Pre Beta History 11: Pre BlizzCon 08

This covers the period of time between BWWI 08 and BlizzCon 08.

Terran Units:

• Jackal: now called Hellion. Same unit otherwise.

Protoss Units:

• Nullifier: Hallucination changes: instead of copying a unit you already have, you create units. This can create several of a particular type of unit from a single cast. Note that you specifically do not have to have the tech for a unit to produce a Hallucinated one.

Protoss Buildings and Mechanics:

• Observatory: Removed. Observers only require a Robotics Facility.

Zerg Buildings and Mechanics:

• Hydralisk Den: requires a Spawning Pool.
• Creep Speed Boost: Zerg ground units move faster on the creep.

Pre Beta History 10: Blizzard World Wide Invitational 2008

This information comes from Blizzard's World Wide Invitational tournament 2008, where the first broadcasted matches of SC2 were played.

Terran Units:

• Thor: gains Mechanical Rebirth. Killing the Thor creates "Wreckage". This wreckage is immobile and has no attacks. However, the wreckage can activate Mechanical Rebirth and rebuild itself into a Thor at full health.

Protoss Units:

• Nullifier: Loses Null Void.
• Mothership: No longer unique.
• Carrier: Loses escorts.

Zerg Units:

• Queen: Loses the ability to create defensive structures. Gains the ability to transform a selected Larva into a Mutant Larva.
• Mutant Larva: larva that take up 1 supply, and can mutate into any unit. This costs the same resources as regular larva production, but is faster than regular production.
• Corruptors: require only a Lair to be built.
• Overlords: gain drop Creep.
• Overseers: lose Creep drop [? Again, they may never have had it]. They gain the ability to create a Changeling: a unit that can impersonate the basic unit of any other race.

Zerg Buildings and Mechanics:

• Swarm Clutches/Shriekers: cut
• Sunken/Spore Clusters: now called Spine/Spore Crawlers. They have less Hp when in mobile form.
• Hydralisk Den: requires a Lair.
• Nydus Worm: no longer a free-roaming unit. A Nydus Worm is now a building much like the Canal: it can be built on any patch of creep that you have vision over. With Overlord creep drop, this still allows greater mobility.
• Creep damages enemy buildings slowly.
• Zerg buildings not on creep take damage slowly.

Global Mechanics:

• Gas Mechanic, v1.0: Geysers start with some quantity of gas, 600 at this point. Players can spend minerals (100) to get an additional quantity of gas (600). During this process, the geyser turns off for 45 seconds (workers can't get gas). Geysers that are empty still provide 2 gas.

Pre Beta History 9: Pre-Blizzard WWI 08

This collects information after the Zerg reveal in March 2008 and before the Blizzard World Wide Invitational tournament in July.

Terran Units:

• Nomad: replaces Mine Drone with building Spider Mines.
• Battlecruiser: replaces Plasma Torpedoes with Missile Barrage: an AoE AtA ability.
• Thor: gets its anti-air attack back. Loses Barrage again.

Protoss Units:

• Mothership: loses Time Bomb and Black Hole. It gains the ability to be used as a destination point for Warp-In, and can transfer energy to units below it. And has passive AoE cloaking.

Protoss Buildings and Mechanics:

• Phase Cannons: cannot become mobile.

Zerg Units:

• Overseer: gains the following abilities from the Overlord: Creep generation, resource corruption. [The move of Creep generation may have just been a mistake by Karune]

Zerg Buildings and Mechanics:

• Sunken/Spore Clusters: can become mobile.
• Zerg loses individual unit upgrades, reverts back to SC1-style upgrades.

Global Mechanics:

• Units must have vision on a unit to be able to fire at them. And units firing from a cliff do not give vision to other units. Thus, to attack units on a cliff, you must gain vision over them.

