StarCraft II Official! (Pictures)

[Taeradun]

I want a unit like a defiler except it can devour enemy units (mainly infantry i guess)

You know, cos eating stuff is cool.

[Freakohollik]

I'll have to be the skeptic here. I'm not too thrilled about the mother ship super unit idea. The whole thing that makes you think "Okay, this ONE unit is the key to victory." It's just feels like Warcraft 3 heroes again.
My main concern with SC2 is that Blizzard can produce something that lives up to the original, but is still different.

I want a unit like a defiler except it can devour enemy units (mainly infantry i guess)

You know, cos eating stuff is cool.

Kodo beasts? Maybe we can get an infested Kodo beast or something. Kodolisk! Or how about this, a unit that eats itself! The possibilities...

[IskatuMesk]

Judging by how much BC's spam yamato and the fact their mothership was rigged for the demo but was almost instantly destroyed by the bcs I don't think it's going to be that much of an issue.

[Castlebunker]

Yea, for the demo it had infinite energy so it could cast all of its spells a few times; it's probably actually vulnerable against a bunch of small ships.

[IskatuMesk]

From my post on SA -


Here's a bit of speculation for you. I've gone and labelled the protoss buildings according to what I believe they are. The gateways are obviously gateways as said by blizzard.

Other then the stargate and the forge, the other two buildings have definately changed dramatically if they are what I think they are.

As for the other building not shown in the screenshot (A bit further in the video, at bottom left), it's probably either the citadel of adun or robotics support bay.

[imgwh 640x400]http://forum.samods.org/index.php?actio ... 3042;image[/imgwh]

[Lavarinth]

And I really DON'T think that's a Nexus about to show up to the right.





... NOT!

[/Borat]

[WB]

I'll have to be the skeptic here. I'm not too thrilled about the mother ship super unit idea. The whole thing that makes you think "Okay, this ONE unit is the key to victory." It's just feels like Warcraft 3 heroes again.

Not quite, the WC3 you have to grab them early on, and you can have 3 in a game. And you get them right off the bat, usually the first unit trained (aside from workers).

I hate to say it, but its far more like a couple carriers mashed into one, something you build to enhance your army, it isn't an army all by itself, and it costs significant resources to even build one. First hero in WC3 was free, and in general they didn't cost so much.

@mesk, the thing you have labeled as citadel of adun, I'd say its a fleet beacon or equivalent.

[Castlebunker]

Yea, 1 mothership close to the end of the game won't throw off the balance too much like a really strong hero could. It can probably be killed pretty easily if it doesn't have a lot of ships protecting it too.

[Freakohollik]

Not quite, the WC3 you have to grab them early on, and you can have 3 in a game. And you get them right off the bat, usually the first unit trained (aside from workers).

I hate to say it, but its far more like a couple carriers mashed into one, something you build to enhance your army, it isn't an army all by itself, and it costs significant resources to even build one. First hero in WC3 was free, and in general they didn't cost so much.

You may be right.
I'll try to reserve judgement until I play the game. But now I'm wondering about the mothership and mind control. If you have 2 protoss players and mind control, there's a pretty simple way to get multiple mother ships. Now they could make the mothership immune to mind control, but I don't really like that idea either. Of course none of this matters if mind control doesn't come back, which wouldn't bother me.

[IskatuMesk]

That's assuming mind control still exists, and that you can mind control allies (in wc3 you can't use stuff like that on your allies).

[Freakohollik]

That's assuming mind control still exists, and that you can mind control allies (in wc3 you can't use stuff like that on your allies).

Yeah you could mind control your allies' mother ship, but wouldn't you rather mind control your enemies' mother ship?
I wasn't suggesting massing mother ships, I was just thinking of ways to get more than one of them. I'd only expect a protoss player to get at most 3 mother ships in a regular game. Supposing you've got at least 2 protoss opponents. You build one, each opponent builds one. You mind control both of them. Now I'll assume that they're bright enough not to build another one since you'd just mind control it.
You could get more if they kept building them and let you mind control them. But in that case they most likely deserve to lose anyway.

If you can mind control allies (I'm pretty sure you could in Starcraft), now we're talking mass motherships. Unless Blizzard adds some other limit on the number of motherships that can be out.

[IskatuMesk]

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.

[Freakohollik]

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.

20 BCs? Against pretty much anything I'd put my money on the 20 BCs too. That takes 160 supply and a ton of resources. It's about the practical maximum number of BCs you can have. And I don't recall ever saying that a 3 motherships would be some sort of unstoppable fleet. I was just saying that if things work the way I was speculating you might see 3 mother ships in your army sometime. And that if you can mind control allies massing mother ships might be an option. And by massing mother ships, I mean more than 3.

But this discussion is sort of turning to the strength and tactics of mother ships. It's not something worth debating. The game isn't out yet. It's not even done. We'll just have to wait and see.

[wibod]

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.

[AA7Dragoon]

I'm not too worried about the Mothership being an overpowered unit.  I'm positive four yamato shots from the BC's would destroy it instantly (unless it was quick enough to Blackhole the fleet).  As for the Zerg, I'm sure they will still have Scourges.  I'd say 10-12 Scourges would be easy enough to wipe out a Mothership.  As for Protoss vs. Protoss; whoever throws out the first Black Hole. lol.

I think the Mothership design is more than satisfactory.  She can be deadly and an awesome force to be reckoned with; however, she's easily destructable with the right units.