Starcraft 2, (Relatively) Open beta access! Options

[Crushinator]

You can now get SC2 beta keys for pre-ordering at Gamestop, so pretty much any of us who want in can do so!

I'll probably be snagging one later today, is anyone else going to get on this? We need to set up some AT games and b.net buddy lists!

[Scan_Man]

Just snagged mine today!

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Just snagged mine today!

I'll be getting in on this most likely tomorrow after work.


edit: Couldn't get back to sleep, so went ahead and pre-ordered, and beta key just arrived. If/when I am home this weekend, I am for sure in for some games.

[Crushinator]

I should be up and running tonight. Had to reload windows and I lost my damn install disc

[Scan_Man]

I have a lot of work to do to get better at this game. Man, I got placed in the worse league and I'm still getting owned. I'm ranked like 53 in the Copper League 5th division. That sounds like I'm waaaaaaaaaay at the bottom of the barrel. I never had this much trouble in Command and Conquer 3 or Red alert 3.

It seems the bar is ridiculous high in the skill needed to even be considered a total noob. Seems to happen in these types of game that people been playing for years. Like in Heroes of Newerth, playing in newbie games means the people actually have 5 years of experience playing Defense of the Ancients, and you will get owned and cursed at if you fuck up.


Now some impressions.

The home screen interface is bitchin! It is similar to the interface to Heroes of Newerth, but cleaner. The ladder system is very nice, and lot easier to see where you stand than some of ELO systems some games use.

This game is badly optimized. Yeah I know it is in beta. But, it just like WoW is badly optimized; it is several years old but runs like crap on high settings compared to brand new games like Mass Effect 2 on high settings. Right now I'm using my laptop until I replace my high end graphic card (which died on me right before I could finish Mass Effect 2 a couple months back) in my desk top. My laptop is decent, but I ran into a few problems. I kept running into this error that would spam my screen during play saying Low Page Pool, game will start to run like crap blah blah blah. It never affected my performance, but it was annoying to keep seeing that message. Anyway, there are people with top of the line systems getting this message too. There is a fix on the forums, and after trying them it fixed that error. And it fixed the minor hitching problems I was running into during gameplay, but mostly on the home screen with the big planet and ship passing by. But yeah, you have people running this game with very good computers and are having framerate issues with Medium settings when they can handle Ultra settings.

The game is nice though. Very easy to jump into a game.

[Crushinator]

OK, i'm up and running. Got one game in before they took the server down AGAIN tonight.

My starcraft username is crushinator.crushinator, add me and lets RUMBLE!

[Scan_Man]

SolidDave.brothageek is mine. It sucked server got wiped last night with the new patch. I also ran into a Platinum ranked player that offered some tips. It seems the key to this game is all about knowing the units and knowing what counters what. My problem is I can't seem to get enough units out and my opponent swarms my base.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

SolidDave.brothageek is mine. It sucked server got wiped last night with the new patch. I also ran into a Platinum ranked player that offered some tips. It seems the key to this game is all about knowing the units and knowing what counters what. My problem is I can't seem to get enough units out and my opponent swarms my base.

mojo.mojoojom (assuming not wiped again) I agree with what plat guy said. Friendly 1v1 with other AT proly good. Could just fight in center of map ignore bases to work on counters. Custom games let you play vs AI as well. IMO faster is also a little 'too fast' for default, specialy learning. May want to try just fast to get a feel for things.

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_StarCraft_II_units

While still missing info, it does make suggestions on counters/when not to use units.

[Crushinator]

Alright, I got you guys added. I've decided to try and focus on Terran as my main team. Zerg are WAY too weird to play compared to SC1 now, at least for me.

Also, I suck really bad :(

[Scan_Man]

Wow! July 27th for release date. Maaaaan, I'm sure I am getting more than my money's worth on this beta.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Really cannot wait for it to go live. For those still playing MP and looking for more infos: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Strategy Is a solid read, even if not complete.

[tanshin]

I'm on as Tanshin.ninjagamer... I just finished my first game.

I think I got lucky on my first game. I picked random and ended up with zerg, and I moved at what I thought was an incredibly slow pace, because I was trying to check things out. I built up a little army of zerglings, hydralisks, ultralisks, and those flying wing guys (I forgot the name). I went over there, kept some reserves at my base because I assumed it would be a first assault to see what he really had. As soon as I broke the barrier thing to his base, he went "meh" as I charged into his base to fight his TWO MARINES. That's right, he had two marines and like 10 barracks in the time I got to ultralisks. Jesus, I thought I sucked at this game.

That's almost worse than just getting your ass handed to you by someone really good, though. All that work down the drain for some chump. So yeah, I agree, I'd rather play against AT people.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

I would personally get owned by someone good, as you can study the replay after and see what they did. Early game build orders and scouting is paramount in sc2.


For replays as well as shout casts of replays describing what players are doing, I personally roll with.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BlizShouter
http://www.teamliquid.net/sc2/

Can watch live streams, listen to whats going on etc. A nice way to see how people play and learn from them.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Time for Mojos big giant post of slightly useful info! This will be a collection of things I have learned while toying with sc2, as well as learned via replays/shoutcasts and so on.

Random infos: Time units for building/research are in seconds, however the number is assigned as if you are playing on normal speed. As the game defaults to faster, the actual time to build is less than the listed.
2v2 games, you can share unit control. This can allow one player to focus on macro and economy, the other microing the army.

