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One thing that I thought was kind of cute that no one has mentioned yet. Take another look at Zurvan, the Ancient One and perhaps one of the oldest Zerg alive. Two visible front legs in a vaguely quadrupedal stance assuming he is still mostly below ground, fanged mouth, and two back mounted arms/wings. Conclusion: Zurvan is the universes oldest, biggest, and most pissed off Zergling.  Also, more or less I do agree that the story of Starcraft II is pretty stupid, but I enjoy it anyway in a popcorn-flick kind of way. I am even possibly willing to give the "only Kerrigan is immune to control" bit a pass, under the point that Zurvan and Abathur both said that the Primal Pool was possibly too potent even for her. Looking back at the Artifact going off in All In, it pretty much instantly destroyed/killed all of the Zurg matter, including the buildings when it went off, but Kerrigan survived. So when it came to the pool here, only Kerrigan could survive the complete dumping of her old zerg flesh/power in return for the Primal energy. Anything else that tried would not have survived. I also recall hearing/seeing that way back during development of HotS there were plans for a system relating to Kerrigans upgrades that dealt with how you would direct the swarm onto other planets. It was something like "you can just destroy all of the buildings on the planet, or you can choose to infest it." I assume that was the base building blocks of a sort of morality/ability development system, where you could play Kerrigan as trying to remain as human as possible, or dive straight back into full Zerg infest ALL THE THINGS and be a monster! There are a few more things I will want to talk about, regarding Abathur, Valerian, and Mengsk, but they will have to wait until we get there. One final note, and I can only talk about it now because I only found the thread and READ it now, Dr. Hanson and Haven. One explanation as to why she became Zerg in one branch and succeeded in curing the virus in the other relates to yuor choice. If you choose to support her, she has time to take things slow and work out all of the kinks before moving forwards, resulting in removing the infection. On the other hand if you support Selendis, she is panicked, desperate to try and find the cure before it is too late. She thinks maybe if she can find the cure now she can stop Jim from purging the colony. So she takes risks, is not careful, and just ends up Infesting herself. As to the "Zerg Virus" itself, I saw it as the colonists were not Infested, they were Infected. A sort of sleeper disease that EVENTUALLY can overwhelm them and lead to Infestation. No easy cure for the Infested except fire, but it is possible to cure the Infection instead, which Hanson manages. No easy explanation on the differences in LEVEL of Infestation on the mission though. Maybe its two different sections of the planet you are dealing with. In the Pro-Hanson version the Protoss started on the badly Infested side and burned that down, and are moving onto the mostly Infestation free side where you stop them. On the Pro-Selendis version a couple marines were able to take out the 5 Infested in Quarantine on that part of the map and the Raiders take out the badly Infested part that the Protoss would have burned. Chaosbrain fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Feb 19, 2024 |
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Feb 19, 2024 16:51
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FoolyCharged posted:Also, the tactic that someone survived was walking up and punching it in the face Well I mean, it worked for Warfield back in the cutscene where he lost his arm.
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Feb 20, 2024 17:54
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In my experience, taking out Zagara before getting 100 eggs is fairly easy because of the banelings. Their attacks are great at countering her zerglings, and enough can burst down buildings or harder targets in the space of a few seconds. Plus Creep is Creep, so you get the movement bonus inside her base to get the bombs to their destinations faster. Now this is not to say that she is defenceless. To try and discourage you from just running in Zaragra has Ultralisks and Mutalisks in her base, aka "I laugh at your Zerglings" and "immune to Zerglings and Banelings." So pure Zerglings needs an overwhelming number of them, really incentivizing the burst damage of Banelings. Funnily enough, Zagara has more callouts depending on what you are doing. If you are building up a big swarm of units in likely preparation for going after her base but don't park it in front of it so she gets out, she will taunt that while you were building an army, she was out gathering eggs. Likewise if you have been running around gathering eggs she will say "while you have been out gathering eggs, I have been training troops!" Zagara does indeed send attack waves after your base, even if she is not in them, so you can't completely neglect your base defense (unless you already have enough of an army to support/Kerrigan herself is strong enough to gather the last of the eggs).
