Does This Mutation Make Me Look Fat? Let's Play Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm

[Keltest]

Make that 4 for Burrow Charge. If I recall the other choices correctly, this means half your army jumps forward on enemy contact.

I dont remember if the campaign ultralisks have autocast for burrow charge or not, actually.

[The Glyphstone]

Wiki says yes?

Burrow Charge

Ultralisk burrows and charges towards target point. On eruption, knocks enemies back and stuns them for 2 seconds. Can be autocast.

[Lord Torath]

I'll also vote for Burrow-Charge. Just fun to watch. I really want to like Monarch Blades, but really, Ultralisks aren't that great offensively. You need to use them like Carnifexes in 40k, to soak hits for the real damage dealers.

On a semi-related note, I just ran the first Skygeir Station mission, and ended up with 24 Med-evacs, 22 Thors, 7 Battlecruisers, 16 Siege Tanks, probably about 10 vikings, 1 banshee, and one science vessel. And at least a dozen Firebats. Infestors are fun.

[Psyren]

On a co-op note, I finally got off my duff and unlocked Zagara's three prestiges. P3 Zagara (Apex Predator, aka Super-Zagara) is phenomenal and I can't believe it took me this long to get it. It shores up her main weakness of having little to no anti-air until the mid-game when she can not only have scourge nests but cheaper scourges, because she and her Hunter-Killers can easily take down multiple Battlecruisers and Hybrid Nemeses with a single cast provided they aren't being crushed by ground units.

[Traab]

Factoring in prestiges, which would you say is in general the easiest commander to play in coop? By which I mean they arent rushing because they suck till late game, doing massive amounts of micro, only situationally powerful etc. Simple, straightforward, and all around effective.

[Psyren]

I'd say the overall easiest, especially on a budget, would be Artanis. He's free to play all the way to max level, and Mass Dragoons and Zealots with a couple of observers can handle basically any Hard or Brutal map once you have all the right upgrades. He can reinforce his front lines directly with his power field so you don't have to worry about travel time in long maps like Malwarfare or Rifts, and other Protoss commanders will love you for it. His top bar is also great both on offense (pushing into fortified bases) and defense (tough waves that sneak past your armies.) Add to that that he basically plays like he does in the campaign but even stronger, and the learning curve is dead easy.

Using him, a new player can get a feel for all the maps on Hard/Brutal and decide which commanders they want to prioritize purchasing based on the ones they get paired with that look most fun.

[Tvtyrant]

Factoring in prestiges, which would you say is in general the easiest commander to play in coop? By which I mean they arent rushing because they suck till late game, doing massive amounts of micro, only situationally powerful etc. Simple, straightforward, and all around effective.

Stukov would be my vote. He gets the Apocalysk which deals with early threats, and if you go barracks spam you can simply hurl troops at the enemy until they die. Easiest commander by far in my experience.

[noob]

Stukov would be my vote. He gets the Apocalysk which deals with early threats, and if you go barracks spam you can simply hurl troops at the enemy until they die. Easiest commander by far in my experience.

Stukov was also the first commander I tried and I can confirm: it is easy to play until your frame-rate drops to 1 frame per 2 seconds so it is best to have a good computer.

[Winthur]

Factoring in prestiges, which would you say is in general the easiest commander to play in coop? By which I mean they arent rushing because they suck till late game, doing massive amounts of micro, only situationally powerful etc. Simple, straightforward, and all around effective.

Easiest to dominate with: Zeratul. The only problem that Zeratul has is that you have to learn how to find artifacts. When you learn the Nexus rally point trick (or, if you don't feel like clicking and watching - basically, Zeratul's visions also see anything that your camera sees, including any revealing of the fog of war or your own rally points - you can just have Zeratul focus on a vision while you rapidly right-click the minimap until you see the rally point outline in the vision. Then you can zero-in and snag the artifact.) With all artifacts Zeratul just plays by himself. He has ridiculous amounts of auto-micro and auto-macro abilities and his toolkit is insane for mutations and running circles around your allies. Once you achieve 3 artifact fragments, you a-move Stalker/Shieldguard through everything, occasionally microing Zeratul, who is really tanky himself. Warp Prisms let you be everywhere on the map at once, too. He's insanely mutation resilient, which is great for getting that sweet bounty. Also, you are better at Photon Cannons than Karax while requiring much less setup, which is perplexing. Also, you will never get supply blocked. P3 Zeratul is somehow even easier, and his other prestiges are also fine.

Alternative: Tychus. You get to mow everything down with a squad of few units that can all be easily commanded with simple F2A. Your squad can be transported anywhere you want. Your macro is simple because you just have regular Engineering Bay upgrades and otherwise accumulate a ton of money at a time to spend on gear. It may be overwhelming to sift through all the gear and choices, but honestly, Tychus - Sirius - Rattlesnake (or Tychus - Rattlesnake - Sirius), with Sam and Nux added later, is an a-move friendly core that does pretty much everything well on regular Brutal and forgives micro mistakes because everyone has a lot of HP, and you even get a free revive on Tychus on occasion because he is resurrected if you summon Odin. Also, you will never get supply blocked. All of his prestiges are ridiculously good, too.


Easiest to pick up and understand: Artanis due to an available simple go-to playstyle (mass Dragoons with some core support) and not a lot of micro nuance. Becomes really easy to level from Level 4 when you get better upgrades for your Dragoons. Not an outstanding speedrunner and often won't outkill a competent ally, and also only so-so in terms of mutation resilience. In fact, I think Artanis is firmly mid-to-low-tier, but when it comes to autopiloting regular Brutal, he's a fine choice and he has a few mutators he's strong against. Solar Bombardment will let you cheese objectives. Guardian Shell is an entirely passive benefit so you don't even have to pay attention to help your ally somehow. Also, he's free. Also, at max level, you will never get supply blocked. You mass Dragoons and add Zealots, get the Twilight Council upgrades, keep the Power Field around the battlefield and reinforce as needed, and you steamroll Brutal missions.