Main stuff:

First and foremost for being better at sc2 is getting the macro/micro down. Learning and memorizing hotkeys to build units/structures is paramount. In addition to this, hotkeying your production centers so you can produce units while on the far side of the map without zooming back is another must. Having all your 'Rax assigned to say control group 4, lets you work on a battle, hit 4 a single time and begin queuing reinforcements. This also allows you to ensure you do not have an unnecessary stockpile of minerals. If you cannot burn minerals fast enough, you do not have enough Rax/hatch/gateways/etc. I have watched duration matches in unofficial tourneys where a player will have 8+ rax/gateways/etc. The obvious exception to this would be having 6 or so bases to the opponents 3. Stockpiling some is going to happen at this point.

Also with hotkeying, is timing the use of your command center/nexus/queen abilities. Mule are worth 270 minerals if deployed on the patch, they can also repair units in oh shit moments. Weigh that vs the scan to scout. The supply thing is pretty much ass, do not bother, use a MULE instead. Queens of course primary ability is +4 larva every 40s (normal game speed), followed closely by creep tumor (more on this wonderful things later) and a small heal which can be useful to keep spine crawlers alive and what not. Lastly is chrono boost, this one is all kinds of fun to play with with it improving the speed at which a building researches/builds things.

Some examples could be. Terran flys a CC over to a gold patch, while scv production takes a min to get going, you could drop a MULE on each patch provided you had the energy. This provides a massive boost to your economy while scv are relocating or building.
Toss, you can chrono boost the nexus for quick probe production, or save it for first gateway to kick out a very early zealot, one that could demolish a fast expand build opponent if they did not scout the chrono being saved rather than used on nexus.
Zerg is pretty simple, 19 larva max, so the primary ability to be used will be spawn larva. However, kicking out a creep tumor or two is highly advisable, do so when you have several larva spare and are not building any units currently.



Scouting: Oh so very important. Your initial build is very important, and must be changed up depending on opponent race (should they play random). After that you need to asses if they are going early aggressive, fast expand, quick tech and/or focusing on certain units. A zerg player for example should be wary if they see a factory with a reactor and must gear unit production toward dealing with hellions, spine crawlers are also very useful for dealing with them. Scouting with an scv/probe is typical. As for when to send on, below is a chart showing mineral loss based on which worker you send. The key is to get one early enough to get in before the base is walled off (toss/terran) while doing as minimal damage to your economy.



Lets say you got your worker inside a terran base, the terran is currently working on the choke point wall. If you can, target the scv constructing the rax/depot (not the building however) and use your worker to attack and try to kill it. If successful you just cost your opponent 50 min, and time spent not only rebuilding the worker, but time lost on the building being constructed. If this is not an option, shift click to set waypoints for your worker to make the rounds in the enemy base, be sure to check behind the mineral patch for hidden buildings. You can also try building on their gas to slow them down if they are fast teching and want both geysers (this is more for zerg and cheap extractors). Ultimately you want to keep your worker alive as long as possible (if trapped) and keep an eye on buildings/units being constructed, if chrono boost is being saved etc. Else, after a few laps and enough info is gathered to adjust your build order, evac the worker back to base, or camp it near for a proxy base/etc. Continue to scout your enemy from time to time and make adjustments to your unit composition as needed.


Build orders and how to understand them.
Any idea what 14 pool means? 10 pool? Overpool? Depending if SC is new for you, probably not. So here is how this works. The number is associated with the current food/population count. While the word is the action at the given point. 14 pool for example means once you build your 14th worker, you construct your spawning pool. Overpool means building the overlord at 10(11 min, more on this trick later) and as it finishes the pool is built. The format will be the same for all races with the structure being different obviously.
A lot of your time will be spent learning and memorizing the current primary builds for your fav race, as well as how to adjust them based on opponent and what build they are going. Your early build is very, very important and should become very natural for you to proceed through each game.


General tips.
It takes 3 workers to fully saturate a given mineral patch or geyser. Fully saturating a mineral field however is rare, though having it heavily covered is the best route.
Workers in the mineral fields will automatically move to unused patches, this is true for your initial 6 workers. General high end players select all 6 and direct them to one end of field, quickly drag selecting 3 and moving em to other end, this allows them to spread out quicker. Setting your worker rally point to mineral field will cause all built workers to start auto mining, this saves some time.
Capitalize on distractions. If you are crushing an opponents expansion, quickly build another expansion of your own. Losing an expansion? Drop in the enemies base or hit one of their expansion. Both armies engaging in center of map? Sneak some burrowed roaches past the entrance and get ready to demolish workers. Use the xelnaga towers, check in weed/smoke areas as well as up ramps for proxy pylons that might be used for warp gates.


Toss tips.
Toss cannot initial block their choke like terran due to no lowering buildings. Zealots on hold ground work perfect for blocking the entrance however. Sentries do very solid damage in addition to their powerful support abilities. A few sentries microd can forcefield a small ramp for some time to prevent attacks. Double pylon primary construction clusters, otherwise a few banelings/reapers can ruin your day. Colossus can be hit by air to air units, while not being able to attack them back, keep this in mind if the enemy has a lot of air units like vikings etc, reconsider constructing colossus. Warp gates rule, place a proxy pylon in some smoke/weed areas or up a ramp so ground units running by will not see it. Warp units from gates in and reinforce forward army faster.


Terran stuffs.
Basic walls consisting of supply depot or a rax+ addon can be very dangerous against zerg. A handful of banelings can demolish those smaller buildings allowing speedlings access to your base and your worker line. Reapers can hop up and down cliffs, and 3 of them will insta pop a worker great early harassment. If you see a baneling nest, rethink your M&M build, it will not last long if the zerg player is using a decent amount of banes. Nuking a mineral field is horribly effective, even if your opponent moves all the workers, the minerals lost by not mining will most certainly be far more than the nuke cost. Ghosts hurt, a lot, and not just with emp and nuke, however emp + nuke against toss = lulz.


