Enjoying some of the new units in Starcraft II? Well don’t get too attached, because according to Blizzard’s David Kim they could be cut at any moment, if balancing issues call for it.
Speaking to PCGamesN at Gamescom, David Kim spokeof the challenges in keeping unit numbers slim to ward offover-complexity. “There’s a set number of units that should be in the game, but we just don’t know 100% what that is. Initially in Wings of Liberty we went with 13-14 units, which is similar to what Brood War had. When we started exploring a bit more we tried to stick to that rule, but when you’re taking units out and putting new stuff in, there are some problems. Wings of Liberty is pretty solid in terms of each unit being useful in a certain scenario -we tried saying, well what if 15 is the right number, or 16 is the right number?
“After trying it out, we think it’s okay to add a couple of more units, but at the same time we don’t want it to go too out of balance, so that it becomes too complex. That’s something we have to watch for during the beta, and really make sure that the number we have right now is good for the game.”
But would they ever take a knife to brand newunits? Apparently so.
“We are definitely open to cuttingunits,” asserts Kim,”depending on how the beta goes.”
When asked how long the Heart of the Swarm beta will run, Kim was suitably vague. “As long as it takes us to get the game where we want it to be.”