Alternative: Stukov still wins Brutal with ease by either spamming mass Bunkers and unloading them in waves, or by massing Diamondbacks and having some basic kiting micro with them. His Siege Tanks are also an insanely good holdout option in "i def" scenarios. The reason I think Artanis is still easier is because while you can just set a marker on an objective and go AFK while Bunkers keep streaming units, Stukov is more annoying in case of an ally that refuses to push. Still, Stukov is a steady choice and has some really good breakout and defensive calldowns, but, similarly to Artanis, he's also a mid-tier character, excelling only against a few mutators and having middling DPS - stuff that only matters in high-stress situations like mutations. His prestiges are much better, particularly p1 for Diamondback spam and p3 for Bunker spam, vastly simplifying either of these playstyles. Anyway, he steamrolls regular Brutal missions with autopilot effort.

All of the above commanders, Tychus and Zeratul in particular, are basically as good as it gets from level 1, and further levelling just makes them more efficient. This makes them good to try out before you buy them because what you see at level 1-5 is basically what you get, just a bit better.

Honorable mention: Kerrigan for being free and letting you dominate with a hero solo from the 4th minute until at least the 15th... problem is, her levelling curve is kinda garbo compared to the newer hero releases like Dehaka and Zeratul. You should still be able to do very well with mass Hydralisk and Nydus (later Omega Worm) support, it's just that she doesn't become a hero solo goddess of the battlefield until higher levels. She's still okay and straightforward while levelling, but you might have a few "Damn it! My minions are getting torn apart out there!" exclamations if you try playing her on Brutal from level 1 just because her army is on the squishier side and Kerri takes a while to become a truly good frontline tank.

[The Glyphstone]

As it happens, I've picked up Stukov as my 2nd leveler now that Swann is capped out. He's definitely straightforward, though I feel like I'm being inefficient by stockpiling so much minerals despite being told otherwise.

[Winthur]

As it happens, I've picked up Stukov as my 2nd leveler now that Swann is capped out. He's definitely straightforward, though I feel like I'm being inefficient by stockpiling so much minerals despite being told otherwise.

Depends when and how. If you are not 200/200, you shouldn't be stockpiling minerals. Just keep adding Bunkers (and don't get supply blocked, get those Overlords out fast with a bunker strat due to the steep supply cost) or Factories to make more Diamondbacks; Stukov doesn't have much in terms of gas dumps, especially with a bio build.

[Psyren]

Yeah if you're stockpiling minerals with Stukov then you either need more bunkers or more overlords, or both. Or you have enough of both, and the game is about to end.

He's easy to play but I didn't put him at easiest because on some maps you may have to switch things up. Malwarfare for instance you'll find yourself wanting to move bunkers up with the escort, especially if you're carrying your ally, nad that can be difficult early on when creep is scarce so you'll want to also be moving some overlords to spread it more quickly. His P3 largely avoids that, but then that one has the issue of losing some of his defensive power for missions like Dead of Night where you're getting attacked fom multiple angles simultaneously while you have just one emitter. The right answer there is siege tanks but a bunker-spammer might not think of that.

Tychus is extremely easy once you figure out the right merc order - which as Winthur said is Tychus-Sirius-Rattlesnake- Detector-Any. Some mutators make you mix that up (e.g. Diffusion messes up Rattlesnake's healing so you will want Nikara instead, and many mutators will encourage you to use two healers) but by and large this is the baseline.

Zeratul is probably the most OP commander in the game overall and I consider his design very questionable on Blizzard's part. With the game in maintenance mode though, further changes are unlikely.

[Keltest]

Depends when and how. If you are not 200/200, you shouldn't be stockpiling minerals. Just keep adding Bunkers (and don't get supply blocked, get those Overlords out fast with a bunker strat due to the steep supply cost) or Factories to make more Diamondbacks; Stukov doesn't have much in terms of gas dumps, especially with a bio build.

He isnt level 15 yet. His bunkers are still somewhat limited in offensive potential. Right now he's using barracks to pick up the slack, and Stukov barracks play has incredibly heavy stockpiling and spending of minerals, as well as wildly fluctuating supply availability.

[The Glyphstone]

Proper bunker play is definitely going to be something I need to figure out, because I dont have all the spawn points memorized on every map - I'm hesitant to move my bunkers too far forward in case it puts them out of position to intercept an attack wave.

Plus, as Keltest said my primary offensive and defensive tool right now is Marine spam to back up the civilian surges or intercept a wave when Apocalisk isn't ready.

[Winthur]

He isnt level 15 yet. His bunkers are still somewhat limited in offensive potential.

Fair enough, I haven't levelled Stukov with Barracks-first and I can't say if it's better for levelling or worse - certainly seems better on go-to levelling maps like Void Thrashers that end early and take longer for Bunkers to pay the investment off. Last time I levelled Stukov, P1 was available from the get go, rendering any Barracks strats obsolete. In that case I can see the problem.

Well, if you're concerned with banking minerals, you could also go Bunker/Tank, but pushing with that combination can be a bit arduous because while teleporting tanks with the highest attack range of all tanks in the game are wonderful, it still takes a little bit of setup.

[Psyren]

Proper bunker play is definitely going to be something I need to figure out, because I dont have all the spawn points memorized on every map - I'm hesitant to move my bunkers too far forward in case it puts them out of position to intercept an attack wave.

You shouldn't need more than 4-6 bunkers at home for that, plus a few turrets for air comps and detection. All the rest can be placed forward.

You should also place the Colonist Compound forward, and possibly even your barracks depending on how much you're using them.

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Update 15: In Which Canon Gets Locked In a Broom Closet

Show

March 20, 2506:

It took almost a week for Sarah to recover from her injuries, during which Zagara had pulled the Swarm back to Char to regroup. As for me, I alternated between sleeping and drinking until I fell asleep again – at this rate I was going to become as much of an alcoholic as Mr Raynor had been, but it was still better than being sober enough to think. At one point, I ended up outside the shuttle, sitting against the hull and staring out into the empty void until a certain Overlord drifted close again.



Your thoughts are in turmoil yet again, Little One. Fear, pain, loss and sorrow, but aimed outwards instead of in.



“Its...she's always been there. Even before I was born, she was getting there first, doing it better. Grades...friends...puberty...boyfriends...I always came in second. She got the gold trophies, I got participation ribbons. I sign up for sports, she joins too and manages to outshine me again. I hated her for it, for being me but better in every way. Always keeping me from being myself, being successful.”



