So, I've currently got a custom map project on the go, but it's still in the design stages - I've got 1.0 worked out on paper, but the main hold up is Heart of the Swarm, with its units and upgrades and such from the single-player portion of the game.

I'm basically waiting on that before proceeding, and upgrading the design into 2.0/release phase.

The aim of the altered melee is casual fun, new strategies, etc etc, as I'm basing many of the new units, alterations on existing units, statistic modifications, new upgrades and abilities, etc, from SC lore, SCI and II alpha and beta cut content, single-player units, etc.

I'm planning on re-texturing many of the factions' units and buildings, so they look less cartoonish. I'm also planning on implementing altered sound effects/custom sounds, thanks to a handy program called Audacity.

I do, however, want to know what you, the player, thinks are the most critical design flaws of SCII - from the Colossus being an overpowered, low-risk tier three unit, to the terrans lacking a decent anti-mechanical mech' unit (see Warhound).

This is so I can at least attempt to do something about the most gaping/glaring flaws in the current terran/zerg/protoss gameplay.

So, let me have it - what do you think is needed? Buffs, nerfs, new units, what?

 

(From a masters zerg perspective)

Honestly, despite the fact that everyone whines and bitches about this all the time, I think the game is pretty well balanced. The only major flaw really is zerg's reliance on broodlord/corrupter/infestor in the lategame vs protoss and mech armies. There needs to be more variety in that case. Especially the difficult part of the transition to brood/infestor out of roach/ling.

 

(Emphasis mine)

No, the real problem is that the Protoss army can't kill that. Unless you get a perfect vortex, which is hard enough without the Zerg having/using Neural Parasite, it's actually basically impossible for Protoss to kill the Zerg death-ball. I haven't played HotS, but I really hope they fixed that. It's a real problem.

 

Eh, statistically the game is pretty balanced (also a high masters zerg myself). I actually think that there's a lot of great ways to play right now - and we would have found better ways for protoss to deal with zerg late game if there was no such thing as the mothership. But because it exists, people just flip a coin instead of learning to innovate.

 

The issue with balance is not the balance, it is the design of the units.

I am apart of the BW Master Race Fans and while I am always impressed with the SC2 play, the design is just meh.

The Marines/Roaches having too much health, you can get too much income on three bases, deathballs everywhere. You have skills that you can't micro out of and don't really add anything but for stopping stupid unit compositions that shouldn't be in the game as is, Vortex, Force Field, and Fungle.

But really, I suggest you remove those last three spells. It would be interesting what would be required, but odds are nerfing the stupid DPS of the Marines and Health of the Roaches will change something fierce.

 

I would play the hell out of brood war on sc2 graphic. everything else is extra.

 

Oh, people have been innovating. The problem is, there is no actual solution. The coin flip that is an archon toilet is the only way for Protoss to kill it. People have tried voids (fungal ruins them) and carriers (fungal + corruptors ruin them). Phoenixes deal no damage to them and get fucked up by fungal. Blink stalkers get ruined by chain fungals, and even if they didn't, they get fucked up by the endless swarm of broodlings if the brood count is high enough.

That's basically the entirety of Protoss anti-air. Vortex is the only way for Protoss to kill that composition.

Edit: This is probably a needlessly aggressive/angry post, but I really, really have problems with that match-up lategame. Great players have been fucked over because of the state of the match-up. As an example, Hero played a game against Leenock where he was crushing Leenock the entire game, but none of it mattered because Leenock managed to get the Zerg deathball, and one engagement later- which went about as well as you'd expect- the game was effectively over. Hero lost.

 

Make Motherships immune to Neural Parasite, change Fungal to a slow instead of a lock and I would be the happiest of Starcraft players. It would change late-game PvZ enough to force some kind of new late-game play to be developed.

 

Allow Stalkers to blink out of fungal again and/or drastically reduce damage (really, just drastically reduce damage. That Fungal locks units and deals an extremely high amount of damage is just insane to me.)

Also: fucking nerf brood lords.

 

Yeah, Fungal is kind of an answer to all situations.

Mech? Fungal. Ball O' Death? Fungal. Air? Fungal. Flesh? Fungal.

No single ability should be so powerful AND versatile AND have so much Utility.

