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.