The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Starcraft 2] Beta get something to fix those busted jeans. How about a patch!
MNC Dover
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Full-time Voice ActorKirkland, WARegistered User regular
Starcraft 2 Tetris
IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE OFFICIAL BEGGING-FOR-A-BETA-LIST, PLEASE PM MNC DOVER YOUR FORUM NAME AND WHETHER YOU ARE ON US OR EU SERVERS AND I WILL ADD YOU. DO NOT MAKE REQUESTS IN THE THREAD ANYMORE. ONLY SC2 TALK FROM NOW ON!
List of people who want friend invites to Beta
US Servers:
Battle Jesus
Bluefoot
AdditionalPylons
Neaden
DJ Cam Cam
Aegis
Imperfect
Athenor
Anthelion
SithDrummer
Dangerisk
fadingathedges
klok
Seguer
Garick
MutePrez
Peff
Leonius
Emagog
erraticrabbit
I needed a name to post.
0Replace4Displace
cm83
Dhalphir
Elitistb
Chimes
SkyGheNe
ForceVoid
Mr Obersmith
darkenedwing
Leonius
Talith
Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo
Strawbs
JustinSane07
Ebfan
Spawnbroker
Fuga
angrybacon
Figgy
NerfThatMan
Apogee
Fireflash
Ego
Arminas
Sporkacus
DigitalSyn
Sceptre
Athenor
GnomeTank
MadCaddy
4rch3nemy
JimmyNavio
Zek
undeinpirat
Ashdrake
Otistheguard
Korlash
Kami
n00bish
Sceptre
Karrmer
Mr Blonde
WhiteShark
Dman
Monsty
Savant
Sporkacus
eddizhere
Rivulent
Shade
MikeMan
Baicon
Vi Monks
Scosglen
DasUberEdward
cyphr
Guek
Iriah
bubblegumnex
lahmiel
shosar
TheLawinator
Squirrel Rancher
Tucan
TelMarine
MagicPrime
snarfmaster
Fasterfood
Jenner
firekiun
walnutmon
Ohtsam
agoaj
HazeAI
jothki
A Flock of Walrus
Wetsun
RandomEngy
Xtarath
TheBog
Manetherenwolf
Critter
Manchowder
Funbags
fadingathedges
killa283
Grape Ape
Mathew Burrack
Variable
Jakorian
Blowflu
ImDrawingABlank
Kwoaru
Elementalor
Unearthly Stew
Animemaster345
Dourin
Edith_Bagot-Dix
lunaris
zanmatto
biscuitbutt81
daemones
illgottengains
Lord_Asmodeus
13thLegion
spasarto
Captain K
TheUnsane1
hectorse
Zero-Control
Utgardsloki
CharlesVI
European Servers:
TheBana
Martinez
Dayvan Cowboy
blurbl
alset85
Kroyd_Krenson
Anarchy
Westforde
BlackDove
Domhnall
Battle Jesus
Bluefoot
AdditionalPylons
Neaden
DJ Cam Cam
Aegis
Imperfect
Athenor
Anthelion
SithDrummer
Dangerisk
fadingathedges
klok
Seguer
Garick
MutePrez
Peff
Leonius
Emagog
erraticrabbit
I needed a name to post.
0Replace4Displace
cm83
Dhalphir
Elitistb
Chimes
SkyGheNe
ForceVoid
Mr Obersmith
darkenedwing
Leonius
Talith
Metal Gear Solid 2 Demo
Strawbs
JustinSane07
Ebfan
Spawnbroker
Fuga
angrybacon
Figgy
NerfThatMan
Apogee
Fireflash
Ego
Arminas
Sporkacus
DigitalSyn
Sceptre
Athenor
GnomeTank
MadCaddy
4rch3nemy
JimmyNavio
Zek
undeinpirat
Ashdrake
Otistheguard
Korlash
Kami
n00bish
Sceptre
Karrmer
Mr Blonde
WhiteShark
Dman
Monsty
Savant
Sporkacus
eddizhere
Rivulent
Shade
MikeMan
Baicon
Vi Monks
Scosglen
DasUberEdward
cyphr
Guek
Iriah
bubblegumnex
lahmiel
shosar
TheLawinator
Squirrel Rancher
Tucan
TelMarine
MagicPrime
snarfmaster
Fasterfood
Jenner
firekiun
walnutmon
Ohtsam
agoaj
HazeAI
jothki
A Flock of Walrus
Wetsun
RandomEngy
Xtarath
TheBog
Manetherenwolf
Critter
Manchowder
Funbags
fadingathedges
killa283
Grape Ape
Mathew Burrack
Variable
Jakorian
Blowflu
ImDrawingABlank
Kwoaru
Elementalor
Unearthly Stew
Animemaster345
Dourin
Edith_Bagot-Dix
lunaris
zanmatto
biscuitbutt81
daemones
illgottengains
Lord_Asmodeus
13thLegion
spasarto
Captain K
TheUnsane1
hectorse
Zero-Control
Utgardsloki
CharlesVI
European Servers:
TheBana
Martinez
Dayvan Cowboy
blurbl
alset85
Kroyd_Krenson
Anarchy
Westforde
BlackDove
Domhnall
Because some people still seem to not know, Starcraft 2 will have lan!
