Drones Morphing while holding Resources

Zerg Drones should subtract the value of whatever they're holding from the cost of the Structure they Morph into, instead of the held Resource vanishing into thin air for nothing.

For example, assuming Brood War stats, if a Drone is holding Minerals while Morphing into a Creep Colony, it would cost only 67 Minerals, instead of the usual 75.

The Zerg could use this slight advantage, considering they lose a worker in the process.

It could also help a LOT in the situations like losing your only Hatchery to a focused rush early in a team game, and surviving with 8-or-fewer Minerals short of 300, but still having a few Drones left with a mineral chunk in their mandibles.

Maybe the Terran SCVs and Protoss Probes could adapt this as well, after seeing how it plays out.

suggestion: Map Flags & In-Game Clock

These could help a lot in planning strategy with your teammates:

• In-Gam​e Clock

The​re's already a few "add-ons" for Brood War which display the elapsed time on-screen. If this were a built-in feature of the SC2 UI, you could use it to coordinate tactics with your team, like say, "attack at 3:00," and so on.

In 1 vs. 1 melee games, it could also be helpful in gauging your own progress, or estimating your opponent's, like getting a Spawning Pool earlier than you did last time, or knowing by when a certain player would have Cannons up, stuff like that.

• Map Flags

Thi​nk of these as a permanent Ping. You could CTRL+SHIFT+LEFTCLICK (or any other combination) on the Minimap to flag that position with a small number displayed in your color. Each time a player on your team Flags the map, the number would increment.

These flags could optionally be visible on the main view as well, as maybe a translucent marker, and you'd use them in combination with the In-Game Clock to plan out your team strategy to a precise degree.

So, instead of having to ping on the Minimap all the time, which can be easily missed in the heat of battle, you'd just Flag the map once and say like, "Set up a choke at 1 while I attack from 2," and so on.

Hashasu@USEast from the Battle.net Forums says that there is already enough precision and Build-Order memorization with Supply #s, and sense of game-timing is a valid skill people should learn, so maybe the Clock could be a feature for Team Games only?

suggestion: AMM Rematches

Hypog@Lordaeron from the Battle.net Forums had this great idea to make rematches more convenient;

After a game arranged by the Anonymous Matchmaker, it'd be useful to allow a rematch if all players agree. This will allow people who had a good match to play again immediately, as well as give the opportunity to adapt one's strategy according to one's opponent. This would encourage a greater variety of strategies since the same tricks aren't as likely to work a second time.

If the players split matches, they may even have the option of going for a third, making it a best 2 out of 3 set. Again, only if all players agree to the third match.

All of this would work best if the players are taken to a post-game channel immediately following each game where they can chat as they review the stats (and maybe even watch a replay together) before deciding on whether to have a rematch or not.

This could be implemented as a separate "Rematch" button next to the usual AMM button after you've come back into the chatrooms after having finished a game. That button would last as long as all the participants from the previous game have not begun playing any other games.

Sounds great, but could be abused for setting up "rigged" matches, what do you think?

Footprints and Tread-marks in Specific Terrain

This could add a whole new level of subtle but important strategy, if ground units were to leave their "footprints" or tread-marks in certain terrain, like mud, sand, or snow, etc. but not rocks, metal or shallow water obviously.

Such evidence of their passage should last on-screen for a short duration, roughly equal to the average amount of time a unit takes to cross an 800 x 600 screen.

Anyway, this could bring an interesting element to raids, where the attacker has to take care not to cross through any terrain which would give them away, in order to retain an element of surprise.

Now, the immediate problem with that which I can think of right away is the excessive stress it could place on low-end systems, with, say, hundreds of Zerg units moving around. Obviously it can't be made just an optional graphical detail, either..

Another concern would be cloaked units, like Protoss Dark Templar or the Terran Ghosts; should they leave footprints? Maybe they should, but only for a lot shorter period of time, like a second. and what about "hovering" units, like Terran Reapers, or the workers? Maybe Reapers and SCVs could leave a little "burn" trail on the ground resulting from their thrusters, and they'd be unique in that they'd leave an imprint on metallic (i.e. Space Platform) terrain as well, but Zerg Drones and Protoss Probes would leave no traces.

