Mothership

The mothership is a powerful protoss capital ship. It is set to appear in StarCraft II.

Overview
Motherships are mighty vessels that were constructed centuries ago during the protoss Golden Age of Expansion. They were intended to act as primary command ships to lead vast armadas of protoss explorers through deep space and bring them safely home again. In the aftermath of this period of expansion, the surviving motherships became holy shrines to the protoss, representing an honored way of life and a part of the proud history of the protoss race. As such, they were left in place as titanic monuments at the farthest reaches of protoss exploration. It was believed that their like would not be needed again. After the zerg devastated Aiur however, the surviving motherships were called back into service. Now they are crewed not with mystics and historians, but with warriors.

At the heart of each mothership is a huge khaydarin crystal infused with an incredible amount of psionic energy. By tapping into this energy, a mothership can warp or crack the very fabric of space-time itself. The devastating power of a mothership can wipe out squadrons of enemy ships in the blink of an eye or lay waste to entire planets.

Game Unit
In the most current development version of StarCraft II, the mothership is unique for balance reasons.

The mothership moves very slowly.

The mothership is treated as a support unit with powerful defenses.

The mothership's standard attack consists of eight disruptor pulses that spread out and attack all enemies within range. These can attack both air and ground units. This makes them quite ideal as support in the back lines of a battle while capable of attacking enemies in the front lines. While the mothership has an immense amount of hit points, it is incredibly expensive and not worth the risk of being exposed to open fire. Players should expect the enemy to throw everything they have in destroying these immense vessels. Overall, it should only be built if one has air superiority and can adequately defend it.

Abilities
The mothership can teleport from to a building.

Development
The mothership has been switched back and forth from a one-of-a-kind unit to a normal unit, multiple times since its unveiling in May 2007.

The mothership is hard to test, as it is high in the tech tree.

The mothership used to be able to survive a direct hit from a nuclear missile.

Previous Abilities
Any abilities that do not make it into the final mothership will still be available in the game editor.
 * Black Hole
 * Also known as Vortex
 * This ability could quickly destroy air and ground units in an area of effect.
 * This ability has been canceled several times and is currently not being used by any units in the game.
 * One of the most recent versions of Black Hole affects units with a "stasis" field, rather than destroying them.


 * Planet Cracker
 * "Scorch the ground beneath the Mothership for 15 seconds, causing damage for enemy ground units below."
 * Hotkey: C
 * Cost: 125
 * Dealt massive damage to an area directly below the Mothership's position (ideal for destroying buildings and slow-moving targets such as Siege Tanks) over a period of time. It had no effect on air units.



The above version of the Time Bomb seems to have been removed as of February 2009.


 * Time Bomb (previous version)
 * "Creates a distortion field around the Mothership that lasts 30 seconds. Air units within this field can not move, and take no damage from ranged attacks." Air units within the area cannot move and do not suffer damage from ranged attacks. This was especially useful when breaking an enemy's defensive line in a drawn out battle. This ability had no effect on beam weapons such as those of the void ray or colossus. It was also useful in allowing the Mothership to retreat.  When the Time Bomb collapsed, failed ammunition fell to the ground.

Quotes

 * Main page: Mothership Quotations

Trivia
If the Blizzard game demonstration video is any indication, not to mention the voice of the quotes on the official StarCraft II website, it is thus far the only protoss non-hero unit to be voiced by a female representative.

The mothership's "Planet Cracker" ability is based on the energy beam from the ship in the introduction video for StarCraft I. That ship is the "conceptual anchor" for the mothership idea.