Visit http://www.starcraft2.com/features/ to learn more about the game (although you should know everything already).
Beta Invite Information
http://www.starcraft2.com/beta-faq.xmlSC2 Beta FAQ wrote:I attended BlizzCon 2008 and received a code for the StarCraft II beta. Do I have to go through this process?
There is a separate process in place for players who received StarCraft II beta codes from BlizzCon 2008. To redeem your BlizzCon 2008 beta code, visit the beta sign-up page (don’t worry that the page says World of Warcraft), and enter the code from your BlizzCon 2008 card, along with a valid email address that you check often.
Once you’ve completed these steps, we will contact you via email at some point during the StarCraft II testing process with further instructions. Please note that in order to participate after your receive the invitation, you will need to sign up for a new Battle.net account (if you haven’t done so already).
Will opting in early improve my chances of being selected?
Beta invitees will be selected periodically from the entire pool of players who have chosen to opt in and who meet the requirements. Opting in early doesn’t mean you’ll be invited sooner than someone who signs up after you.
Minimum System Requirements (from the Beta Client)
PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024x768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection
*Note* the final requirements for Starcraft II have not yet been determined. Due to ongoing development the minimum requirements listed above are subject to change at any time. During this phase a Mac version will NOT be available, please check back.
To keep up on the current patch notes, click on the official battle.net forums thread found here.
Starcraft 2 Music: Get it While it's Hot - Click Here
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Four years after the Brood War devastated the Koprulu sector, most of the superficial damage has been repaired - but the true wounds still run deep, and far away from human eyes, the zerg's final metamorphosis has only begun.
Screenshots
Beta: Live Streams
I wanna put as many live streams here for people to watch, so let me know (via PM?) of any you know of.
1up Live Stream
GiantBomb Live Stream (will be live soon, or so they say)
Team Liquid Live Streams (Blue stars are pro players)
Our very own Lunysgwen's Live Stream
Tech Tree unit stats have been changed with patch, so individual units have been taken away.
eeSanG's basics of Starcraft 2 for all you noobs. This is quite long.
I have written this to help anyone who is interested in playing but have little experience and no one to teach them.
There are many things in Starcraft that are so basic that no one mentions them. However, they’re also incredibly difficult to find out for yourself without a natural intuition for Real-Time Strategy. This makes it extremely difficult for people new to RTS’s to learn about them so they get trashed by everyone and everything; the entire process can be extremely demoralizing and leaves only a bitter taste in the neophyte as they quit in frustration. These basics are so fundamental that without them, every player is doomed to failure against someone with solid mechanics.
I am going to go over many of these basics. Here are some simple tips that apply to almost every RTS that involves resource management:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
The slightly more advanced mechanics all branch off from these principles.
Why you want to keep building workers.
Workers in Starcraft are great investments; you spend time and resources building them and they’ll provide great returns on those investments. The most significant mechanic behind Starcraft is resource management: you need minerals and gas to do everything. The more you have, the more you can do; but, the reverse also applies: the less resources you have, the more limited you are in options. This is macromanagement.
Okay, so more workers mean more resource gathering, but where do you stop? You don’t. In Starcraft 2, every base has 8 mineral patches and 2 gas geysers. Maximum saturation is 3 workers per mineral patch and 3 per gas; however, the optimal amount of workers on minerals is actually 2. There are heavy diminishing returns after 2 workers per mineral patch and returns stop altogether after 3. So why don’t you only make 22 workers, 16 for minerals and 6 for gas? Because you will want to expand.
Expanding is a critical aspect of micromanagement. Two fully saturated bases have double the production of one: this means twice the upgrades and twice the units. That is an unfair advantage over your opponent if you’re playing 2 bases to 1. Expanding does require an investment though, you cannot recklessly place bases all over the map or you risk losing everything to an aware opponent.
