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

[Keltest]

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.

No, at that point youre just flat out photoshopping stuff in. Having said that, Carbot did use units SC2 styles, to the extent that there is a difference, when he modeled units that are in both games.

[Traab]

I will agree with the crowd, char and vile roaches. That slow is just nasty effective at cutting down losses with at best minor macro control of the army. A couple quick clicks and everything in range to hurt you is moving in a nastier molasses. Char is a lot of fun, I especially love the scourge nest mission. With experience it becomes so much easier. Instead of reaching and activating every nest as fast as possible, build past it then activate it as late as you safely can which gives you TONS more time to reach the others. I think my personal best was insta killing the last three gorgons as soon as they spawned because I had a queen just waiting to slap a tumor down next to the scourge nests. Charging the enemy base at the end is fun too, I love seeing how much damage I can do to warfields forces before the timer runs out and I get nuked.

The protoss ship mission is one I always enjoyed. It brings me back to the old days when I played this Aliens game where you had a story campaign as a marine, a xenomorph, or a predator. The xeno mission was great, you literally start by chewing your way out of a humans chest then have to sneak about looking for food without getting gunned down until you can grow big enough to fight.

[The Glyphstone]

Speaking of the Protoss ship - if anyone was confused by the one picture/comment about a 'Protoss kitchen' - it's apparently an Easter Egg referencing the old Classic Starcraft multiplayer map Aiur Chef, that got updated to SC2 as an official custom map mode.

[Morgaln]

Also voting for vile strain and Char. Vile strain because I just like it better, Char because I think the story just fits better with Kerrigan taking her revenge first before moving on to learn about the greater threat.

[The Glyphstone]

So an early update, because I had extra free time, and because there's sadly nothing to vote on this time. I'll do Fire In The Sky on Sunday as normal with some proper voting opportunities, but here, chew on fan-fic subplots in the meantime.

Spoiler: Update 6: In Which Zero Parody Songs Are Referenced Despite Temptation

Show

February 3rd, 2506:

Woke up to a knocking sound on the hull of the shuttle. I went to go look, and there was a Dominion Marine standing there as cool as could be! At first I didn't know what to do. Was this some sort of secret rescue operation? Something was off, though, and after a second, I realized the marine didn't have his rifle anywhere in sight. No soldier I'd ever met would be caught dead without his gun, let alone if they were infiltrating a Zerg battleship. So I opened the door and poked him in the chestplate – sure enough, it had the consistency of soft rubber, and the whole thing rippled at the touch.

“Noracolby must see Abathur in evolution pit. Assistance required.”

Darned if it didn't sound like a marine, though the speech patterns were completely off. I didn't really want to go visit the psychotic centipede nerd, but it had been two days since I'd seen Kerrigan and my efforts to 'see' backwards through the parasite hadn't paid off yet. So I was bored.

Abathur's chambers smelled as bad as before. Two of the larger pits had been emptied of their goop with some sort of clear waxy dome over the top, with Abathur swaying back and forth out of a hole between them.



“Didn't fool me at all, Abathur. It looks good, but you forgot to give it a gun, and it's too soft to the touch. What do you want?”

He twisted to look at me – the eyes on the right side of his head seemed to have trouble focusing and he looked oddly lopsided; all the limbs on his right side were short and stunted, with visible dents in the carapace and dull ichor stains around the cracks. “Seek input on experiment. Aid Abathur in refining Swarm's potential. Observe two Roach variants in testing. Judge effectiveness in trial combats.”

“I don't know why you need me for this, but as long as it doesnt mean fighting them off with a club this time, sure. And what on Korhal happened to you?”

He hissed like a steam kettle, looking away for a moment like he didn't want to answer. “When Queen of Blades first brought into Swarm, Abathur directed improvements. Broke bones. Tore flesh. Was long, slow process. Queen remembers now. Expressed displeasure.”

Good for her, really. I got closer and peeked into the domed pits – there was a Marine in each, real ones this time. They were held in place by ropy tendrils but otherwise seemed unharmed and even armed. I briefly considered the odds of rescuing them, but quickly discounted it – two soldiers and an unarmed civilian wouldn't make it back to the docking bay, even if I could get them out.

