Random impulse, Spawn Larva change/suggestion.

[GnaReffotsirk]

I have to say, if you don't like the topic, at least add a few insightful thoughts into the discussion. You are free to say what you like or how you feel, but please...

/disgustedModeOff

[Drake Clawfang]

Fine, here's my contribution - make Spawn Larva auto-cast.

[BnetGamer77]

@ Guru + Drake

There are a numerous amount of topics which tend to spawn countless threads.

This topic, is specific, and in my opinion has merit to it.

Now, if it were a "Zerg is underpowered" - "Protoss are unstoppable" - or even "Said unit is too strong/gimped!", then I would understand your grief.

Yet, in the end, if others continue to mention Spawn Larva concerns or ideas, perhaps there is something wrong if it's not a cry out for a direct buff?

The suggestion I bring up technically wouldn't be a buff, yet more of a way to level out a way to monitor how Spawn Larva truly holds up vs the other
races macro abilities. At the moment, it can make a HUGE difference mid-late game of the Zerg player's aggressive/defensive nature on how often they
spam spawn larva asap when it's ready for another go.

they have less of a *unable to correct* said mistake in macro abilities sense theirs at least stacks up to a certain extent, where as zerg players really
feel the punishment if they get out of a fight and realize for the last 1min+ they hadn't had a spawn larva up on any of their hatchery's.

@Drake's last response. That's no better then a "L2Macro better" statement, it's already been addressed by players and Blizzard directly why
Spawn Larva wouldn't become an auto cast; at least it's a baby crawl in the right direction then your first reply. -_-

[Drake Clawfang]

Goodness, is this a typical response in general or just these forums? I'm sorry that it's a infamous topic -
and I'll stop it dead if this idea has already been mentioned and clearly counted as unusable.

No, its just me. It seems every week there's a new topic where someone has an idea to "fix" Spawn Larva.

@Drake's last response. That's no better then a "L2Macro better" statement, it's already been addressed by players and Blizzard directly why
Spawn Larva wouldn't become an auto cast; at least it's a baby crawl in the right direction then your first reply. -_-

Link then because it's news to me that Blizzard has ever said "SL can't be set to auto-cast and here's why".

they have less of a *unable to correct* said mistake in macro abilities sense theirs at least stacks up to a certain extent, where as zerg players really feel the punishment if they get out of a fight and realize for the last 1min+ they hadn't had a spawn larva up on any of their hatchery's.

Well, there's another difference from Mule-Crono-Spawn: Mule and Crono go to work instantly, Spawn Larva takes 40 seconds to work. So let's examine that. What if the spawn time for the extra Larva was greatly reduced to...oh, let's say 10 seconds, just for sake of argument. But a Hatchery has a cooldown of 30 seconds before Spawn Larva can be used on it again.

[BnetGamer77]

Well, there's another difference from Mule-Crono-Spawn: Mule and Crono go to work instantly, Spawn Larva takes 40 seconds to work. So let's examine that. What if the spawn time for the extra Larva was greatly reduced to...oh, let's say 10 seconds, just for sake of argument. But a Hatchery has a cooldown of 30 seconds before Spawn Larva can be used on it again.

Hadn't given it much thought, yet it doesn't sound too bad at first glance.

Haha~! Ask and ye saw receive!

http://sclegacy.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3557

Blue

Chrono Boost as well as the MULE are as much a tactical decision as any other in StarCraft II. In my experience, deciding when and where to use Chrono Boost is very critical to your strategy, same for deploying a MULE vs. saving extra energy and using the Orbital Scanner.
--------------
Great points, but here are some details to consider.

Utilizing Chrono Boost, MULE, the Queen's abilities, and many other "energy-based" resources that aid players is a decision to be made by the player in situations where they deem them to be pivotal and beneficial in their strategy. We want players to develop their own strategies and use these tools to their highest potential.

If Chrono Boost, MULE or Spawn Larvae were auto-cast, there wouldn't be much strategy involved. These are not intended to make the game difficult, but rather, they provide each race with unique outlets for economy, unit production and many other decision-based tactics.

