Zerg Queen[poll and guide]

They should give th queen some long range attacks, so she can't be hurt as easily. If she has long range, she can attack from a distance so she could kill of othr units easier. Look a the high templar, the defiler, all those guys. They're a bit harder to kill of because they can damage other units that are far away. Range is one thing the queen should have BECAUSE she could then be used fo attack to, not just defense. She should have one good range attack, so that she can be better a offense, not just deffense.

 

but she was made with defense in mind, her abilities reflect this.

although the queen attacks with a melee animation, doesn't she have quite a bit of range? close to a marines?

 

I don't think so. Besides, if they don't have a range attack for hr she's kind of like a zergling in a way when it attacking. I don't care if its not good of range. As long as she has a decent range attack, i'm happy.

 

This might have already been posted but I didn't feel like digging through all the pages, sorry.
I came across an alternative appearance of the queen, which in my opinion hints at the idea of having both melee and ranged attacks on a toggle.

Or, to put it more accurately, it might have been considered back in 2005. Either way, I would like her melee attack to return with lots of damage (~40) on it. That way the animation would still rock and she wouldn't suck.

 

I like the head large and upright, not low and small. I think she'd look better i she had the big head from Eons first post (on this thread) on the body of your pic kuvas. I think she should have lonfg range, at least one. She could shoot poison out of the front spike on her bacK!

 

How are people simultaneously arguing that the Queen is going to be a very low HP unit that is expensive to replace and that she is the center piece of the zerg defensive strategy?

This does not compute for me. Her abilities make her sound useful for point defense reactions, but against anything more than a scouting party or very early rush I don't see her being effective. How does this justify the removal of fixed emplacement defensive structures? So what if they require a drone to build? Use the queen as an early mechanism to avoid having to sacrifice much needed drones in the first <10 minutes, and then allow Zerg players to further fortify their important positions with static defense buildings that can help support a garrison or the Queen to fend off a more focused attack.

Ultimately, the best tactic is always going to be predicting the assault / being prepared for it with your own units / attacking before he does, but I'm just not sitting comfortably on the concept of having a 600 HP unit as my first, last and only defensive option aside from spamming combat units and keeping them uselessly near my base.

Going from there, Zerg better have a magnificent offensive system that makes them a superior expansive force. The Protoss have cannons and pylon grids that allow the warping of units to any given base.

Terrans, obviously, have bunkers and tanks which are dangerous to anything less than a strong attack.

 

"Creep should be no more than a sign of Zerg presence." - I disagree.

So far in the development of SC2, Blizzard is looking at ways to make the creep more important and more usable to benefit the zerg, not just have the creep simply be a sign of zerg presence. I'm excited at the idea of making the creep more important and more tied in with the way the zerg operate; as in zerg units being able to move more quickly on creep (by the way, I'm guessing that's the case regardless of whether zerg units are on their own creep or on an opponents creep, but please correct me if I'm wrong), having creep be spreadable by overlords or overseers (I forget if regular overlords have the ability to spread creep or if you have to morph your overlord(s) into overseers before being able to spread creep) as well as creep tumors, so that you can more easily and strategically use nydus worms or maybe you'd spread creep closer to a choke point like in the demonstration video so you can position your spine crawlers better to fend off attacks... creep being more useful, as Blizzard's making it in this game, really builds on the game as a whole. I feel this is important and an absolutely necessary advancement for the zerg. It makes the game alot more interesting for the zerg, when something that didn't use to be so important, other than to be able to build more zerg structures on it, turns into something that truly affects you more and something that you can do more with, both offensively and defensively.

Boneblade, I agree with you, however unless I misunderstood something you were saying or I'm missing something here myself, the queen isn't a replacement for fixed defenses. Zerg players will still be able to build spine crawlers (replacing sunken colonies and can be uprooted and moved to anywhere else in your base to be planted back down into the creep for better defense positioning) as well as spore crawlers (air defense), with the same capability as the spine crawler. So the queen is essentially and I believe primarily the zerg's defensive unit which will be used to help spine and spore crawlers, along with having additional defensive abilites to help protect your base/expansions even further. And if the queen ends up looking anything like that artist rendering of it above, bravo, cause that b*tch looks BADA$$!! As for those wanting the queen to have a ranged attack, I tend to understand why you want that and I don't completely disagree, but from what I saw in the video first kinda showing us how the queen's been changed and what new things she can do, it looked like she did have at least a slight range in her attack, although obviously not ranged in the sense of what you're looking for. I think if she just has her melee attack where she kind of reaches out and stabs at units and doesn't necessarily have to be completely up against the opposing unit to hit them, that's good enough for me. She's potentially a very strong and capable unit, if you give her an additional ranged attack, unless it was a pretty weak attack, she'd start to become too powerful. The lack of a ranged attack means you're going to have to be very aware and pay close attention to her... you'll have to micro her well to make sure she stays alive and I think that's wonderful. There's got to be a challenge here. We can't just have her end up being a stacked up hero like straight out of wc3 or something, you feel me?

