We could have compared Zerg’s situation to either Night Elf or Undead since Humans and Orcs parallel the Terran and Protoss. Not just in concept but in classic race design.
Nightelf can sacrifice their wisps for a purpose, especially considering that NE buildings can attack as well.
Undead starts with 1 ghoul that doubles as a harvester of lumber and a warrior and 3 gold miners.
My question here is, especially in comparison to undead, why can’t zerg have 3 different starting possibilities such as follows:
- typical 4 drone start
- 3 drones and an extra 50 minerals in the bank for a “3 pool” rush as they say
- 3 drones and 1 zergling with an extra 25 minerals in the bank.
We can understand though, why some, even zergling players may frown upon this though. You’d feel forced to rush in starts 2. and 3. And so you’d rather be able to choose your start in the lobby, with your opponent also not being able to see your choice.
Well then now that seems to be an unfair advantage for the zerg player.
But then, imagine a rule for the 1 zergling start where if zerg only ever has 1 zergling at any given time, then that zergling is capable of stealing minerals from it’s attack damage.
What if this is the real way that “standard zerg” should have started all along? We would then call this a “moderate start”. And then what if starts 1. and 2. were lumped in to their own type of start identified as “radical”
So let’s say a zerg player can choose his style of start in the lobby and the opponent gets to see his choice. The zerg player can choose Moderate: style 3, or Radical: randomly starts with either styles 1. or 2.
Doesn’t this reveal that the “rock, paper, scissors” element that blizzard themselves identified starcraft as, may be much deeper when an oddball race like Zerg is factored?
And in style 2. Wouldn’t this give full purpose to the overlord start by moving out in front of a chokepoint where opponent scouts may be coming from one direction or another where zerg can determine the starting location of the opponent just by observing the incoming direction of the opponent’s scout? That, right there, gives total purpose to a perfectly effecient “3 pool” rush where zerg doesn’t use a drone to scout.
Finally, maybe even some kind of parallel to NE can be made here… Banelings are similar in function to wisps. Why can’t overlords be sacrificed, by conversion, in to zerg defense structures? Isn’t zerg sacrificing their ability to see up a ramp if they have this option? So why can’t they have this option and use, say, the 1 zergling to see up a ramp?
Or they could at least permanently land and crawl and produce some creep around it to morph a drone in to a sunken on that creep. But then the issue is that there’s no actual sacrifice going on there…
If most NE buildings can attack then I’ve always wondered why can’t at least ONE of zerg’s buildings attack?.. Like as a capability of the spawning pool let’s say.
As an after thought, I think that this different zerg starts would only reveal that the 4 drone + overlord start wouldn’t just be unpopular, but inferior as well. This means that there should be some kind of macro start for zerg. The question is, how do you make sense of it?
What if zerg started with a lair and 5 drones, but no overlord and spawning pool is just removed entirely in this start? Lair would count for 9 or 10 supply, at least comparable to protoss or terran’s nexus or command center. Sound over powered? Maybe not with no starting overlord, and no zergling or sunken colony access. And one of their first starting warrior units(mutalisk) is a small unit which replaces the small zergling. Maybe one more thing would be necessary and that would be that broodlings last forever instead of dying after a duration. Both of these things would help replace the missing zergling.
And there you have it. A moderate approach with zerg that takes less risk vs a radical one and when the player selects his choice, he accepts it if he loses hard on the higher risk decision.
One more point regarding the 3 pool start. If zerg started with 1 less drone and an extra 50 minerals in the bank then wouldn’t that be an inferior start? Would they need an extra 50 minerals in the bank to compensate?
Going back to rethink this whole idea to make more sense out of it.
So imagine that in these 3 different starting set-ups for zerg, there is one particular unit or structure that is special. Set-up 1 starts with no overlord, an 8 or 9 supply LAIR and 5 drones let’s say. Spawning pool is non existent in this start and broodlings last forever. 2. 3 drones and an extra 100 minerals in the bank and a SPAWNING POOL THAT ATTACKS ENEMIES. And then 3. we have 3 drones, a zergling and an extra 25 minerals in the bank, and then we have a SPECIAL OVERLORD to start in this where zerglings can attack buildings and maybe some units to break them down in to materials and then return to this one overlord that can process the materials in to resources.
Note, in each case there is something special. 1. lair start. 2. spawning pool that attacks and 3. , a special overlord that supplies can be returned to by zerglings.
What sounds like it could be a bit much in any of these is the spawning pool that attacks, but if you think about it, how many times have protoss or terran done drops on the spawning pool and quickly destroyed it to disable all zergling production across all hatcheries? Even if zerg could proxy this spawning pool that, let’s say, (streams a toxic bial from some “arm hose” in a steady fashion like zerg’s version of the void ray) produces it’s own creep and can be placed anywhere, isn’t there also the risk of losing the pool and all zergling production?