The Escapist Presents: Starcraft 2 101: Tips & Tricks

Ravinak

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Wicky_42 said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
I won't be buying this game. After the World of Warcraft fiasco I wonder if Blizzard will find a way to make you pay for online gametime. It's just a better graphics version of Starcraft anyway, it's just for more money. It's heavily in favour of Blizzard's pockets, not you're enjoyment. Don't buy it.
What fiasco?
I wasted hours, days, weeks, and maybe even months playing that terrible, money sucking game. I even defended it. But I was wrong, a sucker to corporate before humanitarian considerations. I call it a fiasco.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html
So what does that say about those of us who weren't stupid enough to fall for the evil corporation's nefarious enjoyment-giving mechanisms? If you get addicted, it's your own fault. Any addiction.

Also, nice trolling, well played. :)
Congratulations on snide insinuations about "trolling;" something which is born on the internet, which is generally a waste of time. And I never said it wasn't my fault I got addicted. I thought I was playing a game, when in reality it was just a ploy to keep you giving them money.
Welcome to capitalism: Getting people to pay for stuff and if you're lucky, getting people to continue to pay for stuff. It's like candy companies and their ploy to get people to buy their confections by making them delicious. Or Book publishing companies that conspire to make good products so that suckers are parted from their money.

And the only reason i brought up trolling is because i felt that you had to be joking. No one is that dim. But i guess i was wrong.

Anyways, 4-gate or 3-gate/robo push? Which would work better?
I'm well aware of capitalism, but I didn't think I needed to put that in because I didn't think anyone would be dim enough to think I wasn't aware of what it is. Apparently I was. I don't think you're joking, I think you're an arrogant prick who is finding reasons to defend a company has spent the past half decade making money off of false pretenses of a sequel to one of it's good game's, Warcraft. It's nothing but a money printing grind-fest, and yet people continue to rave about their games when this is why they took our money without giving us anything in return in the first place. Blizzard is only in it for the money, and they're lazy. They're riding on the success of people who have probably now left the company. I'm disgusted with them, but by all means equate that to me not being aware of capitalism.
Wow, just Wow. There a lot crazy to dig through here. False pretenses? You didn't know that MMOs generally have a recurring charge? Or that they are designed not to have a definite end? This isn't a new concept. Been around since at least UO and probably earlier.

I might be an arrogant prick, but ask yourself this: What video game has ever given anything to anyone besides hours of entertainment? Just like your cable television, or your internet subscription, you are paying for access to content.

Maybe you just don't like MMOs. That's fine. I don't play them either. But calling it a fiasco because blizzard delivered exactly what its vast audience wanted says a lot about your state of mind. I think you're a very angry and frustrated person, and I'm sorry you wasted your time and money on an activity that provided you absolutely no enjoyment. Maybe you should take up knitting. After you've grinded several levels of yarn, you get a sweater. That's way better than a mount or virtual pet.
Of course I knew MMO's have a recurring charge, I just thought it was to support the great game you're playing rather to support the Blizzard Massively High Pressure Money Tap Fund. And now that they almost drowned in their own hundreds, they want to make a sequel to one of the greatest RTS's ever. Why? To build a golden diving board for their pool of money. When Other game companies make games, they do it for the passion, the love of making a game everyone will enjoy, and yes to live well-off as well. When Blizzard makes a game, it's to be filthy rich. Yet everyone heaps praise on them as though they are actually one of the former, and it makes me angry and frusterated theat people are just lemmings jumping off a cliff into a pool of their own money, that they can't have. And I'm very aware that no one is forcing anyone to buy it, please don't bring that up again.
You're right. Since Blizzard was successful with WoW and made a ton of money, they should never ever make another game again. I agree with this so much that we should apply the 'Lonan Principle of Continued Success' to other fields. Apple should have stopped making computers after the IIe. Clearly the Macintosh and the IPOD are just naked cash grabs (or diving boards if you will). Steven Spielberg should have never directed another film after creating Jaws. He was already rich. He obviously only made Raiders, ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan because he wanted more money.

