Mothership Update

[The_Blade]

I wondered why the time bomb seemed to have no effect as well but after watching the video a second time I realized that the spine crawler stopped attacking. Does this mean it only works on defensive structures now? Only speculation though, since the ultralisk I think ran back and out of the bubble. Seems that the mothership is now the combination of the arbiter and corsair. Interesting.

It did had an effect, but you will have to comare two videos. Look at this one (time=5:30) and then look again at the new video. The ultralisk attack animation is quite fast at first. Then, after the timebomb, you can see half of this animation taking even longer than a single attack. On the other hand the spine crawler does attacks, but the ultalisk blocks the animation. This are only my own speculations, because my knowledge of the timebomb ability depends on a single video.

I guess this & the changeling story are the winners of that writing contest they had a while back.

There's only one problem... IIRC we didn't knowed about the changling during the contest.

Anyone notice that the Mothership displayed in the video has an updated model?

Jeje, I did; and if the carrier also gets this "glow" in its armor, it will look awesome.

[Visions of Khas]

When casting, the shield bubble falls away to reveal Khaydarin. Is this purely aesthetic, or does a MS's shields really drop in-game?

Also, the books use Behemoths for ferrying forces. I've not heard of Leviathans before. Another lore breed? Or maybe Blizzard has kept a select few units back until release?

[Zabimaru]

Jeje, I did; and if the carrier also gets this "glow" in its armor, it will look awesome.

I do hope they get into doing somting with the carrier at least. But, yay for mothership. I still want to see how it plays game wise though.

[Nicol Bolas]

I'll just repost what I said in the original thread over here:

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.

[Wankey]

Oh my ears, stop with the annoying high pitched cloaking sound!

[scorpio19]

Carrier, Phoenix and Void ray models are probably all being updated as well.

please god!

[Norfindel]

Interesting story. It's good to have an inside look on the details of a fight, and the issue with the Kalathi.

About the model, i like it, they removed the ugly glowing blue lines. I preferred the old attack, however. It looked better.

[Caliban113]

Like Blazur said in the other thread, these moments can renew your outlook on this whole waiting thing - The game looks so good.

Just brilliant. (snif)

Does anyone know what those 'clicking' sounds are just after the MS appears? - Sounds like someone cocking a shotgun a bunch of times or something.

The MS has a laser attack now?

Edit: Anyone notice the The Thor and Nomad are missing from the Terran section?


.

[ArcherofAiur]

Edit: Anyone notice the The Thor and Nomad are missing from the Terran section?

Crosses fingers. Pllllllllllzzzzzzzzzzzz

[trace wm]

Edit: Anyone notice the The Thor and Nomad are missing from the Terran section?

No.... don't do this to me. The Thor is the worst unit in the game, but the Nomad/Raven/whatever may be my favorite :\