Bashiok says Blizzard ok with worthless units

[Warsaw]

Maybe allow the mother ship to recharge shields of nearby units? Perhaps make it a pylon source. That would be cool. So you could just warp units to where ever your mother ship is. You could use it to power up building if you just got attacked, etc... But they do already have a flying unit like that hahaha. I just remembered. :P Ahh. What can we do?

[KneeofJustice]

Its a little worrying to hear them saying that it's "ok" to have useless units (a la scout) because their job is to balance the game and hopefully make every unit useful. Admitting defeat in this way is disheartening. I would have hoped that their mentality would be "were aware of this issue and are doing our best to make all units viable, even if only in certain situations" (even though its probably not really possible).

Shit like the mothership, reapers (after 5 min), infested terrans, and archons should be looked at long and hard, not written off as "ok"

This is actually one of the few areas they might be able to improve compared to BW in some way (besides, for example, graphics....)

[n00bonicPlague]

Mobile pylon power would've been an interesting idea had it not been for the Phase Prism.

Seriously though, I think the Graviton Beam idea could work.

[Hamshank]

Mothership sells the product. Reviews will surely show the Mothership, as it's big and exciting even though unused. Arbiter? Is that going to get little Jimmy riled up and want to buy the game? Definitely not.

[n00bonicPlague]

You can tell little Jimmy that his precious little Mothership can be found in the Campaign where it belongs

[IchibanBaka]

unfortunately and embarrassingly i got attacked by a rush mothership and lost lol

[Quirel]

Bashiok is one of the best Blizzard Community Managers you'll ever meet. He talks straight, likes to joke around, and doesn't cover everything in a bunch of vague BS.

tl;dr He's actually a human being.
.

Yeah, well, unless I see some ID, I'm not buying this whole "Community Manager" schtick of his. This is the internet. Until proven otherwise, all guys are guys, all girls are guys (Yes, Sarov, you've proven yourself to be a female) and all children are perverts and/or FBI agents.



As for gameplay value, I don't mind if the Mothership turns out to be useless. Because we haven't found a use for it now doesn't mean that some pro player will build a viable strategy around it (See: Valkyries).

And hey, Infested Terrans were slightly less useless in combat than Queen-Spawned Broodlings, but they weren't hurting anything.

Hey remember when they removed this unit cause they were worried it wouldnt see a whole lot of use?

Cool image.

But if I recall correctly (As I've occasionally managed to do with Arbiters. Occasionally) that unit was removed to cut down on the number of returning units (WAH! Zerg is the same as BW!) and to give the Ultralisk and baneling more room in matchups.

By Bashioks own admission its a "LOL LOOK HOW MUCH MUNEY I HAV!" unit. In months of beta testing I have not seen the mothership used ONCE.

Strange... Bashiok's resume doesn't say "Balance Tester, Design Team Alpha". It says "Community Manager"... and "FBI Agent Delta."

And I've seen the Mothership used, bucko. Maybe it wasn't a game-breaker, but it made that invading Protoss army a lot harder to take out.

If that is not useless I do not know what is.

Try "Zerg Queen that does nothing useful." Or "Suicide Unit that costs too much and is too hard to get".
Or "Shiny white computers that cost an extra 300 dollars because they have a certain fruit icon slapped on their uselessly ergonomic cases."

Um how about it replaces a unit that contributed incredible gameplay to BW? Is that negative impact enough?

List of units that have replaced units that contributed incredible gameplay to BW:
Hellion replaced Vulture
Baneling replaced Lurker
Viking replaced Goliath and Wraith
Infestor replaced Defiler
Pheonix replaced Corsair
Immortal replaced Dragoon

Gosh, it looks like Blizzard is really screwing things up here.

So what your saying is you want a pure port of Starcraft 3D... Not Starcraft II?

Oh, how I pine for the completed Project Revolutions mod...

Would like to see the Mothership implemented better, but I really don't want it to go anywhere.

[Hamshank]

You can tell little Jimmy that his precious little Mothership can be found in the Campaign where it belongs

haha XD

[hyde]

Hey guys, chill out... Basiok is just a forum moderator / community manager.

Browder or anyone else on the actual developement team didn't say nothing. Anyways I remember back from the WoW days, Kat the WoW community manager got canned.
Their words are not final, and from the obvious tone of sarcasm in capitals and poor spelling , I would take them with a grain of salt.



Btw....

Are you actually going to be removing or adding any units before you launch?

Dustin Browder: I don’t know if we’ll add or remove. We could very easily add or remove. I certainly hope not to. I don’t foresee removing. I could see changing or adding significantly if it came to that. Our numbers now are positive and things seem to be going well, but as we’ve seen many times in the past, the community will often surprise us with tactics and strategies that we simply didn’t see coming. If we get to a point in a few weeks or a month where we say, ‘Oh my God, the Immortal’s a really huge problem. We need to change him dramatically or drop him,’ that is a change we’d be willing to make at this point.

March 9th Interview with Browder.
http://www.vg247.com/2010/03/09/inte...ly-going-home/


I know it is not likely for them to remove the Mothership and then to add an Arbiter unit, that would require some solid testing. It's easier for them at this point to keep the mothership and give it a small buff and then possibly remove it mid release or replace it...etc...But logically and from a developement viewpoint, the next logical step is buffing the mothership..
I still see the Mothership as a defence/support unit. But what about this

a) Reduce the tech tree requirements like people have said
b) The cost should be the same considering what it does
c) Give it an energy costing "burst of speed" skill, so it can be possibly used on offensive. I do miss warping in +30 Dragoons in the back of a terran base...
And in it's current state, it is not "that" bad of a unit. Not as bad as the carrier IMO...

[Sarov]

Yeah, well, unless I see some ID, I'm not buying this whole "Community Manager" schtick of his. This is the internet. Until proven otherwise, all guys are guys, all girls are guys (Yes, Sarov, you've proven yourself to be a female) and all children are perverts and/or FBI agents.

As weird as that is, I find it to be somewhat true. Guys are guys. Most of the girls I meet on the internet are guys playing/roleplaying a female; especially in MMOs - I'm looking at WoW. There's also this strange fear that teenagers are perverts or special unit cops looking to catch a pervert - kudos to Chris Hansen and Dateline for epic lulz!

Also let's not forget that 'all hitman are undercover cops':

For the love of God, do NOT attempt to hire a hit man. If you are reading this web page for actual information on finding a person willing to kill someone for money, you have no chance of success. For you, real hit men only exist in movies. The only hit man you will ever contact, if you are stupid enough to try, is an undercover cop pretending to be a hit man. You’ll be a much happier person, not to mention not being an accessory to murder, if you just check out What It Costs For A Divorce.

Lol?

And thank you Quirel because at least someone believes I'm not a guy who just grabs pictures of a black chick off the internet. :/

Anyways, I don't mind useless units like how the scout was considered - from what I hear - to be that way in Brood War but it really is annoying. If, however, there are more than one or two 'useless' units, it's even worse. Then again... I only use a certain group of units and an extremely small amount at that, especially with Protoss. As in zealots, Stalkers, an immortal hear or there, rarely a Colossi, and maybe a Void Ray.

But I must confess, I love using Stalkers.