I apologise in advance if this topic has come up, and if I am repeating anything that someone has already said. I know that people have been asking for StarCraft 3 for a very long time now, and, with the recent news that Korean company Nexon have bought the rights to the intellectual property of StarCraft (including both Brood War and StarCraft II), and have greenlit a game, I thought to look at what I’d like the game to look like.
Narrative
I know that not everyone likes there to be a story. A lot of people just want to jump straight into it and get into the game mechanics and the multi-player game. That’s fine. Not everyone plays the campaign. But some people do. A lot of new players like to play the campaign to get into it, and it acts as both a tutorial for the mechanics and also as a kind of playable movie. StarCraft I had 6 campaigns - 3 for the original and 3 for the expansion - while StarCraft II had 9 - 3 for each of the 3 expansions. In both StarCraft I and StarCraft II there were 3 campaigns per release, with each release having 1 campaign for each of the 3 factions (zerg, protoss and terran). I think that that trend should continue.
What should the narrative be about?
There were a number of unresolved conflicts from StarCraft II. While Kerrigan ascending to become a Xel’Naga is a nice way to finish things, it leaves the 3 races in disarray. The zerg don’t have an overmind or anyone to lead them at all, the terran are left with their leader being assassinated and they are expected to trust his son to lead them, and the protoss are without their connection to the khala with at least 3 major factions vying for dominance. Meanwhile, the Xel’Naga were supposed to be from a combination of the purity of form (protoss) and the purity of essence (zerg) and yet Kerrigan has no protoss elements - she is formed from terran and zerg. This could upset the Xel’Naga purists, who could argue that she is unworthy. Not only that, but there are supposed to be multiple Xel’Naga, not just one. And then there is the issue of the humans back on Earth, who sent the United Earth Directorate to try to clean up the terran mess, only to have their main people either die or get infested. While they could just leave it all alone, they might just send an even bigger force and try harder.
What I think the terrans could want to do
While the terrans are likely to want to try to have a leader (who is probably not going to be Raynor, as he doesn’t want to, and I don’t really see too many people supporting the son of their former leader), I think that Earth will send an almighty force in. What that force could look like, I can’t be sure, but if the original terrans were primarily American and the UED was primarily Russian, then that means… China. It’s the next logical step, given how strong China are now, and how strong they have been historically. So I think that whatever they are, back on Earth they would have overthrown the UED and established themselves. They’d probably have a lot of dragon-themed things and maybe some other stuff like phoenixes and the like.
But I actually think that this wouldn’t be quite as established as the UED were, and there might be some opposition to them from, say, Korea and Japan. That means a heavy robot and cybernetic enhanced group who might have a lot of cyborgs running around. And they might like to transform the original UED and terran weaponry, so imagine some SC1 units that have been changed, with cybernetic enhancements and that kind of thing.
In terran space, we could thus have not only the Terran Dominion versus the new group from Earth (Dragon Force maybe?) but they could have a third cybernetically-enhanced group (Cyber Force perhaps?) who could challenge them, giving us a three-way war, or kind of a two-way war that has come from Earth to terran space to fight it out.
The Dragon Force probably want to kill all of the zergs and the protoss and dominate everything while the Cyber Force might want to ally with them, or at least with the protoss.
What I think the protoss might be doing
Getting rid of their connection to the khala was a big deal, and, with Amon dead, they could restore it. Doing that would mean a lot more unity, and, with the dark templar left largely leaderless, there would be no barriers against them.
Except that there kind of would be, as the Tal’Darim are never going to go along with what the rest of them are doing, and then there’s the Purifiers who might want to go back to their old habits. And then, with the leaders dead, the Dark Templar might just wander off and do their own thing without the khala.
And then there is the problem. What if restoring their connection to the khala opens them up to Amon influence? What if Amon isn’t dead? What if Kerrigan isn’t as trustworthy as they think? What if, somewhere out there, someone else wants to control them?
What are the zerg up to?
Without an overmind, the zerg needed Kerrigan. Now that Kerrigan is a Xel’Naga, they need someone. That means that either they want to bring Kerrigan back or form a new leader, such as a new overmind. They would most likely want to do both, and might convince Kerrigan to create a new overmind for them. This, of course, is risky business, as the original overmind killed the Xel’Naga, and so a new overmind, once fully-formed, could kill Kerrigan, though you’d think she’d be aware of that threat.
There are also the Feral Zerg, who we touched on in SC2, who probably wouldn’t want the overmind to take them over, and who might just see all of the existing zerg as juicy targets to defeat, kill, eat and absorb. Feral Zerg could conceivably be targeted by the zerg and then have a confrontation in which, conceivably, the Feral Zerg win. This could benefit Kerrigan, who would be happy leaving it to the Feral Zerg.
And what about the hybrids?
There was a lot of desire for the hybrids to be a playable race, but they never were, and my thought is - why not? While having 4 races is a bit more clunky than having 3 (think WarCraft 3’s 4 races), they could have it at least for a campaign. Indeed, conceivably you could have 4 types of hybrids, namely:
1 = terran/zerg hybrids e.g. infested terrans but perhaps going to other types of troops
2 = zerg/protoss hybrids e.g. what we termed “hybrids” that we’ve already kind of seen, only these would be playable.
