Episode 1 Patch Info
TERRAN:
SCV:
Name to "Terran T-290 SCV"
Armor to Vehicle from Infantry
HP to 80 from 60
Fusion Cutter (5n) to Fusion Cutter (10n); upgradable
Background: Recognizing the
vulnerability of their Space Construction Vehicles to surprise
attacks on their mineral gathering operations, Dominion Space
Engineering (DSE) designed a new model to replace the decades-old
T-280. The new SCV design, designated the T-290, had much tougher
armor than its predecessor without adversly affecting its speed
or altering its size or form in any major ways. Though still not
really intended for combat, the Jeron Fusion Cutter was upgraded
with a distintive "combat mode" that could send out
much stronger electric bolts than when used for standard mining
and construction, permitting the T-290s to actually have a decent
chance at successfully defending themselves from attack. While
still far from standard proceedure, the new SCVs are sometimes
even sent into battle to back up other troops, a tactic that has
proven remarkably effective.
Marine:
HP to 50 from 40
Gauss Rifle (6n) to C-24 Gauss Rifle (8n)
Background: * See C-24 Gauss Rifle in the weapons section *
Firebat:
HP to 60 from 50
Flame Thrower (16c) to Flame Throwers (17c)
Ghost:
C-10 Canister Rifle (10c) to C-15 Canister Rifle (15c)
Lockdown to 75e from 100e; researched by default
Cloaking to 1e to activate from 25e
Background: Emperor Mengsk, wishing to
distance his government from the former tyrannical Terran
Confederacy, saw a golden opportunity in revamping the ghost
program. What was once a program that stole children from their
parents and sucked the humanity out of them became a voluntary
(and well-paying) service for those gifted in psionic potential.
Those who has already been "conditioned" in the old
ghost program were compensated financially and offered the chance
to leave their jobs. Mengsk's advisors feared that many ghosts
would leave the service and not many people would volunteer to
fill their place and strongly advised the emperor to change his
mind, but Mengsk was adamant in fair treatment for ghost
soldiers. Despite many people's expectations, most ghosts opted
to continue their service, and seeing the sweeping changes in the
program (and the good payment), new volunteers poured in, and the
number of ghost warriors on the battlefield not only matched but
actually exceeded former numbers. Armed with tougher C-15
rifles, additional energy reserves for their cloaking gear, and
much-improved moral, ghosts are a force to be reckoned with now
more than ever.
* Also, see C-15 Canister Rifle in the weapons section *
Medic:
Optic Flare to 50e from 75e
Vulture:
HP to 100 from 80
Cost to 80m, 10g from 75m, 0g
Fragmentation Grenades (20c) to Frag Grenades (25c)
Background: Though excellent vehicles
for times prior to the arrival of the Zerg and the Protoss to the
Terran worlds, it soon became apparent just how ill-suited the
vulture hovercycles were for combat when used against the alien
races during the Brood Wars. They were lightly armored and prone
to breakdown. Only their speed, it seemed, enabled their riders
to survive. Their only true usefulness seemed to be as
mine-layers, but this ability alone kept the vulture in
production. But when it was estimated that in over 85% of the
cases when vultures were used in a warzone their pilots did not
live through the battle, the vulture's manufacturer, Koreyar
Inc., finally decided to upgrade the near-obsolete hovercycles.
The newer version is outfitted with stronger armor plating,
incorperating the newly-discovered metzinium. It is just as fast
while being less likely to break down and much more likely to
bring their riders home. The vulture's frag grenades,
manufactured by POW Inc., have also seen improvement, making
sending vultures to battle a much better option for commanders
than in prior times.
Goliath:
HP to 130 from 125
Twin Autocannons (12n) to 20mm Autocannons (15n)
Siege Tank:
Name to "Arclite Assault Tank" (in tank mode) and
"Arclite Siege Tank" (in siege mode)
HP to 185 from 150
Armor to 2 (Assault); 3 (Siege) from 1 (Assault/Siege)
Shock Cannon (70ex) to Shock Cannon (80ex)
Background: The arrival of the Zerg to
Terran space brought with it bad news for the leaders of the
Arclite Corporation: their seemingly invincible siege tanks,
while extremely effective when attacking from a distance, fared
very poorly in close-quarters combat. The tanks had not been
designed to face melee combatants: in Terran armies, only the
firebat was used in such a way, and its flamethrowers were not
very effective against the tank's armor. The Zerg were excellent
melee warriors, and siege tank crews quickly found themselves in
way over their heads as soon as the Zerg got close. Countless
tanks fell to ultralisks and even the small zerglings, which
could slip through a barrage of sieged tanks' shock cannon fire
and tear apart a tank's armor with surprising efficiency, and the
tank's shock cannon could not be brought to bear on the threat.
