Small SCWire Article on SC2 Heros

http://starcraft.incgamers.com/artic...rd-heros-work/

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What does the future hold?

As Artanis pointed out* that StarCraft is not WarCraft in space, and StarCraft II will remain faithful to its roots. Mission briefings are back, transformed into the new story mode reminiscent of the old, now almost extinct, adventure games. Players will be able to decide whether to jump into next mission right away or to witness character interactions, watch galactic news, and immerse themselves deep into the story and StarCraft lore.

Story mode is where you'll get to know the heroes such as Jim Raynor or Tychus Findlay closely, thus their presence in actual maps will be more scarce. You'll still be able to control them in missions where they can make a difference, but they will stay off-map in great battles, where the ground trembles under the stampede of Ultralisks, the sky is filled with Battlecruisers, and Yamato bolts are vaporizing the very air that is sparkling with Protoss psi-storms.

In such situation a single marine isn't going to be a lot of help, no matter how badass he is. Death of a hero will mean instant defeat as before, but new mechanics will come to play to make sure players don't leave them to rot in safety of their base. For example, Chris Metzen mentioned a gimmick, where instead of dying right away, your hero will drop to his knees and wait for a medic to revive him.

The regular units won't be alone on the battlefield, though. You will be able to hire a variety of mercenaries in between missions and then subsequently recruit them from Merc Haven. These unique units will boast improved stats and will therefore fulfil the role of heroes from StarCraft I, with one important difference: they are expendable. If they die, tough luck (for them). You'll have to finish the mission without them, but you'll be able to hire new mercs for the next mission.

The mercs don't gain any experience or upgrades, so there's no point to keep them sitting in your base. Let them go in a blaze of glory! That's what being a merc is all about, after all. Their role will probably be very similar to the Zerg "hero" units in StarCraft and Brood War, such as the Hunter Killers.

Blizzard has time and time again proven that they can learn from their past, return to interesting mechanics and use them in a new, innovative ways. From the recent interviews we know, that they've put quite some thought into the role of the hero units. One of the strongest parts of Blizzard's games has always been story and with StarCraft II we can look forward to really deep characters and relationships between them developed both on and off the battlefield. These characters may bot be present on every map, but when they do, they will lead the action and show that they are really worthy of being called heroes.

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Note: DemolitionSquid will not be held accountable for the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of SCWire or its articles.

Yeah, that was something I noted when I first heard about the Mercs. I was like, "lol, they put heroes in the game." There are enough differences between WCIII heroes and the SCII mercs, however:

• you can get more than one
• they are merely suped-up versions of regular units -- not unique
• you have to buy them beforehand
• they are in campaign and custom only

I think it's a rather nice addition.

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Originally Posted by n00bonicPlague

Yeah, that was something I noted when I first heard about the Mercs. I was like, "lol, they put heroes in the game." There are enough differences between WCIII heroes and the SCII mercs, however:

• you can get more than one
• they are merely suped-up versions of regular units -- not unique
• you have to buy them beforehand
• they are in campaign and custom only

I think it's a rather nice addition.

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And you forget the best part! For zergs.. there are no Mercs.. So this is going to be Mutating huge zergs at a cost. I already see myself mutating a Torrasque or 2 :D

well thats if they decide zerg will get "Hero" sort of units

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Chris Metzen mentioned a gimmick, where instead of dying right away, your hero will drop to his knees and wait for a medic to revive him.

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that actually sounds like a fun little thing. I wonder if they'll make it so that when they are like that only enemy heroes can finish them off lol :)

I'm sad no one commented on my SCWire insult :(

Because it was uncalled for?

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Originally Posted by Wankey

Because it was uncalled for?

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You forget who you're talking to.

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Originally Posted by Bisso

And you forget the best part! For zergs.. there are no Mercs.. So this is going to be Mutating huge zergs at a cost. I already see myself mutating a Torrasque or 2 :D

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Screw Torrasque I wanna Brutalisk :D

I'm hoping we get as much story in the missions than out of the missions

Demo, it got me a smirk to say the least. However, we can also respect that it's another fansite with a simple want: To try and give information to the starcraft community. Even if my personal opinion is that Starcraft Legacy is the best community... I still control my respect for any other fansites, no matter how big or small, no matter the methods they use.

... with that all said in all seriousness.. I will admit, it did get me to smirk.

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Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

I'm sad no one commented on my SCWire insult :(

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I do. You can't spell heroes. :p

On a more serious note, does anyone reckon there'll be special mercenary groups to be part of a non-monetary reward for completing a mission? For example, after finishing a mission for Findlay, he gets Raynor back in contact with the remaining Heaven's Devils.

Alternatively, what about the idea of 'unique character' contracts? For instance, might we eventually be able to hire Graven Hill himself or Gabriel Tosh later in the campaign? Their power level would of course be on par with Raynor. And so that nobody else says it; yes, that's over 9000.

Sounds cool. I wonder, will this be in the same menu as where we buy extra units and upgrades, or will it be different?

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Originally Posted by MattII

Sounds cool. I wonder, will this be in the same menu as where we buy extra units and upgrades, or will it be different?

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If I'm not mistaken, they're separate. You hire mercenaries from a guy called Graven Hill who can be found at the Hyperion's cantina. This was mentioned in SC:L's recent single player article.

Instead of dying, they should be rescued by an armored dropship, or something like that. Then, in the single player part, someone could comment about it, like Tychus saying something funny about Raynor being rescued last mission, or them joking about who got rescued more frequently.

If Zerg heroes can re reincarnated like it was before, there's no need for rescue mechanics for them, just make them unavailable for the rest of the mission, or a long time.

The Protoss seems to be the most problematic, as they don't like to retreat from battle unless they're crippled and unable to fight, so it's probably better if Protoss heroes play safe in most missions, except installation type missions, or the like. I can see Zeratul taking risks in his search, but Selendis and Artanis are too high in the command chain to be in direct battle, save for critical situations.

Praetors are tipically involved in direct combat, so i don't know how are they going to handle it. They could die once and continue fighting as Immortals, but if they die again, they die for good, and that would create too much uncertainty about heroes.

Maybe there could be elite units, with better stats, that are available in limited amounts after some actions. Something similar to the mercenaries in the Terran campaign.