Mechanic 8

[Gradius]

Mechanic Summary:

SCV: Seismic Cannon

An upgraded SCV uses this ability to hammer a mineral patch. Must be in direct contact with mineral patch. Casting time 20 sec. All other SCVs carry 6 min per trip from hammered mineral patch.

An SCV can also use the seismic cannon as a melee spell. This stuns enemies for 1 sec.

Queen: Acidic Venom

Ranged ability that can be cast on minerals. Affected minerals have 2x gathering rate for drones. One queen can cast on multiple mineral fields provided she has enough energy.

Can also be cast on enemies. Acts as damage over time spell.

Nexus: Inter-Dimensional Acceleration

A nexus can cast this ability anywhere in pylon fields (warp prism too). Causes units to move at +50% speed. Can be cast on probes for faster mining or gas.

Can also be cast on units fighting in pylon fields for enhanced micro tactics.

Expanded Description:

All abilities are tier 2 upgrades.

SCV, Queen and Nexus would all have energy bars for using these abilities. As always all numbers subject to balance.

Tailored so that macro enhancement is best option when fighting away from your base and micro enhancement is best when defending your base.

Fosters decision making situations. Do I spend my queens energy on mutant larva, venom or some other spell? Do I make more scvs or wait till the ones I have recharge their energy? Do I use my nexus ability to speed up probes or my warp prism for this colossus drop? Do I use my nexus AoE ability to get 4-6 min probes or the 2 gas probes?

Multi-tasking is between micro, this mechanic and other macro mechanics (warp-in, mutant larva, etc.) Tasks are different for each race with zerg casting ranged abilities on mineral patches, protoss casting AoE and terran "attacking" minerals with SCVs that must be rotated out after their energy is used up.

[Blazur]

Oh this idea is hot! I like how each race has a specialized and unique means of increasing resource production. It also gives people something to do in between battles when they're just sitting in their base waiting for buildings to finish or units to train.

[DemolitionSquid]

I agree, I like this idea. However I wonder about the usefulness or possible OP of every SCV having a stunning ability.

[Blazur]

Originally Posted by DemolitionSquid

I agree, I like this idea. However I wonder about the usefulness or possible OP of every SCV having a stunning ability.

That's true, and I share your concern.

Having race-specific ways of temporarily augmenting resource acquisition is nice, but it shouldn't double as damage buffers.

[Baneling]

I like that the abilities have duel use. It encourages macro at the base in regards to resource gathering, but can be used in combat as well.... just has a good feel to it... making it seem not so forced.

Also different methods for different races is very starcraft

[Lobais]

I like this a lot.
The stunning could also give a small damage to friendly units. This way it would be even harder to macro remotely.

[SebiAlex]

Interesting idea. Given your stats and some assumptions (based on the battle report video) here is a rough layout of how this will work.

Typical mineral field: 8 patches
Regular gathering time: 4 seconds (approx)
Regular drop-off return duration: 3 seconds (approx)
Regular minerals per trip: 5

General formula: (# of workers/patch) x (# of patches) x (minerals/trip) / (full cycle = gathering time + [drop-off + return] duration) = workers*minerals/s

Terran: +1 minerals per trip
(1 SCV/patch) x (8 patches) x (6 minerals)/(4 s gathering + 3 s trip) = 48/7
8 SCVs deliver 6.86 minerals/s.

Zerg: regular gathering time is halved (2s gather time)
(1 drone/patch) x (8 patches) x (5 minerals)/(2 s gathering + 3 s trip) = 40/5
8 Drones deliver 8.00 minerals/s.

Protoss: 50% speed increase = trip takes 33% less time = 2 s
(1 probe/patch) x (8 patches) x (5 minerals)/(4 s gathering + 2 s trip) = 40/6
8 Probes deliver 6.67 minerals/s.

