Now that the tech trees and units of Wings of Liberty are essentially set, what new units/buildings/races do you expect/hope to see in the two expansions? Be as detailed or as vague as you want to be. Hell, include artwork. I just wanna see what you all think the game is missing/where it's going.

My... Thoughts. (Green is for games, blue for buildings, yellow units. Purple is for abilities, and red is for upgrades.)

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Heart of the Swarm

Zerg Spur Crawler
Role: Low Cost Early Defense
Requires: Hatchery
Built From: Drone
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Bramble On
 All buildings within range of the Spur Crawler gain an aura which damages attacking melee units.
 The ability is channeled and ceases when the crawler is uprooted.
 Once rooted again, the brambles and thorns take time to regrow onto nearby structures.
 Uproot
 Allows the Spur Crawler to unburrow andmove slowly, like the Spore and Spine Crawlers.
 Uriticating Hairs
 Attacking melee units will continue to take damage for 20 seconds after ceasing contact with structures.
 Researched at Evolution Chamber.

Zerg Deep Warren
Role: Unlock Lurker Aspect
Requires: Lair
Built From: Roach Warren (Loses the ability to research Roach upgrades)
Abilities/Upgrades:
 None (Researches the Lurker upgrade.)

Zerg Umbrate
Role: Fast Aerial Support Caster
Armament: None
Requires: Spire
Built From: Overlord (Loses all Overlord abilities)
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Excrete Sludge
 Covers the ground beneath the Umbrate in a thick, viscous creep that slows enemy units and
 cannot be built or burrowed upon.
 Channeled ability, does not cost energy.
 (Works like Excrete Creep, has similar effect to Ensnare)
 Amaurotic Venom
 Blinds a targeted unit, reducing their visual radius to 1, and stopping detecting.
 Permanent Status Effect.
 Dark Swarm
 Creates a temporary cloud that prevents ranged attacks from enemy units affecting all units within.
 (Basically same as SC1, but also affects air units.)
 Researched at Greater Spire.

Zerg Lurker
Role: Heavy Support Unit
Armament: Subterranean Spines
Requires: Deep Warren
Built From: Roach
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Burrowed Attack
 Seismic Spines
 Grants the Lurker increased range, and the ability to attack up cliffs.
 Researched at Deep Warren

Terran Control Tower
Role: Air Support Building
Requires: Factory
Built From: SCV
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Tech tree change; All Air Weapons / Air Armor, and Raven upgrades moved here.
 Tech tree change; Now required to construct Ravens.
 Creates a similar radius as a Sensor Tower; Friendly air units within the radius receive a speed and vision buff.
 Not cost effective to blanket entire map in them for effects.
 
Terran Field Technician
Role: Light Ground Spellcaster
Armament: None
Requires: Engineering Bay, Attached Tech Lab
Built From: Barracks
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Ocular Relay
 Enables the Field Technician to see, what its target sees.
 Permanent Status Effect. (Works exactly like SC1 parasite)
 Restore
 (Same as SC1 Restore.)
 Neurostim Blanket
 Stops biological units within target radius from moving for a short period. They are still vulnerable to attack.
 (Same as SC1 Maelstrom.)
 
Terran Scorpion
Role: Light Air to Air Fighter
Armament: Twin H.A.L.O. Rockets (Capable of attacking two units simultaneously)
Requires: Control Tower
Built From: Starport
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Nanite Cloud
 Covers a target area in a cloud of grey goo for a time. Units beneath this cloud cannot attack.
 (Same as SC1 Disruption Web.)
 Researched at Control Tower
 Afterburners
 Double the speed of the Scorpion at the cost of its ability to fire, and a much greater turning radius.
 Scorpions who have had Afterburners activated for too long temporarily become non-responsive.
 Transformation Ability (Think siege, or assault mode.)
 Thermal Regulation
 Increase the time window for Afterburners.
 Researched at Control Tower

Further Terran Tech Tree Change:
 The Viking is now built at the Factory in ground mode, and uses vehicle upgrades.

Protoss Argus Node
Role: Unlock Corvette
Requires: StarGate
Built From: Probe
Abilities/Upgrades:
 None (Researches the Corvette Upgrades.)

Protoss Delphic Station
Role: Stationary Heavy Ground Caster
Requires: Cybernetics Core
Built From: Probe
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Autonomous Power
 Does not require a Pylon to warp in.
 Sacrifice
 Willfully send one of your own units back to the Void, granting the Delphic Station additional energy.
 Shield Battery
 Recharge friendly shields in exchange for energy.
 Gamma Ray Burst
 Irradiate an enemy biological unit, causing it damage, and damage to other biological unit near it.
 (Same as Irradiate from SC1.)
 Gamma Ray Field
 (Same as SC1 plague.)
 Researched at Cybernetics Core
 Tidal Flux
 Raise the very Earth around the Delphic Station, creating cliffs that impede vision and provide a choke.
 (Permanent; Only usable once per station.)
 Researched at Cybernetics Core

Protoss Corvette
Role: Slow and Heavy Air to Air Fighter
Armament: Neutron Crystals
Requires: Argus Node
Built From: StarGate
Abilities/Upgrades:
 Overload
 For 10 seconds, the Corvette is immobilized, and given 8 attacks per cool down cycle, rather than one.
 After, requires 10 second cooldown before it can move or attack again.
 Researched at Argus Node
 Plasma Charge
 A melee range attack with high cooldown that can only target one building at a time, deals 800 damage.
 Researched at Argus Node

Tractor Beam
 For: Phoenix
 Researched at: Argus Node
 Ability:
 Channeled ability like Graviton Beam, but draws enemy air units closer. Units affected can still attack.
 Useful for drawing in fleeing units to slow crowd of Corvettes. Does not affect Motherships or Colossus.

