a mechanic and does not fit within the realm of SC. It then became some sort of an anti-armored unit and has since, slowly changed into a generalist Air unit akin to the Mutalisk but it suffers from all the same things the Scout did in BW. Too expesive, too slow, too useless. To make matters worse, Blizzard seems intent on adding the Tempest to the game, which sadly enough, seems to be becoming more and more of a Void Ray itself. Now we have 2 useless Protoss Air Units!
Protoss Air in general, and the Void Ray (and now Tempest) specifically needs to be addressed in a meaningful way. These units suck and either need to be given a meaningful role or removed from the game.
These two problems are the same. If mech were actually viable in PvT, I guarantee you that we would see much more of SkyToss.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to discuss the faulty design of SC2 units with people only to have a bunch of morons turn it into balance discussion or whine about how this addition or that addition would be overpowered.
People who can't understand something as simple as the difference between good game design and balance have no business discussing either of them, and should just play the damn game and leave the process of improving it to more abstract minds.
Game design comes first. It sets the parameters and the dynamics for interesting and fun game interactions and mechanics. Balancing is the last fucking thing to worry about - it's just tweaking numbers and variables after the fact to give both sides an equally fair chance at playing.
Filter is a hero for making a video that might actually help get this point across to more people. Thank you OP.
The protoss mechanics are, as I feel, a big issue. Looking at ZvT, it's a beautiful matchup. Often the action is everywhere: drops, run by. Also the main battles are amazing to watch. They often range several screens. Everything is spread out and the positional war, and angels are important.
With protoss vs x the main battles, is more often than not, all the forces for both players pretty clumpted up. And than you throw as much spells as possible in that small area. The subtleties of the battles are less prominent and less exciting.
On September 20 2012 23:35 wcr.4fun wrote: Great video. Everything that's wrong with sc2: No fun, but "balanced".
Yet you have 417 posts on a forum about the game and are talking about it 2 years after it started being played.
Sometimes (oft-times) the hyperbole in this forum is absurd.
SC2 has its flaws but is still better than 95% of the games out there.
I played sc2 in 2010 for 3 months and picked it up another month or two in 2012 but I got incredibly bored with infestor broodlord. I'm here now mostly for brood war and sharing my opinion on how the game sc2 could be better. This account has also been made only very recently. Also being better than 95 percent of the games doesn't mean it's good, besides brood war and some good old wc3 tft, I don't really have other RTS games (with emphasis on micro/macro) to turn too.
On September 20 2012 23:53 Big J wrote: I did only watch up to 10mins, but I absolutly didn't want to watch any further, as I just completly disagree. Awesome gameplay is created by units that are balanced in ways so that they are used actively all the time.
Just using his examples: Reaper: 5rax reaper was completly overpowered, but it was awesome to play with, awesome tense to watch and even playing against it, was in a way awesome, because it felt soooo good when you could beat it, while it was sooooo tense all the time. What they did with the reaper was nerf it into an underpowered state. What they should have done, is BALANCE IT in a way that reapers would still get used! Find that sweetspot that creates tense gameplay, where most of the time a player will get an advantage of it, but not wins or loses straight up. Tempest: it's a unit that shoots the opponent. Always (not anymore with 15range, but I'd hope it gets a little bit more again throughout the beta). If properly BALANCED. How does that not create tense moments? What the game needs is more units that can attack even if you don't allin.
The HotS units are some of the best ideas because if we look at them: Oracle: fast harass unit; support unit for hit squads against fungal - introduces more active play Tempest: long ranged unit; when properly used, it should shoot the opponent and force a reaction that is not "turtle harder) - introduces active play MS Core: Allows Protoss to walk out on the map early; introduces active play Swarm Host: Sends Units to the opponent from long range; Should always do that, because the unit should be safe itself. - introduces active play Battle Hellion: allows the hellion to be a better combat unit if need be; producing more fast harass units means more active play.