Your clutch-mate grew larger, flew higher. They loomed above you, and their branches blocked out the sun. And yet a tall tree can also give shelter from the rain.

My booze-addled brain insisted on showing me Kate's face, crumpling as she announced my supposed death live on-air.



“And...I can't deal with that. I always thought it was on purpose. That she hated me too. If she was trying to look out for me? Protect me somehow? And now she's gone, set to be resocialized into a Dominion-loving drone, without me ever getting to apologize for being so mean to her in return?”

There was probably an answer at the bottom of one of these bottles. I'd find it eventually.


March 22, 2506:

Sarah took my booze away. Said she could feel my hangovers from halfway across the Leviathan and they were distracting her. Stupid telepaths. Zagara backed off from the overt murder attempts after she got into a fight with Dehaka and Sarah slapped them both down, so with nothing to drink I had no more excuses to hide in the shuttle all day. So I was in the command chamber when Izsha became agitated.



“My queen – a Terran battlecruiser has entered the Char system. It appears badly damaged, and refuses to stand and fight. But it is transmitting a request to speak to you, and calls itself the Hyperion.”



“Fine...put them on, and let's see what Horner and Valerian want so badly.”

Admiral Horner looked awful with a bandage on his head, and I didn't even recognize the blond guy in a dirty Raiders jumpsuit as Prince Valerian at first. The Hyperion's bridge was hard to make out behind them, but stuff looked broken.



“Kerrigan, we need your...my god, what happened?”



“That's not important, Admiral. But we didn't exactly part on good terms, so tell me why you're here before I decide to vent my frustrations.”



“Fine, I'll get to the point. Jim is alive, but he won't be for long. We need your help to save him.”

Sarah has such tight control over her power, you can almost forget she's a psychic most of the time. Waking up thrown against the wall, with Stukov climbing to his feet on one side and Dehaka wobbling back and forth on the other, was a painful reminder of why she has to be so restrained.



“Explain. Now.”



“Mengsk has been rolling up our network left and right, breaking support cells and raiding secret bases. Half the places he's taken were only known to the command staff, and we couldn't figure out who the spy was. Then we got a message from our informant in New Folsom, they burned their cover to get it out – the Dominion faked Jim's death and stashed him there under a fake name, with ghosts ripping his mind apart for intel. When they run out of secrets they'll kill him, and we don't have anything left to break him out with.”

I could see the shock in Sarah's eyes. Resurrected evil alien gods were one thing, but Raynor being alive all this time after she'd given him up as dead, and everything that followed for that? My earlier conversation with Fortune Cookie abruptly seemed incredibly petty and shallow in comparison. Her eyes blazed purple, almost in a trance, and all around the room every Zerg in sight seemed to zone out as well. Even Stukov was rubbing his head in confusion, only Dehaka was unaffected. I tried to look through the parasite and got what I can only describe as a mental busy signal. The whole thing lasted close to a minute before Sarah opened her eyes again and everyone went back to normal. She smiled.



“I've got a plan, and it needs two things. A hacker, and an army. I can bring the army, but would you happen to have a top-notch hacker stashed away somewhere? Maybe with an old friend who doesn't ask questions?”

Horner just groaned. Valerian gave him a look of confusion, but I had already figured out where we were going next.

March 24, 2506:

Deadman's Rock was just as ugly as I remembered it, and by the looks of it, no less violent either. The Leviathan hung back at the edge of the system to avoid panicking people, but distance didn't seem to stop Sarah from eavesdropping on the Hyperion's communications.



“Mira Han – this is Prince Valerian. I insist that-”



“Yes yes, Princess, it's wonderful to see you too. Now keep your head down before someone decides to claim the price Daddy has on it, and put Matthew on. I know he's there.”



“You forget yourself, mercenary...wait, price? What -” Horner pushed the spluttering prince out of the way and took the comm.



“Hello, Mira. We need Colonel Orlan back, quickly. Please just hand him over and we can leave.”



“Matthew, darling, it's so wonderful to see you again. I wish you would visit more often. As for Orlan, I'd love to help. I just Commander Raynor to give his permission.”



“Jim isn't here and you damn well know it, Mira. We need Orlan to break him out of prison. Just hand him over.”



“Oh, dear. A mercenary's reputation is all she has, and I will not break that even for someone with your devilishly good looks and brooding intensity. I am afraid I cannot release my prisoner without the client's permission...he will have to remain in his cell on the perimeter space station inside Asteroid Cluster Nine, on the opposite side of the planet from where the bulk of my fleets are currently concentrated. Have to guard against all those annoying minor pirate bands, you know, always trying to spring ambushes on lightly defended bases. It's so tiresome, really. Hugs and kisses, dear husband!”

She cut the transmission. Prince Valerian looked as confused as I felt.



“She is extremely strange. But now what do we do?”



“We teach you how to read between the lines, Valerian.”



The space station in question was a big one, nestled inside one of the numerous clouds of asteroid rocks and general space debris that surrounded the pirate planet.



Horner jumped the Hyperion in from the edge, where the rocks would hide them from most of the locals – one injured battlecruiser would be easy prey for a lot of people.





The space trash was dense enough in places that it wouldn't be safe to fly through, but luckily the ship's warp drive was still operational, and Horner just micro-jumped his way through the dangerous chunks.



A handful of mercenary fighters patrolled on the other side, but they were outmatched one-on-one by a huge margin.







A full squadron showing up to reinforce them woud have been a problem, but the Hyperion's own fighter escort was still functional enough to launch. With their help, the smaller and lighter merc fighters didn't stand a chance.





The deep-space missile base they had launched from was tough enough to handle any number of fighters and even the Hyperion's own batteries, but a couple of half-strength Yamato cannon blasts took it down from a safe distance.



An automated repair and factory platform warped itself into the empty space left behind, out of nowhere. Horner almost opened fire before realizing it was painted in the colors of Raynor's Raiders – fresh paint, almost still wet even.



“Do we even have one of those.”



“Stop. Asking. Questions. Valerian.”