Void Reap
 For: Dark Templar
 Researched at: Dark Shrine
 Ability:
 Instantly kill a ground enemy unit at the cost of revealing the Dark Templar for 10 seconds.

Dark Haste
 For: Dark Templar
 Researched at: Dark Shrine
 Ability:
 Increases the Dark Templar's walking speed.

Theoretically, you could just build a series of Delphic Stations at a choke and tech to air and win.

Void Reap is rigged against Ultralisks.
Tractor beam would more or less only apply to "Massive" units.
Plasma charge sounds like a remake of the Planet Cracker ability which was removed.

There's interesting stuff going on, but it seems like you're just bringing back the SC feel to SC II, which was the one thing the devs didn't want.

Personally, the expansions should not include new units or gameplay. Looking at how flexible the editor is, when the expansion comes out, people can easily recreate it at no cost.
But that's just me diverting the topic and being a nit-pick: the true purpose the this thread is "What is missing in SC2"

Psionic Link
 For: Archon
 Researched at: Templar Archives
 Ability:
 When an allied unit nearby casts a spell, the mana depleted is absorbed by nearby Archons, recharging their shields.

Would require balancing, but I guess it could be done.


I agree, they do need to bring back lurkers - but I'm not sure about them being evolved from roaches.


I dunno. Trying to bring back medics, queens and defilers all in an air unit? I think SC2 is capable of greater innovation than this.


Not sure about the seismic spines. Imo the lurkers should be able to attack up cliffs naturally. A range attack increase could be feasible, though.


Maybe good for a mod, but I don't like it. I know you say it isn't cost effective, but it could potentially be abused.
 

Ok, I like the idea of attaching an addon to research structures to enable additional tech. Perhaps there could even be a bonus, like decreasing the research time of upgrades?

And stop trying to bring back SC1 units! Think of new stuff, or change the old stuff in some way!
 

Ok, if you remove the dweb, I think this is a decent idea. Having a unit that can have two targets at once is cool, and very useful.


...potentially. It's hard to say where it really belongs, isn't it?


I'll talk more about this when I get to the Corvette.


No. Just... no. Stationary spellcaster building?! No.


Too much damage on Plasma Charge. I don't care how high of a cooldown it has - one-shotting someone's factory and using the mothership's Mass Recall to warp your units out is just too cheesy. I do like the basic idea, though. The hard part is getting the Corvette to have a totally different purpose than the Phoenix.


Decent idea. But this isn't where it belongs imo.


Void Reap, ok. Would be useful to totally wipe out ultralisks and colossi and thors. In fact, maybe it's too powerful. Ineffective against massive units, perhaps? Or vastly reduced damage?

Dark Haste, good. They're pretty fast already imo. =/ Whaddya want, crack-dts?

I didn't really specify it, but when I said they made a choke, I meant they raised say, a cliff radius of a pylon around them, with a couple ramps on it.

Having more than one ultra in a location it's used would slaughter get the DTs slaughtered. It should probably cost energy though.



They already said the expansions are getting new units.


If that'd be a passive ability, it'd be super imba. But it would raise the usefulness of Archons massively.


I will admit, I made this one up just so I could use the ability name, "Bramble On". It's to give ZvZ an early option besides rush to lings.


It has one Medic spell, one kinda-like-a-queen spell, and one Defiler spell. Look at what an Infestor is.

The Zerg desperately need an air caster.


Everything I have about the Lurker is stuff that was on it before it got scrapped, except the morphing from Roaches thing. I changed that so the name "Deep Warren" made sense.

 
I actually meant tech lab on Barracks.

Terran needs a ground caster... All these spells have no analogue in SC2. (More on this at the bottom) Also I needed something to have restore because a few of the spells I put on units have permanent efffects.


Ok, if you remove the dweb, I think this is a decent idea. Having a unit that can have two targets at once is cool, and very useful.


...potentially. It's hard to say where it really belongs, isn't it?
I moved it because there'd actually an AA unit for Terran. What's wrong with dweb?


I'll talk more about this when I get to the Corvette.


No. Just... no. Stationary spellcaster building?! No.
Why not? It's an new type of unit that doesn't have any kinda parallels in SC2, and the toss macro mechanic is hugely lacking right now.


Too much damage on Plasma Charge. I don't care how high of a cooldown it has - one-shotting someone's factory and using the mothership's Mass Recall to warp your units out is just too cheesy. I do like the basic idea, though. The hard part is getting the Corvette to have a totally different purpose than the Phoenix.


