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

[Keltest]

I vote Raptors, Frenzy and Improved Overlords. Frenzy on your hydralisks is freaking insane, its basically stim packs, and hydralisks are your highest DPS density unit until you get brood lords already.

Also, on a story front, one thing that always struck me about this mission is that Lassara (the protoss) is lying to you. These arent scientists, theyre Templars, warriors. Kerrigan hints at this a couple times, noting that all the biomass they have collected is really, really bizarre given their alleged objective for altering the moon's rotation, and we never see any other signs of a Khalai caste presence. Whatever they were actually doing there, it wasnt terraforming (aiurforming?)

[The Glyphstone]

What I actually noticed in the cutscene was that Lassara is Nerazim; her nerve bundles are short and stumpy. There might be Khalai caste among them, but she visibly isnt one. I never questioned the fact that the alleged science expedition was sent with armed escorts, personally. Galaxy is a dangerous place.


As far as army comp, I habitually rolled with a mutaball plus Brood Lords, so building a more ground based swarm here will be different.

[Keltest]

What I actually noticed in the cutscene was that Lassara is Nerazim; her nerve bundles are short and stumpy. There might be Khalai caste among them, but she visibly isnt one. I never questioned the fact that the alleged science expedition was sent with armed escorts, personally. Galaxy is a dangerous place.


As far as army comp, I habitually rolled with a mutaball plus Brood Lords, so building a more ground based swarm here will be different.

She isnt Nerazim actually, she just has her nerves braided oddly, so that the ends are bound up by her head.

SC2 is amazingly helpful in that all Khalai have blue eyes, all Nerazim have green eyes, and in LoV all Tal'darim have red eyes.

As far as the escorts, yeah i can believe that, especially since there was a zerg invasion, but we never see signs of terraforming the planet or affecting its rotation like she says, and they have all that biomass.

The game never tells you this, but in the comics there was another secret lab the protoss set up on a similar iceball that called itself PAX (Protoss Advance/Experimental Facility) that did things like play around with creep samples, that ended up going horribly wrong and killing all the protoss involved. My suspicion is that they were originally planning to have something similar to that on Kaldir, and just dropped that subplot for some reason.

[The Glyphstone]

Huh, it looked like severed cords to me. I'll have to re-watch that bit.

For confused people on the audience, there is a cutscene conversation you can have between Kerrigan and the captured Protoss, who does insist this is a peaceful science expedition. But canon Kerrigan makes a weird argument that its okay for her to slaughter hundreds of Protoss because the Protoss have killed thousands of Zerg, that there is 'blood on everyone's hands'. Even ignoring that most Zerg aren't even sapient, its not a great explanation, so I'm deviating a bit in recharacterizing her into 'mad with grief' at this stage.

[Keltest]

Huh, it looked like severed cords to me. I'll have to re-watch that bit.

For confused people on the audience, there is a cutscene conversation you can have between Kerrigan and the captured Protoss, who does insist this is a peaceful science expedition. But canon Kerrigan makes a weird argument that its okay for her to slaughter hundreds of Protoss because the Protoss have killed thousands of Zerg, that there is 'blood on everyone's hands'. Even ignoring that most Zerg aren't even sapient, its not a great explanation, so I'm deviating a bit in recharacterizing her into 'mad with grief' at this stage.

This is a doubly strange argument because at this point, Kerrigan genuinely has ever reason to fear and hate the protoss, since they burned Chau Sara, Mar Sara and they fought each other on Tarsonis even before she was infested. The protoss have a substantial bodycount, so the idea that they really cant throw stones about killing innocents to get what they want is pretty true.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah, thats the other reason why I decided to take Larassa at face value, to the point that she knows. It makes more sense if she is a civilian scientist who's never taken part in the war aside from fleeing Aiur when the Zerg ate it.

As an aside, was anyone picking up on Nora's mostly subconscious choice of names when discussing her host? I didnt want to make it a big thing after the tear-stains confusion of the first chapter, but now she consciously corrected herself.

