Topic: The Starcraft mega thread - Rising from the ashes.

[bosshogx]

The Terran Nomad



The Terran Nomad is the newest in the line of deep space exploration and colonization ships.  The Nomad was made to handle the harsh environments of new worlds and boasts a large variety of sensors.  These sensors allow it to detect cloaked and burrowed enemy units anywhere near it.  The Nomad is replacing the older, out of date Science Vessel.

**Please note: The Nomad has recently underwent a complete overhaul of it’s design and will probably not look like this in the final game.**



Uh oh, looks like someone found a Protoss expansion.



Wait, what is this thing?  That doesn’t look like a Nomad.  Hmmm…stay tuned!

[KDR_11k]

BTW, the blue tiberium equivalent, gemstones, was already present in C&C:RA

[bosshogx]

BTW, the blue tiberium equivalent, gemstones, was already present in C&C:RA

Hmm...gemstones first appeared in C&C:RA, Browder was the Lead Designer.  Yellow Minerals appear in Starcraft 2, Browder is the Lead Designer.  My God!  Browder is the one who used the EA time machine!  Dun-dun-duhn!!

[Ceric]

I wonder what the Nomad will look like now.  I sort of liked its current design.

[UltimatePartyBear]

Its design in those shots makes it look like some sort of heavy lifting utility vehicle, not a science vessel.

[Ceric]

Its design in those shots makes it look like some sort of heavy lifting utility vehicle, not a science vessel.

It is.  It wasn't designed for a science vessel it just happen to become that.  Sort of like the moon vehicles that became mobile labs for the geological center.  Its an interesting concept and sort of fits better with the personality of the terrans.

[bosshogx]

Nomad Abilities

The Terran Nomad isn’t just for detecting enemy units.  Oh no, this bad boy is willing to help out in the fight too.  Below are a few tricks that the Nomad has up it’s sleeve.



The Auto-Turret can be made onsite by the Nomad at anytime.  Fly by and drop a few off to defend your expansion or attack an enemy expansion.  Give your army a fall back spot when being pursued by enemies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIEWp5-yxGM

See the Nomad’s Turrets in action!



Mine Drones are created by the Nomad to act as first strike surprise defenses.  Once deployed, the Drone will create and plant 4 mines around itself and then cloak to render itself invisible.  When the enemy approaches, the mines uproot themselves and attack.  Afterwards, the Drone uncloaks, replaces it’s mines and cloaks again.



Nano repair lets the Nomad repair any mechanical unit by 200 hp for the cost of 75 energy.  How useful is that?

[Ceric]

In the Nomad description they hinted at the ship itself having weaponry.  I'm sort of interested if you heard if it has even rudimentary anti-air capability.

[bosshogx]

In the Nomad description they hinted at the ship itself having weaponry.  I'm sort of interested if you heard if it has even rudimentary anti-air capability.

Right now the Nomad is unarmed and only able to attack through the structures it creates.  The turrets it creates are ground to ground attacks only, but that may change to be either ground to air as well.  If not, they may give the Nomad an air-to-air.  Honestly, I don't see that happening.  The Nomad is being billed as a replacement Science Vessel, so it's primary use is spell casting and detection.  If it did get an attack, it would probably be very weak and not worth the effort, not unlike the Arbiter from Starcraft 1.

[Ceric]

In the Nomad description they hinted at the ship itself having weaponry.  I'm sort of interested if you heard if it has even rudimentary anti-air capability.

Right now the Nomad is unarmed and only able to attack through the structures it creates.  The turrets it creates are ground to ground attacks only, but that may change to be either ground to air as well.  If not, they may give the Nomad an air-to-air.  Honestly, I don't see that happening.  The Nomad is being billed as a replacement Science Vessel, so it's primary use is spell casting and detection.  If it did get an attack, it would probably be very weak and not worth the effort, not unlike the Arbiter from Starcraft 1.

I figured as much but it be fitting in with the description they gave.

[bosshogx]

I figured as much but it be fitting in with the description they gave.

True. 

Hey, check out the April Fool's gag that Blizzard posted today.

Tauren Marines!

Starcraft is just Warcraft in space.  Indeed.   

[UltimatePartyBear]

"There is a cow level."  Nice.  The scary thing is that some of Blizzard's April Fool gags wind up coming true.

[KDR_11k]

Those guys REALLY look like they belong into WH40k.

[bosshogx]

The Zerg Mutalisk



The Zerg Mutalisk, or Muta for short, is the staple air unit for the Zerg airforce.  Much like many Zerg units, Mutas are not dangerous by themselves, but when packed into large groups, can cause massive damage and headaches to their opponents.  Mutas excel at hit and run style harassment strategies.  Their only weapon is to spit out a glaive worm which, upon hitting it’s target, will bounce and hit up to two more enemies.



These Marines probably should have retreated by now.  Not like it would help at this point.

Scary, real scary.

The above link shows how a hit-and-run unit can be in the hands of an expert.



No words could describe how horrifying that would be seeing something like that looking down upon you.

[Sundoulos]

Mutas FTW.  Mutalisk/Guardian groupings were my favorite Zerg weapon. 

I'm glad that the Terrans are getting ground-based turrets, as well-as the surface to air turrets.  The Nomad looks a little more useful than the Science Vessel, which was my least-utilized Terran unit.  I almost always just used it for defensive scouting.

