My Reaction to the Warhound

[Caliban113]

Think id rather see double sized Goliath outright with splash air and something like the Reaper's D8 attack. This thing is pretty silly looking - but then again, its still early; a lot of this stuff is gonna change the way it did during the course of WoL

[inverseninja]

Think id rather see double sized Goliath outright with splash air and something like the Reaper's D8 attack. This thing is pretty silly looking - but then again, its still early; a lot of this stuff is gonna change the way it did during the course of WoL

I kind of like the fact that it doesn't look pretty. The Terran units are war machines, not some pussy magnet vehicles. There supposed to look mean, rusty, and ugly. It fits their style overall imo. Then again I thought the minmatar ships from eve were the coolest too so I'm already kind of partial to the style.

[Robear]

My problem is the SCV-Warhound comparison.



Sure, in the game the SCV is a little hovering worker, and the Warhound is a big stomping mech, but let's disregard that for just a moment.

If you showed someone who wasn't intimately familiar with Starcraft these two units, they would think that the one on the left was simply a newer, HD remake of the one on the right.

Units should have distinctive designs, distinctive silhouettes and styles, and Blizzard knows this; they always bring it up in their art panels. If you showed someone who knew nothing about Starcraft a render of a goliath from SCBW, another from SCG, and then one from SC2, they would recognize the pictures as different incarnations of the same unit. The same goes for infantry, vehicles and ships; they completely redid the armor and ship designs between games, but with the same overall shape, so you can instantly tell what's supposed to be what: nobody ever mistook the SC2 marine or battlecruiser for a new unit.

So the SCV in Wings of Liberty has a great, distinctive design. It's a sort of humanoid mech, but with the boxy, angled cockpit sunk into the chest, with 2 more large angled boxes on either side. Then there are some circular rounded shoulders that lead to asymmetrical mechanical modular arms instead of hands. There are some smallish, angled legs underneath, with two-toed feet. I love it. The Warhound has the same design.

You could argue that the goliath, as a bipedal walker, has the same design too. But its cockpit area is more of a head than a chest, and it just has large cannons rather than arms— it manages to be a different shape, and remains a much more distinctive design.

I'm not saying I want the goliath back, but hey, there's an idea— even something as simple as shortening the Warhound's arms would make it more distinctive. Or they could change the chest shape so it's not the same as the SCV.

Also, I instantly thought of the dreadnought from Warhammer when I saw the Warhound's picture, even down to the one gun-arm and the one fat cylinder with 4 finger-things sticking out on the other. I've never even played Warhammer, and had to look up the name of that mech, and I still recognized it— that's the level of distinctiveness they should go for with the new SC units.

[Sheliek]

I don't think the 'if you showed someone who wasn't familiar with StarCraft' argument is a good point. How many complete strangers to this game are going to look at the Warhound and the SCV in such a way that could allow for such confusion?

[imdrunkontea]

btw, if anyone compares the screenshot version with the one from the video, you'll notice that the cockpit looks a little different - instead of the whole panel being yellow (presumably glass), only a slit is, which makes it look more like a big tank.

[phazonjunkie]

I kind of like the fact that it doesn't look pretty. The Terran units are war machines, not some pussy magnet vehicles. There supposed to look mean, rusty, and ugly. It fits their style overall imo. Then again I thought the minmatar ships from eve were the coolest too so I'm already kind of partial to the style.

It's not about looking pretty. I actually agree with you on your first point. To some extent, terran war machines should look ungainly and imposing. The problem with the Warhound is that it doesn't look particularly imposing. It looks like an SCV on steroids. LIke a utilitarian mech rather than a weapon of war.