The platform's repair drones could fix some of the Hyperion's worse hull damage, but they couldn't replace entirely missing parts.



Luckily, the cluster here was full of raw minerals. The fat guy – Swann – said that if they salvaged enough raw minerals, he could fabricate new parts and repair their damaged systems back to full power.



Whoever owned this patch of space had set up mines to protect their mineral caches. They'd really do a number on the Hyperion if they connected.





Some skillful flying and micro-jumps were all Horner needed to trick the mines into arming, then getting out of their way before the explosions hit. The looted minerals let Swann divert more power to their Yamato Cannon and open up a few more fighter hangar bays.





Out of nowhere, an entirely different gang of pirates decided to attack them – apparently the Hyperion did look like easy prey, all alone like it was. That was a poor decision.



The pirate flagship looked like a tougher proposition. It was easily the Hyperion's size, though a different design – Kel-Morian, maybe, I'm no expert on warship hulls from the other Terran militaries.





They could micro-jump too, dodging the Hyperion's Yamato blasts and forcing a close-range laser duel between the two capital ships. It would have been more exciting if there hadn't been so much riding on it.





Backed into a corner, the pirate cruiser tried zapping them with some sort of of EMP field that scrambled all their systems. The weakness dealt a lot of damage, but in the end Hyperion came out on top. They looted the EMP generator from the pirate's wreckage and carried on deeper into the asteroid cluster.



While all this was going on, the auto-factory had been spitting out remote fighters that were happily suiciding themselves into the teeth of the mercenary defenses.





Horner moved in to advance using the robot fighters as cover, and with his new electric stun field to break through the enemy defensive lines, he cleared out the swarming attackers in no time.





Behind the screen was an automated starport much like the one Hyperion had mysteriously acquired. The primary difference was that the Raiders' factory wasn't blasted into scrap metal by a Yamato Cannon.



Another dense debris field blocked movement ahead, but the presence of mag mines beyond indicated something worth defending.





Sure enough, there was another mineral cache. Dodging around them bought the Hyperion enough minerals to repair its systems even further.





The auto-factory's drone fighters had gotten tougher too. Now they were actually making slow, but steady progress into the field, clearing a path for the Hyperion to engage the fixed defenses. Two auto-factories spat out whole flocks of enemy drone fighters to defend themselves here.





The Hyperion's superior piloting and gunnery evened the odds again, and another mercenary strongpoint fell.





The largest cluster of minerals yet was guarded by an appropriately larger number of mines, but by this point the trick to avoiding them was old hat. Now the Hyperion looked like it was fully armed and operational.



There was nothing more between them and the main space station, and the Hyperion advanced behind its own wall of remote-piloted attack fighters.





By now, even I had figured out that this was some sort of setup, but the defenders of the station must not have been in on the plan. They fought hard, forcing the Hyperion to beat its gun mounts into scrap one by one before landing Marines and forcibly abducting Colonel Orlan out of his prison cell. Then they high-tailed it back out of the system, not far ahead of a dozen different scavenger factions coming to loot whatever was left behind.

In lieu of anything to vote on this week, you get some rantingcommentary.

Spoiler: Skip if you want

Show

By and large, I try to avoid letting the fan-fic part of this overwhelm the Let's Play part, because the latter is what most people are actually here for. So that means sticking to on-screen canon as closely as I can where I can, and finagling events to fit the narrative otherwise. But the Space arc annoys me, largely because it seems every single person involved is written to act as out-of-character as possible.
-Mengsk has always been ruthless and megalomanical, but he's never been stupid. Handing him a massive Idiot Ball by taking Raynor as hostage then failing to actually secure his prize prisoner against a rescue attempt in any way is unacceptably dumb. Having your secret prison ship that randomly warps to randomly generated coordinates but schedules its resupply appointments ahead of time at fixed locations is just icing on the cake.
-Kerrigan doesn't really act against her character beyond what the choose-your-mission format of HotS demands (really you should only get the Mengsk transmission if you've already committed to the Space sequence), but the entire story is about her rise back to power. Stripping her of agency and needing to run for help at the beginning of Act 3 cripples that narrative momentum and undermines her character development.
-Mira Han is the closest thing to Chaotic Neutral we've ever seen in Starcraft that I can remember. Her first appearance featured her actively betraying a client before he could even deliver the down payment on their contract, so it's incredibly ill-fitting for her to go complete Lawful Stupid and stubbornly insist on technicalities.
-Matt Horner isn't actually guilty of anything here except being married to a lunatic. But having his answer to an uncooperative wife be destroy her personal property until she gives in and obeys him? HotS writing team, what is wrong with you?

End result, we've hit peak deviation from the official canon sequence of events, at least as far as this chapter goes.

And for the people who are mostly here to talk about co-op instead, a discussion topic. If you could play through any/all of the campaigns with one of the co-op commanders' tech trees, who would be the most fun/interesting change in gameplay? Let's assume no calldowns or masteries, they're hardly needed in single-player mode. Prestiges at your discretion, I suppose.

[noob]

Spoiler: Update 15: In Which Canon Gets Locked In a Broom Closet

Show

March 20, 2506:

It took almost a week for Sarah to recover from her injuries, during which Zagara had pulled the Swarm back to Char to regroup. As for me, I alternated between sleeping and drinking until I fell asleep again – at this rate I was going to become as much of an alcoholic as Mr Raynor had been, but it was still better than being sober enough to think. At one point, I ended up outside the shuttle, sitting against the hull and staring out into the empty void until a certain Overlord drifted close again.



Your thoughts are in turmoil yet again, Little One. Fear, pain, loss and sorrow, but aimed outwards instead of in.



“Its...she's always been there. Even before I was born, she was getting there first, doing it better. Grades...friends...puberty...boyfriends...I always came in second. She got the gold trophies, I got participation ribbons. I sign up for sports, she joins too and manages to outshine me again. I hated her for it, for being me but better in every way. Always keeping me from being myself, being successful.”



Your clutch-mate grew larger, flew higher. They loomed above you, and their branches blocked out the sun. And yet a tall tree can also give shelter from the rain.

My booze-addled brain insisted on showing me Kate's face, crumpling as she announced my supposed death live on-air.



