The Zerg are a rather complete enigma right now. But, one of the really interesting possibilities is total evolution. What I mean by that is that (if not all than the vast majority) the Zerg have many evolved forms that give them the ability to respond to different strategies after their forces are out the production gates...similarly to the new ability to upgrade the Battlecruiser with different weapons to deal great point damage or great AOE damage to ground targets.

Also, the Zerg have a history of this with the Mutalisk from Broodwar. (Even though almost no one used the AA version, the Devourer). But, you have Mutas and you need increased AG ability. Well, evolve them to Guards. AA? Devourers.

Already, we've seen the Zerglings able to evolve to Banelings. Switching a standard swarming technique to mass damage over a very short time. That flexibility, in my opinion, is what makes the Zerg such a terrifying opponent. Let's say (for the sake of argument) that the Zerg have a anti-melee and anti-range upgrade versions of the Hydra...and they see a Protoss force mainly made up of Zealots. Well, back away, evolve into the anti-melee and it's GG Protoss.

Here's some ideas I've had recently:
Drones- Maybe an evolution to something similar to the Banelings or rapid base defense?

Zerglings- Banelings, already probably there...maybe a thicker-armored version since AOE is mainly what Zerglings have to worry about?

Hydras- Assuming Lurkers, those would be one and then the other would be the cliff-jumping version with a more powerful attack (to allow for raiding)?

Ultra- I've heard some ideas for an assault version...perhaps an upgrade to a land transport and the other is increased armor for surviving the mass attacks always leveled against them.

Mutas- Guards were one of the most terrifying units in the original, particularly for a Terran that had turtled. The Devourer would probably need to be replaced, but I'm nor sure what with. It was just too weak...maybe a toxic acid that actually did DoT instead of just causing increased damage?

Overlords-They already had the ability to become a transport, which I think was a very good idea...perhaps something as an AA defense (either defense or offense) since Overlord Hunting is one of the favorite pastimes of non-Zerg players?

Defiler- Assuming it comes back, one upgrade to give it another spell (no idea what...maybe a kind of "unholy frenzy" for Zerg)....and the other is a kind of siege unit that fires acid over long distances? I've seen a screenshot of something that looked like it was doing it.

Anyway, just an idea since I'm really curious what they're going to do with the Zerg now to make them competitive with the Terran and Protoss.

Sounds interesting :) Allowing every Zerg unit to mutate however would create twice or three times as many Zerg units as there are Protoss and Terran units. However in differentiating the races this could have been on the drawing board at blizz...

I think the Hydra having another mutation form is nice.. though I think the Ultra should stay just being the big bad boy of the Zerg. I think Blizzard has some interesting things in store with Zerg buildings...

excellent thread! ynow, at first I was rather skeptical about the whole "We're just keeping the same 3 races", but now i'm overjoyed about it.

Blizzard wants to magnify the differences between the 3 even more then they did in SC1, which makes me really wonder about the Zerg, who we know little/nothing about.

this whole On-Field-Evolution idea is great, even as an advantage for terran and protoss!

"Ahh! a field of evolving eggs midfield? ATTACK!"

=p oh man, thinking about these strategies already is getting me wayyy too excited for SC2

Amen to that! Excited? Dude, I'm salivating already... Screw the elections :)! I already know the biggest event in 2008.

Interesting suggestions however I find that it will be unlikely to be implemented, same as with the terrans improving stats with kills. Too many things can go awry in a setting like that.

I would however love if it was somehow possible to achieve on field evolution without creating balance issue of some sort.

This question has been added to the collection.

http://www.sc2armory.com/collection/

Its really a hard question to answer.

For one if you don't give the zerg more mutate abilities will they be rounded enough, also will they be fun to play or simple mass hydras from 20 hatcheries like in Starcraft 1.

If you do decide to toy with the combinations i would say follow the same line as with the muts evolution. they go from bing a well balanced unit to that of one that is a specified soldier.

Have zerglings that form into a heavy armor wall that absorbs fire.
Hydras that turn into lurkers, which act like a trip mine.
Queens can morph into a mini kerigen attaching creature.
Ults that explode into many tiny parasites.

The Zerg evolving would be a great advantage, which they already do. But if thinking that they can evolve quickly enough, say, from a hydralisk to a anti air specialized hydralisk or anti ground specialized hydra, i think it would take too long to evolve to be of any use in the middle of the fight, they'd get killed or be dead near after they finish changin for it to take any real matter in the fight. Although if they did have units that could almost instantly transform to better the fight (AA or AG at the time) i think it would be neat and surprising. And if they did, maybe put a "death timer" on them, or have them slowly lose their HP after the transform so that this ability doesnt overpower the Zerg.

The evolving thing sounds cool. I think they should made a massive hotkey in which lets say you want all your zergling evolve into banelings lets say you just press F12 and voila. What would be really cool is that zerglings have a vampire ablity the more they eat the more hp and attack points they get. But if BLIZZARD would do that it would be kind of hard to balance or they should put it as a skill.

Well, first, I feel honored that my post was moved to The Collection :)

But, back to business: Hey, this is a response to Virtual Adept. One of the most critical things in SC1 was scouting. Protoss, Zerg and yes, even Terran, needed to constantly scout their enemies to see what they were making.

That's why, in my original post, I said "pull back and evolve". I'm picturing something along the lines of the Hydra or Muta evolutions from SC1. Evolution taking about 20-30 secs in an egg format out on the fields (or, perhaps creep speeding up the evolution process for a "homefield advantage"?)

I like the Queen evolution idea too...though I'm hearing that the Zerg have a unit called the "Succubus" that can Mind Control units for a short time. That's interesting.

And, yes, the vampiric Zerglings is an interesting possibility too...the only issues I see is that they remind me a bit of the Ghouls from WC3, which they certainly are NOT. Zerglings would pwn Ghouls like they were made of tissue paper.