Zerg.
Extractor trick: get 10/10, send drone to build extractor (25min), make drone with free food slot, cancel extractor, celebrate you are at 11/10. Creep is amazing, it acts as a scout letting you see the area it covers, it helps your units regen, and best of all it improves the speed of your units, by a lot. Using overlords to spread creep as well as creep tumors gives you a speed advantage against opponents. Spread creep, lots and lots o creep! Overlords are no longer detectors, you must upgrade them for that, but do not upgrade all of em, spawn creep owns! Changlings do not do anything beyond take the shape of nearest enemy, this however is good because enemy might not realize what they are unless they target the unit, and they provide you with scouting and LoS for worms. Nydus worms do not require creep to spawn on, they can spawn anywhere you have LoS, though they take a few seconds. This allows you to hit the enemy worker packs if you can get LoS via overlord/changling.



More crap later.

[Scan_Man]

Awesome info dude! Thanks a lot. Have not had much time to pop on SC2. Maybe this weekend.

[Crushinator]

First and foremost for being better at sc2 is getting the macro/micro down. Learning and memorizing hotkeys to build units/structures is paramount. In addition to this, hotkeying your production centers so you can produce units while on the far side of the map without zooming back is another must. Having all your 'Rax assigned to say control group 4, lets you work on a battle, hit 4 a single time and begin queuing reinforcements. This also allows you to ensure you do not have an unnecessary stockpile of minerals. If you cannot burn minerals fast enough, you do not have enough Rax/hatch/gateways/etc. I have watched duration matches in unofficial tourneys where a player will have 8+ rax/gateways/etc. The obvious exception to this would be having 6 or so bases to the opponents 3. Stockpiling some is going to happen at this point.

I think this is the best brotip for me. I totally didnt' know you could hotkey your manufacturing places. So THATS how all the pro guys build shit while they are still micro-ing during a base attack. I think this is going to improve my game a shitload. Before i'd have to click back and forth between my main base and the battle if i needed to build reinforcements...

[Oddies da Nerfed]

A few additional notes.

You can mark positions on the map and return to em, currently the keys to return are f5-f8, difficult to use realistically.

Zerg cocoons can have their own rally point set if you need a single unit or two different from the hatchery default. Select the specific egg(s) and right click where you want them to go.

Multi building construction. Lets say you have 2 Rax selected and want some marines. You hit your marine key once, this queues a single marine in to the first Rax selected. Rax two has nothing building. Hitting the key a second time will start a marine in Rax 2 while not adding a second to the first Rax. A third key press will queue a second marine to Rax 1 while Rax 2 still only has a single marine. The function remains the same over multi buildings.



edit: Todays patch = sadface. Maybe I need to roll with terran as well.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Terms/Definitions.



AA
Anti-Air. Units or attacks that specifically target air units. e.g. Spore Crawlers are anti-air defense structures.

All-In
An early rush that puts all of the players resources into one attack with the sole intent of ending the game quickly. If this attack fails then the player is usually considered so far behind, they stand no chance of winning. e.g. 6 pool and Reaper Rush.

AoE
Area of effect. e.g. Ghost's EMP shockwave.

APM
Actions per minute. The number of clicks and key presses performed in one minute.

Backstab
After the enemy moves out with a push, attack the enemy's lightly defended base.

Ball
A tight group of units that travels the map in a pack.

BM
Bad-Mannered. Used to describe a player lacking basic etiquette. E.g. calling "gg" before their opponent when they're likely to win.

BO
Build Order. The order of buildings and units created in the very early game to achieve a specific strategy.

Choke
From "chokepoint". A small area, usually a ramp, leading from a base into a wider area. It's generally advantageous to create wall-ins at chokes to reduce the possibility of early rushes.

Contain
A small army of units left outside of the opponents base to prevent expansions or to limit the player from map control. "Contain" is usually prefixed by the units used for the contain, such as MMM contain, Roach contain, or Stalker contain. This strategy asserts map dominance and allows the player performing the contain to expand while the enemy cannot leave his base.

Creep Bridge/Creep Highway
A term used to describe a trail of either Creep Tumors or Overlords/Overseers pouring creep leading across the map to either an expansion or to the enemy base as a "bridge" or "highway" for units to cross over.

Distance mining
A situation when a mineral line with no established base is mined for one reason or another.

Economy
The player's income and active mining units, most often relative to his or her position in the game or to their opponent.

FE
Fast expansion. Creating another Nexus/Command Center/Hatchery quickly in order to later gain a material advantage.

Food
Generic term for Terran Supply, Zerg Control and Protoss Psi.

Gas Steal
Denying the enemy gas in the early game by building a gas collecting structure on the enemy's vespene geysers. e.g. Protoss quickly building an Assimilator in their opponents main base while scouting.

Greedy
A player takes a massive risk for a large economic gain. For Zerg, a double fast expand before a Spawning Pool would be considered a very greedy move.

Harass
Units that enter and leave bases quickly to attack peons or essential structures. Typical harass units are Banshees and Mutalisks.

Hard Counter
A unit or strategy that overwhelmingly dominates another unit or strategy. e.g. "Playing Scissors is a hard counter to Paper"

Kiting
Using micro to take advantage of one unit having higher range than another. The unit with the higher range attacks the other unit, moves slightly away, attacks again, and so on until the other unit is destroyed.

Natural
Closest expansion to the starting base, usually right at the bottom/top of the ramp to the main base.

Macro
From "macromanagement". The economic side of SC2. Macro refers to the creation of units, buildings, upgrades and expansions. Contrast with "micro".

