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Posted Apr 24, 2008 07:52 AM by AJ

11 comments

Without any ado, here's the latest Batch, offering some great new insights!

1. Do Protoss Immortals get killed when a Nuke explodes next to them (seeing as the Hardened Shield blocks all high profile attacks and that a Nuke is definitely a high profile attack)?
In term of units, the only units that will be able to survive a Nuke will be the Protoss Mothership and Immortals upgraded with Hardened Shields. An upgraded Immortal will take 10 damage from a Nuke. To all other units, the Nuke will do 800 damage, thus making it much more powerful than the Nuke in the original StarCraft.

2. How powerful is the Roach's regeneration ability? How much time is needed to regenerate from 1 to full hp?
The Roach currently regenerates 15 hit points per second, allowing it to regenerate to full health in 6 seconds. In countering Roaches, a player must either micromanage the battle to make sure they are focus firing on each Roach one at a time, or they have to bring in high damage units such as Siege Tanks or Archons.

3. Are overseers any tougher than overlords?
When an Overlord evolves into an Overseer, it will gain a speed bonus, passive detection, the ability to generate creep below it, and the ability to corrupt' resources to make it more difficult for opponents to gain access to them. Furthermore, when Overseers sit in the same spot, over time its visual range will increase (but not its detection range).

4. Is it worth it to build a Terran Reactor Add-on since the benefit of doubling your queue list is not that useful, as it is often a bad idea to have your queue full?
Yes! The Terran Reactor doesn't just double the size of your queue list. For a mere 50 minerals and 50 gas cost for the Reactor, that Barracks, Factory, or Starport will have the ability to create two units simultaneously (assuming that unit doesn't require a tech lab add-on). Most of the time, building the Reactor will be worth it, rather than building a second Barracks, Factory, or Starport. Not only will you be able to build from a single building the production of two normal buildings, you will be able to salvage that Reactor if needed to get 100% of the cost back. Being able to salvage allows for quick tech shifts or evacuations.

5. Will there be different building textures resembling the actual terrain? (in Warcraft 2 the buildings were snowy on the winter maps)
This is something the art team would like to do, though it will ultimately come down to time. There's a lot of art work still left to do, such as their current task, which is putting the finishing touches on the Terran Marauder amongst several other units. On the Marauder, players will be able to see many intricate animations for both the weapons and their power suits.

6. Did the High Templar's Hallucination ability undergo any changes due to the introduction of new tough units, such as Thor or Colossus?
The Hallucination ability did not undergo changes because of those new units, but it did get significant buffs since the original StarCraft. First off, hallucinated units still have the same hit points as the original unit, but take double damage. Furthermore, the duration the unit lasts for will be around 2-3 minutes, which will be significantly longer than the original StarCraft. On top of that, to hallucinate a unit only costs 40 energy, which is much cheaper than the original StarCraft's cost of 100 energy.

So what're we left with from this Batch? We found out that Immortals are going to be able to survive a direct nuke when upgraded with Hardened Shields, further clarification was given and we now know that in 6-seconds a Roach can fully regenerate - so you all better get to work on your micro! - so focus-fire and micro'ing will be huge against them, Overseers have some buffed speed and abilities like we knew, but also interesting is the mention of their sight range increasing over time (not detection radius) when in a static position, along with a few other tidbits regarding cost of 2 Barracks vs. the Reactor Add-on, terrain variety and the Hallucination ability.

Check out this new screenshot showing a slightly modified appearance of the Baneling.

Source:
EU Battle.net
US Battle.net


Lipton
1
I can't wait for more vids

  Apr 24, 2008
08:18 AM EST

ryuugaki
2
Awesome! Nukes never seemed like they were worth their price, but with 800 points of damage..

Also, the ideas for the changes in the Hallucination ability are great. Hallucinations always seemed to disappear so fast, and not really worth the energy considering they did no damage.


  Apr 24, 2008
08:37 AM EST

ArchonPower
3
A unit that can survive a nuke! Omg thats awesome, lol.

  Apr 24, 2008
08:58 AM EST

nujuju299
4
im going to like the roaches and the overseers infesting minerels will help myself... unless itll be a dissability to me too lol

  Apr 24, 2008
10:26 AM EST

tremaparagon
5
I have a feeling, as a zerg player, that I will think the roach is great at the beginning, but then it will suck. Sure there regeneration speed is great, but I just have a feeling they will still get killed by good players. 4-5 siege tanks kill them. Roach probably has a small attack.

  Apr 24, 2008
10:31 AM EST

nujuju299
6
of course they will... thats why u need to have support for your units

  Apr 24, 2008
11:51 AM EST

TheCritic
7
When SC2 comes out, I'll be zerg cuz of those roaches. Those things are like zealots with 255 shield and a medic beside him.

  Apr 24, 2008
12:49 PM EST

nujuju299
8
me 2 cause as zerg theres the ability to create lots of units fast...er then other races

  Apr 24, 2008
01:28 PM EST

kirbythegod
9
40 energy for hallucies!!!!

if only they had done that in brood war.

  Apr 24, 2008
09:23 PM EST

Kvaak
10
(assuming that unit doesn't require a tech lab add-on)

I assume this sentence means reactors are useless if you need to produce most of the tougher vehicles...?

Well, it's still handy when the production speed of a barracks is doubled. I bet it'll come in especially handy if you need to put up some defense fast.

It's not really surprising the Immortals can survive a nuke but, well, it still sounds insane :-/

  Apr 24, 2008
09:56 PM EST

endlessswarm45
11
roach regens so fast it seems a little imba so does a unit that can last thru a nuke but the overseer seems cool

  Apr 25, 2008
04:54 AM EST

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