What do you think? Combined with the new Line-of-Sight and Elevation rules, Footprints could let terrain become a very important component of overall strategy.

a Minimal, Translucent UI

I don't know if Blizzard have already considered this, but that "control bar" at the bottom of the screen takes up too much space and it could look a lot better if it was semi-transparent.

It'd also be a lot less cluttered if specific sub-panels were shown only when they're relevant; i.e. there shoud be no UI panels for command-buttons or unit statistics unless you have a unit selected. but if that proves to be too confusing, as in panels appearing over previously-accessible units, maybe it should be made into an explicit toggle, with some hotkey to turn the panels off and back into view at the user's will.

Here's a guess at how the UI might possibly be improved:

booger from StarCraftWire.net had an idea of a more rearranged interface:

In the end, it might be best for both Blizzard and the players to have an "officially" (as in, without resorting to unsupported and possibly illegal hacks) modifiable user-interface for everyone to customize according to their own tastes.

Custom Unit Ideas: Hybrid

Some even more crazy ideas for units to make with the SC2 Editor, mostly taken from a very old thread on the Battle.net forums before SC2's announcement.

not to be taken [too] seriously :p

The ProtoZerg/Zergoss Hybrids (@_@)

Like the demons of Warcraft's Burning Legion, the Hybrids shouldn't be a playable race, at least until the expansion. & all their units would have both rechargable shields & health regeneration!

Herald

• Hydralisk + Zealot (ranged & melee attacks)
• Can Burrow.

Harbinger

• Sort of like some Infested Carrier that produces Scourge that can suicide-bomb ground units too! (O_O)'

Leviathan

• Merged into by 10 Heralds? (like the Archon Meld)
• Something like an Ultralisk (ground-to-ground-only) that can at any time transform back & forth between something like an Archon (ground-to-air/ground splash damage)

Nemesis

• like a Guardian that can also function as an Overlord (detector/transport)
• Can Mind Control any unit like the Dark Archons do.
• Can Infest any enemy unit or Critter to detonate on contact like the Infested Terrans, but they wont be controllable, just wandering on their own.

Custom Unit Ideas: Protoss

Some crazy ideas for units to make with the SC2 Editor, mostly taken from a very old thread on the Battle.net forums before SC2's announcement.

not to be taken [too] seriously :p

Zenith

The "Reborn" - Champions of the reunifaction of Dark Protoss & the Aiur survivors, tentatively adopting the use of small arms from their new Terran friends, they spearhead the effort to assasinate Duran & any awakened Hybrids...

• Temporary Cloaking that uses up energy, like the Terran Ghost.
• attack air units.
• attack ground units with their melee blades only, like the Zealots, preferring the "valor" of engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
• can unleash a Psionic Blast when at maximum energy, kind of like a weaker version of the Terran Battlecruiser's Yamato Cannon, but with a small radius of splash damage.

Sentinel

Conceived by Zeratul to aid in tracking Duran & utilizing the thinned-out Protoss forces more effectively...

• A permanently-cloaked building that can Recall units, like the Arbitter.
• Detector.

Custom Unit Ideas: Zerg

Some crazy ideas for units to make with the SC2 Editor, mostly taken from a very old thread on the Battle.net forums before SC2's announcement.

not to be taken [too] seriously :p

Blade Maiden

From the flesh of captured Terran females that survived the decimation of the U.E.D. expedition, Kerrigan hopes to spawn more of her own vile kind...

• Counterpart to the Protoss Dark Templar (powerful attacks, weak health) without the cloaking
• Can burrow, to heal much faster.
• Can Infest Terran Medics to clone themselves [this ideas was obviously from before the 'dics were cancelled, but if they're still available in the Editor...]

Spawn Colony

Evolved for more rapid colonization of all the newly conquered worlds now within the unchallenged Zerg sphere of influence...

