New Q&A
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1) Blizzard, how attached are you guys to the proton charge/mule extra macro-for-money system? I know nothing is set in stone at this point, but will these mechanics in all likelihood make it into the final game? - Voan
This is a mechanic that we would like to keep if possible. Because the game is not yet in beta phase, there may still be tweaks and changes to these mechanics, but we are looking forward to players trying it out themselves in beta. We will continue testing the macro mechanics internally and we really want to see how the players will adopt these mechanics into their gameplay.

2) With missile barrage and Yamato cannon, Battlecruisers' can deal with most threats. My question is, how effectively can a Battlecruiser be countered? How well do Hydralisks, Void Rays, and Vikings work vs Missile barrage? - camelmeat
Hydralisks are easily the Zerg's most important ground unit against air, including Battlecruisers. Void rays can be a good Protoss counter for battlecruiser, with focused fire and increasing damage over time on its attack. In fighter mode, the Terran viking does +10 damage against massive units like the battlecruiser.

3) Brood War Mutalisk micromanagement is an important aspect of the Terran vs. Zerg match up. Blizzard has been reported to be trying to implement some form of the Mutalisk stacking bug. My question is, how well do Terrans deal with stacked Mutalisks now that Irradiate is no longer in the game, Medics are higher tier, and a single control group can consist of much more then the eleven Mutalisks currently in StarCraft: Brood War? - Ursus
The ghost's snipe shot, which deals 60 damage (and ignores armor) to biological units like the mutalisk, can be a good defensive ability. The Thor's anti-air attack also has +2 damage against Mutalisk's Light armor. Additionally, the nighthawk's hunter seeker missile gives splash damage, making it a great counter against mutalisk stacking, considering it does 150 damage. One missile can effectively 1-shot a whole stack of mutalisks if the zerg player does not try to dodge the missile. Even though players can group up many more than 12 mutalisks in a stack now, with abilities like the Hunter Seeker missile on the field, they may still want to think twice about it.

4) When the Corrupters attack turns enemy flyers into "turrets" does the unit turned effect damage? In other words would a corrupted mutalisk do any less damage than a corrupted Battlecruiser or Mothership? - Warchamp
Once they are corrupted, all corrupted units will do the same damage.

5) If the Zerg Infestor uses neural parasite on a unit, will that unit still have all upgrades / abilities if the player researched them? - 5c012ch3d
Yes, the parasited unit will have all upgrades / abilities.

6) Goliath could benefit from the Charon Boosters in SC:BW, However the Goliath is now replaced by the Viking (air mode) as AtA unit. Is there still any range increase going to happen for the Viking, to extend it's missile range like the Goliath, or is it presumed unnecessary because Vikings can truly fly (and thus not limited in mobility)? - Scourge
There is currently no range upgrade for the viking. However, vikings can still move in and out combat by shifting modes. In regards to the unit's mobility, vikings will be much better than the original StarCraft's goliath due to its new transformation abilities.

7) When we were told EMP was removed from the Ghost, it wasn't mentioned what, if any, spell/ability would replace it. Can you comment on the current spells and abilities of the Ghost? And is EMP still a possibility for the game, whether on the Ghost or any other unit? - Dillinger
The ghost has regained the EMP ability again and EMP now does 100 damage to shields and drains all energy from player's own and enemy units in the targeted area.

8) Can Blizzard give a well detailed explanation on how the new mechanic of the ability hallucination work. It was said that it can spawn 8 fake probes, how many then to other units? Zealots, stalkers, immortals, air units? Can it be used on allies (Zerg and Terrans)? -spartan198
By using 100 energy, you can spawn one of these sets: 2 zealots, 2 stalkers, 1 immortal, 2 high templars, 1 archon, 1 void ray, 1 phoenix, 1 warp prism, or 1 colossus. You can only spawn Protoss units.
 

8 was the only one I liked.
 

I don't like the new hallucination mechanics.
 

Why. Elaborate. What would be better. I think its great, but I think more units should be allowed to be Hullucinated.
 

I don't see a big deal with hallucination usage: it was almost never used in BW. Even with new gameplay mechanics in SC2, I don't see how it is time and resource efficient to have that ability...
 

Hallucination in SC2 costs 50 energy, is available much earlier than in SC1 cause its on the Disruptor, and lets you create hallucinations of units you don't actually have access to yet. A hallucinated Colossus or Warp Prism early game to scout. Hallucinated Immortals to soak up Banelings.

Its much more accessible than in SC1.
 

This represents their tweak to a currently unused spell, and they are hoping to God that it works, I know they disliked that BW's was basically a spell-less game (except matchup specific stuff), even though all the abilities were there (only storm circumvented particular mu's everything else was tied to a matchup).
 

lame
 

I don't know why people ask about stupid question such like these...
 

That's great news If it is this much more accessible, maybe we will see it used more often. However, that will depend on the lifespan and durability of the hallucinated unit, on top of the cost mechanics. But, I'm down with the new idea.

TBH TT, the old BW spell usage had to be matchup specific. The new spells may be used more often, independently of matchups, but only to a certain point. For example, sustaining hallucinations throughout mid-late game maybe too tedious and micro intensive when you are scourging the map for resource spots to gain an upper-hand or to come back from a disadvantage. You may have too much to do already (even with the help of auto-cast mechanics). Once you have more than 150-180 supply to control, using pinpoint spells like hallucinations could become too much

That's not to say it's impossible; for players like Bisu or Stork, this might be feasible. Not so much for us enthusiastic amateurs.

That's just a POV, based on the Blizzcon 2008 level of gameplay we've seen. With so much more possibilities opening up in SC2, how will players adapt to the new (and almost overwhelming) amount of strategic components on a map in SC2?
 

Well I assume that one of the "sets" of hallucinations is spawned randomly. This gives you less control. Also, if the other player has scouted you he should know your tech, and thus what units are hallucinated (early game). This would allow a good player to not waste "valuable" units (ex: baneling) on them.

Really I just think an energy-cost reduction, or an increase to 3 hallucinations (from 2) would of fixed the old spell just fine. In fact I'd prefer they simply do that, very much so.
 

No. When you tell your Disruptor to use Hallucination, you go into a sub-menu. Just like when you ask a worker to build a building, it gives a sub-menu of buildings. The Hallucination Sub-menu lets you choose any of the 9 units/pairings to Hallucinate. You get full control over which units you Hallucinate from your available options.
 

better
 

Who needs fast drop when you just make units that can scale to high ground by themselves lol.
 

They had the Hallucinate spell in Dark Reign, a classic RTS from 1997 that no one knows about. DR also pioneered multiple waypoints and I still haven't seen an RTS that does those better than DR did. Another cool thing that DR had was textured terrain, meaning if you were walking over mud or rocks your units would move slower than they would over grass or dirt. And there was fog of war behind trees and rocks, so you could hide. You could also create decoy units, scouts could take the shape of units and/or doodads around it.

The unit movement options were also incredible, the game in general was focused less on mindless micro, for example in addition to the usual unit movement commands you also had search & destroy, scout, and harass, each of which had its own individually customizable settings for damage tolerance, independence, and pursuit range, and these options allowed you to give more attention to macro, if you wanted. Man, that was probably one of the most robust RTS ever created, and still is. What a great game!