Proton Charge - The Potentially Game-Breaking Mechanic

[Gradius]

Full Article.

[DemolitionSquid]

Its so pretty... coochy coo

[Kimera757]

I wish this had come up earlier, so I could say something intelligent about it. (Too sleepy. Will think in the morning. And fill this post with something other than spam.)

Non-spam section: But upon reading through it anyway, Demolition Squid is perfectly right. It's unbalanceable.

I play Dungeons & Dragons, and have seen (and even been through) horror stories where uncapped numbers caused massive problems, and not counting silliness like Pun-Pun. (100 nerd points if you know what Pun-Pun is.)

[Xyvik]

I hope to God above that Blizzard actually reads this thing. Bravo, DSquid, on a job well handled and an editorial spot-on the mark.

[trace wm]

I hope you got a beta key for that.


...and it was only runner up? Now I want to see the winner.

[RODTHEGOD]

Looks like a bunch of bullshit to me but wtf, I'll read it anyways.

[Xyvik]

Looks like a bunch of bullshit to me but wtf, I'll read it anyways.

so a statistical and mathematical look at an existing problem, one which the entire staff of SC:L deemed worthy of first runner-up, looks like BS to you?

[RODTHEGOD]

so a statistical and mathematical look at an existing problem, one which the entire staff of SC:L deemed worthy of first runner-up, looks like BS to you?

No just who its coming from


but anyways from what i've read so far, I agree with most of the evidence but not all of the conclusions. I'll probably have to write my own paper to explain that though, but first I'll finish reading.

[PsiWarp]

Intriguing, the underlying problem flattened out for us common folk

I remember several members suggesting the obvious change of the number of Probes affected per cast; but how does one eliminate the element of randomness when all those busy bees move around? Would we leave the ability to automatically select non-charged Probes and be done with it?

Great article overall, keep up the good work!


-Psi

[Bisso]

I don't agree on some points.

Very detailed article tho, you got deep into your points, was well written.

But for my disagreement.

You solution aren't, IMO, very good.

You said that limiting the proton charge to give the player a 15 mineral gain would be a balanced solution after saying that drones bring 15 minerals, but drones do not "dissapear" or die after the cooldown of spawn larva.

I think zerg players are limited to 1 zerg queen, if I am wrong, don't bother reading further

So basicly, spawn larva is also unbalanced, since in early games, zerg players can abuse of the spawn larva, while Mules are limited to the number of commander center and the obelisk are virtualy limited to the number of mineral fields. In late game, both protoss and terran can take better advantage of their macro mechanic because they do have multiple mineral fields/CC to exploit while the zerg still have the same number of benefit.


Also, you said as a solution that the obelisk could powerup other units, I personaly think this is a good idea, since zerg also has a potentialy more offensive macro mechanic (spawn something else than drones).

So after all, is the protoncharge that unbalanced compared to the spawn larva and mules? I think they are quiet all unbalanced.


My point is (I always have some problems with this, im french sry) : Are the macro mechanics useful? If their only purpose is to make more money by clicking every 30 seconds on a building. Just make the probes/scvs/drones collect mineral faster. If they want to make a strategic decision, put something like Proton Charge gives a +5 movement speed, then, all affected probes are disabled for 5 seconds. Make Mules to collect ALOT of mineral, but they "waste" mineral in the process (they take 15 mineral by shot, 50 mineral is removed from the vein). These kind of macro mechanics are less attractive but they also bring a more strategic value to them.

Because, else than the Zerg spawn larva that allows the player to use it for an offensive strategy, both Protoss and Terran a kind of straight forward. Click, more money, click, more money, click, more money, etc...