The trip duration matters on the placement of the Nexus/CC/Hatchery. The Protoss will have the advantage if a base cannot be placed as close to a mineral field as normal (expansions only). As you can see the Zerg would have a huge advantage if mineral patches could be constantly buffed. If you limit the number of patches affected at one time, the Protoss gain the advantage since their ability is the only one not being cast on the mineral patches (you could limit the number of probes affected).

I don't really agree with the nexus increasing the speed of all Protoss units (too similar to creep).

The equation would need some adjustments if the # of patches affected (for Terran and Zerg), or Probes (Protoss) are limited. It would have to be a combination of buffed and unbuffed gathering.

[Newbie1234]

Though creative, I think the combination of the ideas feel more like something that would go in a mod or custom map, rather than the real game.

[MaybenextTime]

I think it should be gathering rate increase for Protoss if anything.

Movement speed increase would result in this mechanic becoming useless after you reach saturation point since faster speed = saturation point reached with lower than normally worker count = need to move redudant workers somewhere.

On the other hand, increased gathering rate = saturation point reached with higher than normally worker count = you always get some kind of a bonus and you can oversaturate your line if you want to to reach the new saturation point.

[mr. peasant]

I will agree that having race-specific solutions to the 'lack of macro' problem is certainly fun and interesting. However, one must remember that doing so may introduce racial imbalances which would require careful rebalancing; particularly since they have secondary, combat functions which would thus may synergize too well with other abilities. In other words, by solving the macro issue using this method, are we simply swapping one problem for another?

[Justamonsta]

Those mechanics are close interpretation of my mechanics, which unfortunately for SC2 aren’t mentioned here.

As for other represented mechanics: why they are solely concern Gas mining and Gas mechanics? Have you gotten stuck or what?

Gradius and SCLegacy team, have you forgotten the fundamentals? SC2 do NOT need a ‘solid mechanics’. On the contrary, it needs mechanics which are simple, but complex; creative, but intuitive; modern, but StarCraft.
And what I see here – a bunch of complicated, unintuitive, partially plagiarized and non StarCraft ideas, which were chosen by YOU.

Were you in a hurry? Or what? Semi-finalist ideas are 10 TIMES BETTER then that! Even this idea: it’s close but not even near to be Finalist.

As a result I’m not going to vote.

It was a mistake to anchor my hopes on you…

[Nicol Bolas]

I'm sorry, but that's BS.

I read through the semi-finalists, and they deserve to be semi-finalists. The only finalist entry that doesn't deserve to be here is #1 (it's also the one least likely to be used by Blizzard); the rest (compared to the competition) are far better thought out than the semi's.

[ChaosSmurf]

Originally Posted by Nicol Bolas

I'm sorry, but that's BS.

I read through the semi-finalists, and they deserve to be semi-finalists. The only finalist entry that doesn't deserve to be here is #1 (it's also the one least likely to be used by Blizzard); the rest (compared to the competition) are far better thought out than the semi's.

I agree other than one Semi-finalist that I was a big fan of (that's why it's there). It's the one about yellow minerals inside of blue ones, that particular part I liked a lot.

[Archerofaiur]

Originally Posted by ChaosSmurf

I agree other than one Semi-finalist that I was a big fan of (that's why it's there). It's the one about yellow minerals inside of blue ones, that particular part I liked a lot.

That one was mine too : )



By the way guys, feel free to offer your version of the above mechanic. So if you think the scv's would be too powerful with a stun ability then offer something else like maybe a drilling attack or whatever you can think of. I would really like to hear about how you would construct race specific macro mechanics. Have fun!

[mutantmagnet]

I like the Terran variation. I don't like the Protoss variation because it would be the same as creep for Zerg only this time the peons also get a boost. I like the Zerg but I have a different idea on that.

Allow the drones to have morphing upgrade into another creature that gains resources every time it damages enemy units. Obviously this should be a tech 3 upgrade while the Terran is tech 2.
I'm not sure what to do about probes.