SpecOps: Patch Info


For now, this section is gonna show the various unit changes that the SpecOps patch will make. As time goes by, the units are sure to be changed differently, and other changes will take place as well (such as buildings, upgrades, etc.).
Background information on some of these unit changes will be given later.
["n"=normal, "c"=concussive, "ex"=explosive, "co"=corrosive (leaves acid spores, like devourer) "e"=energy, "m"=minerals, "g"=gas]

Terrans Protoss Zerg

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.

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    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.

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    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.

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