Starcraft reboot ideas discussion thread

[Mislagnissa]

I will take your criticism of the decline of Blizzard as an admission that yes, you do want to hear my ideas for an original setting which liberally clones Starcraft.

One blog summarized the underlying trope of Starcraft and similar settings as a three race archetypes of celestial, terrestrial and infernal (originally called diabolic, but infernal sounds closer to the other two). Starcraft was always tropey as hell and only got worse with time, but the original premise is workable even if it is bland and derivative.

So we have three races of celestial (space roman elves), terrestrial (humans), and infernals (bugs). Each of the three races has distinct aesthetics, motives and, for video game purposes, building/unit/resource fluff.

The terrestrials, I think, draw their aesthetics from an eclectic mix of dieselpunk, atompunk, cassette futurism, cyberpunk, space cowboys and good ol' boys in space. They appear dirty, ramshackle, and generally gritty. They have mobile suits, mechs, robots, cyborg horses and such. They are divided between several political bodies across the Terran sector, with the most notable being the Confederate States of America, the United Nations of Earth, the Global Corporate Congress, and La Résistance. The dystopian elements are omnipresent, with even the "good" factions like the United Nations of Earth and La Résistance being willing to engage in highly unethical means to protect the rights and freedoms of humanity. They are the only side to utilize AI (to distinguish them from the other two), and extensively so. They are pretty recognizable already so I don't really need to describe much more about them yet.

The infernals are pretty much your generic devouring swarm: Giger's aliens, Starship Troopers arachnids, tyranids, zerg, necrophages, flood, necromorphs, blah blah blah. What makes them stand out is that they have personalities and a familial dynamic, because their shtick is that they are trying to marry the strengths of diversity and unity in order to avoid becoming locked into evolutionary dead ends. They are organized into a hierarchy of hive minds with a genetic memory, their hardwired motivation being the pursuit of apotheosis by consuming the strongest species in the universe (and everything else in their path). Like the tyranids, each of their swarms is named for unique giant monsters from Earth mythology such as the Sumerian Tiamat, the Norse Kraken and the Hebrew Behemoth. Unlike the tyranids, swarms are typically not self-sufficient and specialize in pursuing particular roles such as first strikes, bounty hunting, mining, aerospace operations and so forth. The units/structures of the infernals are all engineered bioweapons, including their ammunition. Their unifying biological distinction is that the infernals are a parasitic race of tiny detritus-eating worms that infest the bodies of other species and either breed them into more suitable forms, or render them down for raw materials, using a unique ability to manipulate genomes and exchange this information telepathically.

The celestials draw their inspiration from the romanticized depictions of ancient civilizations like the romans and egyptians, the occult revival of the 19th century, the new age religions of the 20th century, and basically they are fruity and twee to a tee. Where the terrestrial army uses a mix of people, mutants, cyborgs, piloted mechs, and robots, and the infernals use exclusively living soldiers and even ammunition, the celestials transcend concepts of biological and technological (this ties into the metaplot, as I will explain later). Their psychic technology is so advanced it appears like magic to lesser species, and even their physiology is barely decipherable. They use your generic new age crystals in everything, but rather than being manufactured like the terrestrials or gestated like the infernals, the celestials use more esoteric means to make their goods and then teleport them onto the battlefield. Their tech is super eco-friendly not unlike the Night Elves of Warcraft 3 (to distinguish them from the destructive terrestrials and all-consuming infernals), along the lines of building living cathedrals out of sentient singing forests. Even their attacks typically appear esoteric, such as attacking with songs or singing while attacking or defending themselves with "sound barriers" (these are force fields, but I need some way to distinguish them from terrestrial force fields to maintain distinct aesthetics). They seem to really love pyramids and fluted columns and other Cyclopean architecture. A key contrast between their tech tree and the other two is that every unit/structure is effectively a person, rather than a servile robot like the terrestrials or a component of a gestalt consciousness like the infernals, even if they otherwise resemble those positions from an outside perspective. I don't really know how best to describe them, except to say that their inspiration is drawn heavily from the surreal villain designs of 1990s and 2000s mecha anime and video games. (I haven't described their culture at all yet, but you can probably guess it liberally clones the eldar and protoss cultures, especially the elements that Blizzard discarded like the caste/path system and the tribes/craftworlds. I can go into more detail later if desired.)

My idea for the basic plot of the clone is to recycle the basic plot from the original 1998 manual, ignoring the later additions of queen of blades, duran, and the united earth directorate because they are completely unnecessary. As a quick refresher, the basic plot is that the infernals start the war by invading terrestrial space and a nearby fleet of celestials interferes (there's a lot of lead up to this but I'm sure we already know what that is). A lot of panic and civil strife ensues. The goal of the infernals is to harvest terrestrial mutants for psychic mutations that may be weaponized against the celestials and allow the infernals to survive a prolonged conflict and ultimately assimilate the esoteric bio-techno-sorcery of the celestials.

In other words, this is a rip-off of Starcraft with only the most minimal changes to avoid threat of lawsuit. Even if Blizzard does try to sue, I can always invoke Warhammer 40k, Atrox and StarFront as examples of the same premise.

I think I already posted a thread about this months ago, but I cannot find it right now so I am re-posting my ideas right here.

[Nissa]

Why not? Just ignore Sc2. Sc1 is still there.

That's true, but the fanbase is not. Heck, why do you think we're the last few stragglers on these forums?

Starcraft on me phone, whoopeedoo. Right next to the Candy Crush.

