This is how I would Revamp Starcraft 2

19 min readAug 2, 2024

Introduction

I’m a very big fan of Starcraft 2. I spent my teenage years playing Starcraft 1, so I jumped into Starcraft 2 the moment it came out.

I have watched more Starcraft 2 Esport than I like to admit. In periods, it is my “go-to” casual entertainment category on Youtube.

And… yes… I watch WAY too much Youtube! =)

Weird Spot

Starcraft 2 is in a weird spot at the moment. Because, even though it is the greatest strategy game ever made (Command & Conquer is in second place in my opinion), it is not getting the love from Blizzard.

Because it has been out for so long, it does not generate massive amounts of money for them anymore, so they have moved on to newer and shinier things.

But Starcraft 2 is going strong as an Esport. It was, in its day, the biggest Esport in the world. Right now, I think Dota 2 and League of Legends are the largest.

But Starcraft 2 has MASSIVE amounts of potential, this text is my attempt to tap into that potential.

The maintenance of Starcraft 2 should be handed over to a smaller, nimble, highly motivated company.

This is what I would do if I was given total control over Starcraft 2.

Split

You know, when you log into Battle Net? There would be “ordinary” Starcraft 2, and there would be “experimental” Starcraft 2.

This split would allow an aggressive approach towards the new version of Starcraft 2. As you are not messing with the old version.

Each player simply picks what they want to play.

If I was Blizzard, I would offer a revenue sharing model of 50/50 — for the experimental version of Starcraft 2.

The goal is to make the newer, experimental version of Starcraft 2 so much fun, that it overtakes regular Starcraft 2 in playing time.

Eventually, the Starcraft 2 Esport might transition into using this newer, better, more fun version of Starcraft.

Enough said!

Let’s go through the changes race by race.

Terran

The main problem with Terran is that mech does not work. It works better, now, than ever before, since the new updates to cyclones.

But good luck going late game mech!

Zerg and Protoss have HARD counters to mech. I would introduce several upgrades per unit, all across the board. And I would introduce “level 2”, and “level 3”, upgrades on the main upgrades.

Bio (Marines and Marauders) are good in the early game and mid-game. But late game they fade off significantly. They can’t do much against Infested Parasite, fungal growth, and lurkers.

Let’s take the upgrade Stim Pack. I would give this upgrade two more levels.

Researching Stim Pack level 2, would reduce the health cost of Stim Pack by 10% (10/20 down to 9/18.

Then level 3 reduces the cost by another 10% (down to 8/16). These upgrades would be expensive and take a long time. The whole point is to give Terran bio units a fighting chance in the late game.

I would give marauders a level 2, and level 3, on their concussive shell. Level 2 could reduce the attack speed of the opponent, and Level 3 could “bounce” to the closest enemy (and do the same thing to them).

This upgrade would “pause” the activity of buildings when attacked. 5 seconds each attack, up to a maximum of 60 seconds (12 attacks).

I would also give marauders a “medical upgrade”, which allowed them to heal bio units (Marines + Marauders). This heal would activate after 15 seconds of battle inactivity, and you would have to stay still for it to work.

It would activate automatically, and it would not require energy.

Controlling SPACE is an issue for terran, who likes cramped spaces and small maps. I would introduce a Barracks upgrade which gave an individual barrack 50% more hp, +1 armor, and improved flying speed by 25%. This building would also self repair at the speed of one SCV repairing it (no cost).

It would lift off and land 25% faster, than normal buildings.

This barrack would have energy, and at 100 energy, it could create a complete copy of itself. This copy functioned like a normal building. It had all the benefits of the “upgraded” barack. This copy could create another copy of itself, and so on.

This would allow a Terran to create “choke points” in designated areas. 2–3 of these buildings would fly along with the Terran army, provide vision, and soak up damage.

I would also give supply depots an individual upgrade which gave them +50% hp, +1 armor, +2 supply, and self repair. This would allow Terrans to build better “walls” against banelings — and such.

I would give Medivacs an upgrade which gave them +20 hp and +1 armor. Rocket boosters would get an upgrade, so that every time you used them, you gained a shield which negated the first 3 instances of damage.

The next upgrade would heal the medivacs +10hp every time you used Rocket Boosters.

Siege Tanks would have an upgrade which increased range by +1. Another upgrade would increase hp +25. A third upgrade would reduce damage taken from all air units by 20%.

