Co-op Mission Update - June 13th, 2019

Co-op Missions Discussion
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Greetings Co-opers!

Over the years, you’ve fought (and usually defeated) Amon’s vast armies across the Koprulu sector. After succumbing to never-ending defeat, Amon has had enough of the abuse. Today, we’re excited to announce the following changes to Co-op in an upcoming update.

New Upgrades

On Hard and Brutal difficulties, Amon will now research the following upgrades over time. These upgrades will benefit enemies who initially spawn on the map, as well as those who spawn from attack waves.

  • Combat Shield
  • Stimpack
  • Concussive Shells
  • Infernal Pre-Ignitor
  • Ares Class Targeting System
  • Metabolic Boost
  • Adrenal Glands
  • Gilal Reconstitution
  • Muscular Augments
  • Chitinous Plating
  • Charge
  • Singularity Charge
  • Extended Thermal Lance

Beware! During testing, we’ve noticed that Marines and Zerglings in particular gain a significant boost to their power levels.

New Attack Wave Compositions

Amon has also devised new horrific attack wave compositions to keep Commanders on their toes. In the next update, Amon will have a chance to spawn one of six new attack waves, two from each race, inspired by the armies used during the First Great War in the original StarCraft. These waves will focus on the themes of Terran Infantry, Terran Mech, Zerg Ground, Zerg Air, Protoss Ground, and Protoss Air.

Composition Callouts

After adding so many new attack waves compositions, we found that they can be a bit difficult to keep track of and counter appropriately. Which is why Commanders have retaliated with new scouter technology! In the next update, when Amon’s troops are first discovered, players will be shown a description of the composition and a list of key units to watch out for.

We hope you enjoy these new challenges. Please let us know what kinds of new attack waves you’d like in the future!

Kevin Dong
Lead Co-op Designer

61 Likes
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It would be nice if, with each wave headed by a hybrid hero with unique names and abilities, then there will be a motive to add something similar to “Mastery Levels”.

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:fox_face:Glad to see that Amon is finally getting his first revamp.
After all he has to face a different mutator every match when he fights two of 17 OP commanders.

Furthermre, it would also be nice if we get something similar to Terran ghosts from other races that come to our bases. Like DTs and lurkers.

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In case you guys are too lazy to look at wikis or forgot for some reason (exact numbers might be wrong):

  • Combat Shield increases maximum HP of marines by 10

  • Stimpack increases movement and firing speed by 50% for marines and marauders

  • Concussive Shells reduce movement speed for a Marauder’s target by 50%

  • Infernal Pre-Ignitor upgrades Hellions and Hellbats to do more damage against light units

  • Ares-Class Targeting System gives Goliaths +3 missile and +1 cannon range

  • Metabolic Boost increases Zergling 60% more movement speed

  • Adrenal Glands decreases Zergling attack cooldown

  • Glial Reconstitution increases Roach movement speed to 3.0

  • Muscular Augments lets Hydralisks move 25% faster off creep

  • Chitinous Plating increases Ultralisk armor by 2

  • Charge is charge for Zealots

  • Singularity Charge increases dragoon attack range by 2

  • Extended Thermal Lance increases Colossus attack range by 2

37 Likes
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Great news. Geek in me wishes the post included a breakdown of each new composition but I get why you didn’t.

Could be some tough ones. Upgraded Zerglings with Defilers will be fun. Viper/Brood Lord likely to finally show up. If Amon’s Dragoons got the Artanis buff (did they? I assumed so) they’ll be a pretty solid unit, key as Protoss ground has tended to lack anti-air.

A hard focus on Terran infantry might work now with the upgrades. Curious about Terran mech though, how that will play out vs. the existing Terran mech comp.

Scouter tech really unexpected and I’m eager to see it.

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That sounds pretty awesome! Thanks for everything!

Not too sure about announcing what the AI composition is and what to look out for. I’m playing Brutal SC2… not Ocarina of Time.

Can’t wait though, thanks again!

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What about new maps?

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This is nice and all for everyone who is lvl 15+ already, but new players (as well as players who bought new commanders) will have a tougher time leveling-up their commanders. Yes, some commanders can go low-level Hard or even Brutal, but others can’t.

Could you at least increase the XP for the bonus objectives? 2000 XP is nothing compared to the other bonuses. People do them out of prestige, to show that they’re so good they can do both them and the main objective. But not because it’s an incentive to get a better reward.

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I’d really love to see attack waves containing mothership/leviathan/loki.

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Can’t wait for BioMechStarport to finally stop being a pushover for most commanders (also buffed Swarmy, yeeeee). :open_mouth:

And I hope this means we get to fight against the good old Vulture+Tank and Dragoon+HT/Reaver.

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I like this change! Can’t wait to try it out in-game and see what new stuff has. Also, the enemy compositions callout will definitely help players learn about how to fight the enemy. I hope it is implemented well.

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Also a fan of this change! Enemy gets buffed with upgrades, which makes brutal a bit more challenging. Enemy comps also get identified, helping newer players. Looks like the dev team found a way to raise the skill ceiling and lower the skill floor at the same time – bravo!

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The new researches will be interesting. I think I like it. I’m sure some tools will still whine endlessly that it isn’t hard enough, but I think this will help the issue with most missions where they just get easier as you go since Amon can’t keep up with your unit upgrades throughout the match. I am admittedly a little concerned that Hard difficulty will now be a much worse stepping stone for low-mid level players though, but I might be overreacting? Making Brutal harder I’m all for though. Just maybe have the research hit later in Hard.

I’m VERY excited about the new compositions - the more variety the better! Looking forwards to seeing what devious new shenanigans Amon unleashes upon us.

The callouts will be very helpful, especially with the new changes. I can remember the existing ones pretty well but there’s a few where I’m not really sure which it is until the second wave, after I should already have been building for it, so this should help a lot.

Overall really good looking changes.

In terms of requests - I’d like to see even more weird stuff in attack waves! Toned down versions of the mutator heroes would be great, or super hybrid. It also really makes me sad that lategame waves are often just like 10 BCs without any Lokis, or a ton of Carriers/Tempests with no Motherships. Shuttles is the only mission that really comes to mind as letting me fight super units on a regular basis.

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Always glad to hear from you, Kevin

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It is possible to play on Normal and even Casual… Levelling up that way diesn’t take too much longer.

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Awesome, much needed update. It was an absolute pain trying to figure out what protoss comps were what until midgame.

as for comps that would be interesting:
Speedy terran (marines, reapers, vultures, banshees, wraiths)
Seige zerg (lurkers, hosts, BL’s, Banes, corruptors)
Transformer terran (widow mines, tanks, hellions, liberators, vikings)

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Very nice.
I’m looking forward to new AI compositions. And I’m curious how Composition Callouts actually look ingame. There has been some UI added in the last patch, but it was clearly not finished.

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Did anyone else read this in Aurana’s voice?

Anyway, when should we expect “BRUTAL TOO HARD” threads?

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What a pleasant surprise. Honestly didn’t think we’d get a Brutal/Hard upgrade. Smart of the team to solve the Brutal+ and step up issues in one go.

Without seeing the real difference, it is hard to say how balanced these will be. Namely some upgrades will heavily favour compositions that are already considered harder.

Looking forward to experiencing a new coop game (for all intents and purposes).