Hypothetical StarCraft: Brood War Balance Patch
Ever since the remastered version came out in 2017, StarCraft: Brood War has seen a resurgence in popularity. Seeing as the last balance patch came out in 2001, some prominent personalities like Artosis have been publishing their ideas for a hypothetical balance patch for Brood War. Although I'm not a prominent personality by any means, I have played the game on-and-off since 2009 and I also have almost as many years of experience in game design, so I thought it might be fun to craft and post my own ideas.
Terran
Firebat:
- Add an upgrade to the Academy that increases attack range from 2 to 3 (200 minerals / 200 gas / 60 seconds), but the upgrade requires a Science Facility
Since all Terran units are ranged, dark swarm is extremely strong against Terran. This would give Terran more ability to counter units under dark swarm, but the Firebat can still be countered by Mutalisks, Defiler Plague + Hydralisks, and Lurkers.
Medic:
- Restoration now works on units in stasis
Currently, restoration cannot be used on units that are in stasis, because the stasis spell activates an "invulnerability flag" that makes it immune to all spells and attacks. Therefore, attempting to use restoration on a unit in stasis will trigger an "invalid target" error message. This rule should be softened since stasis is the longest lasting stun spell in the game.
Ghost:
- Cloaking no longer requires research
- Lockdown energy cost reduced from 100 to 75
- Damage increased from 10 (concussive) to 16 (concussive)
- Attack upgrade bonus increased from +1 to +3
Based on how the game was put together, ghosts were meant to help counter large mechanical units. The problem is, the research for lockdown is an expensive upgrade, and it takes a while before a ghost reaches 100 energy. The proposed change to lockdown also makes the energy upgrade more useful since ghosts can cast lockdown shortly after being built and an idle ghost accumulates enough energy for 3 lockdowns instead of 2 lockdowns (but the player must decide between 3 lockdowns or 2 lockdowns + cloaking on a full energy ghost). Against Protoss, ghosts can still be countered by High Templar Psionic Storm and Dark Archon Feedback (or Maelstrom), all of which outrange lockdown.
The damage increase will also make ghosts a viable late game harassment unit. Two ghosts can effectively harass worker lines if they've been upgraded. Against Zerg, this could yield a ghost-medic strategy in which medics can blind lone overlords while the ghosts attack workers. The Zerg can counter this strategy by using spore colonies, which are immune to optical flare, to spot for cloaked ghosts.
These changes would also make ghosts a more viable counter to mutalisk harassment as a single ghost would now require approximately 8 shots to kill a mutalisk (without upgrades).
Wraith:
- Change unit size from "large" to "medium"
- Apollo Reactor upgrade cost reduced from 200/200 to 150/150.
Every Terran flying unit is considered to be "large", and classifying wraiths as "large" has made them needlessly delicate since they take full damage from missile turrets, goliaths, dragoons, and hydralisks. This change would give wraiths more viability against carriers and Zerg flyers without really influencing air-to-air combat situations (large wraith fleets would still be countered by valkyries, corsairs, and devourer + mutalisk + scourge).
The Apollo Reactor upgrade is the most expensive +50 energy upgrade in the game. The cost should be reduced to bring it in line with almost every other energy upgrade.
Dropship:
- Add an upgrade (150 minerals / 150 gas / 84 seconds) in the science facility that increases movement speed from 4.070 to 4.963
The dropship is the only transport unit in the game that costs gas and is also the only transport unit that doesn't have a speed upgrade. To be consistent with the other races, I would add a speed upgrade that can be researched from the science facility. This change would primarily affect the Terran vs Zerg matchup since dropships are mainly used in the late game when the Terran players also have a science facility.
Science Vessel:
- If a science vessel is stunned by either stasis or lockdown, any spells that were queued up are cancelled and the energy that was consumed is returned to the science vessel (something repeatedly emphasized in Artosis's video)
If a science vessel is ordered to cast EMP, and an opponent casts stasis on a science vessel before the EMP missile is launched, the science vessel will cast EMP after the stasis field wears off. This results in wasted energy as the highly delayed EMP cast is unlikely to do anything meaningful. In such a circumstance, the spell should be cancelled completely with compensation.
Protoss
Probe:
- Sight range reduced from 8 to 7 (in line with other workers).
This is a change that is already mentioned in Artosis's video on the matter, and I echo his sentiments. All of the workers should have the same sight range.
