Starcraft 2

Blizzard has started a podcast (audio only for now). You can get the audio and/or you can read the transcript.

In this podcast (a.k.a. Blizzcast), they have two interviews. The first is with Samwise Didier, Blizzard’s Art Director and concept artist who has worked on both Starcraft and Warcraft.

The second interview is with WOW’s lead designer for World of Warcraft, Jeff Kaplan. He’s talking about the changes in WoW patch 2.4.

When I did a review of the Protoss Mothership in May, I did it based on the first gameplay video as well as the narration.

Now, Starcraft2.com has a dedicated page for the Protoss Mothership. You’ll be able to see video clips of all three mothership abilities in action: Cloak Field, Time Bomb, and Planet Cracker.

This one surfaced at Blizzcon (to be followed by the Terran tech tree). Text descriptions by Gamespot.

New structures included the null circuit, dark obelisk, phase prism, and twilight council buildings which all tied into the new units. We tried our hand with as many of them as we could build and were intrigued by what we played. Null circuit buildings are one part of the equation to let you summon the observers to be constructed.

The dark obelisk allows you to make dark templars, and phase prisms let you do create the mighty colossus, a killer land unit shown previously. The twilight council lets you create immortals. In addition the stargates let you summon the new phoenix and warp ray craft as well as the old standby, the carrier.

Here’s the same game play video (as below) - this time narrated by Chris Sigaty. Note that the current label for Starcraft 2 is “internal alpha”. He does mention it will be playable at Blizzcon though and also says there will be a beta (though it might not be a public one).

An amazing game play video with more info on the upcoming Protoss units. This is a bit better quality than the ones at Youtube but I hope Blizzard will upload an HD version to Starcraft2.com

Words fall short but here’s the gist of it:

1) Soul Hunter - his attacks get stronger the more units he destroys.

2) Phase Canon - you can now move them around the base.

3) Mass Tempests (previously known as Carriers) - now feature a shield that protects them from ground attacks. They’ll also cost less.

4) Twilight Archon - powerful infantry unit, doesn’t seem much different from its previous incarnation

Gamespot just released another bit of Starcraft 2 news. They do admit Blizzard are being too secretive because they do not to release info ahead of Blizzcon (remember a Starcraft 2 beta will be playable at Blizzcon).

It’s mostly about new Protoss units…

While Pardo affirmed that previously discussed units such as the zealot infantry and immortal battle tank are still on the table, we were also introduced to several new units that hadn’t been shown at Blizzard’s previous event in May.

These include the soul hunter, a hovering ground unit that can attack both air and ground opponents. Another new unit is the phase cannon, a stationary turret that can be changed into a hovering energy ball that can move like a normal unit, reminiscent of Warcraft III’s wisp units, as long as it remains within range of the Protoss power grid. They can then be redeployed as stationary turrets to act as roadblocks or as forward firing lines.

Other units include the tempest, a flying troop transport with an underside energy shield that protects against ground-to-air fire, but leaves the unit vulnerable to air-to-air attacks, and the return of the dark templar (which still has stealth abilities) and the high templar (which still possesses the devastating psi-storm ability) units. As before, templars can be merged to form archons, known as twilight archons in Starcraft II, which act as exceptionally powerful infantry units.

Note that while all these units sound promising and offer intriguing new strategies, none of them are final. A completely different set of units may end up in the final game.

PCGamer has done an extensive preview of Starcraft 2 - 9 pages in total. There’s quite a bit of new information that has surfaced.

For starters, the article confirmed that there will be NO HEROES in Starcraft 2. So if you think the marine in the trailer is some kind of a hero unit, you’re wrong. Though you could be right when it comes to the Starcraft 2 single-player.

Another interesting bit comes in the form of a screenshot (blurry, I know). Remember when I discussed the Protoss Colossus? I said it likely substitutes the reaver. As you can see in the screenshot, reavers are alive and kicking butt. So no substitutions.

In addition to the new Protoss units announced, I see that my favorite caster is here to stay: the High Templar with its Psionic Storm. In addition, he’ll bring a new spell that will create a force field to trap enemy units and create barriers.

There’s one unit that I haven’t seen before - the Protoss Tempest. This “dark” carrier will have use fighters to attack targets and its special is a force shield that will only activate when hit from the ground.

The Protoss Colossus is probably one of the most recognizable of the new Protoss units in Starcraft 2. It bares a close resemblance to the aliens in War of Worlds. It’s a huge walker, so in this respect it has a reference to The Empire Strikes Back.

Trivia aside, the Protoss Colussus looks like a replacement to the Reaver. The Reaver has a splash attack (scarabs) and apart from it’s obvious role as a ground support for Zealots, it is often used in hit-and-run missions on enemy bases. The shuttle carrying a reaver and support troops is definitely one of the better weapons in the Protoss arsenal, especially against Zerg expansions.

See the Protoss Colossus in a gameplay video and you’ll see it shares some of the Reaver characterstics.

Now, all the hit-and-run missions aside, the Reaver was definitely one of the LEAST utilized Protoss units. Its slow speed combined with the AI of the scarabs meant its usefulness was limited.

