I've been in the Beta for about a week now. Unfortunately my PC is just a bit underpowered to do the game justice, so I've had to restrict myself to 1v1 matches. I've played all three races, but my personal preference leans towards Terran. So now, I'll give some (hopefully) brief impressions of the changes and improvements, and perhaps some balance concerns I've noticed.
Terran
This is the race I've spent the most time with, so I have the most insight. From a pure gameplay standpoint, terrans haven't changed much. Mining, supply and building methods are all the same. The buildings have all basically returned, with your barracks, factory and starport being your troop production. The biggest changes for structures is the addon system. Command Centers have two possible addons, the communications array and the planetary fortress. The Comm addon gives you the classic scanner ability, but also allows you to call in temporary SCVs (called MULEs) or to boost the food count on your supply depot. All three of these abilities are 50 energy, so it really comes down to what you need at that moment. Obviously your main command center will get this addon, and it's wise to get it as soon as possible, I've found. The planetary fortress I've barely used. It gives the command center the means to defend itself somewhat, but I believe it removes the ability to lift off. It would probably be best for defending remote expansions, but I've never really been in a game that's lasted that long.The other addon change is the tech lab and generator. These two addon structures are identical for each troop producing facility, and function similarly for each. The reactor will give you two simultaneous build queues, but only for the lowest tier of that structure's units. That's marines for a barracks, hellions (vulture replacement) for factory, and the medivac and viking for the starport. The tech lab allows access to the higher tier units from that structure; reapers and marauders for the barracks, siege and thor with the factory, and banshees, battlecruisers, and whatever the new science vessel is named for the starport. Typically, I've been splitting between reactor/tech lab for barracks, purely tech labs for factories, and mostly reactors for starports. The only other big structure change is your supply depots can sink, which basically just allows you to wall your entrance early on. It doesn't play a huge factor in games, neither does being able to store SCVs in your Command Center for transport. Those are just quality of life changes, basically.
Now I'll get into the units a bit. The only returning units that are basically unchanged are the Marine, Siege Engine, and Battlecruiser. The Marine can get a shield upgrade, but that just boosts his health a bit. The Siege and Battlecruiser are practically identical to the first game. Most other units are new or modified in some way. Ghosts are back, but I've literally never built one, so I don't really know if/how they've changed. I do know nukes are now built at the Ghost Academy instead, the prerequisite structure for ghosts. The Marauder is a heavy infantry unit more suited to handling some of the mid tier units, with a concussive shot ability that slows their targets. The Reaper pretty much everybody knows, he can hop cliffs. The Hellion is basically a Vulture replacement, fast strike vehicle without the mines. The Thor is a big, meaty, expensive mech. Too expensive, I've found, to be practical. The Medivac basically combines the shuttle and medic from the first game, it can ferry troops as well as heal organic ones. The Viking is an interesting unit. Similar to the siege, it has two modes, fighter and assault. The fighter is a flying air to air unit, while the assault is a walking ground to ground mech. The Banshee basically replaces the Wraith with the ability to cloak, but it can only hit ground units. I can't remember the name of the last starport unit, but it is functionally similar to the science vessel from the original game. It detects cloaked units, it has no direct attack, but it has two abilities it can toss out. It can lay out an auto turret that attacks both ground and air, and it can put out what's called a point defense drone that apparently destroys incoming enemy abilities, but I've not really been able to use that or see what it applies to.
So that's a rundown of the basic structure of the race. I skipped a few of the extra buildings, but they're just necessary to produce other units, or for upgrades. Now I'll talk a bit about my Terran strategy. Typically my first act is to close off my ramp with two supply depots and a barracks. This prevents the enemy from scouting, and deters rush strategies a little bit. I'll stick a handful of marines behind the makeshift wall, maybe build them a bunker later on. I'll then start getting gas and get my factory up. As soon as it's done I plunk down a tech lab for it, and this is also about the time to get an engineering bay for missile turrets. Research siege tech at the lab, then get my starport down. This basically gives me access to whatever tech I need to counter their build strategy. Tanks are always useful. Medivac Marine build still works well against Zerg. Marauders are decent against protoss ground. Where I run into problems, and where I'll talk about my balance concerns, is with Terran air.
Terran Air to Ground is vastly improved with the Banshee. However, Terran Anti Air has, I feel, taken a huge hit. The only units that can hit air are the Marine, the Thor, the Viking (in fighter mode) and the Battlecruiser. The Viking is the most economic choice, but it's too fragile to go toe to toe with really any other race's air. The Thor is too slow and expensive to be practical, but at least it's decently armored. The Battlecruiser is also slow and expensive, and the Marine is fairly worthless except in mass numbers. This is where I've had the most difficulty in matches. Without a Goliath equivalent to defend my ground forces, I've often been slaughtered by only a half dozen carriers or a dozen mutalisks because my Vikings just get ripped to shreds. Once the Vikings are gone the ground units are completely defenseless and can only retreat. Compared to the other two races, who have low tier units with anti air attacks, it just doesn't seem fair. Hydralisks are cheap and effective in numbers, same with Stalkers, but Terran have no equivalent ground unit. Now obviously not all three races have to be the same, and Terran air has always been a weakpoint, but they should have some sort of effective counter that isn't prohibitively expensive. Thors and Battlecruisers are not typically part of my build, but I guess maybe I have to change that against air. The other option I haven't looked into is Ghosts. If they still have a Lockdown style ability, they could at least hamper a mass carrier build. But it seems like there's no reason NOT to go air against a Terran, because all of his raw power is in ground units that cannot defend themselves from the skies.
Anyway, this is long enough as is, so maybe I'll do another post or two covering the other races later.
Log in to comment