Liberators would get two additional upgrades (apart from siege range). The first would increase siege area by 15% for every 15 seconds (while sieging the same place). Up to +60% max. The second upgrade would reduce damage taken from all sources by 12% while in siege mode.

Widow Mines would get additional upgrades. The first would be +15% range and +15% projectile speed. The second would be 15% damage reduction from all sources while in cooldown. Another upgrade would reduce damage to friendly units by 35%. The cloaking upgrade would stay the same.

Ravens would get two upgrades to their Auto Turret. +25% attack speed, and +25 hp. The second upgrade reduced energy cost by 10 (down to 40).

Ravens would also have an upgrade that enabled them to produce impassable “rocks” in the terrain. These could not be placed nearby enemy units or buildings.

Thors would get several upgrades. But the first would be a natural ability that came with all Thors. It is called “Leap” and allows a Thor to leap 15 units every 30 seconds.

They would get an upgrade called “siege”, which would make them stationary. It would give Thors +1 ground attack range, +1 armor, and self repair at the speed of 1 SCV repairing it.

This would remove them from the holy F2 button. The self repair would double for the next 15 seconds the moment it takes damage. “Siege” would also reduce supply count by 1.

Another upgrade would be “overload”, where firing speed is increased by 25% for the next 5 seconds, after 45 seconds of battle inactivity. This only applies to ground attack.

The immobility of Thors is the reason it is never used together with bio units in attacks. I would reduce the supply count of Thors from 6 to 5.

Vikings would be given an upgrade which gave them +25hp and +1 armor while fighting on the ground. Level 2 of this upgrade would give them another +25hp and +1 armor. For a total of +50hp and +2 armor.

Banshees would be given +1 attack range and cloaking duration upgrades. Another upgrade would reduce the damage they take from all sources by 25% while cloaked. This same upgrade would make them self-heal slowly while cloaked.

This would make them worthwhile harassment units throughout the game. As it stands now, they fall off dramatically after the early mid-game harassment phase is over.

Mules would repair mech 150% faster than an SCV. They can also set up “repair zones” where they automatically repair all mech units for the next 15 seconds. This repair stops for 5 seconds if any unit within this zone takes damage.

This allows a Terran player to drop down mules and mass repair their mech units between battles. EPIC!

I would make Battle Cruises smaller, slightly weaker, reduce supply to 4, and remove “massive” designation. I want them to be USED in battle, they are never used these days!

I would give Terrans new upgrades to Planetary Fortress. The first upgrade increases cannon damage and attack speed by 15%. The second upgrade allows the cannon to target air. The third upgrade allows you to MOVE the building. But it takes 5 seconds to lift, and 5 seconds to land. The last upgrade enables the cannon to shoot while the building is floating in the air.

Orbital Command would have an upgrade which gave all Terran units within a large area +1 armor and +1 hp regen for the next 15 seconds (mech units would get +2 hp regen).

I would introduce another upgrade to the Command Center. This upgrade allows you to “summon” buildings within close range of the Command Center.

You can summon sensory towers, missile turrets, bunkers, supply depots, and barracks. You can summon these within range 15 of the Command Center. But at 15–30 range the summon cost increases by 25%. And at 30–45 range the cost is increased by 50%. And at 45–60 the cost is increased by 75%.

These buildings would be 25% weaker than normal buildings, and have a “transparent” look to them (which is visible to the enemy). Bunkers come with the firing power of two marines on the inside (but cost no supply). These bunkers cannot be filled by more marines.

Sensory towers would have a detection range upgrade, and a hp pool upgrade.

Hellbats are useless late game, I would like to see upgrades that took care of that.

Missile Turrets would have a +1 range upgrade, and a +20% attack speed upgrade.

It would be cool to see two “Mule” upgrades. The first would increase movement speed and resource collection rate by 10%. It would also give 10% damage reduction from all sources.

The second upgrade would increase working capacity by another 10%. It would give an additional 10% damage reduction from all sources. So both upgrades increased working capacity by 20%, and gave 20% damage reduction.

When these upgraded Mules dropped below 70% of max hp, they would turn into a “shell” which had +2 hp regen and +2 armor. The damage reduction mechanism of 10% would turn into 20%.

They would not age in this state. They would turn back into mules once they reached full hp.

Zerg

Queens would have three upgrades. The first is +1 attack range. The second is +25% movement off-creep. The third is +1 armor.

Zerglings would get a +5hp upgrade. And another +5 hp upgrade. Another upgrade would reduce splash — and area of effect — damage to Zerglings by 25%.

