<!--quoteo(post=1767343:date=Apr 16 2010, 03:01 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 16 2010, 03:01 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767343"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Still downloading it tiger but I'm a Euro and I hear we're segregated for the beta?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
All regions are segregated. North America, Asia, EU, and Korea. The only people with cross accounts are the super pros.
tankefuglOne Script To Rule Them All...Trondheim, NorwayJoin Date: 2002-11-14Member: 8641Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1767343:date=Apr 16 2010, 09:01 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 16 2010, 09:01 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767343"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Still downloading it tiger but I'm a Euro and I hear we're segregated for the beta?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> As far as I know that isn't just for the beta, that's going to go in the release as well.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As far as I know that isn't just for the beta, that's going to go in the release as well.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I heard come retail it's unrestricted.
[EDIT]
I'm sherpa.sherpa though after typing it out I wish I chose something else. "durka durka" jokes abound.
The first thing I noticed- which surprised me- was how poorly differentiated Terran infantry units are. Considering the colouful art palette used and Blizzard's polish I'd expect units to be instantly recognisable, but had to look at the unit selection bar to figure out which of my units were SUVs and which were [the unit that jumpjets over cliffs and grenades buildings].
The game itself is still a masterclass of tactics- 3D chess. As a competitive player I'm salivating. Despite being plunged straight into a game with little-to-no knowledge of Starcraft, this was obvious.
The game itself was embarassingly low-skilled but I still had fun. It was on the map where the only way out of the corner of the map is to blow up a rock pile or get air/cliff-walking units. I figured it was the kind of map where quick expos would help and popped up 3 bases sharpish. Thankfully, my opponent wasn't doing much so I was able to explore the tech tree. Had a bit of an "oh crap" moment when he pushed into one of my bases, but repelled it, built up a huge varied force (my 4 expos vs his 2) and stomped my way through his base.
I'll need to try and find some tutorials- I don't know the basics such as how many gatherers should be attached to each mineral pile or when to go through the tech tree. I was also confused when I built a bad ass-looking Mothership and moused over its weapon to see it did a pitiful six damage. It still kicked ass, but I don't get how.
<!--quoteo(post=1767424:date=Apr 16 2010, 07:11 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 16 2010, 07:11 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767424"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->1) The first thing I noticed- which surprised me- was how poorly differentiated Terran infantry units are. Considering the colouful art palette used and Blizzard's polish I'd expect units to be instantly recognisable, but had to look at the unit selection bar to figure out which of my units were SUVs and which were [the unit that jumpjets over cliffs and grenades buildings
2) I'll need to try and find some tutorials- I don't know the basics such as how many gatherers should be attached to each mineral pile
3) or when to go through the tech tree.
4)I was also confused when I built a bad ass-looking Mothership and moused over its weapon to see it did a pitiful six damage. It still kicked ass, but I don't get how.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
1) What are your graphical settings? I've found the terran units to be fairly easy to distinguish. Putting your graphical settings lower really helps with seeing which units are which too.
2) 3 gathers fully saturate 1 mineral pile. Usually 16 - 22 workers for a expo/base will do. 3 Workers fully saturate gas.
3) Knowing when to tech is basically the whole game. It's hard, and SC2 is even more about tech timings than SC1.
4) The mothership does 6 damage, but has 6 attacks. So if you target one unit, that's 36 damage. The real advantage to the mothership, and basically the only time I see it used, is to cloak the units around it. If a player is massing carriers they'll usually get a mothership as the carriers can kill things quickly and if the mothership survives then the carriers cannot be killed.
<!--quoteo(post=1767488:date=Apr 17 2010, 06:22 AM:name=SentrySteve)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SentrySteve @ Apr 17 2010, 06:22 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767488"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->1) What are your graphical settings? I've found the terran units to be fairly easy to distinguish. Putting your graphical settings lower really helps with seeing which units are which too.
2) 3 gathers fully saturate 1 mineral pile. Usually 16 - 22 workers for a expo/base will do. 3 Workers fully saturate gas.
3) Knowing when to tech is basically the whole game. It's hard, and SC2 is even more about tech timings than SC1.