“Observe first test. Vile strain. Acidic bile upgraded to possess adhesive and paralytic properties.”

The tendrils binding one Marine fell away as a lumpy-looking Roach was released into the cell. The grunt immediately spun and started shooting, chipping away at the Zerg's armor and drawing blood. At the first spray of roach acid, though, it was like the Marine was in slow motion. Their armor's joints were seizing up, and when they did move it was jerky and uncoordinated. They died silent and helplessly, unable to even fight back anymore...definitely an effective weapon, which meant I could try and convince Abathur to adopt the other choice. It couldn't be any worse, and hurting the Swarm even a little bit by sabotaging its growth would make me feel helpful.

“Observe second test. Corpser strain. Bile contains modified parasites that grow rapidly in flesh.”

Before I could ask what that meant, the second cell's marine was free to fight another roach. The acid didn't seem to have any additional effect at first, but then they staggered, clutching at their chest with a free hand. Even as the roach backed away the marine groaned, a muffled scream that ended as their stomach erupted in a shower of guts and armor shards. Two miniature roaches crawled out of the eviscerated body, skittering around eagerly for a few seconds before keeling over dead.

Memories of that poor Protoss scientist flashed in my eyes, even as I fought an urge to start digging at the scab on my neck. The fear started to come back, but I choked it back down. No, there was no chance in hell I'd be inflicting that on other humans if I had a choice. I told Abathur he should refine the vile strain, then sprinted back to the shuttle before throwing up.

I thought hard about Fortune Cookie, how its mind had felt brushing against mine. There wasn't any other way I could think of to 'call' it, but after a minute I 'heard' it.

Little One. You wished our attention?

“How do I turn that parasite around? I can't keep being scared of it like this, it's killing me. Figuratively, at least.”

Cast away your physical senses. Seek its presence in your mind, like ours but lesser. Turn your focus upon it.

Visualization. Okay, I could do that. I lay down and closed my eyes, like I was trying to meditate. The blood thumped in my ears, but after a minute I could feel the odd sense of someone watching over my shoulder. I narrowed in on that, picturing myself turning in place and catching a creepy spy in the act. For a moment, I got the sensation of looking through a million windows at once, each slightly different on the other side, but it was too much and the vision fell apart.

Do not seek to view the Swarm in its entirety. We are below on the surface. Try again, with our presence as a guide, and borrow only our senses for now.

One window. One window. I went through the whole process again...the parasite is harmless, remember that. It's just watching me, totally harmless. I kept the mantra going while 'turning' again, this time trying to 'see' Fortune Cookie in my head. My eyes were still closed, but I could still see, looking down at the surface of Char and a Zerg hive cluster. Something didn't feel right about the images, though.



Fortune Cookie? Why does everything look...cute? I want to pat those Zerglings on the head, not run away screaming.

We do not know what you see, or how it differs from our own sight. But it is the state of your mind that shapes how you will understand what is shown to you.

Yeah, this definitely needed more practice. But hey, progress! Kerrigan was down there as well, overlooking a big acid pit and arguing with someone.

“You dare to challenge me, Broodmother Zagara? I command the Swarm, and you will obey.”

“You are not the Queen of Blades, feeble Terran. I rule the Swarm now! Soon, my army will annihilate your feeble attempt at a hive.”

I wasn't sure who she was talking to, but I could see another overlord through one of Fortune Cookie's eyes, and after a minute I worked out how to 'jump' view points. Didn't fix the cuteness problem, but now I could see the other Broodmother in her base. It was a fairly sturdy looking hive, and she had several types of Zerg standing or flying around that Kerrigan didn't command yet.



I was expecting to see a back and forth fight below me, as the two fought over what looked like thousands of eggs scattered all over the marshes. But Kerrigan, it seemed, had other ideas.



She moved out immediately with every Zergling she had, pushing creep tumors as fast as they could grow and heading for the enemy hive. I was confused at first – she was crazy, not stupid. That base was too big for her to take on alone.



