Niadra commander - concept

Co-op Missions Discussion
1

The concept finds its inspiration in Niadra’s story in the HOTS campaign. After successfully capturing a protoss ship, Niadra learns protoss technology while continues spawning zerg units. The only missing part for a co-op commander I thought was being able to cast a few spells so she feels a true broodmother - a powerful hero on the battlefield.

The first part of her abilities is spawning zerg units with a timed life: Zerlings, Hidralisks, Roaches and Ultralisks. The number of the units she can spawn is limited by a supply cap which grows along with Niadra’s levels. Each supply count has its individual cooldown so Niadra can spawn a small group of units almost all the time or can spawn her full army and then has to wait till she is able to spawn again.

I wanted first to use the same idea from the campaign that she collects essence or similar substance to be able to evolve, but this concept is already heavily used by two other commanders: Dehaka and Arbathur. I think researching her evolution in the Evolution Chamber (the only zerg building at the home base) is a good alternative. Her progress will be constrained by time and resources in this case.

Niadra first spawns in at 3 min mark, being able to spawn a few Zerlings. Other spawning units need to be unlocked via research. Each of these 3 researches provide Niadra with +2 evolution levels. There are also upgrades for the spawning units that add +1 evolution level each. Upon gaining evolution levels, Niadra can spawn more supply, unlocks new abilities and gets her health and energy increased.

Evolution Chamber upgrades:

Niadra can spawn Zerlings in pairs. Unlocked by default

Zerlings get their health, attack and movement speed greatly increased

Niadra spawns fewer rolling Banelings instead. Each Baneling carries one Zerling inside which is released upon Beneling’s detonation

Upon approaching enemy units, Banelings will blink into the middle of the enemy group maximising damage potential. Requires Baneling upgrade

Niadra can spawn Hydralisks

Hydralisks’ attack is replaced with Psionic Shock (looks like Archon’s attack but longer) that deals splash damage to air targets

Each Hydralisk comes with two Scourges that don’t have splash damage

Scourges become temporarily invulnerable after taking damage. Requires Scourge upgrade

Niadra can spawn Roaches that deal bonus damage to armored units and structures

Roaches automatically borrow when not attacking, while borrowed they can move and regenerate health much faster

Roaches get Barrier (exactly Immortal mechanics) ability absorbing 100 damage.

Roaches’ attack now shortly stuns enemy units in a small area around the target

Niadra can spawn Ultralisks with cleave attack. Requires Roaches unlocked

Ultralisks get Charge ability and their attack and movement speed increased

Ultralisks gets permanent Protection Aura (looks like Sentry’s one) that increases armor of all friendly units in a large area around Ultralisk by 2 and further reduces receiving damage by 15%. The aura affects Ultralisk itself but auras from several Ultralisks do not stack

Upon death Ultralisk releases Purification Nova damaging nearby enemies

The second part of Niadra’s abilities are spells that will require a little bit of micro from the player but significantly increase her power in battles and her presence on the map.

Fungal Growth: enemy units in a small area are stunned and suffer 30 damage over 3 sec, reveals cloaked and burrowed units. Cost 75 energy

Psionic Storm: deals 75 damage to enemy units in a small area over 3 sec. Cost 75 energy. Requires research in Infested Cybernetic Core

Consume: deals 50 damage to a spawned zerg unit and restores 50 energy. Cooldown 1 sec. Requires evolution level 3

Deep Tunnel: Niadra quickly borrows to any visible area. Cooldown 60 sec. Requires evolution level 6

One of the protoss technologies Niadra tried to mimic was protoss shields. She was successful to a degree: while her units and structures are shielded when they remain in a power field, they start losing the shields once they step out of the power field. However she could extend the mechanics to her zerg or terran allies as well. Given the importance of a power field and shield restoration, Niadra has a few top-bar abilities that well sinergise with shield mechanics

Warp in Infested Pylon in any visible area for 100 minerals

Warp in Infested Photon Cannon in a power field for 150 minerals. Requires Infested Forge

Restore Shields: instantly restores shields of friendly units and structures to the maximum amount. Cooldown 3 min

While Niadra couldn’t save and infest any biological protoss forms, she mastered protoss robotic technology and was able to further improve it using zerg knowledge

Units from Infested Robotic Facility

Infested Immortal. Swarm upgrade: brings a target enemy air unit to the ground, allowing units to attack it as if it were a ground unit

Infested Colossus. Swarm upgrade: attacks leaves a trace of acid for 3 sec damaging enemy units that come in contact

Infested Observer and Infested Warp Prism. Swarm upgrade: both generate creep in static mode

Units from Infested Starport

Infested Phenix. Swarm upgrade: launches acid at all enemies in attack area, reducing armor and attack speed, stacks up to three times; primary attack remains single targeted

Infested Carrier. Swarm upgrade: interceptors permanently become parasitic bombs damaging all ground and air units in a small area around interceptor, regular attack vanished

Commander progression

  1. Swarm Birth Mother. Niadra spreads creep around her in a large area. Her maximum supply is 100 and her maximum evolution level is 3.

