Zerg Hex Forum

I love this game, and am sad the dev stopped patching it.  I am seriously considering making Zerg Hex 2, either by changing the current Zerg Hex map, or by creating a new(but similar) map from scratch.  Trying to gauge player interest before undertaking it.

Here are the main problems that I view with the game(I'm coming from the point of view that Zerg is slightly underpowered).


 Here are my general plans to improve the game.  I will try not to change too much of the current game, as it's already a great game.  The main goal is to balance it, and make a more rewarding"ranking" system, which I think will make the game much more playable.  One note on "balance"... a big problem with balancing a game like this is that it is hard to balance both at the lowest and highest levels.  Even with a 50-50 winrate... there will still be tons of lobsided games... just like in Normal SC2 when a GM zerg plays against a Plat Terran, or vica versa.

Terran Nerfs

1.) Increase Terran Wall Build Time(by 50%)  This will be a slight nerf to make the build time increased by 50%.  It will make quickly walling off the area where your construction yard goes a BIT harder.  And it will make quickly walling off "side areas"(areas that allow you to get your 5th or 6th gas) a bit harder.  As it is right now, with 3 or 4 scvs(some people even do more), you can wall off a whole area in a manner of seconds, with little risk, little cost, and massive benefit.

2.) Increase SCV cost to 20 gas(from 10 gas) This will combine with nerf #1 to further make "walling" a bit less overpowered, and limit how quickly terrans can safely expand.  Now zergs who micro and kill scvs will be more greatly rewarded.  And pulling 5 scvs to quickly construct a wall that will give a massive advantage is more risky... you can't afford to just lose 2 scvs and shrug it off anymore.  Terrans must be more cautious with their SCV use.  They still have overpowered walls for cheap.  But the surrounding circumstances help balance things out more.

3.) Increase cost of refinery to 40 gas(from 20 gas), and refinery build to to 25 seconds(from 20 seconds) This will make refineries pay for themselves less quickly, and thus terrans have to be more careful about leaving unprotected refineries.  Right now as it is, the cost of 20 gas is way too low.  This isn't as much about balance as it is a poor design, that makes what SHOULD be a very important structure be way too cheap.  Refineries should be something that has to be defended... not something that you can just plop down willy nilly, and if the zerg doesn't happen to see it for a minute you've paid for itself.  Now the refinery will need to exist for 2 minutes(which still is pretty low) in order to pay for itself.  And the added 5 second build time makes it slightly harder to build them willy nilly.

4.) Increase Cost of "Gas Extraction One" to 200 gas(from 150 gas)  This will generally make the first gas extraction a little less OP, especially for Ion builds.  I feel this is needed to help balance the game, as well as offset some zerg nerfs(below).

NOTE: While these nerfs may not seem like too big of a deal(especially considering the buff below)... realize the goal here is to create a bottleneck in scvs.  They cost more now.  And building things takes longer(which means you will need more scvs potentially).  It will be harder for terrans to have enough scvs without spending a lot of gas on them.  "scv usage" will now be much more of a bottleneck than in the past, which will hopefully restrain terrans' ability to expand a bit.


Terran Buffs:

1.) Increase Starting Gas to 125(from 70) This will help to offset the higher cost for Refineries at the start of the game(but still make them cost more going forward).  With "stock" rules, you would build two refineries for 40, leaving you 30 to build a farm.  With the new rules(refineries cost 40 gas instead of 20, and terrans start with 110 gas instead of 80), you will still be able to make 2 refineries and 1 farm at the start and have 15 gas left over(but all refineries and scvs going forward will cost more, and take longer to build).  Terrans can still build scvs at the start to wall, but it comes at a higher cost.

Zerg Buffs

1.) Drones now cost 10 minerals(instead of 20) This will allow early game zerg to have a significant buff, and as time goes on the lower drone cost matters less and less.  It's a great way to buff early game zerg, which gives it a better ability to keep terrans in check early... without making zerg OP in late game.

2.) Make more space/more useful space for the zerg to build behind big spines.  The tiles along the cliff are very jagged, and make it hard to use efficiently.  I will try to make it more flat, and more efficient use of space, so you can more easily fit spawners there.  So many times I see zergs with units caught back there, because the terrain is so jaggedy it's hard to place spawners properly.

3.) Zerg Large Spine Crawlers start with 1800 hp(up from 1300hp).  This will slightly help to alleviate having your large spine crawlers focused down before you have time to react.  In the long term, the extra 500 hp won't matter much against elites, italis, etc.  But it will help Zergs have another few miliseconds to react, and heal their big spines with infestors when a terran sneakily tries to target one down.  I think this is one of the hardest part of playing zerg against 3 experienced terrans... if you don't react even once, you lose a big spine, and often the game. 

4.) Zerg Mineral Extractor/greater Mineral Extractor hp increased to 750/1250(from 500/750).  This will make killing the outer extractors a bit more energy/risk intensive for terrans.  And it will help to offset the increase to cost(see below under Nerfs), in terms of ion cannons.  Because (below) I made extractors more expensive, the idea of ion cannoning all of them becomes more plausible, and I don't want that to be a thing.  Giving them more HP would keep ions from being able to take out 3 rows of greater mineral extractors so easily.

Zerg Nerfs

1.) Drones now have 4 attack(instead of 5) and 25hp(instead of 30)  This is mainly to prevent "drone rushes" at the start of the game due to how much cheaper they are.  While I am fine with the idea of drone rushes, we have to make sure it isn't OP.

2.) Extractor cost now 250/810(instead of 200/660).  Similar to the terran refinery, the zerg extractor is an important building, and should be painful to lose.  With all of the nerfs to terran, increasing the cost of the extractor helps to offset some of them.  And, it makes protecting/killing the extractors outside the zerg's home base more important for terrans and zergs to consider. 


Zerg Changes(both buff and nerf)

1.) Initial Creep tumors will be moved to make them less "in the way".  Also the creep will be adjusted so that it is 1 space farther back near where the terran normally places their armory.  This will make early hydra attacks on a forward armory more difficult.  I feel considering how hard/long we've made it with these changes for terran to expand... being able to cripple them with hydras would be too OP for zerg. 

These are the initial changes I would make.  Further eventually I would tackle things like balancing zerg's units, to make them all more useful, and certain once less relatively overpowered.  Also some minor map changes like giving terrans a bit more of unbuildable space behind their command center/barracks, to store things like unused troops/scvs/batteries/etc, when you are stuck inside your base.  Things can get cluttered, and there's really no need for it.

Let me know what everyone thinks, and if they'd like to see a Zerg Hex 2?  Would you want a complete remake, or editing the current map?