“And...I can't deal with that. I always thought it was on purpose. That she hated me too. If she was trying to look out for me? Protect me somehow? And now she's gone, set to be resocialized into a Dominion-loving drone, without me ever getting to apologize for being so mean to her in return?”

There was probably an answer at the bottom of one of these bottles. I'd find it eventually.


March 22, 2506:

Sarah took my booze away. Said she could feel my hangovers from halfway across the Leviathan and they were distracting her. Stupid telepaths. Zagara backed off from the overt murder attempts after she got into a fight with Dehaka and Sarah slapped them both down, so with nothing to drink I had no more excuses to hide in the shuttle all day. So I was in the command chamber when Izsha became agitated.



“My queen – a Terran battlecruiser has entered the Char system. It appears badly damaged, and refuses to stand and fight. But it is transmitting a request to speak to you, and calls itself the Hyperion.”



“Fine...put them on, and let's see what Horner and Valerian want so badly.”

Admiral Horner looked awful with a bandage on his head, and I didn't even recognize the blond guy in a dirty Raiders jumpsuit as Prince Valerian at first. The Hyperion's bridge was hard to make out behind them, but stuff looked broken.



“Kerrigan, we need your...my god, what happened?”



“That's not important, Admiral. But we didn't exactly part on good terms, so tell me why you're here before I decide to vent my frustrations.”



“Fine, I'll get to the point. Jim is alive, but he won't be for long. We need your help to save him.”

Sarah has such tight control over her power, you can almost forget she's a psychic most of the time. Waking up thrown against the wall, with Stukov climbing to his feet on one side and Dehaka wobbling back and forth on the other, was a painful reminder of why she has to be so restrained.



“Explain. Now.”



“Mengsk has been rolling up our network left and right, breaking support cells and raiding secret bases. Half the places he's taken were only known to the command staff, and we couldn't figure out who the spy was. Then we got a message from our informant in New Folsom, they burned their cover to get it out – the Dominion faked Jim's death and stashed him there under a fake name, with ghosts ripping his mind apart for intel. When they run out of secrets they'll kill him, and we don't have anything left to break him out with.”

I could see the shock in Sarah's eyes. Resurrected evil alien gods were one thing, but Raynor being alive all this time after she'd given him up as dead, and everything that followed for that? My earlier conversation with Fortune Cookie abruptly seemed incredibly petty and shallow in comparison. Her eyes blazed purple, almost in a trance, and all around the room every Zerg in sight seemed to zone out as well. Even Stukov was rubbing his head in confusion, only Dehaka was unaffected. I tried to look through the parasite and got what I can only describe as a mental busy signal. The whole thing lasted close to a minute before Sarah opened her eyes again and everyone went back to normal. She smiled.



“I've got a plan, and it needs two things. A hacker, and an army. I can bring the army, but would you happen to have a top-notch hacker stashed away somewhere? Maybe with an old friend who doesn't ask questions?”

Horner just groaned. Valerian gave him a look of confusion, but I had already figured out where we were going next.

March 24, 2506:

Deadman's Rock was just as ugly as I remembered it, and by the looks of it, no less violent either. The Leviathan hung back at the edge of the system to avoid panicking people, but distance didn't seem to stop Sarah from eavesdropping on the Hyperion's communications.



“Mira Han – this is Prince Valerian. I insist that-”



“Yes yes, Princess, it's wonderful to see you too. Now keep your head down before someone decides to claim the price Daddy has on it, and put Matthew on. I know he's there.”



“You forget yourself, mercenary...wait, price? What -” Horner pushed the spluttering prince out of the way and took the comm.



“Hello, Mira. We need Colonel Orlan back, quickly. Please just hand him over and we can leave.”



“Matthew, darling, it's so wonderful to see you again. I wish you would visit more often. As for Orlan, I'd love to help. I just Commander Raynor to give his permission.”



“Jim isn't here and you damn well know it, Mira. We need Orlan to break him out of prison. Just hand him over.”



“Oh, dear. A mercenary's reputation is all she has, and I will not break that even for someone with your devilishly good looks and brooding intensity. I am afraid I cannot release my prisoner without the client's permission...he will have to remain in his cell on the perimeter space station inside Asteroid Cluster Nine, on the opposite side of the planet from where the bulk of my fleets are currently concentrated. Have to guard against all those annoying minor pirate bands, you know, always trying to spring ambushes on lightly defended bases. It's so tiresome, really. Hugs and kisses, dear husband!”

She cut the transmission. Prince Valerian looked as confused as I felt.



“She is extremely strange. But now what do we do?”



“We teach you how to read between the lines, Valerian.”



The space station in question was a big one, nestled inside one of the numerous clouds of asteroid rocks and general space debris that surrounded the pirate planet.



Horner jumped the Hyperion in from the edge, where the rocks would hide them from most of the locals – one injured battlecruiser would be easy prey for a lot of people.





The space trash was dense enough in places that it wouldn't be safe to fly through, but luckily the ship's warp drive was still operational, and Horner just micro-jumped his way through the dangerous chunks.



A handful of mercenary fighters patrolled on the other side, but they were outmatched one-on-one by a huge margin.







A full squadron showing up to reinforce them woud have been a problem, but the Hyperion's own fighter escort was still functional enough to launch. With their help, the smaller and lighter merc fighters didn't stand a chance.





The deep-space missile base they had launched from was tough enough to handle any number of fighters and even the Hyperion's own batteries, but a couple of half-strength Yamato cannon blasts took it down from a safe distance.



An automated repair and factory platform warped itself into the empty space left behind, out of nowhere. Horner almost opened fire before realizing it was painted in the colors of Raynor's Raiders – fresh paint, almost still wet even.



“Do we even have one of those.”



“Stop. Asking. Questions. Valerian.”



The platform's repair drones could fix some of the Hyperion's worse hull damage, but they couldn't replace entirely missing parts.



Luckily, the cluster here was full of raw minerals. The fat guy – Swann – said that if they salvaged enough raw minerals, he could fabricate new parts and repair their damaged systems back to full power.



Whoever owned this patch of space had set up mines to protect their mineral caches. They'd really do a number on the Hyperion if they connected.





