New Story on starcraft2.com: Mothership

[handclaw]

Well, yeah... Out of boredom I visited the starcraft 2 site and I noticed that there is a new story. Also included is a short video of it in action and a new artwork...

http://starcraft2.com/features/story/mothership.xml#top

[Blazur]

Fucking awesome! This video rekindled some interest in the game.

[flabortast]

MS got a texture update.

[KadajSouba]

Ok, this is the kind of update we need. Not those tweets that tell us absolutely nothing (i mean ramps, working on ramps and trees???? Pleeeeeeeeease).

Not that much info in here, but at least something for our hearts, minds and souls.

[Blazur]

Ok, this is the kind of update we need. Not those tweets that tell us absolutely nothing (i mean ramps, working on ramps and trees???? Pleeeeeeeeease).

Not that much info in here, but at least something for our hearts, minds and souls.

Yeah, this update is great. I love seeing videos like this one, they get me really excited about playing the game.

Now if only we could hear some more of the music...

[The_Blade]

Looks like they are updating the website...

[KadajSouba]

Looks like they are updating the website...

Maybe they are.

Now im having trouble gettin into the SC2 site. Lets cross fingers...

[Antarus]

hm... I followed warcraft 3 from the day Blizzard first announced they were making it...

after the Beta sign ups I knew there was no beta for a while. A few days before it began my beta sense began tingling....

This past week my beta sense has been tingling... I keep getting the feeling that its like a day away... possibly a week...


Back to the thread topic, an nice update, even if it is just a small one for now.

[IvanVankata]

Simply awesome ! The video is incredible I CWAL !

[Nicol Bolas]

First impression: MUCH BADDASS!!!

Second impression: The Mothership doesn't run on energy anymore.

I know this is a demo, so there's something of a leap of logic here. But consider the evidence.

There is a blue... something covering the central part of the Mothership when it teleports in. It deactivates the moment it fires off any of its non-teleporting abilities. It takes some time before it re-establishes itself. And the Mothership can fire off an ability the moment it reactivates.

That suggests that the Mothership's non-teleporting abilities are based around a cooldown. That is, one cooldown for two abilities.

Again, I freely admit that they could just be cheating with energy. But this kind of mechanic would make them more useful; and price vs. performance is always at its most important for a unit that you can only ever build one of. It also isn't overpowered.

The time to reset the blue thing is ~1.5 times the time it takes for a Vortex to dissipate. So even doing it constantly, a Mothership could only keep 2.5 Vortex's activate at any one time. That's a lot, but it isn't so devastating. Especially considering that it prevents Protoss units from passing by (unlike Stasis).

The "blue thing" may be the Mothership's shield. That is, it has to deactivate its shields for a time to use its abilities. And since both of its abilities seem to be ground-based currently, this would give it a critical vulnerability to air units.

Even if I'm wrong about how often the Mothership can use its powers, the blue thing could still be its shields. Though if it runs on energy, why would it need to drop its shields for a time after casting a spell? And why would having its shields down prevent it from casting again (the Mothership never casts unless the blue thing is active).

This form of the Mothership may be some kind of anti-ground support unit. Temporal Rift and Vortex don't seem to affect air units, so Carriers and Void Rays won't be blocked by them. Intercepters won't slow down in the Rift. And so forth.

I am... intrigued. It's amazing what you can find in one 1-minute video.

I'm not a big fan of the re-texturing (the blue thing doesn't look as cool as the original one). I don't hate it, and I do admit that the lighting on that planet doesn't flatter the Protoss. So maybe I'm not seeing it in the best light. However, it does seem to conform more to the current Protoss aesthetic, which is important.