Even when in tank mode, the tank's twin guns simply couldn't
exterminate a small group of pesky zerglings fast enough. But
attempting to strengthen the tank's already very thick armor
would require redesigning the weapon systems, and that could take
several months. With the discovery of metzinium, Arclite was
overjoyed...with the new metal, they could make their tanks
tougher without having to redesign a thing! The new siege tanks,
designated the AAV-6, can stand up to much more punishment from
melee attacks, allowing them to have a much greater chance of
surviving long enough to bring their guns to bear on the
attackers. Arclite also added a little extra punch to the shock
cannon, making it more difficult for melee warriors to get close
enough to a tank to do any damage at all.
Wraith:
HP to 140 from 120
Burst Lasers (8n) to Burst Lasers (10n)
Science Vessel:
HP to 250 from 200
Shields (50) added
Irradiate to 50e from 75e
Defensive Matrix to 125e from 100e
EMP Shockwave changed to Disruption Web; 150e (???)
(We are going to attempt this spell switch...might not happen,
though.)
Background: Though at first releuctant
to share their respective technological advancements with each
other after the creation of their shaky alliance, the Terrans and
the Protoss eventually overcame their pride and began sharing
long-kept technological secrets. One of the best examples of this
is the Terran science vessel. While they look no different than
previously built ships, the new sci vessels have been outfitted
with Protoss shields, although being such a recent development
for the Terrans, the shields are still rather weak. This is
offset with even stronger armor plating than before,
incorperating metzinium plating over key areas such as around the
reactor and drive engines. And using the technology behind the
now-rare Protoss corsair ships, the science vessel has been
equipped with an experimental (and energy-draining) neutron
emitter for casting disruption webs. To avoid excessive drains on
the energy reserves, the emitter replaces the EMP missile
launcher, now not nearly as useful with the Protoss (who were the
target in mind for the shock weapon) as allies. In recent times,
most science vessels have enlisted the aid of a handful of
Protoss "advisors" as part of the crew, to assist in
usage of the neutron emitter.
Dropship:
HP to 170 from 150
Armor to 2 from 1
Battlecruiser:
HP to 600 from 500
Armor to 4 from 3
Laser Batteries (25n) to Laser Batteries (30n)
Yamato Gun (260n) to Yamato Gun (300n); 175e from 150e
Valkyrie:
NOT PRODUCIBLE IN THE CAMPAIGN
Background: With the relatively short
stay of the United Earth Directorate's expeditionary fleet in the
Koprulu Sector, the Terran Dominion was able to learn very little
about the UED's new valkyrie missile frigate. With the bulk of
the fleet fleeing from the Zerg at the end of the Brood Wars,
many of the remaining UED squadrons left behind have opted to
join the Dominion rather than attempt the long journey back home.
Though many valkyries from these squadrons were destroyed, those
that remained went into Mengsk's hands, who quickly set up a
joint group of Dominion and former UED engineers to study and
attempt to mass-produce the effective anti-air fighters. But with
the lack of any real blueprints, and with the UED pilots and
engineers being able to easily repair the ships but having little
knowledge of actually building the vessels, the only
design to come out of the effort was deemed far too expensive for
mass-production. Instead, a limited number were produced with
missile systems capable of firing familiar weaponry (rather than
the unfamiliar and now rare H.A.L.O. rockets) and given to
experienced pilots. Enough were produced that most wraith
squadrons have one or two valkyries mixed in, flown by the most
veteran pilots in the squadron after they undergo training for
handling the frigates. Mengsk still hopes that future
developements may lead to a cheaper (and therefore
mass-producable) version, and engineers continue to work towards
this goal.
PROTOSS:
Probe:
HP to 30 from 20
Shields to 45 from 20
Particle Beam (5n) to Particle Beam (9n); upgradable
Background: Seeing the same
vulnerability problems with their probes as the Terrans saw with
SCVs, the Protoss sought to remedy the situation by making their
probes able to stand up to attackers. While little could be done
about the armor aside from adding a thin layer of metzinium, the
shields were more than doubled. The particle beam has been
enhanced as well, now capable of delivering short bursts of raw
energy at any attackers within range. While unusual, some
executors are now known to mix in some of the tougher probes with
their warriors in battle with surprisingly positive results.