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Feb 24, 2024 15:13
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Thinking about it, it might have been cool (if PC destroying) for when you reach 100 Eggs Zagara also popped any eggs that she had gotten so the two masses of Zeglings/Banelings could meet in the middle, the surviving side continuing on to the base. Moving back a bit, I have heard tell that back in development regarding Zurvan there was originally going to be a mission where it was him versus another ancient Zerg in a big Kaiju battle. I imagine the actual mission would have been along the lines of either tip-toeing around the battle to accomplish objectives to power him up, or attack specific sub-systems on the enemy/other objectives to weaken the challenger. Or it could have simply been an early version of a particular mission that we shall see in LotV.
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Feb 24, 2024 15:45
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Something that I think might have not been explained after it was brought up was how the Primal Zerg were able to talk to Kerrigan. I saw it as them "talking" was really a translation of what Kerrigan was understanding. Notice how most of them besides Zurvan spoke somewhat brokenly and almost more in concepts than anything else. That is just what their mixture of roars/pheromones/body language were "saying," like how a dogs ears facing backwards/laying flat on their heads show submission/fear. Kerrigan just happens to have enough Zerg in her that she can actually "understand" what all of these mean. As for talking to other people, Kerrigan is like THE psychic, so she either picks up on people and speaks to them that way, or the Protoss/Terran have sensors that happen to be able to project/accept telepathic waves that Kerrigan can pick up and and speak through.
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Feb 26, 2024 00:52
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I see Warfield being here as just hinting down the remaining Zerg broods there. It was Kerrigans primary hive cluster, so chances are that is where most of the Zerg numbers were, so they are just slowly trying to exterminate the last of the major numbers/prevent some Broodmother popping up and gathering enough numbers to cause a problem later.
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Mar 2, 2024 17:13
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Omobono posted:That's what abominations are? Followup questions, what actual use case do abominations have in gameplay? I still remember the short story that explained the origins of banelings in universe. A small colony ended up in an amazing natural defensive position, the only entrance being a narrow canyon in the mountains while there were no Zerg air units. The colonists thought they were standing a chance, as the mining rigs/SCVs were able to kill the zerglings forced to move in 1-2 abreast through the canyon with no issues. They held out for weeks/months, with a local plant that developed explosive nodules of acid for defence. Turns out the Zerg had Spore Cannons the entire time that they could have used to bombard the survivors/colony to nothing, but instead used the unique situation/problem to evolve the swarm. They ate/took the essence of the plants, applied it to the zerglings, and the canyon was opened up via acid explosions in a matter of minutes. Then the Spore Cannons shot the results up into orbit, to spread the new adaptation/evolution around the swarm. The story was from the POV of a Medic who was in the colony, being debriefed after she was rescued at the last minute. She rightly guessed that the Dominion, like the Zerg were ALSO testing them, to see how long an under supplied/desperate colony could hold out. Once the line was breached they saved the medic for debrief. She was not happy at that, and revealed at the end that she had saved a large nodule of the explosive acid plant in her armor, took it out in the interrogation room, and gave it a squeeze. Chaosbrain fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 3, 2024 16:45
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In case anyone is wondering, it IS entirely possible to win in the opening attack. Once you break in hang a left and take out the Rich Mineral base, then go for Warfields upper base and then the objective. You lose out on the research, but for speedrunning/on repeats its not too bad. I say hang a left, because that means you fight through the Opening, The Rich Mineral Base, Warfields upper base, and the Objective. Going right means hitting the Opening, the Mineral Base, Warfields LOWER Base, the Upper base, and the objective. So thats more bunkers/siege tanks/marines and so on to move through. A tactic I tend to use for the nukes is to keep my army out of the base entirely, rally-pointing them down to a slightly more forward position. It seems like 100% of the time Warfield targets the army, so you get the warning, move your forces out of the death circle, and move back after the nuke misses. Also this mission might show how much of a dick Mengsk is, because I bet Warfield REALLY would have appreciated the Artifact right around this mission.
