Starcraft 2 - Read Post #2 for a useful beginner guide

[bhanson]

I just played a random 3v3 where my teammates obviously had no idea what they were doing. It literally looked like they were playing their first game.

One was a Protoss that didn't know what warpgates were. He was still chronoboosting stalkers 15 minutes into the game.

The other only made voidrays and kept suiciding them into marine balls.

I checked on the profile of the first one and he's played 220 games of 3v3 and is still in Bronze.

Proof

Update: 461 games and still in Bronze

 

[Barfo]

Update: 461 games and still in Bronze

8 year old kid or something, I hope.

 

[Glitchny]

Update: 461 games and still in Bronze

Ugh, there is a player with 6000 games played 3k wins, in bronze. he probe rushed every single game just to cheese for the Dark Voice portrait. Sad really.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Long story short: This game is way more intense.

 

[Glitchny]

Long story short: This game is way more intense.

is there some context for this? Or just more intense as opposed to games in general?

I agree though it does get pretty intense.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

Way more intense than SC1. There wasn't any big need for build orders and it didn't seem like it was a science to play. When I play with my older brother online it's almost like everyone is dead set on a certain rush type or two-way attack. Units attack with different damage against different types of units. Way more confusing.

SC1 was mass one unit type and be done. Rinse & repeat with a different unit. At least it was in all Bnet games I played.

Heck, if I could select more than 12 units at a time in SC1 I might not have got SC2.

 

[Aikouka]

SC1 was mass one unit type and be done. Rinse & repeat with a different unit. At least it was in all Bnet games I played.

Heck, if I could select more than 12 units at a time in SC1 I might not have got SC2.

Have you played many games in SC2? All people do is mass one unit maybe with a support unit or two.

 

[Glitchny]

Have you played many games in SC2? All people do is mass one unit maybe with a support unit or two.

maybe in team games. 1v1 there is a ton of diversity.

 

[Dumac]

Have you played many games in SC2? All people do is mass one unit maybe with a support unit or two.

I have to say this is completely false, except for maybe in the lower leagues.

 

[Aikouka]

Umm I've watched QUITE a few high-level games and all you see is a MASS of units of maybe 1-2 types. Sure, no one really maxes one unit unless there's a good reason (like massing marines when you're low on gas).

EDIT:

When I say a lot of high level games, I'm also referring to mostly 1v1 since that's almost all you find on the web as far as commentary. Like a ZvZ battle earlier... it was almost all Hydra+Roach. Sure, they may've brought in a few diverse units near the end (corruptors, brood lords).

 

[Glitchny]

Umm I've watched QUITE a few high-level games and all you see is a MASS of units of maybe 1-2 types. Sure, no one really maxes one unit unless there's a good reason (like massing marines when you're low on gas).

EDIT:

When I say a lot of high level games, I'm also referring to mostly 1v1 since that's almost all you find on the web as far as commentary. Like a ZvZ battle earlier... it was almost all Hydra+Roach. Sure, they may've brought in a few diverse units near the end (corruptors, brood lords).

Watch better replays. Watch some of psyStarcraft's stuff, he just played a game where he used every single zerg unit except banelings.

Also most high level games I've seen with pvt end up with tanks/marines/medivac/marauders/vikings/ghosts/banshees vs zealots/templar/stalker/pheonix/VR/immortals/collosi armies. which is really not massing 1 or 2 units.

ZvP

or

ZvT

the T attacks with Hellions/Marines/Thors/Banshees and a marauder there at the end, in an 11min game. Pretty diverse army.

 

[Dumac]

Umm I've watched QUITE a few high-level games and all you see is a MASS of units of maybe 1-2 types. Sure, no one really maxes one unit unless there's a good reason (like massing marines when you're low on gas).

EDIT:

When I say a lot of high level games, I'm also referring to mostly 1v1 since that's almost all you find on the web as far as commentary. Like a ZvZ battle earlier... it was almost all Hydra+Roach. Sure, they may've brought in a few diverse units near the end (corruptors, brood lords).

Just watch a live match on GomTV from the tournament.

I saw zealots/stalker/sentry/immortal/colossus mixup with observers for intel in a 10 minute match.

Almost all pro matches are like this that i've seen. Even zerg usually starts lings then makes a backbone of roach/hydra while still using lings to poke, mutas to harass, and specialty units like infestors. Zerg has more economy units that you have to consider to, like queens and overlords and powerdroning. Zerg doesn't have as many combative units.

 

[Glitchny]

Just watch a live match on GomTV from the tournament.

I saw zealots/stalker/sentry/immortal/colossus mixup with observers for intel in a 10 minute match.

Almost all pro matches are like this that i've seen. Even zerg usually starts lings then makes a backbone of roach/hydra while still using lings to poke, mutas to harass, and specialty units like infestors. Zerg has more economy units that you have to consider to, like queens and overlords and powerdroning. Zerg doesn't have as many combative units.

yea I'm watching it now and damn that early BC attack with marines/medivacs as support is pretty damn powerful.

 

[Aikouka]

Watch better replays.

The ZvZ I was talkin' about was Idra vs Sen... I don't think many people would say that is a bad match to watch.

But you also say to watch Day9, who actually said not to try to create those "cute" armies full of diversity since you end up spending all that time teching them up to proper usefulness rather than getting easier, but still effective units. What am I supposed to do then?

