2009-03-26

Races for StarCraft III



OKAY time to fantasize about completely new races, for SC3 or the SC2 Expansions. I'm a bored nerd hoping for the beta and this's somethin to kill the wait with. k so here is

The RACES OF STARCRAFT III...

  • The XEL'NAGA
      They'll of course be a fully playable enhancement on whatever we get to see of them in SC2. So I can't make up anything until we've seen how Blizzard presents them.



  • The OMINAR
      Borrowing their name from a race in the excellent old-school RPG, Planet's Edge, they would be the morally-ambiguous "neutrals" of the SC3 story, like a very benign Zerg that seek nothing except expanding and protecting their interests, but not actively out to harm anyone else. I actually posted this during a wave of SC2 fever on the forums back in '05..

      Gimmick: Nano-robotics, Transformation.
      Not so cheesy as it sounds. Their mechanics would be reminiscent of both the Terrans and Zerg, yet wildly different from any other SC race ever..


    OMINAR Base
      They'll start off with a large Borg-like Cube as their base building, and you'd make their Workers by "chiseling" off bits from the Cube - draining its HP - thus each Cube will support a finite number of Workers.

      The Cube will gradually keep regrowing back to a maximum size and regain HP as the Workers deposit resources into it. Additional Cubes may be built, albeit at a cost much higher than other races' expansion bases.


    OMINAR Units
      Any other units, will be constructed by Merging the Workers together; the most basic unit will "cost" at least 2 Workers.

      Units may be constructed anywhere on the battlefield by highlighting a group of Workers and selecting the resulting Merge command, or more conveniently from the Cube by automatically splitting off the required number of Workers and Merging them right away.

      So, an OMINAR base would consist of only the Cube and any defensive structures - there will be no "research" or additional structures pre-required for building any unit; just resources and time.


    OMINAR Abilities: Reconfiguration
      The best part, is that any OMINAR unit may be Broken down to its constituent Workers, and re-transformed into a different unit, at any time and place. The number of Workers regained from Breaking down a unit will depend on its remaining HP, but it will always be 1 less than the number of Workers that were Merged to make it.

      Consider: 4 SCVs (which cost 50 Minerals each to replenish the material lost from the Cube) may Merge into 1 Siege Tank, costing an additional 150 Gas as well, and taking 25 seconds.
      The Tank has 100 HP. If you Break it down right away, it'll turn back into 3 SCVs, taking 10 seconds, but if it has only 50 HP left, you will get only 2 SCVs back.

      Flying units will have to land or dock before they can be Broken down.


    OMINAR Upgrades
      Existing units may be individually made stronger i.e. Upgraded by Merging more Workers into them.

      You may Upgrade an OMINAR unit infinite times, but each Upgrade will cost increasingly more Workers and resources; Level 2 Weaponry will cost 1 Worker and 50 Gas, Lv.2 = 2 Workers 100 Gas, Lv.3 = 3 Workers 150 Gas, and so on, hence there'll still be a practical limit after all.

      Only units at 100% HP may be Upgraded, however; if you Merge a Worker to a damaged unit, it will instead only heal that unit by a small amount.


    So in the end, the OMINAR race will the most exactly adaptable to your playing style and strategic preference.

    OMINAR Music & Visual Themes
      Creepy techno/electronica. Think Star Control 2 music, or a mix of SC1 Zerg & Terran soundtracks. The overall look of the race's units will be very white and plastic, with metallicaly-checkered hulls like Star Destroyers.




  • The XEN'EXA
      With a stupid placeholder name (pronounced ZEN-ecksa) they'd be some sort of cousins (and sworn enemies) to the Xel'Naga; possibly the discarded aspects of their past forms, before the Xel'Naga achieved evolutionary perfection. The very manifestation of Evil Itself, these guys will make the Zerg and the Undead look like CareBears..

      Gimmick: Beings of Pure Energy, Reincarnation.
      Haven't thought it all up yet, but maybe they could "posses" or "haunt" lifeless things and structures to animate them to the Xen'exa's purpose, and whenever their units are killed, they will always be reincarnated after some time into a lesser form.

      Basically, the only unit besides workers that they'd be able to build would be a very agile and deadly melee attacker, like Zealots but stronger, and to progress at all they'll need to destroy their enemies and take over their corpses and wreckage. Think of this as a Zealot destroying a Goliath and entering its wreckage to become a Dragoon.



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