DemolitionSquid Reviews HotS Multiplayer Changes

[DemolitionSquid]

Only thing i dont like about taking out the Carrier and Mothership is that the Protoss lack the super cool big ship.

The new Tempest is quite literally massive.

[Caliban113]

Do we know anything more specific about the shredder? - Can it dig into creep? Will it only work on biological units? - Wondering if it might be too effective as an econ raider.

[Jconant]

It apparently has a deploy time (so...imagine something similar to the time it takes for zerg crawlers to dig in).

I doubt it would be effective at killing mineral lines unless you at the same time distract your opponent.

[RamiZ]

Do we know anything more specific about the shredder? - Can it dig into creep? Will it only work on biological units? - Wondering if it might be too effective as an econ raider.

It will certainly at the lower levels of play.

You can test it in HOTS Custom. I was playing few games(well more than few) and it is great mod, you can really see what you can do with new units such as Shredder/Vipers/Swarm Hosts etc. Was playing with friend, also, there are some Youtube videos of HD Starcraft playing that mod with some guy. I like it a lot, the creator really did a great job on it.

[Caliban113]

Wow - that's awesome - had no idea


Spor put this link up on the TL2 channel the other night - Interesting stuff. Have to say, I love hearing all I can about the development process. I'll admit, I do feel a bit better about the new units (and the game's development) after seeing this. However, I stand firm by my prediction that at release, we'll only see 1 unit for each race, (prolly the 'map control' stuff) and we'll likely still be looking forward to the beta at this time next year.

Sadly, anyone could have answered that 'lan' question for you about 3 years ago.

[Todie]

Only thing i dont like about taking out the Carrier and Mothership is that the Protoss lack the super cool big ship.

Hopefully the tempest can be that. it LOOKS pretty nice.

but i think its air to ground attack is rather bladn and unintersting and really too weak to be much good at anything considering its cost. atm i feel like it'd be cool to combine it with the carrierr; give it gorund-only interceptors.. and either cheaper interceptors or a carrier mechanic that works more like the one in bw where carriers can more easily stay moving while their interceptors keep intercepting anything in persuit.

[RamiZ]

Wow - that's awesome - had no idea


Spor put this link up on the TL2 channel the other night - Interesting stuff. Have to say, I love hearing all I can about the development process. I'll admit, I do feel a bit better about the new units (and the game's development) after seeing this. However, I stand firm by my prediction that at release, we'll only see 1 unit for each race, (prolly the 'map control' stuff) and we'll likely still be looking forward to the beta at this time next year.

Sadly, anyone could have answered that 'lan' question for you about 3 years ago.

Can't say that I am bitter, all that stuff that he said, was said in the WoL Alpha interviews. I mean, they were adding some cool stuff, and try to balance them, and they become pretty good in the end. The difference here is that they understand the weaknesses of the races and are adding stuff that will help them at some fields where they have problems, that is exactly how SC and SC BW functioned. I think that they will do a pretty good job and that HotS will be better expansion. I still think that SC2's 5 minutes have yet to come.

Interview was also good.

[DemolitionSquid]

I hate Blizzard's design philosophy of "cool first, function second." Design is the creation of a solution to a problem. Art is an expression of idea or emotion with no goal beyond the expression. Blizzard doesn't design games, they create art. And for once, that's not a compliment. It leads to units like the Thor who are "cool" but not "functional" and while that's OK for the campaign, its not OK for a competitive game. Playing football while the ball is on fire would be cool, but its completely nonfunctional.

[RamiZ]

I hate Blizzard's design philosophy of "cool first, function second." Design is the creation of a solution to a problem. Art is an expression of idea or emotion with no goal beyond the expression. Blizzard doesn't design games, they create art. And for once, that's not a compliment. It leads to units like the Thor who are "cool" but not "functional" and while that's OK for the campaign, its not OK for a competitive game. Playing football while the ball is on fire would be cool, but its completely nonfunctional.

I agree with you, and I was a bit pessimistic about it back in the WoL alpha days. But as I said, in the end it turned out good, at least it did for me, as I really enjoy watching pro matches.

[Alex06]

I hate Blizzard's design philosophy of "cool first, function second." Design is the creation of a solution to a problem. Art is an expression of idea or emotion with no goal beyond the expression. Blizzard doesn't design games, they create art. And for once, that's not a compliment. It leads to units like the Thor who are "cool" but not "functional" and while that's OK for the campaign, its not OK for a competitive game. Playing football while the ball is on fire would be cool, but its completely nonfunctional.

Dustin addresses the reason for that in the video Caliban posted...