Mothership Update

[Jconant]

well...you need to understand that some stuff may be outdated...but the references here and data at sc2armory seem to be up to date on the most recent build the public had access to. Also... only god knows what blizzard has changed between that and what is going to be in the beta.

[The_Blade]

a player with some good micro skills is gonna have fun with protoss...

the mothership impeding view of things may be worrysome, but bear in mind the camera was mainly focused on the mothership

We have always had that problem. Dark Swarm and Disruption Web as an example, Are both view blockers, and they are even more common than mass Capital ships.

[KneeofJustice]

the mothership impeding view of things may be worrysome, but bear in mind the camera was mainly focused on the mothership

how the hell could anybody tell what was going on in that video? ya it looks cool but when playing the game, its very hard to read. statis field was much more cleaner ability. and the blackhole is like a modified statis field from what i see (in terms of what it does)

This is what was going through my mind when i was watching this video, especially when the colossi start firing.

I hope they work more towards graphic clarity.

[RolleR_RATM]

I enjoyed the story the most out of the update, the game-play and art were also a nice touch.

same as me XD

i love those short stories... the changeling story was excellent too.
when it comes to the Starcraft universe and lore and story.... i just can't get enough. I am addicted: I NEED MY FIX XD

[Nicol Bolas]

That I couldn't know, as it's not written in the wikia.
Nonetheless, it would have made the Viking a lot better in ground-mode.

First, I got that information from the Wiki. It's down in the references. The date when we were first made aware of it, and the date we were made aware that it had been removed. 12 days. It might have lasted longer in actual testing, but it's clear that it was not popular.

And yes, it would make the Viking more powerful. But why does the Viking need that power? The Viking is not meant to be a Goliath: the single answer for any air unit.

But how many massive air-targets are there? Aside from the Colossus (who can be targeted due to its height), Carrier, the Mothership and the Battlecruiser, no other flying unit is listed as massive.

Brood Lords. Yes, aside from five targets (roughly 1/3rd of all things that can be hit by air units), nothing is massive.

Being strong against 1/3rd of all things you can shot at isn't something you can ignore.

They are if they need to go into walker-mode, which they need to do if they want to contribute more.
If they remain in only one mode all the time so as not to expose them to their current weakness, then they'd be a waste of ressource and time.

So let me understand the scenario you're trying to paint.

You decided to build Vikings. In comes some AtG units. Now, your Vikings can transform into AtA attackers. But you decide not to. Because somehow letting them jump up and attack the dangerous AtG specialists is a "waste of ressource and time."

I'm sorry; I'm failing to see the logic here.

Your basic premise makes no sense. Vikings are flying units that can attack ground targets. But to do so, they must become ground units. They're kinda like Wraiths except that to use their ground attack, they must become a ground unit.

This gives their ground attack both an advantage (more damage than a Wraith) but a weakness (vulnerability to ground fire). You are not meant to have them running around on the ground forever. Or even most of the time. It allows the Viking to have secondary functions. But it's primary goal is to shoot down air units.

Well, just like the Wraith and the Goliath did, but did people really still use Wraiths?

Analogy fail. The Wraith and Golaith do the exact same kind of damage: 20 explosive. So they're good against the exact same kinds of units.

how the hell could anybody tell what was going on in that video? ya it looks cool but when playing the game, its very hard to read. statis field was much more cleaner ability.

You're not supposed to be able to see what's in the Vortex. That's because it doesn't matter what's in there. Things that are in there are gone. They don't exist. They don't take up space, you can't attack them, they can't attack you, etc.

What matters is what you see: an area that units can enter, but then they go away for awhile. You can see the boundary of this area (the boundary is admittedly a bit fuzzy).

I'm really seeing the Mothership as an AtG caster unit. It's abilities seem targeted against ground units. Even if air units can get caught in the Vortex, they can easily fly around it. It acts as area denial for ground units. And Temporal Rift seems ground-only.

[warrior6]

Vortex is definitely a modified Stasis Field.

But that's definitely not a bad thing.

Stasis Field insta-froze a small area for like 30 seconds. It made all the captured units invulnerable.

Vortex not only does that, but it continues to freeze anything entering the area, effectively closing it down. Between Vortex and the Disruptor's Force Field the Protoss may have the best area denial in the game.

It also draws everything into its center. Image the power of Vortex with Psi Storm or the Colossus AoE attack.

oh im sure its very useful but its such a pain for the eyes. they need to clean it up so we can actually tell whats inside the dam thing

[Islandsnake]

How would you go about displaying whats inside the vortex, or why would you want too o.0

would you want to see all the models overlapping

[n00bonicPlague]

Analogy fail. The Wraith and Golaith do the exact same kind of damage: 20 explosive. So they're good against the exact same kinds of units.

Don't forget that Goliaths have better armor, longer range, different damage modifiers, and a much cheaper cost (due to being earthbound and non-cloaking). Wraiths are more about quick strikes. Goliaths are more about brute force.

[Gifted]

How would you go about displaying whats inside the vortex, or why would you want too o.0

would you want to see all the models overlapping

It's my opinion that the ability to not know what's in there will help separate average players from insanely good ones. The difference of a person able to identify what's going in there and know how to handle it after it disappates could be handled completely differently than a person who doesn't recognize what's in there.

Regarding the black hole, I've heard some interesting strategies pulled off regarding it.

- A seige tank cluster was causing major issues on an important ramp. The use of a black hole threw about 7 tanks out of the fight. By using a phase prism, he warped in 8 zealots into the black hole (or warped them in and ran them in) When the black hole ended, the zealots obliterated the tanks with little losses.
- Mothership teleported to a base under attack, threw a black hole out and put the probes into it to protect them as help was on the way. This significantly reduced probe losses.
- Using it on a ramp to an opponent's expansion to prevent reinforcements from coming from the main base. This allowed him to kill the expansion and leave before those units were available.

While many of the same tactics with stasis field are the same, I've been made to understand it's strength is that it can continually inject units after it's placement, which adds a more interesting dynamic than simply "hit or miss".

[n00bonicPlague]

I do like the way Vortex functions over the original Stasis Field. As you said, many more strategies can be produced from it's nature. However, are we sure that units within cannot be fired upon from outside? I could've sworn that it worked that way in the most recent build.