Really. I’m curious to try and understand him and to why he thinks the way he does. I have an idea, but it’s based on a lot of assumptions that may be incorrect.
So I’m extending the benefit of the doubt.
I’m typing on a desktop right now so I can articulate myself better.
Now that I am able to think calmly, I realize what an abject jerk I have been. It was deeply unfair of me to project onto you my own emotional turmoil. For that I apologize.
I don’t expect you to forgive me and I don’t ask forgiveness either. If it’s all the same to you, I think you would be happier not engaging with me at all. If at some unspecified point in the future your dislike has lessened, then I would be happy to discuss with you.
Until then, we’re probably both better off not talking.
Happy trails.
Video game stories in general struggle. I think Planescape: Torment and The Song of Saya are good, but that might be cheating since they’re both visual novels.
I think the Command & Conquer series does a better job of telling military scifi stories than StarCraft does. It has character dynamics and weird physics, but it doesn’t the same reliance on plot devices since every side has its POV presented and their actions make sense in context. At least until that nonsensical ending that killed the franchise.
I haven’t published any critiques or fiction. A won an award in my youth that I don’t really remember, but since then I’ve struggled immensely with writing. I’m overcome with bitterness and resentment.
I got into StarCraft when I was very young, twenty years ago. As I have matured so have my tastes. I have found memories of StarCraft but analyzing the story now I realize how mediocre it is. Not only that, but its quality of storytelling has not matured with my tastes.
Sure, SC1 has a few oddities like its over reliance on plot devices rather than more nuanced explorations of getting from point A to point B, but it’s serviceable. The space fantasy elements are fairly minor and episode 1 still qualifies as military scifi aside from the plot devices. Then when Phinney left everything gets pretty silly.
When I tried to talk with other about my concerns and desire for improvement… things didn’t go well. Adult life has already filled me with bitterness and resentment, so these failed discussions only made me more contemptuous of the StarCraft fandom. I didn’t have alternatives: the tyranids are void of personality, so they didn’t interest me like the zerg did.
So I tend to get overwhelmed during discussions and fall prey to my baser nature.
I’m sorry for taking that out on you. You deserve better, dude.
I apologize, but I don’t expect forgiveness. I don’t deserve any.
I thank you for your charity. What assumptions do you have so far? I’d be happy to dispel any illusions.
Anyway, here is a detailed analysis of the psi-emitter plot device that I previously promised a couple of days ago. Although I discuss in-universe justifications, I am more concerned with author intent. This ultimately boils down to opinion, I suppose.
I take issue with the psi-emitter as a plot device. The psi-emitter broadcasts a signal that lures zerg to it, being created specifically to facilitate “zerg terrorism.” It feels underutilized and underexploited as a storytelling tool.
If the psi-emitter attracts zerg regardless of their intentions, then that constitutes a flaw in the zerg’s telepathy protocols that may be exploited by their enemies. For example, in StarGate SG-1 a similar ploy is used against the replicators in order to lure them into a trap where they are destroyed. However, the psi-emitter is never used in a similar fashion against the zerg. There are numerous mechanisms in the lore that may be used to destroy the zerg after attracting them to a psi-emitter: a malfunctioning terran terraforming device may destroy the planet (I was confused by this but it does exist in the lore), psi-destroyers may be deployed around the area, the planet may be bombarded from orbit, etc. Likewise, the zerg never perceive it as a flaw and devise countermeasures. You could devise in-universe explanations until the cows come home, but that ignores the real reason why this plot device is flawed: a psychic arms race like that offers many potentially interesting storytelling avenues, but it is ultimately never explored because the author isn’t interested in that.
Since the psi-emitter was never used to trap and destroy zerg this way, some fans assumed that the zerg were following it deliberately rather than involuntarily. This is because the manual stated that the zerg invaded Koprulu specifically to assimilate terrans for their psychic potential for use against the protoss. However, this explanation presents its own flaws.
