StarCraft 2, the GOAT game, must get its own thread

Borrowed the game from a friend and finished the campaign. The story was, quite frankly, very underwhelming. Especially since Blizzard seemed to have invested a lot in it. Gameplay was fun, but wasn't enough to make me want to buy my own copy for multi-player.

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Main_Page

 

I'm platinum in SC2 so I don't know if I'm good enough to give advice, but this is just what worked for me. I think the best thing to do is just establish a good build order and do it like a drill with a stop watch till it becomes second nature. Don't worry about winning the game, just remember to do it as a drill. Establish things you want to do (have the perfect build order by x min, build/upgrade these things by y min). Set goals that aren't about winning games.

For example as a zerg, I realized how important hot keying hive to 5 and queen to 6 to spawn stuff and lay down larva using mini map was, so I had games where I try and just practice that. If I still win, great, if not oh well.

This is a good guide btw.

http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/forum/topic/248106927?page=1

 

ive tried looking at build orders, dont seem to be helping. some of the SC tutorial vids on youtube are decent, but im still not able to get and build things as quickly as they do when i try to copy what they do

 

Go into a game against the computer, put it on easy and practice the first 5 min of the build order over and over (time 5 min, then quit and repeat it). Track to see where your build order is lacking and go from there. Go for incremental gains. Usually your first two min should be almost identical every game (mind numbing auto mode), and then note every mistake you make from there on, forgot to build another supply? forgot to get this building down? etc. Practice the first 5 min of a build order till it's optimized and every thing within that first 5 min is second nature and then try a game out and see how it goes. You can get in 50+ practices in 3 hours, that's a lot.

If your first 5 min is as tight as it can be, you usually have a force with the ability to fight off those in the lower tier's first rush if they attack. If they don't attack then expand or maybe try and attack You don't have to be pro (I'm not and never will be) but I see incremental gains and tightening of my game, and that's good enough for me, though I still get frustrated after loses.

 

still doesnt work. trust me, i've been playing awhile now, and my friends have even chimed in. things such as, at 9 supply make sure to get a supply depot, keep building SCV's as thats going on, after that once you have enough for a barracks, get that down. also having me put those things at entrance of the base to help block in case of a rush. i still dont end up getting near the amount of minerals or units at the end of games as my friends will even when in the beginning im matching what they do.

 

i think unless your rushing you usually need to expand at least once maybe twice. then you have a huge amount of money coming in, and you just have to be fast enough to use it.

 

Just keep playing. As a 12+ year bw/sc2 player, just play for fun. Don't worry about doing drills, etc... It'll make the game seem like work because it is a lot of work at a high level.

 

You just gotta always make stuff. Workers, production buildings, more units, etc

Watch some top level commentaries, you'll see that they make tons of production buildings very early and keeping on adding them.

Eventually you'll get in the habit of making things even while fighting.

 

i keep hearing this too, keep making stuff. i will say i havent been good at making stuff while in battle. i do get caught up in watching that, but in the beginning ya, im making stuff. the other thing i see in those commentaries are the hotkeying, ive tried a bit of it, not good at it, so i just use my mouse. but then again im not playing top level players and still getting whooped.

a lot of what you guys are saying i've heard, again, just not sure where im going wrong or how i still end up with so much lsss units and minerals.

 

You're trying to learn how to run before you can walk. Take things slowly. At the beginning, just keep making workers at all times, keep your supply ahead of your production, and spend your money more or less cleanly. And by cleanly I don't mean queing up 5 battlecrusiers because you have 3k mineral/gas. But rather fairly low money despite only queing up 1-2 units per production facility.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that you don't even need to bother controlling much in battles. Attack-move and go back to your base to keep making more stuff. Sure, this may not be efficient at all, and you may lose games because of it. But if you want to improve, you have to get the basics down. Because until you can do this efficiently, you'll never have time to expand your game.

As for build orders, I don't know if you played chess. But it's like practicing chess openings. It's not so much as memorizing exactly what's done, but understand the concept behind it. Otherwise, you'll never improve your opening game. As you practice the first few minutes of each game(against the computer), you'll understand why it's best to build certain buildings at certain timings. You'll see why building this way cleanly spends your money while maximizing troop/worker production(basic openings). Or why certain rush builds will cut corners in order to make that one harrass unit in the quickest way possible. It's when you understand the underlying concept behind the strategies that you can use them without memorization. Because you'll use the build without even the need to think.

