So I’ve been working on this for about a week now to get the mechanics right, and I think it is finally ready for testing. The main extension that this mod provides is that it reworks Microbial Shroud so it functions effectively like Dark Swarm from Brood War, namely that ground units under the cloud are protected from ranged attacks, which will largely miss and do very little damage (it will do fractional damage for some reason, but this is a nice side-effect because it still allows you to damage the enemy if you focus-fire and don’t have anything that can defeat the shroud).
Some things to note:
- Hit-scan and ranged attacks will do almost zero damage to units inside the shroud.
- Air units, Massive units and structures are not protected and will take full damage.
- Splash damage is not affected (this includes the Planetary Fortress), although Lurker attacks will miss.
- Spells are not affected, so Widow Mine Sentinel Missiles and Cyclone Lock-On, for example, will do full damage.
- Some units, like the Hydralisk, have a different animation if they attack at melee range - much like how it circumvents Guardian Shield, this will do full damage.
- All units, regardless of alliance, can take advantage of the Microbial Shroud, so it can be used against you if you’re not careful.
Currently the energy cost is still 75, although given how much utility this spell now has (e.g. it is very effective against bio), the cost may need to be increased to 100 at a later stage.
Additionally, so that there is something for everyone, both Terran and Protoss have a couple of new additions to test alongside this change:
Terran
- Vikings in walker mode can now be built at the Factory - requires Starport.
Zerg
- Microbial Shroud reworked to protect against all ranged attacks.
Protoss
- Interceptors returning to the Carrier now get repaired.
- You can now forcibly recall a Carrier’s Interceptors with the ability “Recall Interceptors” - this will cause the Interceptors to abort their attack and return to the Carrier, although depending on the Carrier’s current command (e.g. Attack-Moving), they may immediately redeploy.
The idea behind “Recall Interceptors” is that you can use the ability to, for example, avoid Widow Mines or attempt to save them if they get ensnared with Fungal Growth.
Mod is named “Dark Swarm-style Microbial Shroud” and is available on the US and EU servers. Testing and feedback very welcome.
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Not able to get online right now, what’s the interaction with fungal itself, from what you’ve put sounds like the cast works if they/the carrier are fungal’d? Do the interceptors return slowly? Just curious.
Good job on making a mod though! You deserve props for that.
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The Interceptors are treated as separate units, so if the Carrier gets Fungal’d, its Interceptors may still attack at full speed - similarly, when a group of Interceptors get Fungal’d, some of them may not get hit by the spell and the Carrier itself will be fine unless it was also in range of the spell.
As for recalling Fungal’d Interceptors, yes, they will return slowly until it wears off, but it would at least increase the chance of saving them, since once they make it inside the Carrier, they are fully restored and, I believe, stripped of negative effects like Fungal Growth.
Getting “Recall Interceptors” to work properly was the biggest delay in this mod because it was difficult to find a group of effects that functioned as intended - often, the Interceptors would immediately acquire a new target and continue attacking, so I had to forcibly forbid them from attacking until they made it to the Carrier.
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Wow that is a useful spell, but unfortunately too op
I did sense that might be the case. Do you have any test games where this is definitely confirmed? Depending on feedback, I am thinking about increasing the energy to 100, especially as then it would require either having some Infestors hanging around doing nothing for a while, or building two Infestation Pits in order to research both Pathogen Glands and Microbial Shroud at the same time.
Just theorycrafting, but remember that melee, spell and splash damage will still break through, so it can be countered with Chargelot/Archon, Colossi, Disruptors and Psionic Storm for Protoss, while all mech units except the Thor aren’t really affected by it. For a bio Terran player, I would say a good tell would be seeing the build-up of Infestors or 2 Infestation Pits, giving time to build Ghosts for EMP or more Widow Mines or Siege Tanks.
Of course I could be trying too hard!
I will admit that the Terran addition was a bit of an afterthought - it was mostly the Carrier micro and Dark Swarm-like Microbial Shroud I wanted to test out in practice - but I wanted to give something to every race to everyone has a reason to test it out so it’s not all just PvZ etc.
Hey nice work. For the Shroud I would try 50% from all range and remove upgrade requirement. I would also give lurkers full damage inside of the Shroud.
This will give people a chance and reason to actually try this spell. The reason why is so powerful in BW is because you can consume, and lasts 3+ times longer, so is pretty toned down.
On the flip side you have much larger engagements in StarCraft II and Infestors hit earlier than Defilers. 50% reduction seems like less of a reason to try it out over 100% reduction.
Both the Zerg and Protoss changes are fairly late-game admittedly, but more than anything I want to see how it interacts with Zerg vs bio, since bio cannot fight under the cloud and will have to reposition or use splash damage units.
I meant for the upgrade requirement, since this spell is so situational. Still from 0 to 50 seems like a fair starting point to me.
Ah, I do see what you mean… if they have Microbial Shroud from the off, they’re more likely to use it since it’s readily-available, although with only 50% damage reduction, I would ask why they would use it over Fungal Growth - I guess experimentation will show. Admittedly I rather wait for a few reports from playtesting before I change up anything, unless there’s something drastically wrong.
And there are some things that are questionable, like I think even if a Marauder’s attack is negated, the slow effect of the Concussive Shell still works.
