Who misses the Lurker?

[moosh]

i for one prefer to see marines and reckless zealots literally smelted away by the banelings green acid...



if y'all are arguing for the return of the Lurker, you must consider in what way it aught to fit in alongside the existing and general well adjusted parts of the swarm.

Uh, the ONLY unit that can attack while burrowed? It's essentially Zerg's only "cloaked" unit per se. Unless you count banelings detonating under ground...

[Todie]

My concept for a Lurker replacement:
Acid Hurler (provisional name, I couldn't come up with anything better)
Cost: 50/75 gas/minerals
Time: 35
Control: 3
Evolves From: Hydralisk
Hp: 160
Attack: 15 (+10 vs. armoured), small splash (+2, +1 vs. armoured per upgrade)
Range: 0-5 (air), 3-9(ground)
Armour: 1 (Armoured)

Basically it lobs a glob of acid in a parabolic arc, which accounts for the lower air range as opposed to ground range, and the minimum ground range.

all iv been able to think of has been some arguably even more generic hydra evolution that is also specialized vs armored considering that, im rather intrigued by this idea.

i think it aught to be quite clearly specialized though, and one has to be carefull with the splash as to not overlap with the banling too much; need i remind you of the critical-mass effect of ST-splash-owns-all-ground present in sc/bw ?

... as matter of reference, i'd like to uplift an old idea that wasnt entierly mine to begin with..it must'a came from some old timer back in blizzforums a few years back... even way back then, this was thought of as a hydra-evo - probably anti-armored;

imagine a hydra that can have 3 or more (armor-piercing) spines ready to fire, but takes longer than hydras to regenerate spines; in effect this means this unit (hunter killer?) would fire its spine very quickly & effectively at first, but after the first few seconds of fiering, its DPS would drop .....i hope you get the idea, some stats just for kicks:

Hunter Killer (its a retcon i know, but meh?)
Cost: 50/75 gas/minerals
Time: 25
Control: 3
Evolves From: Hydralisk
Hp: 160
Attack: 12 (+6 vs. armoured), special multi-spine cooldown (+1, +1 vs. armoured per upgrade)
Range: 5 (+1 with hydras range upgrade) ground only?
Armour: 1 (Armoured)

unsure about the range, im thinking no more than 7, but even that may be too much. attack speed would be a bit slower than hydra - but a bit faster than hydra for the first few shots.

if one would want even more depth to the unitit could get an auto-cast ability that needed triggering to acutally use the extra spines, and this attack could have shorter range than the usual one. (enabeling the 'regular' range to be tweaked to 7.. probably not higher)


bottom line is, i think people in general seem too stuck up on the idea of the lurker being so great... it may well have good reasons to be gone and not be on its way back. deal with it. think of options like these!

[Arkalis]

At least please put Lurker in Editor. It's a must, like a Starcraft Legacy

[MattII]

i think it aught to be quite clearly specialized though, and one has to be carefull with the splash as to not overlap with the banling too much; need i remind you of the critical-mass effect of ST-splash-owns-all-ground present in sc/bw ?

The splash isn't going to be anything like that big, just like the Archon splash, or even smaller, just enough to catch 2-3 small units standing right next to each other.

[TunaFish]

It's always ALWAYS been that way. If they have abilities, they're passive. In that vein, the Roach's regen, the Corruptor's old turret ability, fit the Zerg.

Even the corruptor having corruption is weird.


Overlaps too much with Fungal Growth.

All fair points. I agree about the corrupter; I preferred its previous ability even if the new one has more utility.

I do think if they re-implement the Lurker it will be with some added flavor, though, even if it doesn't have a new activated ability.

[Nicol Bolas]

i'd like to uplift an old idea that wasnt entierly mine to begin with

No, it most certainly wasn't. It was mine.

And I see no reason at all to waste 50/75 on such a unit. It doesn't even out-range Hydralisks (a vital feature of my version of the HK). And the spine mechanic makes it a slightly better Hydralisk for a few seconds, then a waste of gas. You could have had another Hydralisk for that money. All for a measly +6 vs. Armored.

The HK wasn't really designed to work with the current Hydralisk. The current Hydra is too much of a damage dealer to make the HK be able to effectively work alongside it. It's also too high tech. The design was intended to be used with a more SC1-style Hydralisk, or as a replacement for the Hydralisk altogether.

[MattII]

What about my idea then Nicol, useful, interesting, or just needs to be quietly dropped?

[pure.Wasted]

So get this: all these long months I've been harping on Blizz for keeping the Zerg's options so restricted compared to T & P... I go MIA for a few months because of lack of internet, check out my email for the first time in months today, boot up the Beta for which I'd got an invite...

And the Zerg are MISSING a unit.

In fact, one of the very units I thought could be used to shake up their gameplay.

Yeah. Not amused.


P.S. hiiiiiiii.

[Visions of Khas]

Pure.Wasted! *points and screams* We don't welcome your kind around here.

I can't say the Lurker is what's missing, exactly, but they are missing something.

[pure.Wasted]

I can't say the Lurker is what's missing, exactly, but they are missing something.

Well, to clarify, the plan was never simply "keep Lurkers." That's still too SC1 for my tastes. I proposed that Lurkers be brought down to T2 and be given the ability to cliff-climb.

Not to start up that debate again (not until I've read up on all the recent discussions anyway!), just ... explaining my shock, I guess, at Blizz taking out what should have been taken advantage of.