Queen (StarCraft II)

The queen is a zerg support unit that appears in StarCraft II. Despite a shared name, it is a vastly different unit from its predecessor, first notably now walking on the ground. Multiple queens can be created as of October 2008.

Overview
The queens of the post-Brood War era are quite different from their predecessors. The full details are currently unknown, but it is known that queens now have the advanced ability to manipulate their "offspring"; for instance, they engineered the zergling morph to the baneling, a breed that can contain its explosive energies until just the right moment.

Game Unit
The queen is now a ground unit with a powerful attack, consisting of spines launched by the "wings" on its back.

In a post-BlizzCon patch, the queen became a very powerful anti-air attacker.

Production and Evolution
The queen emerges directly from the hatchery (meaning it is not morphed from a larva but walks out of the hatchery) and requires a spawning pool.

Development
The original queen did not play the role of leader and creator of the Swarm, which is something Blizzard Entertainment changed for StarCraft II.

Blizzard worked on the queen for two years. Previous versions of the queen actually produced units, but since there could only be one queen, this left the zerg unit production system too vulnerable (as the queen could be hunted and killed).

Removed abilities
These abilities were removed in the build displayed at BlizzCon 2008.

The mutate larvae ability was removed as of February 2009 as the original concept proved tedious with timed life.

Unique version
Before BlizzCon 2008, only one queen could be produced at a time. It was not a super unit or hero unit, however, and required other units to help defend it against attacks.

The queen used to evolve over the course of the game, growing in size as it did so. Morphing to the Large Queen required a lair, while the Huge Queen required a hive. If the queen dies, it can be produced again at the hatchery/lair/hive with any existing upgrades. The queen no longer does this.

Lost Spawning Structures Abilities
The queen used to spawn numerous types of structures upon the creep. Creep does not belong to any one player, which gave the queen the ability to spawn structures upon "enemy" creep in enemy bases. This ability has since been lost.

When the queen created a structure, she was not required on-site like an SCV; rather, she built in much the same way that a probe creates protoss structures.

The queen had base defense duties, including laying eggs that hatched into suicide attackers.

Creep Move
Queens moved slowly when not on creep, making "queen-rushing" difficult. Queens were much more powerful in overall combat ability on the creep. They appear to have gained the standard Creep Move ability, a 30% increase in speed on creep, as of October 2008.