Firstly, the zerg’s invasion of the sector to harvest terrans for their psychic potential has been retconned. The zerg were in the sector to infest Kerry so she could kill Amon as foretold in the prophecy that the Overmind and Ouros made millions of years ago. Although I can’t find any explanation of how they were able to do this (I won’t criticize it since many others already have and it’s tangential to my point), it stands to reason that a xel’naga deliberately planted Kerry in Koprulu a short distance from Aiur so she could be infested there. The sheer improbability of her frankly Mary Sueish biography can only be explained sensibly (and not as simple author favoritism) if she was an engineered weapon the whole time.
Secondly, even without that retcon, the amount of effort the zerg spent to capture Kerry specifically clearly feels like the writer fudged it so that Kerry could be the zerg’s messiah. This doesn’t feel appropriate for the zerg storywise, whose shtick is that they consume whole species and worlds rather than hunt for individuals. You could claim that ghosts (and not Kerry specifically) warrant special attention because they are the most powerful terran psychics, to the degree that in the licensed campaign Insurrection infesting a deranged ghost caused his madness to infect an entire zerg brood. However, that is even stronger evidence against following the psi-emitter making sense as a plan. It makes far more sense for the zerg to siege ghost academies specifically, like that on Tarsonis, since the Confederacy already went to the effort of concentrating the most useful psychics. The zerg were in the sector for at least a decade prior to the war being studied by the Confederacy, so the zerg should have gathered enough intelligence to find some ghost academies… assuming their overlords can’t just detect the clustered psychic waves from orbit or something. In fact, you could argue that Mengsk should just wait for the zerg to siege the ghost academy on their own before making his coup. The zerg will almost certainly target the Confederate government in the crossfire, so all the SoK need to do is ensure that nothing interferes. The SoK never needed to deploy psi-emitters themselves.
Thirdly, this explanation ignores things like logistics and author intent. Here the zerg are presented as a plot device, having arbitrarily infinite resources so that they can serve the pre-planned role in Mengsk’s rise to power. After that, they leave the sector because their narrative function has been fulfilled. I don’t find this narrative satisfying. In my opinion, the zerg taking Kerry/the Ghost Academy/whatever and then leaving doesn’t result in an interesting story. I think it would be more interesting to explore if the zerg were invading the sector in an attempt to assimilate (and essentially exterminate) the entire human race, not just a couple individuals. That fits their shtick of consuming worlds and species, and justifies indefinite conflict with the terrans that doesn’t require Kerry or another slavemaster to contrive conflict. Indeed, I think it would make sense to redefine the “determinant” that makes the terrans so appetizing from undefined psychic power to general transhumanism and material sciences, among other things the zerg could study and analyze for biological applications of their own. Or, if you prefer, the terrans are simply in the way due to sheer bad luck… but as storytelling tools go I find that option uninteresting and wasteful.
You can try justifying this with in-universe justifications until the cows come home, but that’s not really my point. The way the psi-emitter is used by the author feels like wasted opportunities, since we all know it is just a plot device for Mengsk’s benefit and Metzen never cared about its potential implications on the world building. Metzen never cared about building a living breathing world beyond his Mary Sues.
This and other concerns with the canon storytelling led me to try writing my own adjustment of the setting. I’m not the first to try that, being preceded by and heavily influenced by ToxicDefiler’s old thread. TD still has me massively outclassed in that department.
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Very cool. I’ve heard nothing but fantastic things regarding Planescape: Torment, though I’ve never played it. As I understand it, it’s a true classic.
I personally never liked the Command & Conquer series and storylines. I tried to get into them back in the day, but gameplay-wise I found I preferred Blizzard Entertainment’s RTSes, and story-wise, I found the live action cutscenes far too over the top and poorly done for my personal tastes.
I also got into StarCraft at the original game’s launch, though I was just short of adulthood at the time.
In terms of franchises and one’s perspective on things as they grow older, sometimes things that were great at one point in life loose their luster when you’re older as your own values and perceptions have changed. That doesn’t mean you can’t still look back on them fondly for what they were at the time, but they do belong in that moment of time.