Heck, even Bioware made a ton of money on KOTOR and Mass Effect. That should have satisfied them. But they had to go and make a continuation of one of the greatest RPGs ever and make it an MMO to boot. Applying the Lonan principle shows us that they are just treading on KOTOR's good name. Using it to sucker players into a vast money-making scheme. Because if Blizzard can't make another game without betraying their greedy mindset, why can Bioware?
My issue is not their success, but the means to the end, I don't think the end justifies the means unconditionally. Being successful is never a bad thing, it's a great thing, and you should ride on the success of you're previous success to become even greater. But Blizzard's "success" was not in making a great game, but in hyping up a sequel to the great games that were Warcraft so they could convince you to give them you're money in exchange for a bad game, and take away you're life as well in compensation. And yet everyone is head over heels for their next game, which is incredibly lacking in innovation, and it's only merit is that Starcraft was good. Starcraft II is just a hyped up version of the DOW franchise, and I personally think is inferior to them. It's just the same thing with shiny new graphics but no one made this fuss for Chaos Rising, just for Starcraft because Blizzard knows how to get people addicted. They are the same thing, a sci-fi RTS with good graphics.
Ok, yeah, this guy is DEFINITELY a troll. No-one's actually this foolish. Let's stop feeding him now, shall we?
Haha yeah, just leave him in his little hate bubble and move on =]
 

Waddles

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Good stuff gents although I disagree with the 4 workers on a geyser.
Would love to see more 2v2s from you guys!
 

DeSpiner

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In the video, only one is mentioned, but each of the races has an economic micromanagement mechanic:

- Zerg Queen's Spawn larva ability
4 extra larvae with each injection, if you remember to use this ability constantly, you won't need a second hatchery in your base;
when you expand, always remember to add a Queen to that hatchery;
- Protoss Nexus chrono-boosting
use it on the Nexus to pump out many probes fast;
use it on tech buildings to research upgrades fast;
use it on production buildings to train units fast;
- Terran MULE
in every respect, just like an SCV (you can even use it to repair units/buildings), except that it brings 30 blue minerals instead of 5 at every trip;


I also disagree with using 4 workers on gas.
The alleged mine increase is not worth tying up two workers. If you find yourself starved for gas mid-game, then you need to expand earlier.
 

Belano

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Nice video. I would like to point out though, like many others have, that putting 4 workers on gas is not beneficial at all compared to 3 workers. This has been throughly tested. See http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=121686 for more in-depth information on how gas mining works in SC2.

Quote from the article: "The rate gas collection from 3(1) and 4(1) are identical. 3 miners saturates 1 geyser completely for all intents and purposes. In Brood War the rate of gas collection of 4 vs 3 was approximately 4 more gas for every 200, so the difference between 3(1) and 4(1) has not significantly changed between Brood War and SC2."
 

Etek

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Slycne said:
Sir Bob said:
4 workers on a gas is a nono as far as i'm concerned, 3 is the most effective.
As you can see in your movie, you always have 1 probe standing and waiting outside of the geyser.
Yes, but that one probe still gets in faster and you usually want to get as much Vespane as you can quickly for all your higher tech. I'll try to go find the math on it.
No probe will get in faster, 3 is what you need. just look at them, while one is inside gathering, there's a second one waiting and a third one delivering which gets back almost immediately after the second worker gets inside to harvest. Any more drones and you'll have more drones waiting outside because ONLY ONE can harvest gas at any given time.

And by the way, you give out tips and tricks when we can clearly see from the video that your resources get well over 2000 minerals and gas? Give me a break.
 

Sir Bob

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DeSpiner said:
- Zerg Queen's Spawn larva ability
4 extra larvae with each injection, if you remember to use this ability constantly, you won't need a second hatchery in your base;
when you expand, always remember to add a Queen to that hatchery;
Fun fact: The spawn larva ability costs 25 energy, and it also takes 25 seconds for the extra larvae to 'hatch'. Energy regeneration per second is 1. See what they did there?
 

