HotS REVEALED!

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 3:54 pm

Two new units for Zerg!

Three new units for Protoss and Terran!

Carriers and motherships REMOVED! Overseers REMOVED! Thors limited to ONE AT A TIME!

Hydralisk get a SPEED BUFF!

Nexii get RECALL!

OH MAN THIS GAME IS GONNA BE SO MUCH BETTER THAN WOL. WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT I'VE PLAYED FOR THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF COMPARED TO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 6:59 pm

Carriers used to be one of my favorites in the first game. What improvements are made by removing them?

THE
LESS IS MORE
AARDVARK

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 7:18 pm

1. Nobody ever made them.

2. Everyone complained about how they were useless.

3. SC1 elitists would not shut up about how the carrier sucked compared to SC1, and SC2 sucks, and Blizzard sucks, and everything sucks.

So I think Blizzard said, okay, fuck you.

+++ATH0
NO CARRIER, BITCHES

Good for them.

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 10:49 pm

I think its interesting to note how Blizzard is retooling the game, as for an expansion pack, they normally add units and balance them as part of the set as opposed to the center pieces (Brood War, Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne). With Heart of the Swarm, they are essentially breaking the game and retooling the core dynamics, which (and here is the argument) is more along the lines of what they have been doing with World of Warcraft through that game's expansion packs, as opposed to their RTS / point and click games.

After playing Diablo III through twice at this point, the game feels as if it essentially runs on a kind of WoW core rule set. This resulted in a friend of a friend who took part in the friend's and family test, to say that "it will be a commercial success of course, but this will be the first genuinely bad game that Blizzard has ever released." It wouldn't be a stretch to note that HotS and 'Echoes of the Void," or whatever the Protoss expansion will be called, may follow the same path with a similar result, as we'll likely see three very different interpretations of SCII that adhere more and more to reinvention as opposed to balance and refinement.

Looking forward to finishing the story regardless...

pinback · Post by **pinback** » Sat Oct 22, 2011 11:03 pm

I don't know where you're getting all that from. The core game seems pretty untouched, they just removed a few things that nobody was using and replaced them with things people might use.

Also, Zerg gets their space-control unit, which everyone in the universe was bitching about.

Also everyone I've heard from says that Diablo III is killer.

Call me a "liker" if you must. Are you a "hater"?

Let's all be LIKERS. I just want people to be likers.

RetroRomper · Post by **RetroRomper** » Sun Oct 23, 2011 1:04 am

pinback wrote:I don't know where you're getting all that from. The core game seems pretty untouched, they just removed a few things that nobody was using and replaced them with things people might use.

Actually removing / swapping out units from the game instead of re-balancing them is I think, a first for Blizzard. And though it does make sense since Carriers were rarely used, the mothership was useless, etc, this wasn't a problem they encountered with the original Starcraft nor Warcraft III. And while not a major overhaul of the game mechanics, this is the sort of thing one expects from a beta as opposed to an expansion.

Pinback wrote:Also, Zerg gets their space-control unit, which everyone in the universe was bitching about.

Broodwar added a dynamic to an already balanced game (Note: I'm not saying the original SC is superior to SCII) and while HotS does add new and novel elements, they are also patching fundamental flaws that exist in WOL.

Pinback wrote:Also everyone I've heard from says that Diablo III is killer.

Its going to be fun! And while arguably no other company than Blizzard can one up themselves on Diablo II, DIII integrates enough WoW elements (set characters (no stats), nearly identical quest system, etc.) that there is a chance the game will either be a well polished hybrid, or fall apart at the seams. Either way however, it is no longer strictly a sequel in the Diablo evolutionary line.

Pinback wrote:Call me a "liker" if you must. Are you a "hater"?

I'm just a poor student who is currently worried they may have overdosed on caffeine while studying for mid-terms.

Pinback wrote:Let's all be LIKERS. I just want people to be likers.

I'm liking the changes to SCII in HotS, but this philosophy of being free to make sweeping changes to gameplay didn't derive from DII, SC, or Warcraft 3. I was musing that it probably derived from the fact that they have become used to completely re-balancing WoW through its various expansions (adding and removing quests armor and characters), as opposed to balancing the game through incremental patches (which they have done, but that doesn't appear to be enough).