Map Control
The amount of freedom you have gathered to move or scout around the map.

MBS
Multiple Building Selection. Allows unit production at multiple buildings/larvae at once. e.g. with three Command Centers selected, producing three SCVs will make one at each Command Center.

Micro
From "micromanagement". The controlling of units. Contrast with "macro".

Peon
A worker unit of any given race (Drone, Probe, SCV).

Proxy
Creation of a unit-producing building anywhere that is not part of a player's base. This reduces travelling time from the unit-producing structure and the opponent's base leading to a strategical advantage. "Proxy" is usually followed by the building being built, such as Proxy Pylon or Proxy Barracks.

Push
While a rush tries to get units in the enemy base as fast as possible, the push is a bit slower. Collect units outside of your base then, once achieving a sufficient amount of units, move out to attack.

Rush
Optimizing production to reach a specific unit quickly, usually with the intent of early pressure on the enemy. A rush is not considered as do-or-die as an all-in. If a rush fails, it's still possible to recover.

Scout
Revealing remote areas of the map to gain information about your opponent. Done with unit line of sight, or Terran Scanner Sweep.

Sim-City
Refers to building placements in the game, usually in the player's main bases.

Soft Counter
A unit type or strategy that has some advantage over another, but not so overwhelming an advantage as to be a hard counter. See "hard counter" above.

Timing Attack
Maximizing the value of a push by attacking during a specific time window where the opponent is weak. For example, a Zerg player will typically cut army production while a Spire is being built to save larvae/resources for Mutalisks. Attacking while the Zerg is saving larvae/resources maximizes the effectiveness of the push.

Turtle
Spending most or all of the game defending, as opposed to attacking.

Wall-in
Buildings placed at choke points to reduce the effectiveness of early rushes. This is commonly done by Protoss and Terran.


Toss:

Core
Cybernetics Core

DT
Dark Templar

FF
Force Field

HT
High Templar

Lots
Zealots

Robo
Robotics Facility

Speedlots
Zealots with the Charge upgrade.


Terran:

BC
Battlecruiser

Bio
A unit combination that relies primarily on units from the Barracks (Marine/Marauder/Reaper/Ghost)

CC
Command Center

HSM
"Hunter" Seeker Missile

Mech
A unit combination that relies primarily on units from the Factory (Thor/Tank/Hellion)

MMM or M&M&M
Marines, Marauders and Medivacs

OC
Orbital Command

PF
Planetary Fortress

PDD
Point Defense Drone

Rax
Barracks


Zerg:

Blings
Banelings

Baneling Bust
Using banelings to break through wall-ins or defended chokes

Cracklings
Zerglings with the Adrenal Glands upgrade.

FG
Fungal Growth

Hatch
Hatchery

Hydras
Hydralisks

Lings
Zerglings

Mutas
Mutalisks

NP
Neural Parasite

Pool
Spawning Pool

Speedlings
Zerglings with the Metabolic Boost upgrade.

Ultras
Ultralisks

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Some useful stuff for SC2:

First, this allows sc2 to be played offline, with custom AI (far harder than current) custom maps, and even play offline without a beta key. A bit irritating to setup, but nice for those without keys to toy with, and to practice with harder ai. I have used this, works decently and the ai can be quirky but certainly worthwhile to toy with.
(double check for newer versions)

http://sc2.nibbits.com/assets/starcrack-ai/

A multitasking trainer for micro and macro at once. Basically you get a probe that gets attacked by lings that you have to keep alive. All the time you build a base and army to deal with a terran base nearby. Losing base or probe or too many workers too fast all cost you the mission. I have not tried it yet, but people seem to like it as a trainer.
(double check for newer versions)

http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/multitaskin...rainer-v0-812b/

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Brutal Micro tutorial.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

http://osu.ppy.sh/



Yeah I caught an sc2 streamer playing this. Seems like an insanely effective way to improve apm and improve mouse control.

[Crushinator]

What just happened?

WAR WERE DECLARED.

[Crushinator]

HOLY SHIT!

[Crushinator]

Why isn't Blizzard making full length CG features again?

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Indeed. Between Blizz and Relics DoW CG they would both make godlike full lengths.

[Crushinator]

Hey, are we going to do another AT gameday for SC2? Seems like this is the next "big deal" game launch that pretty much everyone is interested in.

[Scan_Man]

Gamestop I reserved it at is having a midnight launch. Might not play much because I want to get some more FFXIV time. But maybe tomorrow evening for a couple hours I can get on. But a gameday would be nice.

[Crushinator]

I'm not doing the midnight thing, but I will pick up my preorder tuesday morning.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

I am going to be campaigning the hell out of it. Loved me some SC1/BW story, I am sure I will be all over this. Think they said something like 45 min of cinematics and what not.

[Crushinator]

Yeah, I installed it on some of the computers at work. The cutscenes are GODLY. Blizz really outdid themselves with the in-game graphics on the cutscenes.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

The recap during install was a nice touch I thought.

[Crushinator]

Lets post some real IDs so we can get an AT friends list going!

I'm mrcrushin (at) hotmail.com

[Kazicht]

On it!

kazicht (at) gmail.com

[donkeybeatz]

Mine is donkeybeatz (AT) gmail.com
Played a handful of matches with crush, naba, and kaz. Wasn't pretty =( Just need to relearn all the shortcuts and set some hotkeys.
My initial impressions so far are pretty good. Graphics look great and the whole battle.net interface is really nicely done.

[AC9breaker]

You guys need to stop sucking less.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Mojoojom (at) gmail.com

I suggest playing against each other 1v1. Get your Fundamentals learned that way. The ai is extremely predictable and you're more likely to get stuck just countering it. Which won't work so hot vs players.