  2. Warp In Technology. Unlocks Infested Pylon and Photon Cannon warp in top-bar ability

  3. Also a Queen. Niadra has a chance to spawn creep tumors

  4. Shields Technology. Niadra and her zerg units, as well as her ally’s terran or zerg units and structures grow shield when remaining in a power field: Niadra’s units - up to 50% of health, ally’s - up to 25% of health. The shields slowly deteriorate without power field

  5. Deep Tunnel. Niadra can reach evolution level 6. Unlocks Deep Tunnel ability

  6. Infested Robotic Bay Upgrade Cache. Unlocks swarm upgrades in Infested Robotic Bay

  7. Just Like Zerg. All infested protoss structures generate creep. Infested Immortals and Colossi gain increased movement speed on creep

  8. Restore Shields. Unlocks Restore Shields top-bar ability that also affects zerg and terran friendly units and structures. Zerg units are spawned with full shields

  9. Rapid Regeneration. Niadra’s life regeneration increased. Consume restores twice as much energy and can be set to autocast

  10. Infested Fleet Beacon Upgrade Cache. Unlocks swarm upgrades in Infested Fleet Beacon

  11. Deadly Spells. Niadra can reach maximum evolution level 12. Fungal Growth and Psionic Storm last twice longer dealing double damage

  12. Unstoppable Swarm. Restore Shields ability makes all friendly units and structures invulnerable for a short time after activation. Cooldown is reduced to 2 min

  13. Express Evolution. Two upgrades can be researched simultaneously in Evolution Chamber

  14. Improved Warp In. Infested Pylons and Photon Cannons are invulnerable for a short time after wrapping in

  15. Broodmother Efficiency. All robotic units have their gas cost and supply reduced

Masteries

1a. Increase Niadra’s health and life regeneration by 1%, max 30%

1b. Infested protoss units and structures regenerate health by 0.2 per sec, max 6 per sec

2a. Increase the period of invulnerability of the top-bar abilities by 3.33%, max 100%

2b. Reduce the cooldown of spawning ability by 0.5 sec, max 15 sec

3a. Increase the maximum available shields of friendly zerg and terran units and structures by 1%, max 30%

3b. Increase movement and attack speed of infested protoss units by 0.5%, max 15%

Infested protoss structures:

Infested Nexus. Builds Infested Probes. Chrono Boost

Infested Assimilator

Infested Pylon. Warps in instantly from top-bar ability or built by Infested Probes

Infested Forge. Upgrades for zerg and infested protoss ground units

Infested Cannon. Warps in instantly from top-bar ability or built by Infested Probes. Requires Infested Forge

Infested Cybernetic Core. Upgrades for zerg and infested protoss air units, and Psionic Storm for Niadra

Infested Robotic Facility. Builds Infested Immortal, Colossus, Observer and War Prism. Requires Infested Cybernetic Core

Infested Robotic Bay. Swarm upgrades for Infested Robotic units. Unlocks Infested Colossus. Requires Infested Robotic Facility

Infested Stargate. Builds Infested Phenix and Carrier. Requires Infested Cybernetic Core

Infested Fleet Beacon. Swarm upgrades for Infested Stargate units. Unlocks Infested Carrier. Requires Infested Stargate

3 Likes
2

Commander mechanics, units and their abilities, roles, functions are pretty meh.

So far, there’s only one thing I’m interested in.

This alone deserves a like though.

3

I hope this doesn’t cause lags because from what I heard, Matrix Overload can cause lags.

4

This is different.
Imagine if kerrigan’s malignant creep affected only shields, and the units would have negative shield regen (decaying while not on safe area) This is how Zerg structures bleeding out works, and that doesn’t cause lag at all.

5

But infested protoss is very hard to get so you have to get the special kind of creep to infest them for they are psionic but robotics shall be easy so um you have to build infestation type structures.

6

Why did you quote me again, mate? :crazy_face:

7

because before I read the entire thing, that article caught my eye and I wanted to say about it. Coincidence mate :slight_smile:

8

I just hope someone reads the people’s ideas. There are several good ones.

On this note I would rethink a bit. I would not add protoss units, but equip zerg units with protoss technology. It would be too many units Niadra has. And as somebody mentioned infested protoss is not possible.

I also have some ideas about this.

Giving the units plasma shields is very interesting. But with this all units would have double life basically, so halving the life of units could be done.
I would give zergling the zealot’s charge upgrade instead of metabolic boost.
Roaches could be cloaked like DT, but can only attack melee.
Hydralisk could have blink instead of range increase.
Ultralisk could have the immortal’s barrier.
Infestor could have the sentry’s guardian shield, restore shields and use parasitic domination, but the dominated unit only has half its original life.
Mutalisk’s attack could be like the DT’s shadow furry.
Broodlord could attack like colossus.
Queen could have ensnare and psionic storm abilities.
1-1 zergling - roach - hydralisk - ultralisk could merge into giant ursadon.
Structures could also benefit from plasma.
Dues to air units don’t have special air upgrade, those could be upgraded from Evo-chamber and the spire only provides special upgrades.

1 Like
9

This triggers me to put a disclaimer.

Being fastidious doesn’t mean I don’t read and accept people’s ideas. If anyone wanna know what kind of ideas I feel engaging, check what a widow mine did to tweak Stukov before.

And if we are speaking about the ideas for Niadra - mainly for how to elaborate on her units, you did the job much better IMO.

10

I meant someone in the provider team.