Hi, first time poster here. I actually made this account because I had an idea that I wanted to introduce, and see what people think. What do you guys think about units being able to push other units around while moving? For the longest time I thought it was ridiculous that an ultralisk surrounded by like 6-7 zerglings would be stuck there unable to shove aside the zerglings with its massive size and free itself. But what if it could? Like there would be different weight classes; light, medium, and heavy. Let's say four marines, which would belong to light weight class, are standing in the way of an oncoming thor, a heavy weight unit. Now instead of the thor having to walk around the standing marines, it would be able to walk through them by shoving the marines aside. And if the thor was to confront an immortal, a medium weight unit, it would be able to push it aside as well but with more difficult, possibly having its speed reduced while shoving. But when confronted by an ultralisk, another heavy weight unit, the thor would not be able to displace the ultralisk at all and will have to either walk around or destroy it. Also the ease at which a unit can shove other units would depend on the density of the group. An ultralisk would barrel through five zealots with ease, but it would have harder time barging past fifteen zerglings. And if there are enough light or medium weight units blocking the way, say ten vikings, then the heavy unit will not be able to move it at all. On the other hand no units will be able to shove a unit heavier than their own, even if the lighter unit outnumbers the heavier one. For example, fifty zerglings won't be able to displace a single hydralisk or anything heavier, and thirty stalkers won't be able to push back a thor. Also two units of same weight class will not be able to displace one another. I don't know how colossus will factor into this though. I could see it just stepping over all medium and light weight units on the account of its long spindly legs. I know it's a little late to implement this idea into SC2, but maybe it won't be a bad idea for the Starcraft 3? What do you guys think?
Hello, welcome to the forums. I like your idea, but I think we have discussed something like this already.. I am sure that this could fit the game actually, but it would mess up some tactics I like to use. For example when I play Zerg, I usually put my Lings in the front of the attack to prevent the enemy melee units attacking my heavier troops, but this way the enemy could just cut through without any problems, and kill everything. SC players would have to think everything again.. Blocking chokepoints would be out of the game. (you could use only heavy units..) So it would fit in the game, but I don't know how much it could affect the gameplay.
First of all, welcome to the forums! you should go here to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. Your idea is interesting, but it has a few flaws. For one, the Ultralisk can currently walk over it's smaller Zergling brethren. Whether or not the Ultralisk can walk over most of the other ground units has yet to be seen, and it's stature suggests that it can't walk over most buildings (i'm still hoping for swarm clutches). If units could push one another out of the way, then that'd ruin the GtG micro aspect of the game. a pretty big part of M&M is keeping the marines in front so units like Zealots/Zerglings can't get to the medics in the center of the group. If Zealots/Zerglings could simply push their way through the Marines to get to the Medics, it would have been as if you had just sent the Medics in unprotected. Also, how would direction of the push be figured? Your "unit density" would negate this somewhat, but at the same time it'd be obnoxious because you'd have to build a great many units to ensure that they can't be pushed around when clustered up, which would in turn open you up to get raped by splash damage units like Siege Tanks, Banelings, and Colossi, to name a few. Your idea opens up some uniques strategies, and forces players to think about whether to prioritize clustering units or keeping them apart. But, that's only one tactic, and the idea takes away many more than that. I find it'd make Starcraft complicated in an annoying kind of way. I'd rather not have a game that makes me feel dumb just with core mechanics. P.S. Starcraft 2 is still in the alpha stage, so it's far from late to be suggesting ideas. Heck, knowing Blizzard's usual time between announcement and release, we should have a few years to discuss aspects of the game, right? :
Noo I want the game out NOW Well... I hope that the beta is close, and I hope there will be an open beta. The game looks faar more beautiful than other "alpha" stage games I've seen so far. I know balancing is a hard work, and the mission interfaces, battlenet panels, and other stuff must be made too, but I am sure that we will play (at least the beta) this year.
Ah thanks for all the insightful and polite inputs. You guys make good points, the whole pushing mechanic would complicate the existing gameplays far too much. But what if the pushing mechanic was applied to one unit in the game? And by one unit i mean thor. For a long time lots of people were worried that thor and siege tank's roles would overlap, right? So what if we gave thor a short range GtG attack and a special ability (with long cooldown) that allows it to push aside smaller units? It would become kind of a close range blockade-breaker unit, differentiating it from the siege tanks nicely. Also this wouldn't make thor overpowered because since thor is so darn slow anyone with good micro skill will be able to rearrange their line at will.
As it seems right now, som units are capeable to walk over other. Those are: Collusis, Ultralisk and probaly others too! I dont like you idea, because it would hinder some micro aspects of the game. What I often see the progamers do, is that they micro their ultralisk so that they come in before the zerglings, and then try to take the Zerglings in from behind.
A great idea actually, but then it would be hard to see which units are under the large unit at the time. It would clutter up the screen and that won't look pretty...
Pushing aside. Like when a bully goes up to you and gives you a mean push. Except in this guy's idea, it means to push units aside to make way for the bigger unit.
This concept would mean no more bloking of ramps and chockpoints as such (only with heavy armour units would this be possible) Which i think is a bad idea.
The Marauder NEVER utilized an actual "shoving" attack. First, it completely freezed the targeted unit for a time, but now the targeted unit is slowed down by a certain percentage.
