L19 Starcraft II Players

[daniel_the_smith]

You guys are making me want to try this game even though I have no time.

I suppose you need a windows box?

[topazg]

You guys are making me want to try this game even though I have no time.

I suppose you need a windows box?

Don't do it!! The resistance needs you! Without role-models, how are the sheep like me going to keep up my resistance based on "other people don't feel the need to play it, so I don't have time and shouldn't start"?

[flOvermind]

You guys are making me want to try this game even though I have no time.

I suppose you need a windows box?

It's working just fine for me using Linux and Wine. I haven't noticed a problem yet...

Ok, it only runs smoothly on the lowest settings, but that's most likely because my laptop is under the minimum specs, so I guess I should be grateful it's running at all

[schilds]

I think APM matters less than concentration. I find that I just don't notice that I've built up that 1000 minerals, and it only takes a momentary lapse (or distraction, such as a skirmish) for that to happen. If I do notice (even in the middle of a skirmish), it's usually not hard to find a moment to quickly spend some of it, usually through hotkeys (so you don't need to look away from the current fight) or if I havn't kept up with my buildings (for supply/production), even to skip away from the battle to build a building or two.

I would say build orders/timing are more like joseki. Tsumego exercises your reading/visualisation, and I think for something similar in Starcraft, starting with build orders/timing is a bit like substituting learning joseki for learning to read.

If we're talking about practicing basic starcraft skills (which reading isn't :p, nor strategy/tactics, etc, even though it's a strategy game, I think the real time part makes it hard to get to the point where you even apply any of those things), then that's what I would consider all the stuff people always talk about - micro, macro, apm, build orders, timing, counters, scouting, etc, and I personally am still mostly stuck trying to get those right .

I think to start with you need to be able to keep aware of each piece of changing information given to you by the interface - the minimap, resources, number of workers, zerg larva (by queen production and number available), units in production, health of units, etc. Some of which involve actively selecting them (usually through hotkeys). Program yourself to repeatedly check all these things :p. Then, as people have said, force yourself to constantly build workers and spend all your resources (and if your mineral/gas are maxed out, expand and don't stop building workers), it doesn't matter what, just build a bit of everything until you feel you're ready to go beyond attack-move. I think all of this really comes down to exercising your ability to concentrate on/with the activities you should always be performing in the game.

[fwiffo]

I guess my attention is divided so many ways that I just don't know what I need to be doing next with my money. "Do I need to make probes? Should I chrono boost something? How's my food? Are all my unit production buildings working? Do I need more unit production buildings? What's my opponent doing? Do I need more tech buildings? What tech building do I need? Should I expand? Should I move out? Crap, here come those reapers again..." And by the time I've gone though my list and dealt with the next crisis, I'm up to 1500 minerals and something new is on fire. Although I suppose if I don't know what to spend my money on, I ought to be smashing my army up against something to give me a reason to spend.

[Jedo]

I see that I'm listed as bronze for 2v2s... It's not my fault I protest!

In my defense, at the end of the beta I was mid Gold... thats ok right

[schilds]

I guess my attention is divided so many ways that I just don't know what I need to be doing next with my money. "Do I need to make probes? Should I chrono boost something? How's my food? ...

There's too much to learn/handle all at once, so just pick one thing at a time to add to your repertoire. I didn't chrono boost or use mules for a while, nor did I use sentries (which I find are impossible to get by without now), banelings, defilers, well, pretty much anything :p. I just built at least one of every building, never stopped producing workers, expanded when my main was saturated with workers (and thus had reason to keep on going producing more workers) and mostly massed one or two kinds of units and ignored everything else ... well, that's what I tried to do and often still failed at :p.

It's like in go, where there's no point trying to be clever and subtle with things like aji and tesuji and whatnot when you can't even determine where the big moves are.

