So…Raynor but with a perm hero seige tank instead of a bc and dusk wing cooldowns?
If Raynor had access to the rest of the Terran tech tree, including Thors, Ghosts, nuclear missiles, Cyclones, Liberators, etc… then sure, Raynor with a permanent Hero Siege Tank. Haha~
Nukes would be completely broken in co op - maybe if they were prohibitively expensive or something. But one of vanilla Nova’s big cooldowns is a nuke that works awfully similarly to classic or versus nukes. Having that on repeat, costing trivial amounts of resources and no cooldown, would be insane.
Alternatively - the AI is modified to defend against nukes. This doesn’t sound terribly viable, though.
I’m still not very intrigued, honestly. For one thing the direction of co op design has been to get more “gimmicky,” or having a distinct commander style, not less. This type of commander would be awfully flat by comparison. For another, why would someone play this? There are already several macro-heavy commanders with a lot more to offer than a single cool unit. Also, lacking a bag of tricks would make it suck for mutations.
Logically, Tosh, Valerian and Selendis.
But honestly Tosh = Nova, Valerian = Mengsk and Selendis = Artanis. So if they don’t do something new and original it might be boring.
I would prefer something new and original like Space Orcs.
The overmind is my favorite character in Starcraft but then again… what new units could he have? I’m not sure.
Also Valkyries never made it to the game which is a shame.
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The nukes aren’t quite THAT comparable in power. Nova’s nuke deals like 600 flat damage across the board in a large radius after 4 seconds, while standard issues nukes deal 300 (+200 vs Structure) with damage drop-off from the epicenter, and take at least over 10 seconds to land, making them easier to be interrupted if the targeting Ghost is killed, while costing 100/100 resources a missile to build.
And… to each their own. Perhaps having a Versus-style commander doesn’t appeal to you, but the topic does get brought up from time to time, as there are people who do enjoy pondering such a concept. I love the idea of having full access to the Terran tech tree, something we still have yet to be able to do in Coop, and I believe with the proper implementation, it could work quite well.
Commanders aren’t balanced with mutations in mind, so that concern doesn’t really matter. Some mutators will affect certain COs more than other, regardless or who or what they add next in the game.
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Mengsk already has buildable nuke silos which cost 150 minerals and 50 gas
However the AoE is small and the channeling cast time removal upgrade is placed at level 14
So talking about nuke commanders, Mengsk would be it. I had a game where I had 86 nukes in store waiting to unleash on hybrids
How many?
11 charact
Umm a lot.
Terran-Tosh, Hanson, Valerian, Warfield, Duke, DuGall, Hill, Kate, Donny, Orlon, Rigel, Davis
Protoss-Salendis, Tassadar, Alderis, Rashigal, Urun, Mohondar, Rohana, Fenix (Brood War), Malash, Talis, Ji’nara
Zerg-Overmind, Zurvan, Niadra, Brakk, Naktul, Nafash Daggoth and Zazs if they were able to do cerebrates again somehow.
I doubt we’d get all of them.
I’m thinking (if we get lucky and Blizzard is generous) we’d get 4 Commanders per Race left.
I think they front runner (at this point) would be Selendis. I hope she gets something really interesting and unique! Maybe a new mechanic that Protoss doesn’t have yet?
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A Chameleon/Shang Tsung/Echo type commander would be interesting. Probably best to have a Xel’naga for that though (Narud?)
I hope we see:
Terran-
Tosh: (reapers, spectres, medivacs, predators, widow mines, sensor tower, Diamondbacks, wraiths, pirate ship (model from co-op mission bonus obj) Tosh hero unit)
Warfield: (marines, firebats/marauder combo unit, Warhounds, non-siege mobile battletanks, Heavy bunkers, Planetary fortress w/bombard, valkyries, Gorgon)
Zerg:
Niadra- psi-zerg (Corpser roaches, impalers, and other neato stuff)
Overmind- sc1 style zerg (zerglings, hydralisks, infested terran, lurkers, defilers, Ultralisks, overlords (that detect), sunken colonies, nydus canal, mutalisks, devourers, guardians, scourge, queens)
Protoss (i’ve given less thought to these):
Selendis- (Mothership hero unit, non-purifier adepts, sentry, Tempests, Scouts, arbiter, Avenger (with more interesting abilities), time bubble calldown, pylon field support aura
Ji’nara- air + infantry (tal’darim: zealots, reavers, carriers, some kind of ascendant variant that can do a dark archon type thing, oracle, Blood hunters with new abilities), pylon + troop calldown, aoe stun calldown.
