Here are some responses of blizzard posters;
Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
The one only rule would only work with the pre-blizzcon Mothership. The current one just seems too weak.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
I liked the original abilites. However, the black hole was very powerful, and should have been nerfed, rather than fully removed.
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Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
Yes, I think it should be unique. This would increase the differences between the races if only the Protoss had this kind of 'superunit'.
What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
When I first saw the Mothership in the Protoss gameplay demo I was amazed. The Time Bomb and the Black Hole was especially stunning. People have complained about the imbalance of the Black Hole, but I think it could easily be fixed without removing the ability. (For example, decreasing the radius, making it channeled or don't make it instantly cast.
Additional Feedback you would like to give
By creating a really powerful unit avaliable for only one race (the Protoss) it will make the races even more unique. It should be able to attack air, it would make no sense if it didn't. I also think the cost should increase significantly, but make it worth the cost.
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1) Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
Yes. This is an interesting dynamic which fits in with the whole dominant 'mothership' concept. I'd like for it to cost more and be difficult to obtain. Seeing multiples of this unit onscreen could get really distracting, taking into consideration their attack animation and bloated size.
If you plan to allow multiples of this unit I think the attack needs to be simplified slightly. The homing white missiles muddles the visibility onscreen, which has been a huge complaint of mine with attacks like the Colossus beams, BC plasma attack, and Thor special ability. Visibility is more important than a fireworks display...especially when units can be massed.
2) What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
From the beginning I was never thrilled about the black hole ability. To be able to decimate an entire fleet with the press of a button just screams out imbalance and would lead to much frustration. Might be better off repurposing it as a channeled spell which renders the MShip immobile, without an attack, dropped shields (same as planet cracker), and offers a few seconds to escape from the event horizon.
Time bomb seems kinda goofy but might add some strategic depth. I like how you had it originally so that it cast around the MShip. Similarly to the black hole, I think this ability makes more sense as a channeled spell which drops the shields and renders it immobile. Also to make things interesting, enemy units should be able to fly inside the radius of this spell and similarly be immune to attack from outside the spells radius, yet be able to attack units inside it. Like the gungan shield used at the end of Star Wars: Ep 1.
Planet cracker could be fun if it isn't as powerful as originally demonstrated and also dropped its shields to make it fair.
3) Additional Feedback you would like to give
I love the idea of this ship cloaking all units/buildings underneath it as an innate ability. The lack of an arbiter disappointed me as this was my fave unit, but blending its roles with the MShip would still allow some exciting suprise tactics due to its cloak field.
I think the MShip would function better as a awe-inspiring spell support unit rather than a dominating super weapon that can decimate armies. Regardless of how expensive or powerful a ship/unit is, they shouldn't be instant army killers. There's no strategy to that and it would frustrate me beyond words.
Have you considered having this ship double as a mobile shield battery? That could be really interesting...
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
I think the Mothership should be a unique unit. It would be the best way to balance the ship due to it's power over other units and lack of counters (besides a more powerful army or some type of disabling unit). Having more then 1 mothership would force it to be nerfed into a unit that is not represented well (aka what it is now).
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
Time bomb, planet cracker, and black hole are all great abilities, the first 2 of course are fine. Black hole should work on allied units as well as enemy units, that would make you think twice about using it. Keep a large radius, but keep it so it only sucks a max of 8-12 units. It affecting your units as well as enemy units works with the starcraft spellcasting philosophy due to the nature of almost all other starcraft splash spells (psi storm, plague, dark swarm (i think), stasis field, nuke, etc).
I don't remember the cost of the Mothership in the alpha build, but I think it was around 2500m/g or somthing. Increase it to 4000 minimum.
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
I think the mothership is rather silly and IF it was in the game id rather have it in singleplayer mode.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
I find them uninteresting.
* Additional Feedback you would like to give
Dont overstate animations for the "cool" effect, zealots for example does not look cool at all, they look like clumsy ninjas..
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
The inherent problem with the Mothership being unique is that it becomes too strong a focal point for enemy fire; while the Protoss are defined by their strong units, it is
contrary to the nature of Starcraft to possess only ONE of any given unit.