Zealot:
NO CHANGES
Dragoon:
HP to 120 from 100
Shields to 60 from 80
Armor to 2 from 1
Cost to 110m, 20g from 125m, 25g
High Templar:
Addition of Psi Assault (20ex, ground only) weapon
Shields to 60 from 40
Psi Storm researched by default
Hallucination to 75e from 100e
Background: * See Psi Assault in the weapons section *
Dark Templar:
HP to 60 from 80
Shields to 60 from 40
Armor to 0 from 1
Archon:
NO CHANGES
Dark Archon:
Armor to 0 from 1
Mind Control to 175e from 150e
Feedback to 75e from 50e
Maelstrom to 75e from 100e
Reaver:
HP to 160 from 100
Armor to 3 from 0
Background: Recognizing their reaver
automatons' slow movement was leading to extreme vulnerability
against the fast-moving Zerg warriors, the Protoss realized that
their survivability could best be extended by further
strengthening their shielding and armor. But the scarab
production factories inside the robots left little room for
further shield generators, and the Protoss were loathe to
increase the size of the already massive reavers to compensate.
As with most of their units, metzinium plates were installed, but
instead of covering only critical areas as was done in most other
fighting units, the entire exterior was covered with a series of
interlocking metzinium plates...an expensive but very effective
defense.
Scout:
HP to 160 from 150
Plasma Guns (8n) to Plasma Guns (12n)
Observer:
HP to 30 from 40
Shields to 60 from 20
Background: Now that the Protoss have
little trouble from Terran forces with an alliance formed with
the Terran Dominion, the Protoss saw more and more observers lost
as they were sent against overlord-rich Zerg forces. Utilizing
the advanced microtechnology lent by the Terrans, the Protoss
were able to triple the power output of the small shield
generators, resulting in shields three times as strong as before.
However, such a great increase in shielding required a slight
increase in the size of the generators, so the already thin and
weak armor had to be thinned further, and only slim metzinium
implants around the main hull enabled the very thin armor to have
any protective ability at all.
Shuttle:
HP to 100 from 80
Carrier:
HP to 450 from 300
Shields to 200 from 150
Interceptors to 7n from 6n
Arbiter:
Shields to 200 from 150
Stasis Field to 150e from 100e
Corsair:
NOT PRODUCIBLE IN THE CAMPAIGN
Background: A relatively new design, the
corsair was built by the dark templar to protect their fleets
while they were seperated from their Protoss brethren prior to
the Brood Wars. When Prelate Zeratul left the Koprulu Sector the
first Protoss run-in with Duran and his hybrids, many of the dark
templar followed him and took along most of the existing
corsairs. Those few left behind were rapidly exterminated by the
Zerg swarms. The few dark templar still in the sector attempted
to construct a number of the specially crafted ships equal to
those lost, but simply could not keep up. As a result, one of the
most successful Protoss ships designs simply died off and
production was halted. Once Zeratul and his brethren returned,
they brought a good number of corsairs back with them, and the
ships were quickly sent out into battle. The dark templar, now
much greater in number in the sector, once again began
constructing more of the small ships, but due to how recently the
ships went back into production, the line is still limited in
number. For now, most corsairs in service are those from
Zeratul's fleet, and like the valkyrie, the precious few ships
are handed only to the most experienced pilots.
ZERG:
Larva:
NO CHANGES
Drone:
HP to 70 from 40
Spines (5n) to Spines (8n); Range to 3 from 1
Background: One of the ironic twists of
war is when one of your best strategies is copied by the enemy
and used against you. Such is the case with attacking
resource-gathering operations, a tactic conceived and first
implemented by the Zerg. The Terrans and the Protoss took notice
of how their SCVs and probes became the target of pointed attacks
and began trying it out for themselves on Zerg drones with just
as devastating (for the Zerg) results. Sarah Kerrigan followed
the lead of the Terrans and Protoss and began to strengthen her
resource gatherers. She had the drones undergo severe internal
evolution. Their small brains were shifted from their skulls into
their upper backs, and the cavities then left in their craniums
were filled with needle-projection systems very similar to those
of the hydralisk. This, along with extensive additions of
metzinium plates to the resource gatherer's carapace, resulted in
a much more effective attack capability for the drone and a much
higher survival rate.