4) The mothership does 6 damage, but has 6 attacks. So if you target one unit, that's 36 damage. The real advantage to the mothership, and basically the only time I see it used, is to cloak the units around it. If a player is massing carriers they'll usually get a mothership as the carriers can kill things quickly and if the mothership survives then the carriers cannot be killed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks for the info!
Whoops- did I say Mothership? I meant Battlecruiser but I guess it's the same deal. Cheers Steve!
Man, I just keep getting reset. Today was the third time I played my placement matches. The previous one was two days ago <_< . The first placements, I ended up in platinum, second time in silver and now again in platinum.
For a while I felt kind of dissapointed, since all the games seemed to follow a very tight script. Follow a build order, attack, if failed -> lose, if successful -> win. It's kind of like what practicing swordfighting using lightsabers would propably be, first hit either way and it's over. Luckily though, some of my later games have had a bit more of back and forth. Expanding, knowing when to attack and committing to it is still hard for me. More often than not I find my mineral fields depleting before I even have an expansion. "Expand while attacking" I've heard good players say, but due to my tunnel vision I keep forgetting to do so, while concentrating on managing my attacking units.
Producing units while attacking I've learned to do quite well. I put all my production buildings in the same hotkey and just tab through all of them. This is the reason why I don't necessary like using warp gates, though the mechanic is obviously hugely useful in many other cases. I guess I could switch them back to gateways while attacking :o
My biggest tip would be to just pick one or two things you think you're not doing right and constantly, literally constantly, repeat them to yourself for while you play for about 8 to 10 games. For me, when a game would start I would just say to myself, over and over, "Build workers, macro in battles, build workers, macro in battles" in my mind. After so many games it becomes natural and you can move on to the next part of your game that is suffering. The games can definitely follow a script but I'm finding that more and more players are doing unique strategies that don't revolve around one attack = win/lose.
For example, the community has found great use for the stalker's blink ability (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQJHr7lQlOs&feature=related" target="_blank">Queue blinking</a> and the ability for a single stalker to blink up the ramp when there are destructible rocks, allowing all the others to then blink up as well since they have vision) which was almost never used in the first month of beta. On Lost Temple stalkers can even blink between bases, with an observer giving vision, which opens the door for some crazy harassment. It's when you become skilled enough to not only follow your own build order but also disrupt your opponent's build order through harassment that the tight script fades away. Some Protoss, which I'm assuming you are, even like doing Immortal drops (2 immortals fit in 1 warp prism) and against Zerg it's very effective.
Part of the problem may be you're not properly placed due to the rank reset bug. I doubt you're an actual platinum league player and getting matched with people in bronze/silver would allow you to better refine your game.
In my bronze/silver leagues for 1v1 and 2v2 respectively every second game I play has at least one player using an all or nothing tactic like 3 minute reaper, 6 pooling or pylon/cannonrushing :[
<!--quoteo(post=1767761:date=Apr 19 2010, 05:24 AM:name=SentrySteve)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SentrySteve @ Apr 19 2010, 05:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767761"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->My biggest tip would be to just pick one or two things you think you're not doing right and constantly, literally constantly, repeat them to yourself for while you play for about 8 to 10 games. For me, when a game would start I would just say to myself, over and over, "Build workers, macro in battles, build workers, macro in battles" in my mind. After so many games it becomes natural and you can move on to the next part of your game that is suffering. The games can definitely follow a script but I'm finding that more and more players are doing unique strategies that don't revolve around one attack = win/lose.
For example, the community has found great use for the stalker's blink ability (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQJHr7lQlOs&feature=related" target="_blank">Queue blinking</a> and the ability for a single stalker to blink up the ramp when there are destructible rocks, allowing all the others to then blink up as well since they have vision) which was almost never used in the first month of beta. On Lost Temple stalkers can even blink between bases, with an observer giving vision, which opens the door for some crazy harassment. It's when you become skilled enough to not only follow your own build order but also disrupt your opponent's build order through harassment that the tight script fades away. Some Protoss, which I'm assuming you are, even like doing Immortal drops (2 immortals fit in 1 warp prism) and against Zerg it's very effective.