Some skillful flying and micro-jumps were all Horner needed to trick the mines into arming, then getting out of their way before the explosions hit. The looted minerals let Swann divert more power to their Yamato Cannon and open up a few more fighter hangar bays.





Out of nowhere, an entirely different gang of pirates decided to attack them – apparently the Hyperion did look like easy prey, all alone like it was. That was a poor decision.



The pirate flagship looked like a tougher proposition. It was easily the Hyperion's size, though a different design – Kel-Morian, maybe, I'm no expert on warship hulls from the other Terran militaries.





They could micro-jump too, dodging the Hyperion's Yamato blasts and forcing a close-range laser duel between the two capital ships. It would have been more exciting if there hadn't been so much riding on it.





Backed into a corner, the pirate cruiser tried zapping them with some sort of of EMP field that scrambled all their systems. The weakness dealt a lot of damage, but in the end Hyperion came out on top. They looted the EMP generator from the pirate's wreckage and carried on deeper into the asteroid cluster.



While all this was going on, the auto-factory had been spitting out remote fighters that were happily suiciding themselves into the teeth of the mercenary defenses.





Horner moved in to advance using the robot fighters as cover, and with his new electric stun field to break through the enemy defensive lines, he cleared out the swarming attackers in no time.





Behind the screen was an automated starport much like the one Hyperion had mysteriously acquired. The primary difference was that the Raiders' factory wasn't blasted into scrap metal by a Yamato Cannon.



Another dense debris field blocked movement ahead, but the presence of mag mines beyond indicated something worth defending.





Sure enough, there was another mineral cache. Dodging around them bought the Hyperion enough minerals to repair its systems even further.





The auto-factory's drone fighters had gotten tougher too. Now they were actually making slow, but steady progress into the field, clearing a path for the Hyperion to engage the fixed defenses. Two auto-factories spat out whole flocks of enemy drone fighters to defend themselves here.





The Hyperion's superior piloting and gunnery evened the odds again, and another mercenary strongpoint fell.





The largest cluster of minerals yet was guarded by an appropriately larger number of mines, but by this point the trick to avoiding them was old hat. Now the Hyperion looked like it was fully armed and operational.



There was nothing more between them and the main space station, and the Hyperion advanced behind its own wall of remote-piloted attack fighters.





By now, even I had figured out that this was some sort of setup, but the defenders of the station must not have been in on the plan. They fought hard, forcing the Hyperion to beat its gun mounts into scrap one by one before landing Marines and forcibly abducting Colonel Orlan out of his prison cell. Then they high-tailed it back out of the system, not far ahead of a dozen different scavenger factions coming to loot whatever was left behind.

In lieu of anything to vote on this week, you get some rantingcommentary.

Spoiler: Skip if you want

Show

By and large, I try to avoid letting the fan-fic part of this overwhelm the Let's Play part, because the latter is what most people are actually here for. So that means sticking to on-screen canon as closely as I can where I can, and finagling events to fit the narrative otherwise. But the Space arc annoys me, largely because it seems every single person involved is written to act as out-of-character as possible.
-Mengsk has always been ruthless and megalomanical, but he's never been stupid. Handing him a massive Idiot Ball by taking Raynor as hostage then failing to actually secure his prize prisoner against a rescue attempt in any way is unacceptably dumb. Having your secret prison ship that randomly warps to randomly generated coordinates but schedules its resupply appointments ahead of time at fixed locations is just icing on the cake.
-Kerrigan doesn't really act against her character beyond what the choose-your-mission format of HotS demands (really you should only get the Mengsk transmission if you've already committed to the Space sequence), but the entire story is about her rise back to power. Stripping her of agency and needing to run for help at the beginning of Act 3 cripples that narrative momentum and undermines her character development.
-Mira Han is the closest thing to Chaotic Neutral we've ever seen in Starcraft that I can remember. Her first appearance featured her actively betraying a client before he could even deliver the down payment on their contract, so it's incredibly ill-fitting for her to go complete Lawful Stupid and stubbornly insist on technicalities.
-Matt Horner isn't actually guilty of anything here except being married to a lunatic. But having his answer to an uncooperative wife be destroy her personal property until she gives in and obeys him? HotS writing team, what is wrong with you?

End result, we've hit peak deviation from the official canon sequence of events, at least as far as this chapter goes.

And for the people who are mostly here to talk about co-op instead, a discussion topic. If you could play through any/all of the campaigns with one of the co-op commanders' tech trees, who would be the most fun/interesting change in gameplay? Let's assume no calldowns or masteries, they're hardly needed in single-player mode. Prestiges at your discretion, I suppose.

Probably playing with the coop commander with the weakest units (it will still be too much op and trivialise the campaign)
Coop commanders have units ridiculously stronger than campaign units (with some being such ridiculous offenders it is just silly like mengsk and abathur).

[The Glyphstone]

I mean, the campaign is trivial with campaign units. Difficulty's not going to get much easier than it already is. Thats why my criteria was fun/interesting, forcing odd unit comps like Zagara in HotS or playing the entire WoL campaign as hero missions with Tychus.

[Keltest]

It might be interesting to try and do the HotS campaign as Stukov, just for the radically different gameplay mechanics changing how things work. A couple missions wouldnt work because he doesnt have creep tumors, but thats a fairly small problem by comparison.

[Traab]

Send dahaka to the boneyard, watch him devour gorgons. :p

[Psyren]

And for the people who are mostly here to talk about co-op instead, a discussion topic. If you could play through any/all of the campaigns with one of the co-op commanders' tech trees, who would be the most fun/interesting change in gameplay? Let's assume no calldowns or masteries, they're hardly needed in single-player mode. Prestiges at your discretion, I suppose.

I suspect I'd have the most fun with Nova, Tychus, or Karax, but I'd do it with all of them really.

In lieu of anything to vote on this week, you get some rantingcommentary.

Eh, I kinda understand where you're coming from, but I don't think it's much of a deviation really.

