Following idea are derived from Maguro’s Bile Launcher Proposals
Zagara has two units that still needs noticeable improvements; Corruptors (still needs development) and Bile Launcher.
In this article I am going to focus on Bile Launchers.
Link: https://youtu.be/E2QKodNwkHo
There are 3 things that I propose.
Bile Launchers should be carried with Overlords (Courtesy of Maguro)
Bile Launch can bombard enemies individually instead of targeting the same area (Courtesy of Maguro).
Has another ability Bombardment which attacks close quarters.
Bile Launcher can automatically attack close quarters (damage is 25 and range is 8 but splash area remain unchanged) but the attack will be cancelled when long range bombardment is in effect.
Bile launchers, strike fighters, and earth shatter ordnance. All sorta share a unique building type, being the “siege” or “artillery” buildings, you can count kaydarian monoliths and Tesseract monolithsas well if you want, but the range is much different, different topic but I wonder what a true protoss siege building would be not counter siege. But I see a few ways to improve them by either become more similar to or different from strike fighters and ESO. An idea I haven’t seen float around would be to, allow each launcher to improve infested drop. Either adding more units or impact dmg, or even allow them to be loaded and infested drop act like hot dropping in zags units. This would have shared DNA with mengks and H&H using these building to create their top bar, instead it empowers a heroic ability, or make bile launchers different, by Changing when it’s used. ESO and strike fighters are used to either weaken enemy fortifications, or out right obliterate them. Maybe give bile launchers the role of clean up instead, since zag is able to suicide and rebuild her forces more easily then most, bile launchers have a global range and acquire targets Automatically and does bonus dmg to targets missing half their health, units and structures that have already been damaged will get flattened much quicker, so it’s can do fire support durring the fight and after. Anything that survived will still die to a bombardment after the fight. Finally just make it a counter siege tower like tesseract or kaydarin monolith, it does AOE and can hit air, and has a long range make it longer then monolith or tesseract, but building in base won’t hit too far out. And again auto auto acquire targets. I don’t Think these are the most feasible or best changes just spitballing. If targeting is key to its identity then maybe give it some wya to move either overlord or root/uproot and make the bile share properties with banglings acid, so hitting yours or your allied units with a danger close shots heal like with regerative acid, or if you want to go crazy a mild wild mutation buff for 1-2 secondS if a friendly unit is hit, (maybe temporary 25 hp shield, and +1 armor and attack) where your encouraged to set up a bombardment before an engage, pop frenzy and watch as things dissapear even more.
Mmm… I don’t think that Bile Launchers need global range, but to have range that rivals even Mengsk’s upgraded ESOs would be a fine start. It would make them much more useful on certain maps.
I was thinking of mobile Bile Launchers carried by Overlords (Like maguro’s Idea).
Since overlords can still spill their creep, Bile Launchers can be rooted in that place and provide fire support/extra defence/sneak terror.
As for, giving Bile Launchers with ESO range could work but I would like to make Bile Launchers distinguishable on its own.
IMO, Bile Launcher’s main problem is effectiveness of utility and right now Bile Launchers are sort of clumsy and lacks versatility in its use. Maguro saw through this problem and I think that is why he proposed Overlord mobility as well as more effective bombardment options.
I’ll upload the demo soon to show my idea as best I can.
Well, Roach Drop do need improvement but I don’t think they should be linked with Bile Launchers. Both Strike Fighters and ESO are linked with top panel utility, I think it would be better to give its own ability and utility separate from other abilities.
Well I was thinking of mobile artillery where the Bile launcher can simply be moved/transported to attack their targets.
As a defensive structure (as it is meant to be) it is bit clunky and ineffective like Sky Furies. I want to give them better utility in them.
Regenerative Acid would be good, but if the creators skipped the ability even in the prestige, I think its safe to say they are not going to implement it.
Fair I just like spitballing ideas, the concepts are mostly to make it better by comparing to the most similar buildings, the siege/artillery buildings, and counter siege buildings. If it’s an aggressive building more shared with eso and fighters in my mind, if it’s a defensive building it’s counter siege like monoliths in my mind.
What if Bile Launchers can be built off creep and can generate their own creep? This would allow them to be built to weaken enemy defenses before an assault by Zagara
show area targeted when selected (like sieged liberators)
After that…
moving with Overlords does sound good.