[Mislagnissa]

I recently had the idea for a literal alternate universe which ties into the canon. LotV says the xel'naga visited loads of alternate universes. The co-op states alternate timelines officially exist. Heroes of the Storm shows that some alternate universes resemble the canon universe. So I decided to spin that off into something which fits my desires while easing canon lore junkies into it.

So while Amon and followers were fighting their end war, there were enclaves of xel'naga in other universes. One of these universes was severed from the Void so cosmic energy magic was unavailable. The xel'naga were rendered mortal in this universe and thus nearly identical to how they were presented in the manual.

They saw Amon and followers manipulate the protoss and zerg and decided to do the same thing except better. They failed and got destroyed by their own creations. The rest of the history proceeds as it does in the original manual, ignoring retcons introduced by the games. However, events which do not dramatically contradict the manual's version of events are still allowed (with tweaks if necessary), so we still have things like the Kalathi Intercession and the Tal'darim.

The key divergences are that Queen of Blades, Duran/Amon, and the UED never play a role in this new universe. The zerg invade Koprulu to assimilate humanity as mass-produced soldiers, so they never create infested heroes or place them in leadership positions (barring something like Annihilation's depiction of an infested terran leader as being slavishly loyal to the zerg species and treating zerglings as brothers in arms). Since Duran and Amon only exist in the primary universe, the alternate Overmind is free the be the main villain of the new universe. Earth never had contact with Koprulu in the new universe, so they end up self-destructing under the weight of too many neo-nazis or something.

Less obvious divergences are that the protoss and zerg are not humanized as they are in canon. The protoss rule a huge galactic empire and they are not reliant on xel'naga relics. The zerg have the universal conquest ingrained into the fabric of their being so they will never become allies or space hippies.

I have a much more detailed synopsis in progress but I can post what I have so far if anyone is interested.

[TheEconomist]

I will take your criticism of the decline of Blizzard as an admission that yes, you do want to hear my ideas for an original setting which liberally clones Starcraft.

No. Most Definitely no.

Also, no worries guys. Blizzard has reassured us that they have their best developers working on the mobile games so they'll be getting the full new Blizzard installment treatment. The mobile games aren't just side projects but in fact, the new "core pillars" of the franchises. I feel much better knowing that there's absolutely zero chance Diablo IV will be worth spit and I can just forget the whole thing now. Thanks for simplifying Blizzard!

Oh, and Diablo 3 was too mature because of the M-Rating and Diablo Immortal will be for all ages to enjoy. So, there's going to be another entire entry level's worth of lore made for kiddies. Demon killing kiddies. Excellent news. There's no possible way Diablo lore will come back from this, I'm glad Blizzard's at least being more open now instead of letting us wait for years to see how bad it is. Time to forget about it now. Thanks Blizzard!

[Visions of Khas]

And let's not forget the Diablo imagery itself will be heavily censored and watered-down for the Chinese market. I think the only reason as much of it is getting through is because NetEase is essentially doing all the heavy lifting, circumventing some of China's limitations on foreign-based content.

This has all come straight from the investors. Which really blows; Destiny 2's Forsaken was amazing, but its earnings didn't match up with investors' expectations, so Activision's promising more microtransactions (damn you Eververse!) and there are even rumors of in-game ads.

Chew on that bone for a while. :|

[TheEconomist]

Chinese governments bans (not just censors) ghosts and skeleton in World of WarCraft. Ghosts and Skeletons are a good 50% of Diablo and Diablo II. How the hell are they going to navigate that effectively?

Yes, Activision Blizzard's stocks are down considerably since BlizzCon, a lot of it even having to do with Diablo. However, unfortunately, as the resident Economist, I know that companies don't really even care stock prices except for certain reasons. All of the gaming news is reporting that Activision Blizzard has not $XXX, not that their valuation has decreased $XXX. I could go into more, but, why waste more time on Blizzard.

I'm playing around with Diablo 1 and 2 for nostalgia sake. Once I've gotten my fill, it'll probably be the last time I touch a Blizzard game that's not StarCraft II MP.

[Visions of Khas]

*shrug* As I understand it, foreign content has to pass certain criteria that native content doesn't. NetEase, Blizzard's partner in Diablo Immortal, has produced games with bones and skeletons. However, themes of death are highly "inauspicious" in Chinese culture.

Even so, DI is being marketed to both kids, older people and the Chinese, so as a gothic horror Diablo is essentially done.

[sandwich_bird]

Now that you mention it, if you look at the gameplay trailer again, I don't think there's any gore or blood. There's some green acid spills and some black splash hit effect of sort but not red blood and certainly no dismemberments like there was in D3. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I do want to say that the only positive I can give to that trailer is that I kinda liked that scene when you jump on rafts and when you fight down a rope. Havent seen much of that in top down rpg.

[TheEconomist]

Yeah ... They thought Diablo III was too mature for what they wanted ... Let that sink in ....

Funny, I was playing Diablo (darker than Diablo II) since I was seven years old. Made me a life time fan. If it had been watered down, I never would've kept playing. Hilarious.

[Turalyon]

Might as well blame China for killing the Diablo IP, too. They essentially kept the IP still relevant by lapping up their even more toned down/censored version of D3 (which I believe was also free to play?) and account for a vast majority of its "success". In a way, Immortal really is for the majority of current fans... just not us old-time fans. When comparing the number of sales you can see why: the combined sales of D1 and D2 were only just around 7 million copies as opposed to the 30 million copies of D3.