LotV MP should be more engaging and entertaining than HotS. Even in it's broken state it is more purely fun than HotS. But I'm also a 1v1 player and find team mates a detriment to my enjoyment of games so it isn't shocking I prefer RTS over MOBA.
StarCraft 2
- Thread starter Stosh
- Start date
Also if these 3 missions are a taste of the SP design for LotV I'm really excited for it. All three missions revolved around you being cut off in some fashion from unlimited resources and the Brutal difficulty was actually quite hard. I had to restart the first mission at least half a dozen times before I beat it on Brutal and it took some actual thought for how to accomplish the goal. Possibly that is also because Protoss is by far my weakest race in terms of knowledge.
Fight
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Mission #1 was very clever and well done. They could have even made the Zerg waves more constant, so you are almost playing frogger, trying to move your army around the map. It was just a well thought out and designed mission.
Agree, if they have that level of quality in the rest of the campaign, it is going to be amazing.
Agree, if they have that level of quality in the rest of the campaign, it is going to be amazing.
Quineloe
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Why is it all Terran "special" attacks are telegraphed long before they deal damage so the opponent can react and avoid all damage while the stuff of the other races happens instantly, on top of dealing friendly fire damage while the other races are mostly exempt?
Burrowed widow mines clearly visible, can go horribly wrong, burrowed banelings completely invisible
Liberator telegraphs its actual target area as if it were some sort of WoW raid boss and takes forever to set up so even slow units can get out in time
Hunter Seeker missile, same shit.
Oh, Zerg got irradiate? The fuck?
Burrowed widow mines clearly visible, can go horribly wrong, burrowed banelings completely invisible
Liberator telegraphs its actual target area as if it were some sort of WoW raid boss and takes forever to set up so even slow units can get out in time
Hunter Seeker missile, same shit.
Oh, Zerg got irradiate? The fuck?
Zaphid
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I decided to check out what's up among the dead and apparently they are removing macro mechanics in LotV ? On one hand, I can understand, it slows the game down a bit and lets you focus on your units, on the other hand:Muh skillcap. Seems like they are now cutting corners to ship the game in somewhat playable and enjoyable state.
They just added the experimentation of removal of macro mechanics last patch. It is still on the cutting floor. Personally I don't think it does much to the skill cap. There are tons of APM dumps in LotV that the macro mechanics just seemed like needless anti-fun clicks when you could be having fun microing your harassment troops. The biggest issue I foresee is that Terran can now expand into a natural PF and require almost no standing army to defend.
They said this is a coarse grain balance change they're putting in and are aware that there will be some balance fallout. I'm also intrigued by what they're doing with warp-in giving it better defensive capabilities and worse offensive capabilities.
Zaphid
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It gets even better:
Legacy of the Void Beta: Balance Update Preview - August 20 - StarCraft II
Disruptor is a reaver now.
Legacy of the Void Beta: Balance Update Preview - August 20 - StarCraft II
Hello, everyone!
We have a significant balance update today for Legacy of the Void. Many of you may already know what's coming from interacting with us and providing feedback via our weekly community feedback updates, but for those who want a breakdown of all the changes and why we're making them, you can find all the details below! Please remember that none of these changes are final, and we are eager to hear your thoughts before and after you play with these changes.
Macro mechanics changes:
Spawn Larva is reduced to 2 per injection, and set to autocast by default
M.U.L.E. is removed
Chrono Boost is removed
As we've been discussing over the past few weeks, we'd like to try out these changes on a larger scale. We are aware that these changes may present the need for balance tuning in other areas, so it would be great if everyone can keep this in mind while testing. For example, this type of feedback: "removing Chrono Boost was bad because Blink now takes unreasonably long" isn't very useful because changing research and build time is easy if we determine that the Chrono Boost change is good.
Due to the Chrono Boost removal, we're also adding the following buffs to help Protoss in the early game:
Warpgate research time reduced to 140, from 160
Disruptor build reduced to 50, from 60
Added one additional supply to Nexus
Cyclone
Anti-air attack reinstated, but damage is reduced
Damage against ground units is reduced
Removed current upgrades and replaced with one which greatly increases Lock On damage against both air and ground units
The main goal for the Cyclone is to have them counter air units early on, but not to the point that you can't go air against Terran like we saw early on in the beta. In late-game scenarios, due to their reasonable speed, range, and damage against all unit types, it has not been uncommon to see armies almost exclusively consisting of Cyclones. We also wanted to hit this a bit hard so that in the late game, Cyclones can be good but not to the point that they're the only unit needed.
Zealot Charge upgrade
Speed bonus is reset to Heart of the Swarm levels
Charge deals 30 damage on hit
We want to have a clear difference between Zealots and Adepts. We believe Adepts are more effective than Zealots in large, extended engagements. Therefore, we wanted to look for a change that would make Zealots clearly better in harassment situations. However, because Zealot burst damage will be effective in direct engagements as well, we'll be monitoring exactly when Zealots outperform Adepts and vice-versa.
Warpgate
Warping in at Pylons takes 16 seconds
Pylon power is buffed when touching a Nexus or a Warpgate
Warping in takes 2 seconds in this case
Warping in takes 2 seconds from Warp Prisms
Due to the results we've had internally, we'd like to test this rather large change and see if it's good for the game. We initially believe that the buff to defensive situations is good because Protoss is currently struggling to keep up with expansions as the game enters the mid-to-late game. Also, while 16 seconds on offense may be too big of a nerf, we'd really love to try out this more extreme number just to be able to quickly test the side effects of this change.