Big hype on Tosh, but forget about Widow Mines. Give him Shredders instead. He’s the prefect opportunity to bring back that cut beta unit back. Those are zone control mines that generate damaging fields of energy when they burrow that shred units that walk into them.
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Your Selendis list seems… lacking. Aside from the Mothership; not much there would sell the Commander. Selendis needs something no other Protoss Commander has. Maybe units like Mengsk got or a whole new mechanic.
I’d like to see three SC1/BW commanders announced together as a nostalgia fill-up.
Aldaris: Specializes in Zealots, Dragoons, Reavers, Observers, Scouts, Carriers, and Arbiters. Can summon the tribes of the Protoss to aid him as calldowns like Zeratul’s C1 - Akilae (Zealots, summons more with a Talent), Velari (Dragoons, includes Reavers with a Talent), Shelak (High Templar, includes Archons with a Talent), Auriga (Scouts, includes Carriers with a Talent). His units gain passive buffs when fighting within or shortly after leaving a power field, and his Arbiters can be upgraded to project a power field around them. Aldaris brings pure aggression, constantly reinforcing armies with warp-ins and calldowns to crush enemies with the pride and might of the Empire.
DuGalle: Specializes in Marines, Medics, Goliaths, Siege Tanks, Wraiths, Dropships, Valkyries, and Battlecruisers. His Bunkers come with built-in Missile Turrets and increased health. His Medics have a variant of Restore that removes stun and slow effects in an area of effect and protects units from them for a period of time after. Can build Sensor Towers that spot in the fog of war and act as Detectors, with a Talent Sensor Towers give attack bonuses to allied units fighting in their radius. His Goliaths, Wraiths, Valkyries, and Battlecruisers can be upgraded to be able to attack while moving, and his ships can use Tac-Jump. DuGalle is about mobility and choosing the right time and place to strike the enemy and deal crippling damage.
Overmind: Specializes in Zerglings, Hydralisks, Brood Queens (act as Detectors, he has no Overseers), Mutalisks, Guardians, and Ultralisks (can walk over smaller units). The Overmind is a unique structure with the starting base that passively damages enemies in a radius around it, and the player can command its calldowns from there or the top bar (Psionic Tempest (Psi Storm but better, Wild Mutation (like in the campaign but bigger radius), Apocalypse (like in the campaign)). The Overmind can individually upgrade his Zerg to their elite strands - Devouring One (has a Charge-like effect when attacking, recovers HP when dealing damage), Hunter Killer (poison barbs to deal damage over time), Matriarch (higher energy regen and vision radius), Kukulza (Mutalisk attacks deal bonus damage to light, Guardian attacks sap armor), and Torrasque (increased armor and life regen). When the Overmind’s evolved units are killed, 25% of their cost is refunded. The Overmind is about evolving reacting to the enemy’s actions by mutating the right strains for the attack and empowering them to ensure they emerge victorious.
I don’t have a lot of specific suggestions (beyond that slelendis pretty much needs adepts- I mean, they literally scream ‘For Selendis!’ as they attack!- and should probably get motherships) but one of the bigger coop limitations the devs have talked a bit about is that they prefer using pre-existing cinematic models, rather than going through all the effort to make new ones for characters. Out of those we’ve got a decently limited selection left, but solely sc2 characters (except for Tassadar, who’s got a full cinematic model that shows up in the epilogue, even if it’s sort of just his heroes of the storm model polygoned-up).
In my case for Kate Lockwell, she has a reporting mechanic that’ll draw the attention of other COs NOT in play. Don’t have any details on balancing all of that out, other than make sure all of the “general areas” are covered: AoE, high DPS ground, anti-swarmy, mobile detection, AA, healing/support, towers, etc.