• A slow-moving structure/unit hybrid, looking sort of like some huge arachnid.
• Can attack air units like an Spore Colony, & also ground units like a Sunken Colony.
• Can Spawn Zerglings or Hydralisks anywhere, one at a time, but quicker than the Larvae do.
• Can Mutate into a Hatchery.
• so it's essentially a mini-Hatchery/Sunken/Spore combo...that moves.

Custom Unit Ideas: Terran

Some crazy ideas for Terran units to make with the SC2 Editor, mostly taken from a very old thread on the Battle.net forums before SC2's announcement.

not to be taken [too] seriously :p

Zeus Cannon

Being on the run & not as organized anymore to effectively use the cumbersome & dicey nuclear missiles, James Raynor authorizes the reallocation of their radioactive stockpiles into a more readily accessible superweapon...

• A giant, immobile, cannon that, at maximum energy, releases a searing beam of energy, which can tear across the entire map, unless hitting terrain, or a unit or building that it cannot completely destroy.
• should damage ground units only? not sure
• The direction can be specified when building, but permanently fixed thereafter.

cant think of any more..man the Terrans have got pretty much everything covered already >_<

Some obvious cheese/strategy to try in SC2

Here's a couple of the more obvious strategies/cheese/trolls everyone'll be sure to try in StarCraft II, that I can think of right away;

• Sieging the enemy with a Terran Planetary Fortress. Lulz value: 4/5

Blocking the choke to their base or landing an SCV-loaded Command Center right inside an enemy base and upgrading it to a Planetary Fortress while they're busy elsewhere. This'll obviously require some support from other units. Add more CCs for an increased "WTF?" effect.

• Attacking an enemy's resources from an inaccessible elevation with Protoss Collosi or Stalkers. Lulz value: 2/5

Heaven help a player whose main minerals are right under a cliff with little or no defenses, and the opponent goes straight for a fast Colossus or Blink-Stalker build. Zerg will have it easier to counter with Sunken Colonies, obviously, and Terran would probably have no problems once they have Siege Tanks, but it remains to be seen how much more effective the Colossi turn out once they upgrade to Hardened Shields.

• Laying down two dozen Siege Tanks in an ally's base and threatening to take him out unless he pays tribute. (by Ghetto_overlord@Azeroth from the Battle.net Forums) Lulz value: 3/5

• Protoss Warp-Prism rush. Lulz value: 3/5

as demonstrated in that video of "Sonkie vs Yellow" from BlizzCon 2008. We already have the Protoss Cannon rush, but when you add a flying Pylon to it that can transport units and summon Zealots almost instantly, you have potential for immense merriment if the victim has been careless.

• The Mushroom Bomb; Hallucinating the enemy's own units with the Protoss Nullifier.

Although you could already do this in Brood War, it's too expensive and rare to be of any real use. SC2's Nullifiers however, look like they could put this trick to some effective results, with the reduced energy cost and the casters being more secure by having some offensive weaponry, unlike the sitting-duck High Templar of BW.

Lulz value: varies. Try casting it on the enemy's harvesters! Hilarity ensues when they're suddenly under attack by 8 or so of their own kind out of nowhere ^^ Combine with a Warp Prism drop for more effectiveness.

Pesky Terran Siege Tanks sitting on high ground pelting you with painful splash death? Hallucinate a nearby crowd of their Marines or whatever, and watch them go boom!

Strategic value: varies. This obviously depends on how ditsy the opponent is, but if they're Protoss, cloning their own units somewhere they're not paying attention will surely make them think that you're attacking, thus great for a decoy.

What's your plan?

suggestion: New Mining Mechanic

A poster on the Battle.net Forums had this interesting idea while "thinking of a way to make the races a bit more different" so he came up with this; Drones, SCVs, and Probes should all have different mining methods..

• Terran SCVs: hold more minerals.
• Protoss Probes: don't have to go back and forth between Minerals and Nexus, instead the minerals are Warped, but must obviously be near a Nexus to work. [sounds too much like the Night Elf Wisps from Warcraft III though.]
• Zerg Drones: get a speed boost from Creep.