So back to workers: Why don’t we stop at 22? Because you will want to expand and you will want your investment to make immediate returns once you do. How do you do this? By transferring several workers from your first saturated base to your second (For future reference, transferring of workers will be called maynarding, as that is the term used by competitive Starcraft players). So say you kept building workers and you have about 34 (6 on gas, 28 mining), 4 of your workers mining are actually doing absolutely nothing. You still want to produce this many workers because once you expand (which you should when you safely can) you can maynard 17 workers to your expansions and put 6 on gas with 11 on mining.
Doing this, you’re now fully saturated on gas in two bases and have 11 workers on minerals each base. This is clearly insufficient and suboptimal but now you have 2 worker producing buildings and by splitting evenly, you can hit optimization in both bases with 5 worker production cycles. Well, 11 isn’t an optimal amount, so why not only move 16 and have 16/6 on minerals? You could, but because you have 2 worker production buildings you would have to go through 0 and 10 worker production cycles to hit optimization and that is inefficient because you have only one building doing all the work instead of dividing it equally. This doubles the amount of time for your bases to hit optimized mining and every worker built at an optimized mineral line is worth less and less.
So to keep the first facet of macromanagement strong, worker production is required beyond optimization. You’ll want to keep producing workers at both bases after your first expansion because the late game phase is usually played on 3 or more bases and you will want to continue maynarding workers to new expansions.
Why you don’t want resources to build up.
Worker production is the first stage of macromanagement: actually getting the resources. The second facet of macromanagement is actually using those resources. As you gather resources, you use them to make units for fighting. Every resource hoarded is a potential investment you did not make. If you engage in a battle with 1000 minerals hoarded, that is 1000 minerals worth of units you could’ve had at the fight had you macromanaged better. 10 Zealots, 20 Marines, or 40 Zerglings can significantly change the outcome of a battle. Unused resources mean smaller armies and smaller armies usually mean battles lost. Having 10 Marines is not going to win against 10 Zealots; you need more Marines for it to be a fair fight.
To prevent yourself from running into unfair fights, you want to be continuously spending your resources on something. It can be workers, buildings, upgrades, or units. Just spend it. But! Don’t waste it on things you will never use. Don’t get speed upgrades on a unit that you never plan on using. Efficient spending is implicit. It is not obvious; it is not shouted at you when you lose. Players will have excuses on why they lost, but underlying all that is usually because they did not spend their resources efficiently.
Another bad habit that many players have is immense amounts of unit queuing. Yes, you are spending resources, but it is not being spent efficiently. You make absolutely no returns on unit production until those units are actually made. Filling a unit queue right as or before a fight starts means those are units you could’ve already had. How? By making more unit producing buildings. Learning how many unit producing buildings you can have per base is difficult to learn, precise amounts can only come from experience.
Using Protoss as an example: A single mineral line can support roughly 3 Gateways running full time with minimal ‘teching’ (unlocking upgrades or new units). It can support 2 with heavy tech investments and it can barely support 4 Gateways with absolutely no tech investment. Running 4 Gateways usually ends in disastrous results for the Protoss player unless the opponent is quickly killed or there are no tech investments left to make. This is because if the opponent can get severely ahead in tech, the Protoss is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of viable options.
If you have resources piling up, you have two options: make more unit producing buildings or expand and then making more unit producing buildings. Being choked on unit production is an easy way to lose after trading armies with your opponent. Having too many buildings is better than not having enough.
There are two ways of losing via smaller army: not having enough or not spending enough resources. Both of these are easily avoidable.
Now that we’ve covered resource management, we continue onto build orders.
Learn build orders.
Build orders are a prearranged order in which you construct your buildings. Good build orders are those that everyone uses; they are cookie cutter. Now, some might rant about how cookie cutter builds destroy innovation and creative play. No! Build orders allow innovation and creative play to be efficient. They are cookie cutter for a reason, because they are the most effective openings in regards to resources and time. Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are battles of resources, but they’re also battles for time. A few seconds difference can change the entire game through a delayed unit, a building, or an entire expansion. Many openings trade time for resources or resources for time. Time creates advantages in tech, resources, or army size.
Learning build orders is more difficult in Starcraft 2 because it’s so new, not everything has been discovered or tested. It’s your job now to create, adopt, or steal build orders that are the most efficient. Constructing a building 5 seconds earlier than normal can lead to enormous advantages but not learning or refining build orders can lead to constructing buildings later than necessary!
For Starcraft 2, there are two ways to create the opening Pylon as Protoss. You can either make it at 9 supply and have it finish at 10 so you can Chrono Boost or you can cut an early Probe to create a Pylon at 8 and Chrono Boost the 9th Probe immediately. The difference between these builds provides a difference of about a second in the first Gateway, so this is an extreme example. I myself enjoy placing the Pylon at 8.
The difference between a solid and shaky build order can mean living or dying during the early game.