I might have found a bug, but can’t confirm it yet due to a very particular set-up (the Planetary Fortress may behave a bit strangely when firing into a Microbial Shroud).
In other news, I’m wondering if I should develop a new Terran ability partly so bio has a more direct answer to Microbial Shroud, namely a new Medivac spell called Decontaminate: [Suggestion] Medivac ability: Decontaminate
One thing at a time though.
I have another question to ask… if this new Microbial Shroud would be accepted, does something else need to be changed, and if so, what?
EMP radius…
But I think if I can change my strategy to try VS open. I will get the answer. Because carriers are pretty good. Good.
It’s a pretty good job. That’s what I want.
About balance PVT, sorry I don’t find grandmaster friends, I need more time. My level is too high for my Terran friends who have free time now, it’s not good for the test.
About balance PVZ, I will give you some replays tonight. ( If I don’t feel tired…but I will give you, I will give you.)
And I can tell you how to handle these new carriers in my mind. ( It’s really good! Make carriers flexible for me!)
This is my army formation: https://i.imgur.com/S55hip0.png
The first formation, handle mothership skill and main force army ( I don’t use TAB because it makes my handle slowly )
The second formation, handle high templars to counter marines, banelings, and soon…( baneling is fast, so I never use TAB)
the third formation, handle my warp prism to find chance warp zealot to make multiline-attack. Multiline-attack is that I favorite in starcraft 2.
the fourth formation, make probes and use Chrono( I really don’t like it)
the fifth formation chose carriers to take back my interceptors. ( pretty good job)
Sixth formations, structures include Machinery factory and star harbor. I need to make more immortal if my phoenix or Oracle find my opponents try to attack me by many many roaches. A few seconds is very important to me, It will determine whether I can defend or not.
Seventh formations, handle my Oracle to counter lurkers and locate opponent main force army.
Eighth formations, handle my phoenix to scout ‘whether’ Zerg has a spire, I need to make more phoenix or no(to counter mutalisk). And kill Zerg overload because I don’t want him to know when I try to push.
Ninth formations, upgrade my air weapon level and armor level. A few seconds is important again. ( When you listen: upgrade completed, you should press them and watch the top right corner of your screen. (Resource panel.) Try to use less time to deploy your resource, start next upgrade. You must think about what army I need, if I do it, I will lose? Do I need to warp more stalkers? or chose to upgrade the weapon level?
Zero formation, the same to nine formations. The same to nine formations too.
That’s what I think when I play starcraft 2. Why I think your job is good because I can handle my carriers when I fell my interceptors needs to repair. Or I can escape from a fight as soon as possible. It’s important. Because I play starcraft 2, not Warhammer…(Bad handle experience)
And it’s for grandmaster and master!!! Not for diamond!!! Don’t think about like this when you consider how to balance diamond group or lower level!!! Dont!!! They will died!!! They will want to die!!! Just like if you consider me as well as Stats,showtime or zest, I will die too.
Now…I fear you consider balance diamond level or lower level like this…It’s… It’s not good…not good… trust me…not good…ridiculous!
You can consider other players, I need more friends, I’m OK. When I can’t win, I can play other games and wait pro player give me new strategy.
I get the impression that the Carrier’s ability to recall its interceptors in this mod is more exciting than the Microbial Shroud rework! Still, that’s not a bad thing - it’s a relatively straightforward buff that doesn’t offer too much at the lower leagues but might pay dividends in the higher leagues.
Yes. Glad to see you understand. Nice~Ah~~That set my mind at ease.
Thinking a bit more deeply, I think one of the biggest problems is when one would use Microbial Shroud over the Infestor’s other abilities. If Microbial Shroud was readily available on the Infestor, it still wouldn’t really be used in its half-damage incarnation over Fungal Growth, especially if the opponent simply doesn’t build air units or instead only uses them in a supportive role (e.g. Medivacs, Vikings, Ravens, Overseers, Corruptors, Vipers, Oracles (mostly for Revelation) or Phoenixes), and would likely be too powerful in my upgraded form, even if it costs 100 energy, since it will virtually hard-counter mid-game bio. In the late-game, if you’re facing Battlecruisers or Carriers, then Neural Parasite is generally a better option. Even with my upgraded form that might still be the case in most instances, except maybe when you’re being attacked by a large armada and you’re fairly infested in Hydralisks, then it would be more cost-effective to use the full damage-reduction Microbial Shroud. It depends what playtesting says with this extension mod and if Blizzard takes interest or not.
The thing is you don’t need to choose over Fungal or Shroud, you can use both at the same time, you could even be using Neural from inside in the late game.
Just feel tired. I will check it tomorrow.
True, that is a good point… 200-energy Infestor… 75 energy for Microbial Shroud, then 125 for Neural Parasite under the cloud would be a very nice combination. Of course, if it were 100 energy you would need a second Infestor. The only tricky thing is the amount of research required at the Infestation Pit, but given it only costs 100/100 and builds relatively quickly, it might be one of those cases where morphing two of the things is beneficial.
The question remains though… just how powerful is this modified Microbial Shroud? I suppose I’m pushing a bit because I put thought and work into this and the Carrier micro changes in the same mod, and I hope they are sensible, interesting and simple enough that Blizzard and high-level players would take interest.