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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:Did anyone else think that science vessels were orbs? I never actually saw the concept art for them until this lp... Yes, I did too. Spheres with bits sticking off of them. even in the cutscene where you see one it's in silhouette so the shape itself looks like it could easily be a sphere, at least in the low-res originals. Knowing what to look for and looking at the remaster and it's a lot clearer, sure.
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Jul 15, 2022 19:09
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Psion posted:It'd probably be worth batch processing update images through irfanview or similar for some compression, because it looks like you're using lossless png and there's some pretty easy gains to be had here: Well drat, that seems like an extremely easy solution, thanks! I'll give that a shot going forward. Modoh posted:A note on this: they patched the game early on to make photon cannons do normal damage, because Protoss had nothing that could handle defending Muta harass at all before Templar. This was pre-Brood War, so Dragoon range was shorter and they didn't have their new unit. Spore colonies got changed to normal as well around the time of BW's release. Huh, I actually didn't know this. I've spent the last twenty years assuming Photon Cannons were explosive. I also completely forgot Dragoon range used to be shorter. Brood War's been established for so long it can be easy to forget what things were like before the initial balance patches (150 mineral Spawning Pools, anyone?)
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Jul 15, 2022 20:11
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I get slow loading in some threads but not in others and I have no idea what causes it
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Jul 16, 2022 00:13
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I think some backend is having difficulties because a few other sites I visit are having difficulties loading images
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Jul 16, 2022 00:43
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I just found and sped through this whole LP. Gotta say it's exactly what I needed right now! It even inspired me to try SC2 again (I am Not Good)
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Jul 17, 2022 23:24
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Just sped through the entire original campaign thanks to this LP.
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Jul 18, 2022 14:48
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Oh wow, I can't believe I missed this! Yep, just read through all of the posts. Awesome work. I love SSLPs, and I love SSLPs that go into the minutiae of mechanics (e.g. Melth's Civ2 playthrough). I'm not a very good gamer, I played Starcraft and Brood Wars with cheats back in the day. I do still have them, and keep thinking I'll play through them again, but... meh. Maybe I will, and see if I can win without cheats. I don't really follow pro-gaming (seems like a little too high-stakes for me), but I love learning about strategies and ways in which folks use various units, and what goes where. Love it.
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Jul 20, 2022 06:56
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I mentioned this in another thread for another LP, but I just want to mention how glad I am that this is an SSLP. I do not like video ones for reasons that I have difficulty explaining, but in any event thank you for doing this in a style that many would call 'unconventional' for a real-time strategy game.
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Jul 20, 2022 15:51
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The secret to beating the campaign (outside of the no-base missions) is macro. Get good at pumping out units and the AI will crumble under your waves of marines/gateway units/hydras
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Jul 20, 2022 16:09
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I find Melth does pretty good info-based LPs for his video series as well. It also helps that since they post them as threads here that means more information can be disseminated from others, or more in-depth explanations can be given for mechanics, similar as what OP is doing here
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Jul 20, 2022 20:46
