[Idea] Zerg Armory Mechanic

Seeing how we currently know everything worth knowing about the Terran campaign without going into major spoiler territory, I think it's about time we started speculating on the Zerg one. It seems reasonable to assume that the Zerg will have a mechanic similar to the Terran's Armory though it would be different in its execution as the current mechanic wouldn't work for the Zerg.

Currently, we know that the Zerg campaign is more RPG-centric, focusing on Kerrigan becomes more powerful from mission to mission. Yet at the same time, I feel that the idea of 'leveling up' halfway through a mission doesn't suit Starcraft. Hence, I envision the mechanic would be something like this:

Missions will be worth X+Y points, with X being the base reward and Y being whatever Experience Points Kerrigan earns during the mission (with a cap, of course). These points can then be spent in the Zerg's 'Armory' which is divided into four main tabs. The first three would be for individual broods whilst the fourth is specific to Kerrigan (e.g. + hit points, + ability levels, etc) and global upgrades (e.g. + population limit, Overlord/Overseer upgrades).

As for the first three tabs, all tabs have the same upgrades and they are divided into individual units. Some upgrades are generically common and so found for each unit while others are unique to certain unit types. For instance, the Zergling might have '+ damage', '+ bonus damage vs <insert player's choice>' and 'Cliff Leaping', the Hydralisk might have '+ damage', '+ bonus damage vs <insert player's choice>' and 'Melee Mode'. Basically, the idea is to have the stats and attributes highly customizable (multiple levels for each upgrade) for each individual unit type. However, upgrades purchased increases the cost of the unit during missions.

This is why there are three tabs/broods. At the start of each mission, you can choose one of these broods to be deployed. Therefore, depending on your upgrade decisions, you could have one fully upgraded but expensive brood, a cheap but basic brood or broods specialized against certain races/mission types/etc.

As far as the lore is concerned, it can be easily reconciled by stating that the three broods are Kerrigan's mobile 'warrior broods' whilst there are specific broods (on Char and perhaps other colonies) that handle developing and experimenting new mutations. This would also naturally lend to a second reward system (think of how WoL has players collecting Protoss and Zerg relics). Perhaps collecting 'native specimen' can unlock special upgrades or units (e.g. Brutalisks).

Any thoughts?

In my opinion it is a nice mechanic; if it was a game I would buy it, but I doubt Blizzard would implement it. I don't know, but maybe they already have their plans. Nice work tho

I like it.

I last heard from the devs that the zerg campaign mechanic is centered around "diplomacy". Considering that the swarm is already unified and that it's unlikely that the Protoss or Terrans will ally with them, I'm awfully confused about how that will work. Perhaps it has something to do with discovering new species to make better zerg strains?

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Originally Posted by n00bonicPlague

I last heard from the devs that the zerg campaign mechanic is centered around "diplomacy". Considering that the swarm is already unified and that it's unlikely that the Protoss or Terrans will ally with them, I'm awfully confused about how that will work. Perhaps it has something to do with discovering new species to make better zerg strains?

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Coulda sworn the Protoss campaign was all about diplomacy, not the Zerg.

Trace guy is correct.

The Terrans campaign works on money.
The Zerg campaign works on an "evolving empire".
The Protoss campaign will move around trust and unification for survival.

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Dustin Browder: The Zerg campaign we haven't gone into a lot of detail yet, but it's going to be about the Zerg and their quest for building empire. The Protoss are sort of a troubled species. They're being systematically exterminated, and were being exterminated long before the Zerg arrived. They were starting to die out from their sheer age, but now that the Zerg came and their home world is gone, these guys are really having a lot of trouble. Their campaign is going to be more about you trying to unite the various Protoss tribes into something that resembles a force that can survive. The Terran campaign, the mechanics -- at least at the beginning -- are about cash: making jobs, making money, buying big guns.

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I like it, but what really sells it to me is the three broods bit.

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Originally Posted by trace wm

Coulda sworn the Protoss campaign was all about diplomacy, not the Zerg.

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Originally Posted by The_Blade

Trace guy is correct.

The Terrans campaign works on money.
The Zerg campaign works on an "evolving empire".
The Protoss campaign will move around trust and unification for survival.



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lol thanks that makes a LOT more sense :D

So perhaps they SHOULD center the zerg campaign around gaining new strains.

Much like how the Overmind tend to have assigned specializations for each cerebrate. Maybe Kerrigan would have something of the sort.

Brilliant idea!

Discovering new species to upgrade and have new unit in the swarm is something I really like!

The idea is great.
It could be even more expanded... but the basic thought is brilliant couse it would allow player's unique build and playstyle.

Hope they read this. Maybe you'll become "the zerg evolution mechanic" prophet. Why not? :)

Isn't this a talent tree?

Wait, what did I miss, we are now speculating on a the second part of a game that the first part is 1 year away since 2007?

My speculation is that the mechanic will look like buying a new wheel chair for Jim Raynor cause he is 93.

Hmm, I wouldn't be adverse to having "talent trees"/broods for each mission. It would make each mission unique. This could expand even further on divergent campaign paths. "Y'know, I really want this to happen, so this brood would be best suited for achieving my aims." It could completely alter the gameplay of every mission.

Brilliant! :D

I was always somewhat saddened that the individual brood (and factions and tribes) weren't explored in-game. While the Protoss campaign will see you fused disparate forces, the Zerg will be the inverse.

While I like the basic premises of this idea, what we've been shown so far is a mechanic that opens units and upgrades depending on levels chosen to complete and cash received upon completion. This would work for Zerg, except we would have to subsitute something like "Kerrigan's permission points" for cash. Note that the direction stated by Archer and in his Browder quote are seemingly for the story arc more so than the unit development. That said, I could handle this idea for the Zerg campaign and would like broods with unique uses, but I feel it might detract or distract from the RTS roots of the game.

I'm pretty sure the singleplayer aspect of SC2 is moving away from its RTS roots and trying to open up as much interesting gameplay as possible. This is especially the case when you look at Warcraft 3 and how those missions reflected Hero-driven gameplay, I would assume that this is what they'd want to do with Kerrigan in Heart of the Swarm.

I think the Zerg gameplay would be most like WarCraft. Individual Heroes may evolve -- "level up" -- through the course of the campaign, and Kerrigan may need to conduct many "specialized" missions, eg kidnapping terran or protoss officials to extract from them information crucial to continued evolution and expansion. I would also love to see more covert ops-style missions -- impersonating leaders from other races with Changelings and making them devolve into civil wars and stuff. That would be epic.

@Flak: That system is only being implemented for the Terran campaign. We already know those mechanics won't be [as] applicable to the Zerg and Protoss campaigns, as Browder and co. have admitted.