Terran:
Emperor Valerian Mengsk, in his effort to crack down on the corruption of the Terran Confederacy and Arcturus Mengsk's Dominion, has broken up the oil and gas oligarchies. Hellions and hellbats can now have a cheaper blue flame on the new Dominion's dime. There are also rumors that hellion and hellbat pilots have started adding a bit of beer and whiskey to their plasma containers in celebration of Valerian's triumph over Carolina Davis, which might also explain the decline in blue flame costs.
Emperor Valerian has also taken his advisors' counsel, and has redesigned the guns for the Thor, trading off firepower for more rapid fire. Matthew Horner believed this change will work for the better. Rory Swann intensely disagreed, claiming that it ruined the shock and awe the mech monster was supposed to bring, but reluctantly helped in refitting a Thor for prototyping and testing. Time will tell if this change proves significant on the battlefield, especially against brood lords and tempests.
Emperor Valerian, perhaps wanting to make his own mark on his Dominion forces, has also done much to reorganize the way that the Terran tech tree operates, shifting over various project teams to the fusion core research program. At first glance, it seemed as though they were put off to the side, not meant to be used. The Terran populace was immensely distraught. However, Valerian explained to them that the fusion core research program had grown surprisingly popular a year ago or so, and that putting the project teams under the fusion core research program reduced both overhead cost and encouraged increased inter-team participation and collaboration.
Emperor Valerian has also expressed his desire to make significant changes in terms of maintenance and long-term sustainability, and using that money for government welfare funds and programs. In this light, the decrease of the liberator range, the battlecruiser efficiency re-allocation, the mule efficiency increase, and increasing energy storage required to produce an interference matrix are part of his larger political aims.
Zerg:
Zagara, Queen of the Swarm, has had to make several cutbacks due to decreased conflict post-Second Great War. There are rumors that Abathur is attempting to overthrow the Swarm and become its new King. He has the motive and the means to make it happen. But for now, these rumors are merely rumors.
However, two interesting changes that has the Koprulu Sector talking for the past month is the nydus network and infestor. The nydus network has a terrifying ability to almost instantly transport zerg hit squads and armies hundreds of miles. Unfortunately for the zerg, increased use of the nydus network recently has accelerated their aging, leading to longer boring times.
The infestor has also been talked about intensely in Terran, Protoss, and Zerg circles. Recent field reports by Dominion ravens and Protoss observers (both Dae'lam and Tal'darim) suggest that infestors (and in turn the Swarm) have finally run out of their infested terrans. During the Second Great War, infestors assimilated any innocent terran into their race. Today, however, the Zerg are in a binding contract (forged by the then-Queen of Blades, Valerian Mengsk, and Artanis) to not infest any more humans. Their supply of infested terrans, of which some thought to be in the tens if not hundreds of billions
Unfortunately, Zagara herself declined to comment. This reporter was chased out the royal hive by lings, banes, and hydras.
Coming up next: Top Ten Terran analysts discuss changing patterns of creep spread!
Protoss:
The enigmatic Protoss have also been significantly impacted by the outcome of the Second Great War.
It has been long known that certain Protoss ship pilots, commanders, and AIs, have noticed that certain movements and positions of ships increased the effectiveness of their laser-based weapons. Although this has been tolerated in the Second Great War out of necessity, Artanis and his advisors have given strict orders to not execute these movements and positions in order to increase the longevity of their forces.
At the annual Twlight Council meeting, representatives from all the former Protoss factions have agreed to retrain their soldiers. Due to the decreasing conflict, the majority of them have agreed to train their zealots and adepts to use speed to out-run as well as ambush their foes, and have been given cybernetic enhancements and weapons to further encourage and assist zealots and adepts in this task. To Terrans, this reminds them of the ninja of the days of old. However, certain factions believe that zealots should continue to be a front-line dispenser of foes.
The maximum allowable observer speed has also been decreased across the board. This is likely due to the fact that the average observer is 500 years old, and most have been out in the cold, harsh environment of interstellar space for centuries.
Despite the cutbacks in some areas, there have been reallocations and increased emphasis on certain ship classes. Protoss researchers that have been studying the effects of tempests on their pilots have reported that the longer the firing range, the more physical pain tempest pilots feel (in spite of their suits being made to counter this in the first place). As a result, tempests now use less psionic power overall, slightly decreasing their range and shields. In compensation, tempest pilots have been given even thicker suits to withstand the enormous strain the ships put on their bodies.
The void ray, at first poised to become the dominant ship class in Protoss armies, still pales in popularity to tempests and carriers on the battlefield. After considerable thought and discusion, Artanis has mandated void ray captains to bring in their void rays and fine-tune their prism cores to allow them to generate flux vanes, dramatically increasing their speed.
Protoss motherships have also been given the green light to more effectively utilize the power within their Khaydarin crystals, generating significantly more potent time warps. This was also accompanied by a new requirement stating that protosses must now have a level 3 or higher rating against mind control to be allowed inside a mothership.
Last, but certainly not least, there was a memorial at the Council for a zealot named InControl, who died in single combat against the very last hybrid (but not without first killing the hybrid in question) in the remote reaches of the Koprulu Sector, far away from Aiur. His sacrifice was and will continue to be remembered by all the Zerg, Terran, and Protoss.