So what have changed in Starcraft 2? For one, the colossus still makes an excellent raider (see screenshot).

The Colossus has kept the splash attack but this time it’s not easy to evade it or mis-direct it with a few dancing Zerglings. In addition, you don’t need a shuttle to move it to higher/lower ground.

Going back to rock-paper-scissors, the Protoss Colossus looks like a hard counter to mid-game Zergling drops and Terran marine-medic push. It has to be a tier 2 Protoss unit in order to have a chance to counter the above. I’ll be extremely surprised if it turns out it has an air attack as well. So while the Colossus is the ultimate ground weapon, the Protoss Mothership still rules supreme in the air.

Initially, I was thinking of starting with the Zealot. It made sense to start with the first unit that’s coming out of the Gateway. However, the Protoss Mothership seems at least 10 times more exciting, so lets forget about build orders for now.

If you interested in how the Mothership fits the storyline, here’s a brief primer:

After the destruction of Auir, and the attacks on Shakuras, the Protoss has decided to create safe havens within the sky. These glass domes encase entire Protoss cities and are a symbol of hope and power. Headed by the leaders of the Protoss Conclave, Motherships are not only armed to the teeth, but also act as a funnel for the Conclave’s immense psionic power.

Let’s look at the gameplay video (Protoss Mothership only)

Protoss Mothership Stats

The production cost for producing a mothership is not clear, yet you know what you get for your money - a finisher that will destroy your opponents fleet and level a heavily fortified base. It has 850 hit points and is protected by a 350-point shield.

The Mothership’s standard attack consists of eight psionic missiles that home to nearby targets. It seems like they’ll be difficult to focus-fire effectively. In the gameplay video, it looked like the Mothership is hitting two or more targets simultaneously. Lets go through the abilities next.

Protoss Mothership Ability: Time bomb

The time bomb ability will slow down to crawl all enemy movement in the area around the Mothership. In addition, all missiles fired by stationary base defenses (maybe Goliath missiles as well) will get caught up in this force field. Once the units are destroyed, the missiles fall to the ground and the Mothership continues unscathed.

Protoss Mothership Ability: Planet Cracker

This ability reminds me of the movie Independence Day. It’s a deathray that hits all targets on ground below the mothership. Its purpose is to level a base and/or destroy all ground reinforcements that enemy throws at you. Not sure if you can use this ability in conjunction with the Time bomb. It seems like a deadly combo to me: no one moves, while I level the base.

Protoss Mothership Ability: Black Hole

In case you’ve got the impression that the Mothership abilities target ground only, here’s my favorite ability: the Black Hole. It looks like the Mothership will expend all its energy on this one (you might even need an energy upgrade). The effect is devastating to all units in range - they are sucked in the black hole, never to be seen again.

This disappearing act takes things a bit too far in my opinion. So maybe Blizzard can balance it with making it a Wormhole instead of a black hole. It could cause damage and throw the sucked units all across the map.

En Taro Adun!

It seems that the Protoss have received most of the attention so far in terms of development. Judging from the gameplay videos (make sure you download the hi-def video), the Protoss have a well-rounded force at all tiers.

It’s a bit of speculation at this point but the tiers look something like this:

Tier 1

Protoss Zealot - the mainstay of the Protoss ground forces hasn’t changed much, except for getting a Charge ability to get him close distances faster.

Tier 2

Obviously, at Tier 2 you’ll have some stategic choices to make. The options seems to be equally strong (at this point).

Protoss Immortal - Immortals get through heavy hitters like the Terran Siege tanks so if you expect the Terran to go mass tanks, Immortals will be a good strategic option.

Protoss Phoenix - dubbed as a air-supriority fighter, the Phoenix seems to be a counter to Mutalisk rushes. The Overload ability allows it to fire at all nearby enemies which makes it perfect to stop Mutas from destroying your expansion.

Protoss Stalker - Stalkers excel at hit-and-run tactics. Their Blink ability not only gets them to a higher/lower ground in a … blink, it also allows them to massacre running units (e.g. CSVs). In that respect they are similar to their Dark Templar brethren.

Protoss Colossus - Technically, the Colossus will probably be Tier 3 but I see a lot of players teching quickly to get him as early as possible. It looks like it replaces the Reaver unit which failed its role as a ground support unit in Starcraft. Most Protoss players didn’t use it except for harassment via drops.

The Colossus seems to have a much better potential to support the Zealots. His ability to move to lower/higher ground means the harassment potential is still there… I bet it’ll go through a dozen Drones in 5 seconds.

Tier 3

Protoss Warp Ray - the demo pitted Terran battlecruisers against Warp Rays. The four rays destroyed 3 battlecruisers without a single loss. These will be a mid-/late-game answer to massed heavy units as their attack increases the longer they shoot at their target.

Protoss Mothership - you can only build one of these and Blizzard calls it the Ultimate Protoss weapon. It has three specials - one defensive, two offensive ones. My guess is once you build one, it’s GG for your opponent. It’s a like the finishing move in Mortal Combat.

I’ll go through them in more detail, once Blizzard post more info. Otherwise, I’ll simply continue with the speculation!