A thread from Sprite? Who would’ve thought to see the day that’d happen again?
Anyhow, thread is pretty much self explanatory, the idea is to take any commander or their prestige(s) and give a “what if?” scenario for changes.
I’ll start: What if Abathur’s P3, The Limitless, was changed so that the downside wasn’t requiring double biomass, but that your Ultimate Evolutions no longer gained Symbiote? They would turn into normal, basic UEs that Amon has, but en masse.
I realised Abathur P3 can maybe be kind of good IF paired up with an ally that can use a third base. I got an Abathur P3 ally who single based while I was Artanis P2 and with the extra base I could easily max out on Tempests which made for a pretty unstoppable force of Brutalisks and Tempests (though maybe this still qualifies as a meme).
My suggestion:
Vorazun P2 Withering Siphon does not trigger Double Edge.
General change: Emergency Recall (for Vorazun but can include Zaratuls DTs) removes all debuffs (so Black Death doesn’t just immediately kill them again plus infect your whole mineral line).
Another suggestion:
H&H P3 Strike Fighters count as both Han and Horner units for the purpose of Significant Other, cost 150% the supply and refresh 150% as fast.
Okay all done!
Oh, it’s just that boring meaning 
I thought it would be something like I once thought, like a special alternative prestige that actually significant change the commander lore-wise, like putting Human Kerrigan in charge of Raynor army (in a scenario where she escaped to the Hyperion and Raynor died), Tosh in charge of Nova army, or who know what.
But it’s just another “what change(s) would you make to existing prestiges?” topic.
Swann in charge of most of the Protoss armies, so he can teach them how to use a damn wrench and fix their busted up robots.
Hey, your idea is just as valid here! There is no discrimination.
Though I’d have to wonder, if Kerrigan was the CO over Raynor’s army… Would she still be a hero-centric commander? Or would she be more passive like Raynor? (Not including Hyperion.)
It’d have to be Raynor as 3 different calldowns either as Marine, Vulture or Hyperion and Kerrigan as a hero unit Ghost. Disadvantage could be that you could either build nukes for Kerrigan or BCs but not both?
What about a “What if?” where Raynor died so Swann went all mad scientist offense, no defense and finally built those Predators and War Hounds and spent the whole time lamenting how bad a friend he was for letting Raynor die and if paired up with Raynor gets even more unhinged.
Swann p1: I like this prestige a lot. What if the lazer damage can be upgraded using armory, each upgrade give +5 damage up to 65 damage max. It is little but it will makes a difference.
Swann p2: what if we change the disadvantage from 30%+ vespene to 150 supply capped.
Nova p2: what if we reduce defense drone CD and let it hold more charges like 7. You can remove air strike.
HH p3: what if air strike platforms is capped at 20 but their significant other bonus is removed and their units do not drop resources when they are killed.
But then they’d have Terran ingenuity, and would no longer be Protoss 
Just give her an ability that has Zerg overrun the map and makes Mengsk instantly win the game (even if he wasn’t in the actual game) 
In all honesty, a single use ability that changes how a commander plays halfway through a game would be really neat though.
======== For a more genuine “whatif”…
Tychus P4/Drunken Hungover
(+) --If Tychus is recruited as the 4th outlaw, he comes with all (regular) gear
–If Tychus is recruited as the 5th outlaw, he comes with all gear including the Ultimate Gear
–2 outlaws are available from the 3-minute mark
–Both of those outlaws are free
(-) --Tychus may only be recruited as the 4th or 5th outlaw
–Recruiting Tychus costs (the usual) resources
======== more so actual tweaks…
–Karax - Nexus has Recall
Medium to Large AoE, affects buildings that have a build time of 0. Buildings are removed from the map, and player is refunded the resources that they cost.
Either make this into his baseline, or apply to his P1\
–HH P3
For SFP, reduce cd of attacks from 1 min. to 30s. Reduce cd of strike fighter repair from 2 min. to 45s or 1 min.
Terrans 101: Can’t assemble Ikea Furniture. Repairs intergalactic flying alien Spaceship powered by forcefields with same wrench and screwdriver.
My what ifs:
Stukov P2
Pros: The plagued munitions upgrade applies to diamondbacks, and libs. Volatile infested leave a plague cloud when they explode.