Rapid Deployment Medivac upgrade removed
New upgrade added: High Capacity Fuel Tanks - Increases the speed boost duration of Ignite Afterburners by 50%
The current upgrade for Medivacs is too big of an upgrade to the in-combat cases. We want to try out a buff that mostly affects the harassment and retreat cases. We'll see how this new upgrade goes before we make a call on what to do in this area going forward.
Disruptor Redesign:
Disruptors now shoot out a ball of energy that can be manually controlled.
This energy ball blows up after a few seconds, dealing high damage.
Disruptor invulnerability removed. Energy balls are invulnerable.
If the Disruptor is killed, the energy ball fizzles dealing no damage.
As we mentioned briefly at gamescom, we've completed redesigned the Disruptor into a unit that fires explosive weapons into the enemy lines. This new version has been working out very well for us. It has the core, awesome part of the Disruptor in the beta (its ability to have micro on both sides in engagements where Disruptors are used), and now has a change that opens up more counter opportunities.
Enemy Spawn location display increased from 10 seconds to 25 seconds
We heard your feedback about the potential enemy spawn location display being too short right now, so we've tried to strike a balance where it doesn't stay up too long, but players have enough time to check when they aren't busy at the start of games. We'd like to try out 25 seconds for now and see how that feels.
We have a significant balance update today for Legacy of the Void. Many of you may already know what's coming from interacting with us and providing feedback via our weekly community feedback updates, but for those who want a breakdown of all the changes and why we're making them, you can find all the details below! Please remember that none of these changes are final, and we are eager to hear your thoughts before and after you play with these changes.
Macro mechanics changes:
Spawn Larva is reduced to 2 per injection, and set to autocast by default
M.U.L.E. is removed
Chrono Boost is removed
As we've been discussing over the past few weeks, we'd like to try out these changes on a larger scale. We are aware that these changes may present the need for balance tuning in other areas, so it would be great if everyone can keep this in mind while testing. For example, this type of feedback: "removing Chrono Boost was bad because Blink now takes unreasonably long" isn't very useful because changing research and build time is easy if we determine that the Chrono Boost change is good.
Due to the Chrono Boost removal, we're also adding the following buffs to help Protoss in the early game:
Warpgate research time reduced to 140, from 160
Disruptor build reduced to 50, from 60
Added one additional supply to Nexus
Cyclone
Anti-air attack reinstated, but damage is reduced
Damage against ground units is reduced
Removed current upgrades and replaced with one which greatly increases Lock On damage against both air and ground units
The main goal for the Cyclone is to have them counter air units early on, but not to the point that you can't go air against Terran like we saw early on in the beta. In late-game scenarios, due to their reasonable speed, range, and damage against all unit types, it has not been uncommon to see armies almost exclusively consisting of Cyclones. We also wanted to hit this a bit hard so that in the late game, Cyclones can be good but not to the point that they're the only unit needed.
Zealot Charge upgrade
Speed bonus is reset to Heart of the Swarm levels
Charge deals 30 damage on hit
We want to have a clear difference between Zealots and Adepts. We believe Adepts are more effective than Zealots in large, extended engagements. Therefore, we wanted to look for a change that would make Zealots clearly better in harassment situations. However, because Zealot burst damage will be effective in direct engagements as well, we'll be monitoring exactly when Zealots outperform Adepts and vice-versa.
Warpgate
Warping in at Pylons takes 16 seconds
Pylon power is buffed when touching a Nexus or a Warpgate
Warping in takes 2 seconds in this case
Warping in takes 2 seconds from Warp Prisms
Due to the results we've had internally, we'd like to test this rather large change and see if it's good for the game. We initially believe that the buff to defensive situations is good because Protoss is currently struggling to keep up with expansions as the game enters the mid-to-late game. Also, while 16 seconds on offense may be too big of a nerf, we'd really love to try out this more extreme number just to be able to quickly test the side effects of this change.
Rapid Deployment Medivac upgrade removed
New upgrade added: High Capacity Fuel Tanks - Increases the speed boost duration of Ignite Afterburners by 50%
The current upgrade for Medivacs is too big of an upgrade to the in-combat cases. We want to try out a buff that mostly affects the harassment and retreat cases. We'll see how this new upgrade goes before we make a call on what to do in this area going forward.
Disruptor Redesign:
Disruptors now shoot out a ball of energy that can be manually controlled.
This energy ball blows up after a few seconds, dealing high damage.
Disruptor invulnerability removed. Energy balls are invulnerable.
If the Disruptor is killed, the energy ball fizzles dealing no damage.
As we mentioned briefly at gamescom, we've completed redesigned the Disruptor into a unit that fires explosive weapons into the enemy lines. This new version has been working out very well for us. It has the core, awesome part of the Disruptor in the beta (its ability to have micro on both sides in engagements where Disruptors are used), and now has a change that opens up more counter opportunities.
Enemy Spawn location display increased from 10 seconds to 25 seconds
We heard your feedback about the potential enemy spawn location display being too short right now, so we've tried to strike a balance where it doesn't stay up too long, but players have enough time to check when they aren't busy at the start of games. We'd like to try out 25 seconds for now and see how that feels.
Disruptor is a reaver now.
I wish they'd experiment with removing creep as well. Creep is another anti-fun mechanic in SC2 and no one is like "Wow I get to clear creep this is gunna be sweet!" Maybe it'll be less a deal since you generally have more on-map army presence in LotV.
You got LotV beta Zap? I wouldn't mind playing a few games. I haven't played since I first got in but I'm getting the itch again.
I played a game on the macro-less patch. Overall I like the direction but eco feels weird as fuck. I wasn't even aggressively taking gases in my first game and I was floating 1.2k gas with 0 minerals in no time.
Quineloe
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