Then I looked back, and a whole bunch of spine crawlers were waddling their way up the purple fungus road.



Pretty soon, there was an entire wall of them parked right across the only entrance or exit to Zagara's hive. Kerrigan had stripped her own hive bare of defenses to do this, but it looked remarkably solid.



The next time Zagara sent her forces out, they ran headfirst into the unexpected spine wall and got torn to pieces. The mournful faces on those Hydralisks as they died almost made me cry, but at least there wasn't any blood.



Zagara herself tried to lead the next breakout, but that just made her a bigger target, and she was forced to retreat almost instantly. She was quite angry about it, too.

“You fight me with minions, coward? At least face me in battle yourself!”

Predictably, Kerrigan was having none of it. “I fight enemies, Zagara. You aren't an enemy, you're a disobedient minion who needs to be punished. I'll come deal with you when my work is done.”

Crazy. Murderous. But that was a solid burn, I can't deny it.



For her part, Kerrigan was wandering around collecting unhatched eggs and sending them back to the hive. She ran across a few infested command centers in the process and demolished them, along with the hordes of infested humans milling around. Some of the infested had Raiders insignia on the remains of their uniforms, and it almost seemed like she was singling them out first when they appeared.

Eventually, it seemed like she'd had enough. After Zagara's next futile attempt to break the ever-thickening wall of spine crawlers, Kerrigan ordered all the eggs she'd collected to be hatched simultaneously.





They poured past the wall and into Zagara's base like a tidal wave of adorable doom. Kerrigan picked off the handful of Mutalisks in the air while the Zerglings and Banelings wreaked havoc below.



Zagara was last, backed up against a cliff, but somehow she managed to talk Kerrigan out of killing her with a story about only wanting to make the Swarm stronger, by ensuring its leaders were worthy. I'm not sure that's how a hive mind works, exactly, but Kerrigan bought it and let her live instead.

At that point, I gave up trying to watch her. Turns out mentally hacking an implanted psychic alien brain parasite is exhausting, in addition to none of those words making any sense together. I was going to have to work on filtering my own brain as well; remembering the parasite was harmless shouldn't make me forget the rest of the Swarm is super dangerous, even to me if I'm not careful.

If we were on Char, though, that meant a Dominion relay satellite might be in range, so I could catch up on news. Turning on UNN, I found Kate in the middle of her usual show. It was nice to see a familiar human for once, but she looked even stranger than the last time I'd talked to her – something about the eyes again, even if her broadcasting face was as impassive as ever.



“-believed to be yet another atrocity in revenge for the death of their leader. Aside from the security garrison, the research station was only staffed with unarmed civilian scientists, all of whom were killed when the Raiders destroyed it.”

Wait. The Raiders didn't attack that base; it was Dominion marines from a Dominion battlecruiser. Now, I've never pretended to be the best journalist in the world, and I always knew Dominion news was biased against Raynor's Raiders (sure, I was too, but I also got better) – but this was just flat-out pinning something the military did on them. And if this was the official story, they must have killed everyone we left behind to hide it! I almost didn't catch Kate's next words

“-has classified the names of military personnel pending family notifications, but the names of civilian personnel onboard the station have been released. We at UNN must sadly confirm that – that our own field correspondent, Nora Colby, was – among the deceased.”

Her face twitched visibly, the first time I'd ever seen her break composure on-air in my entire life. The channel cut abruptly to a commercial break and left me with my thoughts. The Dominion had listed me as dead. And if I was right about Kate pulling strings to get me sent out there in the first place...that meant she thought she had killed me by doing it.

I fell asleep imagining if Kate had a secret alien armada to avenge my death with, and dreamed about her massacring scientists because they didn't save me from the explosion...

I lied. We do get to choose a Baneling Mutation:

1) Double damage to primary target, normal splash damage.
2) +50% blast radius on splash damage.
3) Explosions heal nearby allied units and structures.

