Selendis "Executor of The Golden Armada" Sky-toss commander concept

So for some reason while I was trying to sleep my brain decided it’d rather theory-craft a concept for a Selendis commander.

Most of the design is a barely-organized jumble of rambling thoughts in text form and I can’t be arsed to touch it up to make it more readable, instead I’ll give a summary of my intent behind the design.

The cornerstone of this commander is the Mothership, Selendis’s flagship and the center-piece of her fleet. Ever since I saw the Starcraft 2, Protoss Alpha footage showcasing the old design of the Mothership when it was more of a “Super Unit” I’ve been obsessed with the concept of a really tanky and powerful mothership unit, so Selendis gets to be a durable Mothership hero with a suit of abilities to support her fleet & ally and to devastate ground forces especially. One of the key abilities would be to deploy a “disintegration array” that reduces her movement speed but eradicates any units or structures caught beneath the shadow of the mothership for a few seconds.

Another aspect I’d like to focus on is for the fleet to be a force to be reckoned with, much like Mengsk’s, Horner’s & Nova’s units they’d be more expensive, fewer in number but much more powerful. Another thing I’d like is for units to synergise to promote having at least one of each of her units in the core fleet.
On top of that I would give her just one production structure that she starts the game with that accrues charges of units to warp in anywhere there’s a power field, supplementing with tech structures to unlock & upgrade each unit type.
On top of that I’d give Selendis’s Mothership a permanent power field that follows her around to warp in reinforcements (would also like to disable it from being able to power structures though), synergize with other protoss commadners (especially Artanis, which I think is appropriate) and to increase the effectiveness of one of the abilities I’d want to give her “Matrix Overload” which gives a slight buff to all allied units inside a power field.

For her base construction I kinda wanna try something different, instead of using workers to warp in units her Nexus would have the ability to warp in structures anywhere you have vision (and a power field) kind of like a C&C construction yard. Instead of standard pylons I’d want to give her “Fleet pylons” that are larger, have a defensive attack, provide more supply & a larger power field and are tougher but would be more expensive & possibly be attackable by anti-air attacks (if they have a tall model). All of her tech structures would be limited to 1 (with the exception of the Forge that would have all the Attck/Armor/Shields upgrades), only be able to have 2 nexuses on the map at a time.

The final core feature which might not really “fit” with her design but I think it’d be super cool. I’d love it if she could have “Particle Cannons” as the protoss version of the Earthsplitters & Bile Launchers, giving her a support artillery element to utilize, shelling entrenched positions. They could use a scaled down version of the Tal’Darim particle cannons (also Aiur skinned) from the LotV prologue missions and I think it’d be great if they could have an unlimited range (maybe only unlimited with an upgrade, starting off at large, then unlimited) but having a limited number of them available + be expensive.
An alternative (probably better) idea would be for them to function like the Strike Fighters for Han & Horner, each structure built adding a charge of a top-bar ability to bombard anywhere on the map with a powerful shot.

Anyway that’s kind of the “Core” elements to what I’d like from a Golden Armada commander, I’ll just post my rambling brain-vomit that I typed out into a Notepad at 3 am in a comment for all the general finer details.

3 Likes

Note: This is a sleep deprived 3am ramble, all of this is just throwing ideas at the wall.

Edit: I just had an alternate idea for the “Particle Cannons” instead of being like the Earthsplitter or Bile-launcher they could be like the Strike Fighter platforms with a top-bar ability to precision bombard targets (defensive structures, clumps of units, etc. each cannon having an independent charge of the ability to spam or fire when needed.

