LotV Data Hidden in Patch

[Drake Clawfang]

Decided to dig through the editor on a hunch there might be - eeyup. Obviously not everything is here but some stuff to be worth posting. Sadly no campaign stuff it seems, all Allied Commanders, but cool stuff either way.

There are various "Cache" tooltips that unlock unit upgrades or unit production. Reaver upgrades are of course at the Robotics Bay, Dragoon and Zealot upgrades are at the Twilight Council. I believe these are from Allied Commanders, going by everything else. There's some for all three races, and upgrades are of course where you'd expect to find them (Dark Archon at Dark Spire, Sci Vessel at Tech Lab, etc)

Artanis is here with Dragoons and Reavers are promised, and he has Archons and Tempests along with the standard stuff. There's an upgrade called "Glory of the Daelaam," which increases maximum supply to 200. Two more abilities, "Swift Retribution," which instantly teleports him to the battlefield, and "Superior Warp Gates," which allow warp gates to hold three charges. Can has Shield Overcharge to give all allied units and structures +100 shields for 20 seconds, and can deploy a power field anywhere; allies can also use this field. He can all an orbital strike of five lasers, which deal 50 ++100 vs armored) area damage. He also has the following abilities via the Spear of Adun.

Guardian Shell: Upon taking fatal damage, units become invulnerable for a short time, preventing death. Unit cannot be protected again for 60 seconds.
Matrix Overload: Grants pylons the ability to energize friendly units in their power radius, temporarily increasing movement and attack rates.
Shield Overcharge: Doubles the amount of shields granted by Shield Overcharge.
Solar Bombardment: Performs an orbital attack, randomly bombing a large area and dealing massive damage. (This is a separate ability from the orbital strike ability mentioned earlier)
Solar Onslaught: Doubles the amount of shots fired during Orbital Bombardment.
Warp Harmonization: Enables Warp Gate research to affect Stargates and Robotics Facilities.

Here's Vorazun, her Allied Commander abilities are Black Hole, Dark Pylon, and Shadow Guard. Dark Pylons provide control and power and cloak nearby structures and units, Shadow Guard deploys 4 "elite Dark Templar" at target location. She also has Dark Archons and Corsairs, the former have Confuse and Mind Control and can attack air and ground units, the latter have Disruption Web. The Shadow Guard have an upgrade that gives them an aura called "Void Shroud," which stops enemy detectors from seeing them or other nearby cloaked allies. Dark Pylons meanwhile can be upgraded to have Recall. There's a "Veil of Shadows" upgrade that boosts the shield regen rate of units cloaked by Dark Pylons by 400%, and another "Strike from the Shadows" that boosts the damage cloaked units deal by 25% (works on all cloaked units, not just Dark Pylon-cloaked units). Finally is "Shroud of Adun" which boosts the shields of Dark Templar and reduces their vespene costs. She also has some help from the Spear of Adun:

Chronomancy: Reduces cooldown of Time Stop by 60 seconds.
Emergency Recall: Upon taking fatal damage, recalls friendly units to owner's primary structure.
Event Horizon: Negates armor of all units trapped by Black Hole.
Orbital Assimilators: The Spear of Adun harvests vespene from orbit without need for probes. Increases gas collection rate by 25%
Time Stop: Freezes all enemies in place for duration.

Enough Protoss, let's get Zergy with it.

Zagara's upgrades in Allied Commanders focus on, naturally, getting out lots of banelings. Swarmlings and Splitters are in, and she can upgrade Baneling Nests to periodically spawn Banelings on their own. She can spawn 4 Hunter Killers and fire Banelings at a target location with Baneling Barrage; an associated upgrade reduces the energy cost of the two abilities and increases the number of units they spawn. She can upgrade units to spawn broodlings on death, and Abberations to spawn banelings on death. She can also call down drop pods of roaches, with an upgrade to boost the number that spawn. Bile Launchers are unlockable, they're turrets that do area damage to ground and air units. Then "Mass Frenzy" boosts the attack and movement rates of all friendly units on the map for 15 seconds.

A big deal for her, Zagara normally has maximum 100 Supply, but her units train faster, cost less, and drones hatch in pairs.

