I wanted to address some recent concerns about the removal of the macro-mechanics in SC2 LotV. One thing many people, like for instance Beastyqt, supposed, was that with the removal of those mechanics (mules, injects, chronoboost) it will be way harder to perform a comeback and that harassment gets way more unforgiving.
That statement sounded a bit alien to me at first, but as a Terran I have to agree that after a zerg bust it often happens to me that the mules i called down after the attack saved my day. But is it really the mule in itself that saved me or isn’t it really the opportunity to save energy on my orbital while being attacked that saved me? Does it really make a difference if I gain my money through scv mining or muling if I just constantly call mules down? I do not think so. I think the difference is that I can wait for my mules until the harassment/attack has ended and then I can instantly call multiple mules down without additional costs. So i thought about ways how i could save some economy (workers) throughout an allin or harassment even without having mules. In addition i also thought about the other 2 races which i do not play at all btw. (:
- Terran: Often Comebacks were possible if the player who was behind after an attack had stored energy on his orbitals to call down mules after the devastating attack and thus having a decent spike of income to rebuild workers or to get a counter-hitsquad of units. In the case of harassment I can not see any difference between the old economy and the economy without mules as long as the harassment doesn’t hit supplydepots, because I most harassments last only for a small amount of time in which saving energy does not really matter and one will call down mules always asap.
Now if the Mule is removed it is possible to lose for example all your workers vs a bainlingbust strategy and after that you would just not be able to perform a comeback because you would have no income at all.
A small idea i had to reduce this problem would be to be able to save your SCVs by loading them into your CC while being attacked/harassed. I think that would be a viable mechanic for multiple reasons:- Through nerfing orbitals there will most likely be less Orbitals and more CCs
- It would be a for the viewers visible mechanic that also could be microed in a very fun/skillful way. (load/unload micro)
- Would gain Terran the ability to save at least some mining capacity even after a devastating attack.
Now the problem is you cannot load units into a OC. The obvious and easy fix for that would be to just allow players to load up SCVs into the OC too. I even would suggest to increase the maximum capacity to 8 for the orbital. That way a Terran player would always be able to save at least 8 workers as long as he reacts fast enough and does not lose his OC. even more he would be able to micro SCVs vs for example an Oracle to lose as few SCVs as possible. - Through nerfing orbitals there will most likely be less Orbitals and more CCs
- Zerg: I think for Zerg the ability to comeback relies heavily on the Larva, and as long as Zerg can stack larva and generate enough of them there is always the possibility of comebacks as long as they have banked some money while being attacked.
The higher reward of harassment can in my opinion also already be counteracted a lot by already implemented changes to LotV, namely the individual droplords. By just having 1 or 2 morphed droplords floating over your mineralline you will most likely often be able to save a lot of drones and even the burrowing of drones can always help alot vs harassment. So i think there is already a lot of amazing possibilities to save workers for a comeback or to just countermicro vs harassment. - Protoss: Big Protoss comebacks, as far as i can see, are very rare in the first place. But what always helped them to get either more probes after successful harassment of the opponent or more units/tech after a huge loss of an engagement to perform a counterattack was the chronoboost mechanic which is out of the game right now. So if a protoss player now loses probes he cannot boost his economy at all anymore. What I would love to see to reduce the efficiency of harassement against protoss is also a way to save probes in a fun skillful way.
This topic is quite hard, but the idea i had was to keep the energy bar of the Nexus and give it a spell which can be targeted on one unit or on a small area. This spell will absorb the whole damage the targeted unit or the targeted area (maybe cannons) receives as long as the Nexus has energy. For the amount of damage it absorbs the Nexus loses energy(maybe 1 or 0,5 energy/dmg?). So as some people already suggested it is kind of a Shield battery but it literally can absorb up to x damage all at once. This would maybe allow protoss to save workers or just buff their defensive units. (If they would scrap the MoCo they could even consider giving a recall ability with a very small radius to the Nexus so that there is also an opportunity cost for using the Nexus as a battery and not for recalls.)
I know this suggestion is a bit weird maybe but that is the best i came up with: It is very fun/skillful to use, it can be counterplayed and it is still not a PO like allaround saving button.
Long story short: I really think the Idea of removing the macro-mechanics could be a good idea but to counteract the increased viability of harassment and the increased susceptibility of the economy Blizzard and also Players should maybe consider think about skillful mechanics to save some workers against harassment or allins even without being perfectly prepared.
Feel free to correct me in everything false I said! Thanks for reading.