Part of the problem may be you're not properly placed due to the rank reset bug. I doubt you're an actual platinum league player and getting matched with people in bronze/silver would allow you to better refine your game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> I'm going to try repeating things in my head. I'm also going to watch some commentaries and pay more attention on when the players are expanding. For example, Zerg seem to get an expansions very early.
I really love the blink ability. I was familiar with the queue blink trick and I've used it a few times. And even the plain old blink isn't too common in games I've seen. I've taken down a fair share of medivacs who thought they could get away after a drop. My greatest success with blink was to kill a medivac carrying a thor by using blink that had finished researching about 2 seconds ago.
As for my race, I haven't chosen one yet and play as random. I'll propably end up choosing between protoss or terran, unless I get some kind of epiphany about the zerg. Random has been giving me either terran or protoss; in my latest placements I didn't get zerg once.
<!--quoteo(post=1767809:date=Apr 19 2010, 11:17 AM:name=Retales)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Retales @ Apr 19 2010, 11:17 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767809"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm going to try repeating things in my head. I'm also going to watch some commentaries and pay more attention on when the players are expanding. For example, Zerg seem to get an expansions very early.
I really love the blink ability. I was familiar with the queue blink trick and I've used it a few times. And even the plain old blink isn't too common in games I've seen. I've taken down a fair share of medivacs who thought they could get away after a drop. My greatest success with blink was to kill a medivac carrying a thor by using blink that had finished researching about 2 seconds ago.
As for my race, I haven't chosen one yet and play as random. I'll propably end up choosing between protoss or terran, unless I get some kind of epiphany about the zerg. Random has been giving me either terran or protoss; in my latest placements I didn't get zerg once.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> Still lacking the beta key, so can't comment on anything specific...
The repeating thingy definitely works. I enjoy just playing by the flow of thoughts without any set to stone plan, but still every game I start learning, I try to nail the basics one by one through the very same method. Once you're comfortable with the basics, it's much easier to play around with whatever details you want to.
<!--quoteo(post=0:date=:name=pallie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pallie)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my bronze/silver leagues for 1v1 and 2v2 respectively every second game I play has at least one player using an all or nothing tactic like 3 minute reaper, 6 pooling or pylon/cannonrushing :[<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, this happens in every RTS ladder I know. In WC3 I had big trouble handling these, because I was so bored of them that I got extremely sloppy. Those quick all ins are still awesome compared to WC3 30 min sit-behind-the-towers rubbish.
<!--quoteo(post=1767809:date=Apr 19 2010, 06:17 AM:name=Retales)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Retales @ Apr 19 2010, 06:17 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767809"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm also going to watch some commentaries and pay more attention on when the players are expanding. For example, Zerg seem to get an expansions very early.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I recommend Day[9]. He does something called "Day[9] Daily's" where four days a week he either commentates a game or analysis a replay that was sent to him. His official channel can be found here: <a href="http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom" target="_blank">http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom</a> but since LiveStream is having increasing difficuilty handling the massive traffic for his channel, he's also been posting videos here: <a href="http://day9tv.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc" target="_blank">http://day9tv.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc</a>
He's really good at identifying cool strategies like Daily #101 which I'm currently using for Terran.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my bronze/silver leagues for 1v1 and 2v2 respectively every second game I play has at least one player using an all or nothing tactic like 3 minute reaper, 6 pooling or pylon/cannonrushing :[<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Basically what Bacillus said. The upside is that once you know the that kind of strategy exists (called "cheese" in SC1/SC2) you can look for it with that initial scouting drone. If you find you keep dying to stuff like a 6 pool, send that scout earlier. A nice tip I like to do, and it gets me ready for the rest of the game, is to bind my scout to hotkey "1" and my command center/nexus/hatch to "4." I then switch back in between these two about every 3 seconds and it helps to keep me on my game. I'll see that my worker just finished and I'll build a new one, or I'll notice I have enough for my gas geyser, etc.