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DISCLAIMER: In just about every update, I normally don’t always put pictures in chronological order. If two interesting things are happening at once, I’ll normally follow one all the way through then rewind and follow the other one. Or I’ll take five minutes of scouting and drop it all at once. Or I’ll get too excited about a new unit and skip ahead to later in the mission when I got footage of them doing something cool. Normally it’s not even noticeable unless you pay close attention to the minimap or supply counter in the screenshots, but on missions like this, where there’s a timer, it might get a little confusing. So rest assured, the pictures are in the order they’re supposed to be in, and in fact you’re probably better off ignoring the timer entirely. Zerg Mission 4: Agent of the Swarm   Cerebrate, be warned! While Daggoth is occupied with the forces of the Dominion, the emanations of the Chrysalis have called even more of our enemies to Char! These too shall be eradicated by your hand, Cerebrate, for you grow more cunning with each passing battle. Indeed, you are a testament to my will and the fury of the Swarm. Yet first must you stay your wrath and watch over the Chrysalis a while longer. For the very hour of the sleeper’s rebirth is at hand, and soon my greatest creation shall be loosed.Mission Objectives: Protect the Chrysalis until it is ready to hatch. Here’s our start:   Note that we have no tech buildings. A Hatchery, Extractor, plenty of Colonies, and of course the Chrysalis, but nothing else. Also note the timer at the top of the screen - it’s our countdown to the Chrysalis hatching. Time to meet the “even more of our enemies.” Turns out it’s some old friends.   All right. All crews, stay frosty, and keep your eyes peeled for our target. Remember, not only are we up against the Zerg here, but our old pal General Duke may be creepin’ around too. Let’s hope this trip wasn’t a big mistake… Sir, scanners report massive psionic emanations pouring in from an isolated Zerg cluster across the lava. Think that’s it? No idea, but it’s a better lead than anything else we’ve found in this hellscape. This won’t be easy, though. Yeah, but if there’s even a chance… I know.Finally, and more exciting, we’ve got a new unit:  The Queen. We’ve seen Queens before, here and there in the Terran campaign. They’re Zerg’s flying spellcaster, and unlocking them is a big moment. Like I’ve said in the past, spellcasters are my favourite part of Blizzard’s RTS games so things always feel a little lacking before they come online. Fortunately we’re getting our first one pretty early here. It starts with one spell, Parasite. We’ve seen this one before. For 75 energy it’ll infest an enemy unit and allow us to see anything that unit sees until it dies. Let’s see it in action:  The Queen raises its arms…  …and sends that little Scourge-like creature soaring towards the Dropship. Can you see it? It's near the middle top of the screen. Let's look at the Dropship now:   Its unit card says “Parasite Detected” and we can see everything it can see. It’s essentially Zerg’s version of the ComSat Station, and while it isn’t nearly as good we’re still sorely in need of some free scouting. The AI loves to send its transports everywhere so casting it on those is a great way to reveal the map in the campaign. While that’s happening, Matt’s not fooling around.    This attack force isn’t big, but it’s still enough to roast my Zerglings (that’s my own fault for using them to charge Firebats, by the way). And, like last mission, it’s pretty serious for a first strike. We’ll need to get some defenses up, and soon. Sir, we’ve breached the Zerg perimeter. It looks like they weren’t expecting us to penetrate this deep, they’ve only got token defenses. One more push might do it. Here we’re dropping another Parasite (it’s the green burst on the Dropship that looks kinda like the Mutalisk attack) and with two Dropships Parasite’d, we quickly reveal a large portion of the map. Let’s see, we’ve got…  Wraiths hanging out by a Starport…   A base in the bottom left…   A base in the top right, which includes the Mysterious Teal Command Center we saw earlier...  And hints of a base in the bottom right. Finally, the Dropships are also obliging enough to reveal an expansion location:  So there’s a few key takeaways from this. First, we’re on an island with no ground approach. In theory, our best defense would be to pop out some Scourge that could easily intercept and destroy any Dropships. In practice, I’d rather keep the Dropships alive and Parasite’d - I prefer easy intel over easy defense. Second, we’re surrounded. It looks like bases on all sides, with the bases all working together (hence why they’re revealed; the Dropships are going back and forth between them). Finally, we don’t see any Science Facilities, but we see everything else. Terran’s got most of its tech happening, though the lack of Science Vessels is a mercy. Meanwhile, the attacks are getting more serious:  Sir, another squad is assembled and ready. Send them in. We need eyes on the target. Our outer rim of colonies is still being set up, and with our Zerglings gone we only have four Hydras to defend. One of them goes down quickly. Counterintuitively, we fall back to the Chrysalis:  The Sunkens there will mean the difference between victory and defeat for our Hydras.  Matt, are you reading this? What the hell is that? That’s it. From the dream. All units! We need that… whatever the hell that is, and we need it unharmed!Unfortunately for Matt and Jimmy, the combined power of venomous spines and massive tentacles proves to be too much for these hapless Marines.    