Hydralisk would get +10 hp upgrade. Another upgrade gives them +10% movement speed. Another upgrade gives them a highly valuable +1 range.

Lurkers would have +20 hp upgrade. Another upgrade reduces damage taken from air units by 20%. Another upgrade allows you to connect two lurkers to “share damage”. 25% of the absorbed damage is transferred to the other lurker. This damage is itself reduced by 25%.

All these upgrades make lurkers formidable defensive units.

Ultralisks would be given a “rush” upgrade, similar to the zealot “charge”. But half the range, and they take 35% reduced damage from all sources for 1 second after they charge.

In another upgrade, Ultralisks would automatically slow units they attack by 35%. They would also slow the attack speed of that unit by 35%. In another upgrade, they would do 35% increased damage to buildings.

Nydus worm is too good on large maps, it needs a slight nerf. The unloading speed should be reduced somewhat, in my humble opinion.

Roaches would be given a +20hp upgrade. They would also have a +1 range upgrade. They would also have an upgrade which reduced damage taken from area of effect and splash damage by 25%.

I wouldn’t mind another level to their “burrow” upgrade. With this, the roaches got +1 armor while burrowed, and this bonus armor stayed with them for 5 seconds after un-burrowing. Another upgrade would allow roaches to see invisible units after being burrowed for 15 seconds.

Overlords would be given a +20 hp upgrade. And a +2 supply loading capacity upgrade. Another upgrade would have zerg units double their regeneration speed while inside an overlord (this also applies to the Overlord itself).

Another upgrade would give Overlords +10% movement speed and +1 armor while fully loaded.

Brood Lords would have a small speed upgrade. They would also get a precious +1 attack range upgrade. They would also be given an upgrade which reduces damage taken from air units by 15%.

I also think Overlords should have a “siege” option. When “sieged”, they get +1 attack range, +1 armor, double regeneration rate. This takes them away from the cherished F2 key, and makes the proper defenders of their realm.

I kid you not!

Spine Crawlers and Spore Crawlers would also have individual upgrades. They could be given hp pool and +1 attack range upgrades.

You can connect two Spine Crawlers in a “damage sharing” network. When one Spine Crawler takes damage, 25% is referred to the other Spine Crawler, and this damage is itself reduced by 25%.

Here are some quality of life improvements for you Zergs! =)

Queen Larva Injects and Creep Spread should have automatic options. This “automatic option” uses 25% more energy in Queen Injects. You can schedule out 5 Creep Tumors to be made in a specific direction, but the range and Creep Spread is reduced by 25%.

There should be a benefit of doing it yourself, but menial tasks should also have an automatic option.

Corruptors would have an upgrade for Caustic Spray. This upgrade would have Caustic Spray affect a nearby building at 50% the damage, and another building at 25% the damage.

I also think Caustic Spray should be able to HEAL zerg buildings. It could actually give a building up to +100% more hp than the normal max. It could “overheal” — if you will!

Caustic Spray would also have the ability to heal massive friendly Zerg units.

Another upgrade would give Caustic Spray double damage to Rocks, Planetary Fortresses, and “transparent” buildings (made by Terran).

Infestors would have an upgrade where they created a “stationary Brood Lord” with energy. It could not move, and had 25% reduced stats, and had that transparent look to it.

They could do the same thing with Lurkers, who operated the same way.

They could also spawn Swarm Hosts, who operated the same way. Again, with 25% reduced stats.

In professional Starcraft 2, the Zerg late game does tend to overpower Terrans late game.

Terran can only use bio, and Fungal Growth and Infested Parasite are HARD COUNTERS. Corruptors and hydras shoot full Medivacs out of the sky — like NOTHING!

Vipers Abduct would have an upgrade which increased the range by +1 and speed by 15%. The next upgrade would enable Vipers to move your own Zerg buildings.

The effect would be half a strong on an enemy Zerg building.

Blinding Cloud would have an upgrade which increased duration by 1.3 seconds (up to 7 seconds).

Vipers would also be healed by using Consume on buildings. They could “overheal” themselves to the point of having double hit points and double mana.

Infestors would have a +1 range upgrade to their Fungal Growth. Another upgrade would give Fungal Growth +50% damage to mechanical units.

Microbial Shroud would be changed to reduce damage taken from ground and air units by 35%. It would also give enemies a 35% chance to miss.

