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~After having re-watched the “Magic the Gathering 20years 20lessons” Video, I felt writing down something about Sc2, that being about game design of… a specific unit~
I will start with quite a pew of positive connotations with the Battle Cruiser, then some bad ones.
Starcraft 2 was released 2010, almost 10 years ago, time for some respect:
I enjoyed Sc2 in
WoL
HotS
and LotV
Back then the BC was really not good, especially vs Protoss, for instance it could be feedbacked.
Yet there were a couple of good players still building some from time to time… it was for pure entertainment of the Viewers.
With every expansion it got better.
- No feedback weakness? Yay, seems to be made vs protoss now, why not? 1 shot Voidrays, Immortals, gg. Find the Patch that changed that (1)
- Use them with Mech-Upgrades, so Mech being more of a thing? Yay!
- Fire while moving? Yay seems fitting!
- You name all of the Battle Cruiser Changes with its Patch Title (2) …
So it was fun trying them with each improvement. (And yes we also know about “recent” anti-improvements)
Now in LotV I really fancy that a T3, late game unit is actually viable and you can do stuff with it:
- It can trade well
- It can be microed for better advantage, great new challenges for the Player and Enemy alike
~Referring to #16: challenge is great, boredom and no risk is not~ - It’s a choice (lategame/midgame)
- (And since Release it has a great voice and grafic-design and reputation “Cattle Bruiser arrived” carried over from the Predecessor Starcraft Broodwar)
These are all Great designs and stories…
- And difficult to understand: That you CAN use it early game. (more about that later)
All in All, I am loving its late game capabilities and classical memes.
On the flip-side what I do not fancy at all, as playing all 3 races…
and trust me I got overrun 1000x by:
Mass Bio
Mass Zergling Baneling Muta
Mass Roach Hydra (and the gg casters)
even by stuff like Mass Raven or Infestor,
and of course all the Protoss All Ins you can think of, from Mass Zealot to Mass Voidrays.
Even getting overrun by Mass Carrier can be interesting… (Hint “Mass” is an overexxagerating of using that unit more than the usual player trying to achieve something with it)
… So guess what I don’t find so cool:
- The general idea of getting abused by
Battle Cruisers before midgame (or in the early midgame w/e): When you managed to put it to 50 health (AND THEN IT WILL JUMP AWAY!!!11) - Go into the Unit Tester, and see how much damage you can inflict within the jumping period (new patch). How many Queens or Corruptors do you need to finish 50 health off, within that time frame of course? (3)
- That includes yourself tricking someone with it, of course (otherwise I wouldn’t try to make an unbiased design feedback thread):
Why is that exactly?
(Again I play all three races, and I play tested this myself…)
The problem is the really early accessibility and effectiveness of a supposed T3 late game unit, already so early.
I also played bunch of 2on2 against dual terran, let’s not even start…
I’m not anywhere talking about balance, but this still reminds me a bit of the Hellbats Powerlevel back in HotS (Automatic BlueFlame, only 2 Spaces in the Medivac). It was the time when Flash got #1 Grand Master, in Korean Ladder with almost no losses.
- It feels bad, when a T3 unit is so strong so early,
while you (the enemy of that) may want to prepare for some “normal play” - Again options as the Terran player are great,
but a T3 unit being an option Early game and being really powerful midgame already, despite the great lategame capabilities…
…I am without regret bluntly saying it’s really bad game design; from my many years of playing the game and getting lessons,
and from playing many other strategy games, among that
Card games,
RPGs
MMOs,
and others.
Let me also repeat I am a fan of all three races in Sc2.
Now about the positive aspect of using it early “good that CAN use it early”: It’s good design to be a personal choice, it was already in the release, and you CAN do similar stuff with other races…
But what this is about, at the moment there is something wrong about it’s power-level hitting so early:
An easy example here is the Jump Mechanic. The opposite would be a proxy starport - this would be fine. Share your favorite Proxy Strategy (4) Try that with Protoss Stargate, might be strong but - feels like okay design: It has disadvantages etc.
So addressing the design idea here directly:
Perhaps Jumping should be a research!
WOW what an idea that nobody came up with, yet. ~Lesson#19: I know that my suggestion should be taken with a grain of salt. I am thinking while Blizzard wants to get away from Upgrades, it’s a good feature to separate late game power-level from being accessible too early.
WHAT ELSE COSTS A RESEARCH is too strong early, but efficient investment?
- Warp Gate
- Hyperflight Rotors
- Pneumatized Carapace
- …
- A good list of movement upgrades actually, you name them! (Tip each race has at least 4 of them! Zerg and Protoss most!) (5)
=> There exist researches for all the really strong game changers, yes, I’m suggesting nothing less of the Battle Cruiser.
Each of them is a choice - this is interesting.
Why do so many Terrans play it, even though you think it is bad design? You might ask.
~referring to Lesson#13 (Video in the first sentence):
Players will do what it takes to win, even when that is not fun; Like banging their head on the table.
~
By the way: I know you can prepare for it, I know you can outplay it, etc etc etc, this thread is not about balance! DUH It’s about 10 years of Battle Cruiser Game Design.
So from all that it’s my constructive well meant Feedback:
Early Game Jumping, Early Game Powerlevel of the BC is b4d design for the Economic Strategy Game Starcraft 2.
Thanks for reading.
Find the Video@YT from the first sentence , Title = Title, I can recommend it to any gamer (6)
Skol!
Disclaimer: Redundancy might be intentional.