Decent idea. But this isn't where it belongs imo.
Plasma charge has a melee range attack. You'd have to be directly above a building to use it. If a base is poorly guarded enough to let in a few Corvettes, they'd deserve that.
Also, huge waste of recall.

On the corvette, when I say they're slow, I mean about the speed of a Mothership, but they do high damage AA. Phoenices are total shit as AA right now against anything massed in equal numbers. The point of Phoenices having tractor beam would be to allow Corvettes to catch any type of air unit, and kill them. It creates a sort of Medic/Marine dynamic between the two.


Void Reap, ok. Would be useful to totally wipe out ultralisks and colossi and thors. In fact, maybe it's too powerful. Ineffective against massive units, perhaps? Or vastly reduced damage?

Dark Haste, good. They're pretty fast already imo. =/ Whaddya want, crack-dts?
For the bringing back SC1 spells, in case you didn't notice, most spells in SC2 are already rehashes shuffled around.

For balance, perhaps slow DTs more before the up? Or have Reap cost energy?

I would say I want to see the firebat made but I already know it will be in wings of liberty so thats all I care about.

And for anyone that cares, theres a firebat icon you can find in GE
[attach=6307]

Attachments:

Ah, ok. I haven't done any 1v1 ZvZ yet, so I'm lacking in experience here.


The infestor has one spell that seems sort of like plague and maelstrom put together, one mind-control spell that's tethered and non-permanent, and a unit-spawning spell. We had nothing like any of that in SC1.

Yes, they do. Not sure this is the way to do it, though. There are other options we could consider - adding abilities to the Overseer, for one; or adding an entirely new unit morphed from the larva. Heck, we could even give Infestors a morph that transforms them into flying units with modified abilities. It's hard to say what Blizz will do at this point.


Ah, right. You wanted to keep them at lair tech but from a structure built under hatch tech. Makes sense. They really need to bring back lurkers.


Ok, maybe. As a defense structure, I can see the potential uses.
 

Oh, right. =/ We could use tech labs attached to research buildings, though. Maybe even reactors to research two upgrades at once... no, that'd be overpowered...


I get the idea that Blizz was trying to stay away from permanent spell effects in SC2. Before Brood War, no players could do anything about parasite except suicide the unit or keep it away from tech. And toss or zerg still can't do anything about it in BW. Maybe Blizz regrets that somehow.

'Neurostim Blanket' already has a similar spell - the infestor's Fungal Growth.


Same as my earlier complaints. We've got a lot more room to maneuver now in SC2 - let's use it.


Eh, I dunno. I think I don't like it because it'd be too easy to avoid once your opponent knew where it was. Sure, it could be used to block paths and force your opponent to move elsewhere, but in PvP they'd just bring in a few corvettes and bomb the crap out of it before you knew what was going on. Besides, if it's stationary it just encourages players to build them all over the frikkin place, which is something that lots and lots of people really hate, to be honest.


Yeah, but two-shotting someone's nexus just seems overpowered. Even a mothership can be in the middle of someone's base before they realize it. Combined with a distraction of some kind, you can totally destroy the enemy economy at the main or at an expo somewhere before they have a chance to react. High-damage shots can always be abused.

Yeah, phoenixes either need an AA buff or Blizz needs to add a new AA air unit for toss. I like your ideas for this.


No, they aren't. Sure, we still have storm; we still have hallu; but irrad dropped out entirely, maelstrom and plague got combined, matrix dropped out entirely, stasis changed hands and was modified significantly, recall changed hands and was modified significantly, dark swarm dropped out entirely, we got changeling, mind control was altered almost completely and moved to Zerg, consume vanished, lockdown vanished. Anything I'm missing? Oh yes, ensnare vanished; spawn broodling is gone; infest cc inspired corrupt (maybe); we got transfusion, creep tumors, excrete creep, sentry bubble, force shield (which not many people use properly); graviton beam is new; feedback is gone. I think that's it. Oh wait, blind is gone; restoration is gone because there are no permanent status effects any more; heal moved to medivacs. No, it's not the same as SC1. Not by a long shot.


No, adding another mana-using unit isn't what we need at the moment. I'd say give Reap a long cooldown as well as revealing the DT. And slowing them before the up - yes. As it is, the Dark Shrine is a shiny stick of uselessness.

Now I have a few ideas:

New Ability: Void Warp
Used by: Nexus
Effect: Forms a hole in space-time that workers can return minerals and gas to. Cannot be placed too close to minerals or gas. Lasts 3min or until cancelled. Costs 75 energy. Unlimited range.

New Unit: TEMB (Terran Mobile Base)
Requires: Factory
Built From: SCV
Purpose: Remote mining base. Packs/unpacks similar to zerg defensive structures. Can be unpacked anywhere, but not too close to minerals/gas. Decent unit speed when packed. Packing/unpacking has a lengthy cast time (5sec?). Can carry up to four SCVs. SCVs inside the TEMB will autorepair it if it is damaged, no matter whether it is packed or unpacked or moving.