An upgrade would increase Microbial Shroud radius by 1.5 (up to 5).

Protoss

Zealots would have a +20hp upgrade. Another upgrade gives them +1 armor, and a slow self-heal.

“Charge” would have a Level 2, which gives zealots +50% damage on the first attack after the charge. Level 3 gives zealots 25% damage reduction from all sources for 1 second after the charge.

Stalkers “Blink” would have a Level 2, which increases range by 1 and reduces cooldown by 1. Level 3 Blink would regenerate Stalker hp by 5 and shield by 10 each blink.

Adepts can join together to form a “super adept”. This adept would have normal attack damage which is good against everything. This adept would have +1 range.

This upgraded adept could make illusions of itself that took 25% extra damage and did 25% less damage (lasts 120 seconds). This unit cost no supply.

High Templar Psionic Storm upgrade gives +1 range. The next upgrade gives +1 second duration.

Immortals have a +20 shield +1 armor shield upgrade. Also +1 range. A third upgrade reduces damage taken from air by 20%.

Disruptor “Purification Nova” moves 10% faster. Another upgrade would enable Disruptors to “infuse” friendly massive units with movement speed (lasts 90 seconds).

The same “infusion” on a friendly building would give it 50% damage reduction from all sources for the next 90 seconds.

Archons have +40 hp upgrade. They also have a +1 armor shield upgrade. They also have a +1 range upgrade.

Archons are useless after the mid-game. They need a big upgrade for the late game.

Another upgrade would link all nearby Archons together in a network (passive ability). 15% of the received damage is spread to all other Archons, and this damage is itself reduced by 15% before it is absorbed. Any Archon within 15 range of each other is affected.

Void Rays need improvement, but I’m not sure how. They need to become a viable unit, once again!

I would give them a cloaking ability. I would also give them a “supercharge” ability — that increased their damage by 20%, and movement speed by 10%, for 20 seconds.

This would enable them to fly in, kill a couple buildings, and fly out. They should be harassment units, but for buildings.

Carriers are good except for the hard counters (vikings, tempests, corruptors). I would give them an upgrade which reduces damage taken from these three units by 20%.

Vipers “abduct” would have a 25% lower movement range against massive units (the massive unit is moved less distance).

I would give carriers a +1 interceptor upgrade. I would give them temporary speed upgrade called “Warp Drive”, which gave them +35% speed for 5 seconds. 45 second cooldown. With the Level 2 “Warp Drive” upgrade, carriers take 35% reduced damage from all sources during Warp Drive.

This would solve the terrible immobility issues with carriers.

I would give Colossus the upgrade of taking 20% less damage from Vikings, Corruptors, and Tempests. They could also have a +1 range upgrade.

Individual photon cannons can be upgraded to have +50% hp and shield. Also +1 range. Another upgrade gives them +20% attack speed.

Phoenix needs upgrades so that they work in the late game.

Graviton Beam (lift up) takes -10 energy (down to 40).

They also self-heal at the same rate as their shield. This would enable them to be effective harassment units throughout the game.

Another upgrade would enable a Phoenix to become a more potent version of itself. At 200/200 energy, the Phoenix could transform into a “Super Phoenix”.

This Phoenix is larger, more durable, and can lift-up mechanical units and attack them. It can also “ground” air units — and prevent them from moving (like the Fiends in Warcraft 3).

Oracles would have two levels of Stasis Ward upgrades. The first level allows your units to attack the enemy units in the Stasis Ward at 75% damage reduction. The second upgrade allows you to attack units with a 50% damage reduction.

I would also give them a “Time Bubble” upgrade which slows movement and attack speed by 50% of ALL units in the bubble.

“Revelation” could have an upgrade that reduces affected enemy units movement speed by 10%. This effect stacks, so target them again — and it becomes 20%.

Sentries would have an upgrade to their hallucination skill. The illusion, which normally takes double damage, would instead only take 50% more damage, and deal 50% the damage of a real unit.

Force Fields would have an upgrade that made them slightly bigger, and became half the size when “destroyed”, only to be “destroyed” again, to go away completely.

Guardian Shield would have an upgrade which gave the shield +1 armor to all friendly units in the area, along with the ordinary -2 dmg effect (for ranged units).

Tempest would have a +1 range upgrade. Another upgrade would give them 15% attack speed and 10% movement speed.

The Nexus Chrono Boost would stack diminishingly. The first Chrono Boost had 100% effect. The second had 70% of the effect. The third had 50% of the effect. The effect is reduced by 30% each time.