drat it! Matt, we can’t come all this way for nothing. We need to break through. That might take some time, sir. We may need some bigger guns - Cerebrate! The Chrysalis is opening! Do not allow any Terrans near it! They shall not pass. All shall feel the wrath of the Swarm. I think we’re just about out of time, Matt. Something’s happening. Scramble everything we’ve got over there. Now! Yessir. Another assault force comes in, but this time we’re ready. Our outer Sunkens are up, and they make mincemeat out of this bio squad.   Sir, I - Too late. Whatever that thing is, it’s opening.He’s right. The Chrysalis, our companion for these first four missions, is finally opening. Well, it isn’t “opening” so much as it’s “exploding in a blood shower.”  The dust settles to reveal…  Arise, my daughter. Arise… Kerrigan. By your will, father, I live to serve… Let all who oppose the Overmind feel the wrath of the Swarm. Well done, Cerebrate! What I have wrought this day shall be the undoing of my enemies! Let not a Terran survive… By your command. All shall fall before the agent of the Swarm. Mother of God… Kerrigan, what have they done to you? drat it… Sir! What are your orders? I dunno, man. I don't know what I was expecting, but it sure as hell wasn't this.New Mission Objectives: Infest or destroy Raynor's Command Centre. Kerrigan must survive. Yep, Sarah’s back. Turns out she didn’t die at New Gettysburg after all, but rather was infested by the Zerg. Let’s take a look at her, shall we…  Wow. Okay. Where to begin. First of all, at 400 HP and 2 armour, she’s crazy durable. She also does an incredible fifty damage - and unlike the Norad II, she does it fairly quickly, too. So she’s an absolute powerhouse. But wait! There’s more. On top of all that, she’s a spellcaster, too. In a neat bit of ludonarrative integration, Kerrigan as an infested Terran has both Terran and Zerg spells - she can Cloak just like she could back when she was a Ghost, but she can also cast a Zerg spell that’s available to our Queens: Ensnare (we’ll see it in action later). She has a third ability, too, Consume, but we won’t be seeing that this mission. Don’t worry, we’ll get there. It’s also worth noting that unlike other hero units we’ve seen, Kerrigan here has no base unit. She’s not a stronger version of anything, she’s utterly unique. As a result, she’s what paved the way for the hero system in Warcraft 3, and so in a roundabout way she’s the ultimate progenitor of MOBAs. This is also a big moment narratively. Back in 98 this was like the gaming plot twist. Well, that and the FF7 one. But a lot of people didn’t expect it. Hell, a lot of people didn’t expect a plot twist of any sort in an RTS. This moment has had such a massive impact on Starcraft as a whole and even Blizzard overall, so it’s funny to discover that it was thrown together at the absolute last second. You may recall that in the Terran campaign we talked about how Raynor was a last minute addition so that the player character would have a buddy, and then Kerrigan was added even later so that Raynor would have a buddy instead of only having one-way conversations with the player like a weirdo. Then they had the whole New Gettysburg thing happen, but get this: the intention in that mission, Terran mission 9, is that Kerrigan dies. The idea was that they wanted to have Jimmy experience loss, to give him something that pushed him to keep fighting. And it wasn’t until the game was nearly done that they said “You know, maybe the Zerg are a little too alien. Players might want something a bit more relatable.” So they decided to humanize the Zerg a little. And they did so by saying “Hey, what if instead of being killed by the Zerg, Kerrigan was actually transformed into a Zerg?” Anyway… We also have some developments on the tech front. As you might have guessed, new unit means new building. Here it is, the Queen’s Nest in all its glory:  It gives us access to the standard energy upgrade (currently being researched) as well as two other spells. Let’s take one of them for a spin, shall we? This one we haven’t seen before. It’s called Spawn Broodling. Thanks to the Parasite on that Dropship, we have a likely target:  That Siege Tank there.  Once again, the projectile is the tiny Scourge-like thing flying towards it. Can you see it? It’s a little hard to make out. It's just near the cliff where the land meets the lava. Once it connects…  BOOM! The Tank is instantly killed. And that’s not all.  From the wreckage of the Siege Tank emerge two Broodlings under our control, which immediately charge the nearby Marines.    