High Templar:
- Hallucination energy cost reduced from 100 to 50
- Hallucination creates 1 fake copy instead of 2 fake copies
Hallucination is mainly useful in very late game situations where resources are limited. This would make hallucinations a potential scouting option while preserving its late game usage.
Dark Templar:
- Attack damage reduced from 40 to 35
Dark templar one-shot probes and drones, but not SCVs. This change will require two shots to kill an enemy worker until (at least) +2 ground weapons have been researched. This prevents a lucky Protoss player from dropping a single dark templar into a Protoss or Zerg mineral line and getting 10+ worker kills before the opponent even realizes what's happening. Under such a change, this tactic only becomes possible in later stages of the game when the opponent also has the resources to proactively counter this tactic. At the same time, dark templar rushes will still kill an opponent that fails to get detection in a timely manner.
Scout (Rework):
- Cost reduced from 275/125 to 200/100
- Build time reduced from 50 seconds to 34 seconds
- Gravitic Thrusters upgrade removed
- Movement speed increased from 3.720 to 4.963
- Shields and health reduced from 100/150 to 90/120
- Air-to-air attack unlocked by a fleet beacon upgrade (100 minerals / 100 gas / 60 seconds)
- Air-to-ground attack damage changed from 8 (x1) to 4 (x2)
- Unit size changed from "large" to "medium"
The original version of the scout tried to fulfill the role of an early game harassment unit while also fulfilling the role of a late game counter to large flyers. This made the unit impossible to properly balance since its air-to-air attack was too strong for an early game unit, and its air-to-ground attack is much too weak for the unit's price tag. This rework allows the scout to fulfill both the intended early game and late game roles, but with better balance.
Under this change, the scout will have the same movement speed as mutalisks, corsairs, and wraiths; but will only be able to attack ground when first built. For a similar time and resource cost as 8 corsairs, this change would allow a player to build 6 scouts to one-shot Zerg drones without making it too easy to completely annihilate overlords until a fleet beacon is constructed and an upgrade is researched.
The change to the ground attack would also introduce a potential "+1 air weapons rush" strategy in which 5 scouts (4 with perfect micro) would be needed to one-shot drones for as long as the upgrade lead is maintained. This would also make the ground attack much stronger against structures if the air weapons are fully upgraded (potentially inflicting 14 damage per volley to a missile turret, 14 damage per volley to a spore colony, and 8-14 damage per volley to a photon cannon depending on plasma shield upgrades).
Finally the change to the shields/health would mean that two scourge hits can kill a scout instead of three. At the same time, if plague is cast on a scout, only a single scourge would be needed to kill a scout.
Carrier:
- Build time increased from 88 seconds to 100 seconds
- Sight range reduced from 11 to 10
- Add an animation indicating when an interceptor is being built
- If a weapon projectile is targeting an interceptor, and that interceptor enters the carrier before being hit, the projectile hits the carrier and deals 25% damage
- If an interceptor enters a carrier, any lost shield hit points are replenished by the carrier's own shields at an 8:1 ratio (for example, if an interceptor loses 40 shield hit points, then 5 shield hit points are deducted from the parent carrier if available)
On 4 player maps, two base carrier rushes against Terran are really strong in cross-spawn scenarios. By increasing build times, that will make this strategy riskier and harder to pull off.
The sight range reduction will make it slightly harder to utilize the "leash range" of 12 for deployed interceptors without utilizing other units.
Overall, this would make carriers more suited for defending bases (thanks to shield batteries) instead of attacking bases. At the same time, the proposed changes to the scout would make the scout more suited for attacking bases.
Arbiter:
- EMP cancels recall cast
Assimilator:
- Reduce shield and health from 450/450 to 375/375 (in line with refinery and extractor, another point of emphasis in Artosis's video)
Gateway:
- Add animation showing when a unit is being produced
Robotics Facility:
- Add animation showing when a unit is being produced
Citadel of Adun:
- Add animation showing when an upgrade is being researched
Templar Archives:
- Add animation showing when an upgrade is being researched
Observatory:
- Add animation showing when an upgrade is being researched
Arbiter Tribunal:
- Add animation showing when an upgrade is being researched
Miscellaneous:
- Add a Protoss structure (unlocked by building a Templar Archives) that allows biological ground units (Zealots, High Templar, and Dark Templar) to recover lost health at the expense of resources. This way, plagued zealots can theoretically recover health, but only by retreating from an offensive position after the plague spell has worn off. The time and resource cost would have the same proportion to the unit's base price as SCV repair (25%). And, like the shield battery, the healing unit cannot attack or move while being healed. This new structure would not benefit air units, dragoons, archons, dark archons, probes, or reavers. As for the exact cost, it would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of 200/150 with a ~45 second build time (something that makes it only viable for sparingly defensive usage in the late game).