3 = protoss/terran hybrids - we have never seen them, but with the cyber force mentioned above, there might be a desire to create them. indeed, the cyber force might be the ones leading the push.
4 = protoss/terran/zerg hybrids = this could be the new form that is the ultimate form.
How to do it? One main and 1 expansion? 3 expansions? Or what?
I see this as being 4 expansions, namely:
1 = A terran expansion that focuses on Earth taking over Terran space
2 = A protoss expansion that focuses on the restoration of the Khala
3 = A zerg expansion that focuses on creating a viable leader
4 = A hybrid expansion that tries to create the ultimate creation, completing the cycle
Per tradition, each expansion would have 3 campaigns, one for each of the 3 races, but the hybrid expansion would have 4 campaigns, for the 4 types of hybrids.
The game would finish with the ultimate hybrid being perfected, leaving terran space, and heading to earth, where it will enslave humanity.
PC, console or mobile?
You know what I’m going to say here. All 3! I think that we could have an e-sports that is PC-based, as it is now, and we can continue that tradition. The e-sports version of SC3 I think could merge SC1 and SC2 into something akin to the StarCraft Evolution mod, only it’d be much, much more. The console version could be done in a console way, aiming to have 1 vs 1 used with controllers for people sitting right next to each other. The mobile version could be a casual, light-hearted version.
Given how the StarCraft arcade games have created so much variability, including effectively creating the MOBA scene, I see it as quite viable to have all 3 versions at once. E-Sports would be aimed towards PC gaming, but if people wanted to play the mobile or console versions as e-sports they’d be allowed to try.
What kind of units?
I see there being 3 types of units:
1 = SC1 units, all available at least during the campaign, with the ability to mod them to your liking based on the campaign’s progression. The best of these that people like the most could be what is used in the eventual multiplayer game
2 = SC2 units, also all available, including units that were deleted due to balance issues. Once again, in theory these will all be available in the multiplayer game, until they work out which ones work best. These will be modded to what works best.
3 = New SC3 units, unheard of before, such as those from the Dragon Force and Cyber Force groups of terran, and similarly in the other races.
PvP games would not have hybrid as a playable race, at least not for e-sports, but maybe a version of them could be? Maybe? There is the possibility of it.
Could this work?
When StarCraft came out, it started off as a joke, as “WarCraft in space”. Nobody took it seriously. But then it went from silliness to something top-notch, and it became the legend that it is today. It was never targeted at Koreans, and it has no Korean characters whatsoever (and still doesn’t), but yet Korea was the country that loved it. Why, I don’t know. They just did, and they were very good at it, and they still love it today, even the original version.
SC2 was a joke, as it took far too long to come out, and was suggested as being 3 standalone expansions, for an RTS genre that was already dying. And yet it was a triumphant success.
Today, SC2 popularity is waning in Korea, but SC1 popularity is as strong as ever. SC2, meanwhile, is waning in America, but it is becoming more popular in Europe, who are dominating the e-sports scene, while Chinese and Russian players are becoming better and increasingly interested in it. StarCraft today is more global than it ever was.
Nobody has ever criticised StarCraft’s focus on an American idea. After all, Blizzard are US-based so it is fair enough, however, now that Nexon have the intellectual property, they may be able to properly integrate a broader global appeal, with Chinese, Korean and Japanese and maybe other Asian groups also being represented, plus perhaps more of a European focus as well, so that it is more globally-oriented. This could be done not just for fun but properly, as Nexon is known to deeply understand Asian and global dynamics, and they perhaps understand it better than Blizzard does.
Could this actually work?
The creation of StormGate might or might not work. Some see it as the spiritual successor to StarCraft while others think it might fail. If it succeeds, it might represent a competitor to SC3, but it might also encourage it. It’s not like the RTS market is saturated - it’s more that nobody cares about it anymore. People still want to play it, there’s just nothing for them to play. SC3 developers could learn from StormGate, whether it succeeds or fails, and make it work.
SC1 was a joke, while SC2 looked completely wrong, yet both succeeded. There is no reason to think that SC3 would fail.
Do you remember when SC1 and SC2 came out?
I wasn’t aware of SC1’s release, as the only Blizzard product I had played to that point was Diablo, as I didn’t even know that WarCraft existed, so for me I was not overly excited by it, until I got it as an accidental birthday present from my dad, who misunderstood my desire to play a turn-based strategy (of course, real-turn strategies are very different). I’ve never been any good at StarCraft as I am a TBS player not an RTS player, but it is one of those few games that I at least have enjoyed even when I am bad at it. I tend to prefer to watch people play on e-sports than to play it, though I have played it a bit. I loved that SC2 let me play it at my own level against players who I could beat. This, I feel, made SC2 much more approachable than SC1.
When SC2 came out, I was hyped. I was hyped for having 3 releases, and I was hyped for each release. I was lucky enough to get to play Heart of the Swarm with a beta code, which was amazing.
If SC3 came out, in any form, I would be hyped, and I can bet that most SC1 and SC2 players would be too.
So what do you all think? Is this doable? How would you do it?