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Brood Lords are OP vs Ground, but they can be raped by air. The problem is their synergy with Corruptors is too stronk. With the Corruptors defending vs Air and the Brood Lords raping ground units there are few counters and they counter many different build paths.


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You want late-game PvZ Options to counter Brood Lords? BUFF CARRIERS. Carrierrrsssss.

 

The biggest problem with Zerg right now is that everything besides Broodlord/Infestor is piss weak late game, it's their only viable composition as it stands. To straight up nerf infestors (where I think the problem lies, Broodlords only appear so strong because of the insane synergy with infestors) would basically kill Zerg, but to buff other units in compensation would make them too strong in the early and mid game.

The only real solution would be an overhaul of the infestor itself, which would be too risky for Blizzard to pull off since the game's precariously balanced as is.

Right now, Korean PvZ is about equal percentage-wise, the major winrate disparity being in the foreign Protoss players, and honestly, I don't think any of them are even trying to improve anymore. Leaving alone Incontrol, people like SaSe literally just whines about balance on twitter constantly (leading to hilarious altercations with every other player ever), elfi is 90% 4gate, 10% FFE into lose everything, HuK is about as relevant as IdrA at this point (EG curse etc.), and Naniwa has aspergers, while the Koreans try to adapt. And it looks like it's working, Rain's doing tremendously well, Parting's got an unbeatable Immortal push (it's fuelled entirely by SOUL), San did better in MLG than any long-term teamless pro has any right to, and MC still shows that he's still end game boss worthy, Australia collectively shit themselves when Moonglade had to go against him at MLG recently.

That's not to say that Korean PvZ is balanced, it's pretty much in the same place as 1/1/1 based TvP. Protoss can kill Zerg early/mid with a strong 2/3 base push easier than they should, while Zerg just tries to survive until Broodlord/Infestor, which "balances" itself out to a 50~% win rate.

That's not how balance should be, but until HotS, I think that's as good as it can get, without risking complete balance breakdown. That is, unless the metagame fixes itself, which really isn't out of the question. SC2 still isn't fully explored, there's still a lot of potential that hasn't been met in all races. Maybe the new influx of BW pros will find something new.

 

Ellisande and Soloman: as mentioned before, each faction is getting quite a lot of new units and abilities; hopefully, these additions will allow a zerg player to come up with some pretty new and interesting strategies.

The Protoss especially are getting some pretty good air tweaks and additions - the Augurey, for example (and yes, I am nicking that name from Harry Potter's beast-mythos!) is essentially the Corsair in functionality.

Minhoto: very good suggestions. I'll make the Mothership immune to the Dark Archon's Mind Control and the Infestor's Neural Parasite.

Yes, I said Dark Archon - by fusing two Dark Templar, you'll get a Dark Archon. Two High Templars? A regular Archon. One High and one Dark? A Twilight Archon.

The Twilight Archon would be the middle ground between the Dark and normal Archon - an attacking spellcaster whose abilities and attack aren't as strong as those their 'pure' brothers have. Though the abilities would be different from those of the Dark Archon, of course!.

As for Fungal Growth, I'll be sure to tweak it.

I've got some plans for the Infestor - additional Infested Terran units (hacking up an Infested Terran for 35 energy, 75 energy for an Infested Marine, and 150 energy for an modified Abberation, post-upgrade), the ability to infested a Terran player's buildings for a short time, and pump out cannon fodder Infested.

I did have plans for a 'Defiler Aspect', a morph that would turn the Infestor in to a unit akin to the SC Defiler, but since the Defiler is in HotS as a campaign unit, it'll most likely be apart of 2.0's planning.

WalkingDisaster: yeah, Carriers are getting a buff, becoming mean mofos.

Late Terran air is/'Cruisers are going to so very, very badass.

 

Seeing as the Infested Marine is a thing in this, what are you doing to the Infested Terran? Or is the Infested Marine the same thing but upgraded?

 

The Infested Terran is basically the Infested Colonist from the campaign - a slightly slower, slightly more tougher Zergling.

The Infested Marine is the renamed Infested Terran from multiplayer. The Abberation will be open for regurgitation after an upgrade is researched at the Infestation Pit, requiring a Hive.

Considering the amount of new firepower that's going to be flung around by each faction, having the modified Abberations in multiplayer won't be imbalanced.