[Keltest]

Banelings are fun units. I vote for the extra explosion radius personally. If you make banelings, the only friendly units theyre going to be hitting are zerglings (who dont really care about the healing) and roaches (who dont need it much). The extra damage to the primary target isnt bad, but banelings are AoE splash units for killing zerglings and marines. You want them to be better at that, not at all suiciding into a siege tank or Thor.

[Traab]

Banelings are fun units. I vote for the extra explosion radius personally. If you make banelings, the only friendly units theyre going to be hitting are zerglings (who dont really care about the healing) and roaches (who dont need it much). The extra damage to the primary target isnt bad, but banelings are AoE splash units for killing zerglings and marines. You want them to be better at that, not at all suiciding into a siege tank or Thor.

I disagree a bit. I generally only use banelings to smash hardpoints, so being able to melt say, a bunker, or a pylon/photon cannon network, is super important to me, while killing regular troops is less so. So extra damage to the initial target is my preference. Fewer attacks needing to land to break the chokepoint is my jam. If I used banelings more often for killing enemy squads I would agree with you though. My roaches/hydras can handle regular enemy troops, kerrigan and banelings are used to melt the structures and big units asap. Colossi, siege tanks, units and structures that will kill a lot of my units in short order need to die as fast as possible to lower my losses. And they generally dont come in large numbers so aoe splash damage isnt important.

[Keltest]

I disagree a bit. I generally only use banelings to smash hardpoints, so being able to melt say, a bunker, or a pylon/photon cannon network, is super important to me, while killing regular troops is less so. So extra damage to the initial target is my preference. Fewer attacks needing to land to break the chokepoint is my jam. If I used banelings more often for killing enemy squads I would agree with you though. My roaches/hydras can handle regular enemy troops, kerrigan and banelings are used to melt the structures and big units asap. Colossi, siege tanks, units and structures that will kill a lot of my units in short order need to die as fast as possible to lower my losses. And they generally dont come in large numbers so aoe splash damage isnt important.

I dont disagree with your priorities here, but banelings kill themselves anyway. Smashing a bunch of them into a bunker or colossus is a bad way to use them even with the bonus damage to the primary target. Better to just make a half dozen vile roaches as tanks and tear them apart with your stim hydras. Your army will last longer that way.

[The Glyphstone]

Hopefully we get at least one more vote here.

In the meantime...not even a side comment on my successfully pulling off a Carbot graphic swap? Tough crowd we have in here if that didn't get at least a chuckle...

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Hopefully we get at least one more vote here.

Keeping in mind I still have zero knowledge of what would make the best strategic sense and I’m only voting to break the tie...I’m going to side with Keltest and say go with the blast radius increase.

In the meantime...not even a side comment on my successfully pulling off a Carbot graphic swap? Tough crowd we have in here if that didn't get at least a chuckle...

I just saw this update maybe fifteen minutes ago. I’m still squeeing over how cute they are. So adorable!

[Artanis]

I for one loved the Carbot swap.

For the vote, I'm going to say the increased primary-target damage. Banelings already do terrible, terrible things to clumps of light units, making them even better at it is just kinda overkill, especially with the zillions of other tools you have to deal with light units.

[Lord Torath]

I'll toss in another vote for increased primary damage, for pretty much the same reasons Traab laid out. I use them (and Sarah) to bust strongpoints, and let the rest of the zerg handle the weaker units.

I really love the cartoon style. Half-temped to get it. Is it available through Battlenet? Or is it a third-party mod, like the Arsenal mod for the original Starcraft?

[Keltest]

I'll toss in another vote for increased primary damage, for pretty much the same reasons Traab laid out. I use them (and Sarah) to bust strongpoints, and let the rest of the zerg handle the weaker units.

I really love the cartoon style. Half-temped to get it. Is it available through Battlenet? Or is it a third-party mod, like the Arsenal mod for the original Starcraft?

For Starcraft 1, its available through battle.net for purchase, as an alternative to the Remastered graphics. For SC2, its limited to the arcade map that Carbot created to support his mod.

[The Glyphstone]

Yeah - when you buy Starcraft Remastered, you can get the Starcraft Cartooned graphics-mod as a DLC, basically. Or you can play Arcade mode online for Starcraft II with the Star Crafts mod.

