Does Spawn Infested Terrans break your suspension of disbelief?

[Pandonetho]

If you can accept that the Zerg can process genetic material that evolved on worlds that are completely alien to them, then you can accept Spawn Infested Terrans. If you can't accept it, then that's your problem (likely due to not understanding how flat-out impossible the Zerg thing is), not a problem with the Lore.

See, most people DON'T see all the impossible things related to the Zerg.
It's the stuff that's outright ridiculous to even the most uninformed or dumb people, that's when you know something is stupid.

Who the hell cares about getting a damn biology degree just to see what's fundamentally wrong with the Zerg, or getting an A in Biology 30 or whatever.

If something pops up at you right away without any thought at all, saying "that doesn't make sense at all" ex: mutalisks flapping in space, then that's when things go too far.

Everything about the Zerg are already fundamentally impossible on so many levels. What's one more?

Why not just use the excuse that human knowledge is limited? We don't know everything about the universe, our theories and laws might not be rock solid.

[PsiWarp]

IWhy?

Because you have effectively removed an ability choice on a spellcaster?

It's like making the High Templar only able to use Psionic Storm vs Zerg but cannot use it on Protoss. You cannot have it affect only one race because it will be completely useless, cannot be cast, just occupies a slot space being nothing but a grayed-out icon in the Infestor's UI interface.

With EMP it's different, it adds bonus vs one race, but still affects every race. The Queen's Infest is a broken ability since Starcraft.


-Psi

[ArcherofAiur]

It's like making the High Templar only able to use Psionic Storm vs Zerg but cannot use it on Protoss. You cannot have it affect only one race because it will be completely useless, cannot be cast, just occupies a slot space being nothing but a grayed-out icon in the Infestor's UI interface.

Whats so bad about that? So you cant use it against protoss or zerg. You still have the other two abilities. Plague might be better against protoss anyway.

With EMP it's different, it adds bonus vs one race, but still affects every race. The Queen's Infest is a broken ability since Starcraft.
-Psi

We could always make it an anti-building ability that has the added bonus of spawning infested terran when used against Terran buildings. Like if infestation damaged and disabled buildings. Great for knocking out those gateways and obelisks but even better against barracks.

[PsiWarp]

Abilities should be versatile, and only specific to some general traits shared by each race (Units, Buildings, Air, Ground, Terrain, etc). If you want these types of race specific (and I mean REALLY specific) abilities, you place them in Single player.

Using other abilities to cover for an unusable ability is really bad unit design.


-Psi

[ArcherofAiur]

@psi
Whats bad about a anti-building ability that also spawns infest terrans against terran buildings.

Its the zergs equivalent of EMP.

[PsiWarp]

I was referring to an ability being "Terran specific", not "anti-building/spawn unit". I think you meant to say "Terran involved" then.

But then again, are you talking about the old Infestation again? Does it affect Protoss and Zerg structures? If not, why bother?


-Psi

[Triceron]

So, you're saying that StarCraft is not a symbolic representation of war, waged on a gameboard? In what way is it not? Is StarCraft some kind of realistic simulation of how war will be waged in the future?

No. It's a game. It's rules are defined by, and for the expressed purpose of, gameplay. It's rules, like damage bonuses, what can attack air vs. ground, etc are entirely arbitrary. It's no less arbitrary than saying that Knights get to move in an "L" and can jump over other pieces.

They're both abstractions; Chess is simply simpler.

The more you argue a lemon is sour makes it no less a fruit. You're simply reiterating that the game has rules, and that these units are simply 'units in a game', which is true. But what relevance is that to the topic when we're discussing suspension of disbelief, aspects which do not directly pertain to gameplay mechanics? This is about lore, backstory and the general outlook of units, not their stats or game mechanics.

[ArcherofAiur]

I was referring to an ability being "Terran specific", not "anti-building/spawn unit". I think you meant to say "Terran involved" then.

But then again, are you talking about the old Infestation again? Does it affect Protoss and Zerg structures? If not, why bother?

Infestation

Disables Building for X seconds

Spawns X Infested Marines from CC, Barracks, Factory or Starport.

[PsiWarp]

Sounds nice, perhaps it can affect all but the defensive/Addon structures (I'm sure the Command Center, Barracks, Engineering Bay, Merc Compound, Ghost Academy, Factory, Armory, Starport and even Fusion Core have some personal in them).

You can even say the infestation growths require relatively large mass to support their size, so Spine Crawlers, Spore Crawlers, Creep Tumors, Pylons, Photon Cannons, Tech Labs, Reactors, Supply Depots, Bunkers, Missile Turrets and Sensor Towers do not meet the size requirement for healthy infestation.


-Psi

[ArcherofAiur]

Note all the different uses for this ability. You can pause tech builings, halt enemy unit production, shut down defensive buildings, knock out detection (sensor tower, spine crawler, photon cannon), and even inflict economic damage (OC, obelisk). Its like a more useful disruption web (corsair) or freezing breath (frost wyrm).