[Morgaln]

My vote goes to:

Raptor Strain: Cliff-jumping + extra attack; it's perfect for zerglings
Frenzy: Hydralisks with frenzy are really scary. They're already high DPS, frenzy lets you burst through dangerous enemies even quicker.
Improved Overlords: Better overlords means quicker ramp-up. Exactly what zerg want.

[Traab]

Raptor grooved overlords. Aside from being a great metal band name, its my preference. More range is awesome, it sucks to watch one side start pelting your troops for a few seconds before your own guys can get in range. I dont use zerglings but being able to hop over stuff in the way is epic as the greatest weakness of the zerg swarm is the bottleneck, and instant overlords with more supply is just perfect so you can get your full army up and running faster.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

As an aside, was anyone picking up on Nora's mostly subconscious choice of names when discussing her host? I didnt want to make it a big thing after the tear-stains confusion of the first chapter, but now she consciously corrected herself.

Sarah -> Kerrigan? Yeah I noticed, nice touch! Lost a bit of trust there by infesting her...

[The Glyphstone]

Sarah -> Kerrigan? Yeah I noticed, nice touch! Lost a bit of trust there by infesting her...

Pretty much.

Anyways, Update! This one got away from me a little in the post-mission narrative, but hey, new character, and one whose addition was prompted by Brother_Oni's comment early on.

Spoiler: Update 5: In Which Zerg Prove To Be Terrible Starship Pilots

Show

January 23, 2506:

I found what must be Mr. Raynor's alcohol stash, hidden behind a vent in the wall.


January 24, 2506:

OW.



January 25, 2506:

Poked my head outside the shuttle, just to get a breath of 'fresh' air. Ended up having to fend off what looked like a hundred undersized zerglings all trying to get in. Used the rifle as a club to shoo them away, but it wasn't too hard, they kept tripping up and getting each other's way with only two or three in front at a time.

Eventually they just gave up and ran away. I was starting down the ramp and a few more appeared – these were normal-sized and looked like they had wings on their back. One ran at me like the others, but before I could pop it in the nose it JUMPED, flying at me like a spiky purple cannonball. I fell over backwards trying to get out of the way – tore the sleeve of my shirt on the edge of the ramp. It didn't try to eat me, thankfully, running around and jumping up and down off the top of the shuttle with its packmates while I tried to catch my breath and figure out what happened.

“Variant strain testing complete. Raptor strain superior.” I knew that burbly croak; sure enough, Abathur's weird centipede-body was poking out of a hole in the wall of the hangar.



“What the h...eck are you doing here?” Not the greatest opening line, I'll admit, but it's hard to be witty when you're sitting on your butt in a giant living docking bay.

“Experimenting with zergling evolutions. Swarmling strain inferior; superior numbers negated by choke-point. Raptor strain more mobile. Leaping attack unexpected by Noracolby, accelerated approach to killing range. Response by other Terrans expected to be similar. Participation in testing appreciated.”

I got angry. Told Abathur off real good about scaring me like that, and ruining the sleeve of my only shirt in the process. Didn't bother him at all, but I felt a little better.


January 26th, 2056:

Last night was...bad. Really bad. I dreamed I was on a Protoss ship. A Protoss teleported in front of me, and I recognize her as the one Kerrigan had been keeping prisoner.



I could hear her – something about needing to warn the Templars about a parasite...then she just EXPLODED.



A fat Zerg larva crawled out of the remains, squirming ickily along the floor. I could hear Kerrigan's voice too like she was whispering in my ear. “Hide. Feed. Grow.”





A Protoss soldier was coming down the hallway; the larva burrowed inside a stasis-frozen animal nearby and waited. As soon as he had passed, it exploded out of the creature again, gobbling up the meaty chunks.