Stopping cheese is all about that early scout. For example, if you're scouting and you see a Terran is mining gas extremely early you know he's probably going to hit you with a Reaper rush.
<!--quoteo(post=1767836:date=Apr 19 2010, 04:50 PM:name=SentrySteve)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (SentrySteve @ Apr 19 2010, 04:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767836"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Stopping cheese is all about that early scout. For example, if you're scouting and you see a Terran is mining gas extremely early you know he's probably going to hit you with a Reaper rush.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> This. Pro starcraft players sometimes try to trick each other by for example hiding a single pylon. The enemy scouts, sees the enemy missing a single pylon from the optimal timing (!) and maybe expects a proxy cheese.
Knowing roughly what the enemy gets and when is extremely useful. I wouldn't worry about the fake cheeses that much on lower levels. Once you're familiar with the basic buildings and such, try to spot the worker count, gas timing and the amount of workers on gas. All those signal quite a bit at least on SC1.
Yeah that's true for sc2 as well. The cheese I find most smelly is the pylon cannon rush. By the time I see his quick forge it's usually too late for me to start pumping zealots fast enough before he gets a photon cannon up. :( I realize this should be the easiest one to counter but I usually panic and send my zealots in one by one :p
<!--quoteo(post=1767839:date=Apr 19 2010, 05:19 PM:name=pallie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pallie @ Apr 19 2010, 05:19 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767839"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Yeah that's true for sc2 as well. The cheese I find most smelly is the pylon cannon rush. By the time I see his quick forge it's usually too late for me to start pumping zealots fast enough before he gets a photon cannon up. :( I realize this should be the easiest one to counter but I usually panic and send my zealots in one by one :p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> If it's any similar to SC, you'll need to pull off workers from minerals to support the initial zealot. It's at least not a bad idea if you're not feeling completely comfortable on your zealot control. Just keep your cool and remember that he's in hurry to deal the damage, since he invested so much to get the cannon rush going. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl37oL8h4HQ" target="_blank">Here's</a> a pretty classy way of staying cool and handling an offensive bunker push in SC1. I'm pretty sure you can find some SC2 vids of similar subject nowadays.
douchebagatronCustom member titleJoin Date: 2003-12-20Member: 24581Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
edited April 2010
just tried the thor rush against a dude. failed miserably. about 15 seconds before the thor came out, i got zergling rushed. then the thor got zergling rushed. i think it killed like 3 zerglings before it died. afterwards, saw it was a platinum player. figures.
<!--quoteo(post=1767894:date=Apr 19 2010, 11:30 PM:name=6john)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (6john @ Apr 19 2010, 11:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767894"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->just tried the thor rush against a dude. failed miserably. about 15 seconds before the thor came out, i got zergling rushed. then the thor got zergling rushed. i think it killed like 3 zerglings before it died. afterwards, saw it was a platinum player. figures.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Don't Thor rush against zerg - its optimal against Protoss and can kinda work against other terran but its dodgy. And if your Thor was out you didn't actually get 'rushed', thats 6-7 minutes into the game.
<!--quoteo(post=1768205:date=Apr 21 2010, 07:10 PM:name=pallie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pallie @ Apr 21 2010, 07:10 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768205"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The ladder got reset and I won 4 of 5 placement matches in 2vs2 and now I'm in a gold league and I'm getting my ass kicked :<<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Do you have a partner? If not, relying on random people is a pretty horrible thing to do especially if you're in the gold league and not actually at the gold skill level. If you play with a set partner try to think of units or strategies that go well together or even just using basic teamwork (grouping armies up, hitting same guy, dropping at same time, etc).
I know it can be more scary or intimidating but it's best to try to 1v1 to improve your own game before doing 2v2's. If you don't want to pressure of playing on a ladder try custom games, or just play in the ladder, get ranked in copper/bronze and pretend ranks don't exist. That's what I did for the first month when I was learning all 3 races.
Not sure if this is news for the guys already in the beta, but the Map Editor is <a href="http://kotaku.com/5520789/starcraft-ii-beta-gets-map-editor-this-week-mac-version-next-week" target="_blank">coming this week</a>. (incidentally, Mac beta is due to next week). Hopefully this will mean another wave of beta keys and a key for me from Panigg <3
In which case...