This was made with a combination of both; where I needed both sides in one shot, it was done via Arcade mode and a helpful friend to pose shots with, plus a little photoshopping where I needed Kerrigan in-view. Otherwise, it was custom maps made in SCMDraft 2, then played via Remastered.

[Thomas Cardew]

Yeah - when you buy Starcraft Remastered, you can get the Starcraft Cartooned graphics-mod as a DLC, basically. Or you can play Arcade mode online for Starcraft II with the Star Crafts mod.

This was made with a combination of both; where I needed both sides in one shot, it was done via Arcade mode and a helpful friend to pose shots with, plus a little photoshopping where I needed Kerrigan in-view. Otherwise, it was custom maps made in SCMDraft 2, then played via Remastered.

That is an impressive and appreciated amount of dedication.

[Tvtyrant]

I know this is probably not the most welcome suggestion, but couldn't you download the sprites and just make the pictures in MS Paint? It might take less effort.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

That is an impressive and appreciated amount of dedication.

Second this!

[The Glyphstone]

I am glad people liked it then, and Keltest gets the assist credit this time around for offhandedly mentioning Carbot zerglings and making me want to figure out how to do it.

I know this is probably not the most welcome suggestion, but couldn't you download the sprites and just make the pictures in MS Paint? It might take less effort.

That would probably be more effort when the dust settled, actually. I'd have to first find where/how to get the sprites, then manually recreate the maps in an editor, and finally splice it all together.

Easier to just have the narrator get more control of her Zerg-o-vision so I can go back to regular screenshots.

[Lord Torath]

Has anyone ever tried the "color method" of selecting the zerg evolutions? Always pick green or always pick purple?

[The Glyphstone]

Spoiler: Update 7: In Which All Power Is Switched To Front Deflector Screens

Show

February 4th, 2506:

To keep my mind off Kate and my parents, I decided to keep working on the parasite link. After a few hours, I was starting to get the hang of seeing things Swarm-style without needing to trick myself with cute substitutions. Then, all of a sudden, she was in my head, curious and amused.

You are full of surprises, aren't you? Come to the command chamber and take notes.

It was surprisingly crowded when I arrived – Kerrigan was there, and obviously the Izsha creature who I'd decided was more like a Zerg adjutant of some kind than just a ship captain. But the hulking broodmother Zagara had joined them, and even Abathur was present, hanging from one of the omnipresent holes in the wall.

“We need to strike Warfield quickly, before he can go on the offense against us. The man is too good at fighting Zerg to bring anything but our best, and if he takes the initiative it will hurt. What do you know about the Dominion's forces here, Zagara?”

“The primary Terran encampment is located on the Dauntless Plateau, where the Xel'Naga artifact was deployed. The Terrans flooded our tunnels with lava and killed the local Nydus network, leaving only the Bone Trench as a means of approaching their walls. We will be exposed to aerial assault the entire way.”

“My queen, the Terran fleet presents a severe threat to us. If they move against the Leviathan, we will be forced to flee Char or be destroyed.”

“Then we'll have to give him something more important to use them against. Our forces will be corralled inside the trench, but it also forces his battlecruisers into a fixed course if they want to strafe us. Zagara, have the Terrans cleared out every trace of the Swarm in their area?”

“All that moves in their view dies, my Queen, and they have diligently burned away the nearby creep growths. Anything that remains must be stationary and dormant to avoid starvation.”

“Like those Scourge nests. Dormant, the Dominion might not have even realized they were alive at all. But if we feed them creep, it'll be enough to take down even a Gorgon-class battlecruiser. But that only gets us halfway...Abathur. How quickly can you start mass-producing those changelings you've been secretly experimenting with, and hoping I didn't notice?”

Abathur almost fell out of the wall, by the way his claws scrabbled to hold in place.

“Can repurpose evolution pits. Use as spawning pools. Produce many changelings rapidly. Can effectively mimic Terran soldiers. Act as spies. Saboteurs. Did not wish to anger queen with inferior, inefficient design.”

