Why did the Engineering Bay lose the ability to lift off in Starcraft 2?

Question

The main production buildings for the Terrans did not change particularly much between StarCraft 1 and 2. Though they are obviously different games, StarCraft 2 is, after all, a sequel, and borrowed much from its "older" self.

However, the Engineering Bay in the original StarCraft possessed the ability to lift off, and the Engineering Bay in StarCraft 2 does not, despite a distinct model similarity (the StarCraft 2 version maintains the landing-gear feet and everything!)

So I'm wondering: Was the Engineering Bay ever able to lift off in the StarCraft 2 Beta? If yes, why was this removed? If no, why did they not carry this apparently harmless ability into the new game as well?

Is there some fundamental gameplay balance issue that flying Engineering Bays created?

Answer 1

I'll take heed to the subjective nature of this question but I'll share my speculative answer anyway.

At the time of writing this the engineering bay costs 125 minerals, takes only 35 seconds to create, has 850 health and has +1 armor. If the engineering bay could lift off, you could have a pretty durable scout that's fast and cheap to create. This could open up a whole slew of possibilities for Terran.

Answer 2

Giving a building the option to fly is definitely an advantage for terran. The more buildings that can fly, the more buildings you can use for scouting (both for intel and siege tank spotting), for winning base trade races by lifting and hiding in the corner, and for creating reconfigurable wall offs. I don't think allowing the engineering to lift would fundamentally change the nature of the game, but it would be a slight benefit to terran.

Answer 3

Many Pros use buildings to scout, my guess would be the ability to use it as a "cheaper" scout after an upgrade is finished.