Apr 1 2013, 03:27 PM, updated 13y ago
QUOTE
As you may know, the Warhound was removed very early in the Heart of the Swarm public beta test because we felt that its role overlapped with the Marauder a bit too much. Mechanically, these two units were virtually identical, but were produced from two different buildings. It’s never an easy decision to remove a unit, but this decision was particularly tough because we absolutely loved the Warhound’s art.
After watching the MLG Winter Championship, we noticed that Life was able to beat Flash a little too easily in the finals. Had Flash been able to build Warhounds, our favorite race (Terran) may have won the tournament. As usual, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision based on this match and immediately set about rebalancing the game.
Accordingly, we reintroduced the Warhound into our internal builds for testing purposes. It felt great to have the Warhound back when we played as Terran, but when we played against them using our favorite race (Zerg), it somehow felt very wrong. Obviously, we couldn’t have that, so we decided that we must also give the Warhound to Zerg.
After putting some more thought into it, we realized that our favorite race (Protoss) was getting the short end of the stick because it was the only race without the Warhound. That’s when it came to us: Protoss should have it as well, since one of our main goals in StarCraft II was to create as much symmetry as possible amongst all three races.
So after considering every angle, here’s what’s changing:
The Warhound has been added for Terran because robots are cool and the art is amazing
The Warhound has been added for Zerg to remain competitive with Terran.
The Warhound has been added for Protoss to keep Protoss players from whining about them on the forums.
While we know these changes are drastic, we encourage everyone to log in and spend some time playing before rushing to judgment. We welcome you to share your thoughts, but this time around we’re not going to be listening to feedback.
For more information on the story behind the Warhound please check out the Warhound Q&A and the latest entry in our StarCraft short story series “Command Performance”.
GL HF!
After watching the MLG Winter Championship, we noticed that Life was able to beat Flash a little too easily in the finals. Had Flash been able to build Warhounds, our favorite race (Terran) may have won the tournament. As usual, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision based on this match and immediately set about rebalancing the game.
Accordingly, we reintroduced the Warhound into our internal builds for testing purposes. It felt great to have the Warhound back when we played as Terran, but when we played against them using our favorite race (Zerg), it somehow felt very wrong. Obviously, we couldn’t have that, so we decided that we must also give the Warhound to Zerg.
After putting some more thought into it, we realized that our favorite race (Protoss) was getting the short end of the stick because it was the only race without the Warhound. That’s when it came to us: Protoss should have it as well, since one of our main goals in StarCraft II was to create as much symmetry as possible amongst all three races.
So after considering every angle, here’s what’s changing:
The Warhound has been added for Terran because robots are cool and the art is amazing
The Warhound has been added for Zerg to remain competitive with Terran.
The Warhound has been added for Protoss to keep Protoss players from whining about them on the forums.
While we know these changes are drastic, we encourage everyone to log in and spend some time playing before rushing to judgment. We welcome you to share your thoughts, but this time around we’re not going to be listening to feedback.
For more information on the story behind the Warhound please check out the Warhound Q&A and the latest entry in our StarCraft short story series “Command Performance”.
GL HF!
http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/586029/S..._2013-3_31_2013
QUOTE
With the Warhound’s glorious return, we knew there would be questions burning in the collective hearts of the StarCraft community. We sat down with Justin Dye, prominent member of the “Warhound Advocacy Department” (formerly known as Creative Development) to get the inside scoop.
Q: What’s the lore behind the Warhound’s origin?
A: A fantastic question. We added a new short story last week which covers the backstory of the Warhound by famed science fiction author, Alex Irvine! Be on the look out!
Q: In the beta, the Warhound was built from the factory. Why is it now a worker?
A: As noted in our email conversation with David Kim, the Warhound went through testing during Heart of the Swarm’s beta phase, but we discovered a very serious problem: it took far too long to build Warhounds. Why should we force you to wait until you have a Factory to build a Warhound when it can come straight from your Command Center? A player’s average time to Warhound or “ATW” is now less than a second!
Q: This sounds great! Have you considered making every unit the Warhound?
A: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While I think we all agree that the Warhound needed a comeback, replacing every unit with the Warhound could cause some minor confusion on the StarCraft II Ladder. We’re currently looking into alternative methods to give you the same punch, like perhaps adding a fourth race composed entirely of Warhounds, or perhaps neutral Xel’Naga Warhounds which can be claimed by nearby ground units.
Q: Why aren’t there any female Warhound pilots?
A: There are! They just happen to look and sound exactly like the male ones. You can blame the strict, some might even say draconian, Dominion physical appearance guidelines for this one.
Q: What’s the lore reasoning for all three races having terran pilots in their Warhounds?
A: Good eye! You’ve caught a bug our QA department alerted us to early this morning. We decided to ship the patch anyways, because we simply couldn’t wait any longer! Tomorrow we’ll be patching in lore-appropriate drivers for the Warhounds, including a Baneling, a Dark Templar, and an SCV.
Q: Are we really supposed to believe that Zerg Warhounds are now biological units that can morph into structures?
A: Yes! It’s all very complicated and it involves Ribosomes.
Q: Have you considered adding Warhounds to your other games?
A: Fan reaction to this change has been incredible, but we’re considering this a test bed. If we’re successful, we’d love to add the Warhound into each of our games including Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. But that’s not all. A considerable effort is being spent on research and development in order to add the Warhound directly into every Rock n’ Roll Racing cartridge ever made! Thrilling stuff!
Q: What’s the lore behind the Warhound’s origin?
A: A fantastic question. We added a new short story last week which covers the backstory of the Warhound by famed science fiction author, Alex Irvine! Be on the look out!
Q: In the beta, the Warhound was built from the factory. Why is it now a worker?
A: As noted in our email conversation with David Kim, the Warhound went through testing during Heart of the Swarm’s beta phase, but we discovered a very serious problem: it took far too long to build Warhounds. Why should we force you to wait until you have a Factory to build a Warhound when it can come straight from your Command Center? A player’s average time to Warhound or “ATW” is now less than a second!
Q: This sounds great! Have you considered making every unit the Warhound?
A: Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While I think we all agree that the Warhound needed a comeback, replacing every unit with the Warhound could cause some minor confusion on the StarCraft II Ladder. We’re currently looking into alternative methods to give you the same punch, like perhaps adding a fourth race composed entirely of Warhounds, or perhaps neutral Xel’Naga Warhounds which can be claimed by nearby ground units.
Q: Why aren’t there any female Warhound pilots?
A: There are! They just happen to look and sound exactly like the male ones. You can blame the strict, some might even say draconian, Dominion physical appearance guidelines for this one.
Q: What’s the lore reasoning for all three races having terran pilots in their Warhounds?
A: Good eye! You’ve caught a bug our QA department alerted us to early this morning. We decided to ship the patch anyways, because we simply couldn’t wait any longer! Tomorrow we’ll be patching in lore-appropriate drivers for the Warhounds, including a Baneling, a Dark Templar, and an SCV.
Q: Are we really supposed to believe that Zerg Warhounds are now biological units that can morph into structures?
A: Yes! It’s all very complicated and it involves Ribosomes.
Q: Have you considered adding Warhounds to your other games?
A: Fan reaction to this change has been incredible, but we’re considering this a test bed. If we’re successful, we’d love to add the Warhound into each of our games including Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. But that’s not all. A considerable effort is being spent on research and development in order to add the Warhound directly into every Rock n’ Roll Racing cartridge ever made! Thrilling stuff!
http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/586028/B...nd_QA-3_31_2013
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