Kerrigan has her Leaping Strike and Psionic Shift abilities from the campaign, and Assimilation Aura, which causes enemies nearby to drop resources on defeat for 15 seconds. Leaping Strike can be upgraded for range and power, too. She can upgrade Nydus Worms to Omega Worms, which cost no resources and upload units faster, and Zerglings into Raptors and Ultralisks into Torrasques, both of which work like in the campaign. Malignant Creep, Crushing Grip, and Fury also return from the campaign, but the second now affects units in a radius near Kerrigan. She also has an upgrade to gain life as she kills enemies.

Now we're gonna Terran up the thread.

Raynor can call in an orbital bombardment from the Dusk Wings. He can also call down the Hyperion for 60 seconds of ass-kicking, and it has Yamato Cannon, Advanced Point Defense Drones, and Warp Jump, and an ability to double its life to 120 seconds. More upgrades to it allow it to deal splash damage with the Yamato Cannon, and use its targeting systems to give nearby allies +2 damage. Remember MULES? Yeah, Raynor can upgrade to call down two at a time. Raynor's Barracks build 50% faster, and his infantry train 20% faster. As a separate upgrade, infantry have +15% attack rate by using Mercenary Munitions. Nano Projectors increase Medic and Firebat ranges by 2, and there's a universal Stim Pack upgrade to reduce the HP cost of using them by 50%. Orbital Depots return with Drop Pods, the latter working for the Barracks and Factory. Siege Tanks can be upgraded to change to siege mode faster and have +3 armor in siege mode. Finally, Banshees can be upgraded for splash damage and reduced cloaking costs.

Swann has an ability to boost the construction speed of mechanical vehicles and starships by 20%, and as part of that, Factories cost no vespene. A second upgrade gives Swann's mech units +20% life. He can also upgrade all passive turrets - "Devestation Turrets" gain range and slow enemies, Missile Turrets gain life and do area damage, and the cost of Perdition Turrets is halved. Swann can also call down a drop pod of 4 ARES warbots with 60 seconds timed life, with an upgrade to spawn 6 from the pod. Swann can also call in the Drakken Laser Drill which seems to function as it did in the campaign, a powerful laser with unlimited range. Not sure if unrelated, he also has another laser ability that does 400 damage to all enemies in a line across the map. Thors get Immortality Protocol again, and so do Siege Tanks. SCVs can be upgraded to build structures faster by assigning multiple SCVs to it, and as part of that upgrades, repairs have no cost.

[Jconant]

I also like the subtle changes they made to the prologue campaign. brutal mission 1 seems a bit harder (the terran liked prioritizing sniping my high templar), the tel'darim have slightly changed models that make them less spiky; reined in spikyness to zealots and immortals in particular make them more recognizable as protoss and


...nvm i dont know how to do the spoiler black block

[Drake Clawfang]

Hm. Think the prologue is worth replaying to someone who's already played it and has the time on their hands?

[Visions of Khas]

Jconant, regarding spoilers:

So the vision of Tassadar came from the Void. Do you think it's a ruse by Amon?

[Jconant]

@ Drake: yes, the achievements in beta I dont think necessarily cross over to your main account for one (but I suggest it anyway, as I said they tweaked the campaign a bit since their beta release)

@ VoK: I'm not sure, I doubt it but I won't rule it out. Tassadar became a master of wielding both the light and dark energies, so whether he is a psionic hallucination or tapping into the void in such a manner allows his spirit to exist outside the physical realm.

As for amon, the preliminary content we've been seeing makes me wonder whether or not Adun was Amon or a henchman in disguise, making the khala have a similar vulnerability as the zerg do to an over riding will.

[Drake Clawfang]

Replayed it; didn't notice any differences except Tal'darim models had changed. The Sentries were more noticeably bulky.

The very cliche color scheme aside, I do like that the Tal'darim have different-looking units. Their tech is obviously much bulkier and angular, gives them a different look from normal protoss but still similar enough to recognize what each unit is.

[Sheliek]

Anything besides just data summaries? I don't expect like stat sheets or models, but I know HotS and WoL had a lot of unit icons in this caches. Love to see the new units, if only in icon form.