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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DeSpiner said:
In the video, only one is mentioned, but each of the races has an economic micromanagement mechanic:

- Zerg Queen's Spawn larva ability
4 extra larvae with each injection, if you remember to use this ability constantly, you won't need a second hatchery in your base;
when you expand, always remember to add a Queen to that hatchery;
- Protoss Nexus chrono-boosting
use it on the Nexus to pump out many probes fast;
use it on tech buildings to research upgrades fast;
use it on production buildings to train units fast;
- Terran MULE
in every respect, just like an SCV (you can even use it to repair units/buildings), except that it brings 30 blue minerals instead of 5 at every trip;


I also disagree with using 4 workers on gas.
The alleged mine increase is not worth tying up two workers. If you find yourself starved for gas mid-game, then you need to expand earlier.
I use Spawn Larva every chance I get, but having two hatcheries in your base with two queens means that you can get even MORE units :) It's a strat that's worked well for me so far.
 

DeSpiner

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It's true that casting 'spawn larva' every 25 seconds can get pretty tedious, especially if you're trying to micro your army at the same time, but I'd rather put the second hatchery in the natural ( if I were playing Zerg, that is ;) ). Having plenty of larvae means nothing if you don't have the resources to morph them.

So far, I found that the only race that can play one-base successfully is Protoss.
 

AllLagNoFrag

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Wow, this video and all the comments just made me realise how rusty I am. Its been wayyyy too long since I touched any bit of Starcraft and all my steam friends have been playing the Beta while I chilled in the pool of fps games...
 

TheCakeisALie87

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I played Starcraft back in the day, but my biggest problem was microing multiple types of units in battle or managing my resources/buildings while attacking someone's base. I've watched the battle reports and even your in house games, and I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping both the base and the attack going at once.
 

Belano

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TheCakeisALie87 said:
I played Starcraft back in the day, but my biggest problem was microing multiple types of units in battle or managing my resources/buildings while attacking someone's base. I've watched the battle reports and even your in house games, and I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping both the base and the attack going at once.
We'll, the most important thing is to keep producing units while fighting. Do that by hotkeying all your productions facilities and try do produce units just before the battle starts. Also, remember that the best time to expand is when you are attacking.
 

DeSpiner

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TheCakeisALie87 said:
I played Starcraft back in the day, but my biggest problem was microing multiple types of units in battle or managing my resources/buildings while attacking someone's base. I've watched the battle reports and even your in house games, and I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping both the base and the attack going at once.
One word: hotkeys!

With automining and multiple building selection (MBS) it's much easier to macro in Starcraft 2 compared to Brood War.

You can select all you production buildings and put them under a Ctrl group, just like you would do with the units. In the middle of battle you can select this group, and use the hotkeys for the different units. The game will spread the unit production between the buildings in the group. For instance: you're Terran and you have 4 barracks. You select all 4, and put them under Ctrl+1. Then all you have to do is press 1, then press 'A' 4 times and all 4 barracks will each be training one marine. If you keep pressing 'A', the marines will be added to the queues of each barracks in turn. All this without moving your view from the battlefield.

This works with all production buildings, for all races. You can even put different types of buildings in the same group and use TAB to cycle through the different types.
 

That One Six

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I know this was just a basic tutorial, but I kind of wish you had mentioned the Protoss Immortals in there somewhere. Those guys coupled with some Stalkers have destroyed my friends, for the most part. But, then again, we were all just goofing around when this happened...
 

Sir Bob

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That One Six said:
I know this was just a basic tutorial, but I kind of wish you had mentioned the Protoss Immortals in there somewhere. Those guys coupled with some Stalkers have destroyed my friends, for the most part. But, then again, we were all just goofing around when this happened...
Immortals are insanely good, but only against certain unit types.. Anything that does not trigger their hardened shields rips through them, so you can pretty much see your million dollar unit handed back to you by marines, zerglings and the lot. Also, they do not hit air.

I looove seeing my 3-3-3 immortals pretty much oneshot a zerg that masses hydras <3
 

That One Six

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Sir Bob said:
That One Six said:
I know this was just a basic tutorial, but I kind of wish you had mentioned the Protoss Immortals in there somewhere. Those guys coupled with some Stalkers have destroyed my friends, for the most part. But, then again, we were all just goofing around when this happened...
Immortals are insanely good, but only against certain unit types.. Anything that does not trigger their hardened shields rips through them, so you can pretty much see your million dollar unit handed back to you by marines, zerglings and the lot. Also, they do not hit air.

