I’ve kinda been wondering for a while now what a Protoss special force group would be like and who would lead them. Maybe Selendis or Admiral Urun? It would also be neat if the team reused the very first version of the mothership core (from the HotS teaser) on a nexus for recharging, defense, and healing.
For the Zerg it would be kinda need to see special zerg units keep evolving over the course of the match after they kill enemy units or are upgraded. I know we kind of have a little bit of that involving Abathur and Dahaka, but it would be cool to have 5 zerg units evolve into super units over the course of the match. Maybe a what-if scenario involving the dead brood mother Nafash or Niadra?
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Love this idea
Protoss elite executors
Zerg sinister skirmishers
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The Protoss has Fenix. Not exactly the same as Tychus, but he fits the bill of having elite champion units.
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You can play Abathur in Tychus’ play style.
Use only 6 ulti- evo + 3 viper + 3 queen
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Ehhh I think the key aspect here is Tychus-like gameplay for a new Protoss commander and a new Zerg commander; not the existence of elite units for existing Protoss or Zerg commanders (as every commander features some degree of “elite” units, especially by standard ladder gameplay metrics).
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Sure, you can do that, but it’s still not the same as having a Zerg commander (or Protoss commander) who is specifically designed to feature only a handful of elite units showcasing unique, fun and compelling gameplay through unit / team synergy and hero-unit mechanics.
Remember the Protoss mission in Wings of Liberty where you had to hold out against Amon for as long as you could, and you had all those Protoss heroes representing various major Protoss units? Fun mission. Don’t really have a point with that, just brought it up because discussing a small team of Protoss heroes brought back some nostalgia for that particular mission. Good times in the ol campaign.
Would love to see some detailed ideas for Tychus-like Protoss and Zerg commanders. My machinations are already assembling.
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From what I’ve seen of the development team, they try to roll out commanders with unique gameplay than those released.
Not all concept are strictly off-limit from one to another (like Zagara’s 100 supply, Artanis’s free supply, born Nova’s free 100 supply). Yet, Nova bring a very unique self-identity as a commander, just as an example.
The idea of having a group of elite units isn’t bad intrinsically but the concept have to be vastly different and gameplay original. It will not happen unless it can be differentiated from Tychus. Just having several Protoss/Zerg hero (outlaw) with different set of abilities is not nearly enough. The basis has to be a creative and original concept before they’d consider it.
At least that’s what I’ve seen in my experience with their commander releases.
I’d prefer something in the range of Zagara & Nova. Some Micro + Some Macro.
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I feel like Tychus is kinda already the Terran version of Fenix, but of course in a way that still makes him very different than Fenix. They both revolve around powerful champions, but one is more micro focused and the other is more macro focused.
If they ever wanted to do a Zerg version of this I feel like maybe Niadra might be the best bet and maybe they could meet in the middle between both Tychus’s form of gameplay that revovles around powerful units and Fenix’s form of gameplay for it, but i dunno all and all kinda scratching at the bottom of the bucket that this point because blizzard insist on every commander being so unique at the same time.
Yeah, but his playstyle is still army based, isn’t it
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Lol duh
That entire post was merely stating the blatantly obvious.
“Tychus-like,” not “Tychus-clone.”
I don’t subscribe to the idea that we / Blizzard are running out of unique gameplay concepts for new commanders, or that new commanders can’t be similar in design to existing commanders while also bringing something new and unique to the selection and gameplay.
There’s still plenty of possibilities left. It just takes effort and creativity to develop.
Tychus Is fun even though I would prefer more commanders without any hero or elite units at all.
That said I still think they could easily turn Niadra from Hots into a commander. Basically a hero only version of Zagara.
Her brood will keep her company!
We already have 4 hero based commanders for Zerg.
And I don’t see how you could have a Protoss commander work like Tychus without ending up EXACTLY like him. IMO, what Alarak and Fenix do already cover the fantasy of Protoss heroes in a much more interesting way.
That’s at least partially because co-op began with the basic design ideology of:
Terran commanders = Macro
Zerg commanders = Hero unit gameplay
And Protoss commanders = Spear of Adun
Obviously, however, this design ideology is no longer applicable.
If that’s true (and it makes sense for the first 6 CO’s) what we should be asking for is commanders that fit the themes we don’t have much of for each race.
At this point Terran has the best variety of CO’s IMO. Raynor and Swann are both macro focused, Nova and Tychus are both hero centric, and Han and Horner are big on their cooldowns/calldowns.
I’d like to see a more macro focused Zerg commander, and one that doesn’t rely on a gimmick like what Stukov and Stettman are like. Right now the closest thing we have to real macro Zerg commander is Abathur, but his core gameplay revolves around his monstrosities so that makes him more hero focused even while being a “macro” commander.
Protoss has a nice variety of CO’s too, although I feel Alarak is notoriously underplayed so if we could update him to make him more popular that would be a great start.
Niadra shows up in the Shadow Wars comics, but both that and her HotS gameplay don’t show anything different from what Zagara already is.
I dunno maybe they could just reinvent Niadra and find a way to make it work. Niadra is known for creating parasites that can infect and allow her to control any form of life including protoss I believe, so maybe her form of domination across the galaxy wouldn’t have as much to do with the zerg, but would rather consist of making the most strongest and most powerful creatures she’s infected into her Generals. So gameplay wise, maybe you’d place down some kind of structure and you’d summon one of these creatures to the field as a hero unit and be able to also build a selection of units from this den or whatever. Could maybe be a decent way to get some of those cool neutral races into co-op. I dunno just throwing things out there.
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I’ve thought of similar ideas for Niadra. It’s an interesting approach, and has some potential, but needs to be fleshed out a bit more.
At this point, Niadra is probably the best well-known candidate for a Zerg commander whose design would be similar to Tychus, but two other options would be:
- Introducing an entirely new character and releasing a bit of lore behind them, and possibly a cool corresponding cinematic to accompany the gameplay reveal trailer upon said commander’s announcement.
Or
- Reusing key characters that are already commanders. For example:
“New Zerg Commander”
• Utilize Kerrigan, Zagara, Abathur, Stukov and Dehaka on the battlefield
• No army
• Custom talent builds
• Hero abilities; some of them new
• Calldowns
• Enhancing of ally’s forces
This is not my official idea; it’s merely a very rough draft demonstrating an example of reusing characters that are already commanders in a new commander, featuring a different design and different style of gameplay from their original counterparts.
We could get Artanis as a hero unit, finally. Same for Raynor. Not mention all the other prominent and well-liked characters that currently have no corresponding hero unit within co-op.
Another way to achieve this would be via the commander talent tree system that I proposed in this thread:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/sc2/t/a-comprehensive-idea-for-adding-another-level-of-depth-and-fun-to-co-op/975/24
Anyway. There are several options for developing new, Tychus-like commanders for Zerg and Protoss, and I hope the devs are brainstorming and exploring at least some of them.