New screenshot - Disruptor chaos in a Zerg base

[Nicol Bolas]

Why wouldn't you be seeing the tentacle poking up from below? I mean, it's a pretty big tentacle.

The only reason you see it in SC1 is because it has higher priority than any sprite. Once you go to the land of 3D, there's no such thing as "priority" anymore; there is simply how far something is from the eye plane, and whether something closer is overlapping.

A pack of Marines, thanks to the perspective viewpoint, already has a lot of visual overlap. The top ~1/3rd of a Marine overlaps with the bottom ~1/3rd of the Marine standing behind him. This of course depends on where the Marines are on the screen.

The tentacle that hits the Marine behind the other Marine will likewise be partially if not entirely obscured.

The tentacle could travel under the creep, showing it's path clearly, then surface and stab the unit in, say, a 15 degree angle from the ground. Hell, it could even move units slightly up as it travels under the Creep.

Remember: Spine Crawlers aren't creep generators anymore. While they need to implant in creep, they can be at the edge of the creep now. Which means that it's very likely that much of the tentacle's travels will be outside of creep.

because you cannot see who shoots with any unit that has instant-damage, like the Marines, or the Siege Tanks.

Like I said, you can see who fired a shot, and by looking at the effect on the target, you can see what shot him. The specific connection between attacker and defender isn't as important as being able to tell that the defender was hit and what kind of unit hit him.

[Triceron]

You would be able to see the tentacle. Being in 3D has little to do with obscuring that when you can simply clip the tentacle THROUGH the unit and see exactly which is being hit.

The Lurker's attack still pops out of the ground, and even if it didn't go in a line attack I'm pretty sure you could see what units are being attacked by it.

[Nicol Bolas]

Being in 3D has little to do with obscuring that when you can simply clip the tentacle THROUGH the unit and see exactly which is being hit.

No, it in fact has everything to do with that. You can "clip the tentacle" through the unit being hit, but the rules played by the game called "3D graphics" don't allow you to clip it through things closer to the camera. Like the Marine that's in front of him. Or the Marauder that's in front of him. Or the Colossus that's in front of him.

Technically yes, you can bias the depth value and set it to zero. Or whatever. That would ensure that it is always visible. But it would also ensure that it's always visible through terrain, other Marines, the Colossus, etc.

The Lurker's attack still pops out of the ground, and even if it didn't go in a line attack I'm pretty sure you could see what units are being attacked by it.

As a Tier 3 unit, we have seen nothing of the Lurker except for the initial Zerg reveal a while back. I looked at that video and you see the line of the spines, not the spines that are hitting the target.

[Triceron]

The tentacle could be an effect that spawns under said unit shoots straight up through its center. Large units could have said tentacle scale in size relatively. The largest unit in the game is the Thor/Ultralisk, the tentacle could simply be scaled to be longer to shoot through the unit. Shimmer on the shields tells you exactly that the Colossus is being hit. The tentacle under it shows what is attacking it.

Even similar abilties in War3 used scaling. Look at how Roots worked, where it scaled up according to the unit it affected. I'm suggesting the tentacle be scaled in length, not in its thickness.

[Norfindel]

The only reason you see it in SC1 is because it has higher priority than any sprite. Once you go to the land of 3D, there's no such thing as "priority" anymore; there is simply how far something is from the eye plane, and whether something closer is overlapping.

A pack of Marines, thanks to the perspective viewpoint, already has a lot of visual overlap. The top ~1/3rd of a Marine overlaps with the bottom ~1/3rd of the Marine standing behind him. This of course depends on where the Marines are on the screen.

The tentacle that hits the Marine behind the other Marine will likewise be partially if not entirely obscured.

You can make the tentacle push the unit aside, it would be clearly visible.

Remember: Spine Crawlers aren't creep generators anymore. While they need to implant in creep, they can be at the edge of the creep now. Which means that it's very likely that much of the tentacle's travels will be outside of creep.

Well, just make the ground look like something is travelling very near the surface.

Like I said, you can see who fired a shot, and by looking at the effect on the target, you can see what shot him. The specific connection between attacker and defender isn't as important as being able to tell that the defender was hit and what kind of unit hit him.

eeeehh.... you can also see that a Sunken is attacking and who´s attacked by a Sunken, there´s no difference. You could also make the tentacle exit the Sunken on the same direction of the attacked unit, now that it´s 3D.

[Nicol Bolas]

you can also see that a Sunken is attacking and who´s attacked by a Sunken, there´s no difference.

Did you ever see the old Spine Crawler's attack? I know I didn't. Look at BR2 or BR3 and tell me that you can see what the Spine Crawler is shooting at.

[Pandonetho]

What a sunken colony or a spine crawler shoots at doesn't make a difference.

[Norfindel]

Did you ever see the old Spine Crawler's attack? I know I didn't. Look at BR2 or BR3 and tell me that you can see what the Spine Crawler is shooting at.

If they use a 2-pixel tentacle to attack, that's their fault. The Sunken Colony tentacle was perfectly visible, and you could know it was attacking, and who was attacked.

[Nicol Bolas]

What a sunken colony or a spine crawler shoots at doesn't make a difference.

It very much does make a difference. That's why skilled players will micro their sunkens if they have the chance.

Also, you seem to have missed the difference between not knowing what a Sunken is attacking and a unit spontaneously dying from something that you can't see. The latter is how Spine Crawlers worked with the sunken tentacle. Go watch some of the old Spine Crawler videos; you can not see their attacks at all.

The Sunken Colony tentacle was perfectly visible, and you could know it was attacking, and who was attacked.

2D game. The rules change in 3D.

[Norfindel]

2D game. The rules change in 3D.

Why? Because the tentacle is just drawn in front of the unit? What stops the tentacle doing the same in the 3D space? It's just a matter of drawing the tentacle closer to the camera.