SC: Evolution Thoughts

[Gradius]

It boggles my mind Umoja still doesn’t have a real army.

Mengsk’s bunker is 50 m deeper than any Protoss purification? Liberty’s Crusade said it breached the mantle, so that’s impossible.

Valerian says "Even at her best Kerrigan had been something of a maverick. At worst she’d been a traitor." Traitor, really? How does evil mass murderer sound?
I bet Zahn was banned by Blizzard for saying that even if he thought it was true. Or even worse, nobody wants to acknowledge she's a mass murderer.

So they finally explained how transmissions work interspecies. The psi just gets converted to a sound and sent via Terran communication protocols. The zerg reverse engineered an old Valkyrie comm system.

Did Matt really not tell Valerian what happened to Sarah? He was there. Da fuq?

Protoss can inhale plant spores. So they can breathe through their skin.

So people still don’t know how psi emitters work. If it attracts Zerg on the controller level or base level. It seems commanders can't stop its effects.

I’m sick of seeing human ghosts be more useful than Templar in battle. Tanya, Nova, Kerrigan, can all fry a bunch of Zerg minds just by focusing really hard or removing their psi inhibitor, and in the meantime, the supposedly most powerful psionic species of the galaxy just slashes at its target uselessly like a deranged crane. Protoss don’t have telekinetics, they don’t have the ability to fry brains, so what the hell do they have?

Glave Wurms get inside of Terran vehicles/ships and eat them. Whoa.

Protoss calling terrans by their full name and rank is a million times better than this “friend Raynor” crap.

I like that the timeline says Arcturus enacted a brutal civil suppression regime to end the unrest that Raynor’s Rebellion caused. Would have been nice to have this info in HoTS so it felt like we accomplished something.

[Visions of Khas]

You, uh... you're a little late to that party, huh?

[Gradius]

You, uh... you're a little late to that party, huh?
Yep. Found a way to get it for free and read it at work. :P

[Visions of Khas]

I’m sick of seeing human ghosts be more useful than Templar in battle. Tanya, Nova, Kerrigan, can all fry a bunch of Zerg minds just by focusing really hard or removing their psi inhibitor, and in the meantime, the supposedly most powerful psionic species of the galaxy just slashes at its target uselessly like a deranged crane. Protoss don’t have telekinetics, they don’t have the ability to fry brains, so what the hell do they have?

This utterly disgusted me. The Protoss' entire mission was to find a telekinetic ghost because protoss can't move shit with their mind?! Come ON!

I love Zahn, I really do, but outside of Star Wars, he needs to lay off the fanfiction.

[ragnarok]

Yep. Found a way to get it for free and read it at work. :P

Only now? I downloaded it online months ago

[ragnarok]

It boggles my mind Umoja still doesn’t have a real army.

Mengsk’s bunker is 50 m deeper than any Protoss purification? Liberty’s Crusade said it breached the mantle, so that’s impossible.

Valerian says "Even at her best Kerrigan had been something of a maverick. At worst she’d been a traitor." Traitor, really? How does evil mass murderer sound?
I bet Zahn was banned by Blizzard for saying that even if he thought it was true. Or even worse, nobody wants to acknowledge she's a mass murderer.

So they finally explained how transmissions work interspecies. The psi just gets converted to a sound and sent via Terran communication protocols. The zerg reverse engineered an old Valkyrie comm system.

Did Matt really not tell Valerian what happened to Sarah? He was there. Da fuq?

Protoss can inhale plant spores. So they can breathe through their skin.

So people still don’t know how psi emitters work. If it attracts Zerg on the controller level or base level. It seems commanders can't stop its effects.

I’m sick of seeing human ghosts be more useful than Templar in battle. Tanya, Nova, Kerrigan, can all fry a bunch of Zerg minds just by focusing really hard or removing their psi inhibitor, and in the meantime, the supposedly most powerful psionic species of the galaxy just slashes at its target uselessly like a deranged crane. Protoss don’t have telekinetics, they don’t have the ability to fry brains, so what the hell do they have?

Glave Wurms get inside of Terran vehicles/ships and eat them. Whoa.

Protoss calling terrans by their full name and rank is a million times better than this “friend Raynor” crap.

I like that the timeline says Arcturus enacted a brutal civil suppression regime to end the unrest that Raynor’s Rebellion caused. Would have been nice to have this info in HoTS so it felt like we accomplished something.

That's because Umoja is meant to be really high tech, but hardly have any resources, hence no army.

I didn't read that part on Liberty's crusade, maybe they reinforced the bunker after BW.

For the whole maverick and traitor thing, I really wish you'd lay off of it all. Trust me Gradius, if you're only exposed to the absolute WORST humanity has to offer, your viewpoint changes. Having said that I DID wish they made her smarter, and no just rely on mere instincts. Again, you and I will be going about in circles for this, I may have accepted SOME of your views, but not all. You grow up in brutal environment like I did, you'd see it a bit differently. The whole mass murderer view was because after seeing only the worst humanity has to offer (save for Raynor) she saw virtually everyone else as just a cheap copy of Mengsk. Again, this is why if nothing else, I had hoped the epilogue would have said she was still trying to learn from Raynor about humanity.

For Matt not telling Valerian, probably because he wanted the prince to figure it out on his own

The whole psi emitters not stopping its effects, I didn't understand why they didn't bother putting a remote control to turn the emitter off. Even back in the SC1 days I don't think it was said once you turn it on it can't be deactivated without destroying it....

The whole Protoss not having the ability to fry brains isn't true. The mindblast by Asendants can do just that. Really wished we could have seen the Tal'darim that stayed with the Daelaam teach the high templars that. Personally I always felt there should have been a better explanation for Kerrigan's psionic abilities that way surpass the Protoss (now yes you can say this would go into the mystical crap again, but still).