[The_Blade]

Most of the models and resources found in the StarCraft 2 editor were probably left there by mistake after the beta patch kicked in. Considering the newer structure (CASC) is now the frontier of their data compression and encryption, there are probably tools over at Blizzard that had to be updated. For instance, the SC2 editor. It has changed way more than it did before, so maybe the files it leaves in cache are no longer readable by the public version.

However, I do not know this for sure as I have not seen the files directly nor the editor.

[Drake Clawfang]

Anything besides just data summaries? I don't expect like stat sheets or models, but I know HotS and WoL had a lot of unit icons in this caches. Love to see the new units, if only in icon form.

As you wish. There's also the Cyclone, but that's it and we've seen that in previews.

http://ibin.co/2ISde9c7Us90

[Sheliek]

I knew we'd be seeing an Aiur Dark Templar, and I'm not entirely sure why. This was a cool read and glance. Hyped, that's for sure.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

Yay no arbiters.

seriously considering passing on Legacy, every day.

[Alex06]

As you wish. There's also the Cyclone, but that's it and we've seen that in previews.

http://ibin.co/2ISde9c7Us90
Sweet. Apparently there's more, though. Care to show all of these, as well:

- ''Archon upgrade''
- ''Firegate'' (resemble the Hots shuttle)
- Replicant (Disruptor button is different)


Source:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/19288908767

Oh, and could you please post the Cyclone and Disruptor BTNs as well, if possible? I don't have access to the game files currently but would like to see those. :(

[Sheliek]

Yay no arbiters.

seriously considering passing on Legacy, every day.

Arbiter was in as of July. A leak came out around Gamescom that mentioned Arbiters as a void ray variant, as well as corsairs and the UI they revealed a week or two ago. So, given they called those two things, and this is only AC stuff, arbiter's in campaign at least.

[Drake Clawfang]

Yay no arbiters.

seriously considering passing on Legacy, every day.

Keep in mind this is only from Allied Commanders: if Arbiters are in the campaign, I won't find them. I've looked for Campaign-related stuff, no go.


- ''Archon upgrade''
- ''Firegate'' (resemble the Hots shuttle)
- Replicant (Disruptor button is different)

Searching just by buttons, found actually quite a few "dark" variants of existing units. So we now have the Dark Archon and the "dark" Archon. This also means, strictly speaking, we have a Dark Zealot. :p

http://ibin.co/2ITl01MXxZvi

[TheEconomist]

Daaarrk arrrrrchons yeeeaaaaaaaah

[Nolanstar]

Those icons have literally been there since WOL was released. Frigate Is just development name for the Shuttle.

[Drake Clawfang]

*shrug* Dood asked. Though that does make me question why they made these "dark" protoss and then never used them.

[Sheliek]

*shrug* Dood asked. Though that does make me question why they made these "dark" protoss and then never used them.

If you toggle the Dark Protoss upgrade on a player, I believe the icons change to those ones as well, but I haven't toyed around with that particular upgrade (other than dissecting how it works for reasons) in a couple years.

[Jconant]

all those dark protoss were used in Wings of Liberty or Hots when kerrigan is taking on Narud. the semi taldarim

[Sheliek]

It's a stretch, and I'll find out in a month anyway, but I figure multiplayer stuff is in there too. Is the HERC still kicking around anywhere? I need the model for a project. If it's not, modified Swann Marauder will do, but the HERC would require little-to-no tweaks.

I know the Warhound made it into HotS' campaign, so if the HERC was programmed into any missions, odds are it's in campaign. The Guardian and Devourer were cut early on in the campaign, still made a cameo in the Umojan Lab (Devourer) and Zerus (Guardian), and both are fully functional in the editor. Seems likely HERC's in, but I'd like to make a mock-up for Swann sooner rather than later if possible.

[Alex06]

As you wish. There's also the Cyclone, but that's it and we've seen that in previews.

http://ibin.co/2ISde9c7Us90

Care to reupload this pic? Looks like it went down for using too much bandwith. x)

[Drake Clawfang]

Hang on, I'll make a full master image of all of it.

Also for fun, included the Nullifier, the prototype Sentry during beta.

2408

[Sheliek]

Hang on, I'll make a full master image of all of it.

I'll make a backup for ya once it's up, just in case.