The ability to construct multiple Motherships, then, comes across as potentially absurd - especially considering their size.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
The Mothership's strength lies almost entirely in its abilities. Therefore, it would be possible to retain some of these abilities in a non-Mothership unit.
The Time Bomb seems the most balanced and intuitive ability thus far; it can be used flexibly, creatively, etc. and is aesthetically just plain awesome.
As far as balance goes, the Time Bomb makes up for the lack of Protoss "sniper" fire (once covered by the Reaver) to outrange fixed defenses, as well as the removed Disruption Web from BW. It also can be used improvisationally to slow units and escape, prevent enemies from fleeing, etc.
The Planet Cracker, though visually and functionally interesting, is a tad uncreative - there IS a need for solid damage abilities, but the Planet Cracker can easily be subsumed by another attack or ability.
The Black Hole is, as most people agree, very imbalanced - capable of wrecking entire fleets. For melee, it would be too difficult to balance this ability. We'll have to see how it fits into the Protoss air/anti-air balance, though, to determine what should replace it.
The Cloaking Field - as shown at Blizzcon - is a brilliant reimplementation of the Arbiter's ability. It cannot cloak air (or so I've heard) but it can cloak buildings - a worthy tradeoff. Cloaked cannons FTW! The Protoss have to have this ability for certain, and the active/standstill implementation I saw at Blizzcon seems to be a balanced payoff.
* Additional Feedback you would like
My personal opinion is that the Mothership, while very interesting, is too difficult to balance properly into the Protoss air force and the game as a whole. Dependance on ONE unit (with no proper repair/healing ability, and a very slow energy timer) is, again, contrary to the nature of Starcraft. However, I would happily like to see the Mothership in the campaign.
My suggestion for the replacement of the Mothership is something akin to the rumored/scrapped "Star Relic" - armed with the Time Bomb (researched), Cloaking Field (active, as in Blizzcon) and some form of multi-target attack that could help fill the void left by the Planet Cracker.
We'll have to see how Protoss air balances out, but I'm sure it'll be handled properly. The Carrier/Tempest should be able to bolster the Protoss air-to-air capability sufficiently.
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
Absolutely. In a game of chess there is the Queen. She is the only one on the board and presents a powerful and mobile unit capable of inflicting damage on the opponent. The Protoss Mothership is just that. A single powerful unit capable of shifting the tide of the game. I really like the fact that the Mothership can only be in one place at one time.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
I like all 3. The Black Hole is to powerful in its current form IMO. Perhaps the Protoss can have a channel ability that determines the strength of the Black Hole. By channel, I mean that all surrounding Protoss units and structures would channel their available shield capacities into the Mother Ship and this would determine how powerful the Black Hole is. This would most of the time make for a defensive maneuver. This kind of ties in with my other Protoss ability: Shield Transfer which can be found here:
StarCraft II General Discussion - * Additional Feedback you would like to give
Please, for the love of originality pick a different name for this unit.
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
Yes and no. I think the general idea of a mothership is to have a single/powerful unit because the protoss in general are the few-yet-strong race. However, I strongly disagree with adding these artificial limitations. It simply isn't what starcraft is all about. There are so many unforseen things that starcraft players have used and continue to use that really makes the game great. A very thorough and meticulous set of limitations would cause many of these things to vanish.
So, what I think the mothership should be is a unit that generally only makes sense to make one of. For example, there will be a dimishing return on creating more and more motherships. Like in a TvT match, you might only need 1 science vessel to see mines, but not more, or you may only have 1 nuclear silo (the command center is a passive resource gathering unit, so making a silo just for nukes denies you that passive advantage)..
To this end, I think the mothership should have very special abilities, in addition to the spells which it currently has. The types of things I'm talking about
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* an overall passive ability. For example, a mothership could give +50 max psi to the protoss race.
* the mothership as a tech building. For example, the mothership could have a number of researchable upgrades which are researched
in the mothership, just as normal uprades are researched in a tech building. It would encourage the mothership to stay alive as well.
* a large, passive area ability. For example, cloaking a large area would be very good for your main army, but buying two motherships for cloaking might not be so good because you generally have only 1 large central army.
These types of things would make the mothership a very important, pivotal unit in the protoss arsenal, while simultaneously discouraging the production of a second mothership.
