#188 - StarCast: “Title”
• Garrett • Kyle
News
Legacy of the Void Beta Incoming
This upcoming Tuesday, March 31st The Legacy of the Void Beta Begins.
- They’re starting it sooner than they would normally. So expect a longer beta period.
- Expect a rocky start to the beta.
- Some units and features will be missing at the start.
Links
Since Our Last StarCast
The evolution and thought process behind changes.
December 17, 2014 : Multiplayer Update
Mineral Count Reduced By 1/3rd
Gas Reduced by 1/4th
12 Starting Workers
Remove late game upgrades
Terran :
Herc
- Tech level changed to Armory requirement
- No longer deals splash damage
- No longer effective for cost
- Grapple is to target ground
- When landing from grapple, knocks enemy units in that area back
Banshee Attack Range Decreased Back to 6
Cyclones Auto Cast their ability
Zerg :
Lurker Range Upgrade no longer requires hive
Aggressive Mutation on Infestor Removed
Experiementing with Zerg Anti-Air abilities on th Viper
Protoss :
Experimenting with new early game, slow moving unit with Phase shifting.
Mothership Core’s Photon Overcharge hits air and ground again.
Immortal Barrier is an upgrade.
January 20, 2014 : Balance Test Map
Void Swarm Host Changes being added to Hots
Point Defense Drone duration decreased to 20 seconds
March 19, 2014 : Balance Test Map
Tempest deal +14 Massive damage to air.
Viper Blinding Cloud Buff
Legacy of the Void Beta Preview
Resource changes
- The number of resources are being altered.
- Half the mineral patches have 1500 minerals, and the other half have 750.
- Currently a standard expansion has 8 nodes and 1500 minerals on all of them.
- “The main goal here was to make a change that would keep the feel of resourcing rates similar to Heart of the Swarm, while simultaneously encouraging players to take additional expansions more aggressively.”
Starting worker count
- Starting worker count has been doubled to 12.
- “This change is meant to reduce the downtime at the start of games, since the first few minutes of any game often grant little in the way of choices.”
- “...we wonder if we can increase this even further without affecting early game choices too much.”
Unit Scan Range change
- Improved target acquisition of ranged ground units.
- “Now, we’re just looking to see if any strange, unexpected behavior is caused by this change.”
Game speed altered to match that of real time
- In-game clock will now display real-time.
- “We’re trying this out due to our community having asked for this feature, and also because it’s a bit confusing to not have the game display real time. We have a couple major concerns with this change...”
- Game speed changing to real time also means all game values that are related to time also must change. Eg. When we say a cooldown of an ability is 5 seconds, we want that to mean 5 seconds.
- This means all attack speed values, movement speed values, cooldown times, research times, upgrade times, and unit build times will all need to be re-memorized. This is mostly applicable for hardcore players, and it seems that they are the ones requesting this change most fervently. We expect casual players will likely pay less mind to timers either way.
- They don’t want to have an option for this.
Links
Unit Changes
Protoss
General
- Units that are warping-in have become more vulnerable while constructing. The goal of this change is to strengthen harassing tactics versus Protoss, while also making a Protoss player’s army and warp-in positioning a more tactical decision.
New Units
- Core Gateway unit
- Ground-only ranged attack
- Ability: Psionic Transfer
- Sends out a copy of the Adept that is controlled independently but cannot attack or be attacked. After a fixed duration the Adept will teleport to the location of the copy as it expires.
- Light Mechanical unit
- Built from the Robotics Facility
- Ability: Purification Nova
- Once activated, the Disruptor becomes invulnerable and gains increased movement speed. After 4 seconds, the Disruptor emits a massive blast dealing AoE damage in a circle and immediately becomes vulnerable again, also losing its speed boost.
Existing Units
- To strengthen the harassment options available to Protoss, the Warp Prism can now pick-up units from a distance.
