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

[nanobreath]

as a zerg player, using your scouting drone to build an extractor is one of the better things to do in the beginning.
The reason is that a zerg player pays very little minerals (25) for an extractor, because he has to sacrify the drone. But the scouting drone is usually dead meat anyway. So for only 25min you can limit/disturb the enemy bo and as long as the extractor is alive you see a small part of his base.

doing the same as protoss or terran is more expensive, especially if it is done with 2 extractors.

Good point about the zerg. For some reason I usually look at things from terran/protoss perspective because that's what I've seen the most of. Even the full cost of drone+extractor is cheaper than terran/toss cost.

 

[HomerX]

Even the full cost of drone+extractor is cheaper than terran/toss cost.

exact because the terran/protoss has to pay 75 for the extractor and his lost "drone" also costs 50 totaling 125 minerals for the scouting+harassing. The zerg player only has to pay 75 minerals for the same thing.

As a protoss or terran against a zerg i would recommend to use the scouting drone to delay his second hatch.
A lot of zerg players expand to their natural realtively fast (at around 15) if you position your drone at the place were he wants to build his hatchery and attack his drone he is unable to build the hatch. He needs to bring a second drone in order to defeat your drone.
this way you can delay his expansion and he needs to use an additional drone which slows his eco more compared to an occupied geyser and it costs you less...

 

[Kev]

Thanks for the tips post, very helpful. Especially the one about having 3 SCV's to a control group.

About SCV's -- what is the ideal # of them per base?

 

[onza]

Thanks for the tips post, very helpful. Especially the one about having 3 SCV's to a control group.

About SCV's -- what is the ideal # of them per base?

8 mineral patches x 2 = 16 + 2gas x 3 = 6 = 24, but you want 24+8 when you expand so you can send them to the expansion so you can saturate your minerals quicker in the 2nd expo.

 

[coldmeat]

For some reason the Blizzard downloader stops downloading when I'm away from the computer. I left it on overnight and when I woke up it hardly downloaded anything. As soon as I moved the mouse it started going again. And when I opened the connection info window, there was a lot of connections listed that started disappearing. I just got home from work for lunch and it should have finished hours ago, but its still at the same point as when I left.

 

[RapidSnail]

Thanks for the tips post, very helpful. Especially the one about having 3 SCV's to a control group.

About SCV's -- what is the ideal # of them per base?

 

[Alienwho]

This harassing technique is usually very counter-productive. Sure you can slow down your opponents tech run, but it is very expensive. Like most harassing, it is most effective against opponents that have never seen it before and don't know how to counter it well. You will see very little of this in higher rating matches because of the very poor cost/reward ratio.

I have watched dozens of SC2 professional videos over the past week I haven't seen a video yet where they did not harass. These guys are always up in each others bases harassing after 2 minutes.

It seems pretty darn productive to me. While your workers are all mining at full capacity early game, your opponents workers are dropping dead or being forced off the mineral line to fight/flee from your attack. Just 30 seconds of this and you are well ahead economically already.

 

[Dumac]

I have watched dozens of SC2 professional videos over the past week I haven't seen a video yet where they did not harass. These guys are always up in each others bases harassing after 2 minutes.

It seems pretty darn productive to me. While your workers are all mining at full capacity early game, your opponents workers are dropping dead or being forced off the mineral line to fight/flee from your attack. Just 30 seconds of this and you are well ahead economically already.

He wasn't talking about harassing in general, but dropping assimilators on your opponents gas in the beginning of the game.

 

[evident]

question: I installed sc2 on my desktop and laptop pc. both w/ my account and key and stuff.
if my friend comes over, who has his own account and copy of sc2, can we play together on battle.net using both my desktop and laptop? or we do we have to install sc2 again, but using his serial key?

 

[Dumac]

question: I installed sc2 on my desktop and laptop pc. both w/ my account and key and stuff.
if my friend comes over, who has his own account and copy of sc2, can we play together on battle.net using both my desktop and laptop? or we do we have to install sc2 again, but using his serial key?

You guys can play together.

The install isn't tied to any one key or account, so anyone can log in on either your desktop or laptop.

 

[evident]

You guys can play together.

The install isn't tied to any one key or account, so anyone can log in on either your desktop or laptop.

nice.

 

[Alienwho]

He wasn't talking about harassing in general, but dropping assimilators on your opponents gas in the beginning of the game.

Gotcha. I noticed the conversation about assimilators and suspected he was probably talking about this after I already posted.