Yep, not only does this spell auto-kill its target, it also generates two new units for your side in the process. Granted, those units are pitifully weak, but still, they’re there. And while they may not do a ton of damage, they’re great at drawing fire and getting Siege Tanks and Spider Mines to kill their own side. Suffice it to say, Spawn Broodling is a hell of a spell. It’s not without its limitations, though. First, it can only target ground units. No auto-killing Battlecruisers. Second, it can only target certain ground units; specifically ones with an “alive” element. It can target biological units and any mechanical unit with a pilot (like, say, that Siege Tank there) but not units that are purely robotic or… other. Of those, we’ve only seen one so far - the Protoss worker unit, the Probe, is completely robotic and can’t be Broodling’d. But the entirety of the Terran and Zerg ground arsenal are susceptible to this, as are the majority of Protoss ground units. Third, and perhaps most importantly, it costs a whopping 150 space mana, making it tied for the most expensive spell in the game. I’ve mentioned once or twice that I like the way that a lot of Starcraft spells are Warcraft 2 spells that have been retooled to be more practical. Here it feels like they said “You know, we keep trying this Raise Dead spell, and it never really works as well as we hope. I know! What if we combine it with Polymorph!” Here's a close-up of the Broodlings that I grabbed later on:  Just tiny little Squishy Bois. Lowest HP in the game, and also the lowest damage - the only thing we've seen so far with DPS worse than the Wraith's ground attack. Also that number beneath their health isn't Space Mana - it's a timer, and when it runs out, they die (this never happens because they'll almost certainly die before then). The true meaning of pitiful, but hey, they're free units bursting forth from a free kill. We also ferry some Drones over to take this expansion site:    Kerrigan is a one-woman army, so we bring her along as defense. Here we show off her attack by having her pick on this poor, helpless critter:   Her “wings” lash out, perforating the enemy with a plethora of deadly claws. Brutal. Sir, we need you to make a call. What do we do now? …Right. We need to get the hell out of here. How? Our ships have been chewed up to hell and back. The Hyperion is still holding in the next system, but there’s no way it’d be able to - I didn’t say we were leaving Char, Matt. I said we’re getting out of here. So, what, we’re just going to hide out in a cave? You have a better idea? …Nosir. All units, prepare for evac. Repeat, all units prepare for evac. Any volunteers willing to take delaying action against the Zerg, form up… and understand what we are asking you to do.Another squad is hitting us, and this time it looks like the Sunkens won’t be enough:   Fortunately, that makes this a good time to show off the third Queen spell - Ensnare.  The Queen once again fires off a tiny little Scourge-like projectile (you can see it just to the upper right of the Extractor there) and…   Green goop explodes everywhere. We’ve seen this one here and there in the Terran campaign, but never to good effect. Any unit in the radius of the spell gets caught in the green goop and suffers significant penalties to their movement and attack speed. It’s absolutely crippling - especially for units that rely on having a high attack speed, like Marines. Cleaning this up is now no problem whatsoever.    Note that this Zergling here is also goop’d:  Ensnare, like every other AoE effect in the game, does not distinguish between friend and foe. While that’s happening, it finishes:  And, as it happens, a Parasite’d Dropship is hovering over a likely spot:  While the Mutas are on their way out, we can see how eclectic the attacks are:  Here we see a Firebat, a Marine, a Siege Tank, and a Wraith attacking us. This is definitely a product of Matt scrambling whatever volunteers he can find to go on a suicide mission and not just the AI being weird. Squads Epsilon through Theta, a large wave of Zerg flyers are advancing on your position. Get out if you can. If you can’t… give ‘em hell. It’s so cute the way they squirm, don’t you agree, Cerebrate? They are enemies of the Swarm. They must be destroyed. It makes no difference if they squirm or not. I can see I’m going to have to teach you a thing or two about something called “joy.”Anyway, Mutas, Magic Box, yadda yadda, I won’t retread too much ground from the last mission.   They’re bringing up enough Goliaths to actually pose a threat. The good news is that we brought a Queen along.    The bad news is that I wasn’t able to get a good shot of the Ensnare going off. But rest assured it did.  Now, you might be thinking “Why bother with any of this? It’s in the opposite corner of the map from the objective, and I thought we weren’t doing a ‘Raze everything the enemy has every time’ thing.” Well, there’s a reason for that. We’ve seen the Queen’s three spells, but the unit has an additional ability. See, once a Command Center has been reduced to 50% health, a Queen can go in…    …and infest it. Remember that? We saw one of these wayyyy back in Terran mission 2. What does it do? Well, we’ll see.  Notice that like a regular Command Center, it can still lift off and fly. While this has been happening, the enemy has started trying to hit our expansion:  This screenshot is a little messy, but in this one Kerrigan just one-shot a Marine. Ridiculous. Note the presence of the SCV in this hit squad. Possibly brought along to repair the Goliath, but more likely the AI was planning to set up an expansion of their own here.  