I think this idea should fit well within the balancing scheme of SC2, so - why not give the Queen the Detection ability, maybe as an upgrade or just straight out of the box?


Argument:

As I understand it, Zerg only has the Overseer and the Spore crawler to detect units. These units work fine, but what I'm suggesting is both practical and aesthetical.

The Overseer shouldn't become redundant, but I don't think that will happen. You can only have 1 Queen per hatchery, and there's more risk involved in having your queen in front of your base rather than tucked away. She's not gonna be detecting incoming attack forces necessarily, but rather those few units that make it through to threaten your mineral line.

The Spore crawler is not a good early-game defence, because it basically only detects. Enemy players aren't gonna send in air units at the very beginning. Plus, when it does come into use later on, its detection will still be confined to a limited area and merely a bonus rather than a crucial defensive power.

Giving the Queen detection is a minor thing that gives the Zerg a little more security earlier on, without being too imba. The zerg is still gonna need to keep their queen at home, but it just gives the zerg a little more power over their own base, allowing them to focus more money on attacking units rather than detectors that just sits in the base without any real use. Spores should primarily be anti-air and then detectors to boot, and Overseers should be more of a forward detector.


So to conclude:

By giving Queens detection, you allow the zerg player to streamline his base more and focus on relevant strategies. If he chooses to expand his base more than necessary, he'll still need to employ Spores. If he wants to use detection out in the field, the Overseers are still needed.

Gif Quin Deteckshaaan!!! :O

If everything can always have a use then there is no descision in buildings things and SC2 is no longer a strategy game but a redundant repition of build order and attack plans. SC1 and WC3 do very good at keeping out repetitive play, (not always but most of the time) but adding multi-purpose units can be tricky because you run the risk of eliminating use of other units and descision on what to build.
Best example I can think of is tanks knights and am in WC3. Elementals and tanks kill any air, tanks kill buildings, knights and elementals kill ground and am teleports for instant travel, add 2 of each hu caster into the mix and that strat is almost impossible to beat in the hands of a good player, so you have to focus on keeping them from getting those units. While that combination might sound like alot of units they all kind of come together because Humans fast epand and the tech for knights/tanks/casters is similar (all use plate upgrades) or default (everyone gets a barraks which makes knights) the only descision in that strat you have to make is if you want to get tanks everything else is standard.

Every unit should be specialized and fill a specific role, even though some will fill more then one that should be minimized.

Yeah I've read several replies elsewhere about this idea, it might not be a good one. Maybe the queen gets too attractive to the players. I still think it's a valid idea, I don't agree that it'll reduce the Zerg's effective choices, but you got a decent point so it might be the case.

In any case, it might also change the Zerg too much for Blizzard to consider.

Anyone else got some thoughts on this?

I seems that if you do give the Queens an initial detector ability, then it defeats the purpose of Terran or Protoss doing a cloaked harass. Banshees, burrowed Zerg, and Mothership's cloak could be easily countered by the Queen's Detection, although it is arguable that (Overseers) serve the same purpose. The idea of upgrading the queen to make her a detector feels like it has more merit. Or maybe, have the Queen use an ability similar to Orbital Scan. Using her energy to do a smaller scale orbital scan centered around the Queen. This would force players to put more strategy into when they Spawn Larvae (although it could be an ability we never see due to its competition with Spawn Larvae).

On the other hand Overseers have such a solid use as a detector that I have a hard time seeing Blizzard giving the Queen a detecting ability. If you need a detector at your base, simply use an Overseer. It just requires more micro on the part of the player.

Also note that i am not in the SC2 beta. All the information I know is through SC and shoutcasters.

Edit: Overlords are not in fact detectors. sry bout that.