Mengsk is honestly not that smart. Or rather, whatever cunning he has is vastly overridden by his arrogance. Ruthless yes, inspires fanatical loyalty in his followers and assassinates all the rest yes, but between being a patsy for Narud and either completely unaware of or unable to root out the various traitors in his own ranks and stop them from amassing their own power (the rebels, Tosh, later Nova, his own son), I've never been really impressed with his ability to do anything save give a grand speech. Keeping Raynor alive and being totally confident in his ability to keep him locked away was just a continuation of that.

Mira Han might come off as the chaotic mercenary but even pirates have a code. For her, the plausible deniability of showing her defenses to have been breached rather than going against the letter of her contract is a reasonable calculation to make. (As for Horner destroying her property - first of all you're talking about the lady who literally throws space stations as weapons and quips about how many more there were where that came from, and second of all, she likely considers him blowing her stuff up to be foreplay.)

Kerrigan "running for help" as you put it is a good character moment actually. It shows that unlike the Queen of Blades of old, she's not willing to sacrifice literally anything to achieve her ends. She goes for help because while she could probably just start feeding Dominion worlds to the Swarm until somebody talks, she'd rather get Raynor back without a slew of innocent deaths - and more importantly, his.

[Traab]

Yeah mengsk is a grand orator. A manipulator who can sway public opinion. But he isnt exactly Xanatos. Speaking of, how did he avoid getting overthrown in the first place after the terran campaign? I mean, everyone was rioting everywhere and it seemed like his whole empire was in revolt, then suddenly he is back in charge? Was it because he spun the whole Char thing to be his decision and victory?

[The Glyphstone]

Alright, you've got me on Han. I think that's why I ended up toning her bit down from earlier drafts, to where it's basically that plausible deniability but with more explicit wink-wink-nudge. (seriously, where did the Raiders get that space station? It's bigger than the Hyperion, they didn't exactly tow it with them to Deadman's Rock)

I would agree with you on Kerrigan, except that immediately after this mission is a cutscene where Isha relays fealty requests from the remaining rogue Broodmothers, and Kerrigan tells them to prove their loyalty by sacking Dominion worlds indiscriminately. Her writing through the entire game is borderline schizophrenic at times, really, especially if you take non-canonical mission paths like Char before Kaldir.

Yeah mengsk is a grand orator. A manipulator who can sway public opinion. But he isnt exactly Xanatos. Speaking of, how did he avoid getting overthrown in the first place after the terran campaign? I mean, everyone was rioting everywhere and it seemed like his whole empire was in revolt, then suddenly he is back in charge? Was it because he spun the whole Char thing to be his decision and victory?

I suspect the writers just forgot. In my mind, he clamped down harder than ever on the media/news sources, combining that with the victory at Char as propaganda to re-stabilize. As far as being Xanatos, amusingly that's how people seem to think of him in-game:

Stukov: Here you are, at the enemy's doorstep. It is almost over.
Kerrigan: I don't think it will be that simple. It never is with Arcturus. He thinks around you, that one. He knows where you'll walk before you do.
Stukov: But you've been part of so many of his plans - as accomplice or victim. I am sure you learned a trick or two, yes?
Kerrigan: I did. We'll find out very soon if I was a good student.

He's no genius, but he is manipulative and sneaky. I'd rather err on the side of him being competent, making Kerrigan's ultimate victory all that more meaningful.

[Winthur]

Yeah mengsk is a grand orator. A manipulator who can sway public opinion. But he isnt exactly Xanatos. Speaking of, how did he avoid getting overthrown in the first place after the terran campaign? I mean, everyone was rioting everywhere and it seemed like his whole empire was in revolt, then suddenly he is back in charge? Was it because he spun the whole Char thing to be his decision and victory?

There was simply no one to threaten his position as Emperor even if there are a few fringe world yokels toppling his statues and calling for his head. The immediate opposition to the Terran Dominion is... who? The Protoss of all factions have bigger problems; the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate are content with holding on to their own acquisitions (be mindful that Moria got ransacked for a lot of cash in the Brood War and they likely took just as much time to repair as Mengsk in the midst of the ruins of Augustgrad). There is the Swarm, but with everything that's going on Kerrigan is not going to risk total war until he is (or thinks he is) ready.

Remember Mengsk survived being ousted like three times by this point; for all his flaws he's extremely resilient and knows who to make contact with to keep himself afloat. That's his entire story arc - he works with Lieutenant Kerrigan and gains her trust in spite of personally despising her this whole time. He sees opportunity in the disgruntled Mar Sara colonists and they prove to be his best assets in toppling the Confederacy. He manages to get one of his greatest enemies to his side. He survives the Brood War because he gets bailed out and because, for luck or lack of it, Kerrigan wants to see him suffer. Nevertheless, he manages to call in enough "favors" that he manages to field a lot of infantry, siege tanks and nukes into the Omega platform in a last ditch effort to stop the Swarm. Then he retreats and rebuilds, and does a good enough job of it considering that Augustgrad was deliberately left a smoldering hole on a planet that was already ravaged by nukes in the past.

Mengsk is as hard to actually get rid of as Broz-Tito. Considering that Donny Vermillion remains a loyal Mengsk shill even after learning Mengsk caused his own brother to die on Tarsonis, his approval rating never stays at 0 for long. His entire brand is that he is the sole source of stability in the sector, and he highlights that idea even in his original Terran Campaign speech.

[Psyren]

Alright, you've got me on Han. I think that's why I ended up toning her bit down from earlier drafts, to where it's basically that plausible deniability but with more explicit wink-wink-nudge. (seriously, where did the Raiders get that space station? It's bigger than the Hyperion, they didn't exactly tow it with them to Deadman's Rock)

Don't take the size of units and buildings in-game at face-value; a lot of them are not their canonical sizes in-universe for the sake of facilitating gameplay. For example, SCVs and Drones should be downright massive compared to marines and hydras; zerglings should be the size of a dog instead of a marine; battlecruisers and motherships should be insanely large etc. Lowko played around with an interesting mod attempting to make these units more lore-accurate, but even that isn't quite right - here is the Terran version of that as an example. Go to 16:46 in that video and you'll get a rough idea of how big a typical battlecruiser should ACTUALLY be compared to the other terran air units, and then keep in mind that the Hyperion is canonically even larger than that.