Suggested watching below:
Day[9] TV is a great place to learn stuff.
Gold/Silver play with review.
Basics, mental checklist and fundamentals.
Surviving early preassure and recovering.

[Crushinator]

You guys need to stop sucking less.

Shut the fuck up. Buy the game and show us how its done, then.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

You guys need to stop sucking less.

Shut the fuck up. Buy the game and show us how its done, then.

This! Beyond that watch the day 9 stuff (it is worth it, and entertaining). As well as practice against eachother.

While I am no where near good, I figure silver maybe gold league once I brush up and place. I will post some replays of myself vs ai just to show you all a few things. It helps a lot watching rather than just reading how to. You will even see a lot of places I need to work on! This is doubly true for any protoss or terran games I play as they are my weak races currently (not that zerg could qualify as strong).

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Told you all I sucked with terran. Worst, wall off, ever.

[Crushinator]

intramural practice league!

After playing some multiplayer games with the crew its clear we all need some practice (myself especially!) We had a good time watching oddies dish out some punishment, so maybe we need to square off in some 1v1's and have other people observe us to say what we're doing right/wrong, etc.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

2v2 replay recap!
Up first, Kazicht.

Build scv, then send your 6 starters to mineral line. This is slightly more efficient.
You waited until you had 100+ min to send your scv to build your depot. Send the scv early so it can drop the depot the instant you have 100.
Idle builder scv. Shift rightclick mineral lines after you have the scv start building. That way as soon as the scv finishes building it goes right back to mining.
Depot heavy wallins are weak vs zerg, keep that in mind.
Over queuing units, 110 minerals with 2 scv waiting in queue, trash the 2 build another barracks and still be able to keep scv production going non stop by queuing soon as one finishes. Same with marines.
Orbital was a bit late, had plenty of mins.
Both gas at same time is a bit rough, first one after first rax second after orbital is a bit better.
Soon as refinery finish send 2 additional scv to them. replenish mining lines after.
600 mins+ should be expanding and building additional construction buildings.
Scv production halted with less than half saturation of main.
No research.
Second CC did not get changed to orbital despite being idle.
Minimal scv at natural, main still not saturated.
Only 2 scv on one gas in main as well as in natural.
No siege mode for tanks.
Massive stockpile of mins, no manufacturing buildings though.
Supply blocked at 78.
Failed to retreat scv from natural when auto turrets dropped.
scv forces in main killed. No scv production to replace. Supply depots need replaced as well.
+1 infantry upgrade lost when building burned down. Repair it or cancel research.
Fell apart once base got hit hard with harass.
No static D to defend mineral lines from harass.
Building tech structures while supply capd and no mining going on due to lack of scv.
No scans or views for high ground to see. Did not siege tanks. Did not emp BC.
No production centers, no mining, unable to rebuild army and game lost.



Adiamas:
Build probe then send all to mine.
Good job sending probe early for pylon, just remember to build asap at 100.
Chrono used a little slow but still decent.
Nexus had chrono effect with no probes being made.
Idle probe, shift right click minerals after starting construction.
2 chrono built up, no probes in production at 3:30 mark.
probes rallied to gas while it was building, just send to minerals and pull em off once assim finishes.
quick cybernetics, chronoing the warpgate is good.
Probe production halted with less than half saturation at main.
Supply cap at 34
Chrono energy maxed out and not being used.
Half saturation at main one third saturate at natural.
Over queuing research. Research one at a time per building.
No static D protecting mineral lines.
Pylon clumps, hard to move past and easy to take out at once.
One control group syndrom. Colossi should be separate since they can cliff walk and flank. Sentries good separate as well.
Economy trashed to harass, not being rebuilt.


Donkey:
Forgot to queue to minerals.
Scv first, move 6 to patch etc.
Send worker early to build building, not after you have resources.
Idle scv after construction. Shift right click minerals after sending to build.
CC rallied on a scv, multiple scv not mining but following another.
Only 1 scv on gas.
Scv production going well.
Forgot to make orbital command.
Over queuing scv.
Late expansion.
No research.
Still no orbital command.
Could queue scv at both cc to send to natural but is not.
Main not quite saturated but close.
Over queuing units, could research +1 weapons if you did not.
Too few production buildings.
Static D for mineral lines is good.
No armory for upgrades.
Only 1 scv on gas at natural.


Asland:
Send scv early to build, etc.
Good early scv production.
Good orbital timing.
Idle scv post construction. Shift right click minerals after being sent to build
Good expansion timing, quick second orbital.
Good idea sending both CC scv to natural, however main less than half saturated.
Supply blocked at 54.
Scv production stopped with neither base saturated.
Energy a bit high on both OC.
Taking gold good. Idle scv at gold no scv production.
Spreading research out good.
No armory for ship/vehicle upgrades.
Good harass.
Too few production buildings for 3 bases.
Idle scvs, scv production halted no base saturated.
Over queuing units. Could have 2 armories and +1 ship wep and armor.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

This replay is of me messing around. 1v1 random random vs hard AI. Was ZvP. I used only lings and banelings to win plus a few static D.


I cannot host replays without players on both teams, so gota megaupload. =(

[Oddies da Nerfed]

To put everything in perspective for those of you bitching about losing and wussing out on playing. When I started the sc2 beta, I lost to very easy computer 1v1. I lost a lot. =p Now I play random vs hard and do not lose. While the AI really is not that great to practice against it is decent for BO testing and what not. All in all, just gota practice! Read up on stuff, or better yet just watch Day9 vods.