I ought to be smashing my army up against something

I find there's nothing worse than sitting in my base wondering what's going on in the rest of the map. Even if there's no other reason, it's good to find out what they have by forcing them to respond to what you have. One way of keeping the game more predictable is to keep forcing your opponent into fights. They can't easily sit back and tech to some unit you weren't expecting and surprise you with it, and if they do surprise you with something, then it was in a fight near their base, and you have some time to try and get a counter out by the time they get to your base. Also, if you're able to choose where the fights occur, all those expansions you snuck in out of the path between your main and theirs won't have to be defended :p.

[edit]
Oooh: http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/44438
[/edit]

[MountainGo]

There's too much to learn/handle all at once, so just pick one thing at a time to add to your repertoire. I didn't chrono boost or use mules for a while, nor did I use sentries (which I find are impossible to get by without now), banelings, defilers, well, pretty much anything :p.

I agree with this advice. Just get basic units that are generally useful in all situations. For Terran, it's marine/marauder. For Protoss, it's zealot/stalker. For Zerg, it's zergling/roach/muta most likely. Do the same build every single game. Then it really just comes down to practice. As it becomes quicker and easier, you can start adding in new things to think about, one by one.

EDIT: Fwiffo, I just checked your profile, and it says you've only played 12 league games! No wonder you're overwhelmed! Would you expect great things from someone who had played 12 games of go in their life? You just need to practice, that's all.

[edit]
Oooh: http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/44438
[/edit]

Awesome! PM me some time and we'll play.

[schilds]

Found the original article on it: http://sea.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/23067#blog

Once they implement it (they're aiming for 'within 60 days of launch'), I'll have to see what my latency to the US is like. Should be fine for casual games, regardless.

It'll be interesting to see how my rank compares between here and there.

[Peter Hansmeier]

I finally bought the game today. The bronze league has no idea what is coming.

NORTH AMERICA
tartuffe.858

[schultz]

I'm currently on a friends guest pass. I might eventually get the game, but got so much other stuff going on right now might be a while.

For the next 24 hours, I guess you could find me as Schultz id: 325.

[Tooveli]

Araban got me interested in Starcraft 2 and now I own a copy and am having quite a lot of fun. It's nice to have another game that can be played competitively that is very challenging and very different but also weirdly similar to go.

I think the main enjoyment comes from that feeling of being `in the zone' and the feeling of improvement and driving towards mastery. There was a nice thread about being in the zone/flow for SC2 which can also be applied to go at http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=142131. It's nice to be able to see my self improving at something again (something that I haven't seen for a long time in go).

I'm new to RTS but somehow managed to get placed in Platinum and seem to be 50/50 mainly against Gold players so I guess I'm around that level for now. It would be great if anyone wanted to play/train/whatever with me. I'm also Tooveli on SC2 (Europe).

[Mivo]

I suppose you need a windows box?

There is a native OSX version, too. It also appears to work well with Wine under Linux.

As for 6-pooling and zergs ... well, it works in bronze and silver, so people use it. I do occasionally too, though I admit it feels a bit cheesy. Zerg is fairly weak to rushes in the early game and in my experience (bronze, silver) eight out of ten people will rush with zealots or marines. 6-pool can prevent that, though if it fails (you can kill the six initial zerglings with your harvesters, and by the time the next 2+2+2 arrive, people usually have zealots or marines), the game is pretty much over for the zerg player.

Even though I'm guilty of occasionally 6-pooling, I do find the rushing and cheesing a bit of a downside of the game, especially the more "difficult" to counter methods, like cannon rushing.

I seem to prefer 2vs2 and 3vs3 over 1vs1, but since the game matches random players/teams against premade teams, this is often rather frustrating. That's one of the design decisions that completely baffle me. The layout of most maps is another.

[flOvermind]

The problem about 6-pool is that the Zerg are not as fast as you might think. It is not so uncommon that a good Protoss player has his first zealot out before the Zerg has the first wave of zerglings ready. Add the walking time, and you can pretty much forget it.

That is of course only when both players are building for fast attack

[yoyoma]

I'm the only Gold league player on the list? Where are all the average players at? Go mediocrity!