<!--quoteo(post=1767859:date=Apr 19 2010, 07:50 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 19 2010, 07:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767859"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->After my first game I'm finding it too intimidating to play again.
They should add tutorials to the beta! :p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> ... I'd love to play with/against you Sherpa, as I'm going to suck :P
ThansalThe New ScumJoin Date: 2002-08-22Member: 1215Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1768298:date=Apr 22 2010, 11:11 AM:name=Dirty_Harry_Potter)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dirty_Harry_Potter @ Apr 22 2010, 11:11 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1768298"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->... I'd love to play with/against you Sherpa, as I'm going to suck :P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If I get a key I want to get together a bunch of us who suck :D
Comments
He's a hero!!
All regions are segregated. North America, Asia, EU, and Korea. The only people with cross accounts are the super pros.
As far as I know that isn't just for the beta, that's going to go in the release as well.
fugl! Will add you!
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->As far as I know that isn't just for the beta, that's going to go in the release as well.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I heard come retail it's unrestricted.
[EDIT]
I'm sherpa.sherpa though after typing it out I wish I chose something else. "durka durka" jokes abound.
The first thing I noticed- which surprised me- was how poorly differentiated Terran infantry units are. Considering the colouful art palette used and Blizzard's polish I'd expect units to be instantly recognisable, but had to look at the unit selection bar to figure out which of my units were SUVs and which were [the unit that jumpjets over cliffs and grenades buildings].
The game itself is still a masterclass of tactics- 3D chess. As a competitive player I'm salivating. Despite being plunged straight into a game with little-to-no knowledge of Starcraft, this was obvious.
The game itself was embarassingly low-skilled but I still had fun. It was on the map where the only way out of the corner of the map is to blow up a rock pile or get air/cliff-walking units. I figured it was the kind of map where quick expos would help and popped up 3 bases sharpish. Thankfully, my opponent wasn't doing much so I was able to explore the tech tree. Had a bit of an "oh crap" moment when he pushed into one of my bases, but repelled it, built up a huge varied force (my 4 expos vs his 2) and stomped my way through his base.
I'll need to try and find some tutorials- I don't know the basics such as how many gatherers should be attached to each mineral pile or when to go through the tech tree. I was also confused when I built a bad ass-looking Mothership and moused over its weapon to see it did a pitiful six damage. It still kicked ass, but I don't get how.
2) I'll need to try and find some tutorials- I don't know the basics such as how many gatherers should be attached to each mineral pile
3) or when to go through the tech tree.
4)I was also confused when I built a bad ass-looking Mothership and moused over its weapon to see it did a pitiful six damage. It still kicked ass, but I don't get how.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
1) What are your graphical settings? I've found the terran units to be fairly easy to distinguish. Putting your graphical settings lower really helps with seeing which units are which too.
2) 3 gathers fully saturate 1 mineral pile. Usually 16 - 22 workers for a expo/base will do. 3 Workers fully saturate gas.
3) Knowing when to tech is basically the whole game. It's hard, and SC2 is even more about tech timings than SC1.
4) The mothership does 6 damage, but has 6 attacks. So if you target one unit, that's 36 damage. The real advantage to the mothership, and basically the only time I see it used, is to cloak the units around it. If a player is massing carriers they'll usually get a mothership as the carriers can kill things quickly and if the mothership survives then the carriers cannot be killed.
Its way too easy to use. Chronoboost needs to be moved to cyber tech to prevent these sort of things.
2) 3 gathers fully saturate 1 mineral pile. Usually 16 - 22 workers for a expo/base will do. 3 Workers fully saturate gas.
3) Knowing when to tech is basically the whole game. It's hard, and SC2 is even more about tech timings than SC1.
4) The mothership does 6 damage, but has 6 attacks. So if you target one unit, that's 36 damage. The real advantage to the mothership, and basically the only time I see it used, is to cloak the units around it. If a player is massing carriers they'll usually get a mothership as the carriers can kill things quickly and if the mothership survives then the carriers cannot be killed.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks for the info!
