Nachdem der für die fortlaufende Entwicklung von Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void mitverantwortliche Game Designer Kevin “Monk” Dong vor etwas über einer Woche bereits den ersten Bluepost (Han und Horner) zu den irgendwann in der Zukunft erscheinenden Spielbalanceänderungen für die im Koop-Modus vorhandenen Kommandanten in den Foren veröffentlichte, folgte am vergangenen Wochenende mit einem Beitrag zu den für Fenix bestimmten Änderungen nun der zweite Beitrag dieser Art. In diesem ebenfalls wieder sehr lang gehaltenen Bluepost erklärt dieser Mitarbeiter von Blizzard Entertainment sehr ausführlich, was für Veränderungen das Entwicklerteam im Moment plant, welche Probleme es derzeit mit der Spielweise von Fenix gibt und warum sie sich ausgerechnet für die in diesem Artikel aufgeführten Anpassungen entschieden haben. Zu diesen geplanten Spielbalanceänderungen gehören beispielsweise Veränderungen an den Versorgungskosten einiger Einheiten, umfangreiche Buffs für das Vergeltungsprotokoll und überraschend stark ausfallende Verbesserungen für die Champions von Fenix. Solltet ihr aktuell zu den Fans dieses bereits seit einiger Zeit in Starcraft 2 vorhandenen Kommandanten gehören oder derzeit vielleicht mit dem Gedanken spielen diesen Charakter für den Koop-Modus freizuschalten, dann kann ich euch an dieser Stelle nur dazu raten, unbedingt einmal einen Blick auf den folgenden Bluepost zu werfen und euch zumindest die weiter oben angesprochenen Beispiele durchzulesen. Da die deutschen Foren von Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void über keinen eigenen Abschnitt für den Koop-Modus verfügen, wird es von diesem bisher nur auf Englisch verfügbaren Beitrag von Game Designer Kevin “Monk” Dong wahrscheinlich keine deutsche Version geben. Co-op Mission Update: Fenix Revamp Hi again! Last week, we shared our ideas regarding the direction we want to take with Han & Horner. Before we get into our update this week about Fenix, we’d like to update you on our progress on H&H. One concern players had with the proposed changes was the unwieldy supply costs Horner’s units would have after everything went through. We’d like to start off by highlighting that the supply cost nerfs were not designed to compensate for the damage buffs given to his units, but rather to bring the units to a DPS/supply ratio to that of similar units from other commanders. That said, we did take another hard look at all of Horner’s units. We’ll be making the following supply cost changes to more closely reflect their true power levels and encourage players to incorporate Strike Fighters into their games: Drone Hanger supply cost decreased from 6 to 3. Strike Fighter Platform supply cost decreased from 4 to 2. Sovereign Battlecruiser supply cost increased from 6 to 10 (down from the previously proposed 12). Asteria Wraith increased from 2 to 4 supply (as previously proposed). Deimos Viking increased from 2 to 4 supply (as previously proposed). But enough about Han & Horner. It’s Fenix time! In our initial community update, we identified the following issues the community had with the leader of the Purifier army: Fenix’s ramp-up time still feels a bit too long. Mass Carriers are still commonly considered Fenix’s best unit composition. Fenix’s army lacks survivability. Avenging Protocol still doesn’t feel as strong as we’d like. Additionally, we felt that the Champion mechanic wasn’t highlighted enough and we want to further focus on this aspect of Fenix. Here’s what we came up with: Operational Efficiency Reworked Fenix’s level 10 upgrade, Operational Efficiency, to reduce the mineral costs of all production and tech structures by 50% in addition to its current functionality. This cost reduction applies to Gateways, Cybernetics Cores, Forges, Twilight Councils, Robotics Facilities, Robotics Bays, Stargates, and Fleet Beacons. Two of Fenix’s shortcomings are his long ramp-up time and his expensive macro. He requires significant infrastructure to get started, and this change is designed to help him expand and field units more quickly. Macro costs should be greatly reduced overall, especially for 6-Champion builds, which tend to require more production and tech buildings than mass Carrier builds. Legionnaires Legionnaire base damage increased from 12×2 to 16×2. Weapon upgrades now provide +2×2 damage each, up from +1×2. Legionnaires are perceived as one of Fenix’s most underpowered units, and many players requested a buff–specifically to their survivability. We considered this approach, but ultimately we felt that Legionnaires with more durability would overlap too much with Immortals. Instead, we opted for a damage buff, pushing Legionnaires towards more of a Zergling-type role (cheap, high-DPS, fragile) rather than a Supplicant-type role (cheap, low-DPS, durable). While this change doesn’t necessarily make Legionnaires more powerful when thrown into a deathball style of army, players who can control Legionnaires separately from their main army will able to see significant improvements in performance (+11 damage at full upgrades, a 37% increase). Conservators Conservator Protective Field damage reduction increased from 20% to 35%. Conservator Protective Field in Mobile Mode radius increased from 5.5 to 7.2. It now matches its radius in Phasing Mode. Fenix had issues maintaining his army unless he was massing Carriers. To combat this, we’ll be buffing the Conservator’s bubble ability even more. In addition to a damage reduction increase, we wanted to increase the quality of life of the unit and we’re further increasing the radius of Protective Field. Colossi Extended Thermal Lance research cost decreased from 150/150 to 100/100. We felt this upgrade was too expensive compared to the other upgrades in Fenix’s kit. Scouts Combat Sensor Array now increases the Scout’s air attack range by +3, up from +1. Ground range bonus remains the same. When we were testing 6-Champion builds, we often found ourselves in the following scenario: we would engage an enemy force, and both our ground units and Scouts would autotarget ground enemies. Once all the ground enemies were destroyed, our Scouts would