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Available on all servers Created by Scorp
The philosophy behind this extension mod is built upon the idea of for-a-long-time needed changes to fundamental mechanics of Starcraft II. The casualness of the game is hurting the longevity as well as the e-sports scene, which demands rather big adjustments to bring it more in line with what the community wants. The grand success that is Brood War was more rewarding in terms of expansions and micro, and had less issues for map makers to deal with like Siege Tanks, Blink, Force Fields and Swarm Hosts. This extension mod aims at raising the skill ceiling of micro, while at the same time nullifying the design complications that haunt Starcraft II in its current form. If the community as a whole cares enough about the game, raising awareness to this mod is our best shot at a better Starcraft II when LotV is released. Sounds too good to be true? Check out the changes below.
Game
- Mineral Field resources have been reduced to 750 from 1500.
- Vespene Geyser resources have been reduced to 1250 from 2500.
- Supply Cap has been increased to 300 from 200.
- All attack speeds have been decreased by 50%.
- All movement speeds have been decreased by 25%.
- Idle units (>5s) will wander around impatiently.
- Camera has been zoomed in by 15%.
- Vision has been reduced by 2 for all units.
- Unit Selection has been limited to 12 at a time.
Terran
- Siege Tank attack range has been decreased to 5/7 from 7/13.
- Siege Tank attack speed has been increased to 0.9/2.25 from 1.0/3.0.
- Medivac Cargo Space has been decreased to 4 from 8.
- Medivac cost has been decreased to 50/50/1 from 100/100/2. Build time has been halved.
- Command Center cost has been decreased to 300 from 400.
Protoss
- Blink cannot be cast on higher cliff levels.
- Force Field has been removed from Sentries.
- Force Field has been added to Archons.
- High Templar movement speed has been increased to 2.75 from 1.9.
- Nexus cost has been decreased to 300 from 400.
Zerg
- Swarm Host has been removed.
- Larvaes may leave their base if not used.
- Overlord movement speed has been increased to 1.2 from 0.7.
- Overlord has been renamed to 'Speed Lord'.
- Hatchery cost has been decreased to 225 from 300.
In general, the changes aim at rewarding expansions and increasing the skill ceiling of micro. By reducing attack- and movement speeds the fights are dragged out and allow for more microing rather than a-moves. With a slown down fight, the unit selection cap compliments this design by forcing players to micro and spread out their armies more, and the camera zoom + vision reduction is the result of these changes: the less you can see on your screen, the more you are penalized for not reacting. With idle units wandering around when not used, unaware players may have their armies get out of position before a fight occurs, while players actively aware of their units will have an edge. It's also a lot more realistic: do real people stand still for long periods of time? - They don't, and nor do they in CraneCraft! The individual race changes are largely performed to adress unit-specific issues that have a huge impact on map design. For example, maps using CraneCraft do not need to account for blink into main/natural, and natural mineral lines can be far more exposed without Siege Tanks being broken. Some unit changes also contribute to the idea of punishing bad micro, as Larvaes, for example, leave your base and thus die - unless you spend them on units!
"It's only 7:09 and I already have so much more fun expanding and microing!" "I love microing my idle units - it's like working in a daycare!""Despite being atheist, I truly believe that the CraneCraft author is a god."
Thanks for taking the time to read! + Show Spoiler +I wish you all a happy April 1st!
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10/10, better than BW & Starbow.
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After playing Cranecraft, my peni- I mean APM grew by at least 50 units! After a single day of playing I've had more confidence, and the babes just seem to flock to me. Working hard to get past these new mechanical barriers has forced me to become stronger in my starcraft games, my job, AND my personal life. I'm now a business administrator boss person making a three figure salary. I have no doubt this will save Starcraft and ESPORTS in one fell swoop. Thanks Cranecraft!~
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Lol at first I legit thought that it was legit, good job^^
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I agree with Scorp that melee is need of major improvements. I have my reasons why I consider melee poorly designed and not providing a much more fun and strategic experience.
Personally I don't think it's a good idea for LotV to add more units and make things even more complicated when that complexity is part of the problem.
I prefer a major redesign of melee so it's no longer sticking to old flawed formulas. There's no other RTS game competing so I'm assuming Blizz can take risks.
As a brief summary here's what I consider some flaws of melee:
- Too much to do in too little time. There's too much packed together including combat, resource management, and supply management to the point that most of your time, effort, and clicks are not spent making strategic decisions but mechanically and efficiently managing a bunch of stuff. You could program an AI to play melee much better because they simply multi-task better as super efficient machines.
- Too much complexity. It makes it harder for new players to familiarise and have fun with melee when there's simply too many units and play styles to learn. There's a reason cheese has been popular and I blame that on poor design of melee game play. When faced with an overwhelming game, one normally looks for the quickest and easiest way to play. It would be nice having epic tutorials/hints/tips/suggestions on reliable play styles in-game and then let players experiment from there.
- Not enough time to react and change plans. When everyone uses A-move and battles end in seconds it defeats the purpose of strategy. It seems to convey to players, 'build up one massive powerful suicide army as quickly as possible then rage quit if that fails'.
I'm sure alot of people have experienced these negative aspects when playing melee. I've even heard people describe their dislike in a very nice way as "I just don't understand RTS games". Just to clarify I'm only saying the current implementation of melee is a terrible game in terms of being a good strategy game. Otherwise I can understand it being a fun and thrilling action or fast-paced-management game for plenty of people. If anyone is interested in seeing a much better strategy game experience, I suggest playing games like XCOM and comparing it with SC2 melee.
I support Scorp and hope Blizz do something to greatly improve the game play experience of melee. I would be interested in getting back into it some day.
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Siege Tank attack range has been decreased to 5/7 from 7/13. This is where I went from "ok/meh.." to "wait... what??". + Show Spoiler +def skimmed over Idle units (>5s) will wander around impatiently. Camera has been zoomed in by 15%. Vision has been reduced by 2 for all units.
Quit being facetious! You think this is a gaem!?!?!
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What this is missing is more opportunities for risk/reward strategic decision-making. To fix this I propose for example this change: Wandering idle units leave the map permanently if they reach the edge. They have a 0.1% every minute they're gone to return to the center of the map with a (33% chance of each) leviathan, spear of adun flagship, or hyperion that they hitchhiked with. Leviathan will deploy elite swarmhosts that spawn ultralisks, the protoss ship will send arbiters in all directions to autocast stasis on enemy units, and hyperion will deploy a laser mining drill. While in transit from the map edge to the center, if the air hero unit is destroyed (10,000hp / 5armor), 100 mineral shard / gas barrels will drop like confetti around the map and can be gathered by touching with a unit.
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On April 02 2015 02:19 EatThePath wrote: What this is missing is more opportunities for risk/reward strategic decision-making. To fix this I propose for example this change: Wandering idle units leave the map permanently if they reach the edge. They have a 0.1% every minute they're gone to return to the center of the map with a (33% chance of each) leviathan, spear of adun flagship, or hyperion that they hitchhiked with. Leviathan will deploy elite swarmhosts that spawn ultralisks, the protoss ship will send arbiters in all directions to autocast stasis on enemy units, and hyperion will deploy a laser mining drill. While in transit from the map edge to the center, if the air hero unit is destroyed (10,000hp / 5armor), 100 mineral shard / gas barrels will drop like confetti around the map and can be gathered by touching with a unit. That is a really neat suggestion, but I suspect it will be slightly in favor of Z, due to their units generally being lower cost. I can even imagine strategies where Hatcheries would be built near the edge to make Larvaes wander out of the map.
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