[Crushinator]

I want to jump back into SC2, but Castlevania: HD keeps pulling me away!

[Scan_Man]

Yeah the day 9 videos are awesome. And they are long and detailed, like I like. I finally got around to playing my placement matches last night (did not want to touch online right away). At least tried to implement some of the stuff I remembered from the videos. Mostly focusing on making sure I always build workers, and building stuff to try and keep my money low. I was surprised I was able to get place in the Silver League. So that is improvement for me.

I found the challenge mode very very very helpful too. Even if you can't win at them, they really get you thinking about stuff differently.

[Crushinator]

Posting this replay from one of my and Donkey's games last night for some pro-tip critique.

Yeeeeeeaaaaaah

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Crush, good start build order. Though having a terran to wall you off, going fast core and pumping stalkers may have been a good choice rather than early forge.
DB: could have sent initial scv that built wall a lil earlier, otherwise still good there. Quick factory is good. Queuing units at rax is bad. You had enough minerals tied up for a second barracks for over a minute.

No scouting did leave you vulnerable. Quick tech to tanks and banshee would have hurt you bad.

Crush, you would chronoboost your nexus, a probe would finish and youd forget to start another one wasting several seconds of boost. Good cannon placement at the ledge.
DB: let energy build up a bit too much on orbital. Burn that asap on mules unless you absolutely need a scan. They are worth approx 300 minerals each full duration.

Use of tower on route good. I would have put a marine or zealot at second tower just to see whats coming. SCV/Probe good as well, specialy for proxy pylon and warpgate. zealot surround and range support hitting teal was perfect.
Warpgate wasnt researched right off the bat and it needs to be. Chrono it at least twice.

Expanding when you killed teal would have been perfect.

Money built up during your push. Do not forget to macro (hotkey them barracks and such).




All in all some solid improvement from both of you. Obviously still room for more, but that is true of us all!

Idle factory = sad panda.

Quick +1 for zealot good.

Heavy zealot with charge + donkey MMM ball would have been devastating.

Too many sentries imo, specially without FF usage. Overlapping shields does not help only 1 counts, so careful wasting energy.

Second push that hit their base4 hard, should have gone toward worker line quicker. Take out terrans tech labs etc. they have some of the lowest hp and ruins terran hard.

No warp gate = sad, very sad.

Close to full sat on both mains is good. another 6 workers or so been solid. Natural was only half saturated. =(

Worker production slumped a bit when you attacked, macro macro!

Forgetting to build depots etc while attacking hurt as well.

No upgrades for Donkey = sad panda. Not only dmg etc, but if using MMM stim is a must, shield is great and concussive shells is a must as well.

Great blink to keep up with the flying CC.

Seriously, no warpgate = bad. =p

End of game orbital was 200/200 energy =( Nexus was 89/100 =/

Donkey had a good number of production facilities for one base. Crush you could have added on another 3-4 gateways upon taking expansion. Had enough money at game end to build 4 gateways and 26 zealots.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Forum based guides, good infos!

Terran: not one yet =(
Protoss: Guide
Zerg: Guide

[Naba]

Woah, hey I posted something. This loss is so embarrassing I'm passing it on to as many people as possible so I never do this shit again... I had this win in the bag and I noobed it the fuck to hell. I'm sure oddies can give me a few PROTIPS too.

a little back story, I had been playing with this guy for 3-4 previous matches and he was learning "S" so we decided I would go air and he would go ground. This was the result. (before this match it wasn't even a thang, we were steamrolling everyone even though he is slow as hell and I'm not much faster.)

=( <--- replay here.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Honestly this game more or less shows why voids need a nerf stick again.

Didn't expand.

No scouting, specially early at rocks to ensure nothing was coming.

No map control.

Too few unit structures.

No warp gate or no extra gateways to help in case you need to defend in a hurry. (stalkers do bonus dmg vs voids)

Didn't run probes away during initial rush, never properly re-saturated bases. Not even enough probes at the 25 min mark to saturate a single base.

25 min mark when you began your push, enemies had same number of voids as you (13) while also having a far larger ground force (11 DT to your 0, 7 stalkers to your 0, 13 lots to your 2, 5 immortals to your 1, while you had 9 colossi which would have probably all died just to their immortals). They also had about 60 more workers than you combined.

No speed boost for voids. No shield upgrades.

Ignored enemy army and went for base trade, while the enemy had a far superior force, specially in regards to destroying structures.

Ally at 25 min mark had enough resources + costs of the current colossi to have built approx 35 stalkers. 35 blink stalkers could damn near destroy both enemy armies. While the 11 colossi or so would have died horribly taking out maybe the zealots and some stalkers.

While you claim you had the win the in bag, I beg to differ. Force size and composition you were inferior. Purple had tech swapped to voids but supply capd, another 5 min you would have had less voids than enemies combined while still having almost no ground force compared to theirs. Economic wise just one of the enemy crush both of you combined at end game. All they had to do was send their ground forces split between your bases and use their air force to tie up yours till they produced more reinforcements and they would have won in a far more major way.

[Crushinator]

More replay fun, a 2v2 with Crushinator (S), Kazicht (N) vs Naba (S), Tanshin (G).

I got scared and thought Naba was going to rush to mothership to back up his void rays! Luckily that didn't happen, because it took me forever to get observers, like an idiot.

Kaz, you gotta get those medivacs up faster if you're gonna do a marine/marauder attack! Then stimpack those bitches.

Download Here

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Naba: They did have a superior force prior to the base trade. Deciding factor was that they were dumb and moved their entire army to your bases and split it between the two. Had they moved the mom, voids, stalkers and sentries to engage your voids in their base they would have probably won that fight. Their lots, DT and immortals could have trashed your base up in the process.