[Drake Clawfang]

As I work on Kerrigan's AC abilities for the Wiki... the devs were really lazy with her. Almost half of Kerrigan's AC abilities are upgrades for her personally, and most of them are ripped right from HotS - Leaping Strike, Fury, Psionic Shift, a variant of Crushing Grip, Malignant Creep, and two separate abilities that power up Leaping Strike and increase her energy regen. Everything else is an "Unlock new unit/upgrades" thing. The only new abilities she has are Assimilation Aura, which is an activated ability that causes killed enemies to drop resources for a short time, and Mutating Carapace, which gives her temporary HP buffs as she attacks.

Looking at it all, not only did they just recycle her HotS abilities for AC and then tack on some "unlock new unit" stuff, but they didn't even pick good/fun ones - Leaping Strike and Psionic Shift suck, Malignant Creep is meh, the Crushing Grip stun is meh, and the passive power-ups are boring. Where's Apocalypse? No Improved Overlords or Automated Extractors? I've even give her Chain Lightning and Infest Broodlings. Zagara got all the fun stuff, Spawn Banelings, Mass Frenzy (her take on Wild Mutation), drop pods.

[Sheliek]

Hey now. Malignant creep is great in certain contexts. They weren't gonna completely redo her abilities for this, obviously. Still, a little better choice wouldn't have hurt. Ah well, at least aberrations finally get the upgrades I've been lusting after if you choose Zagara.

[Drake Clawfang]

I was actually hoping we might get some of her original abilities back that were gonna feature in her Battle Focus mechanics, where you chose between different locked skillsets.

[Drake Clawfang]

One more thing to share, dunno if this has ever been noticed - the old Nomad had a portrait done, and its portrait textures have a funny thing in them.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starcraft/images/4/40/SC2_Nomad_Portrait_Texture.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151015040810

[Drake Clawfang]

Found this model in the editor. Spoiler tagged it: it's visible in the trailers, but isn't immediately obvious.

So yeah, Artie's nerve cords are severed (another model has them intact) and he has Zeratul's gauntlet. He's turning to the dark side.

http://sclegacy.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2418&d=1445993099

[The_Blade]

Holy fucking shit!

Spoiler:

Zeratul dies when he fights Artanis after the Khala Protoss go insane!

[Undeadprotoss]

Holy fucking shit!

Spoiler:

Zeratul dies when he fights Artanis after the Khala Protoss go insane!

FUCK ME, WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO CLICK ON SPOILERS.


Also wait how do we know that for sure?

[The_Blade]

FUCK ME, WHY DO I ALWAYS HAVE TO CLICK ON SPOILERS.

Also wait how do we know that for sure?

SPOILERS:
So far we know that Amon triggers *something* at the start of LotV just after the reclamation starts. The Khala Protoss lose their minds and become corrupt. Scenes from the Oblivion trailer show Artanis fighting Zeratul. They fight on a ruined Protoss structure, therefore it might be just after the corruption. The opening cinematic reveals Zeratul is already with the Khalai Protoss before the invasion of Aiur. If THAT gauntlet is Zeratul's there's only one reason for keeping it... R+L=J

95% sure

BTW something changed this patch. Some LotV data directories shifted. What day is that model from?

[Undeadprotoss]

Damn, I saw a tiny bit of that spoiler box when I tried to quote reply. It didn't really get into specifics though because I turned away at the last second. As long as they'res a reasonable amount of uncertainity, I guess its not a total spoiler but pertaining to the point

the story/campaign dev team mentioned at Blizzcon that Zeratul would be taking an "Obi-wan kenobi" esque role of the situation, so I'm guessing that means he'd be present for most of the campaign, or at least a sizeable chunk beyond the brief Aiur invasion missions.

[Jconant]

I didn't like that blizzard revealed a big plot point that would initiate the whole conflict for the Protoss campaign, that plus the snippets of of cinematic they have revealed in their teaser trailers hints at whats going to happen at the end of mission 3 or 4.

[Drake Clawfang]

A minor note; the "upgraded" archon button I found? It's from Allied Commanders; Artanis can upgrade Archons to be able to use Feedback and Psionic Storm, and they're called "High Archons."

Guess the Twilight Archon is back in a manner after all.