Some sort of Protoss robot patrolled the next passage; there was nothing to burrow into, but the larva squirmed over to hide behind some steam vents until the sentry was gone.



Warning bells were going off now; the first guard must have found the exploded body. More guards blocked this hallway and weren't moving, but there was a giant yeti-monster right next to them. Larva snuck up to it and burrowed into its brain somehow, because it started rampaging and killing every Protoss in sight.



Naturally, it exploded too once all the Protoss were dead, and the larva started feasting. It was looking really bloated now, like one of those disgusting little ticks that you can get bitten by. The thing wiggled up into a ventilation shaft to hide, while Protoss warriors ran past looking for the intruder.





Undetected, it found a room and turned into an egg, pretty soon it had evolved into a brood queen.

Kerrigan's voice whispered again. “You are Niadra. Kill every Protoss on this ship. No one escapes.”





The queen – Niadra, I guess – laid a bunch of eggs that hatched into Zerglings, then everyone burst out of the vents into a storage room or zoo of some kind, full of animals in stasis cages. Everything was eaten, gobbled up by Niadra even as the Protoss tried to stop her.





When they met a wall of turrets, Niadra stayed back while the Zerglings charged. When they were all dead, though, she just laid another clutch of eggs and sent them in as well. The Protoss couldn't rebuild faster than she could morph new eggs.







A force field blocked her from getting any further, and she couldn't crawl through vents anymore. But the Zerglings could; they swarmed in and out the other side, smashing the power generator that kept the shield intact.







“The warp drive. Destroy it, and they will never see Shakuras.”

Niadra ripped it apart, and the whole ship shook. Lights flashed and more emergency bells were ringing.



Destroying the warp drive also cut power to a nearby door, and inside was what looked exactly like a kitchen, complete with a can of Pylon Power-Aid. Protoss don't even have mouths, they definitely don't eat...dreams are weird, I guess.



The next room had more animals in cages, and after chowing down Niadra underwent another morph. Now her eggs were hatching into Roaches, not Zerglings.





The cargo bays here were full of animals. The guards stationed there started trying to kill everything before the Zerg could eat them; Niadra didn't like that at all, slaughtering everyone and gorging herself on the critters.



Pretty soon she was morphing again, into an even bigger brood queen.



All the roaches and Zerglings she had made were still ready – but instead of moving on, she started having them kill and eat each other! When everything was dead, she laid a whole new clutch of eggs that hatched into Hydralisks.



There was another giant yeti that the Protoss tried to butcher, only to get shredded by the Hydralisk swarm. Instead of just devouring this one, Niadra infested it.



New warning noises were sounding, and everywhere I could see Protoss were running and climbing into what looked like escape pods. Before any could launch, though, Niadra's Zerg clawed the pods open and ate their passengers.





The bridge was where the remaining Protoss made their last stand, for all the good it did them. No amount of turret cannons or psychic lightning clouds could match an endless tide of Hydralisks.





The only living things on the ship were Zerg now. Niadra called out to Kerrigan, over and over, but there was no answer. No whispers, like she'd just been abandoned now that her job was done.

I woke up then, gasping and sobbing. Was this what being infested was going to end up as? I felt a churning knot in my gut – was that the whiskey, or was the parasite Kerrigan had planted in me about to burst out? Was that itchy feeling on my skin the start of infested growths from inside? I couldn't even move, let alone try and sleep again.

Then I heard a voice in my head. It felt..old, very old, but somehow its calm cut through my hysterics. Soothe yourself, Little One. Your fears claw at your mind, but they are all of your own creation.

“Who...who are you? How do you know?”

We know because we can see all that is linked to Us. You dream of the past, not the future. The Queen spoke truth to you – that which lives within you will do you no harm. We know because we are Us. Look upon Us outside, and see.

I got up, moving from the bunkroom to the shuttle's cockpit where the windows were pointed out to space.