Almost all pro matches are like this that i've seen. Even zerg usually starts lings then makes a backbone of roach/hydra while still using lings to poke, mutas to harass, and specialty units like infestors. Zerg has more economy units that you have to consider to, like queens and overlords and powerdroning. Zerg doesn't have as many combative units.

But what I'm seeing you say is that the majority of their army is still Roach/Hydra. I'm simply stating that in the end, you typically still spam one or two units with a bit of extra added flavor in there. Units can complement each other (like MM) and it's no wonder they make up the majority of the fighting force.

Sometimes, it's simply in your best interest to spam a single unit. Like in a 2v2 yesterday, the opponent was rather good at squelching our expansions (although, I think it was more luck ) and I never had a lot of vespene after I gave 1500 to my friend. I spotted the protoss making void rays (yay, another VR spammer). So since I had plenty of minerals and not a lot of vespene... what did I do? I spammed the hell out of Marines. While they were useless against the Terran's tanks, they fortified my friend's Ultralisks by annihilating the air units while said Ultralisks tore through the base. I could've used vikings, but I doubt I could've built enough to be as effective. The only other unit I probably should've tried to build up more were medivacs to help ferry the marines around (I did have a few).

EDIT:

Hmm I'd watch those GomTV matches (although they're not live at the moment), but apparently you have to pay to watch their video on demand portion .

 

[Barfo]

Well the Lost Viking game is much more enjoyable with a gamepad. Got silver on my second try

 

[Aikouka]

Well the Lost Viking game is much more enjoyable with a gamepad. Got silver on my second try

Makes me want to hook up my wireless adapter and try it with a 360 controller. I tried it with the keyboard and didn't do so hot :|.

 

[Barfo]

Makes me want to hook up my wireless adapter and try it with a 360 controller. I tried it with the keyboard and didn't do so hot :|.

I used to play a lot of shooters in the 90s. It just doesn't feel right with the keyboard.

 

[Aikouka]

Hmm it appears those comments about having to pay for VoD are wrong... you just need to register. So, right now I'm checkin' out a Protoss vs Zerg with Kyoung Lak Park vs Gyeong Su Kim.

http://www.gomtv.net/2010gslopens1/vod/1019

 

[gonzaga1751]

You can watch the first match of the vods but to watch the entire series of matches you got to pay

 

[Ika]

Well the Lost Viking game is much more enjoyable with a gamepad. Got silver on my second try

isn't it hard as hell to mash the attack button on a gamepad? I set a macro to my keyboard to spam like 10 spacebar hits, which made the game much easier, and much less painful to play. I just missed the gold achievement, though

 

[Ulchieman]

You can watch the first match of the vods but to watch the entire series of matches you got to pay

No you don't. Look in the comments below the videos on the site. There are people posting the javascript code to throw into your browsers address bar to view the 2nd and 3rd (if applicable) games of each series. Your welcome!

 

[Dumac]

But what I'm seeing you say is that the majority of their army is still Roach/Hydra. I'm simply stating that in the end, you typically still spam one or two units with a bit of extra added flavor in there. Units can complement each other (like MM) and it's no wonder they make up the majority of the fighting force.

Well, yeah. Roach and hydras are the backbone of the zerg army. They are the only real fighting units they have. I mean, your army has to be a major composition of a fighting unit. If you have as many infestors as you do roaches and hydras, what are those infestors going to do? Infestors are meant to be in small numbers, using their spells/abilities for max effectiveness.

However, its more than just spamming two units. If you JUST spam roaches/hydras, then you will easily lose. You have to add those extra "cutesy" units to round out your army. Therefore, I think "spam" is the wrong word, but that's just me. Not to mention with zerg, you have to always be considering the option of power droning instead of making actual units.

Sometimes, it's simply in your best interest to spam a single unit. Like in a 2v2 yesterday, the opponent was rather good at squelching our expansions (although, I think it was more luck ) and I never had a lot of vespene after I gave 1500 to my friend. I spotted the protoss making void rays (yay, another VR spammer). So since I had plenty of minerals and not a lot of vespene... what did I do? I spammed the hell out of Marines. While they were useless against the Terran's tanks, they fortified my friend's Ultralisks by annihilating the air units while said Ultralisks tore through the base. I could've used vikings, but I doubt I could've built enough to be as effective. The only other unit I probably should've tried to build up more were medivacs to help ferry the marines around (I did have a few).

2v2 is a lot more conductive for spamming a single unit, as your ally's army can help round yours out. When I am talking about gameplay styles, I am almost exclusively talking about 1v1, as 2v2 is a whole other game.

 

[bhanson]

StarCraft II is $40 at K-Mart right now.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

I don't suppose anyone's found a way to keybind in the retail game yet?

Decided I'd work on micro a bit, bind game speed+/- so I could practice without playing the whole game on super slow, and discovered.....you can't bind keys. They give you a couple of profiles, and you can only choose from them. Game Speed + and - are in the list, but not bound in any profile.

 

[Schfifty Five]

I don't suppose anyone's found a way to keybind in the retail game yet?

Decided I'd work on micro a bit, bind game speed+/- so I could practice without playing the whole game on super slow, and discovered.....you can't bind keys. They give you a couple of profiles, and you can only choose from them. Game Speed + and - are in the list, but not bound in any profile.

It's really not too hard to memorize the hotkeys that are built in. Just play random and you will learn all the hotkeys in no time.