Cons: Brood Queens are not available.
I actually had an idea for an alternate Stukov UED theme prestige with a mostly terran tech tree.
However instead of an infested compound the player gets a drugged Overmind that releases zerglings, (later hydralisks as well after upgrades) with time lifed.
Instead of infested liberators the player gets valkyries. The UED medics would be really good and have unique upgrades.
Apokalisks can stay but the Alexander is non infested with different abilities.
I would have liked Artanis to have a Prestige that allowed Artanis on the field.
I am very much the same. The Artanis unit would be such a good compliment to the Spinlots.
Probably the most wished for prestige update, I’d say, would have been interesting.
I just want a real skytoss golden armada Artanis with a mothership, auir scouts, and maybe Carriers. How the Auir commander ended up with Tempest and both purifier commanders ended up with Carriers is beyond me, even if co op is only losely based on lore.
Or just change Artanis period so he’s more badass. I mean he’s supposed to the leader of the unified protoss and he’s got weakest max supply army dps in the game sans suicidal / 100 supply Zagara. His army also just dies easy without shield overcharge, even with guardian shell.
Don’t get me wrong he’s my favorite commander especially with P3. There should be a trade off to his macro simplicity. But he deserves more fire power.
Also … I always thought the Artanis hero unit should be added to P1. It fits with the idea of Artanis leading an elite group of protosss himself on the battlefield.
I just had a thought.
What if we have a P4 prestige for each CO
P4 Prestige for Swann would be call “Immortal Engineering”
Advantage: All of Swann’s combat units have access to immortal protocol. Using immortal Protocol will cost 50% less resource.
Disadvantage: ARES Bots are not available OR Swann’s statics are not available (this feels like Karax’s P2).
Why not simply just allow the previously mentioned asset swap, such as Kerrigan (hero) to be exchanged for Raynor’s top bars. The result would be Kerrigan leading a bunch of bio, and vice versa of Hyperion with Hydras.
Even though it’s all a ‘what if’, this would require next to 0 new creation. The existing permutation would be quite varied and numerous already, given the 18 COs. All that is likely needed is some tweaks of values. No true balance is needed cuz well… since when is coop balanced amirite?
What If Sc2 wasn’t life supported in search of higher profits, and the game was made to be fun and enjoyable, and be a game the developers wanted to make?
Would there have been more fun commanders everyone wanted, the classic mentioned names, all that fun jazz.
Would WoW have continued to have it’s glory years with years of gamebreaking revolution and continuing the carry on the momentum as a 10M++ sub game with household recognition vs going into a 10M → 1M milking mode?
What if sc2 coop was a third person fantasy game that was still being developed i could only buy once and own forever. By a company that wouldn’t see a one time purchase as a buy once and bail undeveloped Warcraft reforged…
But wait… Hear me out… What if blizzard completely stopped support of buy once and own forever games… And then just… Copied ideas from the competitors you buy once and own forever like Gw2, then fired all their qa staff to meet stockholder bonuses…
And then… Slowly copied other game ideas or had their own original sc2 developers leave. to start a new game studio like frost giant?
Wouldn’t you just love the privilege of paying 60$ + 200$ a year in WoW to experience the same content as 15-100$ buy and own forever, BUT without physics simulations, less graphics than another 10 year old still great looking game.
And everyone’s favorite yearly WoW content… A empty world with 1 single daily rep quest repeated 40 times while all past content simultaneously is obsoleted so there’s nothing to do, but they don’t want to develop new content either so you pay a 15$ a month sub fee to fund the wow development cycle of “no new content for 1 year?”
(Sigh)
Clearly, Blizzard could have had lots of potential and clung onto it’s 10-20 years ago “King of games” titles. But as long as Sc2 is kinda… In Life support mode and WoW in milking mode. Sometimes i feel like these fourms are just teases. What if there was a hero raynor with the WOL merc compound with all WOL merc units like the Jackson revenge.
Like Nova, but WOL, with his sniper rifles and a normal army + merc army able to build any tech tree while recruiting mercs like the jackson’s revenge bc and Siege breakers and Odins and Thors from the merc compound as a P4?
Oh… IT Would take too much potential development from the characters who never LIVED until sc2 was already life supported?… Shucks.