[drakolobo]

I didn't like that blizzard revealed a big plot point that would initiate the whole conflict for the Protoss campaign, that plus the snippets of of cinematic they have revealed in their teaser trailers hints at whats going to happen at the end of mission 3 or 4.

yes....that had left me speechless in launch day, if they had not revealed this Great twist of history pass the glorious invasion, a large fragrant defeat

[Nolanstar]

They have added some new ones now. A nerazim immortal and a new static defense structure.

[Sheliek]

They have added some new ones now. A nerazim immortal and a new static defense structure.

Screenshot? Can't find them anywhere obvious, but might be looking in the wrong place.

[Drake Clawfang]

Found the Nerazim Immortal button, but no model for it, and none of either for a "new" defensive structure. There is the shield battery, though.

http://i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq156/DrakeClawfang/Icons_zpsbq5pqqec.png

[Sheliek]

Some slight but noticeable differences between Khalai and Nerazim Immortal from the looks of it. That's good. I'd be disappointed if some of the units were recolours. Even slightly modified art would be great.

Oh, also, I have reason to suspect based on screenshots from campaign that two-ended scythe DTs and warp blade-on-wrist DTs are two separate units, which makes sense enough to me.

Not a single campaign screenshot shows wrist!DTs, but plenty of scythe!DTs. Will dig 'em up, I know someone asked yesterday. http://sc2.163.com/articles/1001/74724

[Drake Clawfang]

Yeah, I'd love if we got Nerazim variants for all unit, sans the Void Ray and Stalker for obvious reasons. To provide a visual compliment to the bulky and crude Tal'darim and emphasize the stealthy nature of the Dark Templar, Nerazim units should be more streamlined and sleek, and in some cases smaller with thinner armor.

[Sheliek]

I'd say having some bulky Nerazim units isn't a bad thing. That Immortal looks beefy, but in a sleeker way than the already seen Khalai or Tal'Darim models, if you get what I mean. Crippling over-specialization will cripple any army, no matter how advanced. :P I wonder if there'll be a Nerazim or Tal'Darim adept? We know Khalai and Purifier for sure, so it'll be one of those two.

inb4 there's four versions of every unit. :O That'd be beautiful.

[Nolanstar]

Found that static D Structure, its icon is a /unit, not a building.

Assets\Textures\btn-unit-protoss-khaydarinmonolith.dds

2426

[Sheliek]

That's the new DT defensive tower you unlock on Shakuras, based on screenshots linked in the last page. Wonder how it functions?

[KaiserStratosTygo]

Looks like a ship photon cannon but in a darker color scheme.

[Sheliek]

Just looked at the screenshots I linked last page to compare and double-check. It's definitely the campaign's monolith defence tower.

[Jconant]

Achievements are up while the rewards are invisible, one thing I noticed is that the third zlot option is likely a purifier zealot (which heavily resembles the "super zlot" concept except robotic and white/orange color scheme)

[Drake Clawfang]

I checked the achievements; even if they're ghosted out, you can see hover your cursor over them to see.

Purifier Fenix is definitely in.

And...

"Ascended" Kerrigan, with achievements that refer to her taking part in the final mission chain and having a Celestial Beam attack.

If Kerrigan becomes a physical deity and saves the galaxy in the Protoss's friggin' own campaign, I'm nominating her for Villain Sue.

[Visions of Khas]

^- Risky click of the day. Saw two names and noped out of that hidden content.

[Jconant]

It's probably something along the lines of kerrigan becoming the next generation of xel'naga. I'm still curious how theyre going to justify fenix being a purifier.

[Undeadprotoss]

^- Risky click of the day. Saw two names and noped out of that hidden content.

What spoilers have you been exposed to? I saw the pic of the achievement names and yeah >.< really wish I didn't.

[RODTHEGOD]

Wait... so... Fenix is a purifier now? How on earth did blizzard think that was a good idea?
and Kerrigan is going to be a super being at the end of the protoss campaign? God dam it....
How could blizzard be so retarded?

[Visions of Khas]

Ah, here is Fenix in the top-right on the poster: https://twitter.com/Blizzard_ANZ/status/660949497099350016

And concept art?

http://i.imgur.com/NtIOvI6.jpg


EDIT The Protoss directly behind Starbuck is Alarak, FYI.

[The_Blade]

That concept art is supposed to be for Purifier Artanis, a skin on Heroes of the Storm. But everything is connected...