Don’t play blindly, scout often.
Map hacking, the most prominent hack in Starcraft, provides perfect information on the map and the opponent. This third-party program is looked down upon by the competitive community because it provides such an unfair advantage and because it is cheating.
You can simulate these same advantages through proper scouting. A player’s first scout is usually their worker. Many beginners believe that they are sent out for the sole reason of finding where the opponent is. Naïve! Keeping your scouting worker alive reveals so much valuable information, but only through proper analysis that comes with experience.
The subtle things will tell you much: the progress on the spawning pool will tell you whether to expect early Zerglings or not. A 10pool (a spawning pool created after the 10th Drone but before the 11th) will most certainly make Zerglings while a 13pool may only make 2 or skip them altogether. A surviving worker can reveal a Protoss player’s entire tech tree if kept alive: 1 Gate into Cybernetic Core? 2 Gate? THREE Gate (3 means you are going to get rushed)? 0 Gates? You just got proxy’d, get ready for a fast rush. A scouting worker can easily dodge Zealots through proper micro, many will need to get a Stalker or Sentry to kill it if they don’t want you to see their tech tree and that means gas spent, unit created, tech delayed.
When the first scout dies, many no longer scout for the rest of the game. Foolish! Continue to send out scouts; they can be either workers, a fast and inexpensive unit (Zergling), or a unit that is concealed and difficult to kill (Observer). Knowing where your opponent’s army is, knowing what it’s made of, and knowing when they expand are all critical intel. Location allows you to set up flanks or ambushes. Composition allows you to create the correct counters to their units, and knowing when and where an expansion is built opens up an opportunity to attack before they make returns on such a heavy investment. However, don't needlessly sacrifice units into the maw that is your opponent's army. Scout often, but be conservative with them.
Scouting is much harder and is much more demanding on your multitasking than macromanagement. You shouldn’t let your macromanagement suffer for the sake of scouting, but neither should you forsake scouting altogether. Balance is key to consistent success, though knowing when to take risks is also important.
Combining these fundamentals together means that your armies will be as large as possible, your economy as efficient as can be, and the knowledge of your opponent’s play are as clear as crystal.
These basics are just that, fundamentals. A lack of fundamentals means that defeating an opponent with strong mechanics and safe play will be an impossibility. Real-Time Strategies incorporate strategic play but that is meaningless when lacking in basics. Smaller armies, weaker economy, and blind play are disadvantages the player only gives himself; they are completely unnecessary and preventable.
So here they are again so you can drill them into your head. The basics of resource based RTS’s are:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
It can be difficult to do everything simultaneously at first, but it becomes more natural through practice!
Good luck and have fun. Until next time.
There are many things in Starcraft that are so basic that no one mentions them. However, they’re also incredibly difficult to find out for yourself without a natural intuition for Real-Time Strategy. This makes it extremely difficult for people new to RTS’s to learn about them so they get trashed by everyone and everything; the entire process can be extremely demoralizing and leaves only a bitter taste in the neophyte as they quit in frustration. These basics are so fundamental that without them, every player is doomed to failure against someone with solid mechanics.
I am going to go over many of these basics. Here are some simple tips that apply to almost every RTS that involves resource management:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
The slightly more advanced mechanics all branch off from these principles.
Why you want to keep building workers.
Workers in Starcraft are great investments; you spend time and resources building them and they’ll provide great returns on those investments. The most significant mechanic behind Starcraft is resource management: you need minerals and gas to do everything. The more you have, the more you can do; but, the reverse also applies: the less resources you have, the more limited you are in options. This is macromanagement.
Okay, so more workers mean more resource gathering, but where do you stop? You don’t. In Starcraft 2, every base has 8 mineral patches and 2 gas geysers. Maximum saturation is 3 workers per mineral patch and 3 per gas; however, the optimal amount of workers on minerals is actually 2. There are heavy diminishing returns after 2 workers per mineral patch and returns stop altogether after 3. So why don’t you only make 22 workers, 16 for minerals and 6 for gas? Because you will want to expand.
Expanding is a critical aspect of micromanagement. Two fully saturated bases have double the production of one: this means twice the upgrades and twice the units. That is an unfair advantage over your opponent if you’re playing 2 bases to 1. Expanding does require an investment though, you cannot recklessly place bases all over the map or you risk losing everything to an aware opponent.
So back to workers: Why don’t we stop at 22? Because you will want to expand and you will want your investment to make immediate returns once you do. How do you do this? By transferring several workers from your first saturated base to your second (For future reference, transferring of workers will be called maynarding, as that is the term used by competitive Starcraft players). So say you kept building workers and you have about 34 (6 on gas, 28 mining), 4 of your workers mining are actually doing absolutely nothing. You still want to produce this many workers because once you expand (which you should when you safely can) you can maynard 17 workers to your expansions and put 6 on gas with 11 on mining.
