Small problem is that the experience gains from custom maps could be biased.
Blizzard probably does quality assurance for any community-submitted mods before giving them an official seal of quality. At least, that is common sense.
What if Blizzard introduced the option of community made coop maps? Like, custom maps you can play and still level up your character? I think that would open the door for a lot of interesting concepts to be explored (alternate timelines, etc.) while actually rewarding you for playing.
I only liked Starcraft for the story. More accurately, the story I imagine it could have been. Now it is full of so many rewrites and inconsistencies that I cannot muster the effort to do much more than complain.
That would be pretty cool. I'd love it if Blizzard made an actual official coop campaign. Like, a DLC that is specifically designed to be played with multiple people. Another idea would be a last stand mode (like in Dawn of War II) that allows players to hold out against neverending waves, kinda like In Utter Darkness.
Zeratul is still canonically dead though. :P
Canon is overrated anyway. Blizzard has never stuck to a consistent canon, as shown by the countless retcons in all their stories. Officially acknowledging that alternate timelines exist is simple honesty.
I never liked the canon anyhow. I know Starcraft was always mediocre and cliche, but the games did a terrible execution of the premise they were given. The manual introduces us to the Confederacy, Conclave, Overmind and an open-ended sector-wide war, then the game just bulldozes through all those plot points as fast as possible and sabotages the sequels. BW introduces the UED out of left field, trivially dispenses with them, arbitrarily makes Kerry ruler of the zerg, and retcons the xel'naga into the real villains. Then SC2 introduces a generic apocalypse villain, turns Kerry human then zerg again, and generally it's all just a huge mess.
In the end, the lore is really just filler and the game mechanics and art are the real meat of the IP. But that doesn't mean we should settle for shlocky story. Again, the original premise is mediocre... but it does have the seeds for interesting ideas like the Confederacy in space and the zerg have this family dynamic. A competent writer could spin lots of interesting stories out of that. We see this in the licensed fiction, so why not in the games?
Zeratul was recently revealed as another co-op commander, supposedly surviving because of an alternate timeline or something.
This gives me hope that Blizzard will probably pilfer the lore for other dead and obscure characters to fight in the end war. Tassadar, Overmind, Mengsk, Duke, etc. The justifications will probably be very flimsy, just like how Stukov and Fenix were resurrected with convenient plot devices.
I would like it if Blizzard could offer other historical wars to fight in as well. Maybe they could have co-op campaigns and maps for the guild wars, great war, brood war, second great war, etc? This would allow them to introduce co-op commanders who would not make much sense to fight in the end war.
Yes! The story turned from an epic that described the downfall and rise of empires to a much more character-focused "hero's journey"-type story, which works if the characters are well written, but sadly a lot of them are not. It especially shows in heart of the swarm where the only interesting characters show up towards the end of the campaign (Abathur does not count because he has literally 0% impact on the story).
What I liked about the way that SCI put a spin on the classic epic was the atmosphere. I LOOOOOOVE how the game gives you so much power (as in you fight and win every battle), but still manages to make you feel powerless. You are in the middle of what's happening, but you are still unable to influence it.
To be honest, SC1 did some of this too. The campaign stories were really disjointed and had no sense of scale. There were also a fair number of contradictions and plot holes. Compare the original manual to the games: it included loads of political plot hooks that could have fueled years of in-universe conflict, but the game just dismantles that (and the sequels scramble to assemble a conflict).
The licensed expansion Insurrection, at least after the bugfixing it got recently, does a much better job of taking advantage of the plot hooks given by the manual. It's not a perfect story and the voice acting is hilarious, but it certainly tries and I would argue the script is for the most part better constructed than Starcraft 1's campaigns.
Yep. Not a fan of the "they all died" thing either. I like the idea of SCII queens and broodmothers but they resulted in the Zerg loosing a lot of their personality.
I generally disliked the direction that the games took in general. I mean, back in 1998 the official website (an earlier iteration) and the manual suggested that the three-way conflict would last indefinitely in Koprulu (and the zerg's invasion of the protoss empire would be a galactic apocalypse, since back then the Protoss were a galactic power and the Overmind was the ultimate villain). The game just bulldozed through all those interesting plot hooks and ended up really shooting itself in the foot by killing all the governments. The Confederacy, Conclave and Overmind could have kept the franchise running indefinitely without ever leaving Koprulu, but now the setting is much smaller, bland and boring.
You're right! Their broods all have specific traits that would make them unique when implemented in coop but I choose Z and D because they are arguably the most iconic.
They are the only cerebrate characters to ever appear before Blizzard shafted the zerg and turned them into Kerry’s and Amon’s slaves.
In reply to DrSuperEvil:
Zeratul was recently revealed as another co-op commander, supposedly surviving because of an alternate timeline or something.
This gives me hope that Blizzard will probably pilfer the lore for other dead and obscure characters to fight in the end war. Tassadar, Overmind, Mengsk, Duke, etc. The justifications will probably be very flimsy, just like how Stukov and Fenix were resurrected with convenient plot devices.
I would like it if Blizzard could offer other historical wars to fight in as well. Maybe they could have co-op campaigns and maps for the guild wars, great war, brood war, second great war, etc? This would allow them to introduce co-op commanders who would not make much sense to fight in the end war.
Several cerebrates are named in the lore. Daggoth, Nargil, Gorn, Zasz, Araq, Kagg, Auza and Zargil.
There were apparently countless others in the background that were not mentioned.