You will obviously have to tinker with the exact amount of Minerals picked up, but pretty much they all can have their own way of doing it.

Images & code supporting SC2 found on Battle.net!

Superfux@USWest from the Battle.net Forums found something interesting while "Bored looking through B.Net 2.0"

Apparently, and maybe somewhat obviously, the new Battle.net account management website already has support for StarCraft II [pre] Beta!

So if you're one of Blizzard's internal testers and have a key for the SC2 Alpha you could already download the client from there, as with any other game you register and link with your account.

Damn..

suggestion: Zerg Gas Macro: Extractor Evolution

Both the Protoss and the Terran have a mechanic for increasing their mineral gathering rate. Archerofaiur proposes a Zerg resource mechanic to increase the rate at which they harvest gas.

Harvester
(Zerg Structure, Evolved from Extractor, requires Lair)

Cost: 150 Minerals
Build Time: 20

Allows 5 Drones to harvest gas (instead of the usual 3)

Player has to sacrifice minerals to initiate the mutation. Since Drones can not harvest while the Extractor is mutating you are also sacrificing Gas for a period. This provides an interesting trade-off in exchange for greatly-increased Gas production down the road.

Posted by Archerofaiur@USEast on the Battle.net Forums.

This upgrade to a Harvester should cost a lot of minerals (maybe 200 or higher) though, for it to be taken as a conscious choice rather than a necessity. If it's only 50 or 100 minerals there's no reason anyone should skip on it, and it'd simply become a required chore.

An alternative Ranking system for the AMM Ladder

I'm just throwing this out there; not supposed to be a suggestion or request or anything..

Now, "Levels" are a vague indicator of a player's relative skill, say a Level 30 player versus a Level 31 player would be a lot different than an L1 versus an L2.

Instead of Levels, each player could have a more finely-grained "Score."


Consider this;

• Every Unit (or Structure) is worth a certain number of Points, which're based on how much it costs.
  i.e. every 50 minerals are worth 1 point (so a Zergling is worth 0.5 points) and every 50 gas is worth 1.5 points.
  
  
• A Unit is worth 0 Points if it never sees combat,
  that is, decreases the HP of an enemy Unit by attacking or using an special ability, or has its own HP decreased by the enemy.
  
  
• If you win a match, all the Points from the enemy Units you killed, as well as the Units you made (which Saw Combat) are added to your global Score.
  
  
• Even if you lose a match, only the Points from your Kills are added.
  so you can't just sit there and mass irrelevant units, but if you lost by a narrow margin, it'll still have counted for something.
  
  
• In a Team match, all the Kills that your allies make are worth 25% of their Points to your own Score.
  
  Fractions are, of course, rounded down.

So, when using Automatic Match-Making to begin searching for a game, you could specify the Score Margin for your preferred opponent, say from like 100 to 1000, in relation to your own Score.

There may be flaws in this, of course, one of them being "rigging" by opponents who agree to help each other out, or a player with 1000 losses scoring higher than a player with 100 wins. Maybe some kind of weighing, positive or negative, should apply depending on the amount of time a match lasts, how often a player loses, and how often a player wins, and so on. What do you think?

suggestion: Dynamic Music

Yeah, instead of a static soundtrack shuffled throughout the match, StarCraft II should have music that dynamically adapts to the situation, i.e.;

• The opening.
  
• "Calm" moments; no battle occurring anywhere in vision. Different music for day & night.
  
• A small number of enemies spotted or attacking some other player.
  
• A large number of enemies spotted by you or an ally.
  
• Large number of enemies attacking you or being attacked by you.
  
• Large number of enemies attacking an ally.
  
• Large number of allied units on the move.
  
• A large battle ending with you as the survivor (i.e. more of your units left than the enemy's)
  
• Large battle ending with less units left on your side than on the enemy's.
  
• Victoly!
  and so on.

Of course, each of those cues would have several different versions for each race.