Basically the only unit that is somewhat questionable in terms of more active play is the widow mine, as it could turn out that the best way to play against it would be to sit back and not move until you are ready to clear the map from minefields with a huge army (though for that the widow mine would have to be properly balanced first)
What blizzard needs to do, is balance units in ways so that they actually can do more stuff, even if the opponent turtles, while diminishing their all-in potential. In WoL, mostly just the 2nd one has been done. It's not a question of design, if the reaper is overpowered. It's a question of "how close is the battle between reapers and the defender".
sure balance is good, but if everything is already balanced in the beta or even before it, why not just release the game? Considering that you said that you stopped listening 10 minutes in means that youdidnt hear anything else that he had to say regarding the issue.
Yeah, listened to the rest now. All he talks is stuff that can and should be achieved via balance. Thors are too bad anti air vs anthing but mutalisks? Buff it against other things. AoE is too good? Nerf it. Marines are too good in big balls now? Nerf the big balls. There are a lot of simple parameters that are responsible for that (supply, range, dps, upgrades, production)
There is literarily nothing that he mentioned, that could not be dealt with by balancing.
Do you even understand anything of what the video was saying? Game play first, balance comes next.
On September 20 2012 23:53 Big J wrote: I did only watch up to 10mins, but I absolutly didn't want to watch any further, as I just completly disagree. Awesome gameplay is created by units that are balanced in ways so that they are used actively all the time.
Just using his examples: Reaper: 5rax reaper was completly overpowered, but it was awesome to play with, awesome tense to watch and even playing against it, was in a way awesome, because it felt soooo good when you could beat it, while it was sooooo tense all the time. What they did with the reaper was nerf it into an underpowered state. What they should have done, is BALANCE IT in a way that reapers would still get used! Find that sweetspot that creates tense gameplay, where most of the time a player will get an advantage of it, but not wins or loses straight up. Tempest: it's a unit that shoots the opponent. Always (not anymore with 15range, but I'd hope it gets a little bit more again throughout the beta). If properly BALANCED. How does that not create tense moments? What the game needs is more units that can attack even if you don't allin.
The HotS units are some of the best ideas because if we look at them: Oracle: fast harass unit; support unit for hit squads against fungal - introduces more active play Tempest: long ranged unit; when properly used, it should shoot the opponent and force a reaction that is not "turtle harder) - introduces active play MS Core: Allows Protoss to walk out on the map early; introduces active play Swarm Host: Sends Units to the opponent from long range; Should always do that, because the unit should be safe itself. - introduces active play Battle Hellion: allows the hellion to be a better combat unit if need be; producing more fast harass units means more active play.
Basically the only unit that is somewhat questionable in terms of more active play is the widow mine, as it could turn out that the best way to play against it would be to sit back and not move until you are ready to clear the map from minefields with a huge army (though for that the widow mine would have to be properly balanced first)
What blizzard needs to do, is balance units in ways so that they actually can do more stuff, even if the opponent turtles, while diminishing their all-in potential. In WoL, mostly just the 2nd one has been done. It's not a question of design, if the reaper is overpowered. It's a question of "how close is the battle between reapers and the defender".
sure balance is good, but if everything is already balanced in the beta or even before it, why not just release the game? Considering that you said that you stopped listening 10 minutes in means that youdidnt hear anything else that he had to say regarding the issue.
Yeah, listened to the rest now. All he talks is stuff that can and should be achieved via balance. Thors are too bad anti air vs anthing but mutalisks? Buff it against other things. AoE is too good? Nerf it. Marines are too good in big balls now? Nerf the big balls. There are a lot of simple parameters that are responsible for that (supply, range, dps, upgrades, production)
There is literarily nothing that he mentioned, that could not be dealt with by balancing.
almost everything you said goes against each other though. Only way to nerf big balls of marines is to have good aoe, but you also said nerf aoe. Thors are made to counter light air units, viking is supposed to counter everything else as the viking is basically a goliath that isnt ground based and doesnt have an aoe aa-attack.Maybe remove the viking and the thor to replace them with a bw goliath? marines do a ton of damage but only when together, if you make them spread then they are in small groups (1-3 if you are good at splitting). A single zealot or archon can clean up 3 marines easily right? just throwing around some random ideas.