Two Chrono Boosts would give 1.7 times the effect. Three would give 2.2 times the effect. 1 + 0.7 + 0.5 = 2.2 Chrono Boosts.

This would allow a Protoss player to save Chrono Boost — and pump out units or upgrades really quick.

Individual Unit Upgrades

I would introduce the ability to upgrade individual units. These upgrades would have 50% the cost and 50% the time of normal (unit broad) upgrades.

Once the “normal upgrade” comes into play, the individual units’ upgrades become half as effective. So all 3 individual unit upgrades for marines, and all 3 normal upgrades for biological units — becomes 4.5 upgrades.

3 for the normal upgrades, and +1.5 for the individual units upgrades. This allows a player to “rush” individual units upgrades without worrying about wasting all those resources for the late game.

Makes sense?

This would apply to all units within Starcraft 2. It would allow for HIGHLY specialized, custom built, strategies at the highest level of play.

The individual unit upgrades would be available at the factory building where the unit is produced.

Race Mixing

I would like it to be possible to build units of other races. But it would be limited to units from the race you currently play against.

Not only that, but your opponent has to have built that unit already, and you must have gained vision of it. Once you have vision of it, you can “overtake” that unit with 200 energy from your main building (whatever is the max).

Once you take it over, you send the unit back to your base, and that unit can be transformed into the very building that had it made.

This idea is, of course, taken from the Infested Terran in Starcraft 1!

These units cost 50% more and take 50% longer to make. The units will come with whatever upgrades that unit had when you took over it.

So the opponents will usually have an “upgrade advantage” within the same unit.

The unit cost and production time can be upgraded. The first upgrade makes it +35%/+35%. The next upgrade makes is +20%/+20%.

When one of these buildings is done, your opponent gets a warning message, telling them that you just finished constructing this building. They also get a “ping” on the map, telling them exactly where it is.

This is to prevent this ability to change the game too much. It should be a cool feature, not something that warps the entire game!

This feature would, of course, have to be tested. My intuition tells me this can be done correctly, and add a lot of variability and excitement to the game.

The goal is to make all units “good”, but no single unit “overpowered”.

Big Budget

If I was given a big budget — and complete control over the game? I would add 3–5 units to each race. 1–2 for each stage of the game (early/mid/late).

I would also add a whole new race. Why can’t we have 4 races, like in Warcraft 3? =)

This race would be small green aliens that have fused together with technology. They would sit inside these machines, you could not tell where they stopped and where the machine began.

But this is wishful thinking, of the highest order, of course…

Conclusion

Blizzard is reluctant to make big changes, because they do not want to mess up the reputation of a respected title — and a successful Esport.

Yes. I get it.

But you overcome this by splitting Starcraft 2 into two parts, and allow players to play whatever they want to play.

Dota 2 has taught us that players are hungry for new stuff, they like when gaming companies take risks, and try new things. Even if the changes are rolled back a lot of the time.

If Blizzard let Starcraft 2 go with a 50/50 revenue splitting method, and allowed gaming companies to make their own version of Starcraft 2.

You would access all these games from the Starcraft 2 game itself, and Blizzard would host the servers and still have complete control over the game.

Blizzard could allow all these companies to battle each other, like Hunger Games, while sitting back and raking in the money.

Custom Games

If they introduced “Revenue Sharing” for the custom games, it would be a great incentive to sit down and make a really good custom game.

A 25% revenue share for the Top 100 most played custom games within Starcraft 2. The top 50 would get an extra 5% (30%). The top 25 a bonus 5% (35%). The top 10 a 5% bonus (40%).

The third most played custom game each month would get 50%. The second would get 60%. The most played custom game would get a 70% revenue share.

For every consecutive month that a custom game stays number 1, the revenue share increases by 1%. So 30 months in a row, would give a custom game 100% revenue share.

These types of effects and statistics make great news, and give free publicity. You could release a string of articles about “disgruntled” Blizzard employees threatening to leave the company — because this custom game “beat the system” and has 100% revenue share.

Calculated revenue is simply how much money Blizzard makes on each player, for each hour that they play.

I would also institute a “stipend” that helps players, organizations or companies with good ideas develop new games. As well as experts, or mentors, that could solve technical problems and guide the process.

Good custom games could get featured within the game itself, and receive promotions from Blizzard. Some games need a player base in order to be playable.