StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[IskatuMesk]

I'm really interested to see what they're going to do with the carrier. The mothership presents an interesting hole in a PvP air battle - no way can the warp ray or phoenix deal with it. Carriers will be tougher than in sc1, I reckon.

[Freakohollik]

From the developer guided demo what really got me were the terran reapers. I'm going to raid so many mineral lines.

I'd still put my money on some well-microed Battlecruisers. Even 3 motherships won't be able to stand against 20 bcs. Yamato would own them hard.

I think black hole would rape them on top of the 7 or so projectiles fired by each mothership.

The key word here is well-microed. You wouldn't let your well-microed battlecruisers stack on top each other if you're going against a mother ship with black hole. You would use those long range yamatos and shoot the mothership(s) before they/it get too close.

[WB]

black hole doesnt mean instant death. Units caught in the spiral are still capable of operating, as can be seen in the video where the battle cruiser fires while getting sucked in.

So even if the BCs are getting sucked in, theyre still firing, meaning if the mothership blows up....maybe that ends the blackhole, and therefore saves the BCs.

[Xenon]

It also wasn't proven that no unit can escape from it. Faster units might be able to get away (especially while it's still forming) and the Battlecruisers didn't even try (that's AI for you).

Lavarinth: Yeah, it would be far-fetched to make an actual black hole, especially one that disappears on its own (real black holes with too little mass to be stable would create an enormous explosion). Real black holes wouldn't look like that anyway. It's more likely to be an artificial gravity well that does not actually contain a huge mass, or a wormhole opened into the vicinity of an actual black hole. But then again, maybe I'm nitpicking (the planet in the background appears to be spinning way too fast, for that matter).

Warbringer: Upgrade Hydralisks into Hunter Killers? Hunter Killers are just Hydralisks with doubled stats, and I don't think Blizzard would add a unit that is used exactly the same way as another, especially if it makes the previous unit obsolete. For example, Banelings are probably more useful against clusters of troops than Zerglings (assuming AOE damage) but it would be wasteful to use 20-30 of them to blow up an unprotected Nexus when a few Zerglings could do the job. I also wonder if you can burrow them and use them as land mines...

Edit: I've wondered why the Protoss didn't try dumping Cerebrates into black holes to get rid of them. I suppose if the Zerg can make their own wormholes they can interfere with anyone else's attempt to make them.

[Taeradun]

I suppose one way to make black hole avoidable but to make doing so require incredibly annoying micro is if units can only fly out of it going perpendicular to the angle of suction rather than flying directly out

also seems like another good "anti-big-units" ability if faster units like wraiths/mutas could out-fly it but battlecruisers/guardians can't

[AA7Dragoon]

With new units, obviously Blizzard is going to change or remove other units completely out of the sequel.  Any guesses, people?  Here are mine:

SC2 UNIT ELIMINATIONS:

PROTOSS:
Arbiters - Based on the new Protoss mechanics, I think this unit is obsolete.  Phase Prisms will now serve as the new army transports for the Protoss instead of Recall.  I also think the AOE stealth will be too much of a balance problem if you combine that with a cloaked Mothership.

Scouts - I consider the Phoenix's upgrades from Scouts.  And the Warp Rays pack much better single target damage.

Corsair - Unknown   Do you think the Phoenix's AOE burst damage ability will replace this unit?

Reavers - I'm not positive but I think the Colossus will replace Reavers.  The Colossus provide sustained heavy assault support damage per second.  Although the Reavers provide massive AOE burst damage, their inability to trek walls like the Colossus make them slow targets in SC2's new versatile Protoss war machine.

Dragoons - Official.  Blizzard made the Immortals replace this unit.  A great improvement, BTW.  Anyone who has played Protoss knows how terrible it was to see your swarm of Dragoons blown to pieces by Siege Tanks.  Not anymore, hahaha!


TERRANS:
Vultures - I wouldn't be surprised if the new Reapers replaced Vultures.  They are fast and able to trek over walls.  They're only good for their 3 mines but what good is keeping a unit around for that?


ZERG:
Infested Terrans - Obviously the new banelings make going through the trouble of building a Queen, burning a Terran Command Center to red, and infesting it not worth the time for ground suicide bombers.  I'm guessing Blizzard will either scrap Infested buildings/unit or expand upon to create new and versatile hybrid units with a greater function than suicide DPS.  Agree?  Disagree?

[Freakohollik]

With new units, obviously Blizzard is going to change or remove other units completely out of the sequel.  Any guesses, people?  Here are mine:

SC2 UNIT ELIMINATIONS:

PROTOSS:
Arbiters - Based on the new Protoss mechanics, I think this unit is obsolete.  Phase Prisms will now serve as the new army transports for the Protoss instead of Recall.  I also think the AOE stealth will be too much of a balance problem if you combine that with a cloaked Mothership.
...

I like the way you think. If I had to pick one unit in Starcraft that caused me the most grief it'd be the arbiter. Next would be by those psi-storm spamming high templars.

[Lavarinth]

I'm pretty sure Wrap Rays (stupid name) is for Scouts, and Phoenix's are for Corsairs.

[Meta]

I'm pretty sure Wrap Rays (stupid name) is for Scouts, and Phoenix's are for Corsairs.

It certainly seems so. I think Warp Rays are kinda dull though, their role seems to be very limited and they don't look so fast. At least Scouts had a good speed once upgraded.

The Colossus also seems to be the replacement for the Reaver, or, to a lesser extent, the Archon. Both are tough units that deal lots of damage but usually need cover from "cannon fodder" units.

However, due to its range and splash radius, I think the Colossus is more of a Reaver replacement than an Archon replacement. I just doubt there'll be a Colossus Drop.

Speaking of it, I wish there's at least one kind of Archon in SC2. 

I also agree with AA7 regarding the Arbiter: the Phase Prism seems to "merge" the Shuttle and Arbiter in one unit, and from what we know, the Mothership is the SC2 Protoss air spellcaster.

[Taeradun]

Nah there might end up being no colossus drop; just a "colossus step over things"

Makes me wonder how water terrain will work in planetside maps - if there will be deep water unpassable by regular ground units (and presumably reapers) but that a colossus can still happily stride through, but still also have water too deep even for a colossus. While I also strongly hope for naval units functionality included in the engine (obviously makes no sense for standard SC, but I hope Blizzard still include art for at least 1 naval building, 1 warship and 1 transport ship for each race like they did for Warcraft III, bless 'em), it'd be cool if even if they for some reason didn't, you could still place Warcraft III-style shallow water passable by all ground units for awesome terrain effects. Even better would be the ability to give water a colour tint so you can have areas flooded with blood, zerg goo, nuclear waste (not just colour tint but lighting effects) etc

[WB]

Yes, hunter killers are just glorified Hydras....in SC1. They are however elite hydras as far as the story goes. That was my reasoning.

Also, I think reavers will still be in the game, if only because they are in the concept art already.

Oh, and I'm warbringer goddamit. How you go and take a man's namesake?

[Lavarinth]

Where are they in the artwork? I must of skipped this.

[AA7Dragoon]

Where is the Reaver in the concept art?

[WB]

in the artwork trailer:

excuse the terrible resolution, but I also think I see some carriers in the skies of this shot, which i think ive mentioned before. I don't blizzard could ever bring itself to cut carriers out, i mean, what would happen to MASS CARRIERS = INSTANT WINZ

Also, noticed something else...I believe this is kerrrigan's foot wearing stiletto heels....on zeratul's arm.

edit: third shot added, this one looks interesting.

[AA7Dragoon]

Oh, interesting.  So they are keeping Reavers and seem to allude they work well with Collossus.