Zergling:
HP to 40 from 35
Claws (5n) to Claws (7n)
Background: Siege weapons, such as siege
tanks and reavers, have always been a problem for Zerg troops.
One of the simplest and cheapest anti-siege methods is mass
zergling swarms, which can in many cases overcome the much more
powerful siege units simply by sheer numbers. But with the
strengthening of armor and weaponry employed by the Terrans and
Protoss, particularly in their siege weapons, zergling groups
were all but obliterated before they ever reached their targets.
The simple solution, in Kerrigan's eyes, was to throw some
metzinium at the problem. The weak backsides of the small
zerglings were strengthened with the addition of a wide metzinium
plate, resulting in a higher survival rate for the small
warriors, especially when in groups. To insure that their attacks
dealt significant damage once they reached the enemy, the
zergling's claws were hardened with a metzinium core, giving them
a greater chance of piercing the thick armor of their siege unit
foes. Zergling groups were once again valuable on the
battlefield, and best of all, they did not require any additional
resources to implement their new evolutionary traits.
Hydralisk:
Armor to 1 from 0
Lurker:
Armor to 2 from 1
HP to 130 from 125
Ultralisk:
Armor to 3 from 1
Chitinous Plating adds +2 from +1 Armor
Kaiser Blades (20n) to Kaiser Blades (22n)
Background: Siege weapons also began to
take a heavy toll on the once practically unstoppable ultralisks.
The huge tusked creatures found it more and more difficult to
reach their targets before being severly wounded, if not
destroyed completely. And with the armor of their targets
becoming more resistant to their blades as well, in many cases
actually breaking off the tips, Kerrigan quickly recognized that
something had to change to ensure the survival of her precious
and expensive ultralisks on the battlefield. The Queen of Blades
applied the same basic idea that she had used with the smaller
but similarly handicapped zerglings. She added metzinium plating
to their backs and vulnerable head and chest areas, making it
much harder for attacks to penetrate the carapace at all. She
also added a metzinium tip to the large kaiser blades, keeping
them sharp even after long periods of use and enabling them to
punch through enemy armor with a full 10% more power. Now more
than ever, the ultralisk is one of the most feared warriors on
the field of battle, and as hard as ever to defeat.
Defiler:
Addition of Venom (10co) weapon
Background: As the Brood Wars raged on,
many cerebrates began to prefer brute force over finesse, and
that meant that fewer and fewer defilers entered battle, much to
the delight of Terran and Protoss troops. It was when Duran stole
several Zerg broods from Kerrigan that the defiler reappeared in
large numbers, used very effectively by Duran against Kerrigan's
own broods. It was only when she had to face the viral warriors
herself that Kerrigan realized their potential, and sought new
ways to increase their survivability and appeal to her
cerebrates. The armor was near impossible to harden without
detrimental effects to the churning chemical systems in the
defiler's abdomen, so Kerrigan sought a new solution: using the
defiler's corrosive venom as a defensive weapon. Adding an
enhanced venom projection ability into the warrior's biological
makeup, the venom was able to be "spit" at enemy forces
with lethal accuracy and very effective results. Better still,
the venom had an effect much like the corrosive attack of the
airborne devourers, slowing the enemy's movements and attack
speed. This ability alone led many cerebrates to mix defilers
back into their offensive armies, ordering the defilers to slow
the movements of the toughest enemies and soften them up for the
coming onslaught.
Infested Terran:
HP to 80 from 60
Suicide (500ex) to Suicide (300ex)
Cost to 80m, 70g from 100m, 50g
Background: Like most Zerg warriors,
infested Terrans began feeling the effects of improved enemy
weaponry early on after Kerrigan's defeat of the United Earth
Directorate in the Brood Wars. Greater firepower, particularly
that found in infantry and siege weaponry, led to a steadily
lower success rate for infested Terran attacks. Many cerebrates
simply gave up on the attack strategy and stopped using the
suicidal warriors in battle at all. The rest made them better.