Maybe this should be in Heart of the Swarm if it's too late to implement in Wings of Liberty without delaying the release.

More Units = Varied Matches = Better E-Sports

Suggestion:

Each Race should have 2 Units for every Technology Tier and Combat Role. i.e. There should be 2 "Trees" for each race.

• They should have the same prerequisites (i.e. the structures needed,) the same role (ground-to-air, or air-to-ground, or support, etc.) and cost the same ratio of resources (i.e. 1:0 Minerals:Gas or 2:0.5 and so on)
  
• The only difference between them should be the statistics (attack, armor, speed etc.) and any special abilities.
  

Example:

• When you build a Barracks, you will have that obvious option of recruiting Marines, but there'll also be a different ground-to-ground/air ranged unit, costing 75 minerals. Let's name them Strikers.
  They'll be slightly faster than Marines, but have a shorter range of slower ground-to-ground attacks ("Personnel Handgun") OR an even slower but long-ranged G-G/A attack ("Sniping Rifle") and the damages they both do would be roughly the same.
  
  Now I'm not asking that there be such a unit, but this's just for a rough idea of an alternative unit.
  
  
• Similarly, for the Protoss, simply constructing a Gateway would let you call, say, Martyrs in addition to the Zealots; ground-to-ground melee attackers that die (when killed, not at will lol) in a small explosion of splash damage, and cost 150 minerals.
  
  
• They'll all be distinct units in their own right; Abilities researched for one will not affect its alternative.
  

Rationale:

At very high-levels of skill, i.e. the "pro scene" there is precious little variation in overal strategies or build-orders. It tends to boil down to who can click and hotkey faster, becoming like some real-time version of Chess what with all those identical openings and their responses, on symmetrical maps.. >_>
I know this may be an over-simplification begging for flames, but you get the idea; it can be Dull as Damn to watch, pretty quickly.

Let there be some redundancy in the portfolio of units for each race. Let units overlap!

Okay, in Heart of the Swarm if not in time for Wings of Liberty, but stop worrying about issues like not allowing 2 units to share the same damage type (i.e. Splash, which the Siege Tank and a cancelled Battlecruiser ability used to have)

suggestion: Map Contest for SC2 Beta Keys

so Blizzard has all these contests that employ skills which have very little to do with a StarCraft beta, yet you can win keys to it from them.
Why not something that's more relevant to the game?

Hold a contest for making Brood War maps, Blizzard, and let the players vote on the best!

Here's a start;

• CROSSFIRE (4 players)
  http://cid-4c6d5205c8474296.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/StarCraft%20Maps/%7C54%7C6Crossfire.SCX
  
  I love Blood Bath, and this's my take on an improvement. Optimized for rushfests in 2v2 or FFA. Multiple entrances to each base, and high-yield resources in the middle for a hotly-contested expansion. You (and your enemies) can build on the side bridges, so watch out for those cannon/bunker/creep sneak-ups.

The Colossus Solution: Dual Attack Modes

Over the course of SC2's development we've seen several units go through a variety of attack types, most notably the Colossus, which has being unable to decide between a "sweeping" laser attack and the laser "spray" attack...
Well, both attacks look pretty awesome, and it'd be a shame to drop one of those in favor of the other.

I'm aware that the Colossi's attack always did splash damage, but it didn't make sense for their targets to receive damage at the same time before the laser had time to glide over them, so they changed it into an instant burst of multiple lasers.

It'd be a lot more cool to have some sort of toggle-switch for the Colossus, and other units, to manually change their mode of attack or type of weapon.

For the Colossi the options'd be something like this;

• Focused Laser: Once the Colossus begins to attack something, you can choose a different target and the laser will "slide" towards it from the first target, highly damaging anything in its path. This provides you a very precise level of control, preferable for a small group of strong units, i.e. Immortals or Tanks. A complete attack would be enough to destroy a single Crucio Tank if focused on it for its entirety.