Sir, we’ve lost all contact with Onyx Station. All fighters, scramble! Now!On our way back, a few Wraiths materialize. That’s our cue to get the hell out of there. Mutas do alright against Wraiths, but it’d result in some losses that I don’t want to bother with right now.  But then we get intercepted by some more, so I decide to fight.  I don’t know if you can see it, but I did end up dropping an Ensnare on the Wraiths there. To weaken them, sure, but the spell also does something else: See, it’s one of a handful of “goopy” effects, and all goopy effects reveal invisible units. The idea, in this case, is that even if a Wraith is cloaked, it’s still coated in enough Queen snot to reveal its outline, allowing other units to target it. Of course, I don’t think these Wraiths have cloaking - but I wasn’t sure. In retaliation, our enraged Mutas go on a rampage, wiping out all the Starports.      That’s it. That’s the last of our fighters. drat it! How close are we to being ready to get out of here? All non-essential personnel are already away. The rest are filtering out as we can spare them. Speaking of which, sir, you should really be - No way, man. Someone’s gotta be the last person out, and that someone’s gonna be me.So, we went through all that trouble of infesting that Command Center. But why? Well, it gives us another new unit. No, not SCVs (sadly). The Infested Terran:   Note that here the production queues up, like in a Terran building.  There he is, in all his alien-ified glory. What does he do? Well, let’s find out. But first, we need to clear the way.   Mutas and a Queen prepare the landing zone. Here we’re sniping Goliaths with Broodlings to both thin out their ranks and distract the other Terrans with targets that aren’t our Mutalisks.          Anyway, the way is clear.  We’ve floated over all our ground units - including Kerrigan - but instead of a traditional ground assault, let’s show off our new unit instead.  We drop him off…  He runs over (he’s a speedy little guy), and…   KABOOM! Yep, Infested Terrans are literally just suicide bombers - the Starcraft equivalent of Goblin Sappers. They collide with a target and deal a massive 500 damage to it and anything else unlucky enough to be caught in its radius. These guys quite literally hit like a Nuke. That’s also why we’re able to just fart them out of a Command Center on demand whereas Kerrigan had to spend three and a half missions forming in a Chrysalis - these guys are literally just bags of meat filled with extremely volatile chemicals. Again! Again!      BOOM! Sir, they've breached our perimeter. Are those... Are they human? Maybe once, but they sure aren't anymore. They're tearing our defenses to pieces. We don't - we never stood a chance. Aren't you going to try to tell me to evacuate? I think... I think it might be too late for that, sir. Hell. Well, it's been an honour, Matt. You too, sir. I owe you my - Hey man, you're not gonna get all mushy on me, are you? Wouldn't dream of it, sir. You know, thematically it would probably make the most sense to have Kerrigan burn Jimmy’s Command Centre. But we’re going to be spending a lot of time with Kerrigan, while this is the last chance we’ll have for quite a while to use our Boomy Bois, so…     And from the wreckage emerges...  Sarah, is that really you? To an extent… I’m far more than I once was, Jim. You shouldn’t have come here. But the dreams… I dreamed you were still alive… that somehow… you were calling to me. I was. While I was in the Chrysalis, I instinctively reached out to you and Arcturus telepathically. Apparently, Arcturus sent Duke here to reclaim me. But that was then, Jim. I’m one of the Zerg, now, and I like what I am. You can’t imagine how this feels… So, what, are you goin’ to kill me now, darlin’? It is certainly within my power. But you’re not a threat to me, Jim. Leave here now, and never seek to confront the Zerg again. Doesn’t look like I have much choice. WARNING! SUPER MASSIVE ULTRA MEGA SPOILER ALERT! (Jimmy will, in fact, seek to confront the Zerg again)
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Jul 21, 2022 02:40
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I just wanted to thank you warmly for the update and for the spacing. I know a lot more about SC1 than SC2, but the Queen gets an ability in 2 (I won't spoil) that she does not in 1 that I quite miss.
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Jul 21, 2022 04:01
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I had a feeling the Chrysalis was our Queen of Blades! A predictable twist if you know of future games, but still a fun one.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:31
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JustJeff88 posted:I just wanted to thank you warmly for the update and for the spacing. The Queen in SC2 is honestly a completely different unit from the SC1 one with a different purpose. If they didn't have the same name and vaguely similar appearance there'd be no reason to relate them to each other. The classic Queen does appear in SC2's campaign though, and does have one new ability, but I suspect that's not the one you're talking about since it's just what SC2 zerg does instead of having creep colonies.
