Awesome, sounds like we are seeing the same type of potential Izsha truly has available. 
& i like the Protoss Air/Anti-Air theme commander idea too. had noticed that Air in general seems to be much weaker compared to the old SC (BW) especially when it came to Zerg, who was generally the weakest of the 3 races in that area.
I did look up other Commander concept ideas and found some rather nice presentations in video format on YT, where people created mods for their concept ideas. So i kinda started tinkering with this myself heh although I’m likely only 1/10th of the way finished concept, i started by picking which units to use & have all of these so far in a mod.
(as independent units so as not to cause conflicts with base features of game when i start editing) but still need to assign actors, etc, and edit the abilities, attacks, evolutions etc.
I’d like to share a bit of what we have so far, including a few BroodWar units, as well as new units that are either based on unused/beta ideas or Lore. Perhaps you might be interesting in offering some more feedback as i plan to soon begin the much larger process of creating the concept in mod form? (its totally fine if thing need changing, but the more preplanning, the less chance of having to redo more things)
Ill attempt to start with the tech/building order (minus things like drones, or gas, or we could be here forever) since i’m not 100% certain if there should be more building requisites or if there are enough to prohibit rushing, keeping this a more defensive oriented build right up till the final unit (which is a concept and may not be attainable at all in shorter matches, as it would require unlocking ALL Izsha’s tech first, minus evo upgrades.)
would also like to mention, i did include a small number of ground units for base defense & hope it will be clearer how all these units in particular are purposed for supporting an Air/Anti-Air /Defensive or less aggressive playstyle with a few different evolution paths for each player to choose from.
so 1st will be Build/Tech order, 2nd will be Evolution order. 3rd will attempt to describe how units differ from their standard counterpart
Hatch, Pool, Gas, Lair. (Evo)
Skry, Palace, Den, Hive.
Great Skry, Dungeon, Pit. (+a WIP surprise)
::::::::::Hatch:::::::::::
e-NorD, Mantaling, Skryling, Skrylord, Queen/
:::::LAIR::::::
Lair Queen, Nietholisk, Devour, Corrupt. Skyrlisk (Non-Skryling)
:::::HIVE:::::::::
Hive Queen, Sylem, Defiler, Swarm Guardian, Swarm Lord, Sister
UNITS EVOLUTION
:::::::TECH::::
| HATCH | LAIR | HIVE
:::::::UNITS::::
Mentaling < Nietholisk < Defiler (Nietho Lord) Eurypter
+ Den + Pit
Queen > Lair Mother > Hive Queen (Monarch)
+ Nest/Palace + Dungeon > Sylem > Sister
Skryling > Skrylisk > Swarm Devour > Swarm Guardian
< Skry Lord > Swarm Corrupt > Swarm Lord
+ Skry + Great Skry
Unit Descriptions
(all names are concept ideas, most based on lore)
- Skryling - based on Adostra lore.
Skryling do not attack, mini overlord like unit.
can provide either more (max not instant) resources if in proximity… OR a HoT with limited stackability. both can be autocast but not simultaneously. may also require research first, or to increase effect. (caps at 5hp/s ~1 to3 should feel like average gains)
The Skyrling themselves cannot attack, but can evolve into either an Overlord (Skrylord varient) OR evolve into Skyrlisk (Mutalisk varient)
Skyrling can also be spawned in pairs by Overlords/Skyrlord.
(in theory, Skyrlisk may be created before Lair, but would require Overlord spawning Skyrling to then evolve. preventing rushing, while allowing small number of muta as option for early-er defending units… as a trade-off for more Control, Max Gas potential, HoT)
AFTER Lair Tech & Skry/Spire
- . Both SkryLISK & SkryLORD can choose to evolve into Corruptor or Devouror varients (in addition to standard larva spawning)
AFTER Hive Tech & Great Skry/GSpire
-
. Corrupter may evolve into Swarm Lord
-
.Devourer may evolve into Swarm Guardian
(+ standard larva spawning)
-
Swarm Guardian will attack with “aerial swarms” or something ikin to this concept, will not be a clone of Swarm Lord (brood lord) which is an air unit that attacks with ground based “broodlings”
Guardian will also be slower, tankier, and likely do less dmg. while keeping in mind this is Hive Tech.
-
Drones will NOT have the option of mutating into defensive structures such as Spine Crawlers, Spore Crawlers. Instead will have the option to evolve into Mantalings with short cocoon time.
-
Mantalings at time of writing, allow a drone to eventually mutate into a Hydralisk, with an intermediary step to prevent abuse. while still allowing base defense opportunity, specifically anti-air. Or as trash units for damage absorption. (may also be fed to Defiler)
*Nietholisk is based on Origin of Hydralisk. would likely be weaker vs ground & possible slight increase to air compared to Standard Hydralisk. may also be slower, or weaker defensively. (not too much tho i’d hope. Lair Tech)
*Defiler, placeholder name Eurypter or NiethoLord. would require Hive Tech + either Den upgrade or “Pit” structure to produce unit. Defiler are not really in the game, but have a very interesting ability to protect units for a time, from all incoming Ranged Attacks. it is also a psionic unit, which canNOT upgrade it’s attacks. In addition, Defiler can also use “Plague Ability” which detects cloaked, burrowed units, (this does do 300dmg over 40sec, but will leave enemy with 1hp. how perfect for Izsha’s lore heh)
Seeings as this unit is in very few instances of the Actual game, it may either require a lot of “control” or may otherwise be limited to less than 10/team. Ill have a better idea later in testing.