On September 21 2012 00:07 Jermstuddog wrote: 2) Specific counter units. A LOT of units in SC2 suffer from this problem, too many to name, so I want to just grab 1 or 2 of them and focus on the aspects of these units that are problematic.
The Immortal, specifically it's Hardened Shield contribute to the lack of great Mech play in TvP. Immortals are a fine unit IMO, and if they were the only method Protoss had to fight against hard Siege containment, I would be ok with it. But currently in the game of SC2, the Immortal acts as an icing on the cake the really puts the nail in the coffin of TvP mech. Siege Tanks struggling against Zealots is fine, trading equally against Blink Stalkers is right about where they should be, and being slow and unweildly when pushing is perfect; but adding in the Immortal, which can take an ungodly 13 siege tank shots before going down really just causes mech to be too risky and unrewarding. Coupling that with the lack of zoning mechanics that BW style spider mines provided really shuts down any opportunity for us to see some of the best positional-based gameplay I have ever seen in any RTS come to SC2. Mech in BW TvP was somewhat unique and beautiful in the RTS world, Blizzard should be pulling out all the stops to bring something like that back in HotS.
The Void Ray on the other side of the spectrum has become a unit without a cause. It seems to originally have been designed as a snowball unit which was quickly decided to be too powerful of a mechanic and does not fit within the realm of SC. It then became some sort of an anti-armored unit and has since, slowly changed into a generalist Air unit akin to the Mutalisk but it suffers from all the same things the Scout did in BW. Too expesive, too slow, too useless. To make matters worse, Blizzard seems intent on adding the Tempest to the game, which sadly enough, seems to be becoming more and more of a Void Ray itself. Now we have 2 useless Protoss Air Units!
Protoss Air in general, and the Void Ray (and now Tempest) specifically needs to be addressed in a meaningful way. These units suck and either need to be given a meaningful role or removed from the game.
These two problems are the same. If mech were actually viable in PvT, I guarantee you that we would see much more of SkyToss.
While I agree that making mech viable immediately lends more credibility to SkyToss, it doesn't help with the fact that Void Rays (and now Tempests) are just bad units.
They don't fulfill any meaningful role and are hogging up that slot in the Protoss Air Force.
Ignoring the Tempest, I think the Void Ray needs to be addressed regardless and given a meaningful role.
"Overpriced, slow, useless version of Mutalisk" is not meaningful nor interesting.
nice video and really good insights. although i disagree in some points (swarm host is a good game design that allows zerg to pressure in the midgame without being all in or having to turtle. autospreading needs to still make units kind of clump up since splitting units adds nice micro to the game. but you are right that it shouldnt be THAT clumped up like right now) most points you have are really well thought out.
4 things blizzard needs to do:
1. implement 1 BW unit in the game every patch in the beta and listen to high level player feedback. either remove another unit (colossus vs reaver as they have same role) or just add a BW unit (lurker vs swarm hosts as they have different roles).
2. buff units with good game design that are in WoL: BCs, ravens, hydras, carrier etc.
3. rework units with bad game design that are in WoL: archon toilet, FF, fungal, warpgate tech, concussive, NP (either too strong or too weak), hardened immortal shields etc.
4. take down the supply of some units (while possibly nerfing them): roaches, hydras, ultras, swarm host, viper, thor, BC, tank, collosus, carrier, VR, tempest
first of all rework groundbreaking things like warpgate, marine dps, clumping and add lower supplies to units.
after that get to the other points mentioned!
JUST TRY A LOT MORE THINGS BLIZZ! YOU ARE ON A GOOD WAY WITH REMOVING WARHOUND AND REINTRODUCING CARRIER. GET EVEN MORE HARDCORE WITH TRYING STUFF IN THE BETA! :-)
EPT