Zerg
Defiler:
- Units under dark swarm have vision reduced to 1
- Reduce armor from 1 to 0
- Consume grants energy based on unit size (25 for small, 37 for medium, and 50 for large)
Dark swarm is the strongest spell in the game and makes it possible for a single Zergling to destroy static defense and entire bases while also fleeing before reinforcements arrive. This change will provide a reason for having ground units outside of the dark swarm to grant vision to the units under the dark swarm. If all ground units are under dark swarm, they cannot see where the opposing army is located. Vision could also be granted by flying units. Overall, these changes would make the defiler less effective for attacking and more suitable for defense.
Queen:
- Parasite energy cost reduced from 75 to 50
In order for queen spells to be used, a player must produce queens proactively so that there is enough time to accumulate energy for the desired spell. This change would allow queens to cast parasite as soon as they spawn, but would still require the same amount of forward thinking to use the more powerful spells (Spawn Broodlings and Ensnare).
Devourer:
- Fix bug that allows a devourer's attack to get cancelled
- Morph cost reduced from 150/50 to 100/50
If you have a devourer move in the middle of its attack animation, the attack is cancelled, but the cooldown is still activated. This glitch should be fixed.
Zerg Buildings:
- Add animation showing when an upgrade is being researched
Most of the proposed changes are intended to affect late game tactics. That way, the early game openers that have been around for decades are still largely viable even with this proposed patch. There is something beautiful in having so many different strategies to choose from, and I would criticize any balance patch that heavily influences early game strategies.
Other potential ideas
- Changing the Antennae upgrade so that it increases sight range to units other than overlords
This might make the game more interesting, but this would raise questions about what other units should benefit from this upgrade without completely ruining the balance of the game.
- Adding a spell to the ghost that, when cast, can cloak any allied unit for a finite length of time
This might change the game a bit too fundamentally and encourage players to amass ghosts a bit too much.
- Changing firebat attack to one that deals full damage (16) to biological units (e.g. Zerglings), 50% damage (8) to biological and mechanical units (e.g. SCVs), and 25% (4) damage to mechanical units (e.g. Goliaths)
This change would make a lot of sense from a realism standpoint as fire usually does more damage to living tissue than metal. However, I do wonder if this change might make firebats a bit too strong against Zerg.
- A Zerg static defense structure that deals 36 (concussive) damage to air and ground (that is not a detector)
This was an idea I had to address the monotony of the Zerg vs Zerg matchup as this would one-shot Zerglings (until +2 ground carapace is researched), one-shot Scourge, and four-shot Mutalisks. However, this could seriously break other matchups as a row of sunken colonies might pair too well with this new defensive structure. So, a possible workaround might be to have this new structure only attack air, but the ability to stack air units might still make this defensive structure somewhat ineffective unless it was also given a base armor value to help negate glave damage. Zerg is the only race with "small" air units that can attack (except for carrier interceptors), so one way to make Zerg vs Zerg more interesting would be to have something that deals concussive damage to air, but it might need to be another unit as opposed to another structure. Funny thing is, if it's a new ground unit, it will suffer from the same problem (being overwhelmed by huge stacks of air units), and there's already an air unit that kind of fits this role already (the Devourer). I just don't think there's a good way to fix the Zerg vs Zerg matchup without making serious fundamental changes to the Mutalisk that would also have significant repercussions on the other matchups. As much as I would like to see more Hive tech in Zerg vs Zerg, it might be best to just leave this mirror matchup alone and let the Hive tech ZvZ be a rare and precious jewel.
- A sight range upgrade for the science vessel
The science vessel is the only mobile detector unit without a sight range upgrade, but it also happens to be the most expensive mobile detector unit in the game. While it might be fun to include a sight range upgrade for the science vessel, I doubt that it would ever be researched in professional play since science vessels are so expensive and Terran already has ComSat stations to detect cloaked/burrowed units at any location on the map.
- Changing reaver damage type from "normal" to "explosive"
This would have substantial impacts on early game harassment against Terran as this change would mean that scarabs no longer one-shot SCVs until the scarab damage upgrade is researched. I feel this might be too significant of a change even though it would turn reavers into more of a defensive unit.