Doing this, you’re now fully saturated on gas in two bases and have 11 workers on minerals each base. This is clearly insufficient and suboptimal but now you have 2 worker producing buildings and by splitting evenly, you can hit optimization in both bases with 5 worker production cycles. Well, 11 isn’t an optimal amount, so why not only move 16 and have 16/6 on minerals? You could, but because you have 2 worker production buildings you would have to go through 0 and 10 worker production cycles to hit optimization and that is inefficient because you have only one building doing all the work instead of dividing it equally. This doubles the amount of time for your bases to hit optimized mining and every worker built at an optimized mineral line is worth less and less.
So to keep the first facet of macromanagement strong, worker production is required beyond optimization. You’ll want to keep producing workers at both bases after your first expansion because the late game phase is usually played on 3 or more bases and you will want to continue maynarding workers to new expansions.
Why you don’t want resources to build up.
Worker production is the first stage of macromanagement: actually getting the resources. The second facet of macromanagement is actually using those resources. As you gather resources, you use them to make units for fighting. Every resource hoarded is a potential investment you did not make. If you engage in a battle with 1000 minerals hoarded, that is 1000 minerals worth of units you could’ve had at the fight had you macromanaged better. 10 Zealots, 20 Marines, or 40 Zerglings can significantly change the outcome of a battle. Unused resources mean smaller armies and smaller armies usually mean battles lost. Having 10 Marines is not going to win against 10 Zealots; you need more Marines for it to be a fair fight.
To prevent yourself from running into unfair fights, you want to be continuously spending your resources on something. It can be workers, buildings, upgrades, or units. Just spend it. But! Don’t waste it on things you will never use. Don’t get speed upgrades on a unit that you never plan on using. Efficient spending is implicit. It is not obvious; it is not shouted at you when you lose. Players will have excuses on why they lost, but underlying all that is usually because they did not spend their resources efficiently.
Another bad habit that many players have is immense amounts of unit queuing. Yes, you are spending resources, but it is not being spent efficiently. You make absolutely no returns on unit production until those units are actually made. Filling a unit queue right as or before a fight starts means those are units you could’ve already had. How? By making more unit producing buildings. Learning how many unit producing buildings you can have per base is difficult to learn, precise amounts can only come from experience.
Using Protoss as an example: A single mineral line can support roughly 3 Gateways running full time with minimal ‘teching’ (unlocking upgrades or new units). It can support 2 with heavy tech investments and it can barely support 4 Gateways with absolutely no tech investment. Running 4 Gateways usually ends in disastrous results for the Protoss player unless the opponent is quickly killed or there are no tech investments left to make. This is because if the opponent can get severely ahead in tech, the Protoss is at a significant disadvantage due to a lack of viable options.
If you have resources piling up, you have two options: make more unit producing buildings or expand and then making more unit producing buildings. Being choked on unit production is an easy way to lose after trading armies with your opponent. Having too many buildings is better than not having enough.
There are two ways of losing via smaller army: not having enough or not spending enough resources. Both of these are easily avoidable.
Now that we’ve covered resource management, we continue onto build orders.
Learn build orders.
Build orders are a prearranged order in which you construct your buildings. Good build orders are those that everyone uses; they are cookie cutter. Now, some might rant about how cookie cutter builds destroy innovation and creative play. No! Build orders allow innovation and creative play to be efficient. They are cookie cutter for a reason, because they are the most effective openings in regards to resources and time. Starcraft and Starcraft 2 are battles of resources, but they’re also battles for time. A few seconds difference can change the entire game through a delayed unit, a building, or an entire expansion. Many openings trade time for resources or resources for time. Time creates advantages in tech, resources, or army size.
Learning build orders is more difficult in Starcraft 2 because it’s so new, not everything has been discovered or tested. It’s your job now to create, adopt, or steal build orders that are the most efficient. Constructing a building 5 seconds earlier than normal can lead to enormous advantages but not learning or refining build orders can lead to constructing buildings later than necessary!
For Starcraft 2, there are two ways to create the opening Pylon as Protoss. You can either make it at 9 supply and have it finish at 10 so you can Chrono Boost or you can cut an early Probe to create a Pylon at 8 and Chrono Boost the 9th Probe immediately. The difference between these builds provides a difference of about a second in the first Gateway, so this is an extreme example. I myself enjoy placing the Pylon at 8.
The difference between a solid and shaky build order can mean living or dying during the early game.