switch to air targets while our Robotics units fumbled around, without remaining enemies to fight. With this change, Scouts will feel more responsive against air units and they’ll prefer targeting air units in fights. Not only will Scouts be significantly more powerful, this buff will also indirectly buff Robotics units, whose air weaknesses will be mitigated. The Air Weapons upgrade now provides the Scouts’ anti-ground Photon Blaster with +2 (+3 vs light) damage, up from +1. Scout weapon upgrades should now scale correctly according to standard upgrade rules. Carriers Carrier Interceptor cost decreased from 15 to 0. We wanted to revert a change we made to the Carrier in a previous patch. Instead of nerfing Carriers, however, we decided to go in the opposite direction and buff all his other units so that they could compete with mass Carriers. Avenging Protocol Increased the attack speed bonus of Avenging Protocol when a Champion is transferred to a new shell from 25% to 50%. Increased the attack speed bonus of Avenging Protocol when a corresponding host shell is destroyed from 5% per supply to 10% per supply. Avenging Protocol attack speed bonus cap increased from 100% to 200%. Avenging Protocol bonus duration increased from 10 seconds to 20 seconds. We view Avenging Protocol as a core mechanic for Gateway-focused armies, but as a bonus mechanic for more sturdy compositions such as 6-Champion builds or mass Carrier builds. That said, we felt the numbers for Avenging Protocol were slightly underwhelming, so we doubled them all! This change is intended to act as a moderate buff for mass Gateway builds, a small buff for 6-Champion builds, and an almost imperceptible change for mass Carrier builds. Additionally, expanding with Champions will now be slightly better now that they have superior rock-clearing abilities. Champions Taldarin range increased from 5 to 6. Warbringer range increased from 8 to 9. Fixed a tooltip error regarding Clolarion’s range. A few patches ago, we reduced the range of all our Champions by 1. The idea was that if the Champions had less range, they’d be more prone to dying, thus activating the effects of Avenging Protocol. Unfortunately, this idea didn’t work out as we expected for many of our Champions. Taldarin at range 5 often found himself stuck among a sea of friendly Adepts and Warbringer at range 8 didn’t actually tank in practice. We feel that this range decrease was beneficial for both Talis and Mojo, so we’ll be keeping the changes there. We also wanted to revert the range change to Clolarion, but we found that, due to a bug, the previous intended decrease in range didn’t come into effect. Thus, we will not be making any changes to Clolarion and instead updating its tooltips to reflect its range of 8. Mojo now receives bonuses from Combat Sensor Array. His upgraded attack range (6 vs air, 4 vs ground) will still remain 1 less than that of upgraded Scouts(7 vs air, 5 vs ground). We liked that Mojo charged into battle ahead of other Scouts, often tanking area of effect attacks and spells. We didn’t like how he often died without getting a shot off due to his 3 range. Talis Psionic Projection ability now summons a Shade that deals 25 (35 vs light) damage, up from 8 (11 vs light). Talis’ Shade now has a unique indicator so that it is more identifiable. Taldarin’s Barrier damage absorption increased from 100 to 200. Talis and Taldarin had abilities that were identical to that of their base units. We felt that as Champions, all their abilities would be superior to their counterpart host shells. Kaldalis’ Empowered Blades damage scaling increased from 3 per Legionnaire to 4.5 per Legionnaire. Maximum Empowered Blades damage increased from 29 to 39. Talis’ Debilitation System now allows Talis to hit 8 units with its Ricochet Glaive ability, up from 5. Taldarin’s attack speed increased from 1.80 to 1.45. Warbringer’s Purification Blast damage increased from 200 to 300. Mojo’s Tactical Data Web bonus reworked. Instead of increasing stun duration (from 2 to 4), it now decreases the cooldown of Suppression Procedure by 0.75 per Scout, from 10 to a minimum of 5. Champions are not as impactful on the battlefield as we had hoped, so we’re increasing their effectiveness overall through their special abilities. Changes were made with Tactical Data Web in mind so players would be more encouraged to maximize their TDW bonuses for each Champion. This also indirectly buffs the base units of each respective Champion. We want to highlight the changes to Taldarin, who will now have the same attack speed as an Immortal. This should significantly improve both his Graviton Disruptor and Gravimetric Overload abilities. A side effect of this change is that breaking rocks and expanding with Taldarin will now be a more tempting option. Masteries Fenix Attack Speed Mastery bonus increased from 1% per point to 2% per point. Maximum attack speed bonus increased from 30% to 60%. Fenix Suit Offline Energy Regeneration Mastery bonus increased from 0.5% per point to 0.75% per point. Maximum generation bonus increased from 15% to 22.5%. Champion A.I. Life and Shields bonus increased from 1% per point to 2% per point. Maximum life and shield bonus increased from 30% to 60%. Extra Starting Supply Mastery bonus increased from 1 supply per point to 2 supply per point. Maximum starting supply increased from 30 to 60. Each of these Masteries was given a slight bump to make them more impactful compared to both the Masteries of other commanders and the alternate Mastery in each Power Set. Going Forward Though Carriers did get slightly buffed with these proposed changes, we feel Fenix’s other options will be even more potent. After the patch goes live, we encourage you to experiment with the following compositions: Mass Gateway with minimal Champion support. Robotics units and Scouts with 3-6 Champions. 6-Champion with at least 20 supply in each unit for maximum Tactical Data Web usage. Of course, you can still mass Carriers! Regardless of your playstyle, Fenix will now hopefully be able to…how do you Terrans say it… “Throw down with the best of them!” Kevin Dong Co-op Commander Designer (via)