Once you can do the basics and still have time left over. That's when you can incorporate more advanced strategies into your play.

 

heres what i've been doing for awhile now:

i use terran and my build order is something like this:

i select all my workers and have them mine, i click the main base and build a worker. i set the rally point to the minerals so my SCV mines right out of the gate. i keep building SCV's until around 9/11 supply, then i take a worker have him go to the entrance of my base and build a supply depot. as thats going on im building more SVC's, that way right as those are done is about the time my supply depot is done. keep making SCV's after the depot, i then wait until i have enough to build a barracks.

again continuing to make workers as barracks is building, as well i send a SCV to make a refinery. after those are done i'm kind of a toss up, either i'll build another barracks or i'll build a engineering bay. still making workers, after either the 2nd barracks is done or engineering bay is done, i then build a factory.

thats basically the opening build i've been doing. i do build a couple marines with my first barracks at my entrance in case of zergling rush or something.


thoughts?

 

I'm too lazy to get into specific strategies, but watch replays. You need to stay pro-active. Keep producing workers and when you get enough, you need to expand. At times, it is appropriate to expand early (Zerg).

Watch replays, If your APM (actions per minute) is around 30-70, most likely you're a platinum player at best. If you are in diamond with APM around there, it's because a) you play a lot and have accumulated a lot of points or b) you know strategies that people better than you have not figured out but will

My APM on the original Starcraft was around 160. That's OK. Experts are around 200-300. My AMP on SC2 is around 90-120 because 1) i don't play much 2) i play on a laptop and 3) i use a mic and that distracts me 4) i play on low graphic settings and it suxors. but I think if i continue playing, I will be around 150 again.

Staying active and doing something every second COUNTS. Besides the opening, you should always be busy clicking and moving around. It's hard for me to stay that focused too lol.

 

low graphic settings makes you play slower?

 

it was more of a silly excuse than anything else, but if you have grown accustomed to playing on medium or high and switch to low, it will definitely take some getting used to.

 

not sure how to check APM, but have seen replays and some of the pros are just ridiculous with it, literally times where they just select their mineral station over and over

 

My biggest issue right now is maintaining macro while micro'ing units.

For example, I tried a 4-Barracks Reaper rush the other day. It was going well, except while I was micro'ing my Reapers (dodging their Marines/Marauders), I wasn't doing anything in my base, really. Eventually my Reapers got pushed back and a few minutes later, I had a giant ball of Marines/Marauders breathing down my throat with just a handful of Reapers to defend with (they got obliterated) and excessive amounts of unused minerals.

I understand putting my Barracks on a hotkey and just doing something like 5-RRRR to mass-produce more while micro'ing, but maintaining supply is the trickiest part for me. If I'm actively controlling my Reapers, I can't exactly go back to my base and plop a Supply Depot down.

I guess it's just a matter of practice. Do some damage with the Reapers, back out a little and queue up some units / build Supply Depots, then return with the Reapers. I find it easier with Zerg since Overlords can be queued up from the same spot as more attacking units.

 

I see this, too. APM is overrated, IMO. A lot of pros click excessively (e.g., in the beginning before there's any action or when moving units they repeatedly click roughly the same location). APM's of 150+ aren't necessary whatsoever; WhiteRa (one of the best Protoss players in the world) usually hovers around 120-130 APM.

Perhaps one of the reasons for excessive clicking it to keep yourself at a higher state of awareness (you're lubed up and ready to go if necessary). I dunno, I'm a pansy Gold player.

 

Theory is nice, but execution is really the key. Are you putting down your Supply Depot right when you have the 100 minerals or is that just when you begin moving out your SCV? Same with the Barracks. These little time slices add up eventually.

Look up day9tv on Youtube and look for some of his low-level dailies (like the one with Gold players). He provides lots of little tips on what they're doing wrong or could do better. He's excellent in pointing things out that I find I have trouble with (for example, constantly producing workers).

I'll link a few good ones when I get home (and Youtube isn't blocked).

 

will do.

ya def link those vids, would love to seem em

 

Jumping in for TSchmal, but I found this one to be great for learning the basics of continuing to build stuff and still control your army (a.k.a "macro").

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/3732340/