Don’t play blindly, scout often.
Map hacking, the most prominent hack in Starcraft, provides perfect information on the map and the opponent. This third-party program is looked down upon by the competitive community because it provides such an unfair advantage and because it is cheating.
You can simulate these same advantages through proper scouting. A player’s first scout is usually their worker. Many beginners believe that they are sent out for the sole reason of finding where the opponent is. Naïve! Keeping your scouting worker alive reveals so much valuable information, but only through proper analysis that comes with experience.
The subtle things will tell you much: the progress on the spawning pool will tell you whether to expect early Zerglings or not. A 10pool (a spawning pool created after the 10th Drone but before the 11th) will most certainly make Zerglings while a 13pool may only make 2 or skip them altogether. A surviving worker can reveal a Protoss player’s entire tech tree if kept alive: 1 Gate into Cybernetic Core? 2 Gate? THREE Gate (3 means you are going to get rushed)? 0 Gates? You just got proxy’d, get ready for a fast rush. A scouting worker can easily dodge Zealots through proper micro, many will need to get a Stalker or Sentry to kill it if they don’t want you to see their tech tree and that means gas spent, unit created, tech delayed.
When the first scout dies, many no longer scout for the rest of the game. Foolish! Continue to send out scouts; they can be either workers, a fast and inexpensive unit (Zergling), or a unit that is concealed and difficult to kill (Observer). Knowing where your opponent’s army is, knowing what it’s made of, and knowing when they expand are all critical intel. Location allows you to set up flanks or ambushes. Composition allows you to create the correct counters to their units, and knowing when and where an expansion is built opens up an opportunity to attack before they make returns on such a heavy investment. However, don't needlessly sacrifice units into the maw that is your opponent's army. Scout often, but be conservative with them.
Scouting is much harder and is much more demanding on your multitasking than macromanagement. You shouldn’t let your macromanagement suffer for the sake of scouting, but neither should you forsake scouting altogether. Balance is key to consistent success, though knowing when to take risks is also important.
Combining these fundamentals together means that your armies will be as large as possible, your economy as efficient as can be, and the knowledge of your opponent’s play are as clear as crystal.
These basics are just that, fundamentals. A lack of fundamentals means that defeating an opponent with strong mechanics and safe play will be an impossibility. Real-Time Strategies incorporate strategic play but that is meaningless when lacking in basics. Smaller armies, weaker economy, and blind play are disadvantages the player only gives himself; they are completely unnecessary and preventable.
So here they are again so you can drill them into your head. The basics of resource based RTS’s are:
* Keep building workers/harvesters.
* Don’t let resources build up.
* Learn build orders.
* Don’t play blindly, scout often.
It can be difficult to do everything simultaneously at first, but it becomes more natural through practice!
Good luck and have fun. Until next time.
Terran Tech Tree courtesy of NoGreatCountryThatLostOlympicHockey
Zerg Tech Tree courtesy of NoGreatNCountryThatLostOlympicHockey
Protoss Tech Tree courtesy of NoGreatCountryThatLostOlympicHockey
Beta Players
PM me with your account if you want on this list.
PA SC2 BETA: STEAM GROUP
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/PASC2Beta
US Servers
MNCDover.mncdover MNC Dover
NoGreatName.ballin NoGreatName
Gnometaro.gnometown Push Button / Receive Cat
Peff.havoc Peff
eesang.arbiter eeSanG
Fathom.sinjun Urian
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MartianMark.martianmark TheSuperWoot
Lunysgwen.giraldus Lunysgwen
Manic.manic Yran
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aadric.aadric mrsinister
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pogo.pogo Pogo1250
Flea.pious Inquisitor
melkster.melkster Melkster
Xico.tencatl MrOletta
Grain.grimwyrm Grain
BoxMuncher.cbl Katholic
Xenozergie.tirmcdohl XenoZergie
Kwisatz.haderach schmads
infinity.infinity Infinity56
Kancho.terrible KrunkMcGrunk
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Akematsu.Yossarian Wicked Uncle Ernie
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Naivedo.naivedo Buraisu
Bahamut.zero BahamutZERO
RedTide.hooknladder RedTide
Perturabo.salvation Salvation122
ymmt.net akiboshi
Seanron.qotpa Seanron
Burst.emi Sabo
LocustReign.onyourparade Uselesswarrior
Revenant.Revenant Lurk
Arikado.arikado Arikado