I guess we won’t ever know what a Ultimus Prime / Ultimate developed version of sc2 coop could have ever looked like. Maybe past glimpses of the arcade mods and nexus coop.
Myself as well. I kinda wonder where a Guild wars 2 that hadn’t botched it’s advertising to be 1/10th the mainstream pop could be.
I tried it on release, played 10 other mmorpgs that died. Went back to gw2. Got a 9 year old birthday present and found out it had 3 expansions developed and tons of content the whole time… And was told. "*Oh… You literally bought gw2… and then never even heard of it ONCE until 9 years later? Didn’t you hear about the gas station cup or our 50-100k view videos.
Our advertising for gw2 is so great, the head of advertising only died 9 years ago and tried to sell a mmorpg as a horror game!" 
So i’ve been having a blast playing it. But when thinking about Sc2, all i can kinda feel like is the unmet potential.
The only thing you can kinda do is dream of unmet potential that was never achieved since a buy once, bail on development model Vs gw2 model. They never reached Corporate buyout success. So somehow, people just kept making whatever the crap they felt like. For some odd reason. They just decided they’d develop a fun mmorpg f2p 1-80 while all their peers were 1-20… and then… … Never advertise it… even once.
And become allergic to advertising. Then they’d model random models of their pet bunnies and nerf a couple classes who yelled at them in pvp. 
.
But Gw2 kinda a funny example of a game that… Well. Gave it’s developers enough room to make what they wanted to make. And then they decided they’d make fun and diverse games, f2p 1-80. Cosmetic supported buy once model with no 0$ sub fee and 15$ buy once and own forever for POF/HOT… Then… They’d sell cosmetic cat skins for 20$ over a 105$ for 3 months of wow (60$ + 45$). And people yell at them for that. Even though it’s one of the few successful 1-80 mmorpgs with releasing content that gets funded off a mostly cosmetic only cash shop.
Thing is, while other games still nurture, a buy once, own forever model. Corporate stockholders Blizzard activision is like the exact opposite. The only thing blizzard likes to do with buy once models and pre order money. Is run off with the money and skip on development instead of finishing the game. Sc2 got it better too than Wc3 reforged (and the players who were BANNED for showing others legal refund policies). But Wc3 reforged was dumped for a quarterly profit surge and people getting the game they were sold would have dipped into return per investments earnings! (Make a game… developed for as CHEAP as possible, to sell AS much as possible. and then bail on the consumer)
There’s lots of What ifs, there’s lots of games that are still fun to play being developed that aren’t sc2 but still have their own problems.
Gw2 has 1-80 f2p and for 15$ you can actually play the game for life vs WoW but is absolutely stuck in a “I want to be special… 10 years ago” mode where it’s stuck to decisions that were revolutionary (10 years AGO) like stat pickable gear before wow personal loot. (Then never using the system again and purposely denying specific stat combos from being even obtainable lol. )
But there’s like… lots of good games out there. And to be sure yeah, Sc2 and Blizzard started with so much development, so much passion.
As commonly mentioned, if Sc2 had ever made it before life supporting. I would have killed for maybe a Hero commander Raynor with a mech compound + main army, maybe a dark archon commander like the Coop arcades.
Who could have a dark archon hero unit commander with power oversurges to explode his enemies, mind control entire armies. and use his energy as a resource using his enemies to attack themselves and use mind control +hero support as a MAIN ARMY tactic instead of memey vorazun play.
I could have killed for a epic WoW experience like Gw2 that continued to innovate, fun mounts, f2p lvl 1-60 to classic (when 60-80 was tbc/WOTLK), etc.
But all that’s kinda left is. a corporate shell milking a old ip and i don’t mean to be doom and gloom but realistic about it. The problem about Sc2 is modern blizzard isn’t the right company to care about a buy once, play forever model.
And RTS isn’t the right model to sell 1000-8000$ credit card swiping, casual spending crowds without selling p2w units and wallet throws only. I hope frost giant makes it, but. if i had to risk 1000$ on a gaming company doing the right thing. My money would be faster gone with modern ActiBlizz or EA today than the Blizz of 10-20 years ago.
Plus, other game developers are actually pretty good nowadays anyways so there’s not much you’re missing anyways playing gw2 over Wow at all.