Hydralisk saliva looks too awful.

[newcomplex]

Does that mean you're actually OK with the Roach's current attack animation?

What exactly would you propose?

I'm not "OK" with the Roach in general.

[pure.Wasted]

What exactly would you propose?

I'm not "OK" with the Roach in general.

I'm pretty sure just about anything would be preferable to the Roach vomiting as an attack. Just for a second stop thinking about it as we see it in-game, and try to actually imagine this happening. Think cinematic: because at some point, SC2 or SC3 or whatever, they'll have to appear in one. There's these giant monsters running around, made out of spikes and claws, their hide tougher than tank plating, and when they run up to a line of Terran infantry they stop 10 feet away and start barfing all over the marines?

Seriously...

[newcomplex]

I'm pretty sure just about anything would be preferable to the Roach vomiting as an attack. Just for a second stop thinking about it as we see it in-game, and try to actually imagine this happening. Think cinematic: because at some point, SC2 or SC3 or whatever, they'll have to appear in one. There's these giant monsters running around, made out of spikes and claws, their hide tougher than tank plating, and when they run up to a line of Terran infantry they stop 10 feet away and start barfing all over the marines?

Seriously...

Well, you free to come up with an alternative, as I said...zerg air has spores covered pretty well, and hydralisks got the spine thing. There's a distinct lack of acid.

I hate everything about the Roach, the attack animation kinda being irrelevant amongst my sheer hatred for the unit :P

[TunaFish]

Because roaches shoot acid, hydralisk shoot spines. I like that distinction. Hydralisks shooting acid jets, roaches shooting acid...buckets...would be stupid.

So because the Marine and the Viking (for example) both use machine guns, it would be better if Vikings shot cannon balls instead, for the sake of variety?

To me, the Viking shooting cannon balls would be about as anachronistic as the Hydralisk shooting oversized blow darts.

[Nicol Bolas]

There's these giant monsters running around, made out of spikes and claws, their hide tougher than tank plating, and when they run up to a line of Terran infantry they stop 10 feet away and start barfing all over the marines?

If you're looking at it cinematicly, then it's all about the reaction. Reactions sell the attack. And to me, what sells the Roach's attack is that it dissolves the target. So it doesn't matter if it's vomiting a glob of acid; what matters is that it transforms the target into a screaming, green ball of dissolved goo.

Show me a Hydralisk that physically throws a spike, and it looks silly. Show me a Hydralisk that physically throws a spike that skewers some poor Marine, stabbing through his armor and pinning him to a rock like a bug, and it looks awesome.

[newcomplex]

So because the Marine and the Viking (for example) both use machine guns, it would be better if Vikings shot cannon balls instead, for the sake of variety?

To me, the Viking shooting cannon balls would be about as anachronistic as the Hydralisk shooting oversized blow darts.

Theirs a difference in artistic direction amongst the zerg and the terran. The zerg are meant to inflect a sense of "alienness", of exoticism, "otherness" and distinctive, "imaginative" methods of attack help this.

Terran are meant to be familiar, but totally awesome, futuristic, version of an aspect of ourselves.

[TunaFish]

There's a difference in artistic direction amongst the zerg and the terran. The zerg are meant to inflect a sense of "alienness", of exoticism, "otherness" and distinctive, "imaginative" methods of attack help this.

Terran are meant to be familiar, but totally awesome, futuristic, version of an aspect of ourselves.

So what you're saying is Terran attacks are supposed to be awesome and futuristic and Zerg ones are supposed to be absurd and silly?

A 7 foot monster shooting out an oversized quill that floats lazily through the air in an arc - at least to me - doesn't seem "alien," "exotic", "distinctive, or "imaginative." It's not even a new idea by any stretch. There are plenty of games in which wild creatures shoot sharpened spines (Warcraft 3 a prime example). Really, it's just silly and out of place.

The only thing "different" about the Hydra attack is instead of shooting those quills at medieval knights or muscular, half-naked orcs, they're shooting them at spaceships and tanks with plate armor. That's not imaginative - it's just stupid. I don't get any sense from the way the Hydralisk's attack is presented that it could actually damage the vast majority of the units in the game.


Bottom line:
Regardless of the context, it's not a distinctive attack because it a) isn't particularly noticeable visually and b) the sound isn't unique or attention grabbing. Those are two characteristics that the original Hydralisk attack had.

[Nicol Bolas]

Zerg ones are supposed to be absurd and silly?

That's certainly how it was in SC1. I mean, Zerglings? They run up to a tank and scratch it. Oh, I'm sure that'll do so much damage.

[TunaFish]

That's certainly how it was in SC1. I mean, Zerglings? They run up to a tank and scratch it. Oh, I'm sure that'll do so much damage.

That's a fair point, but Zerglings are still fearsome in the sense that they attack very quickly with sharp claws...it's also sort of believable because it takes a lot of them to swarm around most big units in order to actually destroy them. But you're right, it takes quite a bit of suspension of disbelief to think that Zerglings could take down a tank.

I guess the bottom line is Zerglings are pretty cool and memorable. Personally, I don't find the new Hydralisk attack to be either of those things, and really it's only because the Hydralisk itself is still so cool and memorable looking that I don't think the unit is totally lame.

And again, forgetting the context, Zerglings still have a more distinctive attack in terms of the sound and the visual.

Honestly, even keeping the current Hydralisk animation but giving it the same sound effect as the original Hydralisk attack would be a vast improvement.

The main problem I see is that the visual and sound presentation of the Hydralisk attack makes it seem very weak. It's just a little "pfft" and a small barb that you can hardly even see.

[zergjuice]

roaches shooting spines wont make sense because of thier short range, i mean, its a light weight and fast arrow thing, vomiting acid makes a bit more sense as its too heavy to be shot for a long distance and the damage is done from the acid - not from brutal force.