Without turning this post into a medical discussion, I suspected you were dealing with bitterness and anger issues and projecting that onto here, this forum. I also suspected possibly autism with the level or detail you were obsessing with.
Regardless, you are expressing personal issues that you’re dealing with, and I do hope that you’re able to find the resources and professional assistance to aid you over time.
O7
Youre at least sincere, which is better than certain other posters over in the General Discussion forums. Im almost always willing to chat with somebody honestly attempting to reach a mutual understanding of views. As much as I snarked about it earlier, if you legitimately feel like you need to fill the entire character limit to properly express your views, do what you gotta do. I am far less bothered by somebody being verbose than when I perceive somebody to be deliberately unclear or foolish.
Well, it does occur, to a point. I promise you, you aren’t the only one to think about the implications of these. We don’t see it happen just across StarCraft 1 because events move too fast for anybody to really take advantage of it, but over the course of the games, books, etc, it does show up. Just across SC1 and BW, the Confederacy was heavily experimenting with messing with the hive mind in various ways, which is where the Psi Disruptor came from, except the zerg happened before they could properly deploy or further develop the tech. Later in SC2, we do indeed see the psi destroyer used to completely control areas that they know the zerg are going to enter, and in evolution they describe the emitters as useful for luring the zerg into traps. Its slow, but there is indeed a progression of the terrans in particular attacking the hive mind for all its worth, and Kerrigan even knows this. The primal zerg were specifically harnessed as a countermeasure to this, and Evolution shows Abathur tentatively working with disconnecting zerg from the hive mind and issuing them orders via audio, but runs into considerable logistical difficulty in doing so.
I feel like you are greatly overestimating the amount of importance that Kerrigan had on the overall zerg story in SC1. She’s there to act as a weapon against the protoss. She does so, the Overmind is happy, he moves on with his goals. She gets special treatment from the Overmind to a point because her job is important, but as a character, her personality and uniqueness from the zerg is actually to their detriment, as her very human reactions allow Tassadar to goad her into making mistakes that the cerebrates would not.
But if you replace humanity with the protoss, that is their goal. The fact that Kerrigan opened a path to this greater goal is exactly why the Overmind left the sector. Humanity is a means to an end for the zerg, and then what they were ultimately after suddenly fell into their lap. If Kerrigan hadn’t been enough, the Overmind would certainly have continued to attack the terrans until he found more like her, but he lucked out.
Honestly, this seems like a stance looking for a justification to me. First off, the personal attacks on Metzen are uncalled for. The man had his flaws as a writer, but part of the reason the team worked so well in SC1 is that he had his strengths as well.
Secondly, anything that is important to the plot but isn’t a character is a plot device. The terran civil war? Plot device. The Khala? plot device. The hive mind? Ditto. That doesn’t make it bad, its literally what plots are made of. And to the extend that it did what the writers wanted it to… yes, that’s how writing works. Obviously its not going to work in some way they don’t want it to, they have complete control over every aspect of the universe. What I think youre trying to say is that its contrived, and I don’t really see it. I think the connection between ghosts, zerg and the protoss was established decently well between the game and the manual. If the characters focus on different goals than you would have, that just means theyre actual characters and not all just puppets for a single intelligence.
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It’s not a joke. You’re missing a point.
Brother, that’s all you need here to thrive. If you ever wanna talk about it, well, I am always open to listen to somebody else’s misery and sorrow. Keeps the bad thoughts away for a time.
No offense was taken, and shall not be taken online.
That’s still up to debate.
Well I’m the opposite of the elephants, I forget but I can be hard to forgive if taken offense. Lucky for you I don’t take offense easy. Also lucky for you it don’t matter jackship if I am upset or not.
Don’t be hard on yourself. Nobody does.