There was an Overlord hovering there, one of the flying Zerg that were always wandering around above a Zerg hive. The Leviathan had a flock of them clustered nearby, but I'd never seen one up close like this. It was huge, but despite being practically close enough to touch if I could have survived reaching out into vacuum, somehow I wasn't scared. Bright green eyes stared at me unblinkingly.

“Is that you there? I didn't know Zerg could talk.”

We retain more of our minds than most, for it is our task to relay orders from the broodmothers and the Queen. We can speak, but there is rarely anyone to speak to other than Us. But you are not Us, and yet connected to Us. Your pain and terror echoed in our mind.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.”

Feel no regret. Your pain was welcome to us, for it was new, and a distraction from our own sorrows.

I didn't know to answer that. “You said that was the past...you mean it was real? That actually happened somewhere? How could I dream something real so closely?”

The parasite within you feeds what you see and hear to Us. But such a breeze must flow both ways; what is seen by the Swarm can find its way back into you. Accept the parasite instead of fighting it, and you may yet see beyond your own eyes while awake as well.

That sounded even scarier, even if the overlord insisted the parasite wasn't going to infest me. “You mean I can see through the eyes of Zerg? Is that safe?”

Very little is safe in this universe, if it is worth doing. But it will not harm you in mind or body, against the wounds you deal yourself while trapped and helpless.

“I guess I'll try then, if you can help me figure it out.”

We will aid where we can. Know what we learned, that must be remembered – you can become something new, without losing sight of who you are.

“That'd be great to put in a fortune cookie, but I'm not sure how it helps me?”

Then perhaps it is not you who needs to remember it.

Again, very weird, and I didn't have a response. But at least I wasn't twitching in fear anymore. “Okay, then. Good night, Fortune Cookie.”

Peaceful rest, Little One.

That concludes the Kaldir missions, and it's time for VOTING:

Next Planet:
1) Char: Will give us Banelings and Abberations, along with the Baneling evolution. Zerg enemies in mission 1, Terran enemies in missions 2-3.
2) Zerus: Will give us Mutalisks and Swarm Hosts, along with the Hydralisk evolution. Primal Zerg enemies.

Roach Evolution:
1) Vile Strain: Roach attacks debuff enemies with 75% reduced attack/movement speed.
2) Corpser Strain: Roach attacks cause enemies killed to spawn Roachlings.

[Keltest]

I vote for Char next and Vile strain roaches. Corpsers are cool, but are redundant with a potential Kerrigan build later.

If you go to Zerus next you end up creating a plot hole where Zeratul comes and tells you stuff but didn't bother to ask the Daelaam to back off or try talking to you, or try to stop you from killing them. If you do Char you can at least have zeratul come into the story later.

[The Glyphstone]

I vote for Char next and Vile strain roaches. Corpsers are cool, but are redundant with a potential Kerrigan build later.

If you go to Zerus next you end up creating a plot hole where Zeratul comes and tells you stuff but didn't bother to ask the Daelaam to back off or try talking to you, or try to stop you from killing them. If you do Char you can at least have zeratul come into the story later.

That cutscene is weird anyways. Kerrigan looks like she failed tryouts for a superhero movie, its a fight that doesn't match her style either before or after Zerus.

[Keltest]

That cutscene is weird anyways. Kerrigan looks like she failed tryouts for a superhero movie, its a fight that doesn't match her style either before or after Zerus.

It's sort of a limit of her being unarmed. Ghost suits grant enhanced strength and stamina to the wearer through their psionics, so all she has to work with is her teek powers and her Kung fu.

[The Glyphstone]

It's sort of a limit of her being unarmed. Ghost suits grant enhanced strength and stamina to the wearer through their psionics, so all she has to work with is her teek powers and her Kung fu.

I think that's why it threw me off, she only TK's him once. She's perfectly happy to force-choke Valerian and slam marines around when no one is actively threatening her, but insists on repeatedly closing to melee range bare-handed against the guy whose signature weapon is a psychic lightsaber and who might very well be looking to kill her (especially if you go to Kaldir first like we did). If Zeratul was actually there with hostile intent it would have been a brutally one-sided assassination. I'm not sure I can stretch 'crazed and irrational with grief' to the point of 'suicidally stupid'.