I would agree with you on Kerrigan, except that immediately after this mission is a cutscene where Isha relays fealty requests from the remaining rogue Broodmothers, and Kerrigan tells them to prove their loyalty by sacking Dominion worlds indiscriminately. Her writing through the entire game is borderline schizophrenic at times, really, especially if you take non-canonical mission paths like Char before Kaldir.

This is not actually what she says; Kerrigan is having them attack military installations. Here is the exact dialogue:

Izsha: "Broodmother Naktul has contacted us. She speaks for the remaining broodmothers not under your control. They feel your power, and they wish to return to the Swarm."
Kerrigan: "Broodmothers, hear me. I'm sending you the location of our enemies across the sector. Destroy them, burn their strongholds in my name. Then, you shall be one with the Swarm."

She doesn't say anything about "sacking worlds indiscriminately," she's sending them after "strongholds." You could argue that maybe she considers all Terrans in Dominion space to be her enemies rather than the ones actively fighting for Mengsk, but I don't see anything to support that interpretation, especially with how hard she tries to avoid casualties on Korhal itself at Anduin Valerian's request.

I suspect the writers just forgot. In my mind, he clamped down harder than ever on the media/news sources, combining that with the victory at Char as propaganda to re-stabilize. As far as being Xanatos, amusingly that's how people seem to think of him in-game:


He's no genius, but he is manipulative and sneaky. I'd rather err on the side of him being competent, making Kerrigan's ultimate victory all that more meaningful.

He's good at manipulating her and Raynor, sure. And I agree he should have simply capped Raynor if he wasn't going to do anything interesting with him. But again, his arrogance has always been his undoing - he didn't consider for a moment that the zerg might find a way around his typical psi-emitter gambit, despite relying on it almost exclusively for two and a half games now. He was on the verge of coming up with something else via that Xel'naga trap, but by then it was too late.

[Artanis]

[QUOTE=Psyren;25119888]Don't take the size of units and buildings in-game at face-value; a lot of them are not their canonical sizes in-universe for the sake of facilitating gameplay. For example, SCVs and Drones should be downright massive compared to marines and hydras; zerglings should be the size of a dog instead of a marine; battlecruisers and motherships should be insanely large etc. Lowko played around with an interesting mod attempting to make these units more lore-accurate, but even that isn't quite right - here is the Terran version of that as an example. Go to 16:46 in that video and you'll get a rough idea of how big a typical battlecruiser should ACTUALLY be compared to the other terran air units, and then keep in mind that the Hyperion is canonically even larger than that./QUOTE]

The HotS intro is even better for showing "real" sizes, including when a BC crashes near the end.

https://youtu.be/MVbeoSPqRs4

[The Glyphstone]

I did go back and watch that cut-scene again, and you're right. She is being tactical with the Queens, not just wreaking havoc. Overall, I didn't have a problem with that part of the character development; it's necessary for how she ends up in the finale, despite how abruptly her attitudes seem to change. Narratively, though, the way it's set up was - to me - like giving her a flat tire at the start of her victory lap, shelving all the growth she's done from lone operative back to ruler/leader. My intentions were to preserve that sense of her being in control by having them come to her for help. She's still willing to be surgical and operate carefully instead of going on a rampage, but it's from a position of strength and maturity - she can do it this way - instead of desperation - she has to do this way.



As regarding the scaling of size, I have seen that mod, and it is impressive. The really interesting thing about this mission, though, is how it sort of plays with scale in the other direction. Look at this shot from a normal (WoL) campaign mission, with a Battlecruiser next to a viking, then the two next to each other in With Friends Like These:





At the same minimum zoom level, the relative scaling is very different. The Viking goes from 1/2 the cruiser's hull length to roughly 1/4, much closer to the realistic sizes in the mod. So if we use Hyperion as the baseline comparison, the space station is probably within shouting distance of its actual size as well. Now, it is called 'Valerian's Space Station' so you could argue that he just bought the thing from Deadman's Port and charged it to his Dominion expense account. I liked my interpretation better though, that Mira Han is putting up a pretense for the sake of plausible deniability. I just made it more explicit.

[Psyren]

The HotS intro is even better for showing "real" sizes, including when a BC crashes near the end.

https://youtu.be/MVbeoSPqRs4

Yeah good call. Though it's worth pointing out that there are inconsistencies here too. Compare the HOTS cinematic ultralisk to the LOTV one, which is much smaller (in D&D terms, Large instead of Gargantuan maybe?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_XwzBMTJaM

Granted it's possible that Kerrigan was dreaming about bringing Torrasques to Korhal which might explain their vastly-increased size. Abathur may have reconstituted them recently, but they existed before, as the Overmind's pet project. But equally granted, the ones on Aiur should be that big too. (Gah! Damn you Blizzard cinematics.)

I did go back and watch that cut-scene again, and you're right. She is being tactical with the Queens, not just wreaking havoc. Overall, I didn't have a problem with that part of the character development; it's necessary for how she ends up in the finale, despite how abruptly her attitudes seem to change. Narratively, though, the way it's set up was - to me - like giving her a flat tire at the start of her victory lap, shelving all the growth she's done from lone operative back to ruler/leader. My intentions were to preserve that sense of her being in control by having them come to her for help. She's still willing to be surgical and operate carefully instead of going on a rampage, but it's from a position of strength and maturity - she can do it this way - instead of desperation - she has to do this way.

I still don't see why needing the Terrans' help to hack a computer network somehow makes her weak or interferes with her growth. The mere fact that she's doing this is indicative of that growth - it's proving that despite being more Zerg than ever before, she retains all the knowledge and finesse of her human (Ghost) mind, and is thus more dangerous than any incarnation of the QoB to come before. It's foreshadowing her

Spoiler

Show

eventual ascension to being the ultimate hybrid, a new Xel'naga.

(Worth noting that she does ask Abathur if they can get the info without Horner and Valerian too, and he's like "ma'am, you're lucky Zerg can interface with just their clunky audiovisual communications, no way can we script kiddie their databases too.")

[The Glyphstone]

I do love Blizzards cinematic team, they have better storytelling chops than the actual writers for their games - WoW in particular. But yeah, consistency of scale is not own of their strengths.