[ragnarok]

Wait... so... Fenix is a purifier now? How on earth did blizzard think that was a good idea?
and Kerrigan is going to be a super being at the end of the protoss campaign? God dam it....
How could blizzard be so retarded?

Now this will come back to bite everyone in SC3 and everything. Besides, such ascension only proves Zeratul's stupidity in trusting her when he shouldn't have.

[Visions of Khas]

Portraits:
http://i.imgur.com/39CKH5b.png

[Turalyon]

Wait... so... Fenix is a purifier now? How on earth did blizzard think that was a good idea?
and Kerrigan is going to be a super being at the end of the protoss campaign? God dam it....
How could blizzard be so retarded?

I'm more shocked that anyone can still be genuinely surprised at the thought of Blizz doing asspulls these days. Lol

[Nissa]

"Ascended Kerrigan"? Did I miss something there?

[Drake Clawfang]

I've played through the first three missions and am going to best, but so far... I am actually feeling this. Something about the writing feels different. There's still awkward cheesiness, yes, but there's good moments too. Characters are actually expressing emotion and personality, not just reciting exposition.

Also, a truly awesome moment comes early on.

Artanis says to Zeratul that he feels unready to be leader, but Zeratul assures him he is. They agree to part ways to do stuff.

"En Taro Tassadar, old friend."

"En Taro Artanis, my brother."

THAT was cool.

[ragnarok]

"Ascended Kerrigan"? Did I miss something there?

It's just something Blizzard pulled from their heads for the sake to beat Amon.

[TheEconomist]

The first two "twists" were spoiled for me by trailer (glad I stopped when I did) but I'm still enjoying it somewhat. The situation of the Protoss lends itself to far more tension than that nonsense in WoL and HotS, so that's something.

As for the gameplay, it's pretty good so far, not disappointed. I'm just glad to finally be playing Protoss. They difficult seems to be at least not disappointing, but, then again, I don't have deathball units yet so we'll see :D

[Drake Clawfang]

Okay, folks can calm down - they do have a good explanation for Purifier Fenix, it isn't just "we activated some ancient robot and made it act like Fenix."

It's explained that the Conclave did shut down the old Purifier program, but in modern times they had ordered some of its technology be continued to be studied for use in robotics. This is how the Sentry and Warp Prism were developed. Fenix came to the facility under Aldaris' orders to be brain-scanned into a prototype unit that was made to examine the viability of fully reactivating the old Purifier program.

Also, Fenix recognizes Artie as the Executor, and he sounds like the old Fenix we know and love, both in voice and in mannerisms.

[Nissa]

The problem isn't that Fenix needed an in-world explanation of why he exists, but an out-world one. That is, why did Blizzard bring him back when he has no plot potential and his fate in BW seemed fitting for the chararcter?

[Drake Clawfang]

Pandering: fans were asking if Fenix would return as an Immortal or infested since SC2 began. Well, they got their wish.

EDIT: Artie sums it up. "Seeing Fenix once more perplexes me. I feel sadness, when I should feel joy."

[Nissa]

LOL. That is the quote of the decade with Starcraft. New favorite thing, acquired.

[Drake Clawfang]

Well, there's the answer for why Fenix is here.

His example convinces the protoss that the ancient Purifiers may help them in spite of their rebellious history. His acceptance as a true Templar by the protoss helps to convince the ancient Purifiers that the Daelaam won't treat them like the Conclave, and the Purifiers side with them. He subsequently becomes the Purifiers' representative aboard the Spear of Adun, and Artie speaks to their Purifier Executor through Fenix.

[Turalyon]

LOL. That is the quote of the decade with Starcraft. New favorite thing, acquired.

+1

What makes this meta reference even more juicy is because it was probably unintended as well.

[ragnarok]

+1

What makes this meta reference even more juicy is because it was probably unintended as well.

Yes it was probably due to pressure from the community yet again. After WoL I began to wonder how much of the story did Blizzard actually think ahead, and how much they were just making it up as they went

[DonnyZeDoof]

I think one of the reasons they brought Fenix back is because it helped with the Kerrigan redemption story that was shoe horned into the campaign. Fenix is alive so there's no possibility for Raynor to want to kill Kerrigan at all.