"There is no place for Lurker" WTF is mothership then?

[Arkalis]

...again I'm sure I'm better than Dustin at game design and balance.

.....

[sandwich_bird]

IMO they should remove the ultralisk and replace it with the lurker. Either that or mix both units into one (when you burrow the ultralisk he attacks like a lurker?). Ultralisks are complete crap right now and there's no reason to ever build them because Protoss death balls blow the crap out of them easy and so does most Terran late game armies. That, and the fact that brood lords are almost always a better option unless you forced the Terran to build 129340 vikings.

I think that by mixing both units ( lurker x ultralisk), we would bring something "new" yet useful for the zerg that would allow more creativity within the race.

[Wankey]

I think Lurkers would have been much more interesting than roaches, but then again I'm sure I'm better than Dustin at game design and balance.

I agree that many of us here probably are. He made games like Red Alert 2 and CNC Generals. While interesting games, the game design for either games were ridiculously poor or simplistic.

Lurkers create so much gameplay strategies. Dropping lurkers, area control using lurkers, lurker push, etc. What does baneling do? Explosive entertainment but that's pretty much it. There hasn't been a case of an interesting use of banelings yet.

Also, a baneling minefield doesn't create interesting gameplay. If the minefield is successful, the enemy player loses a mass majority of its forces in a blink of an eye without actually being able to react. If it is unsuccessful you've just completely lost the opportunity to win.

The same situation with lurkers is that it forces the player to either use scan or leave the area or create detection units forcing them to spend money or change tactics. The baneling doesn't force anything and is rather a counter unit instead of a gameplay unit. A player can even contest the area by quickly running through it, unlike a person who runs into a baneling minefield. There are just so many more gameplay options here over the baneling.

I find it really really sad when I read articles where Dustin says he had to "relearn" everything when he started working at blizzard. How was he put in charge of everything? Why wasn't a game design master put in charge and then dictated what a good strategy game was rather than an apparent newbie who had to completely revamp his idea. I feel SC2 was designed by a committee with no real leadership rather than one person with a sole vision.

[RamiZ]

Yes, lets compare Roaches and Lurkers, two units that don't have to do ANYTHING with each other, and then say something like "I am better than Dustin Browder at game balance..."
Yeah, ok...

And btw why should we drop anything? There will be new expansion soon, I guess we will see Lurkers or some units close to Lurkers, and game balance will be better than it is now.

[GnaReffotsirk]

Here's something funny.

I asked in the zerg strategy channel how to deal with MM balls. The answer was banelings. Then I asked at Terran, they say stimmed marines.

Also, I think queens should cost less. Maybe 100 minerals. Each hatch really needs at least 1 queen to keep up.

[Blazur]

IMO they should remove the ultralisk and replace it with the lurker. Either that or mix both units into one (when you burrow the ultralisk he attacks like a lurker?).

Very interesting. Given the choice between the two I'd take the lurker any day. The ultralisk hardly ever sees any use.

[dustinbrowder]

Very interesting. Given the choice between the two I'd take the lurker any day. The ultralisk hardly ever sees any use.

huh?

I can't believe both of you guys. Ultralisk is a pretty awesome unit and is used often.

I can't imagine zerg without the ultralisk, neither balance wise, neither gameplay wise.

[SinsWage]

I love the idea of the "Lurkalisk". Maybe tone down the distance the attack happens from the brood war days, just make those blades come flying up when someone comes in the Ultralisks natural range. Make it an evolution like moving underground and possibly make the damage less when burrowed.

[RamiZ]

huh?

I can't believe both of you guys. Ultralisk is a pretty awesome unit and is used often.

I can't imagine zerg without the ultralisk, neither balance wise, neither gameplay wise.

Ultralisk is indeed awesome unit, and Zerg without it isn't Zerg(yeah yeah, just like without Lurker... ;D), but about second part, I don't agree. Every Pro Zerg will tell you that Ultras currently aren't cost effective most of the time. I see Ultras being made once in a 10 games where Zerg have reached the Hive Tech, other times Brood Lords were made.

[flak4321]

I'm really not feeling the lurker has a place in SC2 at this time. I would agree we could manufacture a place by losing crawler mobility, but I feel roaches can be used in far more insidious situations. Burrowed mobility vs. burrowed attack favors burrowed mobility. I might have to reveal myself to attack, but at least I have some chance of getting to that point w/o being seen, relatively speaking.

The lurkalisk? Novel suggestion, but would border on OP. A group of Ultras w/ the armor upgrade is every bit as hard to kill as a group of Thors or Colossi in similar numbers imo. Plus, because they're so late in the tech tree, scouting them is difficult when playing good Zergs. (I note this because the Bronze league has seen a sharp incline in the number of Overseers and spore colonies in use, especially to catch banshees and void harass. Most of us use a roving 3-5, but I've seen more, myself included increase to as many as 10-12 roving w/ 1 or 2 specifically for spell casting.)

I personally believe Dustin having to relearn much when he started at Blizz is the truth, and I have an example from my own work experience to prove it. I worked for what was then Parke Bank, N.A. in Philadelphia. I had just come in from a much larger (250+ branches w/ large hierarchy) bank, then known as Commerce, into this tiny little 4 branch bank and the contrast in styles was stark. I could only apply the very basics of what I learned at Commerce to the technical aspects of my post due most in part to philosophical differences in how certain things should (or should not) be handled.

As an example within an example, space to explore certain options to enrich the customer experience had vastly different limitations. At Commerce I was fully able to explore the primary teller programs and devise my own procedures to handle each transactions so long as the same results and accuracy were maintained, and the procedure was close enough to the norm to be easily deduced for correction purposes, rare though they were. This was a DOS based system. In the windows based system of Parke Bank, there were more programs to integrate, more procedural permutations to consider, and most notably, a much greater scrutiny upon deviations from the norm, limiting my feeling of pride in my knowledge.

No greater burden have I known than that of having knowledge without an outlet to share it. I did give Parke several months' effort to cope with, but I eventually chose to move on to an environment that would allow me the sense of pride and knowledgeability I had at Commerce. For Dustin in his start at Blizz, he no doubt found a similar situation and seems to have integrated himself into his new "work family," for which I give him praise for his efforts because of how much I had to relearn moving between banks.