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Yeah, the storytelling quality isn’t that much higher than StarCraft. The writing team changed between games so stuff like Kane’s motivations and the physics of Tiberium aren’t consistent. According to the leaked bible, at one point they planned an ancient astronauts plot point involving Scrin on ancient Mars.
Oh yes it does, boy does it ever. Doesn’t mean we can’t improve right now. Imagine if SC1 was made today with the same budget as SC2 (not remade, made now in some alternate universe where it was never made in 1998).
I am indeed autistic. My family and I do suspect I may be suffering depression.
Thank you.
Would you like to discuss StarCraft?
The real life years between game releases destroys any emotional impact that the arms race would have, regardless of how believable it might feel if the tech progression is examined in isolation with twenty years of lore behind it.
Speaking of which, this plot point of psychic warfare against the zerg feels repetitive. In fact, each trilogy feels very repetitive and status quo changes feel illusory, but I digress.
Originally she wasn’t supposed to appear, but was added later when Metzen thought the zerg characters were boring. This results in the campaign feeling disjointed and, along with other factors, the weakest of the first trilogy.
You are more right about Kerry’s contribution (or more accurately lack thereof) than you might think. Over on fanfiction dot net there is this story “Birth of a Queen” by Lord22 which hilariously deconstructs (in the critical analysis sense, not the stupid tvtropes thing) Kerry’s lack of any positive contribution to the zerg campaign.
Small wonder I dislike QoB and wished she never existed. But I digress.
And as I said, that resulted in a story that I found far less interesting. In an earlier draft of the story, recounted in the manual, we were teased than the three races would fight over humanity’s fate in koprulu indefinitely. While in a literal sense this is what canon gives us across the games, I think the execution was lacking.
Again, see ToxicDefiler’s pitch for what I would have preferred instead. His pitch is simply more interesting to me than what we got in canon.
Alright. Duly noted.
Alright, yes that must be it. Thank you for articulating it. I think the psi-emitter letting Mengsk easily accomplish his goal, regardless of other factors, is contrived, takes away agency from the non-POV factions, and creates unnecessary complexity that is never resolved (at least not until much later and after numerous extraneous retcons). The psi-emitter arms race being an example; it would have the most impact in the first trilogy, not spread over twenty years.
If you can’t mentally model how Mengsk winning using the psi-emitter is potentially contrived, at least in its canonical execution, then I don’t know what to tell you. I thought it was a waste of episode 1’s terran/zerg war plot and one of the several factors that contributed to my dissatisfaction with the story.
Again, this seems to be more of an opinion difference between us. I think that the story could stand to be improved by removing elements like that, where you would not think so. I gave an example when I mentioned that the SoK could take advantage of the zerg already targeting the ghost academy on Tarsonis to pull a coup, which retains the zerg’s own agency while still allowing Mengsk to pull off the same feats as canon for the most part.
It wasn’t the characters that focused on their goals. The writer wrote events to work out a certain way, which I find contrived and which ignores the storytelling potential of the setting. I think the execution could be improved, even without completely rewriting the conclusion. See above my mention of the SoK opportunistically taking advantage of independent zerg troop movements to achieve the same goal.
But that’s treating a symptom. Somebody else once told me that it makes more sense for the fall of tarsonis and rise of mengsk to occur at or before the start of the story rather than as a first episode twist ending. This would allow us to get into the meat of the rebellion actions a la WoL, with Raynor and Fenix teaming up to fight the evil Dominion and voracious zerg attacking Mar Sara.
I understand now that we’re probably never going to be able to agree on StarCraft. So let’s just agree to disagree? I’m more interested in discussing what other stories could be rather than trying to criticize canon all the time.
I dislike the canon execution. This is true for Blizzard games in general. I want to discuss, if not improvements, alternatives that fit my tastes. Otherwise I have no business being on this forum since discussions of canon and its future just make me weepy and deader inside. It’s exhausting and not fun.
I’d prefer to discuss StarCraft. Not that it’s particularly easy to do that when I’m a heretic.
