Meaningful upgrades to early and mid-game units are great

Dec 22, 2014 12:33 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard talks a bit more about the planned tweaks it might introduce to StarCraft 2 with its next big expansion, Legacy of the Void, as the studio wants to make a few changes to the unit upgrade system in order to avoid useless things and make the whole system more meaningful.

StarCraft 2 launched a few years ago with its first actual content, Wings of Liberty, which told the story from the perspective of the Terran faction, and introduced the first iteration of its multiplayer mechanics. A few years later, the studio rolled out Heart of the Swarm, an expansion that focused on the Zerg race and made a few key changes to the online system.

Now, the next iteration is Legacy of the Void, which highlights the Protoss faction and is set to bring quite a few modifications to the general multiplayer experience.

A few of these changes were already tested at BlizzCon last month and Blizzard is now sharing more info about planned changes on its official website.

Upgrades need to be meaningful

First up, the studio wants to include more meaningful upgrades to units that are already being employed by players in certain stages of the game. According to the developer, great upgrades include the Zergling speed bonus or the Ghost cloaking one, which provide visible changes to those units. The goal is to ensure that more such improvements are available to players.

What's more, the studio wants to remove upgrades for late-game units, such as Battlecruisers, Carriers, or Thors, as they enter the game towards the end of a match, so players aren't interested in additional upgrades.

"Generally speaking, the late tier units are used only after the upgrades are purchased anyways, so we don’t see a huge value in adding more upgrades to them. For example, Ultralisks wait until their armor upgrade is done because both building Ultralisks and researching the upgrade start at the same time. So this upgrade is clearly not as interesting as say like Zergling speed or Marine stim pack that really change up how the units already on the battlefield are used," the studio explains.

Mech and Air upgrades might be split up

What's more, Blizzard is also considering splitting up the mech and air upgrades with the upcoming expansion, in order to create more interesting decisions.

According to the studio, in internal play tests people are mixing different areas, such as bio with mech or bio with air to come up with innovative builds. Splitting up the upgrade system should further motivate players to use such strategies, in the studio's opinion.

Bear in mind that these changes are still being debated internally and Blizzard also wants feedback from users about them, so don't be afraid to make your voice heard.

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