 

I think her melee attack just has the purpose into enabling her to defend herself, not the base: her abilities look like to have been clearly designed to provide to the player a kind of advanced builder, dedicated to the base defense, while her attack is just mean to defend herself, so she is not helpless against a single annoying zergling or marine. If she had a long range attack, players could use her for harass or even early rush, which would suck in my opinion... So I think if you have to use her directly to defend your base, that means there may be something wrong in your strategy!

I like this concept, I just hope there will not be much abuse possible, like for instance, I don't know, multiple zerg players rushing with mass queens against a single base, or spamming underground paths so zerg units can basically teleport anywhere on the map.

Can she burrow by the way? I am sorry, I have not been yet through all the messages...

Edit : the fact that she has no big abilities in her last form, in addition of low energy, clearly shows to me that the main point of this unit is to provide any additionnal defense abilities to the zerg early games. Correct me if I am wrong, but once the enemy has air and/or long range artillery, what can the queen do? She just seemingly becomes then a super ultralisk.

lol
I think in the zerg campaign, this special unit will just appear to be a kind of new experimental pet for the queen of blades.

I don't like this kind of comment, sometimes I wonder if I would not be the only guy here who is not a fan of this race... If we follow this thinking, terrans should only have WW1 planes and tanks, and zergs should just be a swarm of bugs...
Hopefully the terrans can have battlecruisers and the zergs dinosaur-like units.

I think that when she mutates, she becomes a totally new unit, like for every type of the previous zerg units, and that she loses then her previous abilites. That would make sense somehow because that would push sometimes the player to wonder if the upgrade really worth it given the current situation.

 

so is it confirmed that you can now build multiple queens? (BAD IDEA)
also, does the queen change shape as you upgrade her? (like the overmind)?

someone please provide us an update.

 

I think you can only have 1 Queen at a time, and no , she doesn't change when she mutates last time i checked. If she does have a long range attack, I think it should be weak, like UziSuicide said, or else she'd be too powerful. I think she keeps her abilities when sh mutates. That would be a good idea.

 

I'm not going to update this thread until the game is released. When I first made this thread, I didn't expect how much and quickly the queen would be changed.

 

You just don't like the current version.

It's not that important anyway. Making updates every odd version doesn't make much of a differense. Just don't wait until the game is released though, because:
1. That's months or years from now.
2. Most people will be using the game itself or the Starcraft Wikia from then on.

 

Zerg Queen (BlizzCon 08)

HP: 250
Armor: 0
Energy: 150 (starting 50)
Damage: Ranged, 6x2, 12 total damage Air and Ground.
Cost: 200 Minerals 100 Vespene
Control: 2
Build time: 25 seconds
Class: Biological, Psionic, Light
Abilities: Creep Tumor, Mutant Larvae, Razor Swarm

Creep Tumor: For 50 minerals, the Queen can place a 100 HP Creep Tumor on existing Creep, which takes 20 seconds to build. A Creep Tumor extends the Creep rapidly outward, and is burrowed/invisible.

Mutant Larvae: Using energy, the Queen can target a Hatchery/Lair/Hive and it will create 3 Morphalisks. Morphalisks are mutant larvae which can crawl away from the Creep, and mutate into all basic Zerg units except Drones and sub-strains with a build time reduction discount. All costs and control requirements must be met.

Razor Swarm: Researched at the Lair, Razor Swarm requires energy. The Queen creates a cloud of insects which can damage enemy units underneathe. During their existence, you can move the cloud around to deal maximum damage.


-Psi

 

thx psi, might as well update wile ive got some time, work likes to keep me busy

 

I like the Razor Swarm idea :> it acts like a mobile irradiation cloud

 

I also like it.

The creep tumor is good since zerg get a speed increase when on creep, so until you can get detection, zerg can grow creep whereever they want.

For the Morphalisk, does it count toward the 3 larva limit of the hatchery? Or can you get a whole bunch of them from 1 hatch over time and morph them all at once into an instant-army?

 

Remember, Morphalisks are independent from the Hatchery, they only need the Queen's energy to spawn AT the Hatchery. The more Queens you have, the more Morphalisks you can get granted you use Mutant Larvae ability over and over again. Morphalisks no longer mutate into Zerg units in 2 seconds, they get a small discount of build time instead. They don't appear to cost control points either.

I like the Creep Tumor as well, since it enables out-of-base Creep with Overlords. I think I've heard or seen somewhere that Creep Tumors spread the Creep twice as quickly as the normal Hatchery or Overlord Creep..


-Psi

 

Is the new Zerg queen comparable to the Protoss mothership and the terrain thor?

Or do they have something better?

 

The Queen is most likely compared with the Mothership, function-wise. Queen can be produced in the multiple, while Mothership is unique and only one can exist at a time for a player. Queen is access early in the game, while Mothership is all the way up in the techtree. Not to mention Mothership is freaky expensive.

The Thor is likely compared as the new Goliath, a ground vehicle pounder and mass air killer.


-Psi

 

Please refrain from referring to the Thor as a Goliath. Goliaths aren't able to fight their weight in Archons, Thors can do so with ease. The unit I compare the Thor to is the Mammoth Tank from C&C, a walking tank that can take on vehicles and aircraft alike, though it has trouble with infantry and capital ships.