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Jul 21, 2022 11:50
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Yeah, the Swarm reorganizes a lot between 1 and 2 to adapt to the current Terran/Protoss context and while some units remain mostly unchanged (such as the zergling, you can't improve perfection), the role of queens shifts a lot and so does their ability loadout. Hell,
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Jul 21, 2022 12:07
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Tenebrais posted:The Queen in SC2 is honestly a completely different unit from the SC1 one with a different purpose. If they didn't have the same name and vaguely similar appearance there'd be no reason to relate them to each other. SC1 queens do reappear in co-op and I think the protoss expansion, where they're dubbed 'Brood Queens' to distinguish them from the regular new Queens.
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Jul 21, 2022 12:15
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Omobono posted:Yeah, the Swarm reorganizes a lot between 1 and 2 to adapt to the current Terran/Protoss context and while some units remain mostly unchanged (such as the zergling, you can't improve perfection), the role of queens shifts a lot and so does their ability loadout. Yep, they also change from late game casters to early game anti-air/support.
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Jul 21, 2022 12:17
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Always found it a little weird that the Zerg spend so much effort to make their first infested Terran some kind of super caster, and then all the others are just cheap suicide bombers. Would have been neat for the Zerg ground caster to have been like mini-Kerrigans, given... well idk if it's spoilers, it's from the manual: The Zerg goal in going after Terrans was stated as integrating a latent psychic species so they could match the Protoss. This makes a certain amount of sense, but things don't really seem to go that way in the game. I guess it makes sense that infested Kerrigan was a last-minute addition given the way she seems to have changed the idea for the overall Starcraft metaplot.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:35
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The portrait for Infested Kerrigan is probably the one that changed the most in the remaster. And in the process, it lost a lot of the deliberate similarities to the un-infested portrait, notably the pose/position. Also, in the remaster the leftover parts of the ghost suit look very different from the pre-infestation suit. Original:   Remastered:  
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Jul 21, 2022 14:42
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GunnerJ posted:Always found it a little weird that the Zerg spend so much effort to make their first infested Terran some kind of super caster, and then all the others are just cheap suicide bombers. Would have been neat for the Zerg ground caster to have been like mini-Kerrigans, given... well idk if it's spoilers, it's from the manual: The Zerg goal in going after Terrans was stated as integrating a latent psychic species so they could match the Protoss. This makes a certain amount of sense, but things don't really seem to go that way in the game. I guess it makes sense that infested Kerrigan was a last-minute addition given the way she seems to have changed the idea for the overall Starcraft metaplot. Well, we know that psychic potential seems to be pretty rare among Terrans, and throughout the Terran campaign it's called out that Ghosts have a psychic signature similar to the Zerg. So I think it's reasonable enough that Ghosts the zerg manage to take alive are used for experimentation or special conversions, but the regular rank and file are just used as bombs.
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Jul 21, 2022 14:48
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Cythereal posted:Well, we know that psychic potential seems to be pretty rare among Terrans, and throughout the Terran campaign it's called out that Ghosts have a psychic signature similar to the Zerg. So I think it's reasonable enough that Ghosts the zerg manage to take alive are used for experimentation or special conversions, but the regular rank and file are just used as bombs. One thing I'd be interested to know is how early they came up with the idea of infested Terran units as bomb bags. It just doesn't fit with what I understand to be the original idea for the Zerg. You can make sense of it the way you said, but they could just as easily have said that once the Zerg got their claws on enough human test subjects, the Overmind was able to figure out how to awaken latent psionic genes or whatever. I think the original idea just got derailed once they came up with the idea of infesting Kerrigan (but they never bothered changing the manual description of the Zerg to match because, I guess, why bother, only weirdos like me read the manual  ). Can't say more because they would be spoilers!