The entire game hinged on being quicker at base trade (which they were), or destroying your air force (had they not been dumb, they could have). The colossi cannot do anything against air, and do sub-par damage to structures. They could have been killed by a single phoenix, albeit slowly. They threw away any advantage they had when they spread their forces out and ignored your army.

[Crushinator]

More replays! First up is a Naba vs Crush match, wherein naba somehow has a superior army but loses anyways.

Naba v Crush Practice

Then three 3v3 matches where we learn some hard lessons. 2 losses and one win.
3v3 01
3v3 02
3v3 03


Any BRO-tips appreciated. I know i fucked up HARD on that 3rd one by not building detectors. If i have cloaked units, they can have cloaked units. I thought I was unstoppable.

[Crushinator]

My first placement match, lulz ensue.

YEEEEEH

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Mrcrushin vs myself. PvZ replay

[Crushinator]

Fuckin davey crockett of space.

[Naba]

It was a really hard battle.... almost epic... but after putting up the longest fight, and mining out every min and gas, I squeaked out victorious.

edit: great I landed in platinum 1v1 :( I blame this match here.

[donkeybeatz]

Harassin'
I could've did way better but I was too busy harassing the other dudes lol. And it also helped that they didn't do anything when I was all up in their base.

[Crushinator]

Amazing 3v3 we just did. Kaz, Donk, and myself. Match starts off with a good harass that turns into a base wipe agains the zerg player, but then the other 2 terran players assault kaz with reapers almost elminating him. The battle drags on and on, and it looks like all is lost, but with master teamwork and micro we fucking BEAST the dudes into rage quitting.

AT LEADS THE FUCKIN WAY

[Oddies da Nerfed]

AT 5 player ffa, long 1h.


AT 3v3

[Naba]

This was an awesome battle, we soon realized we were at a stale mate just harassing and we go in with all forces supply capped. It's long but its well worth a look

Battle of the Forever!

[Crushinator]

Some replays from me and kaz's 2v2 placements. All are pretty bad, but maybe we can learn from them.

uno
dos
tres
four-o

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Epic 2v3 placement.

Crushin, Donkey, and myself were doing 3v3 placements. Game two mrcrushin crashed out during load (epic load screen!) forcing a 2v3. I took over operation of both crushins base and my own, building dual bases and armies. Game was ugly to start, they had map control. Held the lines, I got the cheeserays out and things swung in our favor there. 50 min of crazy holyshitness.

[Naba]

This was a good one, Donkey Kaz and myself saw 3 protoss enemies at the start and planned on them fucking us in the ass with a ridiculously heavy ground force.

We were right!

So the strategy we came up with was defend until the first push, which we assumed would be most of the army, then attack, It was donkey and kaz on Siege defense and I was anti air just in case they decided to throw us a curve ball.

[Maxx]

What I learned from playing 4v4 all sunday long: I really really really hate dark templars. We always won but god damn they made us work for it. Those little bitches do so much damage.

[Crushinator]

Yeah, DT's can be real assholes if you don't have the detectors to pick em up. I usually forget to build detectors :(

What's your b.net ID?

[Maxx]

Yeah, DT's can be real assholes if you don't have the detectors to pick em up. I usually forget to build detectors :(

What's your b.net ID?

max@lmccpa.com Add me, dudes! Let's playing starcraft!

[donkeybeatz]

Denied cannon rush
Fast game

[donkeybeatz]

This is an old replay but the response at the end is timeless.
http://donkeybeatz.com/media/fukucheaters.SC2Replay

[Naba]

I got proxied, donkey got muta'd... Kaz... won the game. excellent replay.

[tanshin]

Fought my way up to Silver League! See the 6 pool failure here.

[Crushinator]

Fought my way up to Silver League! See the 6 pool failure here.

Fucking awesome! You're not officially the best SC2 player in AT. You just stole the "general" title from Kaz.

[donkeybeatz]

We had an amazing game last night. Even though we got (poorly?) proxy cannon'd, we kept our cool and won the game pretty decisively.
Another amazing game

[Alisha]

not that my computer can actually run this game but is it true that you only get to play the terran campaign?

[Oddies da Nerfed]

For the time being, yes. Blizzard opted to chunk up SC2 in to 3 parts, the first of which, Wings of Liberty is the Terran aspect of the SC2 story. Next will be the Zerg aspect, with the Protoss following third. Each campaign will get approx 30 missions each, while in the old format of SC1, each race got at most 10. Brood war campaign of all 3 races was smaller than just the Terran SC2 campaign.

[Alisha]

For the time being, yes. Blizzard opted to chunk up SC2 in to 3 parts, the first of which, Wings of Liberty is the Terran aspect of the SC2 story. Next will be the Zerg aspect, with the Protoss following third. Each campaign will get approx 30 missions each, while in the old format of SC1, each race got at most 10. Brood war campaign of all 3 races was smaller than just the Terran SC2 campaign.

ah when i first heard that it sounded totally lame but after your explanation it doesnt seem so bad.

[Crushinator]

I need some help, tell me what i'm doing wrong.

http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/fuck%20t...ucker.SC2Replay
http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/i%20suck%201.SC2Replay
http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/i%20suck%202.SC2Replay
http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/i%20suck%203.SC2Replay
http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/i%20suck%204.SC2Replay

[Crushinator]

more replays i need comments on

http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/i%20suck%205.SC2Replay
http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/fuck...ilure.SC2Replay
http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/fuck...ismal.SC2Replay
http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/turt...bitch.SC2Replay

[Naba]

Double 6 pool fail. They at least stuck to their guns.