So, the big thing that would be lost by your change is Mengsk’s fall into tyranny. If he’s just sweeping up after the zerg, then there isn’t actually that much conflict among the human characters. Mengsk’s willingness to deliberately use the zerg to achieve his goals even at the expense of his allies and the innocents he is nominally trying to help is an important moment for his character. If Mengsk is just following them around, theres no change in character, and as Gradius noted above, you have stagnation. A story cant maintain that sort of status quo indefinitely when it comes to major characters. If humanity were shifted to the sideline entirely to focus exclusively on the protoss and zerg, it could theoretically work, but then were back to the “its an RTS game” argument where the players need to be able to play all the races, including the terrans.
While I would personally love to have more Fenix screen time, and protoss in general, the same restrictions apply. You need approximately equal screen time between all three races from a player perspective, and outside of that perspective actually showing events becomes extremely limited. You also need to invent a reason why the protoss are fighting the Dominion without just annihilating them, and im not sure that you could do it at that state without it being significantly more contrived.
I have very little interest in actually writing alternative canon at this point. I could do fanfiction within the canon, but in general if i want to scratch that particular itch, i work on my D&D setting, not somebody else’s IP. If you wanted to pick an event in the existing story and start tearing it apart, im open for picking nits on that.
I have two answers for this.
The first is that this arc adds nothing to his character since he’s a flat villain for the most of the franchise, and that’s all fans remember him as now (aside from the contrarians saying “Mengsk did nothing wrong”), thus the arc may be either ignored entirely or reduced to a footnote. If you want Arcturus to have depth, then he should be written sympathetically rather than as the object of Raynor’s vendetta because we need cheap drama. Seriously, if a significant portion of USA thinks Trump is the heroic victim of a conspiracy, then writing Arcturus as an anti-hero or outright hero should be small beans.
Second answer:
Okay, then we’ll need to problem solve. How can we maintain Mengsk’s arc without introducing a plot device that raises more questions about the world building that we never intend to answer? Because in his arc, the psi-emitter and the zerg are reduced to a plot device devoid of agency. The psi-emitter lures zerg, which raises questions about the zerg’s agency (see the arms race discussion prior). The zerg easily steamroll all opposition, which raises further questions about their logistics considering other parts of their backstory like being present in the sector for decades already yet only attacking now, their motive for invading, etc.
Why can’t we have Mengsk use some of Cerberus’ enslaved zerg broods to make tactical assaults? It plays into his propaganda about the Confederacy creating the zerg perfectly. They make a weapon, lose control of it, it turns on them. If some inconvenient SoK leaders get caught in the crossfire, then they were martyrs to the cause.
Incoming tangent: Can you imagine Arcturus publicly celebrating Kerry as a martyr when he engineered her gruesome end? It would fit better with his deranged depiction in the pre-2006 lore, since in the Uprising novel he stated that allowed her to live when he murdered the other two ghosts who assassinated his family and even outright stated to their faces that they were brainwashed and lacked agency.
On a related note, if we want to preserve the protoss glassing the planets then we could shift the blame from Tassadar to the Conclave. Since the zerg in this alternate history aren’t overpowered whenever the plot needs them to be (since that results in pretty boring zerg campaigns IMO), they can’t trivially infest worlds to justify Tassadar glassing them. Instead, the more genocidal factions within the fleet would do so with far less cause. Tassadar here would be part of the faction that allies with open-minded terrans to repel the invasions and halt the glassing.
Or something like that. We can work it out later. I just want to be clear than I’d open to problem solving to maintain certain things.
Then maybe an RTS IP shouldn’t have major characters, since the whole shtick is that gameplay trumps lore. The lore is just meant as a glorified advertisement for the esports scene. I think I suggested earlier that campaigns should be self-contained vignettes rather than telling the story of the entire sector with Greek god-like characters Raynor and Kerry and Artanis.