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Jul 21, 2022 15:06
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Nostalgamus posted:The portrait for Infested Kerrigan is probably the one that changed the most in the remaster. And in the process, it lost a lot of the deliberate similarities to the un-infested portrait, notably the pose/position. Also, in the remaster the leftover parts of the ghost suit look very different from the pre-infestation suit. I get why people would have qualms with this change, but I personally think it's great. Kerrigan's original infested portrait is just goofy IMO, and her attack noise sounds like a literal wet fart. (can't find a video of it, but if you know you know) I've got *major* beef with her design in SC2 though -- bone high heels? for real? I would submit Tassadar as the biggest glow-up though, but we'll get there when we get there. The next mission, in fact, iirc
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Jul 21, 2022 16:15
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Omobono posted:(such as the zergling, you can't improve perfection) Two words my friend, "Try jumping!" the only thing that makes a fast, viscous, knife dog more terrifying is when it can't be contained.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:19
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ninjahedgehog posted:I've got *major* beef with her design in SC2 though -- bone high heels? for real? The Zerg took a powerful human psychic and perfected her physical form for battle by... making sure she has stylish club-ready heels built in.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:23
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ninjahedgehog posted:I get why people would have qualms with this change, but I personally think it's great. Kerrigan's original infested portrait is just goofy IMO, and her attack noise sounds like a literal wet fart. (can't find a video of it, but if you know you know) I think the goofiness of original Kerrigan works - she looks like a zombie and that does help push that she's been turned into a monster. Both of the HD versions have obviously been geared toward making her sexier and I don't think that is in itself an improvement. It's pretty cringey for human Kerrigan to look more like a pinup model than a soldier, but for zerg one it's not too bad - she's got a dangerous look in her eyes and it presents her as kind of willful, which she certainly is. At least with Zerg colours it doesn't look like make up was part of her routine in gearing up for combat.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:24
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GunnerJ posted:The Zerg took a powerful human psychic and perfected her physical form for battle by... making sure she has stylish club-ready heels built in. Considering that only happened in 2 AFTER she took control of the swarm, I always figured it was HER decision to get the heels, not the swarms.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:27
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stryth posted:Considering that only happened in 2 AFTER she took control of the swarm, I always figured it was HER decision to get the heels, not the swarms. I like this idea in theory but I am not giving Blizzard this much credit.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:29
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GunnerJ posted:I like this idea in theory but I am not giving Blizzard this much credit. Well it was obviously Blizzard's decision either way.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:33
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GunnerJ posted:I like this idea in theory but I am not giving Blizzard this much credit. Oh it was absolutely blizzards horrible sexism based marketing that did, "Give her heels, it'll be sexy! Nevermind the chitin!... wait why are people drawing Kerrigan lewds!?" to call them braindead would be an insult to the real thing. But "in-universe"? Kerrigan totally grew herself some claw toed battle stilettos'.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:46
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stryth posted:Oh it was absolutely blizzards horrible sexism based marketing that did, "Give her heels, it'll be sexy! Nevermind the chitin!... wait why are people drawing Kerrigan lewds!?" Lets be honest Blizzard knew exactly why people were drawing Kerrigan nudes as Im sure Steve Danuser has Sylvanas nudes.
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Jul 21, 2022 16:54
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I think it gets explored more in fluff that came out after SC1 (and possibly even after BW) but a lot of the stories involving Zerg experimentation with Terrans seemed to show that Kerrigan was their first success, every other time they ended up with these useless drones (that aren't even useful like actual drones) so you may as well pack them up with a bunch of explosives to do something with them. But again, seeing as that is all stuff that came after the game, that's just trying to address something they didn't necessarily think about when making the game. Also, the only real downside for this being a screenshot LP is that we miss out on the wonderful delivery Glynnis Talken does for Kerrigan. I'm sure there may have been some post-processing the sound engineers did to make her infested lines sound more "alien" but she put a lot of work in to differentiate between Terran Kerrigan and Zerg Kerrigan. Her being replaced with Tricia Helfer in SC2 was a pretty big downer, but then, so were a LOT of things Blizzard did to Kerrigan
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Jul 21, 2022 16:55
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Glynnis Talken would have been preferable for continuing the role in 2 but I think Tricia Helfer does the role well and I wouldn't lay the characters failing in that game on her shoulders. Still very dickish considering all the other work Talken did for Blizzard.
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Jul 21, 2022 17:16
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Lets be honest Blizzard knew exactly why people were drawing Kerrigan nudes as Im sure Steve Danuser has Sylvanas nudes. Kerrigan :hi5: Bayonetta Battle Stiletto Heels
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Jul 21, 2022 17:35
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I always found the voice filter they used for SC1 Infested Kerrigan extremely grating. That combined with later Zerg missions becoming huge slogs made their campaigns my least favorite.
