The planetary fortress is an upgrade to the terran command center.
Overview[]
The number of command centers deployed in combat zones drove the development of standard schematics to upgrade them into a dedicated military role. One variant was the planetary fortress.[1] The Ares planetary fortress entered service following the Brood War and featured twin Ibiks cannon and heavier armor.[2]
Structures similar to orbital commands and planetary fortresses were in use by the Kel-Morian Combine by 2502.[3]
The following section contains information from a previous version of StarCraft II which is no longer valid.
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Dominion Special Forces planetary fortresses utilize cannons so powerful their anchors must be placed three times deeper to prevent the structure from skidding backwards every time it fires.[4]
Game Structure[]
StarCraft II[]
Planetary fortresses gain a powerful defensive weapon with area-effect over the default Command center, as well as more armor. However they do not gain more health. The weapon is useful for defending exposed expansions from light raiding units. The Hi-Sec Auto Tracking upgrade allows an optimally placed fortress to hit targets beyond the mineral line.
The planetary fortress' splash damage does not affect friendly units. The fortress may not lift off, or be converted to a command center or orbital command.
A variant, called the mercenary fortress, can be found in the Galaxy Map Editor.[5]
Versus[]
The command center can transform into an planetary fortress. The transformation is irreversible.
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- Upgrades and Abilities
Increases the attack range of automated defenses: missile turrets, auto-turrets, point defense drones, and the planetary fortress by +1.
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Upgrades the armor of structures by 2 (excluding auto-turrets). Increases the cargo space of bunkers by 2. Also provides extra cargo space for command centers and planetary fortresses.
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The command center or planetary fortress may load and unload five SCVs. This may be done while a command center is in flight. The number of SCVs is increased to ten with Neosteel Frames.
Wings of Liberty[]
In the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty single-player campaign, access to planetary fortresses is unlocked via 10 zerg research points and at the cost of Perdition turrets.[6] Planetary fortresses must still be upgraded from existing command centers, unlike their orbital command counterparts.
Enables command centers and orbital commands to transform into a planetary fortress.[6]
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Command centers and planetary fortresses can build two SCVs at the same time.[7] We now have the ability to train two SCVs simultaneously, allowing our early mineral and vespene production to ramp up twice as quickly. This breakthrough, made possibly by recent insights into protoss containment fields, should help us get a stronger foothold early in future missions.
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Development[]
An early image of the fortress
The planetary fortress used to be an independent structure enabled by the factory. In regards to command center variants, most work went into the fortress, with the results effectively being ported to the orbital command, which was designed later. It used to have lift off properties, but it was ultimately decided to keep it as a grounded structure.[8]
When revealed in 2007, the planetary fortress fired quicker, weaker shots.[9] At one point, it lost splash damage before regaining it by November 2008.[10] In April 2009, its stats were increased to 40 damage and 6 range.[11] StarCraft II beta patch 11 changed the splash damage to originate from the center of the planetary fortress's target, rather than the impact location near the unit.
The planetary fortress originally had this upgrade, researched at an engineering bay:
Increases the range of the planetary fortress' attack by +1.[12]
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Heroes of the Storm[]
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The following section contains information from Heroes of the Storm and is not canon to StarCraft continuity
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Modified versions of planetary fortresses appear as the core structures on the Warhead Junction map of Heroes of the Storm.[13]
Images[]
References[]
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