¡¡Save a Zerg breed!!

[Nicol Bolas]

Zerg don't have active abilities because they usually die to fast to use them. Zerg strength lies in large numbers of weak units. Protoss have a lot of active abilities because each unit can survive long enough to make good use of them.

That doesn't make any sense. Marines die pretty fast too, but they get Stim. Vultures die fast, but they get Spider Mines.

So I fail to see the correlation between "dying fast" and "has no active abilities". It's clearly a Zerg racial trait.

Personally, I find tanks (Scorpion, Arclite, HK-Ground) to be MUCH more interesting than mechs (Gundam, Viking, Transformers)

I'm an animation buff. And not in the sense of cartoons, but in the sense of movement. Mechs have a lot of movement: arms, legs, head, weapons, etc. When a 'Mech turns 120 degrees to shoot something, innumerable independent things have to turn around. This gives the shot an importance and a feeling of emphasis.

Tanks just turn a turret. 1 thing moving. It really doesn't get more boring.

[AegisKHAOS]

I also happen to like mechas more than 'mere' tanks and aircraft myself because, being machines that are closer to a living being in appearance with numerous animated parts, they're just more exciting and identifiable. It's why I happen to like the Thor and the Viking when they were first revealed.

But that's another debate for another day. In the end of all this, I chose the hydralisk over the other two units for its importance in the swarm. Of course, I could've picked the ultras as well because I also thought they were massive and simply damn cool. :P

[DemolitionSquid]

That doesn't make any sense. Marines die pretty fast too, but they get Stim. Vultures die fast, but they get Spider Mines.

So I fail to see the correlation between "dying fast" and "has no active abilities". It's clearly a Zerg racial trait.

Shoving active abilities on units who can't make use of them is pointless.

The Marine is ranged, it can be microed. It doesn't need Stim, but for some reason (one I disagree with) Blizzard felt it should be given an ability. Zerglings cannot be microed to the extent of Marines. They were given the one active ability that's useful - the ability to avoid damage for a time through Burrow.

The Vulture is a hugely limited unit because of its Concussive attack. I have no idea why they did this, but it was a stupid idea. Instead of fixing the Vulture's attack, they decided to give it Mines. Now, Mines define the unit. The whole thing is a farce.

If Hydralisks, who could be microed, and were pretty hardy, had been given an active ability in SC1, would you have complained? No. But they never needed one. Hydralisks we so cheap and massable and versatile, you'd always have so many that any active ability aside from something like Stim would have been pointless, as every Hydralisk would have used it all the time, in greater numbers than Marines with Stim.

Active abilities exist for two reasons: to supplement a unit, and for promoting skill. In targeting, timing, and control. The Stalker has Blink because Dragoons had bad pathing. But there was never anything wrong with the Hydralisk. Giving it an active ability just for the sake of it is pointless. It goes against the unit's mass design. Its not excluded because "Zerg can't have active abilities." Its excluded because its simply unnecessary for the unit to have its cost raised because of an ability it has worked fine without.

[Pandonetho]

I don't know, I think I agree with Squid that mines define what the vulture are, same with the marine, stim is what defines the unit, it's useless without it TBH.

But I can't say whether that's a good or bad thing.

[Nicol Bolas]

The Marine is ranged, it can be microed. It doesn't need Stim, but for some reason (one I disagree with) Blizzard felt it should be given an ability. Zerglings cannot be microed to the extent of Marines. They were given the one active ability that's useful - the ability to avoid damage for a time through Burrow.

The Vulture is a hugely limited unit because of its Concussive attack. I have no idea why they did this, but it was a stupid idea. Instead of fixing the Vulture's attack, they decided to give it Mines. Now, Mines define the unit. The whole thing is a farce.

Whether you agree or disagree with Blizzard's decision, two things are clear from the unit design of SC1:

1: They made a conscious effort to give almost every Terran unit an activated ability. Where you might have changed a units damage to broaden its utility, they said, "give it an ability."

2: They made a conscious effort not to give Zerg units an activated ability apart from the shared Burrow. Where you might have given a unit an active ability to broaden its utility, they said "no."

So it doesn't matter whether you think Stim or Mines are a good idea. Blizzard is the one who sets what the rules are for race design. Blizzard decides what makes each race unique. And Blizzard has shown, through both SC1 and SC2 development, that both of the above are racial qualities of their respective races: Terran units get lots of activated abilities, and Zerg units get none. Not having active abilities is as much a racial quality of the Zerg as their centralized production method.

You may not like these rules. You may think they're constraining and confining to good design. But these are the rules. The design of two StarCraft games now has shown these to be the rules.

[Triceron]

Before the reaper, how many Teran units had multiple abilities? Before the Infestor, how many units could move while burrowed? Before the Battlecruiser, how many units had choosable upgrades?

Blizzard adds and changes things based on interesting design and concept, there's no unwritten rule that can't be broken.

[DemolitionSquid]

Whether you agree or disagree with Blizzard's decision, two things are clear from the unit design of SC1:

1: They made a conscious effort to give almost every Terran unit an activated ability. Where you might have changed a units damage to broaden its utility, they said, "give it an ability."

2: They made a conscious effort not to give Zerg units an activated ability apart from the shared Burrow. Where you might have given a unit an active ability to broaden its utility, they said "no."

So it doesn't matter whether you think Stim or Mines are a good idea. Blizzard is the one who sets what the rules are for race design. Blizzard decides what makes each race unique. And Blizzard has shown, through both SC1 and SC2 development, that both of the above are racial qualities of their respective races: Terran units get lots of activated abilities, and Zerg units get none. Not having active abilities is as much a racial quality of the Zerg as their centralized production method.

You may not like these rules. You may think they're constraining and confining to good design. But these are the rules. The design of two StarCraft games now has shown these to be the rules.

Stop taking logic lessons from Archer. Just because Zerg didn't have active abilities in SC1 doesn't mean they can't have them in SC2. Its not like we're talking about Zerg having robotic units, of course that's insane. You're denying Zerg active abilities based on absolutely nothing. If a Zerg unit needed an active ability aside from Burrow or it being a spellcaster, it would be given one. There just aren't any units which need them, because Zerg are simple, and Zerg have numbers, and Zerg normally die too quick to make good use of active abilities.

[ArcherofAiur]

Patterns are not the same as rules.

[Perfecttear]

Stop taking logic lessons from Archer. Just because Zerg didn't have active abilities in SC1 doesn't mean they can't have them in SC2. Its not like we're talking about Zerg having robotic units, of course that's insane. You're denying Zerg active abilities based on absolutely nothing. If a Zerg unit needed an active ability aside from Burrow or it being a spellcaster, it would be given one. There just aren't any units which need them, because Zerg are simple, and Zerg have numbers, and Zerg normally die too quick to make good use of active abilities.

Never thought i would say this, but i completely agree with him on everything, that's one smart squid/cthulhu

[Draco]

Is it me or has the Hydra animation lost its prominence? SC1 Hydras had the right thing going on, but SC2 makes them quite a step down from that.