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Jul 21, 2022 18:05
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TheGreatEvilKing posted:Lets be honest Blizzard knew exactly why people were drawing Kerrigan nudes as Im sure Steve Danuser has Sylvanas nudes. With the added bonus that she's naked and has organic armor everywhere except her boobs (which she still has as a Zerg) and groin.
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Jul 21, 2022 18:10
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I’ve always interpreted SC1/BW Kerrigan as a prototype of a new Zerg/Terran hybrid the Overmind is testing out. Due to her Ghost training and high psionic potential, she is unique and powerful in a way that random humans aren’t. That’s why the Chrysalis gets a Cerberate specifically to protect it (compared with the usual We Have Reserves attitude towards losing troops) and why the Overmind is so concerned about outside interference. The Overmind is effectively conducting an experiment here; if it turns out well, then he can see about trying to create more Kerrigans by infesting other Ghosts and raising them the same way or maybe even by duplicating Kerrigan’s make-up to completely integrate Terran psionics into the Swarm like they have previously done with other races. SC2’s explanation of Kerrigan is…much more complex and needs a lore post all its own if we get there.
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Jul 21, 2022 18:54
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Laughing Zealot posted:Glynnis Talken would have been preferable for continuing the role in 2 but I think Tricia Helfer does the role well and I wouldn't lay the characters failing in that game on her shoulders. Still very dickish considering all the other work Talken did for Blizzard. Oh I'm not saying anything against Helfer's performance, she did very well, I meant it more as indicative of where Blizzard wanted to take the character. Also, I have to say that, given Kerrigan's redesign for Remake, I was actually quite surprised that they didn't change over Kerrigan's Brood War models to mix with her SC2 appearance. In OG Brood War all of her assets (from what I recall) have her wearing combat-style boots, even in the ~sexy~ model you click when you load up the Zerg BW campaign, and Blizzard didn't change that. I wonder if they paid attention to all the people talking about her "biological heels" for SC2 and decided to not mess with a good thing for the Remake
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Jul 21, 2022 22:09
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I somewhat prefer the og infested portrait for how inhuman she looks in it but I was pleasantly surprised at how the remastered managed to make something that felt close to the original look while obviously leaning into game 2. I assume a writeup on the queen unit is coming but from what (little) I've watched of pro-games I don't remember seeing them used at all. I assume they're too expensive for not that great abilities. Aside from infesting CC's for poo poo's and giggles. Interestingly the mutalisk glaive wurm attack seems to have been intended for the queens at one point during development. MagusofStars posted:SC2’s explanation of Kerrigan is…much more complex and needs a lore post all its own if we get there. Alternatively I suggest we just pretend that whole mess didn't happen. Edit* Aces High posted:Oh I'm not saying anything against Helfer's performance, she did very well, I meant it more as indicative of where Blizzard wanted to take the character. I always thought it was mostly about getting a celeb to voice a character, with Helfer coming fresh from her role on Battlestar Galactica. Laughing Zealot fucked around with this message at 22:52 on Jul 21, 2022 |
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Jul 21, 2022 22:38
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Queens sort of became popular in very specific circumstances in the past year or so. I'm sure OP will give a better rundown but I've seen a few in some replays that will also infest CCs as more of a "come on, just gg already" move
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Jul 22, 2022 00:17
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| # ? Jun 6, 2024 11:39 |
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It's pretty weird to think that Kerrigan being infested was such a late decision, given how much the final game revolves around it. (And then, of course, she became the breakout character and basically the central personage of the rest of the series... but that came later.) Isn't the entire justification for the psi emitters luring the Zerg that they mimic Ghosts, and the Zerg want to assimilate psychics? Getting her or someone like her is their main goal for the first half of the plot, and it's hard to imagine what would have been happening instead in a version where she died there. (I presume the justification for the emitters working would have been different then, if nothing else.) I guess they just wrote a lot of the plot at the last minute? Which is interesting to me, given how central the plot feels to the final product. (I'm not going to say Starcraft felt plot-driven to me, exactly, but it's certainly a lot more so than any other RTS of the same era.) I'm not sure what to make of the new portraits, either. The old ones definitely have better continuity between them.
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Jul 22, 2022 01:16
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