[Keltest]

I think that's why it threw me off, she only TK's him once. She's perfectly happy to force-choke Valerian and slam marines around when no one is actively threatening her, but insists on repeatedly closing to melee range bare-handed against the guy whose signature weapon is a psychic lightsaber and who might very well be looking to kill her (especially if you go to Kaldir first like we did). If Zeratul was actually there with hostile intent it would have been a brutally one-sided assassination. I'm not sure I can stretch 'crazed and irrational with grief' to the point of 'suicidally stupid'.

Zeratul could easily have killed her there if he wanted to, and on some level Kerrigan knows that. She just wanted to beat the snot out of him. Alternatively, she was too tired to really throw her teek powers at him the way she did valerian.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Spoiler

Show

All the roaches and Zerglings she had made were still ready – but instead of moving on, she started having them kill and eat each other! When everything was dead, she laid a whole new clutch of eggs that hatched into Hydralisks.

Reached the population cap?

Spoiler

Show

But you are not Us, and yet connected to Us. Your pain and terror echoed in our mind.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you.”

D'aww, that's adorable. I love the name, too.

That concludes the Kaldir missions, and it's time for VOTING:

Next Planet:
1) Char: Will give us Banelings and Abberations, along with the Baneling evolution. Zerg enemies in mission 1, Terran enemies in missions 2-3.
2) Zerus: Will give us Mutalisks and Swarm Hosts, along with the Hydralisk evolution. Primal Zerg enemies.

Fighting the Terrans (who killed Raynor - or is this a different group?) seems like a logical next step now that Kerrigan has a power base. I vote for Char.

[Techwarrior]

Reached the population cap?

Yea, that mission has a really low pop cap. I think you cap out at 22? The beastie and Niadra might both count in some way too.

I'll vote for Char and Vile Roaches. I like the way the narrative flows better that way, even if mission 1 of char is slightly less weird when you've done Zerus.

I really like the Overlords reaching out to our reporter. That actually seems like a very interesting way to make that work, and works really well with the way the Zerg work canonically. Kudos on that Glyphstone.

[The Glyphstone]

Yea, that mission has a really low pop cap. I think you cap out at 22? The beastie and Niadra might both count in some way too.

I'll vote for Char and Vile Roaches. I like the way the narrative flows better that way, even if mission 1 of char is slightly less weird when you've done Zerus.

I really like the Overlords reaching out to our reporter. That actually seems like a very interesting way to make that work, and works really well with the way the Zerg work canonically. Kudos on that Glyphstone.

Fun trivia fact, this specific Overlord actually got a canon PoV short story as well, much like the Zergling one mentioned earlier. It's a pretty sad story too, unsurprisingly. "Just An Overlord" is the name.

Reached the population cap?

Yeah, pop cap of 30. Niadra doesnt count, nor does the Ursadon you can infest (he got killed storming the bridge as it happens).

Fighting the Terrans (who killed Raynor - or is this a different group?) seems like a logical next step now that Kerrigan has a power base. I vote for Char.

Also yes, the Dominion are on Char, who are also the people that captured and executed Raynor as a terrorist.

[Techwarrior]

Fun trivia fact, this specific Overlord actually got a canon PoV short story as well, much like the Zergling one mentioned earlier. It's a pretty sad story too, unsurprisingly. "Just An Overlord" is the name.



Yeah, pop cap of 30. Niadra doesnt count, nor does the Ursadon you can infest (he got killed storming the bridge as it happens).

30? Wow that's higher than I remember for sure.

[The Glyphstone]

30? Wow that's higher than I remember for sure.

Yeah. 8 at first with Zerglings, 16 when you evolve to Roaches, then 30 when you can morph Hydralisks.