• Laser Burst: This will of course be the more convenient option of hitting everything around the targeted enemy in a short radius, for crowd-control effective against masses of weaker, faster units, i.e. Zerglings or Marines. 2 such bursts would kill a targeted Marine, and 3 would kill the Marines around it.

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.

StarCraft... 3? Ideas for a Prequel.

why not.
Okay, definitely a prequel.

We'll assume that the state of affairs in the current SC2 universe is wrapped up by the time one or two Expansions have followed, after the original trilogy.

So SC3 will focus on the eon of the Xel'naga civilization at its peak, and whatever threats brought them to this Galaxy and necessitated the creation of Protoss and Zerg.

There'll still be 3 races, but no Terrans, Protoss or Zerg at all, obviously. The battles and the entities involved in them would be of an absolutely epic scale; think The Silmarillion versus The Lord of the Rings, with SC3 being like the former; each of the god-like races will have firepower that'd make the Death Star seem like a nerf ball.

In terms of gameplay, it'll also break all bonds with the previous SC (or WC) games, going for different mechanics where applicable, without the obligation to satisfy any existing players' ecosystem, and thus offering true innovation without cannibalizing SC2.

It'd have an "open" multiplayer-capable campaign mode instead of linear missions; each online session would spawn an instance of the Xel'naga's home Galaxy, with the players each commanding a single faction from the 3 races, starting from their respective worlds.
You'd then choose your own path among the stars, managing multiple planets and conflicting with other factions along the way, and occasionally coming up key plot-centric regions which advance the storyline. There'll be different endings depending on which faction completes all their plot-specific missions first.

suggestion: Optional UI for detailed stats

Right-clicking or hovering on a unit's portrait or icon should bring up their statistics for attributes such as Mobility, Range of Vision, Range of Fire, Rate of Attack, and so on.

This could make it more interesting who love numbers :)

Blizzard should launch their own IM service; The Battle.net 2.0 Messenger

This's something else I posted years before SC2's announcement, and now that they've introduced a single-login system and global accounts for the new Battle.net, it’d be a perfect time to have a Battle.net Instant-Messaging client;

The Battle.net Messenger (BNM? BM? BMS?)
For the next-generation of Blizzard games, like StarCraft II and Diablo III, this'll allow you to;

• see and chat with all your Battle.net friends, whether they are playing a game or not.
  If they are in SC2 or D3 for example, they would get your messages in-game, unless they choose not to be disturbed.
  and if they're not logged on to a game, the Messenger would act like any other IM client, i.e. Live Messenger or AIM.

• see all available custom games in a convenient list, and join them with simply a click (or two.)
  For example, even if you don't have the SC2 executable already running, the Battle.net Messenger will launch it and send you straight to the lobby of the custom game you chose, skipping any preceding UI or cinematic whatsoever.

Also, maybe through integration with the Messenger, a Blizzard game, say SC2, would let you stay in touch with players on other games, like D3.
This could obviously be used for many other things, including an always-active venue on the users' end for Blizzard to place advertisements on and provide announcements through. :)

4th SC2 Race?

What do you suppose it'll be?

The Xel'naga? or the Protoss-Zerg Hybrids?

My take on this is that it'll initially be the Hybrids, let loose as the ultimate threat to the Koprulu Sector, maybe eventually the entire Galaxy, and near the end of final SC2 installment, the Xel'naga themselves will make an appearance to help get rid of the Hybrids and maybe the Zerg as well, to correct their mistakes.

Either way, a 4th race would very likely be implemented as the Naga were in The Frozen Throne; maybe you could control some Hybrid units duringHeart of the Swarm, and some Xel'naga units in Legacy of the Void.

suggestion: Zerg Ability: Reabsorb

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=16137220792&sid=3000Just throwing this out there;

In keeping with the theme of biological super-adaptability for the Zerg race, there could be an ability to Reabsorb Zerg units who were Burrowed in Creep to recover a fraction of their cost in Minerals. The ability should be inherent for all ground units once their Burrowing ability has been researched, and it will only ever return Minerals; never Gas.

For example, Reabsorbing one Zergling will let you reclaim, 10 or so Minerals.