For the civil suppression, I'll give you that one. You'd think after Media Blitz Mengsk would have had no choice but to do just that to stop the rioting. It would prove that he couldn't just tell the Dominion people for taking credit for the Char invasion and that got them right back into line.


This utterly disgusted me. The Protoss' entire mission was to find a telekinetic ghost because protoss can't move shit with their mind?! Come ON!

I love Zahn, I really do, but outside of Star Wars, he needs to lay off the fanfiction.

We all knew Protoss psionics were different from terrans, but that they never developed telekinesis made no sense. All Zahn really had to do was say that amongst the young Nerazim in training, THEY didn't develop telekinesis properly, and thus Ulavu's mission was to look for terrans with that power to see if it could help the young ones. Granted it's still not a good explanation, but it would have helped.

[Nolanstar]

Hey, that bunker being materials strong enough and with advanced enough cooling to survive in the mantle/outer core simply makes SC tech level even scarier.

[ragnarok]

Hey, that bunker being materials strong enough and with advanced enough cooling to survive in the mantle/outer core simply makes SC tech level even scarier.

Now if only it's going to be put to good practical use

[Turalyon]

Yep. Found a way to get it for free and read it at work. :P

Sucker for punishment, aren't ya Grad? :p

[ragnarok]

Sucker for punishment, aren't ya Grad? :p

Tell me Tura: before you even read the book, did you have the impression it'd suck or something?

[Visions of Khas]

Regarding the Brood Mothers, it's stated that they have "zones of control" that sometimes overlap.

How does that work in large- scale campaigns? Do individual minions grow confused when they hit the boundary? What if multiple BMs are in close proximity? What if a BM wants to send out a "detachment" some light years away -- can they?

[Nissa]

Tell me Tura: before you even read the book, did you have the impression it'd suck or something?

Every single novel to this point has sucked. Blizzard has to break the pattern before we believe otherwise.

You're strong, Gradius. I can barely stand the original SC novels. I don't think I can stomach an SC2 one.

[Turalyon]

Tell me Tura: before you even read the book, did you have the impression it'd suck or something?

Never read the book (or any SC novels for that matter) nor did I have any prior/preconceived expectations about the book (or any SC novel for that matter). I would have to have some base level of interest about them first before doing any of those things. Short answer: meh.


Regarding the Brood Mothers, it's stated that they have "zones of control" that sometimes overlap.

How does that work in large- scale campaigns? Do individual minions grow confused when they hit the boundary? What if multiple BMs are in close proximity? What if a BM wants to send out a "detachment" some light years away -- can they?

That'd be kinda funny if their control was proximity based. BMs would have to be physically present/nearby to their army when engaging another BM because otherwise the opposing BM could just take control of any "detached" Zerg army.

[ragnarok]

Regarding the Brood Mothers, it's stated that they have "zones of control" that sometimes overlap.

How does that work in large- scale campaigns? Do individual minions grow confused when they hit the boundary? What if multiple BMs are in close proximity? What if a BM wants to send out a "detachment" some light years away -- can they?

I didn't get the whole control zone thing. That would imply once a zerg unit goes beyond the zone, they'll turn feral or something

[Visions of Khas]

Zahn likes all his details and technicalities. He just... doesn't think them all the way through...

[ragnarok]

Zahn likes all his details and technicalities. He just... doesn't think them all the way through...

Well it's not like I read any of his other books, VoK. What are his other works like?

[Visions of Khas]

Well it's not like I read any of his other books, VoK. What are his other works like?

Zahn tries so hard to create little profound "Aha!" moments that, more often than not, fall flat on their face from sheer ridiculousness. Or a scenario is unnecessarily convoluted. That, or he tries to create a Sherlock Holmes character, and achieves this by making everybody else stupid. The Green and the Gray, and The Icarus Hunt, are particularly guilty of this. Moreover, his characters are flat and, quite honestly, boring.

Even so, he's got a couple good ones. I loved the Thrawn trilogy, but that series is a bit of brilliance enhanced with a fair bit of nostalgia in my mind.

[Nolanstar]

Got my issues with the thrawn trilogy as well. Mainly that the "fleet" everyone is searching for is missing a few zero's in the numbers required to actually be effective...

[Visions of Khas]

Mainly that the "fleet" everyone is searching for is missing a few zero's in the numbers required to actually be effective...
Eh, to be fair, it's a reversal of the Rebel v Empire dynamic in the movie; instead of the Rebels' handful of ships vs a mammoth Imperial fleet, a small Imperial fleet defeats an expanded Republic armada.

[ragnarok]

Zahn tries so hard to create little profound "Aha!" moments that, more often than not, fall flat on their face from sheer ridiculousness. Or a scenario is unnecessarily convoluted. That, or he tries to create a Sherlock Holmes character, and achieves this by making everybody else stupid. The Green and the Gray, and The Icarus Hunt, are particularly guilty of this. Moreover, his characters are flat and, quite honestly, boring.

Even so, he's got a couple good ones. I loved the Thrawn trilogy, but that series is a bit of brilliance enhanced with a fair bit of nostalgia in my mind.

Interesting, I'll look into that when I get the time

[ragnarok]

By the way Gradius, regarding your comment on how the Umojans still have no army, the only thing I can think of right now that might explain that is via LotV:

After the Slayn, Endion, and Revenscar missions and you're ready to go back to Aiur, if you go to the war council, Vorazun will comment that the Golden Armada had devastated the sector. Now yes, we all know the terran lore part usually focuses on the Dominion, but there are slight touches to the Umojans. It's possible that the Golden Armada had assaulted Umojan worlds too, and their military was completely wrecked because of it in a vain attempt to defend them. That would then explain why 4 years later, they don't really have much of an army or anything like that.