Whoops- did I say Mothership? I meant Battlecruiser but I guess it's the same deal. Cheers Steve!
For a while I felt kind of dissapointed, since all the games seemed to follow a very tight script. Follow a build order, attack, if failed -> lose, if successful -> win. It's kind of like what practicing swordfighting using lightsabers would propably be, first hit either way and it's over. Luckily though, some of my later games have had a bit more of back and forth. Expanding, knowing when to attack and committing to it is still hard for me. More often than not I find my mineral fields depleting before I even have an expansion. "Expand while attacking" I've heard good players say, but due to my tunnel vision I keep forgetting to do so, while concentrating on managing my attacking units.
Producing units while attacking I've learned to do quite well. I put all my production buildings in the same hotkey and just tab through all of them. This is the reason why I don't necessary like using warp gates, though the mechanic is obviously hugely useful in many other cases. I guess I could switch them back to gateways while attacking :o
For example, the community has found great use for the stalker's blink ability (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQJHr7lQlOs&feature=related" target="_blank">Queue blinking</a> and the ability for a single stalker to blink up the ramp when there are destructible rocks, allowing all the others to then blink up as well since they have vision) which was almost never used in the first month of beta. On Lost Temple stalkers can even blink between bases, with an observer giving vision, which opens the door for some crazy harassment. It's when you become skilled enough to not only follow your own build order but also disrupt your opponent's build order through harassment that the tight script fades away. Some Protoss, which I'm assuming you are, even like doing Immortal drops (2 immortals fit in 1 warp prism) and against Zerg it's very effective.
Part of the problem may be you're not properly placed due to the rank reset bug. I doubt you're an actual platinum league player and getting matched with people in bronze/silver would allow you to better refine your game.
For example, the community has found great use for the stalker's blink ability (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQJHr7lQlOs&feature=related" target="_blank">Queue blinking</a> and the ability for a single stalker to blink up the ramp when there are destructible rocks, allowing all the others to then blink up as well since they have vision) which was almost never used in the first month of beta. On Lost Temple stalkers can even blink between bases, with an observer giving vision, which opens the door for some crazy harassment. It's when you become skilled enough to not only follow your own build order but also disrupt your opponent's build order through harassment that the tight script fades away. Some Protoss, which I'm assuming you are, even like doing Immortal drops (2 immortals fit in 1 warp prism) and against Zerg it's very effective.
Part of the problem may be you're not properly placed due to the rank reset bug. I doubt you're an actual platinum league player and getting matched with people in bronze/silver would allow you to better refine your game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm going to try repeating things in my head. I'm also going to watch some commentaries and pay more attention on when the players are expanding. For example, Zerg seem to get an expansions very early.
I really love the blink ability. I was familiar with the queue blink trick and I've used it a few times. And even the plain old blink isn't too common in games I've seen. I've taken down a fair share of medivacs who thought they could get away after a drop. My greatest success with blink was to kill a medivac carrying a thor by using blink that had finished researching about 2 seconds ago.
As for my race, I haven't chosen one yet and play as random. I'll propably end up choosing between protoss or terran, unless I get some kind of epiphany about the zerg. Random has been giving me either terran or protoss; in my latest placements I didn't get zerg once.
I really love the blink ability. I was familiar with the queue blink trick and I've used it a few times. And even the plain old blink isn't too common in games I've seen. I've taken down a fair share of medivacs who thought they could get away after a drop. My greatest success with blink was to kill a medivac carrying a thor by using blink that had finished researching about 2 seconds ago.
As for my race, I haven't chosen one yet and play as random. I'll propably end up choosing between protoss or terran, unless I get some kind of epiphany about the zerg. Random has been giving me either terran or protoss; in my latest placements I didn't get zerg once.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Still lacking the beta key, so can't comment on anything specific...
The repeating thingy definitely works. I enjoy just playing by the flow of thoughts without any set to stone plan, but still every game I start learning, I try to nail the basics one by one through the very same method. Once you're comfortable with the basics, it's much easier to play around with whatever details you want to.