Allowing abilities to auto-cast is a difficult decision that comes on a case-by-case basis. We do not want to do everything for the player but at the same time there are some abilities that feel like they make the most sense for this.
--------------------
Our philosophy is to automate as little as possible. With units such as the Queen, she almost always wants to use her larva ability. But sometimes she will want to create a Tumor and more importantly use a Transfusion. It's rare, but we've seen games won and lost over a single Transfusion being used (or not used).

The MULE has a ton of tension with Scanner Sweep. If we set it to auto-cast it would often do the wrong thing and we don't want it to do the wrong thing. Chrono Boost has a lot of tension as well for what you use it on and will also experience the same undesired effect. We want you, the player, to make the decision on when and where to use these abilities.

[Drake Clawfang]

I'm sorry about the snippiness of the first post. But it really does seem like every week there's a new thread "hey guys, I got an idea to fix Spawn Larva!" Me personally, I'm at the point where I don't even read them (obviously made an exception for this thread). But I'm like "Okay right, you hate how the mechanic works, seems everyone does."

I know this is a short-sighted and close-minded way of thinking, but I wonder that if Blizzard thought Spawn Larva sucked, wouldn't they have fixed it in one of the dozen patches the Beta had, or at least experiment with new mechanics for it? Seems they screwed with everything else in the Beta at least once just to see how it went, Spawn Larva they left alone.

[Todie]

i approve of the OP suggestion.

its a strictly mechanical change and seems quite fair.


... the counter argument taht can be made, that zerg get leeway in terms of the actual unit production instead of use of teh macro-mechanics;

a good T or P player will always keep just enough production capacity to keep spending his income.. in such situations, neglected or denied production-orders cannot be made up for without making more buildings (or using more chronoboost on units)

... in the zergs case, larvae keep regenerating even when we dont make units - at least up to 3 per hatch + the SL.. in zergs case, its mostly the very crucial use of the spawn larva that is unforgiving.

... however, unit production is easier to keep up with than SL-use IMO.

[BnetGamer77]

Drake, that is a fair gesture, up till the point you understand just about every game has updates after it's released. Some issues
didn't show up in beta, where others like Spawn Larva are apparently tricky to deal with or quite simply no one mentions an Idea on
Blizzard's end or that they see/read that get's enough support.

It's also a possibility they see an issue with a race, and try to fix it from a different perspective rather then where we may see
it coming from spawn larva.

@ Todie:

I agree if your counter argument is that say I get my army crushed or merely retreat and need to amass a counter force asap.
I can select all currently available larva and make units appropriate for the situation.

The issue with that is it works as a double bladed sword. It's ether too heavy in aiding the zerg if they have a seemingly huge
amount of larva to work with, or it's a disaster if they have next to no larva to work with. IF we can find a way to make sure
there is a more steady amount of larva available then we can assess how fair it matches up vs Terran's/Protoss unit production.

[Drake Clawfang]

Utilizing Chrono Boost, MULE, the Queen's abilities, and many other "energy-based" resources that aid players is a decision to be made by the player in situations where they deem them to be pivotal and beneficial in their strategy. We want players to develop their own strategies and use these tools to their highest potential.

If Chrono Boost, MULE or Spawn Larvae were auto-cast, there wouldn't be much strategy involved. These are not intended to make the game difficult, but rather, they provide each race with unique outlets for economy, unit production and many other decision-based tactics.

Ah, thank you. The problem then is Blizzard's line of thinking. True, OC energy can go towards Mules, extra Supply or a Com Sweep, Crono Boost can be used on anything to speed up unit or research speed. The Queen? Infuse plain sucks and contributes nothing to production at all, and while spawn Creep Tumor is handy, you could just make a second Queen to devote to that. It comes down to Spawn Larva being the only way the Queen increases production. The case then is making it so she can help the player's production in other ways.

[BnetGamer77]

@ Drake,

I agree and I foresaw this issue through out Beta, that the Queen is so different from the Chrono Boost and CC Energy.

I'm going to get grief from die-hard Terran/Protoss players, but Spawn Larva feels more critical for the Zerg then any of
the other uses for the queen's energy. Any Zerg player can admit it's a must have active on hatchery at near any-point of a match.

For the other races, it can be fairly debatable over how and when to use the energy they have.

It's why these topics in regards to Spawn Larva pop up.