“Do it. I want as many as you can grow. Drop half of them around Warfield's perimeter out of sight to infiltrate on the ground, and send the other half on ballistic courses to secretly board his ships in orbit. We're fighting the Dominion's best field commander here, we need an edge he won't expect – like a type of Zerg that's never seen combat before.”

I hadn't said anything the entire time, but she still turned to look at me. “I hope you're ready to write an obituary, Nora.”

There was no chance of me going out in the shuttle with Dominion ships everywhere and the air soon to be full of scourges, so I settled down to have a mental staring contest with that stupid parasite of mine.



The Bone Trench certainly lived up to its name. It was full of charred bones and Zerg corpses, left over from what have been every last Zerg on Char during the big battle. The Dominion was pushing them around with bulldozers into the lava – if I had been there in person, I'm sure the smell was horrendous.



Minutes after the attack started, the first Gorgon battlecruiser dropped into low orbit and started its attack run on the trench. The Gorgons were impressive ships, the newest and greatest in the Dominion fleet. Only ten of them were in service, and seven had been deployed with General Warfield's fleet here at Char.



The first of the dormant scourge nests was right outside the hive cluster Kerrigan had set up, just inside the trench. Dormant like that, you could have mistaken it for an oddly shaped pile of rocks, so it wasn't out of the question for the Dominion to have overlooked them.



Kerrigan wasted no time in moving out to clear the trench, spreading creep behind her as she went. Here and there, small pockets of living Zerg turned out to be hiding amongst the bodies from Zagara's previous attacks, and even the dead ones could still be harvested for their biomass.



Some of the bones looked really old, though – bleached white from age. Abathur got really, really excited when those were spotted, insisted that Kerrigan collect them to recover 'lost' genetic sequences.



For some reason, Kerrigan waited until the last minute before awakening the nest. It worked quickly, spending all the life it had been hoarding over the last year to belch out a swarm of scourges.



The battlecruiser was a sitting duck, trapped in the trench with us and unable to maneuver properly with most of its turrets blocked. A half-dozen scourges made it to impact, and the entire ship plummeted from the sky in flames.



The general just called in another one, though. It seemed he was gambling on his ability to get a battlecruiser through Kerrigan's defenses before she could reach another scourge nest and destroy it.



He also tried a ground assault, maybe thinking she'd devoted all her attention to anti-air defenses. They didn't stand a chance against Kerrigan alone, let alone the swarm she was building to march with.



Unfortunately (wait – whose side am I on here?) Kerrigan won the race, and the second Gorgon came down just as hard as the first. I was watching nine months of work in a Dominion military shipyard be reduced to scrap in the span of nine seconds, with a handful of obsolete suicide-bombing fliers. Why had the Swarm ever stopped using these monsters?



Even as the third ship came in for an increasingly desperate strike run, Kerrigan was running rampant amongst the trench's helpless ground defenders. The massive pack of Hydralisks she was leading tore anything that got in their way to shreds, and if they met a hardened bunker or siege tank Kerrigan's psychic crunchy blast took it apart.



Somewhere in all the middle of this, Kerrigan did manage to find a giant robot to continue her one-woman vendetta against all things titanic and mechanical.



Gen. Warfield tried to flank Kerrigan by attacking the hive cluster while she was away, only to find her defenses were just as strong anyways. Not only was there a nice wall of spine crawlers on guard, she'd buried Banelings on her perimeter like deadly green landmines, ready to pop up and explode.



One time, a battlecruiser looked like it was going to make it to the base. Had her attention wavered, or had the Dominion actually managed to put up enough of a fight to delay pushing forward?



Hahahaha nope. She was just toying with Warfield, letting his captain right up to the edge of her hive before loosing a dozen scourges up their rear exhaust ports.



As his battlecruisers dropped one by one, Warfield began reinforcing his troops with orbital drops. He was trying to kill the sleeping scourge nests before Kerrigan could wake them up, but she was already in position to intercept them on landing.





The Swarm had total control over the trench at this point. But Dominion battlecruiser captains weren't chosen for their lack of bravery; even if I was souring rapidly on the Emperor, it wasn't the Fleet's fault what orders they were given. They charged in, and were blasted to scrap as Kerrigan stopped playing around and giving them a futile hope of victory.