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Mar 9, 2024 14:03
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For me personally, when I played this the reveal of Stukov was a complete shock. I had no idea it was coming, and with the shadowed portrait I couldn’t make out it was a human/Terran shape and thought that the orange markings on his cheek s that glowed was actually a mouth.
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Mar 16, 2024 15:48
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Now, with that little tidbit about deinfesting Kerrigan in mind, we are almost at a critical point that I personally think MIGHT help with one of the worst moments in Wings of Liberty. At the very least its a headcanon I have that SEEMS to make some sense, your mileage may vary.
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Mar 24, 2024 04:24
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GunnerJ posted:It's a bit late for this observation but since we're talking about Kerrigan Power: it was really funny to me that after she gets her Primal upgrade, the next mission is a demo of her sick new powers like "dash really fast" and "jump really hard" That is a little funny, but I choose to take it more in the spirit it might have been meant to be. That is to say, "Dash Really Fast" and "Jump Hard" are on army scale. She is dashing at supersonic speeds, and carried with her a wave of energy/damage the size of a tank or larger that is capable of pasting a man in heavy combat armor. Maybe its even a wave of energy the width of an Ultralisk from the cinematic. She is jumping kilometers in the space of a few seconds, and lands with a shockwave as large as a building, able to probably snap a siege tank in half.
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Mar 24, 2024 16:27
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Okay, so, Headcanon time. You remember way back at the end of Wings of Liberty, where that REALLY stupid moment of "Oh, Kerrigan was corrupted the whole time, but she managed to reach out and whisper for Jim to save her telepathically" happened? Well, what if that wasn't Kerrigan? Consider who else would have strange psionic powers, who would have a vested interest in Jim managing to set off the artifact to de-infest the Queen of Blades to use the unleashed psionic energy as a big-rear end phoenix down? I think that at the end there, it was actually Duran naruD giving Jim one final little push, to make sure that he would set off the artifact. Its not perfect, I know, but it makes me feel a little bit better about things.
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Mar 30, 2024 13:10
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After all, consider that based on the reactions of Jim and Tychus, only Jim was the one to "hear" it. Part of the reason I think this is plausible is that as we saw at the end there, Narud duraN is also a fully capable shapeshifter, including the voices and everything else. Also we know that someone had to be "close by" to gather the energy, and while that could have just been regular Hybrid, it may also be Duran naruD himself making sure the job is done properly.
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Mar 30, 2024 14:11
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There is probably a lot to say about how weird the plan is and why it took this long to happen and in the way it did, but if you accept the basic concept there is text in place to make it work. Narud was the man in charge of Mobius Corp, and set up Valarian as a secondary frontman. He through Mobius was the one to set off the gathering of the Artifact fragments, telling Jim through Mengsk/Tychus where they all are. Jim is the one to gather them because he is the most likely one who would go to Char to de-infest Kerrigan instead of just nuking her to oblivion after clearing the way or something. One final push to Jim telepathically, and the plan succeeds.
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Mar 30, 2024 16:33
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Hot drat, I DO love me some Torrasque with the HP leech mutation. Your Ultralisks now regen HP when attacking, and even if they DO die, they just pop right back up to keep attacking and leech more HP. Combine that with Kerrigans Mend and maybe a few Queens for IMMORTAL TIDE!
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Apr 21, 2024 03:40
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In relation to that ending with Abathur, supposedly this is very different to the original plan. From what I have heard, the original storyline with him was Kerrigan kept coming by to him and giving him specific tasks/things to iterate and evolve for, but she used her Swarm connection to keep wiping his mind after each success/blocked him from recalling what it was exactly that she had him make. At the very end she would reveal a new unique Swarm creature, the Changeling, able to examine genetic data/essence, spin up new sequences, and overall improve the swarm. If this sounds like Abathur, you are correct, she made him create his own replacement, without letting him know that she was doing it. She then proceeds to kill him for his part in forging her into the Queen of Blades for the Overmind. Revenge complete.