[ReverendNoahWhateley]

One of the things I strongly dislike about WarCraft 3 is that you never really control an army; late in a match, your battle groups consist of like six or seven units.  From recent pictures, it looks like StarCraft 3 is a step in the opposite direction.

[Ceric]

One of the things I strongly dislike about WarCraft 3 is that you never really control an army; late in a match, your battle groups consist of like six or seven units.  From recent pictures, it looks like StarCraft 3 is a step in the opposite direction.

Agree.  In Warcraft 3 your very rarely did the whole base building thing.  It was like Diablo with a party sometimes.

[bosshogx]

The Protoss Phase Cannon



The Protoss still deploy the multi-purpose automated cannons for base defense.  For Starcraft 2, there has been a slight twist on the cannon.  The cannon can still detect invisible enemies, shoot ground and air, but now you can move it around your base.  That’s right, problems with enemies dropping in on your money line with your only cannons defending your entrance?  No problem!  Tell those Phase cannons to ball up into energy and warp to the money line to help thwart invaders.

Here they are in action.

The actual cannon appears from the 45 second mark to the 1:19 mark.  The other units shown in this clip, made back in August 07, have since been removed from the game.  They will still be available in the map maker mode though.



Warping or not, this many flanking Marines spell doom for these Cannons.  Wait a minute?!  What's that in the sky!  Hmmm...I wonder, stay tuned.   

[Ceric]

Soul Hunter is the one that is gone isn't it?  I don't remember hearing anything about it.

[bosshogx]

Soul Hunter is the one that is gone isn't it?  I don't remember hearing anything about it.

Oh yeah.  The Soul Hunter and the Tempest are gone.  The Soul Hunter was unbalanced and got the cut.  The Tempest was basically a copy of the Carrier that had a super shield that activated versus ground attacks only.  It also couldn't shoot air.  It was found to be not different enough from the regular Carrier and got the axe.  The Twilight Archon is now just called the Archon, but it has been given a new spell.

Oh my, look at me getting ahead of myself.  Clever Ceric, trying to pry more information from me.     j/k  Keep firing away with those questions!

[Ceric]

Soul Hunter is the one that is gone isn't it?  I don't remember hearing anything about it.

Oh yeah.  The Soul Hunter and the Tempest are gone.  The Soul Hunter was unbalanced and got the cut.  The Tempest was basically a copy of the Carrier that had a super shield that activated versus ground attacks only.  It also couldn't shoot air.  It was found to be not different enough from the regular Carrier and got the axe.  The Twilight Archon is now just called the Archon, but it has been given a new spell.

Oh my, look at me getting ahead of myself.  Clever Ceric, trying to pry more information from me.     j/k  Keep firing away with those questions!

Looks like the Tempest was also a little faster and a smaller target.  I hope the super-shield is an upgrade for the Carrier.  I love me some Carriers but there so slow...

[NWR_insanolord]

This thread is getting me interested in the game. I didn't play as much of the original as I would have liked, and I was never any good at it, but I enjoyed it. Plus I have to support Blizzard; as a Mac user I love a company that not only releases the Mac version of a game at the same time as the PC version, but releases it on the same disc.

[bosshogx]

Looks like the Tempest was also a little faster and a smaller target.  I hope the super-shield is an upgrade for the Carrier.  I love me some Carriers but there so slow...

I don't think the Carrier will be getting any changes.  It's probably going to come back the exact same.  Giving it the upgraded shield would make them too overpowering versus Terran Goliaths or Zerg Hydralisks.  Carriers are at their best when attacking from cliffs, water, and high ground.  It causes all kinds of chaos amongst the attacking ground units.  If you hit and run using focus fire with any form of terrain advantage, the battle is yours.

This thread is getting me interested in the game. I didn't play as much of the original as I would have liked, and I was never any good at it, but I enjoyed it. Plus I have to support Blizzard; as a Mac user I love a company that not only releases the Mac version of a game at the same time as the PC version, but releases it on the same disc.

I'm glad you're getting hyped.  Jump aboard the train with the rest of us.  I'm going to be starting a NWR forum member Starcraft thread in Matchmaking in a few weeks, you should join us.  Most everybody will be completely out of practice or total noobs.  The aim is to have fun.

[bosshogx]

The Protoss Phase Prism



The Protoss Phase Prism is a new and interesting take on the old Protoss shuttle.  The Phase Prism can transport units much like a Shuttle, but instead does it by converting the Protoss units into pure energy.  Not content to be just a Shuttle replacement, the Phase Prism also contains Pylon energy which it can deploy at anytime by stopping it’s movement and changing shape.  This allows the Protoss to have a power replacement at any time in case their Pylons get destroyed.

Here is a Phase Prism restoring power to some cannons.
 
The voice over in the video is none other than everyone's favorite time machine using Lead Designer, Dustin Browder.



Don’t be fooled by this picture.  This Phase Prism isn’t dropping off units.  Something else is happening here…something that will be revealed later. Gwa-ha-ha-ha! 

[Ceric]

Earlier you mentioned that the Reaper may be going out but I think they should make it an upgrade for Marines.  Up all the stats a little and then make it so that its a Marine upgrade program.  You build a Marine, use it, and once you are at in the tech tree you can "build" Reapers you just take the Marine back to an enhanced barracks and he be upgraded for a a cost.  Make it so there isn't any way to directly train them.  It be like when the Zerg have something evolve into something different only Terran style.