-
Hydralisk/Nietholisk may evolve into NiethoLord.(the idea, but perhaps not)
*Queen, will have Prefix to distinguish, will mostly work as Standard SC2 Queen with some differences that encourage base defense use. (IE has both Queen heal types, but even slower off creep)
*Queen can be sacrificed to build Palace/QueenNest like a drone does. (At LAIR)
*Queen Nest/Palace can produce pairs of BroodQueens (from original SC) Placeholder name Lair or Palace Queens.
-
No current plans for changing brood queens, but may tweak later.
*a Palace Queen may be used in sacrifice to produce Dungeon upgrade for Palace(at HIVE Tech) after which a separate Palace Queen may evolve into 1 Hive Queen. (may be limited to 1 per team at a time, will test)
*Hive Queen (Monarch) currently based on BroodMother but super slow off creep, higher defense, will do more damage to air units vs ground, cannot heal as Basic Queens do, Can Spawn pairs of “Sylem” at the cost of 200Energy (something really high)
-
Sylem Require Hive, Dungeon, & max energy Monarch to produce a pair.
*Sylem are a fictional unit based on SC Lore and the old Terran strat of using a small control group of Medic & Ghost/Specters.
(while trying to keep unit numbers close to, or below 13, atm these 3 terran units will be combined into 1 unit, with both male/female variation for Monarch to spawn.
for balance these require a lot more tech than Terran to obtain, many shorter maps may not see this unit. which is part of the point, as those who produce it are encouraged to not waste these units and keep them for base defense/healing/detecting.
*Female Sylem may be used to Inject at Palace ONLY. to raise limit of LairQueen production. & can NOT Inject at hatch/lair/hive.
*Male Sylem will instead have an “Insanity/Madness” ability, that can cause the Enemy Target to Hallucinate (maybe 10sec each, stackable to 40s max. will test)
*Otherwise Female Sylem should be regarded as variant of infested Medic+Ghost & the Male Sylem a varient of Ghost+Specter.
(May Replace “Nuke” with weaker variant as calldown from a non Izsha Leviathan in Orbit. Or an infestation bomb, like from the lore of that time Kerrigan used Structures to Infest. which i can’t find atm. forgot the battle’s name.)(Hyper Evolutionary Virus)
Think i touched on almost everything other than the SkryLord & Izsha herself here. but this was the jist of how most of Izsha’s Units might work while not being too powerful or too fast to get an air army out. with paths for Queen or Hydralisk as the Ground’s Base Defense units that allows players to practice many commonly used SC2 mechanics (in addition to some old scBW-ish ones, or completely new ones)
There was another Spin i had to put on this, that would be even more difficult to reach (in terms of time, resources, tech, etc) than even the Sylem.
but I’m still mulling over the details for that & as it’s (imo) an even less likely feature to get picked up by Bliz if any of these might… and would be the hardest thing to implement out of anything i’ve described here or hadn’t yet…
its basically a super LATEgame summon/evolution which requires all tech at max. (other than evo/armor/attack upgrades)
including at least 1 of each, NeithoLord, Swarm Lord, Swarm Guardian, + 8 Sylem & 1 Skryling.
All of which would be sacrificed to produce 1 unit.
I’m trying to think of the best way to do this without being too arbitrary. 8 Sylem will board a SkryLING for their sacrifice. similar to how Overlords transport, but Sylem will be only unit that can board SkryLing. the other 3, (could add Monarch too, = 4more)
I haven’t fully decided but for now lets say they mutate into a structure or structures that has so far been unnamed…
- But would would that turn into? for all that effort?
- a Hybrid Nemesis (i been calling Sister lol)
*Sister would be a slow Nemesis variant based off of “Adostra lore”, in accord with Kerrigan’s will to co-exist peacefully.
*although my idea was to make Sister more like a slow tanky Defiler/NiethoLord, having “Dark Swarm” or a variation of it replacing the “Phase Shift” ability.
Sister will likely not make it into the game lol even if she did I’d imagine most maps will end before it got to that point. but I’ve been having fun playing with these ideas & hope to eventually finish the FULL Concept in Mod format. weither Bliz & the community decide they’d like it in game or not. this will likely take longer than a week and require some testing for sure but the most difficult thing for me so far has been trying to limit the number of available units, where as once you hit 13, start considering that almost might as well keep going past 20 for a full alt race lol
This is what i have so far though. Most of it. Would love some feedback regarding these or any of the other parts i missed due to how long this would inevitably be coming from me haha
Such as Izsha herself which is atm not much more than a dubbed Leviathan, and will need tweaks, hero aspects, stats, lvl requirements etc. Or the Skrylord(overlord variant) which I’ve had many ideas for but haven’t fully found a stopping point on yet. (keeping it relating to Skyrling yet still viable for OL drops or standardish gameplay while being anti-air/air defense/nonrush)
To Conclude, I aimed for this concept build to remain somewhat flexible while remaining as Air/Anti-Air, Base Defense, NonRush focused.