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Apr 28, 2024 16:15
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Now personally, I never really got all that down about the gameplay of Starcraft II. I enjoyed a lot of it, including this mission. You can get Jim to show up "early" by immediately walking to the left towards where his base will spawn in, which is neat to me. Also, possibly because I play on Normal and Hard, I find Jim to actually be a decent ally during this mission. He can handle the incidental attacks on his base, holds your left flank secure, and the attack waves he sends, while fairly small are decently powerful enough to either support you or at least put a few small dents in the enemy. The three times I feel the need to actually defend him are the three named waves, AKA Sky Fury, Alpha Squadron, and the Odin. Speaking about the waves, Sky Fury is a mix of Banshees and Vikings. Able to handle air acceptably out in the field, but dangerous on the ground if you left the Vikings land and screen for the banshees. The second wave is more dangerous, consisting of Battlecruisers and Siege Tanks. Again, decent at anti-air and the Battlecruisers can tank as lot of hits for the Tanks if you are not prepared. Then there is the Odin. The Odin alone is an anti-ground BEAST, just like before, but its also escorted by a swarm of Goliaths. They can cover the anti-air duties that the Odin is weak in rather well, so you need a lot of force to take it on. On the bright side, I found that after the Odin is taken out, Jim is free to start REALLY helping out in clearing the west/north. I also actually really liked Valarians development through the game. He started still fairly self-assured and arrogant regarding the Zerg, "we have a controlled environment" and all that, but got taught a lesson by Kerrigan. He then proceeded to LEARN HIS LESSON and on their next encounters respected the threat of the Zerg. Then in Planetfall and here, he freely admits that he has little to no ground to stand on for making demands of Kerrigan to spare the civilians, but he tries anyway and by REQUESTING it, not outright demanding. I like to think that him showing he actually cared about the people of Korhol (instead of staying silent so that his father would be deposed faster/easier) to even risk asking the person he knows could force choke him at any time is why Kerrigan complied. Something else to note, as discovered by GiantGrantGames, Mengsk WILL rebuild his final base if given the chance, but he sends 1 SCV at a time to do it. So if you break into his base and take down most of the production but get cleaned up, it might be worth it to send in a smaller raiding force to keep diving his slowly rebuilding production until you/your allies can send something larger to continue the breakthrough. Finally, once you start damaging the gate, Mengsk sends down drop pods full of infantry and then some mech. Sadly for him 95% of the time when you are hitting the gate everything else in his base is dead and you have an army present, so its often too little, too late.
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May 4, 2024 17:30
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BlazetheInferno posted:I maintain that Tychus' co-op Announcement Video provided an explanation that could totally work in the canon lore, they simply chose to leave it non-canon. The story there literally picks up at his death and goes "He didn't die, but Mengsk didn't know that" and then it proceeds from there. Taking time to make amends with Jim, then leaving the Raiders formally only to form his gang specifically to help them. I am imagining Jim shot him in the right spot/in the face just so that either the transmitter was destroyed or his heart stoppped long enough that he was considered “dead” and so the deadman’s switches failed so he was badly injured/unconscious but survived long enough that Swann/Stettman was able to peel him out of the suit and he was kicked out of the Raiders.
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May 8, 2024 18:37
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Annoying thing for anyone going after that anniversary achievement: After Kerrigan takes a base a “wall of biomass” is put over the former entrance to it, permanently closing it off. So if you want to attack the previous bases, you have to snake around to strike into the singular ways in. What I liked to do is wait for Kerrigans attack wave to go out, then dive in behind it into the base while it is as weak as it can be.
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May 11, 2024 15:20
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