Just look at Warhammer for a comparison. It has major characters, sure, but the sheer scale (e.g. the Imperium loses track of planets due to rounding errors on paperwork, systems go to war due to running out of filing cabinets, the tyranids have eaten thousands maybe millions of worlds over the past couple centuries, etc) means that they don’t have power to effect meaningful change like StarCraft characters do, since that would defeat the purpose of the game which is to wage forever war. A lot of its appeal is that players can create their own planets, races, armies, factions, etc with their own histories, unshackled by the lore factors in StarCraft that would prohibit such creativity.
The exact reasoning doesn’t matter, we just need to contrive a forever war because this is an RTS.
I have to constantly consider this whenever I make decisions for my own world building. That is why I go out of my way to justify terran inclusion by making their genes a plot device. I admit that it is a contrived plot device, but it’s the best solution I’ve seen proposed to justify terran inclusion. Not including other factors like a terran/protoss cold war or terrans actively attacking protoss and zerg for whatever reason.
Maybe the racial campaigns could take place concurrently? Or the writer could take into account the motivations of the aliens the same way we do terran antagonists, even if they don’t have a POV mission in that arc? I don’t think this is as difficult as you’re making it out be, or else I misunderstand you.
Episode 2 was apparently able to shove in dialogue with the protoss, which was cut out of Episode 1 even though IMO Raynor and Tassadar teaming up at the start would have been better usage. I criticized episode 1 precisely because the behavior of the aliens doesn’t make sense from their alien POV, but was used for that particular execution of Mengsk’s rise to power.
You consider that contrived but not Mengsk pulling the zerg by a leash and then not having to worry about them afterward because Kerry is a super special snowflake? But I digress.
Anyway, How did they manage in canon? I’m pretty sure there were several battles were the terrans defeated the protoss. I have no idea how, but apparently protoss are wimpy in canon whenever the plot requires it. And despite being a dying race, the protoss clearly have no problem waging a forever war. We don’t have to pretend this story has stakes, it’s a glorified advertisement. What matters is telling an entertaining story, and hopefully one that doesn’t have plot holes which break audience’s SoD.
We can get ideas for justifications from older drafts of lore. Maybe the terrans can stand toe-to-toe with the protoss, at least in this conflict. Maybe the UED is currently waging war against the protoss for destroying terran worlds and can hold their own. Maybe the protoss have plenty of other concerns with all the other alien empires lying around, so consider the Koprulu war a minor border dispute and not worthy of the reality-warping superweapons. Maybe some protoss were sympathetic to humans and helped defend them against the planet glassers. Maybe a combination of these and other explanations I didn’t think of.
Basically the only explanations we need are those that justify indefinite war. How can we keep the franchise and esports scene going on forever? We can’t actually change the status quo because that would harm the game.
A forever war is already contrived. We just need to conceal that fact enough to suspend audience disbelief.
So do I!
I’m not sure if there’s a difference. Everything I picked apart had a ripple effect. Everything I wrote was basically an excuse to create a sandbox forever war setting not unlike Warhammer, except with Starcraft armies.
But that’s basically background. What I think is just as if not more important is the individual vignettes/campaigns. Are they interesting? Do they entertain? Is the story not completely ridiculous?
There’s a noticeable dearth of protoss and zerg custom campaigns because Blizz didn’t do enough to make them interesting for mappers to be inspired to write stories about them. The best were probably those that didn’t adhere to canon, but there’s still very few of them. By contrast, the overwhelming majority of custom campaigns of any quality are about terrans. In fact, the few protoss and zerg campaigns all too often feel thematically indistinguishable from terrans rather than taking advantage of the fact that they’re aliens with alien psychology.
If they did reboot it from scratch, there would indeed be some changes, but like most reboots, they’d likely want to retain a lot of core characters and principles for nostalgia; that’s usually how reboots go (though not always).
Ah, I’m sorry to read that. For depression, if you’re able, that’s definitely something you want to get checked as there are treatments to help.
I believe we already are. I’m less keen on the concept of theoretical reboots though, and likely won’t respond too much on that line of thought.