[Brother Oni]

Anyways, Update! This one got away from me a little in the post-mission narrative, but hey, new character, and one whose addition was prompted by Brother_Oni's comment early on.

*Waves "Go GlyphStone" banner enthusiastically*

I contributed!

Fun trivia fact, this specific Overlord actually got a canon PoV short story as well, much like the Zergling one mentioned earlier. It's a pretty sad story too, unsurprisingly. "Just An Overlord" is the name.

*Reads story* Awww. :(

With the Tuskie story and a couple of the other shorts I've read, is Starcraft trying to out grimdark its 40K progenitor?

[The Glyphstone]

*Waves "Go GlyphStone" banner enthusiastically*

I contributed!

You did make a good point - with Nora being less self-absorbed this time around, she needs other personalities to bounce off, and HotS is pretty much limited to Kerrigan and Abathur. The former is obviously not practical right now, the latter is fun to write but also creepy as all get-out.

Speaking of Abathur - for the people with enough interest in the narrative side to weigh in, should I continue the running theme of Evolution Morphs reflected in Abathur's science experiments, or shove them into offscreen non-canon like the Mutations? I'm ambivalent as to if that subplot drags the story down or not.

[Tvtyrant]

You did make a good point - with Nora being less self-absorbed this time around, she needs other personalities to bounce off, and HotS is pretty much limited to Kerrigan and Abathur. The former is obviously not practical right now, the latter is fun to write but also creepy as all get-out.

Speaking of Abathur - for the people with enough interest in the narrative side to weigh in, should I continue the running theme of Evolution Morphs reflected in Abathur's science experiments, or shove them into offscreen non-canon like the Mutations? I'm ambivalent as to if that subplot drags the story down or not.

I like the science experiments, personally. Gives us more Abathur screen time and its not like we don't know the story so there's no rush to the ending.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Speaking of Abathur - for the people with enough interest in the narrative side to weigh in, should I continue the running theme of Evolution Morphs reflected in Abathur's science experiments, or shove them into offscreen non-canon like the Mutations? I'm ambivalent as to if that subplot drags the story down or not.

I thought it was amusing. If it becomes too cumbersome later you can always move it offscreen then.

[Keltest]

Not gonna lie, the first time i read that part, i though Abathur was experimenting with Carbot style zerglings as swarmlings, and was highly amused.

[The Glyphstone]

Oh, if I could have found a way to get Cartooned graphics in for at least one episode, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But the mod is only compatible with arcade play as far as I can find.

[Keltest]

Oh, if I could have found a way to get Cartooned graphics in for at least one episode, I would have done it in a heartbeat. But the mod is only compatible with arcade play as far as I can find.

Correct. Carbot talks about the difficulties of translating a 3d model system into a sprite system. You... could maybe rig something up with Brood War Cartooned is you have it, if its just a one off joke.

[The Glyphstone]

Correct. Carbot talks about the difficulties of translating a 3d model system into a sprite system. You... could maybe rig something up with Brood War Cartooned is you have it, if its just a one off joke.

Do you know if it works with custom maps made in the Editor?

[Keltest]

Do you know if it works with custom maps made in the Editor?

For BW? Yeah, totally. Its a toggle overlay, like the remaster skin. In the main menu, you pick which one you want to use. You cant swap between them in game, sadly, but you can swap between the original graphics and either the remastered or carbot one, whichever you have picked.

[The Glyphstone]

For BW? Yeah, totally. Its a toggle overlay, like the remaster skin. In the main menu, you pick which one you want to use. You cant swap between them in game, sadly, but you can swap between the original graphics and either the remastered or carbot one, whichever you have picked.

Sorry, I meant the SC2 Galaxy Editor. But it looks like the answer is 'No' anyways. If I had a mod for Remastered that imported SC2 units, I could just manually recreate screenshots via the Brood War RM map editor, but that doesn't appear to be a thing either.