SLyM.slym SLyM
Zore.dragon Z0re
Foefaller.magus Foefaller
Strickland.spt a penguin
Srice.srice Slicer
kime.delpell Kime
StarKraft.dinner ThugsBunny
gogokodo.tmo GogoKodo
Spartacus.IMSpartacus Nylonathetep
Lemming.west Lemming
Megrim.crux Haki
Aphrodezach.zach Thor1590
Dudeman.rules DudemanX
SomeTallGuy.stu some_tall_guy
Winky.ajalkaline Winky
und.einpirat undeinpirat
BloodySloth.pumantis BloodySloth
Fireflash.patparadize Fireflash
Vivus.machina As7
Aphostile.aphostile Aphostile
iowaa.iowaa Iowa
platinumplus.musanman musanman
mEEks.meeks mEEKsa
Debaser.pixl DebaserZbs
Zerokku.zerokku Zerokku
sevorak.sevorak sevorak
rewsky.rewsky SkyGheNe
SlayerVin.pants SlayerVin
Tortalius.tortalius Tcheldor
FuriousJodo.tribalwar FuriousJodo
crimson.coyote crimsoncyote
Over.backbones INeedNoSalt
schctrg.schctrg Drag
Negativeskil.Shi NegativeSkill
LovePhD.moot MutePrez
Sceptre.romus Sceptre
Finnbarr.dreydus Finnbarr
Rock.steady Fatty-McPhat
SalidSnake.snakejd Salid Snake
inCa.mtl Sparth
Gruknor.joobacca Koopa_Paratroopa
Topp.titan Saaruto
Ryan.schutter cakemikz
fukyodogg.nowbish Gigas75
DeadMenRise.rime CycloneRanger
Khaczor.khaczor Khaczor
xango.shadow ShadowThomas
dergabene.dergabene Tamin
Euro Servers
Fenris.fenris fencat
Shiki.Ryougi Mikiya
Demiurge.Nplaurie Demiurge
HerrCron.herrmoo HerrCron
Tayrun.norolith Tayrun
Wolf.bjarki Zealot
Gumpy.vonbear Gumpy
evilthecat.void evilthecat
Klyka.klyka klyka
Seanron.seanron Seanron
Mithror.mithror
Joril.pazepal Joril
Shessair.natik NATIK
OP mega-stolen from Topia.
Should I put something else in this OP? PM me and let me know.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
MNC Dover on
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Posts
Thanks.
I'm burrowed under your worker line right now, you son of a...
They kind of need to buff thors in some way now. They sure suck for an uber unit.
On the subject of burrowing, the Nydus worm is probably my single favorite unit moment/animation/idea/whatever. That scream when it busts through is just too awesome.
A good amount of the uber units are kind of lackluster right now. That said, I've seen people put 1-2 thors to decent use as anti air back up for an army, and people do kind of nifty things with them once or twice by putting scvs on auto repair following them around.
I think the broodlords are pretty much one of the few viable units. Massive HP, ridiculous ground attack...all you need is the anti air to support them and you're golden.
As far as thors go, I feel like the benefits do not add up to the cost.
ACtually, I am going to watch it again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91XjX59O-VQ
I perfer Day9's commentary because he understands the game a lot more, but here is the link to HDStarcraft/HuskyStarcraft's:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGP1-R9rugo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkygqX_JIjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sphi1jD_LnI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzE2Jnr0rU0
i just want to see more of TLO
boy is a beast
I've got a Beta key that was generously donated by Mr.Oletta to be used as a shared PA forum member account. The beta is going to be used by myself, Fuga, and 5 other players. Why 7 players you ask? Well, each player will get to use the beta each day and can play as much as he wants during that 24 hour period. The account will be yours on your assigned day at midnight. There are some rules to follow:
-This is my personal battle.net account. Don't screw around with any of the settings or attempt to change the password. Doing so will cause me to rain down hell upon you via the forum and lose all faith in humanity.
-Do not tell anyone else the password or share this account with anyone else. Remember, this is my account so trust between all parties is paramount.
-This will be a shared account. I'm in college right now and my playtime will be limited, so I'll be assigning everyone a day to play. I'm not trying to go overboard, but everyone will get one day (a 24 hour period) where they have access to the account. If it's not your day, don't log in. Don't start another game after 11pm (eastern standard time) in case someone else is itching to start at midnight. Finish up your game and call it a night. Long and short is your play time starts at 12 Midnight (eastern) and ends at 11:59 pm (eastern).
-PM me only if there is account problems. If you want to trade days with someone else, PM them a request. They have the right to say no. If you know for sure you aren't going to play on your day, post in the forum and someone else can pick up the day.
-Forfeiting your turn at playing if the thread needs the beta for a special event of some kind.
-Willingness to test suggestions or build orders requested by the thread.
-Don't be a dick. Play nice with everyone.