I looove seeing my 3-3-3 immortals pretty much oneshot a zerg that masses hydras <3
Yep. Zerglings eat Immortals, so I try to back the Immortals up w/ Archons. Did you know that un-upgraded Archons one-hit un-upgraded Zerglings? And with splash damage.... It's amazing.
 

lomylithruldor

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Sir Bob said:
That One Six said:
I know this was just a basic tutorial, but I kind of wish you had mentioned the Protoss Immortals in there somewhere. Those guys coupled with some Stalkers have destroyed my friends, for the most part. But, then again, we were all just goofing around when this happened...
Immortals are insanely good, but only against certain unit types.. Anything that does not trigger their hardened shields rips through them, so you can pretty much see your million dollar unit handed back to you by marines, zerglings and the lot. Also, they do not hit air.

I looove seeing my 3-3-3 immortals pretty much oneshot a zerg that masses hydras <3
Immortals aren't that good against Hydras. They do 20 (+30 against armored) dmg (4 shots to kill an hydra), so they do 40% of their potential dmg to light units like hydras. Also Hydras do 12 dmg so the hardened shield only takes away 2 dmg per shot and hydras shoot very fast.

Edit: You're better off with colossi with upgraded thermal lances to deal with mass hydras since they do 15 x2 to a couple of hydras per shot.

Maybe you meant roaches? Immortals eat roaches for breakfast. They 3-shot them and the roaches do more dmg per shot (so the hardened shield is more useful) and they shoot really slowly compared to hydras.
 

Sir Bob

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lomylithruldor said:
Sir Bob said:
That One Six said:
I know this was just a basic tutorial, but I kind of wish you had mentioned the Protoss Immortals in there somewhere. Those guys coupled with some Stalkers have destroyed my friends, for the most part. But, then again, we were all just goofing around when this happened...
Immortals are insanely good, but only against certain unit types.. Anything that does not trigger their hardened shields rips through them, so you can pretty much see your million dollar unit handed back to you by marines, zerglings and the lot. Also, they do not hit air.

I looove seeing my 3-3-3 immortals pretty much oneshot a zerg that masses hydras <3
Immortals aren't that good against Hydras. They do 20 (+30 against armored) dmg (4 shots to kill an hydra), so they do 40% of their potential dmg to light units like hydras. Also Hydras do 12 dmg so the hardened shield only takes away 2 dmg per shot and hydras shoot very fast.

Edit: You're better off with colossi with upgraded thermal lances to deal with mass hydras since they do 15 x2 to a couple of hydras per shot.

Maybe you meant roaches? Immortals eat roaches for breakfast. They 3-shot them and the roaches do more dmg per shot (so the hardened shield is more useful) and they shoot really slowly compared to hydras.
No, because I am a nab, I ment hydras ^^ But I can see your logic (and my mistake)
 

Lonan

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Wicky_42 said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
Ne1butme said:
Lonan said:
I won't be buying this game. After the World of Warcraft fiasco I wonder if Blizzard will find a way to make you pay for online gametime. It's just a better graphics version of Starcraft anyway, it's just for more money. It's heavily in favour of Blizzard's pockets, not you're enjoyment. Don't buy it.
What fiasco?
I wasted hours, days, weeks, and maybe even months playing that terrible, money sucking game. I even defended it. But I was wrong, a sucker to corporate before humanitarian considerations. I call it a fiasco.
http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html
So what does that say about those of us who weren't stupid enough to fall for the evil corporation's nefarious enjoyment-giving mechanisms? If you get addicted, it's your own fault. Any addiction.

Also, nice trolling, well played. :)
Congratulations on snide insinuations about "trolling;" something which is born on the internet, which is generally a waste of time. And I never said it wasn't my fault I got addicted. I thought I was playing a game, when in reality it was just a ploy to keep you giving them money.
Welcome to capitalism: Getting people to pay for stuff and if you're lucky, getting people to continue to pay for stuff. It's like candy companies and their ploy to get people to buy their confections by making them delicious. Or Book publishing companies that conspire to make good products so that suckers are parted from their money.