SO MANY ZERGLINGS!

[Crushinator]

Long ass epic game that starts with some bitch-ass proxy cannons, then drags out to a full on all map mineral rape.

http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/BATTLE%2...EGEND.SC2Replay

[Crushinator]

A pretty fun 1v1 that earned me my first solo league portrait. I like how i stifled his attack on my base WHILE messing up his own. I fucked up early on and had a lot of mins sitting around, but i was making good use of them later.

http://ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/Like%20a...0Toss.SC2Replay

[tanshin]

You can't win a game by building tons of cannons.

[Crushinator]

Cred to Donkey for linking this. I can only imagine the look on the Protoss' face when he finally decided to attack. He was probably thinking "hot damn this is the easiest proxy ever".

[Crushinator]

Ho-ho-ho-ly shit! Christmas eve we just busted out one of the craziest 4v4's ever. Everyone with Sc2 NEEDS to see this.

CHRISTMAS SC2 MADNESS!

Highlights:

-AC9breaker buildling no less than FOUR motherships
-Naba destroying over 170 food worth of hydras with one massive baneling attack (acid splash!)
-Purple player losing his MIND over my shit talk
-Red player making a crazy simcity base all perfectly aligned
-53 minutes of MAYHEM!

[Crushinator]

Donkey and I finished up our 2v2 placements with a thrilling tug of war game. I thought all was lost once they took over BOTH high yeilds, but thanks to donkey's neverending perseverance we pulled through.

SILVER STATUS!

[AC9breaker]

I dunno, I think you guys just got lucky you where playing against some shitty doods.That map seems kinda big so I think fast teching early on was the right idea like they both did instead of going for the 5 minute attack. Also instead of doing more teching, they just amassed an army which you guys totally had the counter for. They where both floating 1000+ min and where totally not making the best use of them. I mean they should have had Thors, colossi BC or something to finish you off but instead they just goofed it up and did nothing with those high yields. They didn't even take their natural's which would have helped in their gas heavy armies cause their main problem was getting enough gas to match the units they wanted to make.

[tanshin]

I dunno, I think you guys just got lucky you where playing against some shitty doods.That map seems kinda big so I think fast teching early on was the right idea like they both did instead of going for the 5 minute attack. Also instead of doing more teching, they just amassed an army which you guys totally had the counter for. They where both floating 1000+ min and where totally not making the best use of them. I mean they should have had Thors, colossi BC or something to finish you off but instead they just goofed it up and did nothing with those high yields. They didn't even take their natural's which would have helped in their gas heavy armies cause their main problem was getting enough gas to match the units they wanted to make.

Yeah, congrats on silver first of all!

But I agree with Breaker, those guys messed up big time. They had a good first attack, but seemed to focus all attention on gathering mins instead of using them. They had pretty much no army after the first part of the game, and I was baffled as to why.

[Crushinator]

I dunno, I think you guys just got lucky you where playing against some shitty doods.That map seems kinda big so I think fast teching early on was the right idea like they both did instead of going for the 5 minute attack. Also instead of doing more teching, they just amassed an army which you guys totally had the counter for. They where both floating 1000+ min and where totally not making the best use of them. I mean they should have had Thors, colossi BC or something to finish you off but instead they just goofed it up and did nothing with those high yields. They didn't even take their natural's which would have helped in their gas heavy armies cause their main problem was getting enough gas to match the units they wanted to make.

I don't need to take this shit from some straight bronze scrub. Know your place.

Yeah, congrats on silver first of all!

But I agree with Breaker, those guys messed up big time. They had a good first attack, but seemed to focus all attention on gathering mins instead of using them. They had pretty much no army after the first part of the game, and I was baffled as to why.

Thanks for the constructive criticism, always good to hear advice from a fellow silver rank player.

[Crushinator]

This is probably the best "WoW-ripoff" SC2 mod i've seen so far.



We need to give it a shot! MORE DEEPS!

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Two crazy replays with Tans, Donkey and myself. Go Go mass marines!

Game 1

Game 2

[Crushinator]

Wacky FFA and Wiryu's inaugural AT SC2 game.

http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/lol%20ffa.SC2Replay

AC should have had this game, but he held back for some reason after I was crippled in a base trade. Mercy is for the weak, man.

[AC9breaker]

I'm pretty sure I would have beaten you with the archon toilet but my game spazzed out and it placed the vortex not where I intended it to be.

[tanshin]

why is everybody SPAZZING OUT over the archon toilet

[AC9breaker]

Joseph "master League" show linked this on the chat. I thought we all should see it. Boss plays.

[Crushinator]

Great comeback game with Mag, Donkey, AC9breaker and myself. Opponent dudes were pushing back pretty hard after our first attack, and I thought all was lost. But due to Mag's masterful leadership and charisma we pushed hard into their base and never looked back!

http://www.ninjagamer.com/uploads/sc2/bibl...%20in.SC2Replay

[tanshin]

I guess I got bored. I went through all of the replays from this thread, and I realized that it is really remarkable how much better we've all gotten at the game! It was painful to watch some of our early matches... especially what I'm pretty sure was one of my first matches. Sometimes it's frustrating to play the game when we lose, but looking back, we've really come a long way. Let's get even better and kick even more ass.

[Crushinator]

Heart of the Swarm expansion details:



And teaser trailer!



FIND KERRIGAN!

Gameplay video!

[Scan_Man]

Full interview. Little over an hour long, but really good information on the expansion and current state of the game.

[Wiryu]

Cool news. My computer doesn't shut off when I play SC2 anymore. I had an incompatible power supply for my video card, and that's why that was goin down.