Brag if you got into the SC2 beta

[Xylitol]

i got my key from the trivia challenge today on Facebook
add me and tell me your AT username: Paul.Paik@gmail.com

 

[I4AT]

I like all the changes as a casual player, but as someone who follows the proleagues daily I also wonder how it's going to affect the competitive scene. The reason Starcraft was able to hold popularity for over 10 years is because it's so difficult to play. Thousands of people pack into studios everyday to watch people who have mastered "quick clicking" because not everyone can do it. Starcraft has never been a game of strategy, anyone can learn the matchups and counters in a matter of days. Time will tell if heavily leveling the playing field can still keep the game interesting to watch.

 

[nanobreath]

I think it might be officially referred to as smartcasting, I don't remember, but basically it works like this; you can select an entire control group of high templar press "T" once then hold shift and you can cast storms all over the map with just a few clicks. One templar will cast the spell for every click, starting with the closest one to the target that has enough energy. In the original if you told an entire group of units to cast a spell they'd all cast it simultaneously in the same spot. You actually had to select each individual templar and tell them where to cast a storm, and make sure the one you selected actually had energy for it.

It basically gives anybody Boxer-like micro abilities.

Autocast != smartcast.

Things like SCV repair, Medivacs heal etc can be set to auto cast. Medivacs come with autocast turned on by default. Right click the spell to turn autocast on or off. SCV's are really the only thing that I change the autocast settings on. If I have a fleet of mechs that need repairing I'll bring a few scvs over and turn the autocast on for repair.

 

[rcpratt]

Autocast != smartcast.

Things like SCV repair, Medivacs heal etc can be set to auto cast. Medivacs come with autocast turned on by default. Right click the spell to turn autocast on or off. SCV's are really the only thing that I change the autocast settings on. If I have a fleet of mechs that need repairing I'll bring a few scvs over and turn the autocast on for repair.

Smartcast was what I4AT was talking about though. It was introduced in WC3 and is a great change, although the "pros" will whine about it.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Smartcast was what I4AT was talking about though. It was introduced in WC3 and is a great change, although the "pros" will whine about it.

some spells in WC3 also have autocast, though.

 

[Xellos2099]

For the one who experience the looping problem, were you using the starcrack's ai pack before you got into the official beta? If so, replace the original ai file might do the trick.

 

[slightlyhuman]

For the one who experience the looping problem, were you using the starcrack's ai pack before you got into the official beta? If so, replace the original ai file might do the trick.

i just started trying to play it last weekend when i got my beta key.

 

[QuantumPion]

speaking of which why do carriers come out with autocast off even though the fighters don't require resources to build?

 

[slightlyhuman]

welp, it didn't crash but 4 hours later after i've left it running it's 3/4 loading and says 'no problems detected'. perhaps it downloaded so now i'm going to run the sc2switcher.exe and hopefully it'll load. brb.

 

[slightlyhuman]

loads splash screen, mouse shows with the background and i actually heard music for about 1 second then crash:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: SC2.exe
Application Version: 0.10.0.14803
Application Timestamp: 4bbac8c7
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Fault Module Timestamp: 4a5bdb3b
Exception Code: c0000008
Exception Offset: 000826a7
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 9e4c
Additional Information 2: 9e4c1874866be300ba4eaaa3711ac556
Additional Information 3: 44df
Additional Information 4: 44dff281338da7c4463e64f512bb86a7

Read our privacy statement online:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=104288&clcid=0x0409

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt


this is ridiculous

 

[BD2003]

speaking of which why do carriers come out with autocast off even though the fighters don't require resources to build?

To make things more difficult I guess. Its apparently more fun that way.

 

[speg]

I really need better macro skills

I played a bunch of games last night and did great for the quick games but anytime a game takes a significant time I lose grip on everything and get kind of lazy.

for example I'd be pre-occupied doing some micromanagement of a battle and then I come back to base to find I have tons of resources to build my next wave but I got poor bandwidth for building units - only a few buildings to build them with.

Or if I had the buildings it would take so long to queue up units.

Any advice on this?

Group buildings to a hotkey so that you can queue them up during battles?

 

[eggrolls]

speaking of which why do carriers come out with autocast off even though the fighters don't require resources to build?

They cost 25 minerals each.

 

[Kev]

I'm playing the novice practice levels and still getting my ass handed to me.

I am terrible. Can't even get out of my base half the time

 

[PieIsAwesome]

So initially I tried carefully planning what units to build and use etc. and I kept dying.

So now I just spam, spam spam. Hordes of probes and 4-6 gateways, robotic bays, etc. Giant blob of death and now I am winning. :hmm:

 

[Dumac]

So initially I tried carefully planning what units to build and use etc. and I kept dying.

So now I just spam, spam spam. Hordes of probes and 4-6 gateways, robotic bays, etc. Giant blob of death and now I am winning. :hmm:

Yeah, numbers really matter, and numbers are based on speed and macro control. Of course, units are important in that some units counter others. Just pick a good team of units to build and spam away.

Anyone else playing Zerg loving the new queen? It's awesome. My favorite revamped unit.

 

[Dumac]

I'm playing the novice practice levels and still getting my ass handed to me.

I am terrible. Can't even get out of my base half the time

There is also a huge jump from the practice, novice level to your first placement matches. The novice levels play so slowly, that you will probably feel overwhelmed by the speed of the placement matches.