Yeah, I find creating my own stuff more productive as well. Short stories in lower fantasy setting of my own creation with some sci-fi elements.
Whatever then. Your life sounded more gritty than StarCraft so I jumped on it. I don’t actually like this kind of forum format for a discussion.
That little is done with him after BW does not mean that we should just remove what was there. His descent and character arc in Rebel Yell is one of the reasons why people were interested in seeing his return in SC2 in the first place. That it was partially squandered doesn’t mean that the original excitement wasn’t legitimate.
Theoretically we could, but i don’t see how that’s any better for your worldbuilding concerns if the terrans can just capture entire broods and strap mind control devices to them without retribution.
Your timeline is confused again. Esports literally did not exist when StarCraft was written. It caught blizzard totally by surprise, with repercussions they are still dealing with today.
Not what I said, but whatever. I don’t think StarCraft, or any RTS IP for that matter, is well served by being shackled to a tiny cast of recurring characters. The lore is just glorified ads for the esports, so we should ideally write it with that mind. Hence why I suggested that campaigns be self-contained vignettes or series against a larger backdrop rather than controlling the fate of the entire fictional universe.
Again, like Warhammer 40k or any other sandbox scifi setting created for RPGs. RTS’ benefits from sandbox settings for the same reasons.
Yeah, even on desktop this is horrible.
Noted.
In any case, my reboot pitch takes the Dominion for granted alongside the Confederacy, Umoja, KMC, UED, etc. against a larger politic map. We don’t need to retell Mengsk’s backstory when we all know what it is. I feel the obsession with Mengsk and Raynor takes away effort we can focus on the universe outside of them and their cheap soap opera. What is it going to take to make people stop talking about them and move on? There’s already been loads of custom campaigns that told a better conclusion for them than SC2 and nobody cares about those.
If I may indulge my cynicism for a moment… I think we’d be better off just erasing Kerry, Raynor and Mengsk from our little alternate universe entirely. We shouldn’t bother with them because nobody will care about our efforts, only Blizzard’s efforts if they ever rewrite the story to be good and I’m sure we all know that will never happen.
And they wouldn’t. The Overmind’s zerg would be constantly trying to reclaim or destroy any lost zerg, and that could be an alternative explanation for why the zerg invade locations that are of no strategic value to them rather than the psi-emitter. If I was zerg, then I would consider a rogue brood a far more valid reason to chase than a psychic beacon trap similar to that used by my ancestors. That’s one of the Fenris’ broods roles in the canon lore, though sadly it was never explored in canon like a lot of other interesting hooks scattered by various writers over the decades.
And this opens interesting storytelling opportunities and mission gimmicks. How do the SoK prevent the zerg from interfering in their plans to overthrow Tarsonis? What is the Confederacy doing at this time? Deploying enslaved and mecha zerg?
I’m not talking about Blizz when starcraft was made in 1998. I’m talking about us in the now and, speaking from a business perspective, it remains true in any time period. It has been true for hobby campaign settings since D&D came out in the 70s.
StarCraft clearly wasn’t written with any sequels in mind considering how messy the sequelitis has been. Hindsight is 20/20. We’re not Blizz, so we don’t need to make the same mistake.
It’s more to do with it being less of a conversation and more of a slapping match. You could virtually demolish somebody’s every single argument and they can keep coming back, not adressing any of your points, misrepresent anything, etc.
Kelthar should understand that in regards of Batz.
Its true. The forums need a referee.
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I think the general consensus is, that endless thread on one page is a terrible design and we miss the old forum not only because of nostalgia and post count, but because the design was better.
…
It’s ok Trick, talk it out. We are ruthless, but we can be understanding.
You explaining your background gives me (us?) better idea why you think the way you think, thus the general level of mutual understanding goes up.
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Unless he uses it to gain on us. What if this was his plan all along?
There is more of us.
Besides, we are freaking Church of Mengsk.
Nobody ducks with the Church of Mengsk.