Pre Beta History 8: Zerg Reveal

This covers the information from the Zerg reveal in March 2008

Zerg Units:

• Hydralisk. More expensive and more dedicated to GtA.
• Roach: Fast regeneration and shorter-range. GtG only.
• Corruptor: AtA unit that turns defeated enemies into stationary AtA turrets.
• Infestor: Can move while burrowed. Can infest buildings, causing them to produce infested units. Has Dark Swarm and Disease (Irradiate for the Zerg)
• Ultralisk: Massive Hp, massive AoE melee damage with a special anti-building attack. Oh, and they can burrow.
• Queen: Unique. Evolves with your Hatchery. Lays Swarm Clutches and Creep Tumors/Shriekers. Has Toxic Creep (causes creep to damage enemies), Swarm Infestation (causes buildings to attack enemies), Regeneration (enhances the speed of Zerg building healing) and Deep Tunnel (teleport to target Zerg building on your side).
• Overseers: Morphed from Overseers. Detectors. Gain greater vision the longer they remain stationary.
• Overlords: Not detectors or transports. Can drop Creep. Has Slime, which allows it to disable resourcing from a mineral patch or geyser.
• Swarm Guardian: Like the Guardian, except its attacks create Broodlings.

Zerg Buildings and Mechanics:

• Nydus Worm. When you create the original Nydus building, you can produce Nydus Worms. These units are always ground units, always burrowed, and can move while burrowed. They can go anywhere. Once they reach a location, you can command them to emerge. At which point, after a few seconds of vulnerability, they become entrances to the shared Nydus network. Units in the network can emerge from any entrance.
• Creep Tumors can be upgraded to Shriekers
• Swarm Clutch: Egg that hatches to attack. Shriekers give them added range.
• Sunken/Spore Clusters: Basically, sunken and spore colonies, except that they don't need Creep Colonies to be built.
• Individual unit upgrades. Rather than having separate +1 upgrades based on unit types, each unit gets its own series of 3 upgrades. These combine the +1 attack/armor for that unit, as well as certain special abilities. The first upgrade for Zerglings, for example, includes their speed. While the last gives them their attack speed upgrade.

Protoss Units:

• Carrier: Gains the ability to create strong Escorts. Doing so costs money and they take energy.
• Phoenix: Loses AtG attack.
• Archon: Loses "Twilight" prefix and Feedback.

Terran Units:

• Medivac replaces Medics and Dropships. It's a DropShip with ranged healing.
• Banshee: AoE attack replaced with single-target damage.
• Thors: now built from Factories.
• Ghosts: Drop Pods cut. Gain the ability to sense units with energy for up to 30 squares.

Pre Beta History 7: Pre-Zerg Reveal

This covers the time in the run up to the Zerg reveal in March 2008.

Terran Units:

• Viking: Moves back to Factory. Gains the ability to shoot air units while in ground form. Loses the ability to shoot air units while in ground form.
• Thor: Becomes a ground pounder again.
• Marauders: Replace Firebats. Produced from Barracks. Have a slowing attack.
• Nomad: Gains Mine Drone, which places and cloaks mines in an area.
• Jackal: Fast vehicle that has flamethrower.

Terran Buildings and Mechanics:

• Bunkers again allow unit abilities (except repair) to be activated while in them.

Protoss Units:

• Colossus: Attack becomes a linear AoE effect, rather than single-target. The visual effect for this is firing a very wide beam.
• Nullifier: Null Void gains the ability to decloak units cloaked via energy abilities, and reveals burrowed units. Gains Anti-Gravity.

Pre Beta History 6: Early 2008

This covers the time from around the beginning of 2008.

Terran Units:

• Nomad: Gains auto-turret.
• Thor: Replaces the Cobra as an anti-air unit. When it takes lethal damage, it becomes immobile (but can still attack) and must be killed again. SCV can repair it back to full health to regain mobility.
• Cobra: cut.
• Firebat: Produced from the factory.
• Viking: Moves to the StarPort.

Terrran Mechanics:

• Drop Pods change from simply producing 5 Marines to having to be loaded with specific infantry units.

Protoss Units:

• Nullifiers: Replace Statis Orb. Gain the Force Field ability. Have Null Void, which stops enemy casters from being able to activate their abilities while within the field.
• High Templar: Gain Anti-Gravity. Can lift anything, units or buildings.

Protoss Buildings and Mechanics:

• Protoss casters can redistribute energy to one another.

Pre Beta History 5: Late 2007

This post covers the changed information roughly corresponding to late 2007.

Terran Units:

• Cobra's attack gains a slowing effect.
• Firebats return.
• Predator cut.
• Ghosts gain EMP.

Protoss Units:

• Carrier: replaces Tempest.
• Stasis Orb cut