I would improve their “area denial” function by replacing the “2x attack speed” upgrade with one that leaves a dot “bile cloud” in the area (10 dps for 7 seconds)
Allowing them to uproot and reposition would be great.
On a different thought, there are no “pure zerg” with advance defensive structure builds.
Zagara certainly has the room for a few more options.
With a few creative buffs to spine and spore crawlers it could make interesting tactic to have an advancing wall of defensive structures.
Well that would be nice, but enabling rooting and unrooting requires another custom model where the Bile Launcher have legs (along with animations). So carry by overlord would be the best solution for it.
I guess the range can be bumped a bit longer but I want to see the projectile travel +50% faster so they can actually hit something.
Overlords can spill creep while carrying, Bile Launcher making their creep isn’t that necessary.
Bile cloud is too similar to Mengsk’s Irradiated Shells from ESO.
And Bile Launcher will be disabled during transport, besides Mengsk’s siege already have this.
I don’t like the idea of being carried by overlords. No one ever researches that tech and BL are super niche right now anyways.
What I think might work is either limit them to 10 just like HnH platforms plus global hit area or giving them the uproot/root/deep tunnel skill.
It’s such a waste of a unit right now as BC were for Raynor in the past but now thanks to masteries and P perfectly viable. So they could receive the same love same with corruptors maybe the same skill as Amon’s that damage structures.
Really? I thought the uprooted zerg building model was the same.
Just some circular spike platform with some spiny legs.
Stukov’s building when uprooted use the same one.
Oh well, what do I know.
That I disagree with, the launcher seems meant as area denial ie you have to fire at the area to keep it clear. (given the small area, it might help to cut their gas cost a little.)
Maybe instead of a cloud, change the launcher from 75 damage/7 seconds (no upgrade) to 50 damage per 2.3 second (with upgrade)
Or just increase the area by 50% radius.
Bile Launchers imho should be similar to Mengsk Earthshatter Artillery.
Instead of salvaging perhaps Bile Launchers should have “deep tunnel” teleport and not require creep to be placed, so you can plop them in-front of enemy bases and soften up before charging in.
Upgraded Earthshatter Artillery has 75 range while current Bile Launcher has only 25, so that is another area that could use improvement.
OR make Bile Launchers autocast their Bile ability on nearby groups of enemies similar to how AI will cast psi-storm on a clump of units.
Allowing uproot is a very inelegant idea. This is because not only would it take much more work to redesign, there’s another huge issue to solve - mobility.
You can’t expect an uprooted Bile Launcher to run across the map as quickly as an army does. The reasonable speed would be similar to Sunken or Spore Crawlers, which I’m sure everyone knows how gruesomely painful they move off creep. This brings us to the same creep generation issue that placing Bile Launcher suffers from to begin with. Being carried by Overlord solves part of the mobility issue but definitely is a lot more work for the average player.
The easiest change would be to allow them to be built off creep, place-able on any path-able terrain. Whether they generate creep or not isn’t entirely necessary, although would be easier to allow its own survival.
I don’t agree with changing them beyond this point. Their design is very unique in their targeting, target population, projectile type and speed. Their damage is already very good. So I’d really like to just see them get tweaked that way and that way only. The re-allocation via Overload (by M and this proposal) aids in the resource manage portion of it. And it in no way interferes with being able to be built off creep.
If we could deep tunnel bile launcher than it could be used to siege enemy base - move it near ramp/defense line and start bombarding/weakening enemy. Building new launchers for every siege case would take too long.
Or if they reduce morph time we can bring workers with the army and insta build biles for bombardment. Would go well with P2 as the army is less disposable.
I tried to implement that as well but things got complicated.
Apparently those were done in separate model program like Zbrush, 3DS Max etc which I have no access of.
At that point my hands were tied.
Corruptors still need some improvements (P2 made them tolerable). I wish they would give corruption ability to corrupt buildings to attack or produce mind controlled enemies.
Bile Launchers have slow projectiles that tends to miss, they need to speed up a notch.
About cloud ability, I don’t think they should be implemented they are far too similar to Mengsk’s Contaminated Strike ability.
IMO, ESO is grossly OP because of their ridiculous range and beside I want to make Bile Launchers distinct with other structures.
But Deep teleport could be an answer but I think they should still need creep to be planted. Overlords are viable options with their spread creep ability.