- In order to create more opportunities for Terran Mech, and to increase the impact of micro, the Immortal’s ‘Hardened Shield’ ability has been removed and replaced with ‘Barrier’, an activated ability which grants the Immortal a limited hit-point shield.
- To create more diversity in Protoss detection, Revelation has been removed and merged with Envision so that any targets tagged are now revealed for 60 seconds.
- New Ability - Stasis Ward: This ability places a cloaked Stasis Ward on the ground which, upon detonation, will explode and trap nearby enemy units in stasis for 30 seconds.
- To help incentivize action, the Tempest has had its role changed to an aerial skirmish unit – its movement speed has been increased, it can now only fire on ground units, and it has been granted an activated ability called ‘Disintegration’ which deals damage over time.
- Carriers can now activate ‘Release Interceptors’ to permanently launch all interceptors at great distance. After 60 seconds, any remaining Interceptors will perish.
Terran
New Unit
- Factory Unit
- Can lock onto a target & deal massive damage over time, while moving.
- Very micro-intensive as the lock-on has a specific range, it the Cyclone moves too far away from it’s target or it’s target moves too far away from the Cyclone, the lock-on is broken.
New Terran Unit
- We’re also in the process of exploring a second new unit for Terran. We’d like to avoid something from the Factory, as that building already has quite a few units already. Instead, we’re looking at adding a Barracks unit, Starport unit, or possibly even a new building altogether. Our initial idea is that we’ll see the interactions of various changes to the game, and try to locate something interesting and fun for this slot during the beta.
Existing Units
- The Battlecruiser has been granted the ‘Tactical Jump’ ability, allowing it to teleport anywhere on the map (regardless of fog of war) at a very high energy cost.
- To coincide with Legacy of the Void’s focus on harass and aggression, the Siege Tank has been granted the ability to be lifted and dropped while maintaining Siege Mode. Doing so requires the full cargo-space of a Medivac.
Zerg
New Units
- Tier 2 unit
- Morphs from Hydralisks.
- Deals line-based splash damage while burrowed.
- Out ranges all existing base defenses.
- Tier 3 attack range upgrade available.
- Morphs from Roaches
- Ability: Corrosive Bile
- Corrosive Bile is a mortar-style area of effect skill-shot which, once fired, impacts after a short delay. The ability can hit both air and ground units, and also will destroy any forcefields it comes in contact with.
Existing Units
- The Corruptor’s ‘Corruption’ ability has been removed and replaced with ‘Caustic Spray’. Caustic Spray is a channeled ability which deals increasing damage over time to the unit or building targeted. However, the Corruptor cannot move as it channels this spell.
- To strengthen Zerg harass, the Swarm Host has been shifted from a siege-tool, to a mobile harass tool. ‘Spawn Locusts’ can now be used while unburrowed, but it must be activated manually, and has a much longer cooldown. Locusts themselves have been buffed, and can be upgraded to fly over terrain. They must then swoop down to the ground to engage.
- To enhance the diversity and strength of harass options for Zerg, the Nydus Worm can no longer take damage until it is finished unburrowing. A main effect of this change is that workers will no longer be a viable defense versus Nydus worms.
Carbot Archon Mode
The Legacy of the Void beta is near, and along with it comes Archon Mode. This new co-op game mode allows you to team up with a friend and play as one. But before you pick your partner, check out Carbot Animation's humorous glimpse on the benefits (and challenges) you'll find when working together as one.
Links
Emails
Omega
Greetings APM Heroes!
Ever since blizzard put out the call for ideas in the closed beta videos there have been many suggestions for a new terran unit. Do you guys have a favorite unit idea or any to add to the pile?
Outro
iTunes Thanks
Into the Nexus is produced by Amove.tv and Declan H. You can see more about this and all the other You can also email the show at starcastshow@gmail.com. StarCast is a production of Amove.tv. You can find this and many other awesome shows like Into the Nexus and The Angry Chicken!
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Personal Stuff
Garrett
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Kyle
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