When the last Gorgon crash-landed in pieces, everything in Dominion colors left in the trench began a full retreat. Warfield was wisely choosing to fall back and defend his walls with everything, instead of lettting Kerrigan chew him to pieces in the open. But now it would come down to this – the Queen of Blades against the Hero of Char. And I still didn't know who I wanted to win.

And Voting Time! Now, I'm like 99.99999% sure what the outcome of this will be, but I must observe the formalities.

New Kerrigan Ability Unlock:
1) Wild Mutation: Friendly Zerg units in the target area gain +200 maximum life and 100% increased attack speed for 10 seconds. Does not affect heroic units.
2) Spawn Banelings (banelings, banelings, oooooooh)

Also - you'll see I decided to experiment a bit with adding small portraits to the narrative dialogue, to make it a bit more clear who's talking and maybe break up the monotony of pure text a bit. Assuming people aren't just skipping ahead to the interesting bits anyways, does this work or not? Bigger portraits?

[Lord Torath]

I vote Wild Mutation

Just kidding. Spawn Banelings.

[Traab]

Gee thats a tough one. Yes banelings. I cant wait till the splitter mutation when she can melt hardpoints all by herself even without the crunchy mind blast. Awesome, glad to see im not the only one who plays the waiting game on the scourge nests. Its way more obnoxious trying to spread the creep from one nest to another before the later gorgons come in if you hurry up to activate them asap. I think my personal best was last 4 gorgons dead in under a minute. But that was on easy difficulty.

[Keltest]

Banelings are a whole ton of fun, but dropping Wild Mutation on a pack of zerglings or hydralisks honestly feels like cheating. Im going to vote against the grain and go with Wild Mutation, if only because you can already make banelings on your own, but watching a pair of zerglings tear apart a Thor is just too good to pass up.

[Tvtyrant]

Banelings are a whole ton of fun, but dropping Wild Mutation on a pack of zerglings or hydralisks honestly feels like cheating. Im going to vote against the grain and go with Wild Mutation, if only because you can already make banelings on your own, but watching a pair of zerglings tear apart a Thor is just too good to pass up.

Isn't Wild Mutation Mutalisk ball the classic "cheese through the ending" for this campaign?

[Keltest]

Isn't Wild Mutation Mutalisk ball the classic "cheese through the ending" for this campaign?

I dont know about cheese, but its very certainly the more powerful of the two. YMMV on whether that also makes it more fun.

[The Glyphstone]

It's also fairly micro intensive, and my micro is awful. So in terms of actually getting utility, it's probably getting a strike against it.

[Artanis]

Imma vote for the banelings as well.

[Keltest]

It's also fairly micro intensive, and my micro is awful. So in terms of actually getting utility, it's probably getting a strike against it.

Its about the same amount of micro as using the banelings most of the time. Its only a problem if you have a bunch of air units and want to get ALL of them.

[Morgaln]

Isn't Wild Mutation Mutalisk ball the classic "cheese through the ending" for this campaign?

I have it on good authority (i. e. the streamer who actually did it) that Wild Mutaton is necessary if you want to win the final mission on Brutal using Zerglings only.


My vote goes to Spawn Banelings because they feel like more fun (for the Zerg, not necessarily for whoever they blow up on...)

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Spoiler

Show

“But that only gets us halfway...Abathur. How quickly can you start mass-producing those changelings you've been secretly experimenting with, and hoping I didn't notice?”

Abathur almost fell out of the wall, by the way his claws scrabbled to hold in place.

Also - you'll see I decided to experiment a bit with adding small portraits to the narrative dialogue, to make it a bit more clear who's talking and maybe break up the monotony of pure text a bit. Assuming people aren't just skipping ahead to the interesting bits anyways, does this work or not? Bigger portraits?

Speaking as someone who hasn’t played this game - I had no idea who was who until they addressed each other. Even Kerrigan looks different then she did in Brood War. That might be a problem specific to me though.