Unused Faction Variants

[Sheliek]

I was dicking through the map editor because the servers were down when I installed the game, and found a lot of stuff I thought would be in campaign but wasn't.

Off the top of my head, Nerazim version of High Templar (forget if it had unique spells, but I'm guessing Dark Archon was merged from them and you could no longer get regular Archons, and it DID have new quotes and a portrait, so it was made late in the process), and Purifier Stalkers (which have a unique model, relatively; isn't just a reskin) can blink two times in one charge, then the cooldown begins. There was also a fully functional defiler (though it used the scantipede model) that went unused, and a Khalai coloured Void Ray that functioned like the HotS multiplayer one.

Just a heads up for custom map makers out there, they put a lot of extra content in it that didn't appear in campaign.

Also, my own inferred theories:

I think the Khaydarin Monolith was gonna have a faction split. There's a Khalai version of the model that is slightly different but extremely similar. Appears on Glacious but is just aesthetic. I forget which, but either a Tal'darim or Purifier variant of the model as a doodad exists as well. If that's the case, it's possible photon cannons and shield batteries might have as well (Tal'darim photon cannon looks different; flimsy theory, but you never know). Cloaking void pylon would've been a neat alternative to shield battery, as well; ASSPULL SPECULATION HERE: a Purifier version of the shield battery that repairs mech units would've been cool and fill out the three variant requirement.

In addition, since there's already a Khalai version of the Void Ray (Arbiter), and also an unused, mostly functional Khalai Void Ray, it's possible the Arbiter would've been a Khalai version of the Oracle, and the Mothership might have been the Tal'darim variant. Tal'darim carrier model would likely have been used as a proper carrier-type unit, and if you place it in the map editor, it's just a carrier with the Tal'darim mothership spells, none of which actually work on the carrier version (just inactive buttons).

Who knows? Just my own theories.

But yeah, lots of dummied out stuff in the map editor. Have at it, folks!

[Sheliek]

Here's a project I'd love to take part in:

A bunch of us should scour the editor for all sorts of cut stuff, functional or otherwise, from the campaigns, and just make a sort of centralized source of where to find the assets and how to activate them. Did you know infestors, queens, drones, overlords, guardians and devourers had (some fully, some barely usable) functional mutations in the HotS campaign? By cataloguing all of the stuff from Wings, Swarm and Void's editor, people could save time using them, or even looking to them for ideas for new units and upgrades for their own campaigns and maps.

[Drake Clawfang]

There's also hints the Scout was gonna be in as a Purifier unit; it had an Afterburner ability that doubled its speed for a while.

[The_Blade]

It might not be the case for LotV, but a lot of Primal Concepts, Models and Abilities lingers in HotS's story dependencies. The main problem is that the work is unfinished, and several ideas were scrapped without the proper art to support them.

The main difficulty of archiving this data is "completing" it. Some times a simple texture and some base animations might (do like with the Defiler); but there are complete voids of art on data files for several primal units.

[Nolanstar]

The purifier stalker gets used by the AI in some missions ( cybros ), and on shakuras you see DT coloured shield batteries by the warp gate.

[Drake Clawfang]

More notes, examining some data indicates there were other variants. The Skylord is the Tal'darim Carrier, the Signifier is the Nerazim High Templar, and an unnamed Aiur Void Ray. The Carrier and Void Ray are just names and I can't find much, but the Signifier has a whole unit. It just uses the HT's model, but it has separate abilities. It is permanently cloaked, and has "Crippling Psionic Storm," which has a related effect named "Psi Storm Cripple" that saps armor by 5 for a time.

With a third HT variant planned, maybe Archons *were* their own tier at one point. And with the Skylord and Aiur Void Ray replaced by the Mothership and Arbiter in the final product, I could easily see the Tal'darim Mothership and Arbiter sharing a "capital ship" tier with another unit.

[Drake Clawfang]

Just noting - yeah, I'm almost certain Archons and Cloaking Vessels were separate tiers at one point.

Data exists for a "shadow archon" formed by merging two Nerazim dark templar, whereas the dark archon was merged by Tal'darim blood hunter DTs. This gives us normal archons, dark archons, and shadow archons. Furthermore, both the HT and DT tiers (if the Signifier is in over the DA) have the Aiur, Nerazim, and Tal'darim factions, which would allow two of any templar type to merge into their respective faction archons. There's no data to suggest that was intended, but it makes sense. Also note in the final product, Tal'darim archons use the same model as the dark archon - laziness, or a hint that the Tal'darim archon was always intended to be the dark archon?

As for cloaking vessels, yeah, the Skylord and Aiur void ray exist as units, but are unfinished. Another unfinished unit is a Purifier mothership. The Skylord replaces the Tal'darim motherships with the carrier and tempest, the Aiur void ray replaces the arbiter with the void ray and destroyer, and voila - we have a new tier for cloaking warships with the Purifier mothership, Tal'darim mothership, and Aiur arbiter. Admittedly, the purifier mothership's data indicated it was a summon like Summon Fenix/Talandar, but it fits.

[Sheliek]

Interesting finds, gonna home in on this though.


[...] a hint that the Tal'darim archon was always intended to be the dark archon?

The official artwork revealed on the Blizzcon page for 2014's Blizzcon called it, specifically 'Tal'darim dark archon', leading me to believe that, yeah, the dark archon was intended to be Tal'Darim for quite some time.

I see two ways Archons worked, and I'll go over the one that would've been simpler based on the faction selection screen we have, mostly the same from 2014's demo. Archons were likely a separate choice from the spellcaster: if you picked Khalai High Templar, you could have them merge as normal into Archons or into Nerazim or Tal'Darim variants. It would've been simpler just because way less info dumped on players when picking a faction.

Alternatively, you pick the Khalai High Templar, you are stuck with Archons; Signifier gets Shadow Archons, and Ascendant gets Dark Archons. Simple and makes sense lore-wise, but would've been a lot of info in the unit selection panel on the Spear of Adun.