Will we get to play as Xel'Naga... ever?

[Praetor_Ixab]

So I'm wondering, since Blizzard decided (and rightly so, IMO) that the addition of a 4th race would make the game virtually impossible to balance and therefor too similar to WC3, will there ever be playable Xel'Naga or even hybrid units in the game, or even in future games?

Obviously, they wouldn't be available in multiplayer, but in campaign and UMS maps (and since the map editor can do everything and anything short of curing cancer) it would stand to reason that getting a few Xel'Naga units in the beginning of a mission is a distinct possibility, as well as maybe having to kill some of the hybrids. Maybe they are hero units in the first game, like the DTs were before Brood War.

I think it would make for some killer cliffhangers. Think about it: Jim Raynor is battling the Dominion or some outpost planet at the end of WoL, and from out of nowhere, in the middle of the battle, comes this monstrosity. Combined Dominion and RR fire brings it down.... and WoL ends. Creepy, no? And Kerrigan may not even know about it yet, so we won't know what happened right away! Then, there is the possibility during LotV that Zeratul comes across the Xel'Naga themselves, and a Xel'Naga hero or two steps in to help him find artifacts and stop the hybrids and/or Kerrigan. The storyline is just brimming with possibilities.

BAsically, I'm jsut wondering and leaving it open to discusssion, do you think we'll just see a 4th (and possibly 5th), or will there be any direct control over them in any capacity?

[Dread_Reaper]

My guess would be that the Xel'Naga will make appearances in the single player campaign, but I do doubt that we will have any direct control over them. I imagine we will fight and kill them, but likely not play AS them.

However, the exception I do see is that if a Xel'Naga hero joins us or something, giving you control over a single guy and maybe a handful of his troops. I doubt we will do any building, teching, etc, with them, but rather just have a few to work with in a mission.

To be honest though, I like that the Xel'Naga are these mysterious, shadowy beings. To include them so obviously in the game would undercut their menace and ultimately rob the scenario of its gravitas.

-Dread_Reaper

[Sheliek]

We'll definitely be seeing the Hybrids, there's no question about that. The Xel'Naga is also a likely possibility.

Controlling them is another thing entirely; we might see them, and we may even ally with the Xel'Naga, but that doesn't imply control. For all we know, we may have the computer play as an allied Xel'Naga force, as opposed to us playing them directly.

This doesn't rule out mini-campaigns. In Heart of the Swarm, for example, there may be a Duran mini-campaign, showing the first birth of a Hybrid. And in Legacy of the Void, Zeratul may encounter an old Xel'Naga temple, and in doing so, trigger a mini-campaign showing the Xel'Naga either creating and being destroyed by the Zerg, or their contact with the early Protoss.

[Crazy_Jonny]

I always pictures the XelNaga as god like entities, bigger than life. I cant picture us controlling them. The hybrids however, most likely.

[SCdude]

As long as there will be ingame models for Xel'Naga units and buildings, we will be able to control them in UMS maps. However, i do not think that we will be able to do so in singleplayer (and ofcourse not in mulitplayer).

[Perfecttear]

I always pictures the XelNaga as god like entities, bigger than life. I cant picture us controlling them. The hybrids however, most likely.

This is a nice XElNaga concept:





Xel Naga WIP 2 by ~dogparry

[DemolitionSquid]

Are those cannon or fan made? They look nothing like the carved faces we've seen in the cinematics.

[unentschieden]

Are those cannon or fan made? They look nothing like the carved faces we've seen in the cinematics.

It´s Perfecttear, do you need to ask? More importantly it´s a completely foreign style to "normal" Blizzard stuff. There is a certain homogenity in the art team which was a slight issue early on when comming from WoW.

[Aldrius]

I always pictures the XelNaga as god like entities, bigger than life.

Then how did the Zerg kill them...?

[mr. peasant]

Then how did the Zerg kill them...?

Greater numbers, the element of surprise and because there are more measure of 'superiority' than just military might.