I do think that the mothership should have some real fighting power as well. It should be a tactical weapon. However, its firepower should be less than the combined firepower of several cheaper units for the same resources.
Basically, I would like to see most games have only a single mothership, but the possibility of certain strategies with including 3-4.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
The abilities themselves are pretty interesting and look fun. However, notice they are all devastating AoE. There is concern about large, late game units getting this type of AoE. In starcraft, most capital units, such as the battle cruiser, carrier, guardian, devourer, ultralisk, and archon were simply fighting units. Generally, units with low hp/midgame units got the AoE, such as templar, defilers, queens, lurkers, vultures/mines, reavers, and science vessels. Having this devastating AoE on motherships, thor, and banshee's might cause some problems.
About the specific spells:
Timebomb: I like this one. It is very interesting.
Planetcracker: See paragraph above. It kind of reminds me of science vessels that are matrixed/irradiated, which are always very annoying. This is probably the one I dislike the most. I think it could be done correctly if enough tweaks were made.
Blackhole: Obviously very strong, although it seems very original and fun. I think this one is viable, its all about implementation. For example, if you could see the mothership charging up for 4-5 seconds before the cast, it probably wouldn't be that good. The way you had it before, it was basically an instant nuke that only affected air. It seems more difficult to get motherships than nukes, so if the spell is implemented correctly, it wouldn't be too powerful. I say experiment more and try some ideas before getting rid of it.
* Additional Feedback you would like to give
Bring back the reaver!
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* Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
I vote for ONLY 1 mothership. It's a super unit, having more than one doesn't it make unique anymore.
* What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Cloaking Field, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
Time Bomb is cool.
As for the blackhole, perhaps make it so that when activated, it comes out beneath/behind the MS and suck ANYTHING (enemy, ally, ur own units) in. So you might think twice about using it since you can lose ur own units during combat.
Maybe put a cap as to the # of units to suck in too.
* Additional Feedback you would like to give
Get rid of the Cloak Field for MS.
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Do you think the Protoss Mothership should be a unique unit (1 per player maximum) or should you be able to build more than one? Why?
I'd prefer to give an indirect answer here, because it's not really that simple, in my opinion.
I'm not really a fan of the Mothership. The design is rather uninspired, though it is in certain ways aesthetically interesting...
Super units in general don't seem to fit the Starcraft framework. I'm unsure about balance issues, because I'm certain a good attempt could be made for ways of balancing, but it just doesn't feel right... more "Dawn of War" than anything.
I'm unsure what Protoss air support will look like, but as it seems that the Mothership has now been reduced to an Arbiter-esque role, I would prefer that the entire design concept be re-worked around that role, rather than bastardize the concept of a "Mothership" by using the name improperly and giving such a concept marginally effective abilities.
Personally, I'm much more intrigued by the above suggestion; to reconfigure the Star Relic to act as a support unit, with some of the Mothership abilities- such as the cloaking field and the Time Bomb (which really needs to be renamed to something like... Stasis Shield, as the name just seems more Terran-sounding as of right now). This unit would fill a more modest support role, and would probably be much more useful in actual multiplayer.
What do you think about the Mothership's abilities? (Time Bomb, Cloaking Field, Planet Cracker, Black Hole (currently out))
Concerning the abilities themselves, I've already noted that I like the cloaking field and the Time Bomb (preferably renamed). The Planet Cracker is so-so in design, has a
lame name, and really only has any novelty because it's likely the same attack shown in the original
SC intro. Black Hole has some amazing animation, but there seems to be a lot of problems surrounding balance. Again, if the Star Relic concept I explained was implemented, such a strong ability wouldn't quite fit, and would have to be reduced in strength. On another note, I'd like to mention that the Mothership creation animation is excellent. It's a shame I don't like the unit itself.
Additional Feedback you would like to give
The only decent argument I could see (lore-wise) for the presence of the Mothership(s) would be the elimination of Aiur as the Protoss center of operations. Though they now reside at Shakuras and what not, I could see the Mothership as a new Templar base of operations. Even with this idea, however, it's better as a simple campaign unit, rather than a multiplayer unit.