Selendis Commander

Roster:
No ground units, only sky-toss
Selendis hero (mothership) Chrono-field (target area) permanent power field for warping units (synergy with protoss commanders, especially Artanis), disintegration array (fires beams under the motheship, slows movement, heavy damage to anything beneath it, reminiscent of the SC2 alpha mothership), mass recall? Upgrade to have interceptors to make up for lack of Carriers.
Scout Variant (Ground attack upgrade? Evasion?) (Warp in in pairs/multiple?) ((Considered Pheonix variant with special corruptor style ground attack but 2 commanders already have Pheonix (Artanis/Karax) only 1 commander has Scout (Fenix)))
Fleet tender/guardian? (flying sentry w/ hull repair? Shield is more “Protossy” but only 1 protoss commander has hull repair, redirect damage to itself? Split damage evenly? Share between targets (spirit link?))
Observer (Upgrade for super-cloak when using surveilance mode, spy on key strategic points but limited in number)
Void Ray variant (intensifying splash attack “Solar Ray?” Shield Regen Aura? Or have that on Selendis?)
Tempest variant (Ariel siege mode? Multi-attack? Bombardment?) (Range boosting aura?)
Arbiter (Support caster, Stasis (upgrade to make attackable?) cloak/damage reduction swappable aura? Recall)
Particle Cannon (bombarding siege structure, Limited number but extreme range?)
Alternative: Particle Cannons provides charges of a top-bar ability like the “Strike Fighters” ability of Horner’s.
Fleet Pylon (Super-pylon with overcharge?, more health, larger power field, more expensive)
Photon Cannon? Fleet pylon replaces?
All combat units more powerful/expensive variants (Somewhere between Nova’s units & Fenix’s champions) Relatively small fleet but powerful.
Void Rays/Tempests have buffing auras? Buffing auras incentivize a diverse fleet + buff ally, cross-commander synergy.
All non-hero combat units have a ‘tactical warp’ ability? Or give Fleet Pylon recall ability? Intended to give non-hero units mobility to split off from the “main fleet” while Selendis acts as the main anchor pushing the primary objective.

Unit acquisition:
Core “Fleet Conduit” structure accrues charges of units to warp in
Units unlocked & upgraded with tech structures
Fleet Pylon (Scout) => Cyber-core (Fleet Core? Flavor name) (Void Ray) => Fleet Beacon (Tempest) = Arbiter Tribunal (Arbiter)
Forge structure for Attack/Armor/Shields instead of Cybercore also upgrades for Fleet Pylon?/Particle Cannon

Nexus gimmick? “Fleet Nexus”
Automated workers? Produce passively and summons assimilators from Nexus, less number but faster like mules, special probes. Probably not.
Warp in from “orbit” (Nexus has “abilities” to warp in structures) instead of using workers (problems with “Vermillion Problem” with worker objective… Mission sucks anyway, just make workers controllable for pulling off minerals & doing that mission/pushing Chain of Ascension). One of each structure, except forge. Certain number of Fleet Pylons, Particle Cannons? Unlimited but costly, why not.
Can summon 1 other nexus as long as there are no more than 2 fleet nexuses on the map for the expansion

Topbar? Spear of Adun energy?
Particle Bombardment (bombard area with random projectiles scaling with number of particle cannons)?
Alternative: “Particle Bombardment” fire shots from constructed Particle Cannons anywhere on the map like the Strike Fighter unit. Obliterate cloaked units or snipe defensive structures or clumps of enemies.
Deploy Fleet Pylon?
Orbital Relocation? (Need better name) (Teleport all units to a location?)
Matrix Overcharge passive (Buff units inside power fields, effects allies, helps base defense and makes Selendis more of an anchor with her personal power field)
“The Golden Armada” (Horner Fleet Manouvres style ability, protoss fleet bombards area from orbit, shadows of Carriers, Tempests, Scouts, arbiters, pheonixes, etc.)
“Interceptor Sweep” (Summons a swarm of interceptors & interdictors from orbit, interceptors fire on air & ground units, interdictors bomb structures for high damage)

2 Likes

Imagine having an air hero in co-op though. The Selendis carrier would arrive at the same time as Kerrigan and Nova into the battlefield. That would be epic.

I like the idea of a flagship сarrier that has the functionality of a Mothership. It’s like some kind of reference to Tassadar and his Gantrithor.

on a related tangent I find it slightly surprising Fenix didn’t get a Orbital Bombardment or Purifier Beam or some other kind of ability. Cybros as a ship seemed to rival the Spear of Adun in size and power, it purified the entire planet of Endion. I guess it would have made him too “same-y” to Artanis and Karax though. And certainly he is powerful enough without it, though I find his prestiges rather meh

I think Fenix didn’t get one because Karax got it.

That and that Fenix’s focus is more on the rank-and-file of the Purifiers, the actual mechanical/digital soldiers so all his abilities/upgrades revolve around himself and his forces.