 

[nanobreath]

8 mineral patches x 2 = 16 + 2gas x 3 = 6 = 24, but you want 24+8 when you expand so you can send them to the expansion so you can saturate your minerals quicker in the 2nd expo.

Absolutely this. To maximize the resources gained you need 3 SCV's per mineral patch, but there are diminishing returns after 2 per. Anything over 3 and you're wasting minerals/supply. So the 8 extra you build to send to the expansion don't go wasted in the time they are still mining at the main.

 

[Magusigne]

Newb Question-

I'm at work so I can't access any real gaming sites for information. But I just bought the game last night- Does completing single player missions effect abilities in Multiplayer at all?

I.E unit unlocks or Research Points?

 

[evident]

here's a nub benchmarking question:
is there a way to get your FPS to display on screen while playing SC2?
how are people benchmarking this game?

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

ctrl-alt-F and then 9/11 > BP

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

does anyone have a guide to units, specifically what units are good counters to another unit.

also, light vs heavy vs armored, etc.

 

[nanobreath]

Newb Question-

I'm at work so I can't access any real gaming sites for information. But I just bought the game last night- Does completing single player missions effect abilities in Multiplayer at all?

I.E unit unlocks or Research Points?

No, doesn't effect multi at all. Only thing you can get doing single player that others will readily see are character portraits you unlock doing the achievements in single player.

does anyone have a guide to units, specifically what units are good counters to another unit.

also, light vs heavy vs armored, etc.

Best resource for counters is the in game help. Lists all units for every faction. Shows you all their abilities, attacks, and counters.

 

[Schfifty Five]

No, doesn't effect multi at all. Only thing you can get doing single player that others will readily see are character portraits you unlock doing the achievements in single player.



Best resource for counters is the in game help. Lists all units for every faction. Shows you all their abilities, attacks, and counters.

Is there a way to access that in-game unit guide without having to be in an actual mission/stage/match?

Like if I'm in the main b.net menu and I click help, it only shows me the tech trees for each race. Maybe I'm missing something obvious here.

 

[Schfifty Five]

Has anyone experienced any kind of lock-ups/freezes/crashes with SC2?

My system is for the most part, pretty stable. I have been running WoW, CSS, some other steam games, all w/o problems.

Now with SC2, my system has froze a couple times out of the countless hours I've played the game. It also happened in Beta a very few rare times. It rarely happens like I said: 2 times in beta (required hard reset), 1 time in official release (resulted in BSOD memory dump). I've noticed this happens more in SC2 compared to all other games I run on my system.

It very well could be my system but it also seems like SC2 itself is still a bit glitchy. Anyone else have something similar to this?

 

[Kev]

here's a nub benchmarking question:
is there a way to get your FPS to display on screen while playing SC2?
how are people benchmarking this game?

fraps

 

[SlitheryDee]

Has anyone experienced any kind of lock-ups/freezes/crashes with SC2?

My system is for the most part, pretty stable. I have been running WoW, CSS, some other steam games, all w/o problems.

Now with SC2, my system has froze a couple times out of the countless hours I've played the game. It also happened in Beta a very few rare times. It rarely happens like I said: 2 times in beta (required hard reset), 1 time in official release (resulted in BSOD memory dump). I've noticed this happens more in SC2 compared to all other games I run on my system.

It very well could be my system but it also seems like SC2 itself is still a bit glitchy. Anyone else have something similar to this?

It's actually been remarkably stable for me. Not single lock up or crash yet.

 

[bhanson]

here's a nub benchmarking question:
is there a way to get your FPS to display on screen while playing SC2?
how are people benchmarking this game?

ctrl-alt-F and then 9/11 > BP

fraps

Ctrl-Alt-F

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Has anyone experienced any kind of lock-ups/freezes/crashes with SC2?

My system is for the most part, pretty stable. I have been running WoW, CSS, some other steam games, all w/o problems.

Now with SC2, my system has froze a couple times out of the countless hours I've played the game. It also happened in Beta a very few rare times. It rarely happens like I said: 2 times in beta (required hard reset), 1 time in official release (resulted in BSOD memory dump). I've noticed this happens more in SC2 compared to all other games I run on my system.

It very well could be my system but it also seems like SC2 itself is still a bit glitchy. Anyone else have something similar to this?

do you get the error reporter?

 

[tydas]

I'm noticing more and more custom maps/ games, anyone recmend a good one yet?