Plus, I feel that those boulders they put on the novice levels are more of a crutch than actual aid in helping players learn. It encourages to much turtling and not scouting.

 

[Xylitol]

looks like the starcraft 2 beta is ending on May 17th according to my Amazon e-mail (exactly 3 months after it was released - I believe that 3 months was the length Blizzard was aiming for).

 

[Pia]

I like all the changes as a casual player, but as someone who follows the proleagues daily I also wonder how it's going to affect the competitive scene. The reason Starcraft was able to hold popularity for over 10 years is because it's so difficult to play. Thousands of people pack into studios everyday to watch people who have mastered "quick clicking" because not everyone can do it. Starcraft has never been a game of strategy, anyone can learn the matchups and counters in a matter of days.

It has always been a game of strategy. The thing is it's not a game of strategy for low and mid level players. Only after your mechanics are solid will you be able to learn and use fine timings, deception, all the strategic level stuff. "Knowing" the matchups or theoretical counters doesn't do anyone any good.

And it's not like the mechanics are easy even now. You still need to multitask all over the map. As actual progamers get into SC2 we might be seeing more elaborate strategy than before because they aren't taxed with as many empty clicks anymore. Multi-pronged attacks, simultaneous two-drop harass at different locations, finer control. Viewers never were excited by the ability of someone to click on gatherers to mine, but the combat.

 

[lozina]

Anyone else playing Zerg loving the new queen? It's awesome. My favorite revamped unit.

I'm not. I dont like the queen, the new MULE thing nor the chrono boost.

These features add unnecessary micromanagement to the game.

Now I gotta constantly go back to my queen/command center/nexus to see if the energy is recharged so I can trigger these effects for next cycle. Might as well make it so a probe/scv/drone mines one batch of minerals, brings it back to base and then sits and waits for next order instead of automatically mining next batch of mineral. Wouldn't that be fun!

 

[slightlyhuman]

manually patched 1-10. sc2 loads now but when i type my email and hit connect it crashes. fuck this game. rigoddamndiculous.

 

[Dumac]

I'm not. I dont like the queen, the new MULE thing nor the chrono boost.

These features add unnecessary micromanagement to the game.

Now I gotta constantly go back to my queen/command center/nexus to see if the energy is recharged so I can trigger these effects for next cycle. Might as well make it so a probe/scv/drone mines one batch of minerals, brings it back to base and then sits and waits for next order instead of automatically mining next batch of mineral. Wouldn't that be fun!

Better having a Queen than not having it. It allows Zerg to pump out a crazy number of units at once. It's not like you are doing more micromanagement for the same performance.

Plus, everyone was already complaining about the streamlined asepcts of SC2.

 

[Pia]

I'm not. I dont like the queen, the new MULE thing nor the chrono boost.

These features add unnecessary micromanagement to the game.

Now I gotta constantly go back to my queen/command center/nexus to see if the energy is recharged so I can trigger these effects for next cycle. Might as well make it so a probe/scv/drone mines one batch of minerals, brings it back to base and then sits and waits for next order instead of automatically mining next batch of mineral. Wouldn't that be fun!

At least they don't just add unnecessary micromanagement. The MULE is a tradeoff between getting minerals and scouting or stealth detection. The chrono boost gives you the option of altering key timings - do you want lots of workers fast, warpgate tech fast, or a colossus fast? Even the queen gives you the option of getting a bunch of larvae in X seconds, getting creep tumors to scout and speed up movement, or even transfusion for some kind of defensive micro.

If they wanted to cut the extra micro they could allow MULE and spawn larvae to autocast, or allow chrono boost to be locked onto a building or bunch of buildings so it steadily feeds into the production any time those buildings are producing something. This would retain 100% of the strategic element involved. I think currently the chrono boost feels like the most generic and irritating of the three mechanics, followed by spawn larvae. MULE you can spam retroactively so it isn't as much of a problem.

 

[Pia]

Better having a Queen than not having it. It allows Zerg to pump out a crazy number of units at once. It's not like you are doing more micromanagement for the same performance.

He's right in that the micromanagement is tacked on. Queen could just as well produce the larvae without the micromanagement.

Plus, everyone was already complaining about the streamlined asepcts of SC2.

Not everyone. I for one am very happy about it. If before 5-10% of Starcraft players were good enough mechanically to be able to experience the strategy elements in the game, that number might turn out to be 10-20% for Starcraft 2.

 

[JTsyo]

So initially I tried carefully planning what units to build and use etc. and I kept dying.

So now I just spam, spam spam. Hordes of probes and 4-6 gateways, robotic bays, etc. Giant blob of death and now I am winning. :hmm:

Quantity has a quality all of its own.

Maybe it's just the lack of experience but I have trouble picking out the Zerg units, especially on creep. They all have that same color to them. I'm not a fan of the overall art work either, things just seem more bubbly than SC. Not sure what they were going for.

It's rare that I remember to use the extra abilities. Though when an expansion is complete, I usually remember to drop 2 MULEs while I wait for SCVs to be build. I don't see the queen's ability being too much of a difference in most games since the larvae spawn pretty quick. It probably eliminates the need for multiple hatcheries at your main though.
Not fully sure how crono works, it speeds up some buildings but you can't build probes?