If you want to be considered for this, you must send me the following info in a PM:
What day you want, why you should be considered, some form of proof that I can trust you, and confirmation that you read the above rules and will abide by them.
Title your PM "Request for PA Beta". Please don't make me pass by what will be a slew of invites simply because you can't follow instructions.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
I'm not sure how effective it would be in a high-level 1v1 or 2v2, but so far I've been having a pretty good time making 1-3 reapers immediately after making a fast tech lab on my rax and running into the enemy peon line while moving onto marauders. Reapers take forever to build and may or may not suck in real high pressure situations, but goddamn if they aren't fun to use.
XBL: Aspis 9
Lotro (Landroval): Cleomenes [Champion], Ilithano [Captain]
Didn't want to let this fall through the cracks. Too funny.
I nominate Lemming as first king. BECAUSE HE'S IN PLATINUM. I think? I know TheStig is.
Sure, that match was great, but I don't think I've been as engrossed by a starcraft video as in The Little One's second match with White Ra.
My god, what a game. I love how Day[9] basically loses it towards the end.
So we basically just call someone out whenever and then vie for regal supremacy? I'd be up for getting my ass handed to me.
Though, the only problem is you need an expo that's easily defensible. But the basic idea is that you quickly wall off your expo with two Gateways and two pylons. It has to be a complete block off, with no way for any marines to get past. Quickly build a Forge (before the Cybernetics Core, even) and put no workers on gas until your minerals are fully saturated.
Build a row of cannons behind your wall. Then more pylons behind that. And more cannons.
Then, in order, grab your gas, build a Cybernetics Core, grab your expo, and then proceed to build nothing but Stalkers. Absolutely nothing but Stalkers. From there, get Warp Gate, Blink, +1 Weapon Attack, a couple Observers, and more Gateways as you hold on for dear life against the hordes of Marauders - who will fall to your lines of cannons and stalkers. Though, a couple Terrans I've used this see the wall and switch techs to:
- Siege Tanks
- Banshees
- Reapers
Siege Tanks are the only real threat out of these options, but once you have Blink, Siege Tanks do nothing to your Stalkers, and it takes a while to properly micro the Siege Tanks in the right place - and in the meantime your economy is churning hard and your group of Stalkers gets bigger and bigger.
Once you feel you can destroy anything you come across (a full control group of Stalkers or so), simply blink the Stalkers out of your base and rape everything that you come across.
It's a really annoying strategy to implement - and it feels quite cheesy, but it seems to be the only way to hold off against the stupid MM rush. Nothing else seems to work. It pretty much requires a hard Terran mech counter - many, many early siege tanks - to counter.
It also doesn't work if you wall off just your main base without going for your expo - you won't have the gas production to fuel the numbers of Stalkers you'll need to overwhelm your enemy.
Thoughts?
Whitera did something similar to this in one of the matches from that latest Team Liquid tourney.
Personally I'd just go around with Medivacs if I scanned and saw you doing this, how do you counter them going around for a drop?
On a related note, 4 player FFAs are hilarious!
It's weird, too, because I normally have an awesome connection.
in my experience it's suicide to be aggressive vs toss in early game. zealots are too strong.
WRT the strategy, my response would be initial relief to see that you're building a lot of cannons. I'd know i'd be safe to expand for at least a little while and would probably double expand soon after i saw that. I'd suspect some kind of special unit strat (dark templar, void rays etc) so i'd be spamming comsat on your base. I'd be real relieved to see that you're getting stalkers.
I read a 1up article that said Blizzard will be trying to roll out the mac phase sometime in April.
I hope it's early April, I don't wanna wait any longer.
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178363
PSN: technical_ta
his post makes sense to me as a bronze-level player, which I think melk is too (about).
In my experience MM rapes up zealots something fierce if you target as many different zealots as possible with the marauders, since their shots slow them down and the marines can just chew 'em apart.
Although my reaction to seeing someone turtle like that would be to nuke the shit out of him, not use tanks.
Are you microing your Marauders at all? They can easily destroy any zealots if you rush early by simply running backwards and stopping them. Zealots are not scary when they are very slow.
Edit: Ok he calmed down a bit. The dog thing was weird.
It depends on how early we're talking i guess. How early is the rush and how many marauders?
If it's like 3, we might cut even at first but we'd be fighting at your base. that means you get to use your ramp when your stalker comes out and your reinforcements also come probably a lot sooner than his do.
Funny how people have completely contrasting views of this game's balance at the moment. In the last thread people were talking about how early marauders absolutely roll anything Toss can put out early, and here you are saying Zealots stomp anything Terran can put out early.
I get the feeling the truth lies somewhere in the middle!