I wanted to increase healing potential, (&Psionics) while not undermining existing units, Thus LairQueen (& most likely HiveQueen) will not have heals, but standard Queens will be slightly more viable to heal while not taking away their purpose of Hatch Injections. Plus a later game Healing unit (female) Sylem, which can be used for supporting the base defense(/later pushes with creep) or Injecting at Palace/Nest if a player desires more LairQueens.
Which left Skryling as the Only Aerial moving Healer, with limited HoT stack to discourage early air assaults, while encouraging mid game sustain.
From my perspective these units should offer a lot of options for several forms of Air/Anti-Air Zerg gameplay styles. While keeping fairly tight to this goal of enabling base defense non rush stratedgy.
& see it as a nice way for Zerg players to practice essential Zerg Micro/Macro base building, injecting, techniques. Along with the ever growing questions of “how many Ground Units to Air units” (& “what units per situation”) we each ask ourselves, regarding what to use.
Thank you again for the feedback and definately appreciate the taking of time to read it. Super sorry it was long, but hopefully it is readable & that i didn’t over complicate it too much.
Cheers
PS. What cool Evo Chamber ideas might Izsha use, while keeping power/balance/fairness in mind? i was just trying to get units more fit for Air/Anti style established first. even if it meant creating new strains >.< Weither some abilities i have mentioned would require more “research” prior to use, is up to Bliz & the community. just a reminder to anyone who missed that this is a Concept Only & will likely need tweaks for sure.
O& While not sure who will notice this, but YES i did try to revive an old Blizzard Concept of “3 Queens” (Huge, Large, etc) but i did this somewhat differently. heck i couldnt find much info about how “3Queens” was supposed to work at all, other than Queens evolving larger. (technically Female “Sylem” equals 4th Queen lol) but i tried, and hope others may find this idea interesting. (this spin or the original)
There was something else too >.< other than “Mantalings”… (what was it) OH the lore explination for Sister. Well to summarize, to create a Hybrid, Kerrigan learned this would require several hard to find ingredients. Such as compatible Infested Terran units with Psionic capability. Plus Xel’Naga Essence, or in our case the Adostra held by our SkryLing units. Since According to Lore, Kerrigan kept some details from Zagara & Abathur regarding Hybrid Creation, Izsha would be the only one (that i know of) other than Kerrigan with knowledge of how to create both Adostra & Hybrids. (This, plus asthetics of Defiler SC1&SC2 i felt looked a LOT like Hybrid Nemesis. which is where i got the Idea for Sister & using these later-game units to produce her.)
Edit
i forgot to mention, since still mulling over the details, but for Male Sylem, i keep toying with the idea of “Insanity” causing not only enemy hallucination effect but could cause the Male Sylem to (instantly?) transform into a Hydralisk/Nietholisk, as an homage towards Kerrigan’s Consort (forgot his name lol sorry) whom was an special infested terran Kerrigan created with a human face but 2 extra Hydralisk arms. (that also rode around on a mutalisk lmao)
I’d just forgot to mention that, as i was actually basing the male “Sylem” on lore as well.
& Sylem in general are based around the tons of lore involving Ghost/Specter training, as well these were the primary units on guard duty during Hybrid/Infestation Testing.
Thus they are created from The Monarch Queen after a Dungeon has been installed on the “Palace” / QueenNest.
& I’ve played with several ideas, 1 of which where this unit is Androgynous (a fusion of Female Medic & Male Ghost/Specter ie 2in1) which retains a small portion of its (2) original hosts/personalities.
But am currently leaning more towards a dual unit type similar to how Ghost have male and female operatives.
Perhaps… since this unit is planned to spawn in pairs, there might also be NO selection, where instead players will given one of each per spawn.
ALSO lol
Sylem come super late, not only to give Terran the natural advantage of using these unit types First (Medic, Ghost/Specter) but also in attempts to justify how Izsha would be bypassing several terran structures & the nuke upgrade itself… by requiring full techup in the Queen branch first, & even proposing Their spawn being limited to the Monarch/3rd Queen’s Energy Resource. /zheart
–
Unit Count
-
- Izsha,
-
- Drone, 3. Overlord, 4. Skryling
1 Mantaling, 2 Skrylisk, 3 Nietholisk, 4 Queen
5 LairQueen, 6 Devour, 7 Corrupt,
8 Monarch Queen, 9 NiethoLord, 10 Swarm Guardian, 11 Swarm Lord
-
- Sylem (x2) 13. Sister