<!--quoteo(post=0:date=:name=pallie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (pallie)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my bronze/silver leagues for 1v1 and 2v2 respectively every second game I play has at least one player using an all or nothing tactic like 3 minute reaper, 6 pooling or pylon/cannonrushing :[<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yeah, this happens in every RTS ladder I know. In WC3 I had big trouble handling these, because I was so bored of them that I got extremely sloppy. Those quick all ins are still awesome compared to WC3 30 min sit-behind-the-towers rubbish.
I recommend Day[9]. He does something called "Day[9] Daily's" where four days a week he either commentates a game or analysis a replay that was sent to him. His official channel can be found here: <a href="http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom" target="_blank">http://www.livestream.com/striderdoom</a> but since LiveStream is having increasing difficuilty handling the massive traffic for his channel, he's also been posting videos here: <a href="http://day9tv.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc" target="_blank">http://day9tv.blip.tv/posts?view=archive&nsfw=dc</a>
He's really good at identifying cool strategies like Daily #101 which I'm currently using for Terran.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->In my bronze/silver leagues for 1v1 and 2v2 respectively every second game I play has at least one player using an all or nothing tactic like 3 minute reaper, 6 pooling or pylon/cannonrushing :[<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Basically what Bacillus said. The upside is that once you know the that kind of strategy exists (called "cheese" in SC1/SC2) you can look for it with that initial scouting drone. If you find you keep dying to stuff like a 6 pool, send that scout earlier. A nice tip I like to do, and it gets me ready for the rest of the game, is to bind my scout to hotkey "1" and my command center/nexus/hatch to "4." I then switch back in between these two about every 3 seconds and it helps to keep me on my game. I'll see that my worker just finished and I'll build a new one, or I'll notice I have enough for my gas geyser, etc.
Stopping cheese is all about that early scout. For example, if you're scouting and you see a Terran is mining gas extremely early you know he's probably going to hit you with a Reaper rush.
This. Pro starcraft players sometimes try to trick each other by for example hiding a single pylon. The enemy scouts, sees the enemy missing a single pylon from the optimal timing (!) and maybe expects a proxy cheese.
Knowing roughly what the enemy gets and when is extremely useful. I wouldn't worry about the fake cheeses that much on lower levels. Once you're familiar with the basic buildings and such, try to spot the worker count, gas timing and the amount of workers on gas. All those signal quite a bit at least on SC1.
If it's any similar to SC, you'll need to pull off workers from minerals to support the initial zealot. It's at least not a bad idea if you're not feeling completely comfortable on your zealot control. Just keep your cool and remember that he's in hurry to deal the damage, since he invested so much to get the cannon rush going. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl37oL8h4HQ" target="_blank">Here's</a> a pretty classy way of staying cool and handling an offensive bunker push in SC1. I'm pretty sure you can find some SC2 vids of similar subject nowadays.
They should add tutorials to the beta! :p
Relevant.
Don't Thor rush against zerg - its optimal against Protoss and can kinda work against other terran but its dodgy. And if your Thor was out you didn't actually get 'rushed', thats 6-7 minutes into the game.
Do you have a partner? If not, relying on random people is a pretty horrible thing to do especially if you're in the gold league and not actually at the gold skill level. If you play with a set partner try to think of units or strategies that go well together or even just using basic teamwork (grouping armies up, hitting same guy, dropping at same time, etc).
I know it can be more scary or intimidating but it's best to try to 1v1 to improve your own game before doing 2v2's. If you don't want to pressure of playing on a ladder try custom games, or just play in the ladder, get ranked in copper/bronze and pretend ranks don't exist. That's what I did for the first month when I was learning all 3 races.
In which case...
<!--quoteo(post=1767859:date=Apr 19 2010, 07:50 PM:name=sherpa)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (sherpa @ Apr 19 2010, 07:50 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1767859"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->After my first game I'm finding it too intimidating to play again.
They should add tutorials to the beta! :p<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
... I'd love to play with/against you Sherpa, as I'm going to suck :P
If I get a key I want to get together a bunch of us who suck :D