True Blue Episode 2

Welcome to episode 2 of GosuGamer’s weekly blue post tracker, True Blue. Once again, if it’s blue and it’s on the forums, you’ll find it here. Today’s highlights include some mechanics updates, more information on the Medivac Dropship and Colossus, and some news on the beta.

This week kicked off with a little bit of wrap up buzz about the Colossus. The Colossus was heavily discussed last week, largely due to its unimposing performance in the premier Blizzard Battle Report. Karune confirmed that the Colossus is currently being reevaluated. Its attack speed is being lowered and its damage increased in order to make it more effective in smaller numbers. I’m sure this will come as a welcome change to most Protoss players, as the Colossus is the developer’s successor to the Reaver, yet in the first Battle Report a Colossus managed to spend a substantial chunk of time inside an undefended enemy expansion without doing any appreciable economic damage.

On the topic of Battle Reports, there were also requests that the next one contain the Zerg, who have been largely under wraps since were overhauled following BlizzCon. Dustin Browder, aka Cavez, made no promises that he would provide a closer look at the latest and greatest that the Zerg have to offer any time soon, instead promising that the Battle Report will contain the best game possible from those at their disposal. He also made no promises regarding the timeline of the next report.

Another question fielded was regarding the Medivac Dropship’s ability to heal allied Zerg and Protoss biological units, including flying units. Cavez confirmed this one, stating that currently the Medivac Dropship can heal all allied biologicals, including airborne ones. This new synergy with Zerg air power, along with Blizzard’s push to move the Terran gameplay more towards an infantry based army, will hopefully give the Terran a greater presence in 2v2 gameplay – a place that they have largely been marginalized due to their relative immobility, particularly in early game.

There were also some mechanics questions in the mix. For one, multiple workers cannot be used to speed construction in StarCraft 2. While this mechanic worked very well for the Human army in WarCraft III, I imagine the sheer difference in volume of workers makes it quite impractical in StarCraft II. Also, we now know that units can be rallied out of a production building right into a bunker or transport.

Other forum gossip included the AutoTurret, which now attacks both air and ground, no longer has a timed lifespan, and costs resources to construct. Also, there are currently no planed changes to the Observer beyond the cosmetic. The StarCraft 2 team is happy with the functionality of the Observer as it stands, and doesn’t think that the game would benefit from any drastic changes to this legacy unit.

Oh, and for those of you who are still looking for a StarCraft II beta key, but aren’t witty or artistic, there’s still hope: the Vespene Laughs comic contest isn’t your only route in! Blizzard has stated that they plan on having other opportunities to attain beta keys in all Blizzard supported regions. Karune did not elaborate on what form these opportunities might take, but did say that they will be revealed ‘relatively soon’. As most of us know at this point, when Blizzard says the word ‘soon’, they are in fact referring to an abstract time period between today and the apocalypse, but the fact that they mentioned it at all is noteworthy.

That about wraps things up for the week. True Blue will be back next week to keep you up to date on the ever changing state of StarCraft as we move towards beta.