And the only reason i brought up trolling is because i felt that you had to be joking. No one is that dim. But i guess i was wrong.

Anyways, 4-gate or 3-gate/robo push? Which would work better?
I'm well aware of capitalism, but I didn't think I needed to put that in because I didn't think anyone would be dim enough to think I wasn't aware of what it is. Apparently I was. I don't think you're joking, I think you're an arrogant prick who is finding reasons to defend a company has spent the past half decade making money off of false pretenses of a sequel to one of it's good game's, Warcraft. It's nothing but a money printing grind-fest, and yet people continue to rave about their games when this is why they took our money without giving us anything in return in the first place. Blizzard is only in it for the money, and they're lazy. They're riding on the success of people who have probably now left the company. I'm disgusted with them, but by all means equate that to me not being aware of capitalism.
Wow, just Wow. There a lot crazy to dig through here. False pretenses? You didn't know that MMOs generally have a recurring charge? Or that they are designed not to have a definite end? This isn't a new concept. Been around since at least UO and probably earlier.

I might be an arrogant prick, but ask yourself this: What video game has ever given anything to anyone besides hours of entertainment? Just like your cable television, or your internet subscription, you are paying for access to content.

Maybe you just don't like MMOs. That's fine. I don't play them either. But calling it a fiasco because blizzard delivered exactly what its vast audience wanted says a lot about your state of mind. I think you're a very angry and frustrated person, and I'm sorry you wasted your time and money on an activity that provided you absolutely no enjoyment. Maybe you should take up knitting. After you've grinded several levels of yarn, you get a sweater. That's way better than a mount or virtual pet.
Of course I knew MMO's have a recurring charge, I just thought it was to support the great game you're playing rather to support the Blizzard Massively High Pressure Money Tap Fund. And now that they almost drowned in their own hundreds, they want to make a sequel to one of the greatest RTS's ever. Why? To build a golden diving board for their pool of money. When Other game companies make games, they do it for the passion, the love of making a game everyone will enjoy, and yes to live well-off as well. When Blizzard makes a game, it's to be filthy rich. Yet everyone heaps praise on them as though they are actually one of the former, and it makes me angry and frusterated theat people are just lemmings jumping off a cliff into a pool of their own money, that they can't have. And I'm very aware that no one is forcing anyone to buy it, please don't bring that up again.
You're right. Since Blizzard was successful with WoW and made a ton of money, they should never ever make another game again. I agree with this so much that we should apply the 'Lonan Principle of Continued Success' to other fields. Apple should have stopped making computers after the IIe. Clearly the Macintosh and the IPOD are just naked cash grabs (or diving boards if you will). Steven Spielberg should have never directed another film after creating Jaws. He was already rich. He obviously only made Raiders, ET, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and Saving Private Ryan because he wanted more money.

Heck, even Bioware made a ton of money on KOTOR and Mass Effect. That should have satisfied them. But they had to go and make a continuation of one of the greatest RPGs ever and make it an MMO to boot. Applying the Lonan principle shows us that they are just treading on KOTOR's good name. Using it to sucker players into a vast money-making scheme. Because if Blizzard can't make another game without betraying their greedy mindset, why can Bioware?
My issue is not their success, but the means to the end, I don't think the end justifies the means unconditionally. Being successful is never a bad thing, it's a great thing, and you should ride on the success of you're previous success to become even greater. But Blizzard's "success" was not in making a great game, but in hyping up a sequel to the great games that were Warcraft so they could convince you to give them you're money in exchange for a bad game, and take away you're life as well in compensation. And yet everyone is head over heels for their next game, which is incredibly lacking in innovation, and it's only merit is that Starcraft was good. Starcraft II is just a hyped up version of the DOW franchise, and I personally think is inferior to them. It's just the same thing with shiny new graphics but no one made this fuss for Chaos Rising, just for Starcraft because Blizzard knows how to get people addicted. They are the same thing, a sci-fi RTS with good graphics.
Ok, yeah, this guy is DEFINITELY a troll. No-one's actually this foolish. Let's stop feeding him now, shall we?
You're utterly failing to address my points, you are simply inventing words like troll to describe those who disagree with you're opinion.