Starcraft II Q&A...

[CyberPitz]

Questions answered from a forum member who has played the builds, obviously.

How does the Pheonix work? Still its abbility or not?

The Phoenix still has its overload ability and is very effective against air units


Does the Medivac Dropship heal units while they're being transported? Can it heal them at range like a normal Medic?

I'm not sure if it heals while transporting wounded units, but I think it does. And yes it heals units at range.


Can you give us ballpark cost estimates for the new Zerg units?

The Roach costs about the same as a Hydralisk and most units that aren't new cost about the same. The Baneling morph is already known, it's about another 75 minerals. I believe the Ultralisk is 200/200


How were the Queen's abilities managed? How much did her structures cost? Did you pay in energy or resources?

The Queen's abilities were mostly based on cooldown although one was based on mana. The building swarming ability costs 75 mana. The construction of buildings varies between 30 minerals (creep tumor) and 75 minerals (sunken thing) and has a 15 second cooldown. But you can just queue them up and she'll build as many in a row as you want.


Did the Lurker still morph from the Hydralisk? You said the Hydralisk Den was Tier 3... which would make the Lurker, tier 4?

Yes, the lurker morphed from the Hydralisk. The upgrade to be able to do so was a researched upgrade but I did not mention the Zerg's new upgrade system in my article. Each unit has a "level up" system of upgrades. So instead of upgrading all melee or all ranged attacks, now you upgrade individual units. So you can have level 1, 2, or 3 zerglings. At level 1 they get speed, 2 they get attack and armor and increased attack rate, etc... So it has revolutionized the way the Zerg upgrade.


A general tech tree update would help a lot....

I will try to get to this when I get home.


Can you elaborate on how upgrading the Queen works?

The Queen is upgraded similarly to a Lurker. You just "grow" her to the next level whenever you have the appropriate tech and resources. However, if she is killed you will need to generate a new Queen that will be back at level 1.


Do buildings do different things when infested? What do infested Protoss buildings do? Is it reversible?

The Protoss buildings CAN be infested, but right now no Protoss infested units have been completed. So right now Protoss infested buildings produce Infested Terrans. The ability is not reversible.



Can Zerg buildings be infested? Can Zerg air units be corrupted? (Is it ugly? It's ugly, isn't it?)

Actually, that's a very interesting question, and one I don't have the answer to as I didn't try it.


Since you've played the game, how do you feel about the units' portraits and voices? I know some of them may not even be there, but some others are already there from what we've seen in the movies.
So how do they look like? Are the portraits of old units similar to what they've been? Are there alot of changes to voices/lines or more things like changing Adun to Tassadar etc?

The Thor sounds like Schwarzenegger, which is REALLY funny... but otherwise a lot of the old unit sounds are still being used as well as portraits. If I remember more I'll try to mention them.


Is Hydralisk really that incomplete? On the main sc2 site it doesn't have animation indicating hitting an air target, was it noticable in the build you've played?

The Hydralisk was fully playable and targeted ground and air units. I'm not a big fan of its animation ATM because it looks like its swimming.


A question regarding nydus worms: since they are a cloaked unit while moving around I was wondering if they blur the ground that they are passing over liked normal cloaked units, or if the only way to detect them is by some for of detection?

No, you cannot even tell the Nydus Worm is there unless you have a detector. It's a bit overpowered right now.


What abilities are natural and what have to be researched? --What abilities do casters like the Queen and Infestor have when the units are freshly unlocked? As opposed to ones where you have to research the ability to unlock them.

The Queen automatically has the ability to build the Swarm Clusters and Creep Tumors, but you must have the lair and she must be a Large Queen in order to build Shriekers and cast the "Swarm" ability.


The Infestor can cast Dark Swarm right out of the gate, but all its other abilities like Infest must be researched.

Now my main concern is the upgrading system, its an unique idea, but i feel that the cost of upgrading each new attack force will drain your money, so the question is:
How much will the upgrading generally cost for each unit?

The upgrades in the new Zerg system cost roughly the same. The level 1 Zerg upgrade (researched at spawn pool, no evo chamber required) costs 100/100.


Does it flow like the first Starcraft?

Despite being "fastest" the game progresses incredibly fast. Tech is very quick, mostly because you already start with 6 probes. Overall the game is much faster paced. Even the units move more quickly.


Are the cartoony graphics not an issue while playing it?

The graphics didn't seem cartoony to me at all in gameplay, the new graphics looked great.


Did you get to try previous stats and builds of units, e.g. the focused beam Colossus. If so or not, in your honest opinion which did you like better, and which worked better?

We only got to try the latest build, which had the Colossus' new attack. But I can tell you that this attack is MUCH more devastating than the old. Four or more Colossus together are unstoppable by any ground force that I tried. The Seige Tank might do the job, but I'm unsure of that.


Are Zerg very vulnrable early game if they get rushed with 9+ Zealots?

Yes. It is much more difficult to stop Zealots with Zerglings at this time than it was in SC1. Swarm Clutches definitely help in the same capacity that the Sunken used to, but again it's tough early game for the Zerg. Roaches are very effective against Zealots, however, because of their high regen rate. A single Zealot will do hardly any damage to a Roach 1 on 1.

http://www.starcraft2forum.org/forums/showthread.php?t=4063

 

[Narvi]

Dear god, mate, why'd you make the answers blue? It's really hard to read on default.

 

[Nitre]

I want to play Starcraft again. Quite hard though, since i broke the disc.

 

[TCfromBN]

Go to the blizzard store and register your CD key and download it.

 

[CyberPitz]

Dear god, mate, why'd you make the answers blue? It's really hard to read on default.

If you want, you can attempt to read it while it's all one color, that's more difficult D:

*edit* fixed with Dark Blue. Not TOO bad with the blue forum skin, though
*EDIT2* Dark blue is the only color that I can find that will work with both at least OK. Tried Red, Purple, etc...nothing