While Kerrigan was busy focusing on other warriors such as the
ultralisk, a handful of cerebrates collaborated and decided to
take matters into their own hands, using some of the metzinium
given to them by Kerrigan to strengthen the carapace of their
infested Terrans. Before long, the Queen of Blades took notice,
and rather than slaying all the cerebrates involved for going
behind her back (instead, only one was unfortunate enough to feel
her wrath), she watched the now-infested former enemies in battle
and saw how effective the change was, and ordered all her
cerebrates to do the same thing, giving them all a little more
metzinium to do so. The final result was a suicide warrior much
more likely to reach its targets intact (with a 33% increase in
strength) and do the maximum damage possible. The serious
downside of the added toughness was that part of the explosive
power of the attack was absorbed by the infested Terrans' thick
carapace, though the tradeoff was deemed more than acceptable.
Broodling:
HP to 40 from 30
Toxic Spines (4n) to Toxic Spines (30co)
Background: One of the most radical and
effective changes in any warrior employed by any race happened to
the little Zerg broodling under Kerrigan's watchful eye. The
evolution of the devourer breed began Kerrigan's experiments with
corrosive attacks which not only did obvious damage, but dulled
the enemy's effectiveness in the battlefield. After adopting the
attack for the defiler breed, Kerrigan turned her sights
elsewhere to look for a warrior that could soften up enemy forces
with corrosive venom prior to a full-blown attack. What she found
was a fighting unit that already did this...the broodling. Seeing
a great opportunity to make the broodlings more effective after
they had killed their host (their primary use was to kill a
target unit and then scout the area as long as they could before
they died), Kerrigan took the venom-producing system of the
defiler, shrunk it down, and integrated it into the broodlings.
The results were astounding: a 650% increase in offensive
capabilty! This was due to the fact that the needle spines made a
perfect venom delivery system, allowing the small warriors to
drive the venom deep into their targets where it could do great
amounts of damage. Metzinium deposits were the next addition, and
while only trace quantities could be added, the carapace was made
33% stronger nonetheless. Extremely pleased, Kerrigan began
seeking ways to make the small broodlings able to be evolved at
her hatcheries.
Queen:
HP to 125 from 120
Ensnare to 100e from 75e
Spawn Broodling to 175e from 150e
Mutalisk:
NO CHANGES
Guardian:
HP to 175 from 150
Armor to 3 from 2
Scourge:
Suicide (110n) to Suicide (125ex)
Build Time to 40 from 30
Devourer:
HP to 300 from 250
Armor to 4 from 2
Cooldown to 80 from 100
Range to 7 from 6
Background: The lack of any capital ship
equivolent in the Zerg forces became very apparent once
battlecruisers and carriers were made stronger. Devourers faced
the same problem that ground-based Zerg warriors found: how to
survive the stronger enemy attacks long enough to do any serious
damage to the enemy. The Queen of Blades devoted metzinium to
helping strengthen the devourer's carapace, but at this point her
deposits of the stolen metal were running low, and she was not
able to increase the plating as drastically as she has hoped. To
offset this loss, Kerrigan began working on the airborne
warrior's corrosive venom projection system, but there too, she
found little room for improvement: the system already took up
most of the available room in the devourer's body. So she decided
if she couldn't make it more powerful, she would at least make
the weapon more effective. Kerrigan experimented on the system
for several months before finally successfully making it both 20%
quicker to produce more venom and release it between attacks and
able to shoot the venom at greater distances, enabling the
devourer to stay farther back from the enemy (which was
particularly effective against carriers' interceptor attacks).
The results were not as good as hoped for but satisfactory, and
the Zerg forces once again had an effective anti-capital ship
warrior.
Overlord:
HP to 250 from 200
Armor to 1 from 0
Background: One of the most effective
tactics employed by Terran and Protoss forces was what came to be
known as "overlord hunting", involving sending out a
couple fighters to track down and destroy as many valuable
overlords as possible. When used, this strategy took a heavy toll
on Zerg forces, slowing their ability to produce new warriors and
allowing the enemy that much more time to get the upper hand.
While she could do nothing to stop the overlord hunts, Kerrigan
could and did decide to make her overlords harder to kill. She
covered nearly the entire airborne creature in metzinium,
resulting in a 20% increase in strength. The extra survivability
time bought by this increase allowed overlords to have a much
greater chance of reaching safe territory once attacked, and had
the added bonus of making their "drops" of Zerg
warriors onto the battlefield much more likely to succeed, as
well.
© 1999, 2000 SpecOps Studios
Send any comments to me, J.
Ryan Evans (Seawolf) .