Not asking for this to be implemented, just a big what if we apply these commander talents to allies as well, would it make these commanders broken?
Terran:
Raynor - Orbital Depots also apply to allied terran commanders.
Horners - His & Hers supply also applies to allied terran commanders. (I can see this making Mengsk bunkers even tankier by doubling their HP).
Tychus - Fully Loaded also applies to engineering bays (or armories if H&H) of allied terran commanders (+4 and +5 will cost 300/300 and 400/400 respectively)
Zerg:
Dehaka - Essence gatherer also applies to Heroic units of allied zerg commanders but only increases their HP when gathered. (This essence is spawned separately from what Dehaka can gather).
Abathur - Biomass Harvester also applies to Heroic units of allied zerg commanders but is only capped at 50 and is lost on their death. Further biomass gathered above 50 only heals the hero for 3% of their max HP for each point of biomass. (This biomass is spawned separately from what Abathur’s units can gather)
Zagara - The benefits of Relentless Swarmer (except the 100 population cap and double drones) is also applied to allied zerg commanders.
Protoss:
Fenix - Operational Efficiency also applies to allied protoss commanders but only applies the 50% mineral cost reduction.
Artanis - Superior Warp Gates also applies to allied protoss commanders but only increases their max charges to 2.
Zeratul - Chronometry also applies to the Robotics Facilities of allied protoss commanders.
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Indifferent. This would be nice, but skews balance. Plus, there are already some synergies anyways (e.g. Karax repair beam, Kerrigan creep, and HH salvage)
yeah but I’m get a little bit disappointed when I pair up with a commander that gives nothing to the table aside from their own army like when I’m a Vorazun with a Fenix. We give almost negligible benefit to each other. Whereas I’d be so happy if I get a Karax or Swann since I know I’ll get some perks from them. Not saying people should not play those it’s purely my own preference and I’ll treat them fairly nevertheless.
TL;DR, I’m still going to say it’s fine. COs who don’t have synergies and support abilities (or otherwise very few of them) do have the benefit of being able to push early, more often, or otherwise much better at combat otherwise. As some who mains Karax, Swann, and Stukov, that’s something I appreciate because they can cover their weakness while they ramp up into powerhouses.
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The back story…
Can’t argue that part othewise. Back when I first started with Coop, I only had time to play as Karax and Swann, so I almost never got Karax as my ally. This was made worse before mass baseline improvements (8 different upgrades got reduced in cost, and the +50% base hp for units). This was also before the prestige system (which is important for Karax because it turned him from a meme, into a very viable, and well rounded CO. You just had to work through leveling to get to P2 or P3).
Now that I play as more COs, and the Prestige system has made Karax far more attractive, I do get more Karax allies. I always hope it’s non-P1 and non-P3 for full benefits, but I’ll still take either of those 2. It’s just nice to have all of those extras
I get wanting new content and this being a sneaky way of achieving that, but I rather they stick with the things commanders already do than with this.
First of all, by making ally synergies into a “slot” that every commander has design effort applied to, it both reduces the specialness of ally synergies that are already there, and it also increases the frustration when you get paired up with a bad one. Most people are more acutely aware when they get a “bad” something than when they get nothing. With 18 commanders there’s no way anyone comes up with 18 great synergies that are all equally interesting, unique, and fun. Part of the reason I suspect you might want more is because Blizzard only put in synergies that are unique and fun into the game, which makes the design space appear more fertile than it actually is. Once it becomes an expectation, then when someone sees Swann’s Vespene Harvester they think, “Oh, it’s only a matter of time until someone else gets a Mineral Harvester,” and then when it actually happens no one is excited by it because everyone saw it coming.
Secondly, it violates the KISS principle. This is a whole bunch of (individually) low-impact features aggregated together. While experts like ourselves may appreciate all the nuanced complexity that adds to the game, newbies generally finding it confusing and put less effort into learning and sticking with the game when there is excess complexity. There are other ways of adding that nuance without repelling newbies, such as leveling systems (applies to both mastery and prestige). I don’t see why more efforts applied in these areas wouldn’t be more beneficial than explicit synergies.
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